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[Hesher] The Unbearable Filth of the Soul
LoveIsUnity
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOX1al86h_YHeshers. Headbangers. Metalheads. Whatever else you sick fucks want to call yourselves. This is the new thread for the next few months and/or years.
From the Dust Returned
A ridiculously prolific blog of Metal reviews curated and principally written by our very own @autothrall
Autothrall's Lists
Looking for metal recommendations? You can find everything from Abigor to Znowhite in here. Thrash, death, black, NWOBHM, doom: pick your poison and Auto will provide the good shit.
Some basic guidelines for people just joining up with us:
-we know that dethklok are the brutalest
-we know that Dragonforce are the noodliest
-we know that Opeth is some craaaazy shit, dog
-we know Varg Vikernes is crazy as fuck and totally stabbed a dude
-we know Behemoth has way too much money to make music videos
-we do, in fact, look down harshly upon Killswitch Engage
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Most of this post was directly ripped off from @Morgenstern who made the last thread.
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Been giving the new Autopsy a few spins and will write a review for it by week's end. It's got some pretty sweet songs on it, like:
I like that they've still got that doomy guitar tone going on at times.
My top two that come to mind are Chris Reifert and Martin Van Drunen. I love the wild, sickening sound Reifert gets - it's like he's growling from around a piece of rotted flesh hanging from his jaws. Van Drunen, meanwhile, sounds like a beast that's gone into a frenzy. I've heard someone criticize him by saying he sounds like he's "swallowing his own tongue," but I kind of like that maddened style.
Honorable mention to Ross Dolan, who has a really great, deep tone, but also enunciates clearer than most other DM vocalists. I like a lot of Immolation's lyrics, and Dolan makes them understood without the benefit of a lyric sheet in front of me.
I guess it would be easier just to choose by individual album performances than entire careers, because a lot of the best have had some not-so-great showings on particular albums.
I just saw one of the songs on the new Autopsy is called "She Is a Funeral." What a title.
Here is "She is a Funeral". The chord progression at first is a little bland and familiar but it gets better, even sounding a little like Deceased with the melody pattern in the bridge. I think I'm digging The Headless Ritual more than Macabre Eternal, even though this one for me returns more to the first two albums whereas the last one, even if I didn't love it, was slightly more progressive and evolved.
On Metal-Archives they're conducting a 'Manowar vs. Virgin Steele' poll in the Metal Discussion forum. For me it really just came down to 80s Manowar vs. 1994-2000 VS, since I don't have much interest outside of that. I eventually went with Manowar based on my enjoyment of their first four discs. Virgin Steele is more interesting conceptually and superior in terms of melody, but as much as I enjoy House of Atreus and The Marriage of Heaven & Hell I'm not sure they'd even have sounded the same without some Manowar influence in there...although I wont' lie, they are what I WISH Manowar had sounded like through the 90s. Tough choice.
I'm also probably the only person on Earth who likes the Exorcist spinoff more than most of the Virgin Steele stuff. Filthy, punishing, delicious SPEED/THRASH METAL EVIL. That's one album where I actually feel I might have rated it slightly too low, maybe at some point I'll upgrade it to an 83-85%.
Nintendo ID: Incindium
PSN: IncindiumX
He tries to make stuff as visually interesting as a guitar wanker can and almost always plays a wide variety of material from his entire catalog, from early Zappa stuff to his latest album.
He has very little presence as a speaker though, so don't expect much on the mic from him other than just what the next song is.
~ Buckaroo Banzai
Ah, I thought his stage banter was awesome! Loved listening to him talk between songs.
But yeah, agreed on all other points. One of the best shows I've seen.
I don't personally like most metalcore, but you should try to check out the many varieties of metal. I'm sure you could find something similar that you'll like just as much(or even better).
There's Kezia, Colors and um....
:rotate:
108, Anodyne, Architect, Between the Buried and Me, Botch, Cave In, Coalesce, Converge, Drowningman, Earth Crisis, Keelhaul, Overcast, Resurrection, Snapcase, Starkweather...all pretty good in general or have at least one good album.
Though bear in mind many of these fit the 90s definition of the style, hardcore/punk or post-hardcore with metallic riffing, and not the 'oughts style which is more Swedish melodeath, bad retread breakdowns and melodic choruses fit more to pop-punk or radio rock.
So I tried out the band in question:
I wasn't too sold on this, the vocalist sounds like a million other vocalists from the 90s and beyond with the mix of overbearing growls and snarls that are supposed to convey emotion only by this point it just seems forced and familiar, and the breakdown is completely boring even though they dress it up with a million tiny little guitars. The bridge riff is decent and hyper-melodic and at least the doesn't do a Good Charlotte chorus, so I won't say I hated it either. Basically this reminded me of In Flames + Dark Tranquillity with an American singer and bad, requisite breakdowns.
Same deal, really. Okay riffs but a little methodical. Wasn't for me.
I'll also say that the first couple Darkest Hour albums are pretty good, as is the first Shai Hulud album.
those bands aren't even close to what that genre is associated with now
The only thing that really bothered me about Macabre Eternal was the runtime. Autopsy albums don't need to break an hour, especially when they had just put out an EP of new material a few months beforehand. I've only heard the two songs you've posted here from the new album (waiting for my local store's shipment to come in), but I can see what you're saying about it going back to the older sound. I'll have to do a full album comparison eventually.
I'm totally biased regarding that M-A poll, as Virgin Steele is my favorite band. I don't think American power metal gets any better than their run from the first Marriage... album through the second House of Atreus. I do enjoy a lot of early Manowar, however - Into Glory Ride is one of my favorite albums. But they'll always be a greatest-hits sort of band for me, while Virgin Steele have full, intricate albums I can listen to forever.
I love Exorcist, too, mostly because it proves just how good of a guitarist Edward Pursino is. Some massive solos on that album. Unfortunately, the symphonic/baroque style of Virgin Steele isn't built for mountains of riffs, so it's easy to forget that he's a really great player.
I think for Snapcase I was just referring to the earlier stuff, which has a lot more metallic chugging on there. The later albums are definitely more of a post-hardcore vein, sorry for the confusion.
You don't like Alaska by BTBAM? Damn, I think that's a pretty masterful record. Riff paradise.
Oh for sure, but mainly because the genre's really bad now
It's funny but in the 80s, metalcore was another name we occasionally through around for crossover which had an altogether different sound.
Are we considering 'deathcore' the metalcore of the 'teens? Time will tell.
Oh, I will also say that I like Dillinger Escape Plan circa Calculating Infinite and before. (The new singer is a dumb jock.)
Here is Primordial covering The Antichrist.
edit: Apparently it's the only cover they've done in like, 20 or so years...
New song. Sort of a mix of all their 90s stuff. I like the bridge but the riffs aren't as catchy as Heartwork.
"Metalcore" is pretty much useless as a genre description nowadays. People use it and "Post-Hardcore" interchangeably to describe basically anything with screams that isn't 'real' metal, meaning that Converge, awful synth-breakdown shit like Attack Attack, and the 00's melodeath-lite of Killswitch Engage and the like all get thrown into the same 'genre' just because nobody's really bothered to come up with a better name for it.
There are some bands in that scene doing some pretty interesting things, though I'm not sure you guys will dig much of it. For example...
Every Time I Die have been putting out fun, Southern Rock-inspired metalcore for awhile now, and their last album (Ex-Lives) was one of my favorites of 2012.
The Chariot's One Wing, also released last year, is a pretty chaotic, sludgy album with some really cool ideas:
letlive. aren't doing anything particularly new (they mostly just ape the early 2000s post-hardcore style of Refused, Glassjaw, etc.), but they do it really fucking well, and with a passion and intensity that's completely missing from most bands playing this style of music:
Stray From the Path are a pretty cool modern hardcore band that's hugely influenced by Rage Against the Machine. They use a lot of fairly generic breakdowns/bassdrops, but they've got the sincerity that's lacking in so many similar bands that lets them pull it off.
Bring Me the Horizon, of all bands, had a very cool electronic/post-rock atmosphere on their newest album (Sempiternal). Lyrically, it ranges from forgettable to horrible cliched, and the heavier sections are mostly generic, but I really dig the overall sound. Oli's vocal performance brings to mind a whole lot of unfavorable comparisons, ranging from STYE-era Anders Friden to Chester Fucking Bennington, but I actually enjoy it a lot and feel like it's a perfect match for the music.
The Human Abstract started out as an abysmal BtBaM/Protest the Hero knockoff, but eventually kicked out the worthless singer and released one of my favorite progressive metalcore albums in Digital Veil. The album's all about the guitar work, which is great because I'm a sucker for AJ Minette's classical-inspired riffing, and the songwriting (which was practically nonexistent on their older albums) is pretty solid throughout.
Like I said, I don't figure you guys will care much for any of these, but I figured I'd share just in case.
(It's still fucking good)
I don't care how many double bass pedal berrapapapapapaps and dweedles and djents you can put in the music. The rhythmic ending to "Mouth Of Kala" is a skullcrushing motherfucker of a motherfucker.
Their riffs crumble foundations, son. Shit is heavy.
edit: maybe i'm just paranoid, but i'm getting a sense of deja vu here. i apologize if i've made this exact same post in the past. i think the last thing i came snooping around for was melodic black metal along the lines of naglfar and ceremonial castings, but i have the memory of a hamburger.
Bootgaze instead of metalgaze always worked for me.
Have you tried Jesu?
Alcest
:bz
Wolves in the Throne Room
Year of No Light
Alcest
Amesoeurs
Blut Aus Nord
Heretoir
Solstafir
Lifelover (it doesn't exactly fit but listen to Konkurs for fuck's sake)
I have more recommendations but I'm more than a little drunk right now. Remind me later.
Thank you for the assistance. Off I go, sipping coffee and making macros in Rift while searching for new metal stuff to enjoy.
edit: six minutes into this, i felt like i was having some kind of dmt flashback. music holds a kind of profound power and i'm pretty sure my life would be desolate and hollow without it.