Oh hey, here's an album called Bull Elephant. It's progressive doom. The band members are anonymous, and it's a concept album about a reanimated Lovecraftian elephant fighting Nazis.
Double post: More awesomeness. Exulansis released a new album called Sequestered Sympathy. It's melodic black metal. I'd recommend it for fans of Wolves in the Throne Room. There's also a full time violinist as part of the band, and it stands out in a very good way. https://youtu.be/zwgKOQIsgbM
my god it actually fuckin is i could feel my fuzzy hat growing by the second. independent observation: jamiroquai are actually metal. i will not be taking questions at this time
Really digging that new Kvelertak single. I know they replaced their singer, but it feels like they had a bit of a style change too this time around. Or am I just making that up in my head?
Nah, you're not making it up. I think with the new singer, the backing/psyche vocals and some of the riff structuring it seems a little evolved from their earlier records, almost a little proggier but still well within the punk-metal wheelhouse. I like it.
So I forgot to report in on the Solstafir concert a few weeks back. They were playing a free show in a tiny venue in Toronto as part of the Taste of Iceland/Taste of Reykjavik promotion along with Kaelan Mikla as the openers. It turned into quite a fun night. We went early, knowing it was a free show and ended up being the first ones there and ran into a really nice woman in front of the bar who turned out to be the manager/promoter for Iceland Naturally and is part of their government and was basically the one putting the whole show together.
She invited us to get in touch with her the next time we visit Iceland and she'd set us up with a bunch of perks and things, which was pretty dang cool of her. Fast forward to Kaelan Mikla the opener. They went on but only made it through half of their first song before having to stop. Apparently and unfortunately, their singer had a stomach bug and spent the entire flight from London vomiting on the plane. I'm amazed they made it out at all but they had to stop their set there. So Solstafir came on early and ended up playing an extra long extended set of something like 7 or more songs. It was such a small venue, and Addi ended up spending large amounts of the show just standing in the crowd with all of us (the stage is only about 1 foot off the floor). Really intimate and cool experience. Glad I went!
She invited us to get in touch with her the next time we visit Iceland and she'd set us up with a bunch of perks and things, which was pretty dang cool of her. Fast forward to Kaelan Mikla the opener. They went on but only made it through half of their first song before having to stop. Apparently and unfortunately, their singer had a stomach bug and spent the entire flight from London vomiting on the plane. I'm amazed they made it out at all but they had to stop their set there. So Solstafir came on early and ended up playing an extra long extended set of something like 7 or more songs. It was such a small venue, and Addi ended up spending large amounts of the show just standing in the crowd with all of us (the stage is only about 1 foot off the floor). Really intimate and cool experience. Glad I went!
That's the exact kind of unique, compact experience you will always remember more than arena shows!
So I forgot to report in on the Solstafir concert a few weeks back. They were playing a free show in a tiny venue in Toronto as part of the Taste of Iceland/Taste of Reykjavik promotion along with Kaelan Mikla as the openers. It turned into quite a fun night. We went early, knowing it was a free show and ended up being the first ones there and ran into a really nice woman in front of the bar who turned out to be the manager/promoter for Iceland Naturally and is part of their government and was basically the one putting the whole show together.
She invited us to get in touch with her the next time we visit Iceland and she'd set us up with a bunch of perks and things, which was pretty dang cool of her. Fast forward to Kaelan Mikla the opener. They went on but only made it through half of their first song before having to stop. Apparently and unfortunately, their singer had a stomach bug and spent the entire flight from London vomiting on the plane. I'm amazed they made it out at all but they had to stop their set there. So Solstafir came on early and ended up playing an extra long extended set of something like 7 or more songs. It was such a small venue, and Addi ended up spending large amounts of the show just standing in the crowd with all of us (the stage is only about 1 foot off the floor). Really intimate and cool experience. Glad I went!
Solstafir is great live, and seeing them in a small venue like that is especially unique. I've seen Addi jump down to walk around in the crowd while singing "Goddess of the Ages" once, but I can definitely see him just hanging out in the crowd for most of the show if the place is small enough. Very cool! Too bad about that opening band's issues. That really sucks to come that far and have to stop in the middle of the first song.
At this point it feels as if Slayer have been retiring for almost as long as Kiss. :rotate:
Alright, slight exaggeration. But today's the last Slayer show. It does kind of feel like the end of an era. I never got much into them, honestly; I was never really much of a thrash guy. But they did do some proper classics, no question, and I'm glad I got to see them play (supporting Iron Maiden all the way back in 2000 at Earls Court in London).
My mum even came to that show. Because she's awesome.
SteevLWhat can I do for you?Registered Userregular
I'm kind of bummed I never got to see Slayer live. I tried to get tickets to their near-Los Angeles show back in 2018, but they were bought up very quickly and being resold for exorbitant prices. I mean, I like Slayer, but I don't like them that much. Reign in Blood through Seasons in the Abyss is my favorite era. I haven't kept up with them much after that. Looks like the last one I got was Diabolus in Musica.
The first two albums are only a fraction behind them, though. Honestly I'd just say 1983-1990 Slayer is all mandatory, and everything after that can be safely ignored, not because they have a career littered with terrible albums (except the one, which I don't even want to acknowledge), but because at best you're getting a passable effort with maybe 1-2 decent songs that still aren't up to their original standards.
Descendant XSkyrim is my god now.Outpost 31Registered Userregular
I feel like the same could be said of all of the Big Four thrash bands.
Garry: I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time I'd rather not spend the rest of the winter TIED TO THIS FUCKING COUCH!
Megadeth has a few good 90s albums and Endgame, all of which I like better than later Slayer.
The last two Anthrax albums with Joey back were decent but I don't really listen to them after Persistence of Time right on that 1990 cusp.
I do listen to the last two Metallica albums sometimes although they are nowhere near as good as their 1983-1991 run.
Heh, flicking through Facebook and saw a comment on a Guardian story by a Lee Dorrian. Thought, "I wonder..." and went to his profile, and yup, it is that Lee Dorrian (Cathedral, Napalm Death, etc). Good to know he's still kicking around!
Getting metal adjacent for a second, but I've been poring over my choices for favorite non-metal albums of the year, and I have to say that the latest Hexvessel album is a real stunner. Think of this as a folksy, eerie alternate to something like Pink Floyd's mellower material.
There's a new Big Boss solo album, was not expecting that.
And the new Saligia is extremely cool, Norsk black metal with lots of crisp black/speed/thrash metal licks and vocals that sound like an exaggerated Nocturno Culto.
the absolutely incredible saxophone solo that starts 13:20 onwards on top of an outrageously crunchy riff is truly something to behold
this is why prog should be banned - desc, probably
also does anybody have any good shouts for funk/soul influenced metal bands
i cannot escape fuckign tesseract wherever i go every single recommendation engine is like U WILLL LOVE TESSERACT BRO and its like no actually i find them boring they even opened for devin when i saw him TESSERACT GO AWAY STOP SENDING ME TEXTS DANIEL
Saxophones fall under the Law of Ihsahn anyway. Since Emperor Ihsahn has employed the saxophone on his music, that means it is acceptable for all!
As for 'funk' influenced metal bands, a lot of groups in the late 80s and 90s used to do this but it's gotten tacky over time and people seem to find it embarrassing. Hell, even for Mordred, an excellent thrash band, but the few funk parts they used on their first two albums are seen as a detriment. Even I have soured on these a little, but I remember when half the local bands in my area were trying funk metal because Chili Peppers and Infectious Grooves and Primus were soooo coooool!
'Soul' can certainly be found in a lot of proto-doom bands, such as Sweden's Witchcraft. Bands that hover closer to the folk and blues roots. I'm also no fan of most mall metalcore or nu-metal but there's no denying that singers like Howard and Lajon bring a bit of that to their own styles. Hell, even Mike Patton is heavily influenced by soul on a lot of tunes, but he's just such a chameleon that people forget that. As for a direct 'soul metal' band, or maybe one that mixes R&B with heaviness, I'm sure it exists out there somewhere, would be interesting to hear.
Zeal and Ardor is arguably a soulsy black metal group. More roots/blues I guess, but it's a start. Early Incubus had a lot of funk sounds mixed in there. Faith No More had a bit of a funk vibe going on. But if you search for funk metal my guess is you'll end up with like...Rage Against the Machine or something. Cypress Hill? Not really a genre I've spent much time with.
And yeah lots of bands have incorporated sax to great success. Riverside's second life syndrome starts with a sax solo that sounds straight out of an 80s cop movie where the main character has reached rock bottom. I recall Indukti using a sax in the past, but it's been a long ass time since I listened to them. Rivers of Nihil and Eternal Storm have recently made use of it too. I'm a fan of sax in my metal!
More on the jazzy end of things, but I feel Ephel Duath worthy of a mention in any conversation of mixing metal and brass (technically woodwind I know).
Just stick to Painter's Palette and you'll be golden.
Saxophones fall under the Law of Ihsahn anyway. Since Emperor Ihsahn has employed the saxophone on his music, that means it is acceptable for all!
As for 'funk' influenced metal bands, a lot of groups in the late 80s and 90s used to do this but it's gotten tacky over time and people seem to find it embarrassing. Hell, even for Mordred, an excellent thrash band, but the few funk parts they used on their first two albums are seen as a detriment. Even I have soured on these a little, but I remember when half the local bands in my area were trying funk metal because Chili Peppers and Infectious Grooves and Primus were soooo coooool!
'Soul' can certainly be found in a lot of proto-doom bands, such as Sweden's Witchcraft. Bands that hover closer to the folk and blues roots. I'm also no fan of most mall metalcore or nu-metal but there's no denying that singers like Howard and Lajon bring a bit of that to their own styles. Hell, even Mike Patton is heavily influenced by soul on a lot of tunes, but he's just such a chameleon that people forget that. As for a direct 'soul metal' band, or maybe one that mixes R&B with heaviness, I'm sure it exists out there somewhere, would be interesting to hear.
dude i just want it to be 2001 again and im sitting in my room listening to make yourself on repeat playing cs 1.3 is that so much to ask
incubus / faith no more are obvious starting points and obviously 12 foot ninja are kind of in that zone but its more just memes... i love a lot of the rhythmic features of funk and the treatment of bass parts but the associated rest of the composition tends to be way thinner and less dense than what i want.
blues is good too. there are a couple of unprocessed tracks that have some really nice bouncy bass lines that do interesting things but the rest of the band is not in the right zone
also on a total random note did anybody do a double-take when they realised hte lead singer of "the ocean" wasnt also the lead singer of katatonia?
i swear they sound literally the same, i thought i was hearing a katatonia track at first...
EDIT: oh jk its literally him as a guest singer but not listed on the version i heard
Speaking of Katatonia, Perihelion's new album comes out tomorrow. Kind of a gothy black and roll thing going on, and they do remind me of Katatonia a little bit.
Perihelion isn’t a very Hungarian word, but the band makes up for that with a plethora of umlauts, accents, double acute accents, and other glyphs throughout their song titles. That automatically makes the band trve and is worth 0.5 bonus marks on the score.
New Carcariass, Rattenfanger, Blitzkrieg, even Crest of Darkness...and I just got through listening to ANOTHER new batch. I might set a new listening record this year even though I started out not wanting to. But this goes beyond First World Problems to Zero World Problems.
Next year's devastation on the nation tour is Rotting Christ, Borknagar, Abigail Williams, Wolfheart and Imperial Triumphant.
I found I've gotten bored of Wolfheart's sound, but Abigail William's latest album Walk Beyond the Dark is so damn good. I still haven't gotten around to Borknagar's latest album but I think it's been well received too, right?
Posts
Also it's pretty good!
https://youtu.be/JaSzr4hIyl0
https://youtu.be/zwgKOQIsgbM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhvKY9ZWVUA
my god it actually fuckin is i could feel my fuzzy hat growing by the second. independent observation: jamiroquai are actually metal. i will not be taking questions at this time
That gets a yay from me.
https://youtu.be/vTrmHnwg36I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCGFjX5Cb_g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK-eu5L2RTU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRtF2cT6zNg
There's a new Prong EP too with two pretty cool new tunes.
https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/ihsahn-to-release-first-of-two-new-eps-in-february/
She invited us to get in touch with her the next time we visit Iceland and she'd set us up with a bunch of perks and things, which was pretty dang cool of her. Fast forward to Kaelan Mikla the opener. They went on but only made it through half of their first song before having to stop. Apparently and unfortunately, their singer had a stomach bug and spent the entire flight from London vomiting on the plane. I'm amazed they made it out at all but they had to stop their set there. So Solstafir came on early and ended up playing an extra long extended set of something like 7 or more songs. It was such a small venue, and Addi ended up spending large amounts of the show just standing in the crowd with all of us (the stage is only about 1 foot off the floor). Really intimate and cool experience. Glad I went!
That title is amazing.
Steam | XBL
That's the exact kind of unique, compact experience you will always remember more than arena shows!
Solstafir is great live, and seeing them in a small venue like that is especially unique. I've seen Addi jump down to walk around in the crowd while singing "Goddess of the Ages" once, but I can definitely see him just hanging out in the crowd for most of the show if the place is small enough. Very cool! Too bad about that opening band's issues. That really sucks to come that far and have to stop in the middle of the first song.
Alright, slight exaggeration. But today's the last Slayer show. It does kind of feel like the end of an era. I never got much into them, honestly; I was never really much of a thrash guy. But they did do some proper classics, no question, and I'm glad I got to see them play (supporting Iron Maiden all the way back in 2000 at Earls Court in London).
My mum even came to that show. Because she's awesome.
Steam | XBL
I think it's safe to call that objectively the best era (with perhaps honorable nods to the first two albums).
Steam | XBL
Megadeth has a few good 90s albums and Endgame, all of which I like better than later Slayer.
The last two Anthrax albums with Joey back were decent but I don't really listen to them after Persistence of Time right on that 1990 cusp.
I do listen to the last two Metallica albums sometimes although they are nowhere near as good as their 1983-1991 run.
Steam | XBL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsDnnk_qcTs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ipi6UgznmlE
https://youtu.be/YmNQcitWYKY
It's some throwback goth-rock, from the The Wraith.
And the new Saligia is extremely cool, Norsk black metal with lots of crisp black/speed/thrash metal licks and vocals that sound like an exaggerated Nocturno Culto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzfE3nXmuok
https://youtu.be/YPT3lnQy8NY
It's a pretty good album overall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L2M_uosfkA
the absolutely incredible saxophone solo that starts 13:20 onwards on top of an outrageously crunchy riff is truly something to behold
this is why prog should be banned - desc, probably
also does anybody have any good shouts for funk/soul influenced metal bands
i cannot escape fuckign tesseract wherever i go every single recommendation engine is like U WILLL LOVE TESSERACT BRO and its like no actually i find them boring they even opened for devin when i saw him TESSERACT GO AWAY STOP SENDING ME TEXTS DANIEL
As for 'funk' influenced metal bands, a lot of groups in the late 80s and 90s used to do this but it's gotten tacky over time and people seem to find it embarrassing. Hell, even for Mordred, an excellent thrash band, but the few funk parts they used on their first two albums are seen as a detriment. Even I have soured on these a little, but I remember when half the local bands in my area were trying funk metal because Chili Peppers and Infectious Grooves and Primus were soooo coooool!
'Soul' can certainly be found in a lot of proto-doom bands, such as Sweden's Witchcraft. Bands that hover closer to the folk and blues roots. I'm also no fan of most mall metalcore or nu-metal but there's no denying that singers like Howard and Lajon bring a bit of that to their own styles. Hell, even Mike Patton is heavily influenced by soul on a lot of tunes, but he's just such a chameleon that people forget that. As for a direct 'soul metal' band, or maybe one that mixes R&B with heaviness, I'm sure it exists out there somewhere, would be interesting to hear.
And yeah lots of bands have incorporated sax to great success. Riverside's second life syndrome starts with a sax solo that sounds straight out of an 80s cop movie where the main character has reached rock bottom. I recall Indukti using a sax in the past, but it's been a long ass time since I listened to them. Rivers of Nihil and Eternal Storm have recently made use of it too. I'm a fan of sax in my metal!
Just stick to Painter's Palette and you'll be golden.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/pablocampy
dude i just want it to be 2001 again and im sitting in my room listening to make yourself on repeat playing cs 1.3 is that so much to ask
incubus / faith no more are obvious starting points and obviously 12 foot ninja are kind of in that zone but its more just memes... i love a lot of the rhythmic features of funk and the treatment of bass parts but the associated rest of the composition tends to be way thinner and less dense than what i want.
blues is good too. there are a couple of unprocessed tracks that have some really nice bouncy bass lines that do interesting things but the rest of the band is not in the right zone
also on a total random note did anybody do a double-take when they realised hte lead singer of "the ocean" wasnt also the lead singer of katatonia?
i swear they sound literally the same, i thought i was hearing a katatonia track at first...
EDIT: oh jk its literally him as a guest singer but not listed on the version i heard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9F-Nf3SWtc
i got trolled curse u spotify
https://youtu.be/IatGAVtGqz8
Album is supposed to be pretty strong so I'll check it out when the internets have determined I'm allowed to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqtFGaHcWRk
from a review on their last album.. respectable
I found I've gotten bored of Wolfheart's sound, but Abigail William's latest album Walk Beyond the Dark is so damn good. I still haven't gotten around to Borknagar's latest album but I think it's been well received too, right?