Sometimes I forget how amazing Black Metal (particularly the first generation of Norse bands) can be after a hiatus and then I come back to it and am consistently blown away. The patience and maturity displayed for amazing song development, the unique aesthetic and atmospheric approach;
Type O Negative was a gate-way band for me. I can't listen to them any more but there was a time 95/96 where 'Bloody Kisses' and 'October Rust' were very important albums to me.
Still love. I try to listen to them a lot more around Fall/Winter time. I try to rent a cabin on the mountain every year, start a fire, drink a Sammy and kick back and let Peter Steele put my brain on cruise while the leaves fall. "Haunted" is probably my fave.
Technical Death Metal at its absolute pinnacle. Already my album of the year. and a video of their bassist playing along (yes, you should be impressed)
If you like tech death at all (which it sounds like you do), you should really check out their album Polarity. It's my one of my favorite metal records of the last decade. So good.
Curious to see what you think man. I probably spun that record all the way through every day for about 6 months straight.
I really really like Solar Impulse. This is just a great tech death sound. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems to have an intensity that a lot of other shit doesn't...possibly something to do with the drummer, I can't really put my finger on it yet. The guitar work is top notch. The bass lines aren't quite what I usually look for. Dude does some crazy shit occasionally, but not as often as I'd like. That's mostly what I look for in tech death, just someone who knows how to make sweet sweet love to a bass. Other than that, I'm really enjoying it.
Glad to hear man. I always thought the best thing about that record is that they found a way to write great songs in a tech death formula. I mean, Solar Impulse, Metatron and Sea of Memories are fucking catchy as hell, bro. That's lost on a lot of these bands in the genre that get caught up in the sport of playing your instrument like a virtuoso and forget that they are making a cohesive album.
They're catchy on the same level that Necrophagist is, and Necrophagist will probably always be my favorite of the genre.
I'll never forget the day I first heard Stabwound, it changed everything I thought I knew about music.
I will never understand how a dude that small can play a guitar that big that well. It bottles the mind.
I was listening to a Portnoy interview on Liquid Metal a few days ago, or something, the concept of time escapes me...anyway...I had no idea this shit was happening. Allen's voice is magical. Totally different from Symphony X, but in no way is that a bad thing.
That is not the genre of heavy music that I usually listen to (at all), but that track was very good. I would definitely listen to this band.
Yeahhhh...I stay away from power metal and the like as much as possible, but there are a few exceptions. Mostly just choice Symphony X songs and anything and everything Nevermore has ever done. Fuck Warrel Dane for ruining that band. No Loomis = no listen for Odin. Loomis may be goofy looking as shit, but he can play the hell out of a guitar.
Decrepit is one if Nebulous's biggest influences ;) I fucking love Polarity. They haven't made a bad album though. ...And Time Begins may be one of the most brutal albums ever recorded - it also has my favorite album artwork. Such sick lyrics too: Spoiler The void of unexistance, Seeps the lies of humanity The holy ground, our earth of the physical as the cross erodes through the vortex of the nothing I walk amongst the flesh - unknown I reflect the aura - of the future, through my being. As the cycle will be stopped and a mirror of humanity will be viewed Epoch of spiritual consciousness The circle consumes as life spiritual begins the quest for oneness Without the sign of god Destination, all knowledge - our uncreation to respawn the birth of the next I am the chosen - Incantate power of my will Break the cycle of the earth condemned - begin I evolve the soul of man, and the light of his son is I (recreated/re-envisioned) Recreated through the astral order Of the universal comprehension As we unite without the boundaries of the cross and we are surrounded by the parallel cycles of life infinity I AM YOUR KINGDOM OF GOD...
And finally, what I think very well may be the best metal band in existence. I could write a doctorate level thesis on this band. They're not easily digestible, but once it clicks, prepare for an unforgettable journey. Lyrics: Accelerated by gravityIn this erupted dimensionEffulgent lights emanationGeodesic dome disintegration absoluteMassive transition without radiationCrossing the prohibited linesEmittedBy meta stable levelsExploring the gelatinous surfacesDynamic propulsionOf my old systemWith magnificent, convulsionsIn the atomic crystal, reflectionsOver the fatal status, tech-stoneIm an entity, collapsing in the timeTransforming the new voxelCharged with tons of antimatterBlasting the holes of obscurityBlasting the holesAbsorbing the last cell in this unfavorable corporealityBlack density around and harsh molecular, unexplained phenomena, intoleranceintolerance!Poisoning the universal matter, GravityElectromagnetism, and strong, WeakNuclear forces, areAn united entity, flowNuclear forces are a united!I have to escape of this Euclidean spaceWhere I can test this fictitious impression of depth? impression of depth?In this machine where the reversibility is non absoluteKrighsu! Krighsu! contemplates meKrighsu! Krighsu! contemplates meFrom the fissureTrying to avoid thy intellectual encumbranceTons of oblate spheroidsTons of oblate spheroids (gravity)Rotating about the minor axis of this holeTried to find the area under the curve a paradoxical navigabilityThe number of vectors is equal to the dimensionA new geodesation operation under the influence of gravityA solid cut off between two parallel planesCharging the orifices with my own proton-electron mass ratioSix billion light years away pulverizing the old planeBeyond the confines of your single galaxyYour eight-dimensional cosmos is right now succumbedVirtually unlimited
Speaking of lyrics -- I write avant-garde music and poetry to compliment it. I guess I don't really call them "lyrics" because they're not utilized in a rock format and they don't really conform to that structure, but I figured I would post some here because usually Metal or Industrial fans appreciate this stuff more than most. I have quite a few but here are some: Spoiler The Eugenicist "so you've stumbled upon a shallow grave for the sunwheel?" croaked Nero, a standing mannequin among the mass burial disorder, his lust, Mengelian; phallic-agog of crooked crosses; a negation of all orthodoxy in the bloom of her deflowering. there is some evidence, however, that what i say has come to pass. there are mountains of teeth. the desert of ash. a dachau disease that spreads from surgical tools, left behind. the cold. the habitual. the prefunctory movements of identities stitched together. heterotopia, the white spasms of light, i now know that nothing's known. i've been displaced and found my new home inside a monolithic cast, a purified form. and she said "i've pledged obedience to the 5 lateral eyes", clutched in the ambiotic embrace of a cosmic spectrum, the forest cavity at the gulf of the womb. dry-heaving, the spores inseminate the husk. an encystment of trenches, they over-flowed with the raw gasp and taut, pallor skin of zyklon-insects. a tourniquet of soil that stems the flow of limbs. wide-eyed and blind, at the first breath it all seemed like the death-rattle of the panacea. the trunk is left open, an invitation to walk on all fours toward the morning light. so do i dance paralytic? her response put into perspective something i would have never considered. she said "we should await the fluid functions released by this disappearance." Josef, the hook-jawed god, standing in this shower of night and fog....distended gates, the rib cage that encourages the dwarves to play to the Noma sounds of an ancient devourer. and so the eugenicist asked again about the shallow graves. a reply, i murmured. a murmur that can only be heard in the mountains. This Is Not What I Told You.... the sound of blood falling off the edge of the opening. this is not what i told you. the human analogue, an atavism rupturing the caudal extensions which serve to navigate through the sounds. i'll soak in formaldehyde the epidermal wardrobe. i'll wear this mask when i reach the edge. the sound. falling through. this is not what i told you. at the edge of the opening. Metaphallus the permafrost is primeval, dwarfen hooves & antler gray. ribs crawl beneath exhalations, birthing and buried all the same. a eunuch threw a bone at the raven, cackling black gloss smear. incest has planted the goat seed firmly between crooked thighs and in its planting it is embalming the immaculately conceived. cannibalizing the hair and skull, retrieving the obsidian apparatus walking and waking mega therion, toward a barren mound, a dry orifice into the caustic and beyond the stars..... Foci A Chordate Journey I placed deep my numb toes into the mud of the Volga, opening the river womb. I situated myself at the proximal end of the gape. The black dredge revealed that one black bone. I found that one black bone and with it a skull. The skull faced westward. I wanted to imitate the skull's nature. So, with freezing hands I traced its features, drawing a mental map, a chordate journey back into the mud. The howl blisters my desperate eyes. My finger slips inside an intentional cavity and unleashes my focus. Dura Mater My improvised instrument, that one black bone, splintered but not too obtuse, will be sufficient for my purposes. Consistency and focus is the key to the success of the procedure and so, like the skull, I face westward. I place my knees where my toes creak and hands against howling blisters -- and focus. I place the vitriolic bone to bone and deflower the hard mother under a hibernal firmament. This operation quickly becomes an epiphanic assault, and the river bleeds into me. The sky seems black, the mud becomes the mother. My eyes flicker and focus. The river dries and constructs itself in a new vision. The Pantheon of Horn and Hoof is made manifest. The key to the westward gate was constructed with bone and of womb. All I need do was focus to reveal the key. I thanked the mother and she thanked me. We entered the dry river bed. Dry Epitaph The sanguine radiance returns a song to the singing wolves. The punctured dreaming inscribed his dry epitaph into the river bed. His eulogy is carrion for the waves -- it read as this; "The skull I imitated has revealed the truth, The sky I've opened has revealed horn and hoof, The river dried, the mother I claimed as abstruse, The world I've discovered is still known only to few." .....my focus has ceased. I've left my husk as home for other occupants. I am with the dead, dreaming. Westward. Wormwood. Justified by the individual [or collective] support, We were forced to cross the Orastien Sternum. "Westward. Wormwood." So they've separated from us. But where? "Westward. Wormwood." Erdo-elve...beyond the aether into an unoccupied expanse. We'll soon arrive. But where? "Westward. Wormwood." The deciduous roots do not run deep inside the Bubonic Birdmask. A vesicant smile. A chlorine wind. Repetition in favor of ritual. "Westward. Wormwood." The wound carries a wheezing breath. We arrive. Vespoid forms stirred from this autistic sarcophagus. Hibernation interrupted. A spray of it's propaganda pheromones, mustard colored... Sulfuric pock & pustule. "Westward. Wormwood." Convulsive mandibles spasm casus belli, salt-mined hollow teeth & bone. The pests gather. The wolves gather. The owls gather. Respirations wrapped in rubber. "Westward. Wormwood." Twitching in rot...those ungulated trenchfeet advance forward. "Westward. Wormwood." Without a numbing agent [we've been asked to] amputate the eggs inside. "Westward. Wormwood." The invertebrates will feed on these accidents. Their pupa will inherit the Occident. But why? "Westward. Wormwood." But where? "Westward. Wormwood."
What do you guys think about Behemoth? They're the headliners of a show I'm going to see for another band in a few weeks. Wondered if it was worth sticking around for them.
I wish that prog thread hadn't died (or more people liked it). Most of this stuff is too brutal for my tastes. I'd probably like it more if I played an instrument. Oh well, here's an awesome cover of a classic (youtube sound quality sucks, better off downloading it) http://youtu.be/2C7Jtkp5LnA
The Eugenicist was awesome. I could see those being some death metal lyrics. If you see the ones I posted earlier, the lyrics tend to be more like abstract poetry or even a narrative - rarely do you see the standard chorus, verse, bridge, etc format.
It isn't for everyone, and took me a while to get into. You really have to view it less as vocals more of an additional instrument.
New Soulfly out now and High On Fire soon? I always will be into Soulfly just for the nostalgia for old Sepultura. They first couple of albums were good. The last few meh but always a couple of solid tracks. Pretty good live show. Always plays four or five classic Sepultura tracks. High On Fire is my favorite band of late. Love stoner/sludge metal. Awesome solos. Death and black metal so so. Depends on how understandable the vocals are. If that makes sense. Do love the the actual music but some of the vocals are almost unlistenable.
even though i'm sure a few, if not most, of you have much larger music and/or metal collections, i'm guessing you know what it's like when it gets large enough that if you just listen on shuffle, every once in awhile you'll have something pop up that you haven't heard in forever and makes you nostalgia hard. hello age 19 and freshman year of college, when i was mesmerized by anything that i thought sounded epic. my memory left out the part about how terrible the production was on those Bodom albums, though. http://youtu.be/dpweucotDgQ http://youtu.be/qmwrQpmoKD8 (keyboard is the most metal instrument.)
for Trappist Nights (or anyone else, really), since you seem to be both incredibly knowledgeable and patient with noobs like me: why do vinyl rips seemingly sound better than CD rips? i know it's like an ongoing debate among audiophiles or whatever, but i don't really see how, practically-speaking, a vinyl rip could sound better... and yet i've found that my ear prefers the vinyl rip to the CD rip of any given album the vast majority of the time. i'd ask on What.CD but my forum privileges were revoked like 2 or 3 years ago for posting "heil hitler" as a joke after someone signed a post with 88. maybe it's just a novice's ear preferring something a little less familiar. i really don't have any rational explanation
I'm older than most of ya'll, but listening again to "Hallowed Be Thy Name" right now in anticipation of this summer's NA tour and I think it is the perfect metal song, as I have for thirty years when I first heard it live. I encourage all of you good people to see Maiden this summer, and to keep metal alive in whatever forms. Everyone else will die.
Record Store Day was lame, except for a few releases, as usual. oh well. at least Mastodon gave it a decent shot. and by Mastodon, i pretty much only mean Brann Dailor. i'm pretty much mesmerized by his drumming, but that could very well only be because I don't play an instrument. http://youtu.be/YHlw2DJvM4Y
i think Dave Mustaine is an idiot, but "I spread disease like a dog" is a great lyric. Rust in Peace... Polaris in general has great metal lyrics.
Today I learned there's a black guy in Animals As Leaders. I always enjoy finding random black guys in metal bands.
New Meshuggah album is really growing on me after the second spin. Usually takes me a while to get into their stuff, but they are one of my all-time favorites.
Been giving the new Meshuggah a heavy dose in the rotation. That's about it tho, unfortunately... When summer comes around I usually bust out the classic melo-death records from the 90s (Whoracle, The Gallery, etc).