\m/(~_~)\m/ Bring the Metal! \m/(~_~)\m/

Chris Clark (aka "Clark", the electronic artist on Warp Records) is doing an AMA at Reddit. Which would probably be a post for the electronic music thread. But the one that jumped out at me was when asked to name not only 3 of his songs for people to listen to to get to know him, but 3 songs from other artists too. The three from other artists:

Debussy - Danseuses De Delphes
Meshuggah - Bleed
Harvey Milk - Death Goes To The Winner

I knew Clark was one of my favorites.

Aaaaand now I'm listening to Life... the Best Game in Town again.

Current playlist:

SUMAC - Love in Shadow

SUMAC albums are always growers for me. What One Becomes is my most played album of all time in my Last.fm statistics. Granted, it was helped along a little by breaking the 5 songs into 10 tracks, as Last.fm counts track plays. (Some of my favorite albums hurt themselves in this department, with a lot of music cut into very few tracks. Conversely, Last.fm thinks I like Converge a lot more than I do, as one playthrough of All We Love We Left Behind registers 17 scrobbles in only 45 minutes).

Love in Shadow won't get that benefit, weighing in at 66 minutes across only 4 tracks. This album takes a more improvisational turn compared to their previous ones, maybe not surprising after their Keiji Haino collaboration, released earlier this year (see below).

Keiji Haino + SUMAC - American Dollar Bill: Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On

SUMAC's new album is a lot to take in, but this collaboration album makes it sound like easy listening in comparison. Structure is thrown out the window. This is an exploration of noise and ambience, and the way SUMAC brings their metal features into the mix so seamlessly would be surprising if not for the fact that it's so in character for Turner and crew. It's more of a heavy free-jazz/ambient album, but it's those heavy parts that push it from interesting to essential (for people that can enjoy this sort of out-there stuff)

And the song titles! The full title of the embedded track:
What have I Done? (I Was Reeling In Something White and I Became Able to do Anything I Made a Hole Imprisoned Time Within it Created Friction Stopped Listening to Warnings Ceased Fixing my Errors Made the Impossible Possible? Turned Sadness Into Joy), Part 1

(and yes, the track that follows it is Part 2)

Helen Money - Become Zero

Alison Chesley is a cellist and composer, who in addition to film and theater work, has played on albums with artists like Russian Circles, Mono, and even Anthrax and Disturbed. Helen Money is both her stage name and the name of her own band, which features Jason Roeder (drummer from Neurosis and Sleep) and Rachel Grimes (from '90s chamber rock group Rachel's). This group plays a kind of heavy music which, well, if you can imagine Rachel's channeled through Neurosis, you're not far off. Some tracks are heavier and more metal-based, others are more neo-classical, quieter pieces, but it all works together.

Horrendous - Anareta

Just warming up for the new Horrendous album's release.

Had a lot of driving for work yesterday. Fortunately the new Revocation album dropped the same day. I already loved the first two tracks they released; most of the rest sounded good on first listen. Like Legion said about bands whose music grows on him, so am I with a lot of Revocation.

I also went back and listened to Tomb Mold's first album, Primordial Malignity, for the first time since Manor of Infinite Forms came out. I knew I had liked it, but PM rocked harder than I remembered! I also listened to The Bottomless Perdition, the compilation of their two EPs for the first time. I believe all that material was from before either album. It was more raw sounding, and would certainly be a distant third in terms of my preference to listen to. There were one or two definitely worthwhile tracks, though.

I rounded out my drive listening to a few songs Spotify threw at my by bands like Nile and Psycroptic. I also finished up the latest episode of The Solid Verbal, my favorite college football podcast.

If the rest of the album is as good as the songs released so far, it may top The Satanist.

I appreciate you posting the censored version. Saved my ass at work.

That song is really good.

The new Horrendous album is fabulous. There is just so much going on in it. It is complex and interesting and demands a close listen. It brings me back to semi-old Opeth of all things. It's like an Opeth release from partway between their heavier days and their recent prog stuff. I know I really enjoyed their last two albums, but I don't remember them being exactly like this. I'll have to go back and reacquaint myself with the older Horrendous. Also, they never disappoint with their album covers!

That's really good. Shame I'm not more into this style of death metal.

Current playlist:

Horrendous - Idol

So good. Since d4m0 posted The Idolater, I'll do Soothsayer.

Revocation - The Outer Ones

There seem to be a couple of camps when it comes to Revocation. There's the camp that's really attached to their early albums, who, like AMG's reviewer, find their newer albums to be less compelling. Then there's the ones who see their more recent albums as maturing and growth, and enjoy them.

Revocation is a thrash-meets-tech-death band, and I think the preference comes down to which side of that equation you favor. The early material leans more on thrash, while the newer albums more tech-death (David Davidson called this new album their "most death metal album to date" in an interview). Given that I favor tech-death strongly over thrash, it's probably no surprise that the newer albums hold more sway with me, this album included.

Mirrors for Psychic Warfare - I See What I Became

Of all of Scott Kelly's side bands, Mirrors for Psychic Warfare is probably my favorite (well, at least since Tribes of Neurot stopped being active). Mirrors would probably best be described as industrial/sludge/dark ambient, and to compare it to some of the atmospherics on earlier Neurosis albums would not be far off the mark, albeit with more industrial harshness.

Isis - Pretty much every album

A week and a half until I go see Isis "Celestial" and all those other bands. These albums seriously get better every time I revisit them.

garion333 wrote:

That's really good. Shame I'm not more into this style of death metal.

Exactly my reaction. I was blown away with the quality, but not captivated.

Speaking of captivated, man, I can not stop listening to Gatecreeper! They're on tour with Dying Fetus, Incantation, and Genocide Pact.

Also listening to At The Gates, which, man - they're a little like In Flames if they never abandoned the Gothenburg sound, minus the harmonized guitars. Can't believe it's taken me this long to check them out. They're also on tour, with Wolves in the Throne Room and Behemoth.

Damn, Fed, you haven't checked out At the Gates until now? That's impressive!

garion333 wrote:

Damn, Fed, you haven't checked out At the Gates until now? That's impressive!

I briefly checked them out in the early or mid oughts, when I first re-engaged with modern metal. They hadn't re-formed, I don't think, and Slaughter of the Soul wasn't as accessible to me as In Flames (and I still think it isn't). I wasn't familiar with the various metal genres and didn't think ATG sounded melodic at all.

Also, I've only had Spotify for a year or so. It's a lot easier for me to check out new stuff now.

Anyway, they're fantastic.

True, guess I was looking back with modern glasses where everything is at our fingertips. Granted, it was before too via file sharing, etc., but streaming makes it all sooooo much easier.

How are post-reunion ATG's albums? I've been enjoying Slaughter of the Soul, but am always a bit skeptical of albums from a reunited band after that long of a delay. (Then again, Sleep made a mockery of that skepticism earlier this year, so...)

*Legion* wrote:

How are post-reunion ATG's albums? I've been enjoying Slaughter of the Soul, but am always a bit skeptical of albums from a reunited band after that long of a delay. (Then again, Sleep made a mockery of that skepticism earlier this year, so...)

I've really just listened to the songs they play live (per setlist.fm) which is my usual route into a new band. Those are excellent. The difference between old ATG and current ATG is nowhere near as big as with In Flames.

Didn't I just post one of these yesterday? New album flood is unreal.

Current playlist:

High on Fire - Electric Messiah

Matt Pike delivers on his Lemmy-inspired album concept, as this is definitely High on Fire at their most Motorhead. Not yet sure where this lands within the scope of their full discography, but it's been a damn good time right out of the gate.

Windhand - Eternal Return

Windhand doing what they do: laying down a bed of hypnotic, drawn-out psych/doom for Dorthia Cottrell's ethereal howls and croons to weave themselves around. Songs don't tend to cover much ground even when they're 10+ minutes long. Doesn't matter. It works. Cottrell's self-harmonizing actually brings Alice in Chains to mind.

Author & Punisher - Beastland

God damn. I want to terrorize neighborhood children on Halloween with this.

Oof, that is some fine industrial sound coming from Author & Punisher. Will pursue, thanks!

Dream Theater is everyone's bloated punching bag, but I'm curious if they've managed to write as dark/hard/whatever as Pull Me Under? I'm sure that song was just about everyone's introduction to the band back in the day since it's basically the only song that got radio and MTV play, but every time I try and listen to Dream Theater I'm left wanting them to write some heavier sh*t because I enjoyed Pull Me Under so much and not much else they've written. Cause it's all weaksauce compared to Pull Me Under.

Lie? The Mirror? Burning My Soul?

Definitely think the closest you'll get to PMU would be on those albums that came next (Awake, Falling Into Infinity) before lineup changes put them on course for the bloat.

garion333 wrote:

Dream Theater is everyone's bloated punching bag, but I'm curious if they've managed to write as dark/hard/whatever as Pull Me Under? I'm sure that song was just about everyone's introduction to the band back in the day since it's basically the only song that got radio and MTV play, but every time I try and listen to Dream Theater I'm left wanting them to write some heavier sh*t because I enjoyed Pull Me Under so much and not much else they've written. Cause it's all weaksauce compared to Pull Me Under.

Probably the closest you'll get is A Change of Seasons, which was originally written pre-Images and Words but only recorded after the departure of the original keyboardist.

There's arguably heavier stuff on Awake (ie the tracks that Legion mentions) but almost everything after Images and Words feels a little bogged down with trying to prove themselves in various ways. They said we're not prog enough? Well here's a bunch of ELP-ish organ sounds and even more crazy time signatures! They said we're not heavy enough? Well now we've got 7-strings and our REO Speedwagon-meets-Queensryche sounding lead singer is going to rasp and shriek in a really unappealing way until his vocal cords literally hemorrhage! So it's a mixed bag, and then Jordan Rudess rolls in.

The heaviest, most riff oriented stuff is probably this track from Train of Thought, but even this feels pretty stock compared to Images and Words.

Oh sure Podunk pops in the thread when someone brings up Dream Theater. Where is he when we're talking about good stuff?

I subscribed to Podunk's Metal Facts a long time ago and I've yet to get a single text.

*Legion* wrote:

Oh sure Podunk pops in the thread when someone brings up Dream Theater. Where is he when we're talking about good stuff?

I subscribed to Podunk's Metal Facts a long time ago and I've yet to get a single text.

Ha! I read this thread all the time, and check out pretty much all the recommendations! I just don't post much unless I feel like I've got something valuable to contribute, or I have an opportunity to vent about Dream Theater

garion333 wrote:

Dream Theater is everyone's bloated punching bag, but I'm curious if they've managed to write as dark/hard/whatever as Pull Me Under? I'm sure that song was just about everyone's introduction to the band back in the day since it's basically the only song that got radio and MTV play, but every time I try and listen to Dream Theater I'm left wanting them to write some heavier sh*t because I enjoyed Pull Me Under so much and not much else they've written. Cause it's all weaksauce compared to Pull Me Under.

The Mirror/Lie
Scarred
Voices
Beyond This Life
Home
Those have a lot of heavy elements with a lot of classic prog/melodic moments. For heavier tunes:
basically anything from the album A Train of Thought (As I Am is their Metallica song)
The Glass Prison
The Test That Stumped Them All (it's just a part of the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence song)
Constant Motion (their other Metallica song)
A Nightmare To Remember
The Shattered Fortress
The Root of All Evil
Panic Attack
The Enemy Inside

That said, could I interest you in some Symphony X?

Oh, that reminds me, have you guys checked out the Radical Research podcast? It's Jeff Wagner, formerly of Metal Maniacs, and Hunter Ginn, drummer of Canvas Solaris, two of the hugest metal nerds I know. They go seriously deep on some seriously nerdy underground metal, and it rules.

Their current ep is 72 mins dedicated to the trinity of tech metal releases that Roadrunner put out in 1993 (Cynic, Believer and Pestilence) so right there you probably already know if it's going to appeal to you.

Podunk wrote:

Oh, that reminds me, have you guys checked out the Radical Research podcast?

Nope, but I will.

There is a show I've been meaning to talk about here, Metal & Coffee. Definitely a show for anyone who likes the kind of stuff I tend to post about. I held off mentioning the show, as she has said that she will start podcasting the show at some point (you can listen to episodes online but it's through Mixcloud, and Mixcloud is... ehh, not great).

The first episode of hers I listened to had this playlist:

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/2lF3FYz.png)

and the most recent one looks like this:

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/NxLTM3j.png)

So, yeah. Definitely leans in the sludge/stoner/doom/post direction, and expands from there.

Podunk wrote:

Oh, that reminds me, have you guys checked out the Radical Research podcast? It's Jeff Wagner, formerly of Metal Maniacs, and Hunter Ginn, drummer of Canvas Solaris, two of the hugest metal nerds I know. They go seriously deep on some seriously nerdy underground metal, and it rules.

Their current ep is 72 mins dedicated to the trinity of tech metal releases that Roadrunner put out in 1993 (Cynic, Believer and Pestilence) so right there you probably already know if it's going to appeal to you.

Someone on shreddit recommended Pestilence to me recently and I really enjoyed the first album I listened to. I think this was due to me enjoying Skeletal Remains and Extremity.

liquid wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Dream Theater is everyone's bloated punching bag, but I'm curious if they've managed to write as dark/hard/whatever as Pull Me Under? I'm sure that song was just about everyone's introduction to the band back in the day since it's basically the only song that got radio and MTV play, but every time I try and listen to Dream Theater I'm left wanting them to write some heavier sh*t because I enjoyed Pull Me Under so much and not much else they've written. Cause it's all weaksauce compared to Pull Me Under.

The Mirror/Lie
Scarred
Voices
Beyond This Life
Home
Those have a lot of heavy elements with a lot of classic prog/melodic moments. For heavier tunes:
basically anything from the album A Train of Thought (As I Am is their Metallica song)
The Glass Prison
The Test That Stumped Them All (it's just a part of the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence song)
Constant Motion (their other Metallica song)
A Nightmare To Remember
The Shattered Fortress
The Root of All Evil
Panic Attack
The Enemy Inside

That said, could I interest you in some Symphony X?

Damn, quite the list.

And oddly enough I've pretty much spent no time listening to Symphony X, despite listening to Michael Romeo's solo album earlier this year and liking it a bit. Perhaps I shall.

Ooh nice two new metal podcasts to check out! I will definitely make a listen. On Dream Theater, I'm not sure if this is on any of their albums, but many years ago I somehow came across a live recording of a song called Ytse Jam that is way on the heavier side of most of their stuff. Warning: instrumental. Also this is a non-live version, nice.

But, I'm with all you guys about Dream Theater. Anyone heard Liquid Tension Experiment? They are circa late 90s/early-2000s. It's most of the members of Dream Theater with a couple other people too, and it's like take DM and boost the bloat by 200%. Just about all instrumental.

garion333 wrote:

Damn, quite the list.
And oddly enough I've pretty much spent no time listening to Symphony X, despite listening to Michael Romeo's solo album earlier this year and liking it a bit. Perhaps I shall.

Symphony X have a few different sounds overall so if you like the more modern metal, heavier things I suggest checking out their albums from The Odyssey and after that, The Odyssey being the least heavy of those.

For a more power/neoclassical metal sounding (and I don't mean that in a bad or generic way) perhaps their albums before The Divine Wings of Tragedy might interest you. Divine Wings itself is regarded by many, if not most, as their best album but having changed sounds the way they have it really depends. It's definitely the album that put them on the map, for sure.

Twilight in Olympus is their overall most prog sounding album, it's not too heavy, but overall I'd say it's their Images and Words-type of album(in terms of where that album fits in overall sound, not in terms of commercial success or being their "magnum opus"), although among most fans that might be considered a minority opinion.

The perfect mixture between power, prog and just metal sounding album is V: The New Mythology Suite. If you're interested in delving into their discography let me know, I can pick some songs from each era for you to get an idea of what to expect and if its worth your time.

Warms my heart to see some Symphony X in the thread. I’ve been a fan of theirs for a long time - they started releasing albums as I got heavy into music performance/rock/metal in high school so the timing was perfect. Fond memories of the release of V in college and The Odyssey right after studies wrapped. Great band.

Their last release a few years back (The Underworld) has some killer stuff on it!