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

*Legion* wrote:

More lists:

Exclaim! (#1: Vein - Errorzone)
Stereogum (#1: Fluisteraars / Turia – De Oord)
LA Weekly (#1: YOB - Our Raw Heart)

Also gotta call out Toilet Ov Hell's Top Tech Death of 2018 list as it's the only list I've seen so far with the Anachronism album on it.

Stereogum was nuts. I've fallen off reading their monthly column as I don't find it as enjoyable and the music selection wasn't jiving with me most months.

TLDR That list is basically a whole bunch of unknown bands to me. Maybe that's good, but maybe Ian is trying too hard. Or, most likely, his tastes don't line up with mine. (Ie. I don't particularly care for his band who I think tries too hard. Or maybe their tastes don't line up with mine.)

There will be no Thou. No Yob, Panopticon, Horrendous, Slugdge, At The Gates, Dödsrit, Deafheaven, High On Fire, Sleep, none of it.

I noticed that he called out the lack of Thou first, and as a sentence all their own. I take that as tacit admission that Thou truly is the best release of the year.

I've listened to half of what made that list - oddly enough, all the ones in the top 5. Mournful Congregation landed with me. Agrimonia is one I've picked up again recently, not sure about it yet. For their #1 pick, I liked the Turia half more than the Fluisteraars half. I think only the MC will make my list.

I recall when Mournful Congregation came out and got a ton of praise and now with year end lists, but I struggle to find the time and desire to listen to funeral doom. It's just a tiny bit too slow for me.

Winter is here though, so never a better time!

The Black Dahlia Murder / Power Trip / Ghoul / Gost / Skeletal Remains show in Austin was terrific. The kind of show where you leave a bigger fan of the bands than when you showed up.

I won't lie, though, I'm a tired old man and a Friday show that ends at midnight is too late for me.

I'm not a huge fan of Lovercraftian bands, but they do tend to have some amazing covers and videos. Sulphur Aeon is dropping a new one on the 21st:

garion333 wrote:

I'm not a huge fan of Lovercraftian bands, but

Really? I mean, you can't even understand the lyrics to most metal bands these days. What turns you off of those with Lovecraftian themes?

Fedaykin98 wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I'm not a huge fan of Lovercraftian bands, but

Really? I mean, you can't even understand the lyrics to most metal bands these days. What turns you off of those with Lovecraftian themes?

Lyrics tend to be one note, ya. Not that I pay too much attention to lyrics anyway.

The vocals tend to be the deeeeeeeeeeep end, which I'm not a huge fan of over long listening periods.

I'm glad they exist, just not always my thing!

garion333 wrote:

I'm not a huge fan of Lovercraftian bands, but they do tend to have some amazing covers and videos. Sulphur Aeon is dropping a new one on the 21st:

Can't wait for this one myself, as Sulphur Aeon is one of my favorite bands. I hope the new album stands up to the other two. The two singles released so far are pretty good, and one even includes some clean singing.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I won't lie, though, I'm a tired old man and a Friday show that ends at midnight is too late for me.

I'm right there with you on the late shows. That is killer. I've done a Thursday show before, and getting up to do work the next days is really something.

That Stereogum list is really something. I have only listened to a couple of those bands, Ritual Necromancy being one of them. Dark Descent Records is out of Colorado and pretty much everything they release is right on for me. The article even mentions the Corpsessed release, which is actually going on my personal top list this year. For me 2018 was just an amazing year for metal all around.

*Legion* wrote:
There will be no Thou. No Yob, Panopticon, Horrendous, Slugdge, At The Gates, Dödsrit, Deafheaven, High On Fire, Sleep, none of it.

I noticed that he called out the lack of Thou first, and as a sentence all their own. I take that as tacit admission that Thou truly is the best release of the year.

I've listened to half of what made that list - oddly enough, all the ones in the top 5. Mournful Congregation landed with me. Agrimonia is one I've picked up again recently, not sure about it yet. For their #1 pick, I liked the Turia half more than the Fluisteraars half. I think only the MC will make my list.

Listening to the Fluisteraars/Turia split and Fluisteraars reminds me of an emo band doing black metal. I mean that in a good way, but it's clearly not soul sucking depressive enough for you.

Turia is pummeling and screaming into the void. Der, no wonder you liked it better.

Look I'm just happy to have established a second music preference to go along with "27 minutes of stoned out fuzz".

There really was a lack of stoned out fuzz this year.

Tomb Mold put out a new two-song EP. It's not on Spotify, at least, not yet, but I'm not 100% sure it's officially out as of today. Anyway, you can listen to it now:

http://www.metalinjection.net/av/new...

It's been on their bandcamp page for a while too, along with a couple other tapes. Almost makes me wish I still had a cassette player. Almost. Great couple of songs!

garion333 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

I see you assholes smashing Garion's Like buttons now.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/l7hOUhq.gif)

Check. Mate.

garion333 wrote:

There really was a lack of stoned out fuzz this year.

Nobody else was willing to release material the year that Sleep released their comeback album and an EP.

More best metal of 2018 lists:

Rolling Stone (#1: Sleep - The Sciences)
Heavy Music Headquarters (#1: YOB - Our Raw Heart)
Vinyl Me, Please (#1: YOB - Our Raw Heart)
Mashable (no rankings)
Bandcamp (no rankings, limited to only albums on Bandcamp, which is still a lot)
BeatRoute (focused on unknown/unsigned bands, #1: Dionysiaque - Dionysiaque)
Bloomberg (#1: Palladium)

And another:

Heavy Blog is Heavy (#1: Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name)

Heavy Blog's list is good except for that #1 pick.

Glad to see Tomb Mold on more than a few of those lists! I'm surprised about how many albums I never listened to or heard of over the last year made the cut. Usually I've listened to more of the bands. I've got quite a good pile of things to jam out to over the holiday break at least. My own list is just about done, I'm just waiting to hear the new Sulphur Aeon on Friday to finish it up. Listening to all this really great new stuff (to me) from these site's lists is kind of throwing a monkey wrench into the whole thing unfortunately as well.

*Legion* wrote:

Bloomberg (#1: Palladium)

LOL. Nicely played.

*Legion* wrote:

And another:

Heavy Blog is Heavy (#1: Rivers of Nihil - Where Owls Know My Name)

Heavy Blog's list is good except for that #1 pick.

I agree, Thou is nowhere to be seen.

garion333 wrote:

I agree, Thou is nowhere to be seen. ;)

Smash that like button!

Legion, your best of 2018 list is overdue.

Nobody seems to have posted a list! Last year we had a bunch even in December I think. How about I jump in? I'm not even going to really order them specifically, though I guess this is sort of in order from top to bottom I guess. Call it a top 13 and not a top 10. Quick and easy:

Wiegedood - De Doden Hebben Het Goed III
Anicon - Entropy Mantra
Horrendous - Idol
Tomb Mold - Manor of Infinite Forms
Sulphur Aeon - The Scythe of Cosmic Chaos
Uada - Cult of a Dying Sun
Slugdge - Esoteric Malacology
The Ocean - Phanerozoic I: Paleozoic
Harakiri for the Sky - Arson
Skinless - Savagery
Corpsessed - Impetus of Death
Zeal & Ardor - Stranger Fruit
Ocean of Grief - Nightfall’s Lament

Many of these you've heard anyway and they've been discussed in other places. Wiegedood, my favorite of the year, is a Dutch black metal outfit that just kills. The "singing" is typical black metal, but they throw in more riffage than most and they are just plain HEAVY. Love it. Anicon is some black metal out of NYC, and includes a member of Yellow Eyes and one dude who's also in both Krallice and Woe. Such a great album. Skinless and Corpsessed are some straight death metal goodness. Zeal & Ardor really crystallized their unique sound with Stranger Fruit and brought some awesome tunes there.

I picked up a ticket to see Zeal & Ardor, Baroness, and Deafheaven in April and I cannot wait for it. Should be a great show. Deafheaven has been up and down for me, and their last album unfortunately was in the downturn, but I'm hoping live they bring something good.

This was a teflon year for me, most stuff slipped right off without my wanting to revisit it at all with the exception of the following

8. Book of Bad Decisions - Clutch
7. Time Will Die and Love Will Bury It - Rolo Tomassi
6. Reverence - Parkway Drive
5. Holy Hell - Architects
4. Rainier Fog - Alice In Chains
3. Prequelle - Ghost (I’m just a sucker for everything they do at this point)
2. Automata 1 & 2 - BTBAM
1. Vector - Haken

I didn't do a list yet, and now likely never will because Spotify removed the "most played tracks", etc. playlists, in large part because of lack of time at work to fit it in, but also because I've been spending more time with the albums I did enjoy and digging into older works I missed in the past.

For instance, In Mourning is a band I never really gave the time of day as Opeth was my long go-to melodic death band. Since Opeth is no longer the band they once were, which is cool, and most other melodic death sounds like a straight ripoff of Opeth (see: Barren Earth), I'm pleasantly surprised to find that In Mourning is sufficiently different and enjoyable. Who knew?!?!

I don't think of old Opeth primarily as a melodic death metal band, nor that most melodeath bands are imitators of them. When I think melodeath, I think Gothenburg with At The Gates, Dark Tranquility, and In Flames. There are newer melodeath bands like Mors Principium Est who are in that same vein.

I think of Opeth as the quintessential Progressive Death Metal band, who definitely employ plenty of melody in their music.

I feel ya, I meant the melodic or progressive death bands that are in the Opeth wheelhouse and not the Gothenburg sound bands. The genre is quite wide.

garion333 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:

Gaerea - Unsettling Whispers

Excellent debut album from this Portuguese band. A sludgier take on atmospheric black metal. Definitely some Mgla comparisons to be made.

I somehow completely missed the 4.5 this got at AMG. (Master of Muppet's is also a phenomenal reviewer and someone everyone should read, though this review wasn't quite as good in that aspect.)

*Legion* wrote:

Oddly, Heavy Blog wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the Gaerea album, which I'll chalk up to the reviewer being from like the bottom of their contributor bench.

It's a really good album that will probably make my year-end list.

Uh, I'm giving this a real listen now and it's pretty f-ing rad.

Where is that year-end list, Legion?