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

New Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastards is dope. Having a 90's era sounding female singer continues to be something I want more metal bands to do. Is Tanya Donelly still singing?

Periphery - Garden in the Bones - proggy!

I listened to that this AM and can't figure out where Periphery and I diverted. I think it's their songwriting not hitting home for me anymore. Did they change or did I change?

garion333 wrote:

New Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastards is dope. Having a 90's era sounding female singer continues to be something I want more metal bands to do. Is Tanya Donelly still singing?

Oh hell yes, I shall be checking this out today. Thanks for the head's up!

For the black metal fans out there, I can't believe I missed this one from last year. Kosmogyr would definitely have been on my 2018 top list had I heard it before last week. The drummer especially stands out for me.

I've decided that blast beats are the worst part of many current BM bands. I'm not sure if that's up to the recording, which I'm sure it partially is, but otherwise sections that have blast beats are my least favorite in many BM songs.

At Wit's End from Dream Theater's latest album is awesome. I honestly believed I won't be able to say something like that about a DT song again but I'm happy that they proved me wrong. Not my favourite album, but probably the best since Octavarium for me.

That riff at 0:22, so juicy.

garion333 wrote:

I've decided that blast beats are the worst part of many current BM bands. I'm not sure if that's up to the recording, which I'm sure it partially is, but otherwise sections that have blast beats are my least favorite in many BM songs.

I actually like the addition of blast beats to current black metal stuff, so take that! I think it nicely breaks up the typical very long and fast stream of notes that most black metal employs. I guess it's not "trve" to the spirit of the subgenre, but I like it. You probably really didn't enjoy the Wiegedood I put on my end-of-year list a couple months ago (if you checked them out, anyway), because they totally blast beat their black metal in a few of the songs.

d4m0 wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I've decided that blast beats are the worst part of many current BM bands. I'm not sure if that's up to the recording, which I'm sure it partially is, but otherwise sections that have blast beats are my least favorite in many BM songs.

I actually like the addition of blast beats to current black metal stuff, so take that! I think it nicely breaks up the typical very long and fast stream of notes that most black metal employs. I guess it's not "trve" to the spirit of the subgenre, but I like it. You probably really didn't enjoy the Wiegedood I put on my end-of-year list a couple months ago (if you checked them out, anyway), because they totally blast beat their black metal in a few of the songs.

It likely has more to do with the types of BM we listen to. I'm likely talking more about the atmospheric side of things than anything. There blast beats feel out of place to me.

The more aggressive stuff, like Wiegedood, uses the blast beats probably too much for my tastes but seems more appropriate for the type of music they're making. That's some angry sh*t. I tend toward the depressive.

Oranssi Pazuzu + Dark Buddha Rising = Waste of Space Orchestra

Apparently this was originally commissioned by the Roadburn Festival and played live by all ten musicians involved while the album is those guys taking what they played live and mucking around with it in the studio some more. Naturally I expect it to be a bit more indulgent and hopefully not overdone, but it's almost like new Oranssi Pazuzu so I'm good.

Still can't believe I mentioned Oranssi Pazuzu and Legion didn't immediately comment as if summoned. I know if I say Stone he'll show up in the span of five minutes.

Some progressive TDM that sounds an awful lot like Alkaloid in the best of ways (less prog, more tech than Alkaloid's latest).

garion333 wrote:

I listened to that this AM and can't figure out where Periphery and I diverted. I think it's their songwriting not hitting home for me anymore. Did they change or did I change?

I think they changed. IMO since Periphery III they're writing in a more focused, less ostentatious way. Their riff writing is less about demonstrating how much of the fretboard they can cover in x seconds and more about impact and immediacy.

For some people, that's going to feel less ambitious and exciting. What I primarily want from metal is riffs that are interesting and creative, and also make me want to break things, and III is the first Periphery album I've genuinely enjoyed from front to back. I really dig the new stuff.

Podunk wrote:
garion333 wrote:

I listened to that this AM and can't figure out where Periphery and I diverted. I think it's their songwriting not hitting home for me anymore. Did they change or did I change?

I think they changed. IMO since Periphery III they're writing in a more focused, less ostentatious way. Their riff writing is less about demonstrating how much of the fretboard they can cover in x seconds and more about impact and immediacy.

For some people, that's going to feel less ambitious and exciting. What I primarily want from metal is riffs that are interesting and creative, and also make me want to break things, and III is the first Periphery album I've genuinely enjoyed from front to back. I really dig the new stuff.

Well, maybe it's on me cause Periphery III never hit home with me.

I need to go back and see why I liked their older stuff so much.

garion we really must be checking out a lot of the same stuff because my Discover Weekly playlist this week on Spotify has both the song from Waste of Space Orchestra and the Fractal Universe one. I've enjoyed both of them!

Did yours also have Pain of Salvation? I was confused because I had already listened to that album a few times a couple years ago and was weirded out by them putting it in my discovery queue. Perhaps the discovery thing isn't as personalized as I thought!

It does not! At least this week. The already-listened-to album thing does happen to me too though. This week there are at least a few: Firtan, Frontierer, and Ne Obliviscaris.

There's almost always something I've never heard of though that piques my interest, like those two that you posted. Also there's a band called Laster that I'm definitely going to check out more, and one called Wormwitch. Both are certainly there because of my black metal leanings.

Oh good! Faith in algorithm restored!

Spotify plays Drudhk for me a LOT and I always like them, but I can't trust them to not be nazis or whatever.

Oh man I get Drudkh somewhat often myself, and I do like them quite a lot. I've looked them up in the past and haven't seen any nazi tendencies, ugh I hope they aren't that way (they have specifically said they're non-political, which is possibly just to keep away Russian scrutiny). What they have published for lyrics has been connected to Ukrainian poetry. It's not often you hear a band from Ukraine!

Goonies power metal. Bad power metal, in my book, but too fun not to share. Terrible band name, great idea though. The Goonies is relatively unmined by the metal world.

I'm not sure my favorite part of the bad video I posted, but the intro where the vocalist is shown yelling but no vocal plays is good. Who the hell edited that together?

Some good stuff, folks.

Now let us never talk about it again.

garion333 wrote:

Still can't believe I mentioned Oranssi Pazuzu and Legion didn't immediately comment as if summoned.

ALRIGHT I'M HERE I only have so much attention to give at the start of the NFL league year, those Twitter feed won't refresh themselves. (Well, actually, they do... but I have to watch them do so!)

I will check this out. Speaking of Oranssi Pazuzu, they're on the Psycho Las Vegas bill this year. My work may put me in Vegas at that time again, waiting to see some event dates...

Let's talk about something even better than Oranssi Pazuzu.

WOE just dropped a new EP.

Actually not sure yet if it's better than Oranssi Pazuzu, it just happened, but considering how awesome their last album was, I expect a lot.

EDIT: Oof, the EP is only 18 minutes long. It ends too damn soon! A nice appetizer to hold me over until they drop a new album, I guess.

Whelp, it's clear Devy stopped taking his meds.

*Legion* wrote:

Let's talk about something even better than Oranssi Pazuzu.

WOE just dropped a new EP.

EDIT: Oof, the EP is only 18 minutes long. It ends too damn soon! A nice appetizer to hold me over until they drop a new album, I guess.

Hell yes it is so good. I actually picked up an LP just to throw them some real money. Here's hoping a new album isn't too far off.

New song from the other band of Baard Kolstad (Drums, Leprous). Really like it, it's a bit different to what I've heard from them in the past. I hope the new album is more in that direction.

Reminds me of Slugdge a lil bit. Two man group, one multi-instrumentalist the other a multifaceted vocalist. Different sound from Slugdge, so don't go in expecting them, but I think it's reasonably close enough.

On a related note, Slugdge now has a bassist and drummer! I sense a tour might be happening with their next release.

This may be the greatest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

So Garion told me I should try writing about music. I told him no. I lied and am now inflicting my trash onto you guys.

Or rather, that's stuff I thought about writing in here anyway. Because yesterday Century Media released digital remasters of the Demons & Wizards albums on all storefronts, and that's the closest thing to "similar taste" I have with the majority of you guys.

It's interesting that, listening to the albums again years later, I've warmed on Touched By the Crimson King. My initial impression was that Jon Schaffer had two problems: he was running out of ideas and he was trying to be more progressive. An awful combination. I'm not so sure at this point, and feel like Touched By the Crimson King may have been the last time he had consistently decent ideas. The first album, in the meantime, really is largely an Iced Earth album but with Hansi Kursch getting all Blind Guardian with it. But it turns out that's a good combination.

Anyway, I should probably keep an eye on this thread again. I promise to refrain from posting my awful power metal stuffs (largely because even I'm growing tired of what the genre's been pumping out as of late).

ccesarano wrote:

So Garion told me I should try writing about music. I told him no. I lied and am now inflicting my trash onto you guys.

Or rather, that's stuff I thought about writing in here anyway. Because yesterday Century Media released digital remasters of the Demons & Wizards albums on all storefronts, and that's the closest thing to "similar taste" I have with the majority of you guys.

It's interesting that, listening to the albums again years later, I've warmed on Touched By the Crimson King. My initial impression was that Jon Schaffer had two problems: he was running out of ideas and he was trying to be more progressive. An awful combination. I'm not so sure at this point, and feel like Touched By the Crimson King may have been the last time he had consistently decent ideas. The first album, in the meantime, really is largely an Iced Earth album but with Hansi Kursch getting all Blind Guardian with it. But it turns out that's a good combination.

Anyway, I should probably keep an eye on this thread again. I promise to refrain from posting my awful power metal stuffs (largely because even I'm growing tired of what the genre's been pumping out as of late).

Nice! Two songs I would've never listened to until you wrote about em.

As far as the lyrical content what book were they talking about? Cause it sounds an awful lot like a story where the father can't bear to see the child?

I have no idea. Given the majority of that album is based off of a book of some sort, I wouldn't be surprised if "Down Where I Am" is as well. It doesn't have as obvious a set of clues to follow, though.

I did forget to mention one issue with the remaster of the first album: it lacks the sweet cover of White Room.

The new Devy is super weird, which a wonderful change of pace. It is literally everything from his career rapped in one. Can't help but feel that the songs are sometimes excuses to use cat and dolphin effects though.