Bear

That post made me laugh out loud. Great, gives us some more of that.

I think Gost are my favourite retrowave/synthwave artist at the moment. Surely up there with Carpenter Brut, but Gost might be a bit better IMO. Both albums are beyond brilliant, but it's taken quite some time to really get into them though. Been hard work.

Code are still active, but they're not a black metal band anymore. Their last album, Mut, is more of a progressive post-rock album. Not bad, but not too interesting either. As far as Emperor goes, I'd say Emperor / Wrath of the Tyrant, As the Shadows Rise, In the Nightside Eclipse and Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk are all good releases. And therefore I'll recommend them in that order. I can't stand IX Equilibrium and Prometheus - The Discipline of Fire & Demise, but considering you prefer a more modern take on black metal the latter two will probably please you a bit more.

Run the Jewels 3 are beyond good. Holy shit! Probably the best thing they've done till now.

I'll check these out today. Already familiar with both Árstíðir Lífsins and Earth and Pillars, but I haven't spun these releases in a long time so that'll be nice. One is very Helrunar'esque and the other very Paysage d'Hiver and Darkscape-esque, which is a great thing. Very sceptical about Setentia though. I can't stand bands like Ulcerate, Gorguts (post-The Erosion of Sanity), Portal and so on. So I guess this'll be a tough listen. Heh.

I'm very impressed by A Series of Unfortunate Events so far. It's very different from the film and my impåression is that it is a lot closer to the novels than the film too. The themes are dark, but wrapped into a dark, weird gothic comedy of some sort which should make this as enjoyable for teenagers as for adults. I never liked Neil Patrick Harris, but he's fantastic as Count Olaf. As creepy as he's amusing.

Beer+bus is such a bad combo, but I never learn. Had to jimp off 15 min too early to rake a piss and it's taking the nwxt bus like forever to come and pick me up. Such a, bad idea. Always!

Here's my honorable mentions of 2016. I decided to to go with 5 releases since one is a one-track demo and two of them are a 15 minutes long demo/EP. They might not be my favourites of the honorable ones, but they're all great and I thought that these might not be something you've heard from at all. Agatus - The Eternalist Imagine Rotting Christ and Varathron anno 1993 playing US power/heavy metal inspired by viking-era Bathory. This album sounds like a greek black metal band playing power metal, which is what it is. Unique riffing and fantastic songs. https://agatus.bandcamp.com/album/the-eternalist Elvarhøi - Langt fra len og leite Folk metal. It's not very unique, but I love this song. The vocals are amazing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6fCXh6a0yA Evoke - Rehellshal Demo Black/thrash metal hell in the South-American vein. The production is a bit rough considering it's a rehearsal, but the opening track just tells you all you need. That opening riff, man. Holy fucking christ! https://rushofpower.bandcamp.com/album/rehellshal-demo Ice War - Reverence of Gold When Iron Dogs split Jo Capitalicide decided to go and do his own thing, and that's resulted in 4 singles and 1 EP since 2015. Heavy/speed metal with bad, rotten vocals on top. This is shabby as fuck and certainly not for everyone, but I reckong fans of old Runnign Wild and Death SS might enjoy this. I love it! https://icewar.bandcamp.com/album/reverence-of-gold Barrow Wight - Kings in Saurons Service Barrow Wight play a mixture of black and heavy metal. Imagine Venom, Bathory,Hellhammer, Motorhead, Oz and Angel Witch planting their semen into old Running Wild and you're about there. https://heavychainsrecords.bandcamp.com/ Enjoy!

Watched Takashi Miike's Yakuza Apocalypse yesterday. It starts out very promising with a intro that's a pure splatterfest, then it turns into a big fucking mess. But it's a very entertaining mess that's all over the fucking place. It's weird, absurd and crazy. Certainly not for everyone, but I like this film quite a lot. It's just too absurd not to like. And the Killer Priest was fantastic. Such an odd but amazing character. No idea why he spoke English, but he was cool as fuck. To sum up this film with one single gif: Yep, a martial arts master with a big fucking frog costume fighting gangsters. And this is far from crazy or weird considering what else this film has to offer, I just didn't bother looking for other gifs.

Run the Jewels and Vektor. My man, my man. Run the Jewels 3 might be Run the Jewels' best yet, or at least on par with their debut and Terminal Redux is a masterpiece that are miles ahead of Vektor's two first albums. Miles ahead! You gotta check out Hail Spirit Noir btw. Think that might be something for your liking.

From the upcoming freak folk/whatever project of Nergal of Behemoth. Sounds pretty cool imo, even though the vocals probably need time to grow. Not the best vocals, but not out of place or awful either. Probably just need to give it some time. Anyway, I liked the track.

I love Sweeney Todd. Always did, always will. One of Depp's better films IMO.

Sion Sono's new film. This looks amazing! Can't wait to see it.

That sounds like even more fun, because I have a billion honorable mentions. Let's take 3-5 releases or something?

I just got a fun idea. The few of us who is here should spin through eachothers "best of 2016" lists and "review" them in this thread. Just to get the activity going, and to find some new bands and albums from last year. Anyone in?

Yeah, Seven Nights is the demo. It's so good too! Thangorodrimis a must if you're into dungeon synth. Up there with the best of Mortiis era 1 imo. Grab the Ithaqua demo too when you're on it. It's fantastic as well. Everything I love's fantastic!

This is Satan's Fall. This release, as well as the demo, deserves some mention and probably deserves a spot on the list. Speed metal that sounds like a fine mix of old Mercyful Fate, Angel Witch, Satan and the most speed metal-esque songs of Judas Priest. This is some top notch stuff!

I trimmed it down even more now. I think these 15 are my top 10 (:P) in 2016. Cultes des Ghoules - Coven, or Evil Ways Instead of Love I can not praise this album enough. Evil black metal with an occult atmosphere. Love the Mortuary Drape (87-94) and Necromantia (92-93) vibe it has. The perfect soundtrack to an old black and white film about witchcraft. Alcest - Kodama Alcest doesn't reinvent the wheel with Kodama, rather it's a step back sound-wise from the shoegaze album that was Shelter. It's not black metal again, but it's darker, it's blacker and much more metallic sounding. Beautiful from begining to end. Tarot - Reflections Tarot released three fantastic EPs in 2014 and grabbed my entire attention that year. They've manage to mix the occult and mystic feeling of Pagan Altar, the epic side of Uriah Heep and the rocking feeling of Deep Purple and Rainbow. 2016 saw the release of their debut album, and it does not stand back to the EPs. A bit more psychedelic perhaps, but as good. Pure heavy rock! Vektor - Terminal Redux Vektor has always had something about them, but they've never managed to quite hit the nail on its head. But with Terminal Redux they sure as hell did that and got all of their potential out. This album is a progressive thrash metal masterpiece! Blood Ceremony - Lord of Misrule Blood Ceremony is a band that doesn't seem to know how to fail. As they've gotten more psychedelic rock-esque and less doomy and metallic with each album, they've also gotten better and better. Their best one yet. Moonsorrow - Jumalten aika I'm one of those who thought Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa was a bit of a disappointment. Don't get me wrong, I love the album and tink it's great, but for a band who took such big steps into a unique direction filled with dark, progressive and epic black metal and semi-folky pagan metal, it was a a disappointment to see them go back to a less progressive, dark and epic sound closer to their older stuff. But with Jumalten aika they're back to the dark, epic, progressive and black path, and this is how i prefer my Moonsorrow. Occult Burial - Hideous Obscure This raw and furious thrashing black metal trio capture the essence of the genre, and the feeling of the past. This sounds like a mix of old Bathory, NME, Sodom and Nifelheim. Brilliant album! Thangorodrim - Taur-nu-Fuin This is not a metal album, but because the dungeon synth genre is so closely related to black metal I will choose it anyway. This album, heavily inspired by old Mortiis, is just glorious, and the atmosphere is that of a black metal album released in 1994. This album is breathtaking! Bròn - Ànrach Three tracks and 57 minutes of beautiful atmospheric black metal in the vein of Evilfeast. It's not quite as dark as Evilfeast, but this is just as good. Beautiful album that's just perfect for a beautiful winter day. Demon Bitch - Hellfriends This is easily the heavy metal album of the year. They're not as classy as Borrowed Time, not as epic as Manilla Road or as dark and occult as Mercyful Fate, but they kinda sound like a mix of these bands. This album is a must-have imo! Ithaqua - The Black Mass Sabbath Pulse This EP sounds like a mix of Rotting Christ and Varathron ano 1993. You can hear that this is greek. Another brilliant release by these guys. Like the demo it's more or less perfect! Cradle of Filth - Dusk... and Her Embrace - The Original Sin This is an album we've heard talk about for ages, and finally getting to hear this was incredible. It's an album we've dreamt about for so long, but it's always seem to be just a dream. The Original Sin sees a darker, rawer and blacker version of Cradle of Filth's best album, Dusk... and Her Embrace, with less gothic atmosphere. Musically speaking this was a dream come true, and I think this is as good as the "original". Feels like two very different albums, though. Hail Spirit Noir - Mayhem in Blue I heard the debut on its release day and was totally blown away by Hail Spirit Noir's unique brand of psychedelic rock and progressive black metal. The debut saw an unmature band which was all over the place, but the sheer power of the music dressed in it's warm production won me over. Oi Magoi! was a bit disappointing. A good album, but it saw a more mature and focused band. Musically not all over the place, and the mixing of the genre wasn't as random as on the debut. Fantastic albu, just not as good. Mayhem in Blue sees the band move a bit away from black metal and sees a more progressive band with folk elements and whatnot. It's not as good as the debut, but it's fantastic anyway! Hexenslaught - Demo 2016 1987 saw the release of three death metal demos that also happens to be masterpieces. Necrovore's "Divus de Mortuus", Incubus' "Incubus" and Morbid Angel's "Thy Kingdom Come". In 1994 these three demos was released on a compilation by Slayer Mag! This demo, both sound-wise and quality-wise, would've been perfect on that compilation. It simply sounds like a brilliant demo from 1987. Howls of Ebb - Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows A lot of bands are heavily inspired by H.P. Lovecraft and tries to capture that feeling in their music. Some have succeded, and some have not. But the closest thing you'll come to Lovecraftian metal is Howls of Ebb. As unique as it is original, as dark as it is twisted and as impressive as it is crazy. Hear this is you like black/death metal with a twist! Also, Satan's Fall need a mention. Both the demo and EP are fantastic. Will come back with that later!

I tried to make a top 10, but I ended up with a massive list. And this is after I trimmed it like hell. I cut like 25-30 albums already. It's been a massive year as far as metal goes with a shitload of great albums. Cultes des Ghoules Alcest Tarot Abigail Ripper Vektor Blood Ceremony Moonsorrow Uada Bròn Howls of Ebb Occult Burial Reptilian Demon Bell Nuctemeron Head of the Demon Rapid Ithaqua Thangorodrim Demon Bitch Urfaust Cradle of Filth Hail Spirit Noir Hexenslaught

I did not know that was common as everyone I know/talk to online uses LP/vinyl for, well, LP/vinyl. But I get what you mean. But as you say, if one doesn't like to flip sides/CDs one can just listen to them digital as most albums are up digital anyway, and if it isn't you can just rip it easily yourself. There's always a solution for listening to long albums without any stops if you like that sort of thing. Speaking about long albums, I consider Aureon's The Universal Migrator to have a perfect lenght. This album is split into two seperate releases, but it's just one big piece of work as far as I am concerned and I never listen to just one of the CDs. Always play them back to back, and together they're about 135 minutes long. I also play Midnight Odyssey's two full lenghts from A to Z when listening to them, and they're 125 and 145 minutes long. They just have to be listened in one session to get the full experience. On the other side I'm a big fan of S.O.B. and their two first full lenghts are less than 20 minutes long. 19.42m and 19.56m to be specific, but I wouldn't want these albums any longer as they are perfect as they are. This type of grindcore and thrashcore just doesn't have to be any longer than that as the music is really intense.

But with a single LP you more often than not have to flip the LP (unless it's only 25 min long or something), which is no different from changing CDs. I don't see the problem.

And?

It's a good thing one can actually release a double/triple/quadruple/whatever album on tape, CD and vinyl without any problems whatsoever then.

Me, my friend and a guy we don't know too well (joined us 15-30 minutes before yesterday's tournament) are gonna try to qualify for a Norwegian Rocket League league this weekend. Personally we'll consider us lucky if we manage division 2, but the leader of our team wanted us to try for div 1 as well so we'll do that since we can actually try to qualify for all divisions. I've never done anything like this before so I am so stoked for this. I usually get nervous as fuck before regular tournaments, this is gonna be even more worse as it's more serious. But I am really looking forward to this. I'm sure div 1 is way out of our reach, but we gotta try. However, I believe we are good enough for div 2, if not the best among the lot. Anyway, no matter how it goes it's gonna be really fun. One qualification lasts for about 6 hours (not sure how many games, but enough I assume). So we might have to be into this for 18 hours this weekend. Stoked! Would love to get into div 1. As I said, these teams are way above our skill level, but from the looks of it we might get/be a stable team now which will make it a lot easier to improve both individually and collectively. Still though, close to impossible for us. Btw, we're not super serious about it. We're semi-serious who recently found out we wanted to be a bit more into it, become good players and, well, be more serious about this game. Family/school/work first, then Rocket League.

How old are you?