Bear

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

14 hours ago, JukaForever said:

 

I meant that as a time length, I believe it is common lingo to describe a full length album as single LP. I could be wrong.

 

Granted the artist can also just drop their release in digital which saves the need for a physical format and it can be listen straight through.

 

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.

18 minutes ago, JukaForever said:

It wouldn't be part of my preferences for a full length album (single LP).

 

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?

18 minutes ago, JukaForever said:

I don't think a 100 min is possible on CD

 

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?

5 hours ago, Jigsaw9 said:

The Blackcoat's Daughter - God damn. If you love dreary, eerie, slow-burning, menacing horror (like The Witch, for example), then just watch this. Excellent atmosphere, phenomenal music and photography, and a thoroughly intriguing (if a little simple) story. I am beyond impressed. I am guessing it is best watched if you don't know anything about the story at all, so please avoid the IMDB page (also, dunno what the imdb users smoke to only give it a 5.4 tho??).

 

If there's something I learned about 10 years ago it is that one canot take the score on IMDB serious at all. It's fucking shit for most part. One must learn to ignore the IMDB score, and the faster one learns that, the better.

 

The film also looks very interesting, just like Oz Perkins' I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (which currently holds a 4,8 on IMDB, but a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes). It also looks really nice. Got a feeling it's a slow-burning horror films based mostly on atmosphere than anything else.

It's probably not the easiest band to get into, but I'd sure as hell give both Häxan and Henbane some time to grow. Two very different albums where Häxan have more of that old school unholy atmosphere like Mortuary Drape and Necromantia, and Henbane a bit more in the vein of Katharsis. I personally think Henbane is a bit more easy-listening due to it sounding a bit more professional and stuff. I prefer Häxan myself though.

 

I actually think both Häxan and Coven, or Evil Ways Instead of Love would be really nice as soundtrack to films like Häxan, City of the Dead and so on. They both gives me assisiation to witchcraft and shit. Not sure why, they just do.

I'd recommend you giving their older, shorter releases a few spins and get to know their style. Would probably make it easier to get into the new album too.

 

 

Amazing!

 

 

The synthwave, especially the darker and harder bands like Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, Gost and so on are very big among metal fans, and Perturbator have even played on a black metal festival, ending the whole weekend. And artists like Perturbator and Gost also have lots of releases on the metal label Blood Music. James Kent of Perturbator used to play in some black metal bands, Franck Hueso of Carpenter Brut is very much into metal and have toured with Ghost, the Gost guy used to be involved in some metal and hardcore stuff. And if you ask me a lot of these darker, harder bands goes hand in hand with metal.

 

Would love to catch these bands live myself. Superb stuff!

Havent had the time to watch Westworld yet, but ive got huge expectations as i am a huge fan of the film.

 

And Denmarks been great as far as both films and series goes for ages now. Cant believe how far ahead denmark and sweden is compared to norway. I wonder what the reason for this is.

Just started playing SpeedRunners with a friend and this is fucking amazing. It's a multiplayer side-scrolling racing game. It's very simple, but for most part you win by doing something tactically smart or every now and then just by luck, but it's usually small mistakes that cost you the win so it's often incredibly even races. We're only two, but I imagine this is even funnier when playing 4 together, and even funnier again if you're 4 in the same room playing on the big screen.

 

Anyone tried it?

 

 

Thought I'd just throw out my best of 2016 list here now that's we're already in 2017. Another great year for both music, films series and almost everything else in life.

 

2016 was so good that it actually gave me one of my favourite series of all time. Top 5 for sure, and that's impressive as my top 5 have been the same for ages now. So managing to get into that is very impressive IMO.

 

Also, I'll not include new seasons of ongoing series. I'll take new series only.

 

1. Stranger Things

I will go as far as to call the first season by Stranger Things perfection, and personally I find it to be even better than the best season of The Wire. I think this is that good. A huge, fat homage to 80's pop culture and overall something veryJohn Carpenter-, Steven Spielberg- and Richard Donner-esque. PERFECTION!

 

2. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

It's as silly as it's funny and absurd, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency offers something different and I really liked it.

 

3. Luke Cage

The third ientry in Netflix' Marvel series, and while not quite as good as Daredevil, Luke Cage does not stand back to Jessica Jones which I really like. It's very different drawing heavily from blaxploitation, which the comics originally did as well, and I think that is a really bold move. Superb soundtrack, great characters and lots of things to enjoy.

 

4. Cooked

Food writer Michael Pollan explores how cooking transforms food and shapes our world. But this is not about cooking itself, it's more about the cultural anthropology of cooking and that's what makes this so interesting. Fire, water, air and earth!

 

5. The Get Down

A drama set to the late 70's Bronx. Hip hop and disco. What more do you need to know? This was cool as fuck!

 

6. Hip-Hop Evolution

A mini-series about hip hop. It's a bit too short, but it takes the most important elements of the different eras of hip hop and goes through them nicely. It's entertaining, it's informative , but it leaves you wanting more. Do we get more? I don't know, but I sure hope so.

 

7. Crazyhead

I'm not sure if this deserves to be higher up or not. This was funny as fuck, it was offensive and bold, it was different. I'm not sure, but I really enjoyed it. A unique combination of horror and comedy as far as TV-series goes.

 

8. Slasher

A disappointment, but that might have been because of high expectations. The main problem as I see it is that it's too long. It's only 8 episodes, but 4-6 would've been more than enough. It spends too much time on drama, which is a shame because the killer is AWESOME. I mean, he's absolutely brilliant! But at the end of the day this is closer to mediocre than good, which is a shame because the potential was there all along.

 

Very interested in seeing other peoples list, and even more interested if you write a little about it. A few words to give us a glimpse into why it was so good and what the film is.

Thought I'd just throw out my best of 2016 list here now that's we're already in 2017. Another great year for both music, films series and almost everything else in life.

 

1. Green Room

Jeremy Saulnier doesn't know how to fail. He's written and directed 3 films, two of which was the best of the year. Like the brilliant Blue Ruin, Green Rom is an intense, brutal and powerful horror/thriller with a nice edge to it. As good as Blue Ruin? Probably not, but brilliant nonetheless.

2. The Witch

Slow-burning horror with focus on atmosphere, atmosphere and even more atmosphere. The Witch is a film heavily influenced by the 70's folk-horror genre and it does it well. Powerful film!

3. Rogue One

Rogue One offers something new to the Star Wars franchise while maintaining the feeling of Star Wars. An impressive entry to an impressive franchise (-the prequel trilogy which is godawful. Fuck you all!)

4. Deadpool

A non-family friendly superhero film that's profane, violent and super funny. This just takes the genre into a whole new dimension and it works really well.

5. The Conjuring 2

While not as good as The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2 is no let-down. Like the first one it's not original, but it captures a lot of the 70's and 80's haunted house and ghost story feeling but without feeling like a rip off or anything. It's simply very effective.

6. Captain America: Civil War

Not as good as the previous Captain America film, but it's still very fun. But unlike the previous which was a unique superhero thriller, this is a bit more standard popcorn flick in the vein of The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, but way better of course. It's great fun. Truly is!

7. Midnight Special

Ambitious sci-fi that might not be in everyones liking, but I was super impressed by this. Probably deserves to be higher on this list too, but it's a fairly heavy film and deserves a new view or two to be fully appreciated. This Spielberg-esque sci-fi is superbly directed and acted with intriguing mysteries.

8. Hush

Another film that probably deserves to be a bit higher on this list. Hush is a unique and super effective take on the home invasion/slasher genre. It doesn't offer much that's new, but there's a couple of small elements thrown in that makes it feel like something completely new to the genre. It's filled with suspense and great atmosphere. Do yourself a favour and watch it right now!

9.  Asperger's Are Us

A documentary that follow a comedic group called Asperger's Are Us that consists of four guys with asperger. I thought it was as interesting as it was entertaining, and it's both touching and funny from start to end.

10. 10 Cloverfield Lane

Quality-wise it's not exactly Cloverfield, but it's still very good. I liked it quite a lot.

 

 

Very interested in seeing other peoples list, and even more interested if you write a little about it. A few words to give us a glimpse into why it was so good and what the film is.

Holy shit, that's what I call a reply. Great post!

 

Not Japanese, but since he stepped into the land of Kaiju I just thought I had to shout out to the almighty Pulgasari. North-Korean Kaiju by the South-Korean director Shin Sang-ok who was kidnapped on orders from Kim Jong-il to direct fantasy/propaganda films for them. It's an incredible film, and the story of Shin Sang-ok and his wife Choi Eun-hee is also super interesting.