The general Metal discussion thread

[Bear 1817]

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?

[Visutox 188]

Count me in, my dear Bear. I really like the idea! I only suggest to shorten our lists to 10 or even less to avoid making it so long, which I think would take a lot of time.

As for me, I think I might come up with my honorable mentions of 2016 rather than my actual top 10, which I think would make discover more stuff knowing I already posted my top in here. But I'm still not sure about it.

 

Come on guys, it'll be fun!

[Bear 1817]

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

[Visutox 188]

Perfect then, so yeah let's keep it really short so that we won't be submerged since I know we have other stuff we want to listen to as well.

That works for me! I'd say 5 releases max, and 3 min. And it's gonna be our 2016 honorable mentions then! 

 

Hope@Jigsaw9likes the idea, and@Lestattoo! 

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Sorry, I don't have the time/energy for it. I might check out some stuff now and then tho, and write my opinion here ofc. But I can't guarantee I'll check out everything.

Edited January 18, 2017 by Jigsaw9

[Visutox 188]

It's all good, man! Next time, maybe. 

[Bear 1817]

 

 

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.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Getting major King Dude vibes from that song, but pretty good!  

[Bear 1817]

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!

[Visutox 188]

Not too fond about that new Nergal project, even though it's enjoyable (i.e. I'd rather get a new Behemoth album, but to each his own). Will definitely keep an eye on it though, and see how it evolves. And despite hugely disliking the music video, I find the last part of it to be quite interesting/intriguing.

 

Will start checking out your list, Bear! From what you've written, there seem to be some interesting stuff there. Will be reviewing them (sort of) in my next post.

 

In the meantime, here are a few of my honorable mentions! I picked up only three releases, since two of them are full-lengths and one is a 44 minutes long EP.

 

Árstíðir Lífsins — Heljarkviða 

 

Tbh I didn't know about this band until very recently, and I'm glad they came across my path. They're a black folk metal band from Iceland, and knowing this, you should get ready to be mind blown.  I don't think there's much to say, really. If you're familiar with the band, you know what to expect. If not, then you'll love this EP. Simple as that.

→ Stream the full EP on Youtube

 

Setentia — Darkness Descent

 

Technical death metal from New Zealand with some enjoyable atmospheric parts here and there, and a cool avant-gardiste touch. I would not blame you to compare this with Ulcerate, even though you'll be wrong to reduce this band's music to such an easy comparison. It's amazing how this dudes manage to put their own signature in their music, to make it sound like it does; incredibly good. Definitely one of my faves of 2016!

→ Stream the album on bancamp

 

Earth and Pillars — Pillars I

 

Discovered this Italian atmospheric/ambient black metal band in 2014 with their fantastic debut album titled "Earth I".  What is funny is that I wasn't even aware that they had planned to deliver some new material, so I was very excited to check this new album out. Did I enjoy did? I surely did, hell yes. It's brilliant, I loved it. And if you do appreciate this genre, you'll surely enjoy this album as much as I did.

→ Stream the album on bandcamp

 

That was it for me!

[Lestat 2167]

 

I am doing something different this year, and I am going through nearly every newly released black metal album I can find online. I just found this (even though Schattenvald have been around since 1998) and I can say I am pretty amazed. For fans of Emperor, Summoning and Bathory. Very melodic/symphonic, with some excellent guitar-work. Loving the vocals too. 

Edited January 23, 2017 by Lestat

[Bear 1817]

On 21.1.2017 at 6:12 PM, Visutox said:

In the meantime, here are a few of my honorable mentions! I picked up only three releases, since two of them are full-lengths and one is a 44 minutes long EP.

 

Árstíðir Lífsins — Heljarkviða 

 

Tbh I didn't know about this band until very recently, and I'm glad they came across my path. They're a black folk metal band from Iceland, and knowing this, you should get ready to be mind blown.  I don't think there's much to say, really. If you're familiar with the band, you know what to expect. If not, then you'll love this EP. Simple as that.

→ Stream the full EP on Youtube

 

Setentia — Darkness Descent

 

Technical death metal from New Zealand with some enjoyable atmospheric parts here and there, and a cool avant-gardiste touch. I would not blame you to compare this with Ulcerate, even though you'll be wrong to reduce this band's music to such an easy comparison. It's amazing how this dudes manage to put their own signature in their music, to make it sound like it does; incredibly good. Definitely one of my faves of 2016!

→ Stream the album on bancamp

 

Earth and Pillars — Pillars I

 

Discovered this Italian atmospheric/ambient black metal band in 2014 with their fantastic debut album titled "Earth I".  What is funny is that I wasn't even aware that they had planned to deliver some new material, so I was very excited to check this new album out. Did I enjoy did? I surely did, hell yes. It's brilliant, I loved it. And if you do appreciate this genre, you'll surely enjoy this album as much as I did.

→ Stream the album on bandcamp

 

That was it for me!

 

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.

[Visutox 188]

@Lestat : Damn, that sounds really great. Never heard of them and honestly I feel bad about it, will definitely be digging into their discography one of these days. 

 

7 hours ago, Bear said:

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.

Well, then it's very likely that it'll indeed be a tough listen. Hope you won't find it to be that horrible though. 

And yeah, re-exploring those releases will defo be nice. Enjoy it man! 

 

So finally, here's some words on the releases you posted.

 

. Agatus — The Eternalist

Since I'm not very familiar with Bathory (even though I loved the albums I've checked out so far), I've had a hard time getting into this album. But man, once it grabbed me (by the pussy) I became its bitch. It only takes a matter of seconds to get the RC influences though. It's definitely worth the listen, that's for sure. Gotta say I love it and the old school vibes it gives are really incredible. For me, the highlights of the album are Flight Into Forever (the lead guitar is absolutely fucking huge on this one) and Gilgamesh. Nice catch! 

 

. Elvarhøi — Langt fra len og leite

Your timing is perfect since I've been on my folk mood recently. So anything that sounds like it potentially makes me enjoy it. In addition to that, the track is really great. The vocals are so good and that makes the whole thing sound even better. This is also how I like my folk metal to sound like. 

 

. Evoke — Rehellshal Demo

The fact that it's a rehearsal could possibly mean that the original release sounded worse...(?) Anyway. Very cool old school sounding band, I really enjoyed that demo. The thrashy riffs are lit as hell, it's a great release. Only wished it was longer. And when it comes to the production, well, I think they did what they could. 8/10

 

. Ice War — Reverence of Gold

What's funny about this is that the first impression I had was "yeah indeed, I think this kind of vocals won't be my thing" but at the same time I felt that they fit perfectly in the music. So this is really great to be fair. Also checked out "Battle Zone" and I came to the conclusion that I can dig this shit.

 

. Barrow Wight — Kings in Saurons Service

Who said your Tolkien metal has to necessarily include epically lame synths? Fuck that, this album fucking rules. I enjoyed it from start to end and I love the heavy metal sounding side of it. The album length is also perfect imo. This helps avoiding the album sounding repetitive or "too long". 

 

On 20/01/2017 at 8:22 PM, Bear said:

Imagine Venom, Bathory,Hellhammer, Motorhead, Oz and Angel Witch planting their semen into old Running Wild and you're about there.

 Love this hahah. thanks for the laugh! 

 

So to conclude this, besides the fact that I originally dug the idea, it allowed me to explore some really great heavy metal stuff that came out last year. I'm especially happy for having discovered Agatus, Evoke and Barrow Wight. Huge bands there!

 

I'd be glad to do more of these in the future, they're fun.

Edited January 26, 2017 by Visutox

[Kaleidoscope 195]

I got back into Black Metal a bit recently and dug through some of my old favourites, really starting to enjoy some stuff like Darkspace, Xasthur and Midnight Odyssey again. Just recently, I also rediscovered the whole Post-Black Metal whatever thing, I still love Lantlôs, An Autumn for Crippled Children and now Deafheaven, which I actually had never heard before despite their huge popularity (they seem to be quite controversial though).

You guys are probably familiar with most of the stuff I named, so I guess I will share some of the lesser known bands which I only know through the local scene.

 

Der Weg einer Freiheit have some pretty good stuff, I interviewed their guitarist and vocalist a couple of times when they had their first releases. This one is the last album by them that I listened to - they do have some modern influences, but are rooted in the Norwegian scene according to themselves. Very good live band also!

 

Ära Krâ are also nice, but they could be rather described as Blackened Metalcore I suppose? Especially the vocals take some time to get used to, I'm still not sure if I really like these guys or not, but they definitely do have some great melodies.

 

Not from Germany, but a band I also rediscovered in my collection. Resplendent Grotesque was one of my favourite albums at the time, really creative and twisted Black Metal with an amazing vocalist. Curious about what they are up to nowadays, even though I heard that their old vocalist left.

 

Gonna look through some of you guys' suggestions, I already saw Bear mentioning Cultes  des Ghoules a lot, so I guess I will give them a try later. Also looking for a good starting album to get into Emperor, is anybody familiar with their discography?

I'm interested in any other recommendations that might fit my taste - I usually enjoy more modern takes on Black Metal, but definitely like the more traditional stuff as well.

Edited January 28, 2017 by Kaleidoscope

[Bear 1817]

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.

 

 

[Bear 1817]

I'm sorry it's taking so long @Visutox but I've had some problems with Setentia. It's not bad and much better than I expected, but it's not really my cup of tea either. I think at least. But it has grown a bit, but it's just a bit too much for my taste. But I'll give it a bit more time before I post anything about it.

[Visutox 188]

^ It's okay dude, take all the time you need, it's just for fun after all. I'm glad that have some good words for Setentia even though their music isn't especially your thing. I'm looking forward your review on the album! 

 

@KaleidoscopeDer Weg einer Freiheit are brilliant, and their latest album is nothing but fucking Stellar. Need to dig more into their discography though, I'm sure it'll be worth it!

 

I'd say In the Nightside Eclipse is a good album to start with tbf.

 

And since you enjoy some modern sounding black metal and we're talking about Emperor, I'd recommend you to check out these guys from Germany. This album is so good, I've listened it so many times that I'm just hoping they'll release something soon. They got some Emperor influences on their music and some brilliant symphonic arrangements. Not to mention the vocals, which are absolutely brilliant:

 

 

 

[Bear 1817]

On 31.1.2017 at 0:43 AM, Visutox said:

^ It's okay dude, take all the time you need, it's just for fun after all. I'm glad that have some good words for Setentia even though their music isn't especially your thing. I'm looking forward your review on the album! 

 

 

 

It is for fun, but I feel like when you participating in something like this or the trade off the other "trader" deserves that you give it a fair chance. I'm always surprised when people review the trade-offs right away, after a listen or maybe two because I always give the mixes at least 10 listens. Music can so easily grow and judging music by your first impression are often very wrong.

 

 

 

Anyway, contender of album of the year is already here:

 

 

This shit sounds like it was recorded and released around 88-92. So old school sounding. I feel like it's a bit less Pestilence-esque this time around, but after some listens it sounds just as good at the debut. I've had a lot of positive things to say about Rude's debut album Soul Recall, and I'll give it a few more words now because it deserves more listeners. One of my most played death metal albums over the past 2-3 years and an instant classic in my eyes. Sounds a lot like a mix of old Pestilence (Consuming Impulse and Testimony of the Ancients), Morbid Angel (Altars of Madness) and Death (Leprosy).  Check both albums out if you like old school death metal from the late 80's/early 90's.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

Just bought my tickets for the Gorgoroth/Melechesh gig that'll be held here in Budapest in March, so I felt like revisiting some of their old albums... man, this drum sound is cracking me up but I kinda love it at the same time too. So primitive and don't-give-a-fuck, hahaha...

 

 

[Bear 1817]

 

I guess there's a few who still cares about this shit, so I'll post it here.

 

Wintersun's debut is still a decent album with a handful og really good tracks, but its pacing is really off and the whole album could've benefited from a rearranged tracklist. Music-wise it's good as it is, but the tracklist is just all wrong.

 

Time I is a pile of shit and one of the worst metal albums over the past 17 years. Godawful album. Everything about it is horrendous. It sound so cheap and disgusting.

 

 

 

Quote

THERE WILL BE A WINTERSUN CROWDFUNDING, STARTING March 1st

During last autumn we had long and productive negotiations with our record label Nuclear Blast and we finalized it in November 2016. We came to a good solution, a win-win deal that will benefit everyone - Wintersun, Nuclear Blast and especially the fans! This means that we will do the crowdfunding and it will include our NEW album THE FOREST SEASONS!

The purpose of this crowdfunding is to build the WINTERSUN HEADQUARTERS studio. As some of you may know this has been in the plans for a long time. It is our long time goal and dream. Building the studio is absolutely essential in order to finish TIME II and produce our future albums as fast as possible and with the best production. All the money we raise will go directly to Wintersun 100%, which we will use for building the Wintersun Headquarters.

This will be the biggest crowdfunding you've ever seen in the metal scene! It will be a different kind of crowdfunding than usually. We are not going to offer dozens of different items from guitar picks to used socks for a thousand bucks. We're gonna cut all the crap and only going to offer one very valuable perk! That's right! It will be a massive Wintersun Crowdfunding Package called the FOREST PACKAGE and it will have lots of great Wintersun content including our new album THE FOREST SEASONS. You will be blown away!

The FOREST PACKAGE is huge and otherwise it would be very expensive, but we are going to offer it with a very affordable price in our crowdfunding. So you guys will get great value for your money and enjoy the new album like it should be experienced, with the absolutely BEST quality! The best thing is that all of the content is 100% done, so you don't have to wait for many months. It will be basically a pre-order for our new album.

This way you get the NEW Wintersun album the easiest way, with the best quality and with the best price and you'll help us get to the next level, so we can produce albums for YOU guys faster and with the best production! So this is a WIN-WIN for everyone!

The crowdfunding will take place on INDIEGOGO between March 1st - 31st. It will last only ONE MONTH, so you guys need to be prepared! Get those credit cards and PayPal accounts ready!

Thank you!

- Jari, Jukka, Kai, Teemu

p.s. Next Wednesday another big reveal! So click those Facebook notifications ON, if you don't want to miss out! (Because of Facebook's reach limit algorithm).

 

That's so fucking stupid. Any fan who helps pay for his own studio and shit should just perish in a fire. Fuck off!

[Bear 1817]

7 minutes ago, Jigsaw9 said:

Just bought my tickets for the Gorgoroth/Melechesh gig that'll be held here in Budapest in March, so I felt like revisiting some of their old albums... man, this drum sound is cracking me up but I kinda love it at the same time too. So primitive and don't-give-a-fuck, hahaha...

 

 

It's not my favourite Gorgoroth album or anything, but I've always loved the shit out of this album. There's something so angry and hateful about this album, but at the same time it manages to capture other types of emotions as well. Especially on the more "epic" tracks like Om kristen og jødisk tru. Probably my favourite track on the album.

[pazzi314 11]

On 28.1.2017 at 11:03 AM, Kaleidoscope said:

Der Weg einer Freiheit have some pretty good stuff, I interviewed their guitarist and vocalist a couple of times when they had their first releases. This one is the last album by them that I listened to - they do have some modern influences, but are rooted in the Norwegian scene according to themselves. Very good live band also!

I'm interested in any other recommendations that might fit my taste - I usually enjoy more modern takes on Black Metal, but definitely like the more traditional stuff as well.

If you dig Der Weg einer Freiheit, might I recommend Downfall of Gaia and Harakiri for the Sky? Those two are both in a similar vein of music. Downfall of Gaia was on tour with DWEG a while ago.

[Lestat 2167]

 

https://warseid.bandcamp.com/ — I'd recommend this to anyone who fancies (Blackened) folk metal. This is an album easy to judge from its cover; Epic battle metal thick with Norse mythology. Their transitioning from acoustic to onslaught is almost flawless, I'd say. Enjoy.

[Visutox 188]

On 01/02/2017 at 6:46 AM, Bear said:

It is for fun, but I feel like when you participating in something like this or the trade off the other "trader" deserves that you give it a fair chance. I'm always surprised when people review the trade-offs right away, after a listen or maybe two because I always give the mixes at least 10 listens. Music can so easily grow and judging music by your first impression are often very wrong.

 

Well yeah, agreed. Even though t's relative and depends a lot, I get your point.

 

That Rude album is on my list waiting for me to check it out, will definitely be doing it asap!!

 

On 01/02/2017 at 5:45 PM, Bear said:

That's so fucking stupid. Any fan who helps pay for his own studio and shit should just perish in a fire. Fuck off!

I personally don't have any problem with crowdfunding (butI don't support it either) as long as the band manages to deliver a fucking huge album, even though the first message that one gets is "hey we're poor and wanna make new music so that our fans can buy it and make us richer". In this situation, I find it to be a bit exaggerated. You can't rely 100% on the fans to pay everything you need to make your own music. Idiotic move to say the least.

 

Anyway, I came here to share with y'all one of my AotY contenders.

 

 

Can't stop spinning this shit. Just look at the title of the album and you'll know what to expect, there's no way you can't enjoy this. Tasty thrash riffages all the way, as well as bloody mental solos all over the album. These motherfucking Canadians really know how to thrash your face out. IMO this album shits on every thrash album released in 2016 (except Vektor ofc, and maybe Hellbringer and a very few others).

 

STREAM THE FULL FUCKING ALBUM NOW

Edited February 5, 2017 by Visutox

[Lestat 2167]

1 hour ago, Visutox said:

Anyway, I came here to share with y'all one of my AotY contenders.

 

Can't stop spinning this shit. Just look at the title of the album and you'll know what to expect, there's no way you can't enjoy this. Tasty thrash riffages all the way, as well as bloody mental solos all over the album. These motherfucking Canadians really know how to thrash your face out. IMO this album shits on every thrash album released in 2016 (except Vektor ofc, and maybe Hellbringer and a very few others).

 

STREAM THE FULL FUCKING ALBUM NOW

 

Haven't given myself time to listen to this yet, even though I've had it sitting in my waiting list for a while. Will definitely be listening to this first thing I wake up tomorrow, it sounds good.