The general Metal discussion thread

[Visutox 188]

It's honestly a damn solid release, hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did!

[Bear 1817]

On 21.1.2017 at 6:12 PM, Visutox said:

Árstíðir Lífsins — Heljarkviða 

 Stream the full EP on Youtube

 

Setentia — Darkness Descent

 Stream the album on bancamp

 

Earth and Pillars — Pillars I

 Stream the album on bandcamp

 

 

 

 

Felt like the time was ready for me to "review" this now.

 

Árstíðir Lífsins - Heljarkviða 

Árstíðir lífsins is a band I already knew and a band I quite like. The band is made up by Marcel Dreckmann (Helrunar), Árni (Carpe Noctem) and Stefán who's played live with Helrunar for a long time now. I'm not sure who compose the music, but I believe it's Árni making most of it. But despite this Árstíðir lífsins are heavily inspired by Helrunar which I feel is the most natural comparrison, but there's also some clear Enslaved influences here too. And the way these two songs are built really reminds me of the newer, more progressive side of Moonsorrow as well, but also the atmospheric pieces with acoustic guitars, ambience and such carries a strong Moonsorrow-vibe. But music-wise we're talking pagan black metal in the vein of Helrunar, but with a heavier influence of both folk and black metal. The balance between bombastic landscapes, beautifully melancholy and grimness is nothing short of superb, and if you're into pagan metal I see no reason why you should not take your time to get to know this release and band.

 

Setentia - Darkness Descent

And now the reason why it took me such long time to post this. Progressive death metal in the vein of fellow countrymen Ulcerate, but it's not too far off to drag in bands like Gorguts, Portal, Deathspell Omega and so on either. It's progressive, it's complex, well-produced, superbly performend and it's really well-written, but at the end of the day it just isn't my cup of tea. It's not awful, but it's not something I enjoy listening to. I also feel like the drummer is way behind the rest of the band. It's like he's on a whole other page. The entire band minus the drummer has evolved and gone all the way to page 291 while the drummer has barely managed to get to page 100. His drumming is really boring and doesn't fit the music at all IMO.

 

Earth and Pillars - Pillars I

Long atmospheric tracks heavily inspired by Wintherr/Wroth's Paysage d'Hiver and Darkspace. It's not nearly as frosty as Paysage d'Hiver nor as dark and spacey as Darkspace, but unlike its foresty and green debut this is something inbetween. It's grey-ish. But despite this it's impossible for me to listen to this without drawing the comparissons that way. It's hypnotic and fairly repetitive, but it's always atmospheric and massive. And it's just great. Superb album! Only thing I could wish for was that it was a bit more on the rawer side. A bit less produced or something.

[Kaleidoscope 195]

@Bear I gave Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse a few spins so far and enjoyed it, thanks for the recommendations! Not sure what to think about they keyboards yet though

 

@VisutoxPantheion sound great as well, good stuff. Also love the artwork, might actually order this one.

 

@pazzi314 I already knew and like Harakiri, gonna order their Aokigahara vinyl that is coming out soon! Never heard of Downfall of Gaia, but I enjoyed what I heard on YT so much that I ordered their latest album Their sound reminds me more of a heavier/more sludge-y version of Deafheaven, Ghost Bath and the likes, but I enjoy them way more than the latter at least. Thanks for the recommendations!

 

I found something nice too a few days ago, they are called Archivist and seem to have some members of Fall of Efrafa. If you like the bands I mentioned in my message to pazzi314, I highly recommend checking them out, really high quality stuff and their album is free on Bandcamp!

 

 

 

 

Edited February 5, 2017 by Kaleidoscope

[Visutox 188]

10 hours ago, Bear said:

I also feel like the drummer is way behind the rest of the band. It's like he's on a whole other page. The entire band minus the drummer has evolved and gone all the way to page 291 while the drummer has barely managed to get to page 100. His drumming is really boring and doesn't fit the music at all IMO.

 

I agree the drumming is weak compared to the rest. Had the same feeling, even if it's decent imo. It lacks something.

 

Great reviews otherwise! I'm glad you had good words for the three releases I shared, although you already knew two of them. And concerning Earth and Pillars, yeah, the Paysage D'Hiver and Darkspace influences are there but the band somehow manages to sound unique and create such a mysterious and amazing atmosphere. Amazing band and incredible album! Anyway, it was great doing these reviews. I'll definitely be spinning most of the releases you posted on here a lot!

 

4 hours ago, Kaleidoscope said:

@VisutoxPantheion sound great as well, good stuff. Also love the artwork, might actually order this one.

 

Glad you enjoyed it! And yeah, the artwork is so beautiful. Incredible work of art. The band has been working on new material for ages now, hope to get an announcement asap.

 

4 hours ago, Kaleidoscope said:

I found something nice too a few days ago, they are called Archivist and seem to have some members of Fall of Efrafa. If you like the bands I mentioned in my message to pazzi314, I highly recommend checking them out, really high quality stuff and their album is free on Bandcamp!

 

Already heard of Archivist, but the embedded track is so fucking majestic. Need to dig more into FoE's discography anyway, so I won't be checking out Archivist until then even though they sound interesting. It's definitely going in my list!

Edited February 6, 2017 by Visutox

[Jigsaw9 6783]

I can hardly believe it but Venenum will finally release an album... not too long to go! Drops March 17, title is "Trance of Death".

 

Details and new song here: https://www.deaf-forever.de/songpremiere-venenum

 

Their only EP so far is an awesome filthy doomy death masterpiece imo.

Edited February 6, 2017 by Jigsaw9

[Bear 1817]

Superb song and a beautiful album cover. Fantastic!

[Bear 1817]

 

This is a really nice release. Progressive thrash in the vein of Vektor, Hexovoid and Black Fast. This release is truly awesome!

 

 

 

https://droidcanada.bandcamp.com/

 

This is also really nice. Progressive thrash/speed metal with obvious inspirations from Vektor, Voivod and Annihilator and more, but it's less aggressive than the mentioned bands. Much more melodic. Parts of the vocals takes some time to get used to, though.

[Jigsaw9 6783]

^ Both sound real good, thanks for the recommendation! Will check them out later this week.  

[Bear 1817]

Nice, happy you liked them. A few more Vektor-esque progressive thrash metal bands that I like quite a lot, but for most part we're not talking carbon copies or anything. Black Fast seems to get a lot of inspiration from mid-era Death and black metal, as an example.

 

Vexovoid

https://vexovoid.bandcamp.com/

 

Black Fast

https://blackfast.bandcamp.com/

 

Teleport

https://teleport1.bandcamp.com/

 

Obliterated

https://obliteratedthrash.bandcamp.com/

 

 

 

 

 

Black Fast is probably my favourite out of these, followed by Vexovoid. I recommend all fans of Vektor to check out these bands.

[Bear 1817]

 

 

Looking forward to this. Underrated band and Ice-T is cool as fuck. Heard a few snippets of the album too and it sounds awesome.

[Visutox 188]

Awkward shit. I felt so uncomfortable I almost passed out. 

 

 

 

[pazzi314 11]

My favorite part is the Grammys playing Metallica as Megadeth walks up.

[Karma’s Hat 3107]

Thought about doing myself a personal heavy metal canon for future reference, whenever I'll feel like seeing what I thought was worth a damn back in 2017. This has encouraged me to go through all my favorites that I haven't given spins in a forever to see what's what. If I get it done ever I'll post it here. notes:

 

South America and Poland are far more prevalent than they used to be five years ago. 

One day I'll think Obscura is alright and on another I think it's complete shit.  

My Norwegian favorites keep shuffling around. Emperor hasn't been there for years, I do a 360 on Burzum on a monthly basis,  Darkthrone and Mayhem remain consistent favorites. Very recently I've been smitten with the Gorgoroth demo.

I like Judas Priest and Mercyful Fate far more now than I did as a kid

Completely disillusioned with Sweden, apparently including the childhood favorite AtG debut 

Seminal grind holds up

Very sympathetic towards Classic US(c)BM. Profanatica, Blasphemy, GBK. 

 

If anyone else dares to try it; have you noticed any changes in yourself or done any re-evaluations of old favorites?  

 

 

 

[Bear 1817]

So Tony "IT" Särkkä passed away yesterday. He was involved in bands such as Ophthalamia, War and Abruptum in the 90's. Was is great, but it's what he did with Ophthalamia that'll be remembered, a band which was focused all around a fantasy-world created by It. A really unique band blending epic black metal, doom metal and progressive music. It's just very different from other bands at the time. But this is an album band. Everything about the band gets better when listening to the albums from A to Z.

 

 

 

[Lestat 2167]

 

This is exactly what I wish for my Death metal to sound like. And as the artwork implies, it sounds like it's recorded in a stalagmite cave, or simply somewhere dark and cold. It has just the right amount of technicalities to a point where it doesn't sound like the band are simply try-hards or attempting to show off purely to boast their 'awesome' guitarwork. I've yet to listen to the full album and only heard this track just now, but I'm just so eager to listen to it straight away. 

 

[Aeolus 220]

I feel like such an outsider. I'm unable to enjoy most of the bands you guys suggest. It's either too much black metal influence or blast beats, gah I even hate when Arch Enemy comes on and my ears get drilled with blast beats from Root of All Evil.

[NBT 5]

5 hours ago, Aeolus said:

I feel like such an outsider. I'm unable to enjoy most of the bands you guys suggest. It's either too much black metal influence or blast beats, gah I even hate when Arch Enemy comes on and my ears get drilled with blast beats from Root of All Evil.

 

So what are like your top 5 metal bands? To get some insight on what type of metal you like.

[Bear 1817]

9 hours ago, Aeolus said:

I feel like such an outsider. I'm unable to enjoy most of the bands you guys suggest. It's either too much black metal influence or blast beats, gah I even hate when Arch Enemy comes on and my ears get drilled with blast beats from Root of All Evil.

 

How about you just contribute some yourself?

 

 

Anyway, I post a shitload of music without any black metal influence or blast beats here. Always did, always will.

[Aeolus 220]

@NBT

Kreator

Megadeth (friedman era)

Children of Bodom

Lamb of God

Animals as Leaders

The Safety Fire

 

those are the bands that are must haves on my DAP

 

[Bear 1817]

Let me guess, you prefer Kreator post-1990 and prefer their outputs in the 2000's?

 

 

[Jigsaw9 6783]

1 hour ago, Aeolus said:

Kreator

Animals as Leaders

 

Nice, I'm always down for these two as well!  Tho I'm a bit more spotty on Kreator's discography (esp their "middle era"). How did you like the new album? Personally I found it to be a mixed bag. Sometimes really really awesome and powerful, but then other times falling into utter cheesiness. I gotta say I really loved their previous two full-lengths with this more melodic "epic" style, but now the formula is getting a bit tiresome for me. But it's one of those albums that I can put on anytime, it doesn't explicitly bother me or anything. They're still a solid band.

 

Also, I've grown to love the latest AaL album too. Initially I didn't think much of it, but then it kinda hit me. Great stuff.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Jigsaw9

[Bear 1817]

I hate the new Kreator albums. Nowadays, and ever since the shitfest that is Enemy of God they've sounded like a watered down gothenburg thrash metal band. They've basically taken the weakest, most watered down gothenburg death metal sound and turned it into watered down, thrash metal. Disgustig.

 

Violent Revelution also had plenty gothenburg influences, but not nearly as much as later albums. And it's only decent anyway.

 

 

 

And no, I am not someone who needs a classic thrash metal band to do the same over and over and will bash anything they do differently. I dig Endorama, just as an example.

[Bear 1817]

 

 

 

Holy shit, I did not expect that. Their demo are one of my all time favourite death metal releases and it's nothing short of perfect, but their debut album was a huge letdown. It's way too polished and it lacked the power od the demo. Their previous release, an EP called Cimmerian Shade, was a step up after the debut, if not amazing or anything. But it's alright. This song again sounds great and the cover art is exceptional!

[Jigsaw9 6783]

^ Hell yeah, this sounds awesome! I remember seeing the band live about a year ago, they were not bad but didn't wow me then. I might seek out their releases based on this tho, thanks for the heads-up.  

[Aeolus 220]

@Jigsaw9

I'm really enjoying it, especially after Hordes of Chaos. I would have like Hordes more if it came out before Violent Revolution. GoV sounds like the perfect mix of Phantom and EoG. The Only thing that disappointed me was that I expected a different guitar tone since Petrozza is using ESP with Fishmans but it sounds just like Phantom.

 

I really enjoyed the new AAL I even got it in Hi-Res. I was expecting more Nylon strings since that's what Tosin said to expect. I didn't enjoy Weightless as much as AAL and Joy of Motion

 

@Bear VR and EoG is what got me into them. around that time all I had was a cd player so I could only borrow the cd from my friend. I took buying Live Kreation helped me appreciate their older releases. Some may hate me for saying this but i wish they would remix their pre-EoG releases. VR is too quite and everything else is kinda flat and lifeless. Kinda like how Mustaine remixed pre-00 deth.

As for Endorama the only song I don't care for is Willing Spirit.  Pandemonium sounds like left over from CfC and should have been part of the first half of the album like track 3 instead of 11. I really enjoy the japan bonus track, it give you a feel of what to expect from VR

 

Ugh that song perfect example of what I cant stand. Yes, that does mean it's hard for me to enjoy Endless and Pleasure.

 

also, WTF is with that production is that out or coming out? Either way it really shouldn't sound like it was recorded in the 80's

Edited February 18, 2017 by Aeolus