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The Metal Thread - Version 2

Laz

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Steel Assassin deserved more success than they received.
 

Gary

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Since the year's getting closer to ending, here's the albums I've heard this year that I enjoyed (with some bandcamp links)

-Imperial Triumphant-Alphaville (Experimental Tech Death)
-Ulcerate-Stare into Death and Be Still (Tech Death)
-Deftones-Ohms (Alternative Metal)
-Pyrrhon-Abcess Time (Experimental Tech Death)
-Hellripper-The Affair of Poisons (Blackened Speed Metal)
-Bismark-Oneiromancer (Sludgy Stoner Doom)
-Paysage D'Hiver-Im Wald (Winter appropriate Atmospheric Black Metal)
-Jordablod-The Cabinet of Luminous Song (Atmospheric Black Metal with a bit of a rock edge)
-Caustic Wound-Death Posture (Deathgrind)
-Black Curse-Endless Wound (Blackened Death Metal)
-Oranssi Pazuzu-Mesterin kynsi (Avant Garde)
-Occult Burial-Burning Eerie Lore (Blackened Speed Metal)
-Atramentus-Stygian (Funeral Doom)
-Sanctifying Ritual-s/t (Blackened Death/Thrash)
-Spell-Opulent Decay (Traditional Metal)
 
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Epic Springs

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That sucks. I was never the biggest COB fan and (though I did like them quite a bit in the mid-2000s) after seeing them twice (2006 opening for Slayer and 2016 opening for Megadeth), they would probably rank high on my "bands with the most obnoxious fanbase" list but they did have some killer tracks like the ones above.
 

Laz

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The old circle I ran with had three bands they loved more than anybody else: Tool, Opeth, and Children of Bodom. I ended up seeing Bodom 5 or 6 times over the years, the best being a gig in 2007ish at Lupo's in Providence and one the week before Xmas in 2005 (that a handful of us rushed from a family event in central NH down to Worcester to make, only for a couple of them to get kicked out of the Palladium for being drunk and disorderly).

Cause of death hasn't been revealed yet, but it's known that Alexi had a major drinking problem for years.
 

Big Beard Booty Daddy

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I liked his ex-wife's band, Sinergy for a minute years ago as well:


I came across one of their albums in an old used CD place I used to go to on Long Island. The cover looked cool, and I blind bought it. I ended up loving it.

I saw COB open for Iced Earth at BB Kings in Manhattan years ago, and they were fantastic. I wasn't a super fan, but I became a casual fan of them since then. That really sucks.
 

Slayer

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I remember discovering COB in early 2001 not long after Follow the Reaper came out and loving the hell out of the first three albums, especially Hatebreeder which would become one of my favorite albums in my early 20s. HCD was also great but then out came AYDY with the more metalcore-influenced drop C chugga chugga and shouting vocals which was a complete anathema to me at the time so I wrote them off. Later when I became less uptight about music I went back and found that and the subsequent albums weren't near as bad as I made them out to be at the time (in retrospect I missed out on a lot of good music over years because of my attitude)

Funny enough, I rarely ever see metal t-shirts out in the wild anymore (even for the classic stalwarts like Maiden or Metallica) but not long ago I did see someone at the store sporting a COB shirt, I believe for Halo of Blood
 

Laz

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Yeah, the Metal Archives board was roasting him for a bit over it.
 

Epic Springs

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Oh god. I would expect this sort of behavior from Ted Nugent or Chuck Billy but not the guitarist from Iced Earth!
 

Laz

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Yeah. It was already hard to listen to anything post-Ripper due to the huge dip in quality (though I still stand that "Waterloo," with Ripper, is one of their best tunes), but this motherfucker...
 

Brocklock

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I lost interest in them around the mid 00s, but I liked their first 5 or so albums back in the day. Matt Barlow's vocals were cheesy, but I found them so boring musically after he left. They were kind of a gateway band and I started to lose interest after finding other bands. I also had way more of an interest in Death Metal, Black Metal, and Doom Metal over Power Metal. I think The Glorious Burden was the album where I stopped liking them. And iirc a lot of the songs and lyrics were rah rah America patriot nonsense so this isn't a surprise.
 
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Slayer

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Best crack I saw elsewhere was that this was only the second worst thing Schaffer's done to America after "When the Eagle Cries"

I generally try to be a "separate the art from the artist" person so I wouldn't quit listening to them solely because of this, though like BroClock I barely listen to them now anyways, not because of Schaffer but just from the changes in my own taste (stopped around Crucible of Man and have never heard anything from the Stu Block era).

I think The Glorious Burden was the album where I stopped liking them. And iirc a lot of the songs and lyrics were rah rah America patriot nonsense so this isn't a surprise.
Ohhh yeah, in fact it was his precursor to Sons of Liberty, possibly the only metal album approved by The John Birch Society

In retrospect I have to cringingly laugh at myself for stanning and defending that album on this very board (a half-hour song about the Civil War?!). Looking over album now, it may or may not be a coincidence that the only songs I could still enjoy are the ones not jerking off over US history, like "Waterloo" (as @Laz said, probably the best song on the album), "Atilla", "Red Baron" and "Hollow Man"
 

Brocklock

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Epic Springs

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If his bandmates agree with what he did then fuck them too but if they honestly don't and his participation in the terrorist attack cost them from making a living then I do feel bad.
 

Laz

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If his bandmates agree with what he did then fuck them too but if they honestly don't and his participation in the terrorist attack cost them from making a living then I do feel bad.
Yes and no. Other members of Iced Earth are probably in agreement with his take but not super vocal, especially since Matt Barlow (longest running frontman) is a cop in Delaware, and plenty of the other members have also been involved with Schaffer's Sons of Liberty project (which was so right wing it hurt).

Demons & Wizards, though, was basically a "who's who" supergroup of power metal alongside Blind Guardian frontman Hansi Kursch (who has distanced himself from all political talk).
 

Brocklock

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Stu Block had some facebook posts applauding Schaffer that he deleted really fast and has had an awful response to all this.
 

Epic Springs

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Rob Zombie's new single is exactly what everyone expected a Rob Zombie song to sound like in 2021.
 

Epic Springs

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Gary

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So, this is probably the best song from Cannibal Corpse I've heard since the "Kill" era.
 
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Laz

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It's giving me some real Vile vibes. Appreciate that the production isn't the Erik Rutan MAKE MUDDY AS FUCK special they've done for the last 3-4 releases, super happy that it isn't just the same "Decency Defied" rip that the singles since Wretched Spawn (with "Make Them Suffer" the exception) have been.
 

Laz

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...did you post about them on MA? Because somebody just made a post about them this morning.
 
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