The Metal Thread

[Agent of Oblivion]

I'm hopelessly out of the loop when it comes to new stuff. I need a new job. I'll listen later this week and tell you.

 

[Gary]

[urlhttp://www.myspace.com/amorphis]Songs from the upcoming Amorphis album are on their Myspace.[/url]

 

[Slayer]

I'm hopelessly out of the loop when it comes to new stuff. I need a new job. I'll listen later this week and tell you.

I'd only ever heard of them via you talking about them, but seeing a review of their new album on one of the metal review sites I frequent, I decided to check it out. The review did warn that it's a little different from their previous releases. Looking at their discog I can see why, since their first three releases consisted of about thirty songs ranging from ten seconds to a minute, whereas this one is thirteen songs in the 2-3 minute range. I listened to a couple songs on Youtube and then bought it, and I'm really digging it

Songs from the upcoming Amorphis album are on their Myspace.

As noted in the jumble of the first thread post, Silent Waters has been my second favorite metal release this decade, and I'd figure it'll be difficult as hell for them to follow that up, but it sounds like they could actually pull it off

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

The new Isis is fucking amazing.

 

[Incandenza]

They've been playing only one song from ITAOT on their current tour, for which I'm grateful. Three more days!

EDIT: The flipside of this is they've only been playing a song each from all their previous albums. The set lists have dominated by Wavering Radiant, which is fine as I like it a lot.

 

[Slayer]

Devin Townsend's Ki came out a couple days ago. It took a bit of getting used to, but I'm enjoying it. Based off interviews with Devin that I'd read a couple months ago, I knew going in not to expect SYL or Ziltoid-type material, though I was expecting a fair bit of the ambient metal from Ocean Machine or Terria, which as it turns out is also largely absent from Ki. In essence, it's almost as much of a metal album as Opeth's Damnation was: Mostly slower, softer and more introspective songs, though unlike Damnation there are some occasional and generally well-placed moments of heaviness with harsh vocals.

One of the more notable songs on the album is "Trainfire", Devin's homage to The King

 

[Urban Warfare]

I ended up caving and paying a considerable price to see the Megadeth/Slayer co-headline tour that is coming to Calgary. Oh well. Should be one hell of a show.

 

[Gary]

The new Sunn 0))) is holy shit levels awesome.

 

[Slayer]

Megadeth and Slayer co-headlining? I thought Kerry and Dave were still beefing over whatever those guys beef over

 

[Slayer]

A couple years ago when Agent was talking about Isis being one of his fav bands, I checked out one of their CDs (Oceanic, I think) and didn't get too into it

After seeing Agent et al talk about the new Isis, I decided to get it and Agent was right: It is amazing, indeed. Only minor complaint is the harsh vocals can come of as a bit laughable at times, but this is definitely up in Album of the Year territory for me.

 

[Incandenza]

Isis was the most disappointing live show I've seen in a long, long time. If I didn't know better, I'd say they were playing to a pre-recorded backing track.

 

[Slayer]

2009 Album Cover of the Year right there

 

[Gary]

Hey Agent-Dylan Carlson plays on the new Sunn0))) album.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

erect.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

The new Sunn 0))) is holy shit levels awesome.

Holy shit yes it is. Listening now. Not very droney, though! I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on outside of the distortion saturation.

 

[Vigo]

So I've been listening to In Flames lately (really like their Clayman album) and I like their sound. Any other similar bands I should check out?

 

[Wario Lemieux]

Soilwork. Your best bet is probably Natural Born Chaos if you like Clayman, but everything except Steelbath Suicide and Figure Number Five are at least "listenable". A Predator's Portrait is their best.

 

[Gary]

The new Isis is fucking amazing.

Seconding this. An improvement over In the Absence of Truth, which I thought was just OK.

The new Drudkh album Microcosmos leaked. I like it a lot on first listen-it sounds kinda like a mix of Estrangement and The Swan Road minus the blasbeats-though it's hardly their best. If anything, it's tied with the new Altar of Plagues for me so far, though the new Absu is still my favorite Black Metal album of the year thus far, and I've come to a point where I feel they're never going to top their first, second and fourth albums, but they still put out quality material.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

The songs on Wavering Radiant are fucking explosive, live. Ears are still hissing a little from the show Wednesday night.

Keelhaul opened the show. Anyone familiar? They weren't too bad. Think early Mastodon meets later Godflesh, only dirtier.

 

[Slayer]

So I've been listening to In Flames lately (really like their Clayman album) and I like their sound. Any other similar bands I should check out?

Wario Lemieux had a good recommendation with Soilwork. Predator's Portrait is their best one to me, then follow that up with Chainheart Machine and Natural Born Chaos. If you didn't mind the nu-metal direction that In Flames took with albums like Soundtrack to Your Escape, complete with music videos featuring hoopty riders in South Central LA, then you could check out Stabbing the Drama. Personally though I've found both bands nu-metal directions to be utterly loathsome.

Dark Tranquillity is the gold standard for melodic death metal, IMO. Where bands like In Flames and Soilwork treaded down very similar (bad) paths after their fourth CD or so, DT has been largely consistent throughout their career. Start off with Damage Done, Haven and Character.

If you want to go back to the genre's early roots, check out Carcass' Heartwork and At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul

Up until they parted with their lead vocalist, Scar Symmetry had my favorite mix of death and clean vocals. I referred to them earlier in the thread with links to two songs

I'm not fond of Arch Enemy as I think it's blasé death metal largely sold on the novelty of having a woman singer, but they're fairly notable so I'll just toss the name out and let you decide on that one

God Dethroned is one I've just recently been getting into since I'd been putting off listening to them because I'd get them mixed up with God Forbid, who I'm not fond of. I have the same issue with the twenty different bands named Dragon-something

If you like melodeath you may also want to check out the genre I'd call "blackened power". Bands under this banner would include Children of Bodom, Ensiferum, Wintersun, Norther and Suidakra

Hope I didn't overload you with recommendations!

 

[Vigo]

So I've been listening to In Flames lately (really like their Clayman album) and I like their sound. Any other similar bands I should check out?

Wario Lemieux had a good recommendation with Soilwork. Predator's Portrait is their best one to me, then follow that up with Chainheart Machine and Natural Born Chaos. If you didn't mind the nu-metal direction that In Flames took with albums like Soundtrack to Your Escape, complete with music videos featuring hoopty riders in South Central LA, then you could check out Stabbing the Drama. Personally though I've found both bands nu-metal directions to be utterly loathsome.

Dark Tranquillity is the gold standard for melodic death metal, IMO. Where bands like In Flames and Soilwork treaded down very similar (bad) paths after their fourth CD or so, DT has been largely consistent throughout their career. Start off with Damage Done, Haven and Character.

If you want to go back to the genre's early roots, check out Carcass' Heartwork and At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul

Up until they parted with their lead vocalist, Scar Symmetry had my favorite mix of death and clean vocals. I referred to them earlier in the thread with links to two songs

I'm not fond of Arch Enemy as I think it's blasé death metal largely sold on the novelty of having a woman singer, but they're fairly notable so I'll just toss the name out and let you decide on that one

God Dethroned is one I've just recently been getting into since I'd been putting off listening to them because I'd get them mixed up with God Forbid, who I'm not fond of. I have the same issue with the twenty different bands named Dragon-something

If you like melodeath you may also want to check out the genre I'd call "blackened power". Bands under this banner would include Children of Bodom, Ensiferum, Wintersun, Norther and Suidakra

Hope I didn't overload you with recommendations!

No, that's good. It should keep me busy for awhile.

 

[Urban Warfare]

Everyone here should check out Baroness' Red Album. Jesus Christ, these guys are going to be special.

 

[Gary]

Everyone here should check out Baroness' Red Album. Jesus Christ, these guys are going to be special.

Welcome to 2 years ago.

That out of the way, it is a good album.

 

[The Coat Is My Father]

Their first two self titled EPs are both a lot better than that album.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

Ah...home...

 

[Slayer]

I thought I noticed a distinct lack of dissertations in this thread

 

[Fall of Epic]

I just got into Municipal Waste. That's all I have to offer.

I like 'em. Reminds me of S.O.D.

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

It took you long enough, eh? Municipal Waste is damned solid, but I'm beginning to wonder if they're ever going to "grow up," per se. I see them as the Anthrax of the thrash revival: solid musicianship (maybe even the best all-around of their peers), but a little too goofy and sarcastic to be taken seriously down the road.

Now there'd be an interesting thing to do. Take all of the bigger bands of the thrash revival and see which bands they best fit of the original scene. Like who is best compared to Slayer, best to Metallica, best to Kreator, etc.

Also, new Gwar due out in August titled Lust in Space. Can't find a release date yet, but if it's anywhere close to as good as the last three have been then it'll be worth picking up (which I'd do anyway, considering it's fucking Gwar).

And Slayer: have you given Evisceration Plague a listen yet? It's nowhere near as good as Kill, and almost all of the songs blend together (there's maybe 2 that sound different in the least, but everything else is mid-tempo water treading), but it's not horrible. I'd say it fits somewhere in quality between Gallery of Suicide and Butchered at Birth overall, ranking it pretty low amongst their body of work. At least Corpsegrinder can still growl after all these years, and not too much weaker than how he was doing it over a decade ago to boot.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Comparing them to Anthrax is pretty damn accurate, actually. I can definatley see the influence of them in their music. All around, I find them to be a fun thrash group, like S.O.D. was/is.

They must be awesome live too I'm guessing. Have you seen them, Corey?

 

[Big Papa Paegan]

They're pretty fucking amazing live, especially if you get a crowd of people REALLLLLLY into thrash. There'll be plenty of kids, almost always sk8rz (or however they write it out nowadays), but they don't really hamper the fun because EVERYBODY on the floor will likely be going crazy. And if it's a smaller venue? The likelihood of Tony Foresta (vocalist) busting out the ol' boogieboard increases dramatically. Raw energy, live.

If you like any thrash at all, I'd suggest checking out Ramming Speed. I went to high school with guitarist Ricky Speed, and we have a lot of the same friends still.