Trout

Currently listening to the new Wolves in the Throne Room “Primordial Arcana”. I could easily see it being my pick for AOTY.

I also picked up LPs of:
Type O Negative- Slow, Deep, and Hard (reissue)
Gravesend- Methods of Human Disposal
Tomb Mold- Planetary Clairvoyance
Witch Vomit- Buried Deep in a Bottomless Grave

morriscroy

Listening to Morbid Angel "Kingdoms Disdained" from 2017.

This is a rather unmemorable and forgettable album. Not the same band which did Altars of Madness.

Not entirely sure what happened to these guys. (ie. Besides being old, tired, and "burned out" exhausted).

morriscroy

(More generally).

I have to wonder how many older metal musicians still have the fortitude as they get older and older, without sounding "old and tired" or "burned out".

Trout

It can’t be as bad as Illud Divinum Insanus.

morriscroy

I decided to give this one a shot. I haven't listened to it before.

The original version sounds somewhat weird, and not in a good way. They don't seem to be the guys who can make this sound good.

I also listened to the remixed version of this album, which ironically I find a lot more "listenable" than the original. If I didn't know this was morbid angel, I could be listening to this remixed album over and over again.

morriscroy

Frankly at this point, I don't know which album is worse. They both sound really crappy, albeit for very different reasons.

"Illud Divinum Insanus" sounds like death metal poorly "hybridized" with industrial music, where the pieces fit together very awkwardly.

"Kingdoms Disdained" sounds like trey azagthoth is just writing "painting by numbers" garden variety death metal songs, with the other guys "phoning it in" during the studio sessions. The end result sounds very tired.

morriscroy

Another thing I realized, is that the drums on "Illud Divinum Insanus" and "Kingsdom Disdained" sounds almost like a "drum machine" playing. Most likely a combination of triggers and/or using beat detective on protools, where every drum beat was put onto a quantization grid to the sixteenth note (or even thirtysecond note).

For something "industrial" sounding (or attempt), this wouldn't be too surprising. Though for something like death metal, it sounds almost like a "robot" playing the drums.


Here's a video rant about grid quantization, and several demonstrations as to how it is done.

beavis69

I thought Kingdoms Disdains production really took away from my enjoyment of the album. I enjoyed David Vincent's new band Vltimas "Something Wicked Marchs In' much more.

Seeing my first show since November of 2019 this Sunday. Inhuman Condition, Crusadist, and False Prophet. This will be my third time seeing False Prophet since moving to Raleigh which isn't surprising since they are a local band. Really looking forward to Inhuman Condition, love the album and they just announced Lee Harrison (Monstrosity/Terrorizer) will be joining them on drums for the tour.

morriscroy

Over the past several days, I was listening more closely to Kreator's more modern stuff like "Phantom Antichrist", "Gods of Violence", and slightly further back "Violent Revolution". This isn't quite the same Kreator as I remembered them from the mid-late 1980s. This sounded more like a melodic thrash version of "iron maiden" with Millie's vocal style.

On the live Kreator dvd/bluray discs I've been watching recently, I noticed there's hardly any songs from the 1990s after Coma of Souls. When I was doing my grocery shopping this past weekend, I dropped by a local indie record store and noticed they had the Noise 2017-2018 cd re-releases/remasters of the 1990s era Kreator albums, where I picked them up. Other than reading online reviews about these 1990s era albums being somewhat different and/or outright crappy, I didn't know much about them.

Listening through these 1990s era albums Renewal, Cause For Conflict, Outcast, and Endorama, I now realized where all this modern "melodic" stuff originated from. During the 1990s it sounded like they slowed down the tempo, and added some elements which sounded like industrial music and maybe a "Pantera" or "Machine Head" type of style. (I didn't really listen to 1990s era metal).

morriscroy

In spite of all the bad reviews about Kreator's Renewal album (from 1992) I've read about over the years/decades, I thought this album was a stroke of genius after listening to it yesterday.

Back in the day the biggest turn-off about industrial music for me was that the stuff I heard at the time, sounded either heavily weirdly processed and/or it was flooded with a lot of artificial echo/reverb. Stuff like ministry, kmfdm, etc ... For lack of a better description, I thought such stuff sounded like an audio equivalent of "blue cheese velveeta" (sp).

In contrast the raw unprocessed sound production on Kreator's Renewal, was very flat sounding where one could hear almost every instrument very clearly. The "industrial" elements sounded like they were "organic" to the thrash style songs played slower, and not "shoe horned" in. It sounds almost like an early primitive form of what is known as "groove metal" today.

In spite of Millie's vocal style sounding slightly different, they were fine for the entire album. Almost like a punk rock style of barking vocals.


This flat/raw sounding production, is refreshing in the sense that it pulls back the curtains and reveals what the "wizard" really looks/sounds like when it comes to something loosely "industrial music" sounding.

morriscroy

Examining the credits on "Cause For Conflict" and "Outcast", I just noticed Vincent Wojno was the producer and engineer which might explain this ^.

https://www.metal-archives.com/artis...t_Wojno/135093

Around that same time period Wojno was also the engineer on Machine Head's first two albums "Burn My Eyes" + "The More Things Change", and slightly later Testament's "The Gathering".

Trout

Just got the new Hate album “Rugia” today. Not bad, but I doubt it’s gonna make my choice for AOTY.

Fist of Doom Jr

This bump reminds me that Havukruunu released an EP, Kuu Erkylän Yllä, earlier this week. Plan your pagan ceremonies accordingly.

cultshock

Yep, I ordered mine from their Bandcamp page (plus a t-shirt). Usually their releases sell out very fast, but for this CD they actually pressed a decent amount (1000 instead of the usual 100-200 copies) so it's still available. I don't know if there will be a vinyl release though, I hope so because I've bought their previous albums in both formats. Havukruunu is still one of my favorite current metal bands, last year's LP was absolutely majestic.

morriscroy

Listening to the earlier Leaves' Eyes albums like Njord, Vinland Saga, Meredead, etc ... which had a different singer. These older albums sound somewhat different than the more recent stuff like "The Last Viking" and "Sign of the Dragonhead".

I don't know how to describe it in metal categories terminology, but these older Leaves' Eyes albums sound like a heavier version of Evanescence with elements of "gothic" type music, and a second vocalist doing low pitched growls. Not as much "power metal" sounding.


It seemed like the change to symphonic power metal was complete, after they changed labels from Napalm Records to AFM Records in early 2015,

cultshock

I've only really listened to their Vinland Saga album, but I quite like it. I'd describe it as symphonic metal with a dash of gothic metal (that album at least).

Trout

Worm- Foreverglade. Absolutely killer funeral doom similar to Envoken and Disembowelment. Just have to wait for February for the vinyl release.

morriscroy

Listening to "Riddles, Ruins, and Revelations" by Sirenia.

What caught my attention was that this recent Sirenia album didn't sound like typical symphonic metal. This sounds a lot like a metal band writing "eurodance" type songs. Back during the 1990s, I was listening to "eurodance" type music on the radio and dance nightclubs I use frequent in those days. If this album had been released back in the 1990s, it would have been up my alley.

Briefly listening to Sirenia's past few albums, they sounded more like typical symphonic metal. (I never really listened to Sirenia much previously).

morriscroy

Listening to Delain's recent album "Apocalypse and Chill" and a previous album "We Are The Others". I have never heard of them before, in spite of being previously on Roadrunner records.

They sound like a really heavy version of The Killers "Hot Fuss" album.

PerryD

Delain ditched everyone in the band other than the keyboard founder. It will be interesting to see who they get to front the band.

The Cow

He did bring back one of their prior guitar players and a prior drummer. I've heard clips of some of the new stuff and it does sound more like the older albums that they were on. I had felt like he would bring in a few different singers for the next album, but then that would kinda suck for touring, so maybe not.

morriscroy

Listening to Sirenia's last two albums "Arcane Astral Aeons" and "Dim Days of Dolor". Also listened to Epica's recent album "Omega".

These three albums sound like what I would imagine as what "generic symphonic metal" sounds like. Nothing immediately stood out to me on a first listening.

morriscroy

I'm guessing the keyboard player (Westerholt) has been the primary songwriter in this band, judging by the songwriting credits and the almost consistent style throughout all the albums.

Earlier today I was listening to Charlotte Wessels' solo album "Tales From Six Feet Under", which sounds somewhat different than Delain. If I had to guess, her delain songwriting credits might very well be reflective of the lyrics writing. Dunno how much she contributed to the actual musical writing in delain.

mndtrp

I preferred Sirenia's first album, since it had less of the symphonic aspects. There was also more male vocals to counter the female ones.

cultshock

I just picked up the new vinyl reissues of Slayer's Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits (I would have also grabbed the Haunting the Chapel and Live Undead EPs but Metal Blade wanted the same price ($26.99) as for the LPs, so I balked on those). I was happy with Metal Blade's Mercyful Fate reissues last year, I'm hoping that these sound nice as well, fingers crossed.