Recommend me some quality Metal

I’d somehow never come across Avatar until Spotify started playing some of their stuff in one of my stations. It’s probably not as heavy or metal as a lot that gets posted in this thread, but I’ve been enjoying their stuff.

This song by Ghost is amazingly catchy.

It came out last week and it’s been stuck in my head ever since.

Are you ready to swear right here right now before the Devil

the chorus of that song is vomit inducing.

Caught Ghost opening for Mastodon + Opeth in 2012. Their costumes and theatrics kinda cracked me up, but I had to give ‘em the thumbs up for showmanship and stickin’ to their guns on their whole satanic schtick. And, I have to admit - they didn’t sound half bad.

Dang, now that I think of it, that was the show that Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth tripped in their RV just before the show, split his head open, and had to go to a local hospital (in Minneapolis) to get stitched up - so Opeth didn’t play. Which was a bummer, cuz a lineup of Mastodon and Opeth in one night was definitely my most anticipated show of the year. But Mastodon played a super long set - and it was glorious.

They’re playing in Montreal in November. I’m trying to assemble a crew to go with me, but I’m considering just making the trip myself. The Metropolis is a good place to see metal shows.

I’ve had Meshuggah on the brain for months now waiting for their new album, due next week. They’ve released a couple singles so far, and I’m loving everything I hear.

The thing that sets this album apart from their more recent ones (from, say, the last 20 years) is that they recorded it together live in the studio. They actually got together, learned all the songs, and then simply performed them together as a band during the recording process; as opposed to having individual members record their parts alone in a home studio or two, and then pasting everything together digitally later on. That fact, coupled with a scaling-back of studio distortion and magic, has helped the band deliver a very raw sounding album when looked at in terms of their later work. And this shit works for me.

Anyway, I’m hyped. Here’s the two tracks they’ve released in full so far. I doubt we’ll get anything else before next Friday. Of the two, I think Nostrum is the catchiest right off simply because of a riff that picks up right about the 00:38 second mark that reminds me of MechaGodzilla melting the landscape or something (while Born in Dissonance has got the pounding hellscape of god drums on its side). But both have got so much going for them, especially on repeated listens.

Both songs clock in a full two minutes shorter than almost everything else on the album, which makes me excited to hear what they’ll do with the songs that have more room to breathe.


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I liked it. The only stuff of theirs that I really haven’t liked is St Anger, and this seems very much like Death Magnetic, so that makes sense.

If you like that one, you’ll love “Ritual”.

I’m a major Ghost fan the last couple of months. And yeah, some of their stuff borders on too catchy, but I’m just rollin’ with it for now.

Oh believe me, I celebrate their entire catalog. [officespace.jpg]

I love how their songs have these catchy happy sounding choruses, and you listen to the lyrics and it’s like…

♪This chapel of ritual♪
♪Smells of dead human sacrifices♪
♪From the altar…♪

I listen to Lily Allen for the same reason.

I’m plowing through Disturbed’s back catalogue this week in preparation for their show in Raleigh next Tuesday. It’s been a blast going back to some of High School Armando’s metal-roots, I gotta say, and a decent chunk of their material holds up well. I mean, The Sickness is no The End of All Things (Mudvayne), in terms of early-00’s nu-metal, but it’s still good!


Sadly, I’ll probably be missing the Alestorm / Nekrogoblikon / Aether Realm show this weekend, since going to Disturbed w/ my friends means spending the whole weekend studying to take my upcoming Calc test a day early. But because I think Aether Realm deserve extra notice, I implore you all to enjoy one of their better tracks in honor of my non-attendance:

@ArmandoPenblade tipped me off to this over on Discord. But Fabio Lione, singer par excellance of Rhapsody of Fire, has apparently left the band. It is a most sad day as he was the king of the over the top theatrical symphonic metal. Cheesy to the extreme, but never failed to make me smile.

Yeah, it was pretty sad news. With him and Turilli out (though, mind, Turilli’s heading up the excellent Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody, now), it really feels like the heart’s been hollowed out of Rhapsody (who I still prefer to call Rhapsody over the even-more-goofy Rhapsody of Fire). I’m glad that Alex Staropoli’s sticking around for the time being. . . but yeah.

I’d pour one out for Fabio, but the only beer I presently have is being held in waiting for some pork later this week, I think.

So, instead, my favorite Rhapsody tracks of all time:

Yeah, Lucca was a loss, but he went on to continue in similar veins.

Plus it is something different when the frontman leaves, especially one as distinct and rangey as Fabio. One of the best metal falsettos out there man.

Thanks for posting that, I didn’t know they had a new one coming out. Already love the new song,

Opeth’s new one comes out tomorrow, but the singles so far have been very meh. Will still buy it, but they aren’t what they used to be.

This new Opeth album is terrible. I’m not just saying that it isn’t to my taste, it just sounds objectively terrible. The Wilde Flowers has got to be the worst song they’ve ever written, and it’s an absolute chore to listen to.

I may find their last two albums to be middling to lukewarm at best, but this one does nothing interesting. So, while I support the band’s efforts and intentions to follow this path they set out on a few years ago, I can’t say I’ve been especially thrilled with the much of the results. What a bummer.

**

There’s also a new Suicidal Tendencies album out today, with Slayer’s Dave Lombardo on drums, but I haven’t heard anything past the first song just yet.

I’m literally takin’ my first spin through Opeth’s new album as I write this.

It’s funny you mention The Wilde Flowers, because I had to resist the temptation to skip to the next track. But so far I think I might be in lesbians with the rest of the album (Sorceress).

Unfortunately, I also might be the enemy. The enemy of old school Opeth fans who kinda hate the new direction they’ve gone with the last couple albums. Yup; I’m one of those. cringe While I can appreciate their sound from back when they were all prog metal/death metal, with lots of growling, etc - I’m one of those that prayed to the prog cods for all those years that Opeth would drop the growling. I mean, I get it and everything (the growling counterpoint to the melodic vocals in context with what the song is saying, or the growling throughout a dark song, etc), but dang; Mikael Akerfeldt has such a beautiful (non-growling) voice, and Opeth does more conventional prog soooo good.

You might be in what with the rest of the album?

As for old fans vs new fans, I don’t know what typical fan opinion is. I got over those types of arguments in Metallica’s black album -> Load days. My taste is varied enough I’ll be happy with anything they put out if I enjoy it. I’m not the type of person that insists a band stay married to its sound. I just want good results.

At the moment Opeth isn’t doing it for me, and I think it’s unlikely this album will ever “click” for me like so many albums have in the past.

Heh, sorry:

Oh, they took that down off Netflix streaming about two days before my wife and I sat down to watch it. We still plan to see it when it comes back.