New releases from Dark Tranquility and Arkona hitting the streaming services this week. I’m just now wrapping up a first-listen to DT’s new one, Atoma, and rather well liking it, though if you haven’t been enamored of the past 3-4 DT albums, you probably won’t care for this one, either.
Seeing Arkona alongside Fleshgod Apocalypse and The Agonist later this month, so I figure I probably need to dig into theirs. . .
Like @Thraeg, I’m listening more or less all day at work nowadays, one of many blessings of a private office. My work commute’s only about 7 minutes each way, but since I tend to do longer drives for gaming a couple-few times a week (I’m in. . . a LOT of tabletop RPG campaigns), I get a decent amount on the road. And every so often, I’ll take a multi-hour roadtrip for work or to see my folks, and get to really dig deep into a few albums all in one go. Oh, I also tend to jam to something when I’m cooking (which, uh, I do a lot of). But I still don’t listen to as much stuff as Thraeg, soooo…
I’m really enjoying the new Deathspell Omega release, but am looking forward to it hitting Play Music, cuz loading up BandCamp or Youtube is pretty obnoxious, especially while driving.
And finally, thanks to Thraeg for the big pile of new releases up there. I, too, have been listening to a TON of Saor here lately, so anything in that vein is gonna be super up my alley. . . especially since autumn proper is finally hitting NC and I’m really in the mood for some atmospheric black metal again. . .
My three word review thus far … dense and unrelenting. :)
Also short - but it’s so oppressive that you risk fatigue if there were more I suppose. Mind you I do have it on loop anyway!
So much to parse, I love it! I have 6 or so listens and the murk is dragging me to blissful doom, but the ultimate treasures remain guarded in fathomless depths.
I bought it on Bandcamp so use the streaming app - but annoyingly it lacks important features such as ‘repeat album’, so also welcome the Play Music release which I think should be tomorrow.
That looks fantastic @ArmandoPenblade! Thanks for sharing. And I second the recommendation for Atoma. Dark Tranquility is a band I haven’t ever really dug into, but I liked this one a lot so far.
As a minor correction to my above post, Arkona doesn’t have a new album hitting streaming services this week. At least not the delightful female-fronted Russian folk metal band Arkona. However, the entirely unrelated Polish black metal band Arkona absolutely does have a new release, Lunaris, out this week. D’oh!
Glad you guys enjoyed. The show was really kind of astonishingly amazing. Took my gf and another friend out to it, and we were all pretty insanely giddy afterward.
Last show till month’s end for me, sadly, cuz Dream Theater is crazy-expensive. But the 30th’s gonna be the aforementioned Fleshgod Apocalypse/Arkona/Agonist show, so, you know, worth the wait!!!
(But everytime Fleshgod Apocalypse tours, I just find myself wishing that Septicflesh would tour. . . )
@ArmandoPenblade Thanks for those pics and your little write-up. I was hoping you’d post about the Ghost show when you mentioned you were going. I’m very envious. I need to see them live someday, dammit. It’s becoming an obsession.
And indeed it was “Square Hammer” being performed at that point!
I’m disappointed I couldn’t get a good angle of him wielding his censer filled with burning incense, or the two girls they dressed up as nuns they got to serve a black communion to the crowd nearest the stage while they performed another song.
And then, of course, there was the lengthy awkward/hilarious lecture on the devilish power of the Female Orgasm they gave for about 5 minutes in the lead-up to “Monstrance Clock” at the end of the set.
Whole crowd was very much into the affair, singing along to all but the oldest tracks with really exceptional fervor.
Thanks for the atmospheric black metal dump. For, I suspect, similar reasons, I was desperately in need of something that simultaneously bleak and beautiful, and have been listening to virtually nothing but for some time now.
This is superb, it’s been on repeat the last couple of days - a nice palate cleanser between bouts of Anaal Nathrakh and DSO… ;)
We’re talking a mellow mournful traditional heavy metal kind of sound, with varied interesting metal influences throughout. Vocals are mainly of the mildly gruff type, some cleaner, some a bit blacker. Great arrangements and production, this brings to mind earlier In the Woods or Green Carnation.
Well, the new Metallica album doesn’t release till Friday, but it seems there must have been a leak because I noticed a whole slew of new tracks hitting my Youtube suggestions feed tonight.
I’ve been just slightly less than impressed with the few tracks I’ve heard on the radio from the new album. It all just seems too…calculating maybe?
And when I heard the intro to what you just posted, my initial thought was that this is going to be yet another trademark Metallica track. But then it takes off, and while still trademarked Metallica, I really ended up liking it a lot.
I may need to pick up the disk and just listen to it from beginning to the end and see how the whole things flows.
Yea, it’s the best track I’ve heard from the album so far. I haven’t listened to anything besides this and the officially released tracks though; trying to save something for Friday when I get the real thing.
And as an aside, I think the lyrics could fit into just about any Fear Factory song ever produced (they pretty much only ever explore one theme, and they tend to stick close to it at all times).
Not sure if this qualifies as metal, but I think it does. Recommended by Youtube for me for a while, I finally clicked on it. Lucifer’s Friend. Self-titled album from 1970.
What gets me is that I’m from that era, and never heard of these guys. But holy shit, this is really really good, especially considering how old it is. The first song sounds VERY familiar to me though, so maybe I have heard them at some point, but the name of this band did not ring a bell.
Good find! I had the exact same reaction about Ride The Sky, and after digging a bit, I realized it’s because I’d heard the cover version by Avantasia:
It’s also got a bit that’s highly reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, so that might also explain the familiarity.
Oh, and interestingly, Lucifer’s Friend apparently reunited and put out a new album a couple of weeks ago called Too Late to Hate. It’s on GPM, but I don’t see it on Youtube, so no video. Not bad, though seems more in the radio rock vein.
