Agreed re: Xandria and Delain. And in the same vein, I’ve been enjoying Kobra and the Lotus:
Anyway, I’ve had Requiem stuck in my head since posting it, and it got me thinking about other songs in the same vein, when a band departs from their typical aggressive, high-energy style for something more sad/slow/soft/sappy/etc. People complain about “the obligatory ballad”, but I like the variation they add to album pacing, and some of them are really good in their own right.
Sorry to not go along with the flow, but last weekend, I attended Raleigh DeathFest, and for the first time since then, I’ve got a few minutes to list out some badass new music for you people! All of these bands are from various parts of North Carolina, with the exception of Richmond, VA’s Deathcrown. Descriptions occasionally gratuitously stolen from RDF’s Facebook event page:
“Gates of Endor is a new Raleigh death metal band of the old school variety, blackened with elements of thrash ripping through their crushing sound.” Definitely super young, but they were tight and locked in on stage, and a real pleasure to watch. https://gatesofendor.bandcamp.com/track/a-wretched-canticle
Apex, NC’s Outliar play some awesome melodic thrash/death metal combo similar in vein to, say, Testament, Death Angel, Pantera, etc. They were absolutely amazing live and poured a ton of energy out onstage! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgCqWCBg0hM
“Raleigh, NC’s Noctomb brings their hazy, insanely heavy version of metal to the bill. These guys are always extremely tight and will crush your skull with the weight of their riffage.” As an added note, these guys were probably my favorite on the ticket. There’s definitely a lot of stoner metal in here, but I find it more enjoyable than much of that genre :-D https://noctomb.bandcamp.com/
“Deathcrown also hails from the metal hotbed of Richmond, VA and are decidedly unrelenting and punishing old school death metal with modern sensibilites that keep them sounding fresh. They’ve ventured to Raleigh a few times and have created their own buzz based on some pretty powerful performances definitely a “can’t miss” part of this bill, make sure to get a beer before they go on.” I actually wound up missing these guys while we at dinner at a nearby foodtruck, so listening to their Bandcamp is pretty awesome! https://deathcrown.bandcamp.com/releases
Raleigh, NC’s own Suppressive Fire play some amazing extreme thrash metal and are headed up by some seriously cool dudes. Their lead singer is absolutely insane, flipping all the fuck over the place, but they never once lost the beat. Also, the donated all sales and proceeds from their day to local metal guitarist, producer, sound tech, and all-around nice dude, Greg Klaiber, who has unfortunately been diagnosed with a pretty serious case of cancer :( https://suppressivefire.bandcamp.com/
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The return of Raleigh’s one man death metal machine!!! Bloodsoaked concentrates on purely oldschool, no frills, straight forward, skull crushing Death Metal in the most raw and primitive form! There are no “slam till you can’t slam no more breakdowns”, no pig squeals, no arpeggios; simply classic Death Metal, nothing more, nothing less." This guy was a fucking monster on-stage, even joined by a second guitarist half his age, he absolutely stole the show–who needs a fucking live bassist or drummer when you just obliterate eardrums?? https://bloodsoaked.bandcamp.com/album/religious-apocalypse
Raleigh’s own Datura are one of my favorite discoveries of the year. Brutal-ass, go-fuck-yourself death metal without a shred of mercy fronted by the insanely talented Kellie Gales, who also happens to be a ludicrously nice person IRL. They’ll be cracking open the local Dark Tranquility show in September, and I’m already excited to see 'em again! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6i5jOv7GLE https://datura666.bandcamp.com/track/shipbreaker
“Making their RDF debut this year are Wilmington’s Paagtheaan, who certainly lean towards the “black” end of the extreme metal spectrum are nonetheless powerful and captivating in their approach to writing sick, blackened death metal.” Another band I really, really wound up liking a lot after hearing them play, I look forward to hearing what’s next from these dude’s :-D https://paagtheaan.bandcamp.com/
Rocking some absolutely badass oldschool Lovecraft-inspired death metal, Eldritch Horror closed out the night in absolutely epic fucking fashion! Coincidentally, one of the band members is also the owner of local gaming shop Game Theory, so I have all the more reason to love these dudes.
French Baroque/Breakcore/Triphop/Black-Metal genius Igorrr dropped his latest, Savage Sinusoid this week, and I am already absolutely in love. You’d think the seemingly random genre mashup wouldn’t work in the slightest, but I’ve been completely hooked since 2008’s Moisissure and have been eagerly awaiting this new one.
“iueD” is pretty fuckin’ cool, but. . .
“Cheval” gets to use the new vocabulary word I learned from @Nesrie recently, so hooray!
Didn’t learn my vocab as well as I thought, cuz “cheval” and “chevon” are different words :(
Whether it’s Saor’s bagpipes, Thrawsunblat’s cellos, or the saxophone in this album, non-traditional instruments in black metal (noir metal in this case?) are totally my jam.
Runners-up:
Vintersorg - Till Fjälls Del II
Not sure exactly where this falls on the black/folk/progressive spectrum, but it’s damn good.
Totally loving this thread, but a few of you guys (@Thraeg and @ArmandoPenblade to name just two) are just killing me with the overload. Try as I might, I’ll never get around to listening to every single one of your recommendations.
Best I can do is grab a few at random. Though I have discovered some really good shit this way, which only furthers my desire to see the rest, which I’ll never probably manage. Damn you. I can only admire the dedication you guys have in exploring so much of what’s out there. I fear my interest will never be as broad as what some of you consume on such a regular basis.
Which also means that every time I “discover” something new on my own, I come here to post it, and find that you guys have beat me to it long ago in most cases. (My excitement over “discovering” Ghost comes to mind.)
On the other hand, there are definite joys to be had in being a metal “novice”. So much of this is new to me. I feel a bit like a cowboy from the old west being transported to the future, where space travel is old hat, and being filled with wonder. I still haven’t grasped Death Metal, but the fact that I’m listening to metal at all at age 57 is a belated accomplishment for me. :)
The neverending deluge of new releases is just way too much to keep up with (somewhere around 50/week, judging by this weekly roundup). For every album I recommend, there are probably 10 that I check out and find unremarkable, and 100 that I don’t bother with at all.
Glad you’re enjoying metal though! I’m a relative novice myself, as it wasn’t until about 2013 that I could name more than 5 metal bands (Iron Maiden, Metallica, Black Sabbath, and The Black Mages, for the record), so I’ve been trying to make up for lost time.
As for death metal, I also bounced off a bunch of acknowledged classics before it started to click about a year ago, and it’s still hit-and-miss for me. I found it easiest to approach and acclimate via melodeath and doom/death, which give a bit more musical structure for your brain to latch onto.
And there’s nothing wrong with talking about your discoveries and impressions, even if someone’s already mentioned it in the thread! I’m definitely more likely to check out new stuff if it’s vouched for by multiple people.
Ooo. Didn’t realize this was out, it’s meant to be a ‘back to the roots’ thing. I’ll have to check it out since Cosmic Genesis (from 2000!) is my fave album of theirs and I lost interest soon after.
Thronosis - Excommunion
Now this one sounds right up in the old profanicus wheelhouse! :)
I’m had a few weeks of not listening to much but I do have a big list of cool-sounding stuff to get through that I haven’t seen mentioned - that maybe fall into the “unremarkable or don’t bother” categories.
But I’ll post something I really like here occasionally. Probably black metal. ;)
Well it also helps to know what, specifically, you like in those bands. For example if you like technical, progressive, folk inspired, or complex stuff, then most things I recommend will fit that bill.
But if you don’t like polyrhythms and alternating time signatures then you are probably well advised to give most of mine a pass. It’s all in what grabs you. So if you clue us in then we can point you more accurately.
And this, especially. I’m going to their Raleigh-area launch party for the album next Friday (they already had the big kickoff in Asheville earlier this month, but I couldn’t make it out that far for that), and I’m pumped as shit.
This reminds me of the really fabulous album After by Isahn, vocalist/guitarist for Emperor. It’s still one of mine and my gf’s favorite metal albums of all time:
Hilariously, I think of @Thraeg as my absolute master in this regard, but I’m trying really hard to spotlight local metal acts that are putting out genuinely quality stuff. I’m really happy to live in an area of the US that has a thriving, supportive, creative metal scene, so I want to give those guys all requisite props.
That said, please always feel free to share your own finds with us and chat about 'em. I’ve been listening to metal as my favorite genre since ~2001 or so, and I stumble across brand-new-to-me stuff all the damned time. Including in this very thread, pretty often.
I’m also in the “pure death metal ain’t super for me” train, but I love melodeath like Mercenary, Soilwork, Scar Symmetry, Starkill, etc. The mixture of raspy vocals with clean and the pounding guitar lines of death fitted onto more melodic scaffolding really scratches an itch for me. I’ll toss out mid-period In Flames, Dark Tranquility, and Children of Bodom as more examples of stuff that works for me :)
[quote=“Profanicus, post:1455, topic:42284”]
Ooo. Didn’t realize this was out, it’s meant to be a ‘back to the roots’ thing. I’ll have to check it out since Cosmic Genesis (from 2000!) is my fave album of theirs and I lost interest soon after.
[/quote]Oh shit, I am super excited to listen to this now, because Cosmic Genesis is far and away my favorite Vintersorg record; like you, I’ve been bouncing off a lot of their more recent work.
Here’s some classic death metal from the early years.
There are so many more but these are just a few of the old favourites from when I was growing up. They all hold up today and are well worth the time to give a few hundred spins!
Dismember - Like an Everflowing Stream (1991)
Related to Carnage, who themselves released an album considered a classic - this whole album is so amazing, it’s hard picking highlights. But listen to this and the one after if you like:
Entombed - Left Hand Path (1990)
Album sounds like the cover art.
Dark, creepy, heavy. They did one more good album, Clandestine. And about a hundred not-so-good albums. Shame.
Edge of Sanity - Unorthodox (1992)
Dan Swanö - say no more.
They followed this up with Spectral Sorrows, Purgatory Afterglow, then Crimson (93, 94, 96), which are all considered classics. This is an amazing song, possibly the first time I’d heard clean singing mixed into death metal:
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)
Since those are all Swedish, here’s a token USA band. ;)
And this is it, the best album of all time. This thing was a revelation to me, I’d never heard anything like it before. Aggressive, warped, and evil.
Unfortunately they never topped it, though the follow-up Blessed are the Sick is pretty decent.
Heh, I think of you as the master in terms of actually going to shows and stuff. All I have going for me is a Google Music subscription and a job that lets me listen to it all day.
FWIW, @Giles_Habibula, these are some of the exact albums I mentioned bouncing off of. So if they don’t work for you right away, don’t despair, but maybe check out something in the melodeath/death-doom/funeral doom spectrum – Omnium Gatherum, Amon Amarth, Dark Tranquility, Enshine, Asphyx, Disembowelment, or Ahab.
This is a light month with just Slayer/Behemoth/Lamb of God (bookended by party-shows put on by local death metal act Suppressive Fire at a nearby club) and the aforementioned Aether Realm release party.
September has the potential to be absolutely insane, with Haken, Insomnium, Dark Tranquility, Obituary/Exodus, and VNV Nation (not metal, but awesome) all taking place, scattered around an old friend’s wedding. . . I am gonna be tired that month :)
