Oh, you assume I was thinking! There may have been beer involved. And I think there was some discussion over on Slack about Dwarven RPG characters, and things happened…
In non-dwarf music news, Leaves’ Eyes released Sign of the Dragonhead a couple of weeks back. We’ve had some teasers for the last few months but now the full album is out. Been listening to it quite a bit and I’m pleased. Leaves’ Eyes isn’t quite at the Nightwish or Delain level for me, but they’re plenty good and I’m always happy to hear their stuff.
That’s just the teaser from last November, but you should be able to find the full album wherever you usually go for music these days.
I gave it a listen the other day and was also pleased! Probably my favorite release so far this year. Well, that or Summoning’s latest. But yeah, solid effort from Leaves Eyes, esp. after losing their longtime vocalist.
I am jamming a lot of Mega Colossus and Knightmare today to prepare for a local metal showcase on Friday night. PUMPED!
Re: Dwarf Metal, the first name to come to my mind is Khazaddum, who put out a really strong debut last year.
Also, I heartily concur with @Profanicus, @ArmandoPenblade, and @ineffablebob ‘s mentions of Shining, Summoning, and Leaves’ Eyes, respectively. January is shaping up as a banner month for metal, with a good dozen albums I’ve really enjoyed so far, and another four highly anticipated releases hitting tomorrow.
Shit, I already forgot that Shining record was from January and not December. . .
I also gave the new Watain a spin recently, but I think they’re still just not quite to my taste, sadly. I actually think I’d dig them more live; the music seems like it would be brutally punishing when crashing over you from 6 feet away.
Same here. I never got into them in the past, and the new one seems fine, but utterly overshadowed by Halphas when I feel like some ripping black metal lately.
I’m always grateful when albums y’all rec are actually available on the mainline streaming services, cuz flipping back and forth between YT/Bandcamp/Play Music is tough during the workday or drive home :)
(AKA, my playlist of everyone’s “best of 2017” stuff is missing a good chunk of your stuff, @Profanicus :( )
Yeah I always try for Google Music, but also have to buy stuff from bandcamp that doesn’t make it there. Though pretty much everything is there if you’re willing to put up with the youtube video audio quality - which I’m not. :)
Unfortunately I missed listening to a bunch of stuff I’d noted on my ‘could be interesting’ list last year because quality versions weren’t easily accessible on Google Music.
I haven’t seen In Vain mentioned here, and they have a new album due this month. Members of Solefald and other Norwegian bands, playing a Borknagar type of epic prog metal. Great vocal performances (3 vocalists).
This is Ænigma from 2013 if you missed it, well worth a spin:
I’m trying to figure out how I came across them before, because this album’s got exactly 1 listen on it in Play Music (though I have no recollection of when I heard it) and it’s excellent so far on the re-listen. Now looking forward to the new release you mentioned :-D
I’m really late to the party, but I just discovered yesterday that Sikth put out an actual damn album last year and I was somehow not informed.
When I originally heard them way back, probably around the time Death of a Dead Day released, I really didn’t know what to think about it. But something made me keep going back for another listen after I would have usually written it off as not for me until it finally clicked and I was a fan.
Of course that’s pretty much when they stopped being a band.
Though I wish I’d seen the article when it was published, it’s still a great surprise.
To me it was pretty overwhelming. At first blush it’s almost pure chaos and having two singers made it more so, but the sheer crazy musicianship underneath is just bonkers.
If you can wrap your head around it, you’re in for a treat.
Holy fuck the first track on this new album is glorious. It’s somewhere in the midst of some of the better nu-metal I used to listen to (e.g., mid-period Mudvayne or Slipknot) and bits of Meshuggah or Gojira sprinkled in, then random Xerath-esque crazyballs riffing. . .
Pin and Dan did a demo at the last guitar show i went to, a good few years ago now. This first tracks is much more listenable then their stuff then, which was a bit too discordant for me.
I’ve been working my way through the Wikipedia New Metal list, which is moderately good…there’s a few things I wouldn’t consider metal on there, and I suspect they’re missing some stuff, but it’s simple and (mostly) doesn’t include those silly one-song “albums” that a lot of lists seem to have. Couple of power metal gems from the recent releases:
Apparently Orphaned Land has been around forever, but I’ve not run across them before that I can recall. They’re an Israeli band, but not nationalistic or anti-Arabic at all - entirely the opposite, very much about peace and inclusiveness. Lots of cool Eastern themes to the music that I’m not used to hearing in metal songs, and in my opinion it works great.
Rebellion - A Tragedy in Steel Part II: Shakespeare’s King Lear
I had no idea that a concept album based on King Lear was something I wanted, but now that it’s here I’m pretty happy about it. There’s a few spots where people are actually reading lines from the play, but for the most part it’s songs about the concepts and characters rather than direct quotations.
