Recommend me some quality Metal

Oh, I’m sure I’ve heard some of their stuff before considering how long they’ve been around. Perhaps even in this very thread! But having heard it and sticking in my increasingly-spotty memory are two different things :)

100% agreed, both on the new Orphaned Land being good and on OrWarriOR being their best.

I am super stoked to finally be seeing Anthrax this week. They’re the band that got me into metal in 1988, and I finally get to see them in concert. Killswitch Engage is OK too, I guess.

I’m going to that tour on Wednesday night! Saw em last year and it was amazing. You’re gonna have a blast!

January 2018 Album of the Month

So I’ve been trying to trim my AotM posts down to a more manageable length and avoid overwhelming everyone with a giant wall of videos. Well, all apologies, but that ain’t happening this month. January has been the best month of new releases in the couple of years I’ve been paying attention, with around triple the normal number of thumbs-up tracks I normally have in my monthly playlist, and I’m hopelessly behind on the year-end-list catching up I normally try to do in January. Months like this don’t come along often, so fuck brevity, buckle in for a wall of videos:

Though first, to save a smidgen of space, all of these would be on my AotM list but they’ve already been posted in the thread so I’ll skip the video links: Orphaned Land, In Vain, Summoning, Shining, Leaves’ Eyes.

AotM (tie):

  • Ocean of Grief - Nightfall’s Lament (melodic doom/death)
  • Halphas - Dawn of a Crimson Empire (black)

Runners-up

  • Tribulation - Down Below (gothic death ‘n’ roll?)
  • Hamferð - Támsins likam (Faroese funeral doom)
  • Arch Echo - Arch Echo (jazzy instru-metal)
  • Eternal Helcaraxe - In Times of Desperation (epic black)
  • Master Sword - Shadow and Steel (Zelda-themed power)
  • Orphaned Land - Dead Prophets and Unsung Messiahs (prog/folk)
  • In Vain - Currents (prog/melodeath)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZXJm8q3JRQ


Honorable Mentions

  • Summoning - With Doom We Come (atmoblack)
  • Shining - X - Varg Utan Flock (depressive black)
  • Leaves’ Eyes - Sign of the Dragonhead (power)
  • Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed (death/doom)
  • Decaying Days - The Fire of a Thousand Suns (Insomnium-esque melodeath)
  • Witchcryer - Cry Witch (retro doom)
  • Heidevolk - Vuur Van Verzet (folk)
  • Portal - Ion (weird death)
  • Bloodshot Dawn - Reanimation (melodeath)
  • Under Siege (folk/melodeath)
  • Savage Machine - Abandon Earth (Teutonic power)

A lot of good stuff this month! Keen on Portal and Hooded Menace but not had a chance to listen to them yet.

My number one though… the new Abigor! 25 years, 10 albums, and can still be fresh, vital, and remarkable. Great vocal performance from Silenius (Summoning) too.

Abigor - Höllenzwang (Chronicles of Perdition)

So apparently I missed the boat when this launched, but do you guys know about Gimme Radio? Live streaming metal radio (that so far is tending very much to black/death metal) but has Mustaine, Randy Blythe and other people doing guest DJ spots. Free!

But I’m already so far behind on my metalzzzz

Like I’m halfway through the AotM stuff in this thread alone. Drowning!!

Ever jammed to Jag Panzer’s Than to the Throne? Concept album based on MacBeth that I really enjoyed back in the early 00s.

It’s not quite as good as the followup, Mechanized Warfare, but if you dig the story, it’s pretty solid :-D

Sorry for possible double post I am catching up on the awesome recs in this thread and just super excited by music right now ^_^

Some more solid local NC metal I’ve recently uncovered since they joined the same label as one of my other favorite bands, Datura:

Some crushing stoner/sludge metal to pile down on your weak, soft head. They’re doing some shows with the above-mentioned Temptation’s Wings and all I wanna do is quit my job and go (they’re out in western NC and about a 4 hour trip each way :( )

Thanks for the suggestion! I think I like the Rebellion album better, but always nice to hear other literary references.

It’s no Epica/ The Black Halo though. Kamelot A’s epic Faust duo loft that is the only thing that can compete with Blind Guardians Nightfall in Middle Earth as the greatest Work of literary metal ever.

I’ve been listening to SO MUCH Cattle Decapitation lately it isn’t funny. So far their latest album is my favorite. I just love the hooks and growl-harmonies on it.

I’m also really digging on Sceptic Flesh, a band I just discovered a week ago. This is my favorite album from them so far, and something I tend to listen to start to finish every time I put it on.

Goddamn I love Septicflesh so much. They are finally touring the US with Dark Funeral and I am prepped to drive about 4 hours to see it. It’s going to melt universes.

Musician friend of mine introduced me to Harikari for the Sky today. Their new single, “Heroin Waltz,” is pretty potent stuff. new album drops in a little under 2 weeks and despite never having heard of em before, I am now unreasonably excited for it.

I dunno, I think I might have to give that nod to Ahab’s The Call of the Wretched Sea and its sense of sheer ponderous malevolent mass.

And Iron Maiden has to get the lifetime achievement award for literature in metal, what with songs based on The Charge of the Light Brigade, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Dune, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Lord of the Flies, Brave New World, Out of the Silent Planet, etc.

And yes, agreed on both Cattle Decapitation and Harakiri for the Sky.

I’ll raise your Iron Maiden (who are tremendous live, and I love them) with Symphony X

24 minute epic on The Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, Paradise Lost (both a 20 minute song, and a full on concept album), multiple Edgar Alan Poe songs, the myth of Atlantis, Dante’s Inferno, Orpheus

Which is to say that there is a lot of literary metal out there. But as a single translation, I still give Kamelot the nod, though V by Symphony X is a real close one for me.

Another excellent choice!

I’ll take Mastodon’s Moby Dick concept album, Leviathan. And runner up for me would be Iced Earth’s Dark Saga based on the Spawn comics.

Does a concept album based on an RPG count as ‘literary’? Who cares, it’s great! :)

As far as concept albums go, I still love the idea of Saviour Machine’s Legend. I say “idea” because it never got finished.

More operatic than metal, Legend was supposed to tell the entire story of the book of Revelations. I saw much of the first two parts performed live and it was an incredible stage show on top of the music. I still have my “unofficial soundtrack to the end of the world” Legend shirt around someplace.

Originally it was supposed to be done in three parts, and parts I and II went well. Then there was III part 1, with the promise of the remainder soon, and…that was it. Eric Clayton got sick, delays piled up, and the band just kinda faded away. Supposedly he’s talked about reviving the band in the last year or so, but not about finishing up Legend.