Yeah, he looked familiar once I knew these were famous people. Definitely kicking myself.
And argh. Matt Shadows I should have known, as I’m an A7X fan. Grow a little beard and I’m thrown for a loop.
Just played it for my girlfriend, who is 9 years younger than me.
She instantly got everybody except the athletes. Jericho she knew though.
Currently waiting on Hammerfall to go on at a venue in Durham after driving back from the cabin party in TN… This weekend is insane. Dude, Flotsam and Jetsam still got it y’all
That being said, I love the song. But he’s right - without the image a lot of metalheads would hate it.
It’s a bit baffling - Ghost’s music has never appealed to me at all, and though their image is cool it doesn’t make me like the music.
They’re… ok. Not my favorite, but listenable.
However my response to the video @Giles_Habibula posted is… I don’t know that’s true. Certain types of metal heads, maybe, but my experience has been that isn’t really the case. Sound and tone they remind me a lot of 70’s prog and rock bands, particularly things like Blue Oyster Cult. Songs like this
definitely seem to be an inspiration to the sound of Ghost. Or even Styx
And on and on. Stylistically they draw more from that vein than they do from most modern metal. However metal, especially the prog metal branches, have a long tradition of drawing from those bands as well. Bands like Dream Theater, Queensryche, Ayreon, and even Opeth, all are very clearly more ‘metal’, but also have worn those inspirations at times. So fans of those musical traditions opening up to Ghost aren’t suprising, its a all back to those roots.
I mean listen to recent Opeth
Clearly they draw from some of the same wells of inspiration, and I dare you to say Opeth isn’t as metal as they come.
So I reject the idea that their embrace is due to their image. It helps, and certainly it would be less broadly embraced . But I certainly think their is enough crossover in many parts of metal that I think many of those metal people taking in Ghost would perhaps do so without that image.
And I know he does hint at that. I just think he places too much credit on the image, rather than those roots.
Right on. My very first exposure to Ghost was when I heard “From The Pinnacle To The Pit” on the drive to work one day. It immediately caught my ear. Now I gotta confess that I’ve always been a fan of Blue Oyster Cult, so maybe that has something to do with it. I don’t even need to click your BOC video links; I have every note of every BOC song memorized.
So, after I heard Pinnacle, I went home that night and ordered the CD on a whim, not checking any other song first. Then I went to YouTube and watched a concert. And while yeah, it’s true, the visuals (and especially Papa’s speeches) added a LOT to the effect, I was already sold on the music before I’d ever seen them.
Heh, yeah. I mean he mentions BOC in the video. What does he think the metalheads of the 80’s were listening to in the 70’s?
Probably a lot of them listened to BOC.
I can’t say for sure, since I was born in ‘84, but I feel I’m on pretty solid ground there.
Have you heard the album BOC did before they were BOC?
Actually, first they did an album under the name Soft White Underbelly. I don’t believe it was ever released, so I never heard it, but a few of those tracks were re-recorded when they changed their name to Stalk-Forrest Group. This album finally got released on CD by Rhino Records back in 2001. 5,000 were made, each one numbered. The recording quality is actually quite excellent, considering it was originally recorded in 1970.
Edit: Oh wow, I see it got a reissue, so it can be had very reasonably now.
I’ve listened to Danse Macabre about 20 times in 2 days. This is such a good song.
Eddie Trunk is mental. He’s going to question Ghost in one bit then do 20 minutes about the glory days of Enuff Z’nuff?
I was really digging Stoicism’s Behind the Sun this morning. Some good proggy black metal, done-up by one dude in Jersey:
So Kamelot just released a new music video for their latest album
Love the cyberpunk setting. Tommy has grown into the role, and it seems good so far. But The Black Halo is hard to top, and I’m beginning to think nothing they make ever will.
Great pics!
Thank you!!
TBH, it’s been a pretty fucking awesome month or two of concerts. Now that I’m on PC and can properly spoiler-tag shit without killing the whole thread.
Then Kobra and the Lotus came to town on a headlining date during a gap in their larger tour backing up Texas Hippie Coalition. We had a ton of local acts open up, but my fave by far is Raimee, a sort of gothy hard-rock act. They’re babies!!
Then Kobra and the Lotus themselves, who were just amazing live. I have no idea how such an enormous voice comes out of such a tiny woman in Kobra Paige, but goddamn son. Tons of charisma, and seeing them in our local dive bar venue 3 minutes from my house from stage-side was something else, man.
Hammerfall came to town a week ago or so. Local fun-rockers Mecha Bull opened! And then gave us boffer swords for a circle of death!
Someone dug up the desiccated corpses of Flotsam and Jetsam and made them play for like 45 minutes.
Before the Hammer finally. . . fell? Whatever, they were fucking awesome!
Last night was Aeternam, Ghost Ship Octavius, Orphaned Land, and Tyr at a small brewery a few hours north of here. It was almost the best show evarrr except the brewery only had a couple of cheapo presentation speakers, one of which blew out 5 songs into Tyr’s set–the one that rhythm guitar and lead vocals were wired into :-/
I’ll try to get shots up from that sometime, but for now, work calls!
Thank you, @Thraeg! I am really loving the quality I am pulling out of my new S9+. I’m still nowhere in the same zip code as a ballpark of a true photographer given my poor composition, timing, etc., but it’s been fun having a higher quality camera with me at these shows to help create some lasting memories. With my lack of visual/aural imagination, the pix and videos are my best way to hanging onto these moments. . . and sharing them with y’all :)
Alrighty, some shots from the show last night at a tiny brewery venue.
Place has a pretty cool vibe, TBH, even if their sound system is shit-fuck terrible.
One of my favorite albums from last year was Aeternam’s Ruins of Empires, and they didn’t disappoint playing live. I got a really shite video of “Damascus Gate” :-D
I hadn’t heard much from these guys ahead of the show, but knew that they had some vox that were almost Jorn Lande-esque. They did not disappoint, though my buddy Richard was sad they didn’t douse the audience in faux-snow like they did on 70k Tons of Metal. I did catch a drumstick from them with my face, but gave it to Richard, since he was a big fan :)
A band I’ve tried over and over to get into over the years (I even really dig the middle eastern folk metal vibes of other groups like Myrath), but just couldn’t get a handle on until their latest album, 2018’s Unsung Prophets & Dead Messiahs. Hansi probably helped out with that. Nonetheless, learning a little more about their mission of togetherness and the struggles they’ve faced was pretty inspiring, and their stage presence was absolutely mesmerizing. Awesome set.
I fucking love Tyr, as I’m sure that both @AdamB and @CraigM can attest to. Finally, finally, finally getting to see them live was genuinely gonna be one of the highlights of my year. . . until the goddamned speakers failed and we lost basically everything except for bass and drums for the last 60% of their set. Ughhhh. But their energy, charisma, talent, and badassery came through nonetheless. . . along with some really funny moments, like when they donned cowboy hats, played “Born in the USA,” and said “Darn tootin’” a lot.
May 2018 Albums of the Month
It’s been another solid month of releases, particularly for atmospheric black metal. Here are my highlights – what stood out to you guys?
Steel
Iron
Bronze
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS7KL35tBWU
