rolling 2024 heavy metal and boutique blast beat thread

Bow before Hoplites!

https://hoplites.bandcamp.com/album/--8

This is a Massive Breakthrough ftr

Here's a list of things I endeavor to listen to.

https://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/419722320_10168737295070597_8711372815624815562_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=3635dc&_nc_ohc=sCHcx2wOOecAX9RE7lI&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.xx&oh=00_AfAqkiZtyHIbQwxLdCYq59sQlY0rRI2-9JUxwXZ-IAyThw&oe=65A8B922

I blacked out the non-metal ones; you can guess what they are.
Not as trve or cult as other things here but I listen to those things as well.

anybody got a favorite site for researching older tour itineraries for indie/small-theater/club level artists? setlist.fm is very cool but it doesn’t include dates no one had a setlist for, and I need to play games with drive times and off-days

I'm not sure if there is a better resource than setlist.fm, I'd be curious to hear if anyone knows of anything. Undoubtedly there are probably some artist-specific tour sites that show old itineraries, but not sure if there's another collective place.

I have seen dates listed on setlist.fm for some bands, even if there are no setlists - for example this Boris show I saw at Empty Bottle back in 2008 is listed, but no setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/boris/2008/empty-bottle-chicago-il-3bd68c38.html

New Vemod is out. It's good!

It came out towards the end of last year, but I'm still finding new things to enjoy in this Baring Teeth album:
https://everythingisnoise.net/reviews/baring-teeth-the-path-narrows/

I was a huge fan of the progressive turn Lord Dying took with their last album and the new one continues in that vein, though it isn't quite as great. Got a whole new rhythm section, including Alyssa Maucere (Matt Pike's wife) on bass.

The new Vitriol album, Suffer & Become, is absolutely kicking my ass this Friday afternoon. Face-punching death metal of the Vader/Vital Remains/Hate Eternal school...totally merciless. Blast beats and roars and dissonant guitar squiggles and Tom G. Warrior-esque "URGH"s. Loving it.

One of the reasons this album kicks as much ass as it does is that Matt Kilner (aka Nithing) is on drums.

Yeah the drumming is incredible

Spun a few tracks from the Dissimulator debut Lower Form Resistance on 20 Buck Spin and I can dig it. It’s being sold as tech-thrash and I can tell what they’re going for with that description.

ok yeah this vitriol rips

its sort of a given here (mostly) but this thing really is heavy. esp when it slows down a little. also loving the solos and the parts where “i am the black wizards” keys pop up.

It's atmospheric as hell and there's an assload of stuff going on that's going to require several listens to fully appreciate.

Their riffs are so angular

I love the new Lucifer.

Hooky af and Johanna's vocals are still great as always.

Opening track seriously slaps

i checked out that vitriol album now i'm a fan.. i'm still pretty confused about what i'm hearing but it's definitely exciting me. plus the singer is hot.

Anybody who knows what the hell is going on in Spain, let me know, because all of a sudden I am waist-deep in totally rockin' power/trad/speed metal bands from Spain that sound like Accept, like Judas Priest circa 1979, like...everything good in life. This is Savaged:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0032148295_10.jpg

Their debut album Night Stealer has songs called "Tons of Leather," "Knights of Metal," "Stealing the Night" and "Running for Your Love (Tonight)." They rule.

https://savaged.bandcamp.com/album/night-stealer

I've also been listening to Iron Curtain's Savage Dawn, their fifth album (and first since 2019), and they do the same type of thing, but maybe even a little speedier, in an early Motörhead/Tank mode:

https://ironcurtainattack.bandcamp.com/album/savage-dawn

I need more of this stuff!

Anybody know how fashy Unaussprechlichen Kulten is or isn't? New one is the sorta of weird chewy death metal I like ... buuuuut it's on Iron Bonehead

and I feel like naming yrself after a Lovecraft thing is distinctly unhelpful, coz, y’know, you can been into the Mythos because tentacled horrors from beyond space are cool .... or because of what the dude named his cat 🙄

My big Bandcamp Friday splurge this month is the whole discography of Lady Beast, a Pittsburgh, PA trad/power metal band who've been around for like 15 years but I just discovered them tonight. I bought a compilation of their first two albums and an EP, their third and fourth albums, and another EP, all for about $20. If you're a fan of Crystal Viper, Christian Mistress, Huntress, and other trad/power metal bands with female singers, this will be your kind of thing.

https://ladybeast.bandcamp.com/

oooh a rainbow cover!

Best album credits of 2024 so far:

L.B. - Six Strings of Doomed Dementia
B.P. - Six More Strings of Delirium, Choir of Madness
L.V.L. - 4 Chthonic Vibrations of the Earth, Blower of the Blossoming Horn, Choir of Blasphemy
T.H. - Beater of Skins from the Depths of Hades to the Heights of Olympus
N.C. - Invocator of the Primordial Fire and Spells of Enchantment

From Dionysiaque's Diogonos, out next month on I, Voidhanger (of course).

I'd been off and on trying to fill a countries-of-the-world bingo card with music and movies to listen/watch, and this thread has been pretty great -- what's the most obscure country or region where you've found metal gems?

sorry this is not exactly within the focus of this thread, but i'm not sure where else to post it. i've been really into that vitriol album, and wanting to know what else sounds like it, i asked my partner's metalhead nephew what else i should check out. i had never heard and now really like hate eternal. i'd never heard gorguts. i like it ("colored sands") but i think i should probably try an earlier record.

he told me he hadn't really listened to them but that he keeps hearing about deathspell omega. so i copped "the last defeat" and oh my fucking GOD it's completely blowing me away. it's just the best thing ever.

I liked some of Deathspell Omega's earlier stuff - Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice and Fas - Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum - but vocalist Mikko Aspa is both a Nazi and a pedophile, so...

ah shit

xpost - unperson, have you heard that Dionusiaque album yet? was considering ordering it with some other stuff from I, Voidhanger but was wondering if it was worth it.

I haven't listened to the whole thing, but the two tracks streaming on Bandcamp are pretty good — I like the prominence of the bass.

Cool, thanks. I liked those two, was just curious if the whole thing held up like that. Usually try to bundle a few things when I order from them since shipping is pretty high.

If there's one thing everyone in the music industry knows, it's Do Not Tempt The Wrath Of Sharon Fucking Osbourne. I almost feel sorry for Kanye West.

. @kanyewest ASKED PERMISSION TO SAMPLE A SECTION OF A 1983 LIVE PERFORMANCE OF “WAR PIG” FROM THE US FESTIVAL WITHOUT VOCALS & WAS REFUSED PERMISSION BECAUSE HE IS AN ANTISEMITE AND HAS CAUSED UNTOLD HEARTACHE TO MANY. HE WENT AHEAD AND USED THE SAMPLE ANYWAY AT HIS ALBUM…

— Ozzy Osbourne (@OzzyOsbourne) February 9, 2024

In case the tweet doesn't populate:

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:izxpomdyri45gzhppiiyattq/bafkreigvbgkxbklnjpotts5phxt3zrklo43fgowdsscyi2etulmqmpvgwy@jpeg

Was it Iron Maiden that she had people throw eggs at because they outplayed Ozzy at one of his festivals? She should start that up again.

There's a new Chapel of Disease album out today:

https://chapelofdisease.bandcamp.com/album/echoes-of-light

I liked their last one (...And As We Have Seen The Storm, We Have Embraced The Eye, released in 2018) a lot, so this was an instant purchase for me.

got the apartment to myself (well, myself and some sleepy cats), so taking the opportunity to loudly try out the new spectral voice (along with the new kali malone, which is metal adjacent and quite good). i love their demos comp and some of their splits, liked the first full-length tho thought it dragged a bit, and am pretty on board with the new one midway thru. currently at the big payoff moment in “sinew censer” 😈

they def lean more into the disembowelment sound than most of their contemporaries in the very crowded death doom field, which i enjoy

is this band really hyped or something? blood incantation connection? a quick glance at the bandcamp and rym comments is showing more negativity than expected from - i’m guessing - young skeptic types

I need to hear the new Kali Malone before I buy it. I like her organ stuff but this one seems like it might be a little too...active?

i had the same concern looking at the (long-ish) tracklist but the shorter choir pieces work as interludes for me and compliment the longer, slower organ drone tracks well imo

New Coffins album March 29! The first song is so gross (in the best way). I swear their guitar tone gives me literal chills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6FS5br7MYY

new Necrowretch is really solid blackened death, though it really does lean more on the blackened side

Always happy for more Coffins!

me too. i think Joan Chachi got me into them in one of these rolling metal threads back in the day

Yeah, they're one of those bands I never think about, but whenever I listen to them — especially Buried Death, the first record I heard by them — they give me such pure, simple pleasure. They've really achieved perfection in their sound.

Yeah I wish Buried Death was still in print, I missed that one but have followed them since.

other side of blasphemy -> buried death is my personal coffins sweet spot, but yeah, its all very enjoyable. there isn't a lot that you can count on in this world anymore but you can count on coffins, thats for sure.

This Rolling Stone interview with Kerry King surprised me. I've never read any interviews with him, because he's always given the impression of being kind of a steakhead, and I've never interviewed him myself (though I've talked to Tom Araya and Dave Lombardo). Anyway, Kerry King is not who I thought he was.

And the first single from his solo album (which has Mark Osugueda of Death Angel on vocals, Phil Demmel of Machine Head on guitar, Kyle Sanders on bass, and Paul Bostaph on drums) is surprisingly good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOwFC56MQgA

That's a really great piece on King, and the new track is really good. Mark from Death Angel really steps up on vocals, wow.

And meanwhile, new High on Fire, at long last!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHOj0O-qkC8

New single from Unleash the Archers! New album in May!

https://open.spotify.com/track/3PFhTnE0mWxkDOOhHDw3ua?si=e4d3f78f534a4021

Given some teases the other day, sounds like a new Witch Vomit might be announced today as well.

Definitely ready for HoF!

yup re: witch vomit

https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/funeral-sanctum

i'm taking one of my spawn to see xentrix tonight. i know nothing about xentrix. excited though!

Oh man. I saw Xentrix at the Marquee sometime in the 90s. I remember two things: 1) Dennis Gasser's hair 2) diving off a bass bin *over* the pit and landing square on my bollocks on the sweaty cement floor. I somehow escaped serious injury.

haha ouch! 'doing a chinaski' definitely not in my plans, but it looks like dennis gasser is still in the band though i think his hair retired some time ago

No word on when it will be released, but apparently Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull is a guest on "three or four tracks" from the upcoming Opeth album.

You could not pay me enough money to be within 1000 yards of that crowd of knuckleheads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIqcEiaOpM8

probably not gonna get much love here (not knocking ilm, i get it, besides which their current sound kinda lurks between deathcore and nu-metal) but i'm soooo excited for the new kittie record

I don't need to hear a whole album, but that's a good song. Their current lead guitarist is pretty good. I still remember meeting them at Irving Plaza in 2001, opening for Disturbed; the sisters' dad was there with them.

all of the new (nu?) kittie tracks have been cool. I'm also looking forward to it!

I am admittedly very picky when it comes to what I like and don’t like about metal; I’m definitely out of step with the genre overall.

Nevertheless! The band that consistently does everything exactly in line with my tastes is Ufomammut. Their new album today is GREAT. Since last year they’d released 4 out of the 6 songs here but they all sound better as part of a sequenced whole. Absolutely loving it.

Ufomammut is band I thought about with the Albini discussion, but I dunno if it would work because of the laptop loops they play along with. The electronic flourishes are more forward on this one, I think. Which I love.

I saw this on Twitter and pulled it up on Tidal mostly because I thought it would suck and I could move quickly on, feeling superior to people I saw praising it. Well, it fucking rules. Ten Ton Slug, Colossal Oppressor. Get some.

https://tentonslug.bandcamp.com/album/colossal-oppressor

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3691132613_10.jpg

that slug looks like it would weigh more than 10 tons.

Didn't you know? Slugs have hollow bones, which is why/how they can fly.

This Ten Ton Slug is fun. Some great grooves.

Kerry King album is kind of what I felt like when I heard the shit live a week ago. not terribly exciting.

Mark Osegueda can be REALLY annoying when he overdoes it, even on Death Angel songs, and he's in his worst tendencies here, over-elocuting/over-emoting to the point of cheese.

some of the songs are decent but literally nobody would give a fuck about this if it wasn't KK. not to say it's bad. there's good moments here and there. but live, we felt a bit letdown and halfway through this disc, it's kinda confirming it wasn't just 'festival fatigue'.

btw, for Nocturnus AD fans, they put out a (not very well-publicized) new one. i haven't gotten to all of it yet but...in case you are a fan of og Nocturnus's "The Key", it's still in that vein

I listened to about 2/3 of the Kerry King album earlier and...the cover art looks like a streaming service's "modern metal" playlist, and that's kinda what the album sounds like. Kerry and a bunch of thrash lifers doing songs that aren't quite as good as Slayer songs, but frequently sound close enough to make you perk your head up for a second. And Osugueda is trying really hard to sound like Tom Araya on several tracks. But I gotta admit, when I heard his guitar on the opening instrumental, it almost gave me the same thrill I used to get from classic Slayer.

Heresiarch - Edifice
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4232526190_10.jpg
Doesn't totally sound like Ulcerate, but the vocals remind me of them--great riffs IMO, RIYL the blast sections in Formulas/Gateways-era Morbid Angel but also the suffocating Aussie/NZ 'war metal' sound I assume? (Still v much a metal newb, pls forgive me)
https://heresiarchofficial.bandcamp.com/album/edifice

Melanie Loves Death Metal review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_pqeyf-fh8
The-reviewer-formerly-known-as-Grizzly-Butts review (now Mystification Zine): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4qzAOJ50ks

The new Unleash the Archers album is great, and if that’s your kind of thing, check out the new Elvellon album, too.

Update: the Nocturnus AD is great and you should listen. Little more leaning into the cosmic stuff and slightly less death. Browning speaks lyrics often on this one.

But it's not a great departure.

Also enjoying the new Pallbearer, which is somewhat shoegazy in comparison to older Pallbearer

that heresiarch album is great

was almost turned off enough not to check out the new Vale of Pnath because metalheads were calling it 'symphonic deathcore' and comparing it to Lorna Shore (one person compared it to Dummy Burger, which was completely wrong), but on listening to half of it thus far, I actually like it a lot? it's more black metally, less techy.

I find the deathcore label completely wrong, there's no breakdowns, nor are the vocals deathcore, nor did Lorna Shore invent the pairing of symphonic music with death metal. but I'm the wrong guy to talk LS with, I feel like their music sounds like it was created by AI and has zero human touch at all.

i caught vitriol on tuesday night. great show. their stage presence at the start was very "pro metal guys" but they revealed over the course of the set that at heart they're sensitive and ambitious. kyle broke a string halfway through which threw them off a bit but they finished strong. matt kilner's drumming is something to behold.

oh killer! would love to see them live

There
is
a
new

Nightwish

song.

Nightwish has gotten so wackadoodle, the campiness is off the charts, and I kind of LIKE this song because of that? I mean, this is utterly ridonkulous.

Just sounds great to me.

I couldn't claim to have ever been the most diligent Death fan, but I had a free evening yesterday and checked the concert calendar to see that Death to All was doing the second of two nights here. I admit I bought the ticket thinking I was going to see Cryptopsy, too, but at least half the information sources noted correctly that they weren't doing this date. NJ thrash-metal band Morbid Cross handled warm-up with admirable destructive glee. Death to All were tremendous, playing all of The Sound of Perseverance and a bunch of other mostly-later Death stuff. I read Choosing Death recently (also recommended), so the whole original scene had been on my mind again. DTA would sound like a dubious premise in most other contexts: former members of a band whose only constant member has been dead for longer than the band existed, playing songs that in many cases they weren't individually involved in creating at all, and certainly not together, with a singer who was never in the band. I would not pay to see Doobie Brothers To All. But these guys all have other bands, and the will to keep Chuck's music alive live in the world justifies this parallel project pretty well. Worth a night if your schedule and theirs line up.

I love Death to All because it's just basically a warm "we love and miss you, Chuck" experience. The band always sounding great helps too.

The best version of it that I saw wasn't actually officially Death to All, but a two day Death tribute that was attended by the surviving Schuldiners on the 20th anniversary of his death.

They had a mini-museum in the back featuring his guitars, pedals, original handwritten lyric sheets, as well as other odds and ends. And James Murphy was present.

I've never seen Death To All but their existence always reminds me of a show I went to, fuck, almost 20 years ago now. It was a whole night of tech-death bands, and one of them ended their set by saying, "We've only got one song left. We know an Atheist cover and a Death cover. Let's have a vote!" (The Atheist cover won.) The whole thing was...charming, is the only word I can come up with.

yo if i really like the new heseriarch album, what else new or old should i check out?

err heresiarch

RIYL the new Heresiarch album (IMO):

Incantation - Unholy Deification
Pneuma Hagion - Demiurge
Aeviterne - The Ailing Facade
Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still
Portal - Avow (the U.S. Maple of this shit, kinda/vaguely?)
VoidRot - Descending Pillars
Of Feather And Bone - Sulfuric Disintegration
Altarage - The Approaching Roar

New Nile album in August, for those who like Nile. I'm not a big fan; saw them once and they bored me senseless. But anyway, the new song is called "Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes," so there's that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmwqMQ2g0NQ

Reasons To Be Grateful Brutal

Really liking this new album from Belgian thrashy/heavy/power metal group Scavenger. Energetic old-school 80s stuff. The funny thing is that Scavenger has a previous album from 1985, and re-formed in 2018, but the original members left, so the current band has no membership overlap with the 80s band.

https://scavenger1985.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-bells

Defacement (whose previous S/T album back in 2021 bore one of the most artfully gory metal covers in recent memory IMO) return with Duality, out in full on July 30th: https://totaldissonanceworship.bandcamp.com/album/duality

MEEEEMORIIIIIES
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1502519686_10.jpg

whoa, that defacement preview track is really something! I hope there's at least one more epic on there when the whole thing gets released