Sonny's Forum Replies
Hi Ben, please add Schattenvald (Germany) and Eneferens (US).
Hi again, Ben. Could you please add Space God Ritual (US), Iron Void (UK), Funeral Horse (US), Sabel (Sweden) and Endless Floods (France).
... sorry, and Serpent Noir (Greece).
Nobody embodies black metal better than Fenriz and Nocturno Culto. Even after all this time they don't bow down to anyone and just keep making the music they want, the way they want. Natassja in Eternal Sleep is one of, if not the greatest track in Black Metal. This isn't just track of the day, it is track of any day!
Hi Ben, could you also add All Hell (US).
Obsidian Tongue: Volume III on Bindrune releasaed 31/01/20.
Epic and atmospheric black metal from a severely underrated US duo.
Preview track Return to the Fields of Violet:
Ben, could you please add Obsidian Tongue (US).
Great call for '74, Tymell. Burn is one hell of a track, certainly one of Purple's best and definitely the best album David Coverdale ever recorded.
Compiling a list like this it's great to see how Metal has ballooned in popularity and availability. Obviously for most of the 70's there are very few choices, especially for the early years, but as the time rolled by those choices become harder and harder. It's almost impossible to choose an absolute favourite from some years - 1986 for example, Reign in Blood, Master of Puppets, Peace Sells, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, Darkness Descends, Pleasure to Kill and In the Darkness (Paul Chain) - tough decision indeed.
Are we including live albums here Sonny?
Hey man, it's your list, include whatever you want...
Yyyyeeeaaaahhhhh….. I love this shit so I'll be getting mine together. By the way.... "Kill 'Em All" was 1983. Not 1981.
You know what, I have no idea why I put Kill 'em All down for '81. I actually meant to put my favourite Iron Maiden album, Killers. Must have had some sort of brain freeze (it happens as you get older, you know!!)
Hi Ben again. Sorry, but could you add Italian bands Black Capricorn, Zolfo, Bretus, Hands of Orlac, Messa and Temple of Pain.
Hi Ben, I guess you forgot, but any chance you could add these, please?
Panopticon's 20 minute tribute to his young son after he underwent major heart surgery.
Awesome and epic atmospheric black metal from one of the genre's premier exponents.
Now this is my kind of record store...
Ben, I would say give it a try. Like you, I shied away from Boris for the longest time, but gave this album a go a couple of years ago and found it reasonably accessible. It's probably fair to say that this is pretty much entry-level for drone metal, not really being too extreme - it's certainly not Khanate. Loud, heavy, feedback-drenched psych jams and post-rock sections contrast with it's sustained droning chords for a nice variation in sonic textures. As much a sensation to be experienced as it is music to be listened to.
Agvirre - Silence EP released 24/01/20 on Trepanation Recordings.
Atmospheric Black Metal incorporating strings, electronics and plenty of post-metal stylings for an interesting new release.
Ben, could you please add Hazzerd (Canada).
Hazzerd - Delirium Released January 24th on M-Theory.
Great old-school thrash in the vein of mid-80's Anthrax with some serious shredding solos.
Puritanical Masochism - heavy as hell death doom / sludge metal from Danish all-female four-piece Konvent, released 24th January on Napalm Records.
Ah, the joy of brotherly love / sibling rivalry!
Hi Ben again. Sorry, but could you add Italian bands Black Capricorn, Zolfo, Bretus, Hands of Orlac, Messa and Temple of Pain.
Zolfo - Delusion Of Negation
Released Friday January 24th on Spikerot Records.
Ridiculously heavy and desperate-sounding sludge metal from Italy.
Hi Ben, could you please add Mouth of Oceans, Apostle of Solitude, Landskap and Dopelord.
Vengeful Spectre - 殞煞 (Vengeful Spectre) Released January 15th 2020
Melodic Black Metal from Guangdong Province that incorporates chinese folk music to truly devastating effect.
If you want something new in folk-influenced black metal then I strongly urge you to give this a listen - I mean just look at that cover, epic!
Grey Skies Fallen - Cold Dead Lands out Friday 24th January.
Impressively epic progressive doom from New York if this preview track is anything to go by.
Ah, good point, Ben. I hadn't considered that.
Album's out on Friday, so not long to wait, anyway!
Ben, please add Ether Coven (aka Ether) (USA) and Konvent (Denmark).
Sludge / Doom from German husband and wife duo Grin
Released 17/01/20 and available on Bandcamp
Heavy without being overbearingly crushing and the psych overtones add a positivity to the album's atmosphere. If I had to describe it in a couple of words, I would call it space sludge, a melding of the vastness of space psych with a dense sludge core.
Official video for the track Orbital Grace:
Sludge / Doom from Ballymena's Elder Druid
Released 17/01/20 and available on Bandcamp
These songs are veritable monsters, the riffs are huge sludgy slabs of doom over miles-thick foundations laid down by the bass and drums, that crush all before them mercilessly and leave a wrung out husk behind. (4/5)
Official video for the track Golgotha:
I know where you're coming from MacabreEternal. My 2019 list on RYM has over 400 albums on it (that I've listened to, 700 in total) and these types of lists can take on a life of their own, becoming a chore more than an enjoyment as you force yourself obsessively to listen to more and more, the majority being terribly mediocre, in the search for the odd gem, ultimately turning you into a jaded cynic rather than someone fully engaged and enjoying listening to metal for it's own sake. The Clan Challenges have been brilliant at reminding me what I love about metal and where I should direct my energies and what I should let go, so thanks to Ben and Daniel for that!
Ben, would it be possible to add Grin (Germany) and Elder Druid (Belfast)?
Nice one with the chance to filter by releases we've rated, Ben.
Now it's a lot easier to compile those pesky lists of "favourite death doom albums released in 2002" and so on. Essential for me - as anyone who's seen my many lists on RYM may attest!
Brilliant three-track EP of stoner doom telling a cosmic tale of wizards and dragons.
Heavy stoner sh*t, highly recommended for fans of Ogre, Sleep etc.
Thanks everyone and good luck on all your own clan challenges!
Really looking forward to seeing how everyone gets on.
Hi Ben, could you please add Kurse from Canada, their new EP is stoner doom heaven for fans of Ogre, Sleep, Electric Wizard etc.
Also Dukatalon from Israel - their new album is currently sitting at #1 on my 2020 list!
Just completed The Fallen's Doom Metal - The Modern Era challenge and am exhausted!
I have given a bit of thought to what I would choose as my fourth clan, in addition to my current Fallen, North and Pit lineup and I may well be with Daniel on this one. I would probably choose between The Guardians or The Horde, but I'm not sure if my contributions would help because, although I love a lot of bands that fall under either clans auspices, there are sub-genres I struggle with in both. In The Guardians I've made no secret of my dislike of power metal and bands like Manowar I find a bit embarrasing, to be honest. Under The Horde umbrella I can't take to brutal death metal and it's often ridiculous violence-worship and technical dm leaves me cold in most cases.
Still, I've got two more monster challenges to complete before we cross that bridge, so here's to a challenging 2020...
Wow, Ben wasn't kidding when he said these were going to be a challenge!
However, I believe I have completed the Doom Metal - The Modern Era challenge at last.
Really enjoyed it, got back into some albums I've not played for a while and found some I've not heard before. I don't find writing reviews particularly easy and it can be quite mentally tiring, albeit very rewarding, so I think I'll take a break before embarking on my next challenge, - The North and The Pit await...
Ben, could you please add 1914 (Ukraine), Gaoth (Ireland) and Crom Dubh (UK).
Ah, thanks for that Ben, I was expecting it to filter the list, I didn't notice the selected user's ratings coming up under mine.
Nice feature.
I decided to start the new year by moving out of my comfort zone and starting January's feature releases with a clan beyond my chosen three and a style of metal I'm less familiar with, so I thought I'd send some love The Sphere's way and checked out Ministry's Psalm 69. I'm not a complete newbie when it comes to Ministry (although pretty close) - I bought their Houses of the Molé album not long after it's release in 2004, after hearing NO"W" somewhere (I was always up for a bit of George W bashing!) It was kind of OK, but I've not listened to it in ages. Psalm 69, however, is a much better album with energetic and at times thrashy songs and that beefy drum sound battering away in the background like a jackhammer. It's also fairly apparent that Al Jourgensen is a guy with a sense of humour (and a sense of the absurd too, I'm guessing), I mean just listen to Jesus Built My Hotrod for fuck's sake - crazy! My personal favourite is Scarecrow which, to my grizzled old ears, sounds like a mash-up of Zep's When the Levee Breaks and The Smiths How Soon Is Now? There is a couple of misfires - I didn't like TVII or the racket of Grace, but tracks like NWO, Just One Fix and Hero kind of raised the bar on Industrial Metal as far as my listening experience is concerned.
So, nice one Daniel, excellent choice. Just goes to show - you can teach an old dog new tricks!
Is #1 fully implemented yet Ben, as it doesn't seem to be working for me?
Nice improvements, Ben. The clan links are likely to be particularly useful.
I like that I can see how many releases for a particular clan I've rated too - let's me know how much there's still to do!
Good idea to hide the empty users from the clan list too - will be especially relevant as the number of users increases, I would think. I assume if one of those users starts rating they will then become visible?
Nice one, Daniel - a great ep this one. Proper evil-sounding thrash.
Managed to pick up an original vinyl copy last summer too!
Agreed. Grindcore through and through.
Yeah, try and stick with it. It can only get better as more people get involved (and it's pretty good already!)
Hi Ben, please add:
Vin de mia Trix
Grey Gallows
Wolvserpent
Meth Drinker
Whelm
Obed Marsh
Hi Shezma. Have you tried YouTube? They are usually very good for finding obscure metal albums.
Unfortunately, unless they have had recent re-releases, early black metal albums can be quite expensive to buy on sites like Discogs or Amazon. Always worth looking though!
Ben, could you please add the new Cianide MLP, Unhumanized. It's killer!
I agree with Daniel that your scoring system needs to be consistent and like most of you, for me a 3.5 is really a minimum for an album to be on my radar beyond the first couple of listens. A 3 isn't a stinker, but it's not that good either. I also like to feel my rating system is absolute, in that it holds for all genres of music, so a rating of 0.5 is for absolute shit that I really can't stand, probably the likes of Justin Bieber, Crazy Frog or some other crime against music. A 0.5 or 1.0 is only meted out to metal albums on extremely rare occasions ( Adema and Atreyu are the only metal bands that I've ever given 0.5s to). I do try to listen to a lot of new releases and for most I prefer at least a couple of listens before forming a judgement, although I refuse to suffer again through albums I'm fairly sure after a single listen I'm not interested in. I also like to return to albums and reassess them at a later time, as sometimes they can sound better or worse when approached with fresh ears (and possibly a different mental attitude). In truth, the ratings we give albums is probably always going to be fluid as our tastes and attitudes change and as we are exposed to new music. I'm 57 years old now and there's no way my view of certain albums is the same as it was forty years ago when I was a 17 year old kid! If you remember that your ratings need never be set in stone and, in fact, it's a good thing if they change, then there's no need to sweat it too much.
Hi Ben, sorry but could you also add Monolithe's brilliant new album OKTA KHORA (it was released on digital in November whatever RYM says!)
Hi Ben, could you add Dödsrit (Sweden) and Dusk (Hungary) please.