The Official Metal Topic

[-Windrider-]

So dang, okay, The Fall of Hearts, The Great Mass, and The Sham Mirrors are sitting in my Amazon cart thing.

 

Oh, Windrider, totally forgot to mention it last time, but you should definitely check out The Sham Mirrors by Arcturus as well. Phenomenal progressive metal album, with elements of avant-garde, symphonic and black metal. Has a great dark ethereal atmosphere and great compositions. Their keyboardist is a classically trained pianist, and they make great use of his talents.

 

I should ask - and bring it over from the other topic - I have Mastodon's Leviathan, and it's pretty great, so how does Crack the Skye compare?

[Queen of Liars]

Crack the Skye is less heavy and a lot more proggy, with long and winding songs. Still fairly heavy and has the same great riffing and other general Mastodon goodness, but goes for more of an ethereal feel (since conceptually it's supposed to represent the element of aether). Personally, Crack the Skye is by far my favourite Mastodon album.

[Laughing Man]

So dang, okay, The Fall of Hearts, The Great Mass, and The Sham Mirrors are sitting in my Amazon cart thing.

 

it's more expensive but I would recommend the CD/DVD digibook edition of The Fall of Hearts if possible. beautiful packaging and the bonus track "Vakaren" is one of my favorite songs on the album.

[-Windrider-]

it's more expensive but I would recommend the CD/DVD digibook edition of The Fall of Hearts if possible. beautiful packaging and the bonus track "Vakaren" is one of my favorite songs on the album.

 

 

Oh nice, I saw that! Usually I'm pretty wary of bonus tracks, and like to get editions without them when possible, but this could be an exception.

[Laughing Man]

Katatonia is pretty renown for the high quality of most of their B-sides and bonus tracks, a lot of which have become fan-favorite songs. "Unfurl", for example, was a B-side on the "July" single and it's one of their most popular songs which they play live on occasion.

 

if you decide to get anything else by them, in pretty much every case I'd honestly recommend going for a version with bonus tracks. the various reissues and 10th anniversary editions are the way to go, with the exception of their first album which just has some demo tracks as bonuses.

 

if you want to get their album The Great Cold Distance at any point (it's my personal favorite of theirs), I'd wait until later in the year as they're supposed to be reissuing it for its 10th anniversary sometime soon. the reissue will undoubtedly include "Unfurl", which as mentioned before, is pretty much a must-have.

[-Windrider-]

Totally ordered the version you linked and The Great Mass. Gonna hold off on the other for now until I actually get a chance to listen some more.

[Laughing Man]

popping in to express my frustration at the news that Dirk Verbeuren has left Soilwork to join friggin Megadeth. what a massive waste of talent.

[Bambi]

...

Sigh.

Wonder how long before he's out.

[Johnny Truant]

popping in to express my frustration at the news that Dirk Verbeuren has left Soilwork to join friggin Megadeth. what a massive waste of talent.

 

aw jeez

 

i wish dave didnt suck all the life out of his drummers playing

 

 

 

 

 

 

no pun intended, i totally did not mean that cuz of...you know, nick menza...

 

just...megadeth smothers good drummers and i dont know why but i feel like its daves fault

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

Oh Megadeth's drumming isn't that bad.

 

Anyway, I just got around to listening to The Book of Souls album from last year and I'm loving it.

 

And aside from The Unguided, Anthrax, and Megadeth, I haven't really heard many new albums from this year, any recommendations?

 

Also new Evergrey single coming out on July 28th and new album in September (pretty excited)

[Laughing Man]

Oh Megadeth's drumming isn't that bad.

 

nah it's pretty mediocre, especially since Dave does (as Johnny Truant said) have a tendency to hold the other members back.

 

either way though: Dirk Verbeuren is simply too good for them. he's one of the most highly acclaimed, technically proficient and talented drummers in all of metal right now and he was allowed to shine in Soilwork. his playing style is simply too complex and too different for Megadeth's songwriting. unless they completely rewrite the drum parts for the bulk of their material to accommodate his playing, he will be held back and that's an absolute waste of talent.

 

 

 

as for 2016 releases: check out The Fall of Hearts by Katatonia, Arktis by Ihsahn, Terminal Redux by Vektor, Ursa by Novembre, Seraphical Euphony by Hyperion, and Magma by Gojira.

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

New Epica song released recently. Definitely worth checking out. I personally find them to be the best group in the symphonic metal genre and one of the few to actually live up to the metal expectation and not just noodle around with the orchestral arrangements.

[Bambi]

Just ordered my tickets to see Fallujah and Between the Buried and Me in September~

I'm happy it's a local show I'm going to this time around lol.

[Laughing Man]

Deafheaven is touring with Slipknot

 

I don't know why this is so hilarious to me

[Bambi]

The Agony Scene added a new photo on Facebook!!

 

 

Not really much of anything, but it's great to see a sign of life after over a year of silence~

[Laughing Man]

yup, just came here to post about that, haha

 

let the rampant speculation begin

[Johnny Truant]

Deafheaven is touring with Slipknot

 

I don't know why this is so hilarious to me

 

hahahaha whut 

 

those are two very different kinds of fans

 

although i am a big fan of both

 

 

 

man i really wanna go

[Laughing Man]

blackgaze is the new nu-metal I guess

 

speaking of which I've been on a Korn kick lately and I don't know why

[Johnny Truant]

lol

 

cuz korn is awesome and their new single aint bad either, i mean its no kill you or divine but its a lot better than their more recent output

 

 

 

 

YALL WANNA SINGLE SAY

 

 

well, dont say that here 

 

but if yall want a single, say it...to yourself i guess

[Laughing Man]

yeah the new single was surprisingly solid which got me revisiting them. dug out my old copy of Greatest Hits Vol. 1, realized how fun so many of the songs were, ended up buying copies of the self-titled, Follow the Leader, and Issues for $3 each

 

also pre-ordered the new album since it's currently $3.99 on Google Play and I had some leftover credit from Google Opinion Rewards surveys

Edited August 7, 2016 by Scythey

[Johnny Truant]

oooooh deals, nice

 

 

the breakdown in kill you is currently my favorite thing

 

all the seasick guitar noise and jon gettin scary with it

 

fieldy and silvera holdin down that punishing groove

[Laughing Man]

might pick up Life Is Peachy and maybe Untouchables if I find them for cheap, but any Korn past that is no bueno for me (besides the new album which sounds promising so far)

 

update: got 'em both, $5 and $4 respectively

Edited August 10, 2016 by Scythey

[Takaru 1111]

I see the old metal topic is still here.

 

 

I'm liking the new Devin Townsend song off Transcendence, Failure. Getting some nice Ocean Machine vibes from it.

[Laughing Man]

Allegaeon released a new song featuring Björn "Speed" Strid, accompanied by a very amusing playthrough video. I'll be honest, their past stuff did nothing for me, but this song is actually pretty killer (and not just because I'm a Strid fangirl). I'll be checking out their new album for sure.

 

also the new Devy song is definitely good. here's hoping Transcendence is better than Epicloud and Sky Blue, both of which have worn off me pretty hard tbh

 

 

 

 

oooooh deals, nice

 

 

the breakdown in kill you is currently my favorite thing

 

all the seasick guitar noise and jon gettin scary with it

 

fieldy and silvera holdin down that punishing groove

 

out of curiosity, which of their albums do you like/which are your favorites? I know fan opinion is divided up into like a billion different sections as to when they started sucking, whether their later stuff is any good, etc.

 

like I stated previously, I dig everything through Untouchables. everything after that ranges from mediocre (Take a Look in the Mirror) to downright garbage (The Path of Totality) in my opinion.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Scythey

[Johnny Truant]

s/t and life is peachy are g.o.a.t, follow the leader has some classics but i presonally just dont like it as much as the first two, plus it loses points for wasting a great riff on that piece of garbage All In The Family (although its pretty funny that jon had to help fred durst with his verses so he didnt get completely humiliatingly destroyed, even tho jon still won cuz its their cd)

 

not really a fan of issues, cept for falling away from me and dirty

 

after that ive only really dug individual songs, like yall want a single (whatever thats from) or twisted transistor

 

after take a look in the mirror i cant really say anything cuz i never bothered with em that much but from what ive heard of them untitled an alright cd, korn 3 isnt awful, path of totality is trash, paradigm shift doesnt do much for me honestly

 

this new single got me excited tho

Edited August 10, 2016 by Johnny Truant

[Laughing Man]

Issues is one of my favorites tbh, probably second after the self-titled. I thought it was an improvement over Follow the Leader (which was kinda hit-or-miss for me as well) and really liked the darker, more textured sound they tried for. I think Untouchables is pretty underrated for the same reason.

 

Life Is Peachy is honestly my least favorite of the first five albums. the band said it was rushed and it really shows imo. performances aren't as tight and my god if it doesn't have some of the worst lyrics Jonathan Davis has ever put to paper.

[Laughing Man]

The Agony Scene have finally given us an update. despite being completely silent for over a year, they're still together and have been working on writing new songs for an EP which they'll be recording soon. I'll admit, I'm a little sad that their promise of a "new album" has turned into a "new EP", but still, it's better than nothing at all.

[Johnny Truant]

peachy has some god awful songs, but overall its still my favorite just because of how raw and angry and loose it is

 

i guess im drawn to it because i hear punk rock roots through a nu-metal filter

 

 

if only the s/t had peachys production (not saying the production is bad on the s/t cuz its excellent, especially the drums and bass, but the guitars are just too muddy sometimes)

[Laughing Man]

Mike Williams from The Agony Scene did a 2-hour interview with the Camp Metal podcast to discuss the past, present, and future of the band. it's a really interesting interview, lots of great band history and cool stories, but I took some notes on some of the important stuff regarding their new material:

 

- drummer Brent Masters has left again, they've found a replacement; Mike, Chris Emmons, and Brian Hodges are the band's principle songwriters so lineup changes will not affect the sound

- new music is more "straightforward metal" as opposed to metalcore; he described it as "black-thrash", "like the faster parts of The Darkest Red but with more of the feel of the self-titled"

 

- lyrics will be more topical and political akin to Get Darned

- they don't have much of a plan beyond the new EP, it pretty much depends on the reception and whether there's interest, they'd like to tour if possible

- says they hope to have some material recorded that they can share by the end of the year

 

 

surprisingly no talk about label or funding stuff. I imagine they'll do a crowdfunding campaign of some sort, but I'm still holding onto the hope they'll get signed to a new label. Napalm is one I've thought would be a good fit, they've signed a bunch of reunited bands from the 2000s over the past couple years.

[Bambi]

Yooo, someone is selling a copy of Beyond the Infinite on Amazon for about $12, including shipping. If I hadn't already ordered Death Resonance I'd be all over this.

Edited August 25, 2016 by Bambi

[Laughing Man]

dang, that's a great price. mine was about $25 including shipping

 

 

 

speaking of Swedish (former) melodic death metal bands..

 

new In Flames album, Battles, was announced. first single "The End" was released and it's.. better than anything off of Siren Charms, but still not great. most distressingly of all is that it was produced by Howard Benson, AKA the guy who brought us bands like Daughtry, Three Days Grace, Theory of a Deadman, and Creed. not exactly promising.

[Laughing Man]

new Devin Townsend Project album is super good

 

 

what's everybody been listening to? it's a bit premature since autumn doesn't officially start till later this month but I'm already starting on my black metal/doom metal/gothic metal kick that's customary around this time of year. in particularly been listening to a lot of Celtic Frost, Triptykon, Darkthrone, Agalloch, and Code this past week

[Johnny Truant]

dang, that's a great price. mine was about $25 including shipping

 

 

 

speaking of Swedish (former) melodic death metal bands..

 

new In Flames album, Battles, was announced. first single "The End" was released and it's.. better than anything off of Siren Charms, but still not great. most distressingly of all is that it was produced by Howard Benson, AKA the guy who brought us bands like Daughtry, Three Days Grace, Theory of a Deadman, and Creed. not exactly promising.

 

 

oh geez

 

is theory of a deadman still a band

 

 

 

ive been listening to copious amounts of alice in chains. not exactly metal but one of the heavier grunge bands for sure 

Edited September 11, 2016 by Johnny Truant

[Laughing Man]

eh, I've always considered Alice in Chains metal. they were more metal than grunge tbh

 

their last two albums in particular were pretty much full-on sludge metal

 

also, Theory of a Deadman is unfortunately still a band, and I hate you for making me google to check

Edited September 11, 2016 by Scythey

[Johnny Truant]

:[ sorry i just really wanted to believe it had finally stopped

 

but alas...

 

 

yeah, i wish i could get into the newer stuff

a looking in view is a really great song and i wish something else from those albums would grab me the way a looking in view did

[Laughing Man]

"Last of My Kind"? or "Check My Brain" with that groovy as, uhhhh, heck main riff?

 

The Devil Put Dinosaurs here was a bit of a letdown but man, Black Gives Way to Blue is chock full of jams

 

 

 

also shout-out to Queen of Liars for showing me this, it's fantastic

Edited September 11, 2016 by Scythey

[Laughing Man]

so the new drummer for In Flames has been announced, and it's Joe Rickard formerly of the Christian radio rock band Red.

 

as if we needed another sign that they're never going back to making good music again..

[Johnny Truant]

ok so ETID just dropped the aoty, and this is why:

 

[Laughing Man]

listened to it today, definitely one of their best albums

 

definitely not AotY though

[Johnny Truant]

...yeah youre right.

 

but i am consumed by the first 50 seconds of fear and trembling

 

that riff tho

 

and keiths lyrics are the lyrical embodiment of the 100 emoji as usual

 

i wish he would write a book of poems id buy that so fast

Edited September 24, 2016 by Johnny Truant