The Official Metal Topic

[Laughing Man]

and the studio version has now been released.

 

it's okay. a lot better than "Soul Hacker", but still, Fear Factory is as Fear Factory does. I'm starting to think Mechanize was a lucky fluke because so far nothing they've released since has been able to match it.

 

 

 

now, the new Soilwork song on the other hand.. definitely living up to expectations. so stoked for The Ride Majestic.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Scythey

[Evergrey: Toa of Music]

It seems like all the bands that I want to buy albums from are releasing their new stuff later in the year (with little to no albums until said time); Stratovarius, Iron Maiden, Sevendust, and whoever else I forgot about

[Laughing Man]

welp, Kylesa just announced a new album (Exhausting Fire, due October 2) and released a new track completely out of nowhere. that's probably gonna be another AotY contender for me.

 

also, new Deafheaven album entitled New Bermuda slated for the same day.

[Bambi]

So I was able to listen to Genexus by Fear Factory last night. The album wasn't really anything new, it was more like a mashup of their old albums. I liked it though!

Now to listen to the new Cattle Decap and Lamb of God..

Edited August 6, 2015 by Bambi

[Queen of Liars]

Shining have finally announced their new album, International Blackjazz Society, which will be out October 16.

 

Can't wait. The new song is as great and insane as usual.

[Dibble Flubwibbler of DOOM]

am i doing it right?

[Laughing Man]

ignoring that nonsense..

 

Baroness have announced their long-awaited new album, Purple, and released a new song titled "Chlorine & Wine". the album is slated for release on December 18. it should be obvious how I would feel about that choice of color.

 

song is great, reminds me of the heavier/harder moments off of Yellow & Green mixed with a little bit of Blue Record - not a complete return to their sludge metal roots, but definitely acknowledging them more than anything off the last album did. so stoked for this album now, I really got into Baroness over the summer (after previously being more of a casual fan) and I can't wait to hear something new from them.

 

 

 

oh, and also, I got my pre-order digital download for The Ride Majestic by Soilwork last night and it's absolutely fantastic. for now I'll say it's definitely on par with The Living Infinite, and further listens are required to decide whether or not I like it better. definitely definitely definitely one of my favorite albums of the year though, probably at #2 juuust slightly behind Abyss by Chelsea Wolfe.

Edited August 28, 2015 by Scythey

[Queen of Liars]

Yup, The Ride Majestic is pretty bloody excellent.

 

 

Gave a listen to the recent album by Tribulation, Children of the Night, which I ended up really digging. Apparently they were a death/thrash metal band before, but this album is some really excellent gothic metal, with perhaps even a touch of black and progressive. I'd highly recommend it.

[Bambi]

So this arrived today:

 

 

Love it. I was considering getting it in white, but then it'd be a little boring lol. Well, now I can say I've done my part to support the new The Agony Scene album.

Hopefully they add some more designs in the future.

Edited September 12, 2015 by Bambi

[Laughing Man]

RIP Martin Kearns, drummer of Bolt Thrower. jamming Those Once Loyal now in his memory, one of my all-time favorite death metal albums. so sad about this.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YTO-_UwYoQ

Edited September 19, 2015 by Scythey

[Ghidora131]

I like lithium.

[Laughing Man]

these jokes have been done to death, they're not funny, and I'm pretty sure they constitute as spam

[-Windrider-]

Scythey's right. I know COT rules are more lenient now, but this is clearly a topic about music. And there's the following global rule to take into account: "Do not post if you have nothing to add. If you don't know the answer to a question or have nothing to add to a discussion - DON'T POST."

 

Please keep things on-topic.

[Xinlo]

new slayer album was disappointing as expected... I was hoping for better after the first single but it ended up being slayer. New Amorphis was cool, though I think I still prefer Circle. Also nobody's talking about Book Of Souls, so I assume nobody liked it?

Edited September 20, 2015 by The Xinlo Of This Story

[Bambi]

Bruce Fitzhugh of Living Sacrifice and a few other guys recorded a cover of "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" for the 25th anniversary of Rust in Peace. It's also free, so you should check it out. 

Edited September 24, 2015 by Bambi

[Laughing Man]

I know I've told a couple people here about this but for anyone else who's interested, there's a band called Earthside that's preparing to release their debut album A Dream in Static later this month.

 

they play a form of semi-instrumental progressive metal that they describe as "cinematic rock". they've gotten comparisons to Opeth and Katatonia among others, and worked with producers/engineers David Castillo and Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Soilwork) as well as artist Travis Smith who has done most of the album layouts and cover art for those bands as well.

 

they've released three songs from it so far, "The Closest I've Come", which is instrumental; "Mob Mentality", featuring Lajon Witherspoon (Sevendust) and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra; and most recently "Crater", featuring Björn Strid (Soilwork). in a year that has seen the release of an incredible new Soilwork album, a new Night Flight Orchestra album, and a Disarmonia Mundi album featuring him on 6 songs, I've gotta say, even as a guest appearance this is probably the single best vocal performance I've ever heard from Strid. he really pours everything into it.

 

I highly recommend them to people who like melodic, progressive, atmospheric music and who don't mind half the album being instrumental. the three songs they've released so far are fantastic and the album is shaping up to be one of the most interesting of the year.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Scythey

[BrickPharaoh]

So Disturbed's cover of The Sound of Silence is slowly eating away at my brain. It's gotten so bad I memorized the song by playing various covers of it for a couple hours. The song just managed to consume every single thought I had, owing to Draiman's impressive clean vocals.

 

Getting a bit fed up of my normal stuff though. Anyone have any suggestions for something fast-paced, with strong vocals (like those of Jørn Lande, for example)? Cba with too much screaming/groaning at the moment. Thanks in advance

 

[-Windrider-]

and most recently "Crater", featuring Björn Strid (Soilwork). in a year that has seen the release of an incredible new Soilwork album, a new Night Flight Orchestra album, and a Disarmonia Mundi album featuring him on 6 songs, I've gotta say, even as a guest appearance this is probably the single best vocal performance I've ever heard from Strid. he really pours everything into it.

 

I saw your post here and decided to listen to "Crater." If I had to describe it, I'd say it's grandiose and dream-like at the same time? It's intriguing. I really like it!

[Laughing Man]

and most recently "Crater", featuring Björn Strid (Soilwork). in a year that has seen the release of an incredible new Soilwork album, a new Night Flight Orchestra album, and a Disarmonia Mundi album featuring him on 6 songs, I've gotta say, even as a guest appearance this is probably the single best vocal performance I've ever heard from Strid. he really pours everything into it.

 

I saw your post here and decided to listen to "Crater." If I had to describe it, I'd say it's grandiose and dream-like at the same time? It's intriguing. I really like it!

 

glad you like it! that's a pretty perfect way to describe it, and the band's music overall. check out the song "Mob Mentality", they've got a full symphony orchestra backing that track and it sounds absolutely massive. the music video for it is pretty cool too.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Scythey

[kathy]

Anyone else like Pagan/Folk metal?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt6_65LDZ60 This is one of my favorite songs, Arkona is my jam.

[Queen of Liars]

Moonsorrow, Finntroll, and the first couple of Turisas albums are all excellent folk metal. Especially the Moonsorrow. Kivenkantaja is one of my favourite albums.

 

On another note, just listened to the new Tempel album, The Moon Lit Our Path. I highly recommend it to anyone into atmospheric sludge metal, a la Cult of Luna. It's an instrumental album with five tracks ranging in length from 8 to 12 minutes, and is filled with great atmosphere and fantastic riffs.

[Millennium]

Primordial is an awesome folk/pagan metal (with doom metal influences) band, slightly underrated, IMO.

 

Is anyone here into stoner metal? Or, specifically, into Electric Wizard?

[Queen of Liars]

Still haven't gotten around to properly checking out Electric Wizard yet, but I do like me some stoner metal. All of Boris' albums in the style are amazing (especially the original Heavy Rocks and Pink). High on Fire and Eternal Elysium are also great.

[Laughing Man]

I've listened to Electric Wizard before but never really got into them. as far as stoner metal in general goes, I dig High on Fire, Kylesa, and Baroness quite a lot, plus early Clutch could probably be put under that label. Sleep's Dopesmoker is pretty amazing too.

 

 

 

in news that only me and Evergrey_Toa will care about, The Unguided announced their new album Lust and Loathing will be released February 26. I'm iffy on the title - sounds more like something a scene kid electronicore band like Asking Alexandria would come up with - but the artwork is awesome as always and it's supposed to be the third (and final) part of their conceptual album trilogy, so hopefully it'll be good. the 9-song (not including bonus tracks) tracklist might indicate that the songs will be longer this time around, which also fits with some comments they've made about it being more of an epic and climactic album than past efforts.

[Johnny Truant]

dopethrone is a classic, if y'all havent heard dopethrone youre missin out

 

torche's self-titled is also really really good, the singer's other band, floor is along the same lines

 

jucifer's pretty interesting

 

and there's always down but idk if id classify them as stoner metal

[Millennium]

I don't really like Dopethrone to be honest. I prefer a lot more Black masses or We live.

 

Did I really say that? Oh my.

[Johnny Truant]

dopethrone is goat ok

[Laughing Man]

so the new Sikth mini-album Opacities is killer. they haven't skipped a beat at all, pretty much picks up where Death of a Dead Day left off 9 years ago in both style and quality. I'd love to hear what they could do with a full-length at this point.

[Millennium]

Ok so, I re-relistened to Dopethrone and turns out I like it as much as the others which came later. That meaning, I like all of its songs.

[Queen of Liars]

Ihsahn finally announced his new album, Arktis, to be released on the 4th of March, and revelaed the first song from it, Mass Darkness. The hype is real.

[Millennium]

I think I'll be re-relistening to Therion's discography. I discovered only now that they have a song in akkadian language.

Edited December 18, 2015 by El-P

[Queen of Liars]

So... Lemmy has died.

 

Pretty hard to believe it. Yet another legend gone.

[Xinlo]

was never a huge motorhead fan, but his influence is undeniable. Glad I did get to see him live before the end

[Laughing Man]

not completely unexpected since they've been reunited for a couple years now, but Life of Agony have officially announced their first studio album in 11 years, A Place Where There's No More Pain.

 

the cover art sort of suggests a return to the River Runs Red style, which would be awesome, but I'll be happy even if it's more similar to Broken Valley.

[Queen of Liars]

The new Skold album, The Undoing, has finally gotten a new release date after being cancelled back in 2014, and will now come out on the 22nd of April, which I am very glad to hear. After it initially got cancelled I was beginning to get worried that there would be another 15 year break between albums, but thankfully that's not the case. I'm very excited to see what Tim will do with this album, and am greatly looking forward to the riffs and industrial goodness no doubt contained within.

[Laughing Man]

so I finally checked out Genexus by Fear Factory and I've got to say, it's way better than what I gave it credit for based on the singles. this might be one of my favorite Fear Factory albums to date, the extra dose of melody and catchiness really works for them. "Expiration Date" is especially incredible, really unlike anything they've ever done.

Edited January 30, 2016 by Scythey

[Bambi]

so I finally checked out Genexus by Fear Factory and I've got to say, it's way better than what I gave it credit for based on the singles. this might be one of my favorite Fear Factory albums to date, the extra dose of melody and catchiness really works for them. "Expiration Date" is especially incredible, really unlike anything they've ever done.

Wait, really? I personally thought it was a little weak compared to some of their other stuff.

I mean, I guess it's okay, I just know they're definitely capable of doing better.

Edited January 31, 2016 by Bambi

[Laughing Man]

the more I listen to it the more I like it. it's probably a close second behind Mechanized for Best Thing Since Obsolete for me.

 

it feels fresher and revitalized and not nearly as stale as The Industrialist. way more memorable songs, also better production, better vocals, better lyrics, better drums (AKA actual drums, period) and increased use of keyboard and melody which really works for it I think. brings back the Obsolete sound in a lot of ways.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Scythey

[Queen of Liars]

New Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas collaboration album, Mariner, out in April. Yes!

[Bambi]

A little late, but Fear Factory have finally announced their tour dates~  They will be playing Demanufacture in it's entirety and some fan favorites (which pretty much means Martyr, Shock, Dielectric, and Soul Hacker, maybe What Will Become). Soilwork will also be joining them, and to top it off there's a possibility I might be able to catch a show in North Carolina. So very stoked.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Bambi