The Semi-Official Heavy Metal Thread - Page 23

 

 

I'd think bringing Dimebag's murder  is probably not the worst tactic for the defense. 

Rich rock stars or not, some of the shit bands put up with is unreal. There's probably not one musician that hasn't been hit with a cup of warm piss or spit during there career.

And sadly, not all of them are Maynard Keenan.

New Kiss single Hell or Hallelujah. It rocks. The riff reminds me of Deep Purple's Burn. That is a tune Paul Stanley is a fan of. When he wrote I Stole Your Love, he wanted to write a song that sounded like Burn.

Edited by Chaz - 7/3/12 at 5:56pm

I received my pit ticket for Mayhemfest in the mail last week.  Slayer, Anthrax, and Motorhead are worth the price of admission themselves.  I couldn't care less about Slipknot, but if I end up liking some of the other bands that I know nothing about, I call it a win.  I was introduced to Behemoth at Mayhem '09, and fucking well loved them well enough to look up a bunch of their tunes. 

I'm a bit out of the loop on current metal, but I have been listening to stuff like Pantheist, Virgin Black, and old Pyogenesis on YouTube lately.

Glad you had a good time.  The Chicago show was last night, and I had an absolute blast.  Alice Cooper is a great showman, and I'm always happy to see him.  He brought a good amount of his stage show along for the ride, which I was pretty about.  As for Maiden, I also went pretty crazy for "The Prisoner," which was my main highlight of the night (that song was played a few times on the "No Prayer On the Road" tour, but the "7th Son" tour was the last time it had been featured every night).  Not played "Hallowed" was weird, but I've heard it on every tour I've seen them, so I wasn't too bummed (wanted my friend to hear it, though).  My friend had a great time too; he loved the energy from those guys and walked out with plenty of questions to ask.  He really liked "The Trooper," "Phantom" and "Wasted Years" especially. 

 Maiden never come to Pittsburgh on their retro tours, but they do come on current album tours. I had a good time at the Final Frontier tour, but I would have rather have seen the Somewhere Back in Time tour. I'm not one of those dudes who think bands should just play the old hits becausae no one wants to hear anything new. I'm going to see Alice Cooper next week, and I would love to hear Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever and Ghouls Gone Wild  from Welcome 2 My Nightmare. The diference for me between Alice and Maiden is while I like Maiden, I'm a HUGE Alice fan!

 

Pyogenesis were pretty damn great.  Their cover of Toto's "Africa" is a bag of awesome.  Germany puts out a pretty great ratio of metal bands - was always partial to Superior and Vanden Plas.  Although we used to give Bernd (the Superior guitarist) shit on the @ytsejam channel way back in the IRC days about the balls of a German metal band calling themselves Superior . . .

Running Wild, another great German band of the Pirate variety.

 

Slipknot intrigues me - I don't think their music is anything remarkable, but I'm curious to see how their "custom percussion" sounds live; the Youtube clips I've seen make it sound like it adds....pretty much nothing. 

 

Plus, even if the songs are kinda blah, a dozen guys going nuts onstage is always a good watch. 

 

 

Anyone have any opinions/comments about Slipknot live? Am I way off base on this? 

Im actually seeing them in August (It's just Slayer/Slipknot/Motorhead/Anthrax, though, not everybody else playing Mayhemfest), but I've seen videos aplenty. General consensus is that theyre on the verge of control of every song every time. For what they play, that's just fine. All Hope Is Gone suffers a bit from just how structured it is.

 

There's also shit like this.

 

I was pretty late to the party on Slipknot - but the one thing that DID hit me the first time I heard them was "this dude on drums is a fucking MONSTER." 

New Baroness is incredible.  Any fans here?  I'd encourage anyone who even remotely enjoys heavy music to check them out.  New album drops next week.

I enjoyed both the the Red Album and Blue Record. I'll probably get it but I'm not sure what to expect. I've read it's not that heavy and is a bit experimental.

 

It's a very natural progression for them.  They've been building to this album for a while, in my opinion.  Yes, it's not nearly as heavy as their early EP's, or even Red Album, but I wouldn't let that worry you.  The song writing is better than ever, the production is great, the whole thing  just drips with this beautiful Appalachian melancholy.

 

Disc 1 is heavier than Disc 2, with the second disc being a little trippier.  More laid back "Steel That Sleeps the Eye" kinda stuff, with strong vocal melodies. Baizley voice has never sounded better, IMO.  Album of the year for me.

 

 

Also, did I imagine this or did you mention the new Gojira earlier?  That's a great one as well.

I've been listening and loving KOLOSS and OBZEN by Meshuggah. Incredible records, KOLOSS is probably the biggest sounding record I've ever heard. And Tomas Haake is a fucking monster. I read an interview where he said something like "Bleed first sounds quite easy to play but it's really more complicated." Sounds easy to play for who excactly? Robocop?

 

Im a bigger fan of Chaosphere than Koloss (not as "big", but far more complex and frighteningly dissonant), but otherwise, YEP.

I discovered Meshuggah a few months ago when I saw them supporting Devin Townsend, and have liked everything I've heard since. Any suggestions for the best album to start out with?

Go chronological from Chaosphere onward. Though I'd say Obzen's the next capital G Great stop on that train ride.

 

But now, I need you to return the favor, since I've needed a starting point on Devin Townsend for a while now.

All of his albums are great, but I'll give you the top three starters in order of getting, with a sample track from each because... Well, because I can. The natural starting point is Ocean Machine/Biomech, which is still arguably his best album and a great mixture of his heavy and melodic sides:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, Terria: His joint-best IMO, and Townsend in full glorious prog-mode:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For number three, I'd say go with the Infinity album. It showcases his quirky/Zappa-esque side (This guy got his first big break singing for Steve Vai's band, don't forget), and has one of the best opening tracks of all time in 'Truth' (Which absolutely crushes live):

 

 

 

 

Devin Townsend is someone who I appreciate if not entirely love. I like ‘City’ by Strapping Young Lad most of all. I also have ‘Addicted’ (which is quite good in its intentionally poppy way) and ‘Deconstruction’ (which I struggle to really enjoy).

 

Picked up Baroness ‘Yellow and Green’, but it’s not clicking for me yet. Certainly sounds more weird-Alt Rock than Metal. I won’t give up on it though. Opeth’s ‘Heritage’ eventually clicked for me as another not-really-metal-album.

 

Regarding Meshuggah I have 'Destroy, Erase, Improve'. Again, I appreciate it as a unique sound, but not an album I adore.

 

[Apologies that this post is full of albums that only half worked for me]

I love Devin Townsends solo stuff, but do you know what I love even more? Strapping Young Lad.

 

I didn't see anyone post about it, but Randy Blythe got out of Czech prison. Hope everything works out for him, and I hope they bring back the tour with Dethklok and Gojira.

 

This years been a great year for metal so far, with new releases from Lamb of God, Meshuggah, Gojira, Veil of Maya, etc., but I'm really digging the new Shadows Fall album the most. Anyone pick it up?

It'd be nice, but eventually, Randy's got to go back to Czechoslovakia for trial, and Gojira's already out on the road again. If anything, a new Lamb of God album's more likely, since Randy apparently wrote like crazy while he was in prison.

That would be awesome as well, but the likelyhood of 2 Lamb of God albums in consecutive years isn't much. 

 

Also just read on Blabbermouth that they are already rescheduling dates for October, but Randy has to go back to the Czech Republic in November, potentially.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/15/heavy-metal-baroness-injured-crash

Baroness involved in a bus crash.

Apparently no fatalities and two with serious injuries.

Yellow & Green has won me over too. Loving it. Hope the band recovers.

 

Thanks for the recommendations, I'm loving the shit out of Biomech! A wonderful album filled with grandness and great songs.

Ocean Machine: Biomech and Terria are such fantastic albums.  Probably my favorite as far as DT is concerned.

 

 

 

That's really too bad about Baroness, especially since the only way to make money in a metal band these days is through touring/merch sales.  I hope they escape without any permanent damage.  Those guys are great.

"I'd rather be happy than cool any day of the week" This man is a genius.

 

That new one's a grower - already have my Epicloud pre-order in!

I saw the Kiss/Motley Crue show Sunday night and it was outstanding!!

 

http://lightningslim.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/classic-album-review-king-diamond-abigail-1987/

 

 

This may or may not be an unpopular stance, but King Diamond is like the Neil Diamond of heavy metal - just gets out there and SELLS it. 

 

 

But these days, when I listen to it, I can't get past how over-the-top the singing is....I just shake my head thinking "I used to take this SERIOUSLY and think it was GREAT." Now, it's just campy to me. 

King Diamond is on That Metal Show tonight.

Not untrue. But, once upon a time, he brought me great joy.

 

 

I've always found him to be much less annoying/obnoxious on the first 2 Mercyful Fate albums.  In fact I love his vocals on Don't Break the Oath and Melissa.  But somewhere along the line his voice became not much more than a grating distraction, for me at least.

Edited by Kevin Macken - 9/10/12 at 3:44pm

I'd agree with that 100%. 

Holy HELL...that new Between The Buried And Me record is some kind of amazing. Easily my favorite of theirs. Probably my fave metal record this year. So epic and ambitious...

How does it compare to Colors? 

I'm kinda weird in that I knew nothing about Colors, and only got into them with The Great Misdirect. When I went back and listened to Colors, I like it, but it felt like a more monochromatic version of what they'd already done on The Great Misdirect. Similarly, the EP from last year was underwhelming...but this sounds like exactly where they should be now.

I think I love the new Soundgarden single. It rocks.

 

Colors really clicked with me, much more than Alaska or The Great Misdirect.  I think with Colors they stopped being just a "musicians band", and started writing actual songs, while retaining the Prog spirit of their earlier work.  I probably didn't give The Great Misdirect enough of a chance, the new album is giving me the motivation and check it out again though.  The Parallax II is fantastic, loved every second of it.    They've always had the musical chops, but I think occasionally they've suffered from the inability to write memorable songs in the past.  This album, like Colors, had memorable hooks in spades.  Probably my favorite on the year, so far at least.

Edited by Kevin Macken - 10/1/12 at 7:35pm

Ever wondered why it took so long for Steve Harris to put out a solo album? We may have the answer:

 

 

 

Now I'm a huge, huge Maiden fan and have no problems with members branching out and trying more modern styles (See: Bruce Dickinson), but this is really quite mediocre. Poor 'Arry just looks lost here.

Not sure what anyone thinks of them.  I just stumbled across them and haven't had a chance to listen much, but any fans of Sybreed?  Or are they just a joke?

I've never cared for any EBM influence in my metal, so I dislike Sybreed rather strongly. Still others here, given the love expressed similar bands, should probably check them out. As for Steve Harris' solo project, yeah it's pretty bad. But then he a major part of some great metal albums so I can forgive him such a stumble.

 

True. It's a shame that it doesn't match the quality of some of Dickinson/Smith's solo stuff, but Harris has earned the right to put out a shitty album due to decades of awesomeness.

Since (in Bruce Dickinson's words) IM is Steve's band, and he writes a good chunk of the lyrics and most of the music, I don't really see WHY he'd need to put out a solo project - unless he just wanted to do something with different musicians. 

I think that's part of it. I've only heard that one song so far, but it's different enough from Maiden to suggest that this is maybe an attempt to try his hand at some more straightforward/commercial material. I also suspect that he's beginning to see the end of Maiden looming in the distance; maybe not for another five or even ten years, but we're not far off the point where they're simply going to get too old. Also, it's well past time someone quit (This might be the longest the band's ever gone without a member leaving) and I could see them not being keen to go through the process of finding a replacement, especially if it were Dickinson.

 

This is all speculation of course, but putting out a solo album seems like a very un-Steve Harrissy thing to do.

Do people really prefer Iron Maiden over Soundgarden? Don't you realize Soundgarden is fucking awesome?

 

 

Maybe it's my fault and I missed something, but what the fuck are you talking about? Iron Maiden v Soundgarden is about as legit a battle IMO as, say, LCD Soundsystem vs ABBA.