Metal

Martin Eric Ain died. (article in German)

I don't dig on Celtic Frost that much nowadays, but damn. Only 50 years old.

So, I'm really not a goregrind person at all, but this interview with Ryan Wilson of the infamous Intestinal Disgorge was really enlightening. Parody isn't exactly uncommon in grindcore or even brutal death metal, but legitimate attempts at deconstructive satire is rare, and I completely sympathise with Wilson's decision to ultimately ditch the whole extreme schlock horror angle when keeping that up became a fruitless endeavour. The fact that I actually really enjoy the band's output from the last decade and particularly since the inception of their Lovecraftian cutup period helps, of course.

Finally got around to checking out the new Nocturnal Rites and it's basically everything that I was hoping for. Sure, Per Nilsson's leads lend a bit of a different flavor compared to Nils Norberg's, but it's otherwise everything that I love about this band, and while Jonny Lindqvist may be an Andi Deris clone, he still sounds pristine and there's a reason why he's one of my favorite power metal singers.

Somehow after over a decade of listening to metal, I've never actually given Nocturnal Rites an actual long listen. Best album to start with?

Definitely Shadowland. The 8th Sin isn't as bad as everyone says it is, but it's still definitely their worst album and leans a LITTLE too close to AOR. They're otherwise pretty consistent quality-wise and are pretty standard aggressive Europower. The pre-Lindqvist stuff is also good, if not semi-derivative of the first few Deris-era Helloween albums (aside from their first few demos, which were death metal).

…Same question about Dream Theater. I listened to Octavarium (which I liked) and The Astonishing (which bored me to death) a while ago but I'd like to delve deeper into their stuff now. Which do you think is their best work?

Awake was the last decent Dream Theater album before they vanished up their own asses. Honestly, every Rudess-era DT album is a tedious miasma of stolen Pantera and Lamb of God riffs that crudely stitch together aimless, meandering instrumental passages and annoyingly overlong solos from Petrucci and Rudess, all with Labrie's terrible lyrics and increasingly terrible voice over the top. If you have to fuck with Dream Theater, just stop at Awake.

How is death metal era Nocturnal Rites anyways? Generic Swedeath worship?

Pretty much. It's not bad, but had they continued in that direction, they would have released one or two albums, vanished, and then would have maybe been "rediscovered" by some random blogger in the mid-'00s who would have convinced themselves that they were hearing a long-lost classic rather than a passable but unremarkable act.

New Portal song is out and honestly, it's addressed almost every complaint I have about the band. Portal generally feels like a slapdash, self-indulgent, lazily-written wall of dissonance with typical annoying caverncore production values, but this feels far more structured and purposeful and also has a production that accomplishes their goals without being irritating. I'm still not completely won over, but it's absolutely a step in the right direction.

I'll jump on that once I get home because I honestly feel the exact same way about them.

So giving it a listen and it's refreshing for Portal. Hell, it barely even sounds like what most people would even know them for and honestly for the better. Granted the ritualistic dissonance is still there but rather than stretched out amorphously it's applied in a lot more vicious riffing that sounds like war metal crossed with modern blasty death.

It also sounds like they're at least nominally aware of some of the more recent bands that they've influenced (Abyssal, Sulphur Aeon, Lvcifyre, Unfathomable Ruination, etc.); while I doubt that they had much of an influence on Portal, it feels like they've taken at least some cues from them in terms of production style and some of the textures on display. It's definitely a huge improvement, especially after the snorefest that was Vexovoid.

I was digging through my power metal collection and I can't believe that I forgot about the Outworld self-titled. I normally hate Rusty Cooley, but holy fuck, he does everything right here, and Kelly Sundown Carpenter absolutely belts it out with what may be one of my favorite vocal performances in metal period. It's a shame that they never went anywhere, because any band that puts out something this amazing deserves to be huge. Texas has historically been a state that has provided some fantastic things to the world of metal, and this is no exception.

The S/T is basically progressive metal as an action movie as opposed to an arthouse sci fi flick. They had the bassist for Cauldron Born too which was pretty cool and I love how riffy it is; like Symphony X and Nevermore going speed metal pretty much. It also has one of my favourite keyboard tones in prog/power to date with how surprisingly muscular each note sounds ("The Never" is a good example of this). The promo they released afterwards though had a bit too much groovechug though so maybe it was a good thing they didn't taint their legacy with a weak-ass follow-up.

The promo started off strong, but I feel like the biggest problem was Carlos Zema jumping around too much. Outworld was a band that demanded a powerful belter and he could definitely do that, but he was so scattered and unfocused because he seemed to be trying too hard to show off his range. Just stick to sounding like James Rivera, dude; as for the promo as a whole, I wouldn't say that it went full modern DT prog-chug, but yeah, there were parts that veered a little too close to that for my comfort, whereas the self-titled used the chugging as necessary but had plenty of meatier moments as well.

edited 28th Nov '17 8:37:16 PM by HasturHasturHastur

So, after listening to all of Kingdoms Disdained, I will say that while it is not the best Morbid Angel album, it is a legitimately solid comeback that can stand on its own merit. I'm missing some of the classic Trey psychedelic lead freakouts, but his riffing is as strong as ever, Tucker sounds absolutely ferocious and does more than enough to remind me why he's one of my favorite death metal vocalists, and Scott Fuller does an absolutely fantastic job at filling Pete's shoes while still having a style and feel that is recognizably his own. Welcome back.

On HHH's recommandation, I'm diving into the early DT albums, starting with When Day and Dream Unite. It was still the eighties and BOY does it sound like it. I thought I was listening to a good ol' Iron Maiden album at times, except they added some rather awkward, and sometimes random rhythm changes into the mix. The album has some pretty incredible guitar solos though, I must say. And it packs a surprising lot of punch in general.

Also… why the eff didn't they keep this singer? He had so much more energy than Labrie and didn't sound quite as annoying…

On a completely unrelated note, I recently did something I rarely do: I bought a random album solely based on the band's name, the cover, and the release date (May 2017). Turned out it was black metal. I'm not knowledgeable enough on the genre to analyse it in depth, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. It's a Lithuanian band called Au-Dessus, for anyone who cares.

edited 4th Dec '17 5:03:06 PM by Lyendith

I honestly couldn't get the first track of Kingdom Disdained. Better than the sonic abortion that was Illud... but that's really not saying much. Terrible guitar tone and riffs that sounded quasi nugroove.

Dream Theater's debut is kind of an oddity in just how raw it sounds for prog metal though yeah, Dominici would've been a better fit than La Brie as a singer. At one point I think Ray Ralder from Fates Warning was interested or had already auditioned for them but for some reason they didn't choose him.

On another note Italy's Sepolcral released their debut album ''Victims'' that was originally supposed to have come out in 1996 but was delayed until this year due to the original record label going bankrupt. However it sounds like it should have come out in 1994 at the latest. It's prog/tech death with NY/brutal death leanings in its meaty precision-syncopated rhythms and lots of finely textured riffing in an early Atheist/Atrocity/Gorguts/Suffocation/Monstrosity esque fashion, adding a sinister vibe to a very dense kind of technical death. The last track is an amusing grindcore one that ends halfway through only for a sudden spurt of energy five seconds before it ends.

edited 8th Dec '17 12:59:35 PM by StillbornMachine

Eeh… I must moderate my judgement after listening to Images and Words. Labrie's voice was pretty incredible on that album. Hell, that whole album was excellent. It kinda felt like the "Ride the Lightning" to their "Kill 'em All": mostly made of the same stuff, but much more polished and nuanced.

I feel he's somewhat versatile but his tone reaches this shrill, nasally whine when he tries to add more power though it was alright on their earlier material. On IAW I feel the neo-prog influence is considerably higher and the aggression dialed down a bit, though we can hear the more long-winded and sudden, semi-arbitrary sounding digressions into instrumental breaks that will become the hallmark of their sound (and one of their weaknesses) in their earliest form.

edited 8th Dec '17 1:13:26 PM by StillbornMachine

Awake was kinda the turning point where they started to go from neo-prog to Progtera. I still like it and it's the last DT album that I enjoy, but there are definitely moments on there where I half-expect to hear "NO WAY PUNK" and I'm like "bruh".

Yeah "Lie" has moments where it nears that but there's enough Black Album esque Metallica and at times eerily gothic keyboards that give it a different vibe from the usual brocore fare. Sadly when they try to jump on the TOUFF GAI wagon, they manage to sound hilariously out of their comfort zone.

I still feel like Kevin Moore was the one person who kept the rest of them from disappearing up their own asses. OSI definitely feels like the direction he wanted DT to go in, but couldn't because he was the one person keeping Petrucci and Portnoy from going completely out of control.

I've come to realize that this year has been great for doom; death metal got to have the bulk of the fun, but doom didn't sit around unloved either. Primitive Man - Caustic is the only sludge release that I've checked out and it's basically what I expected (77 minutes of murderous misanthropic hatred), but epic/trad doom had Sorcerer, Below, Procession, The Doomsday Kingdom, Professor Emeritus, and Avatarium, and the newest Bell Witch was a solid funeral doom release.