The Heavy Metal Thread \m/

Picked up a couple things from my nearest record store for Record Store Day yesterday, including a Metallica live album that was recorded at the Bataclan in 2003 and half of Death's Vivus double live album pressed on vinyl for the first time. Haven't had a chance to listen to either yet though.

I forgot it was Record Store Day on Saturday. Along with checking that album, I also saw an unsold copy of the Ride the Lightning remaster box set vinyl.

Oh yeah new Nails song out.

Hey everyone, my band Undead Viking Mafia put out our new album last week "No Trials for Traitors," would love for you all to check it out. If you want to hear more hit up our bandcamp. Or find us on spotify etc.

Life long metal fan here. I like almost every genre but reggae but metal is what "speaks" to me.

Finally a place where I can put my love for hardcore metal like KoRn and Limp Bizkit.

Just watched the Deacons of the Deep boss fight in Dark Souls 3 and the "Scream Bloody Gore" album came to my mind and punched me right in the face. Some of the enemies in the game also have a similar vibe as well. Anyone else that has played DS3 see the resemblance?

Oh, and Scream Bloody Gore is getting a re-release in May by Relapse, if anyone is interested. I might pick up the vinyl, as well as the bobblehead. This cover scared me to death when I was a kid btw.

@milonssecretcastle: I'm more of a Leprosy guy but that SBG reissue sounds pretty cool.

@milonssecretcastle: This is so right on the nose to explain that boss, I love it. I often wonder what Chuck Schuldiner would be up to if he was still alive. What a shame. Death is one of my all time favorite bands - every fucking album.

Call me crazy but The Sound of Perseverance is my favorite Death album. I've listened to that one and Human a whole lot but unfortunately haven't really made it to the others.

I also find myself wondering this every time I listen to one of their albums.

@justin258: You're not alone, The Sound of Perseverance was my first Death album, and the one album that finally got me to jump straight into death metal after resisting it (and outright hating it early on) for years. I think the fact that it was more progressive really helped, but Perseverance absolutely has a special place in my heart. Can't wait for Scream Bloody Gore so I can finally have all of these Relapse remasters, plus the Roadrunner remaster of Symbolic.

I hope that eventually the remaining members of Control Denied can finish recording the second album with some of Schuldiner's recordings, but it looks like nothing's really happened with that in quite some time.

They think they know who I am

All they know is I love to kill

Face down, dead on the ground

Find me before another is found

@justin258: Definitely check out the others, Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy are a little more traditional death metal (still with Chuck's flair) and then they began to move in the progressive direction with Spiritual Healing. I prefer everything post Leprosy, but those first two are still classics.

This is one of my favorite songs post-Human

This isn't really metal, but I found out today that Between the Buried and Me's bassist has a side project called Trioscapes. They basically replace the electric guitar with a saxophone and it sounds like this:

It's like jazz fusion as written by some dudes that mostly play metal. It's pretty great.

I'm a very classic metal guy, particularly New Wave of British Heavy Metal - Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Sabbath, etc.

Just saw Maiden earlier in the month and my god they freaking rocked it still. Was a bit concerned whether Bruce Dickinson would still be able to hit the notes after his battle with Throat Cancer but it honestly felt he didn't skip a damn beat the entire 2 hour show. Their latest album from last year(The Book of Souls) might also have made it into the Top 3 Maiden albums for me, personally. Love it to bits.

More interestingly however, I really found myself enjoying the band that opened for Maiden, The Raven Age. The sound was definitely harder than Maiden's but the vocals were very comparable. For me, the vocals are what I love the most about Maiden. But yeah, check out The Raven Age if you guys get the chance.

Fuck, I really want to go to their Finland gig, but I have nobody to go with / I'm out of money and need a job / I have social anxiety. They're supported by The Raven Age, Sabaton, Amon Amarth and Stratovarius. Like, what the hell, any other year would've been fine and now they just pile up the awesome when I can't really go.

I live for metal. I will probably die by metal as in plane crashing on me.

Here's some of my own stuff. It's kinda metal-ish. (No videos, sorry, just tracks).

Dream Projector YouTube channel

Dream Projector Bandcamp

Canadian doom/death

Anyone here listen to the new Vektor album, Terminal Redux? So good! I like it much more than their previous work.

I also listened to Mariner by Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas and I'm digging that as well. I haven't listened to any Cult of Luna or Battle of Mice/Made out of Babies in a very long time. Some of the album's sound is pretty predictable, especially if you've heard previous Cult of Luna albums, but I think it comes together very well. Check out the track below:

Also Gorguts has a new EP coming out tomorrow called Pleiades' Dust - I listened to it when they were streaming it on youtube and it's pretty cool if you ask me. The track might below might be the highlight:

Speaking of albums coming out tomorrow, there's a new Kvelertak album called Nattesferd. Judging by "1985" I guess they listened to a bunch of Thin Lizzy records? (not a bad thing in my opinion). Also what the hell is going on in this video?

Also Nails has a new album coming out in June - sounds like it is shaping up to be pretty good:

So basically ... stuff is happening right now.

@technician: I still gotta listen to Terminal Redux. For some reason one of the songs they first released didn't do much for me, but I loved their previous albums. Also, do not miss a chance to see these guys live - they are no joke and reproduce their record sound almost perfectly in the flesh.

Pleaides' Dust is excellent. Gorguts really made an amazing comeback with Colored Sands and I hope they keep this up.

Personally, I liked the previous album more, especially the "Tetrastructural Minds" song.

@zorban_zorban: I should go back and revisit Outer Isolation, when I listened to it at the time it just didn't click for me at all and I never went back to it. My tastes have changed a bit over the years so maybe I can dig it more now.

Also just to clarify my earlier post about the new Gorguts EP, I bought it and it is actually just one 33 minute long track. I guess Season of Mist divided it into named segments on YouTube but I don't think there's a version available that is split into multiple parts. It's basically the Gorguts equivalent of Meshuggah's "I" and it really kicks ass. Definitely the best example of the Maniacal Egyptian Torture Chamber metal sub-genre.

I also listened to the new Kvelertak album a bunch over the weekend and I like it a lot. I never got into the previous Kvelertak albums since the singles turned me off. I know this album is supposed to be very different from their previous albums (they really went all in on the Van Halen/Thin Lizzy sound on this one) but maybe this can ease me into their other work. Very easy to listen to, very catchy, just a lot of fun.

Got any Inquisition fans here? This album seems like it may be a slightly new direction vocals-wise with Dagon continuing to move away from his throaty-frog chants. Definitely dig this new song and can't wait to hear the whole album.

@nickhead: Well I've only heard Obscure Verses for the Multiverse but I like that album so I'll be on the lookout for the new album in August.

Speaking of unique vocals, I listened to Nespithe by Demilich for the first time over the weekend, I really enjoyed it, I can understand the classic status it has.

And here's some more Nails.

There upcoming tour is going to be viscous.

The new Beastwars will also satisfy your recommended daily intake of sludge.

@technician: definitely dig into Inquisition's backlog - there's some real gems there. Vocals are...different haha but the music has been consistent over the years.

The good old days.

@sawtooth: Viscous ... sludge ... I see what you did there :D

I grew up with more extreme metal so I skipped over Pantera until now. I don't really wanna get into the personal life of Phil Anselmo but purely artistically speaking they really are one of the best metal bands I've ever heard. They have intensity that I don't even hear on most black/death metal records.

This just showed up in my youtube suggestions. I didn't dig the first song they released from the upcoming Magma album, but I dig this track. I'll definitely pick the album up in June.

Apparently Nick Menza passed away from heart failure during a gig last night. He was 51 years old.

@technician: dude, just listened to some Klevertak - what a sound band! I love how they kinda have that punk-rock feel to their rhythm section in some songs, and solos are just cool.

I pre-ordered Gojira's new album as soon as I heard it was up, and I got a free download of the album for pre-ordering. I wasn't sure what to expect because I knew they were experimenting with their sound and that could be really good or really bad. I liked "Stranded" (which had to grow on me a bit) and really liked "Silvera" but I was still a bit cautious about the album as a whole.

The first half is similar to their previous albums with a little experimenting here and there, such as that riff and those clean vocals (I hate that term) towards the end of "Stranded." The second half of the album is a bit more experimental, with quieter moments and Joe trying his hand at singing more instead of growling. And I have to say, I REALLY like the second half of this album a lot, and the first half is really good too. It expands on just about everything I love about the band and progressive metal in general. Once I get my physical copy of the album in the mail I imagine this album will be a mainstay in my car for quite some time. My personal standout tracks are "Pray" and "Only Pain"

Absolutely recommended.

You can stream the album on Gojira's Youtube channel here.

I noticed everybody who likes Gojira or Mastodon is either a bassist or a drummer. Same phenomenon as with Tool I guess.

I do enjoy me some bass.

I love Tool and I'm a guitarist :-)

I've got 11 codes for Death's Spiritual Healing that were extra in the vinyl copy I bought. It's my least favourite Death album, but still pretty good. Message me if you're interested.

Darkthrone's new album is out this week. I was very surprised/excited when they premiered this song out of nowhere recently. Based on this song it sounds like they're stepping back the crust a bit. I loved their last couple albums but I'm also really looking forward to something more 'traditional' from them again.

Glad this thread popped up again, since I can say go see Opeth when they're in town. Saw them last night and they deliver live year after year.

Curious, I've been a fan for a long long time but never seen them live. I haven't been a big fan of the transition away from "metal" since Watershed - do they play any classics nowadays?

Oh, absolutely. Their live shows are a huge mishmash of everything. I think they only played like 4 new songs, but the past few tours I've seen them play stuff from every album. Their live presence is absolutely a metal show, and even the newer stuff feels heavier with the distortion cranked up. Here's the set list from my show.

There was a 15 minute "Opeth doing shitty covers of Opeth" section where people were just shouting out requests, songs they haven't played in a while so you got snippets/teases of even more (guessing a few of the guys NEVER played them). Mikael trying to figure out 20 year old songs poorly in the wrong tuning was incredible. Nice clean version of Bleak hung around for a minute, so good.

I know it's an obvious question that people ask but how is Mikael's growl nowadays? Surely it's not the same but does it sound like he is struggling? The setlist though looks nice. Interesting choice to have Deliverance as the encore song.

As for shows around me, there is California Deathfest this weekend. I wish I could attend Friday because it will have Brujeria, Capitalist Casualties, Black Breath and Agoraphobic Nosebleed. There is also Aftershock Festival at Sacramento which has a decent list of big bands but damn the ticket prices are high.

New Meshuggah, going to see Allegaeon in Montreal on wednesday. Seriously check those guys out, they have an amazing cover of 'Subdivisions' by Rush.. its incredible!

I'm enjoying the new Meshuggah and Dillinger Escape Plan albums (is DEP allowed in this thread? haha). The new Inquisition album didn't really grab me on first listen but I'll give it another shot.

Anyone listening to the new Black Crown Initiate album? One of my favorite releases so far this year.

I went to the Hatebreed, DevilDriver, & Devil You Know show last night and I'm afraid the metal scene in my area is dying. That show 2 years ago would've been rowdy and full. Last night the energy was dead and was maybe 1/4 full. It..was bad.

But there are some weird city ordinances that are killing all local shows. Flashback to 2-3 years ago and we used to get 2 big metal shows a month and now we are lucky to get 3 a year...

The new Dark Tranquility single "Atoma" pretty solid.

This album is great! Too bad they are anti-American and will never tour in the U.S. or so I've heard.

If we're going by, say, Metal Archive's rules, Dillinger Escape Plan isn't metal. And I can understand why you'd say that - they're more akin to Converge's brand of metal-tinged hardcore than metal proper - but nobody seems to be able to draw an exact line between metal and hardcore, we just shove anything that could be either under the "metalcore" label and move on.

This thread seems pretty lax about that whole thing so I'd say discuss Dillinger Escape Plan all you want to, unless someone else has a problem with it.

Yeah I wouldn't expect people in this thread to call it out and I was taking a lighthearted jab at Metal Archives there actually. I'm personally not very strict about genres and what bands fall into what areas. It's kinda fun to discuss genres and have those "who put funk in my black metal?" discussions but some of the arguments you see people having over what genres/sub-genres bands fit into are bewildering wastes of energy.

Back on the topic though I also like the new Neurosis album (Fires Within Fires). It's only 5 tracks so it's a bit shorter than most of their albums but I think that's a good thing since their last couple of albums had some filler if you ask me. I think it could have fit in well between A Sun That Never Sets and The Eye of Every Storm in their discography. Times of Grace and Enemy of the Sun are still my favorites from them though.

Two new Metal releases I've really enjoyed.

Anciients put out their sophomore album and while I don't like it as much as Heart of Oak it is still really good. I don't think they are the most unique modern metal band but they do the sound really well in my opinion. Also inclined to like them as they are semi-local.

Red Fang's new album is also just wonderful, great mix of more catchy stoner rock and heavier metal style songs. Haven't seen them live in a couple years so really want to try and catch them again as I think a bunch of these new songs would be great live.