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Hey,

I remember reading a while back that Steve was into a lot of Metal, and I want to say it was some of the Norwegian black metal stuff, but can't recall. Just curious if anyone here has given it a shot. I picked up some Burzum and Bathory this weekend and it has certain elements I like and others which annoy the hell out of me. Just looking for recommendations or to see if anyone else has taken an interest in this stuff... I'm looking more for stuff that has a lot of low end guitar (a la Mortician) without the cheesed out horror movie samples and lack of seriousness.

Wes

wes9 wrote:Hey,

I remember reading a while back that Steve was into a lot of Metal, and I want to say it was some of the Norwegian black metal stuff, but can't recall. Just curious if anyone here has given it a shot. I picked up some Burzum and Bathory this weekend and it has certain elements I like and others which annoy the hell out of me. Just looking for recommendations or to see if anyone else has taken an interest in this stuff... I'm looking more for stuff that has a lot of low end guitar (a la Mortician) without the cheesed out horror movie samples and lack of seriousness.

Wes

Hey:

I can recommend Burzum, especially up to and including "Filosofem" -- can't say I like his prison recordings as much.

My girlfriend likes Immortal, but they just make me laugh.

I like Burning Witch, and the related groups Goatsnake and Sunn, from what I've heard.

If you like this sort of thing, you may also like some of the more hellish power electronics groups like Come Org, Whitehouse (by far the most perverse and hellish), Throbbing Gristle and their predecessors the White Noise. You might also like some of the more chaotic Japanese guitar/noise music, like Zeni Geva, Fushitsusha, Keiji Haino, Hanatarashi and SOB.

Not really death metal, but the drumming on Confessor records is really great, as is Meshuggah.

I like Pentagram and Spirit Caravan, and I like Wino's previous band the Obsessed and the last original-lineup album by Sepultura, "Roots."

And I know I'm alone in this, but I think Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music is a real masterpiece.

-steve

steve wrote:And I know I'm alone in this, but I think Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music is a real masterpiece.

-steve

Hardly, Side C is a stone classic.

the dbl live Fushitsusha record (the second one, PSF 13-14 [?]) is incredible, haino sounds like he is being struck by lightining

woo, whitehouse!

wes9 wrote:Hey,

I remember reading a while back that Steve was into a lot of Metal, and I want to say it was some of the Norwegian black metal stuff, but can't recall. Just curious if anyone here has given it a shot. I picked up some Burzum and Bathory this weekend and it has certain elements I like and others which annoy the hell out of me. Just looking for recommendations or to see if anyone else has taken an interest in this stuff... I'm looking more for stuff that has a lot of low end guitar (a la Mortician) without the cheesed out horror movie samples and lack of seriousness.

Wes

My Recommendations
I like Sleep a lot. To my knowledge they have two albums, Holy Mountain and Jerusalem. They're both real good. I like Holy Mountain a little more.

Also, maybe check out Earth. I've only heard Earth II and Pentastar: In The Style of Demons. Both good in different ways. Earth II has something crazy like 16 guitars layered on top of each other in one or two songs. Pentastar is a little more spacey and there are distinct songs on it.

A friend of mine is really into a band called Trollfin. Their from Finland. I've yet to hear them, but apparently they sing in Trollish.

steve wrote:

and I like Wino's previous band the Obsessed

-steve

"The difference between me and you is like making love in a mausoleum."

That's the Obsessed right?
I laughed for like, four weeks when I first heard that.
And yeah, they are sweet.

seems like youre straying away from black metal here, into what people call stoner.

for the guy who likes sleep, the guitarist from sleep (matt) has a new band called high on fire. their first record (the name escapes me but the first track is called baghdad) is excellent. thier second record is much more in the vein of generic smokers bilge, but the first one is very good.


for those of you people discussing scandinavian bands, the newest emperor album (called something like "prometheous and the discipline of fire and demise") is really good and uses keybaords to great effect to add to the overall soundscape, rather than just plastering silly horror house chords over the top like some swedish bands do.

Speaking of Confessor:

Confessor's drummer has teamed up with Pen Rollings (Honor Roll, Breadwinner) for a new band, Loincloth, whose first demo has rocked the Electrical office very hard a couple of times.

-steve

There's lots of fine metal out there these days.

I've been getting lots of this stuff for the past few years, and here's the pick of the crop. There's not much in the past year or so, as I've been too busy and broke interning. See the intern section if you want to hear all about that.

I don't know what you've got already, so I'll treat it with a broad brush. And I'll use lots of sentence fragments.

Chaotic stuff
Knut - Challenger: I find this more listenable over time than Meshuggah. Distortion on pretty much everything, very hectic.
Keelhaul - II: Just as complex as Knut, but more organic. Uses musical proficiency in service of making really captivating music, not the other way around.

Tech
The Dillinger Escape Plan- Calculating Infinity: Like a sped up merry go round with knives instead of horses. It is enjoyable, unlike most super technical bands.

'core
Converge - Jane Doe: Best of the metalcore bands, and their best record yet. On par with god-period Jesus Lizard for their live act. Manages to be extreme and dynamic.
Minus - Jesus Christ Bobby: Odd stuff from Iceland. Newest record is much more accessible, and doesn't seem to be as good.

Black Metal - Note that there's lots and lots of stuff that falls in this, from the cold and frosty 'necro' of Darkthrone to the massive and epic Emperor. My two favorites are
Immortal - Blizzard Beasts. Funny, sure, but awesome as well. Songs about "frostdemons", incredibly fast and bizarre song structures. Stopped being super fast on this record and now want to seem to be the #1 heavy metal thing in the world.
Satyricon - Nemesis Divina: Uses swirling keyboards and grandiose arrangements but still packs a hard punch. Great part about 2 minutes into the first song when the vocalist delivers a totally satanic "Diiiiieeeeeeeee".

Mid-tempo
Isis - Oceanic: Layered and diverse.
Pelican - Untitled: 4 song demo, more generally low-end than buddies Isis. Full length should be out this year and early forecasts call for heavy.

Doom
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone: #1 taco riff of all time on the title track. Kicks in when the 'chorus' comes through. I've never smoked pot, so the appeal is not just to weedheads.
Melvins - Lysol is my favorite, but I don't have the most recent few records. Still incredible live.

Sub Doom
Khanate - s/t: Headed by Stephen O'Malley, former member of Burning Witch and currently 1/2 of Sunn))0. Painfully empty.
Corrupted - Paso Inferior: I prefer this to Sleep, as they seem to take the idea even further. 1 45 minute long song, about 40 or so bpm, vocals are in Spanish, band is from Japan.

Spazz - Not really my thing, but just so you know...
Discordance Axis - the Inalienable Dreamless: All blastbeats. Vocalists sounds like he's being beaten with an iron.
Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Altered States of America: 100 songs, 19 minutes long, goofy song titles, drum machine set to extra fast.

This is off the top of my head, if you can believe it. I'll take a look at the shelf when I get home to see if I forgot anything. There's lots of internet places where people talk and talk about metal, but the best resource I've found is www.aquariusrecords.org . Great set up (sound samples), great critical descriptions, great people, great place to buy your music.

I like this type of music, so I hope this helps,

= Justin

steve wrote:I can recommend Burzum, especially up to and including "Filosofem" -- can't say I like his prison recordings as much.

-steve

Yeah... the Burzum I picked up was Hvis Lyset Tar Oss, which I believe was released very shortly after he was put in jail. First 3 tracks rock pretty hard but the last one is a 14 minute "ambient" piece which is about 12 minutes too long. Not sure if some of this was recorded before his being thrown in the clink or what.
I'm a big Throbbing Gristle fan too, but Whitehouse for the most part is just unlistenable to me. I'll have to check some of this out... there's a great store on Belmont (right off Broadway) called Metal Haven which seems to have a huge selection of this stuff.