Ages of Winter is slaying my ass right now. This is the most exciting album that's come out this year. I stopped obsessing about metal over 15 years ago, now I'm questioning why.

I like the album okay. A lot of my underground headbanging brethren sneer at The Sword, accusing them of being hipster retro-poseurs capitalizing on the same twisted fad-hopping that has led to Jennifer Aniston wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts and every Williamsburg asshole showing up at The Sword shows despite never having listened to a metal song in their lives. And believe me, the reaction is ferocious. On another board, a debate about this issue raged for 15 pages (20 posts per page). All of the negative reaction is based mostly on ridiculous criteria - the way they look, their label, etc, and is usually voiced by that ridiculous strain of fan any sub-genre boasts, the purist. They're not "true metal", ya know. That kind of thing.

For me - meh. I've seen them live a couple times and they're pretty good. The album is listenable but there is a lot of underground metal out there that's much better. They're revolutionary to people who haven't been paying attention to non-mainstream metal, but they're not the genre's salvation. Just fellow travelers.

Ty Webb wrote:every Williamsburg asshole showing up at The Sword shows despite never having listened to a metal song in their lives.

Is that true? Bizarre.

I heard one of the songs on Headbanger's Ball and liked it. I saw the disc at Tower yesterday but thought I didn't need to own it, but I would like to hear it. I will acquire it later.

these guys / this record / the "schtick": it is all fun. NOT CRAP.

Kemado has some cool bands. DIAMOND NIGHTS!

OK so I am listening to this record now.

I like it.

I wonder if they bring it live.

Ty Webb wrote:A lot of my underground headbanging brethren sneer at The Sword, accusing them of being hipster retro-poseurs capitalizing on the same twisted fad-hopping that has led to Jennifer Aniston wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts and every Williamsburg asshole showing up at The Sword shows despite never having listened to a metal song in their lives. And believe me, the reaction is ferocious. On another board, a debate about this issue raged for 15 pages (20 posts per page). All of the negative reaction is based mostly on ridiculous criteria - the way they look, their label, etc, and is usually voiced by that ridiculous strain of fan any sub-genre boasts, the purist. They're not "true metal", ya know. That kind of thing.

i know people have this attitude. and it's pretty lame. it's actually so anti-hipster that it's hipster in itself. they get so worked up about who likes the kind of music they do, so worried about what's pure and what's not, they forget that it's all just music.

burun wrote:

Ty Webb wrote:every Williamsburg asshole showing up at The Sword shows despite never having listened to a metal song in their lives.

Is that true? Bizarre.

Oh yes. Celebrities wearing metal tees, hipsters wearing metal tees - same thing. I'm not a "tr00 metal" purist, but that does kind of irk me. I don't appreciate the metal I love being treated with disdain and irony only for the sake of social cache. It's not a sacred cow to me, but if you're going to take a shot at it, at least do it for good reasons - honest humor, satire, social comment, etc.

As for Kemado, they do have some cool bands. I particularly like Tarantula A.D., not to mention Dungen. But they do sign other bands that at least can have the appearance of ironic trend-hopping, like Danava. They come across like a snide parody of stoner rock. Even worse, they're not even really a good one.

I try not to understand the embarassing lyrics. Accomplishing that, what a fucking delightful little band.

Anyone paying close attention to metal lyrics deserves what they get.

i dig this...the autotune is bad and it's a bit compressed, but musically it's cool.

there are better bands in this genre but it's good.