What Are You Listening To?

[JamesT]

Spanking Hour - "Revo(so)lution"

Swamp Stank - Self-titled

Overkill - "Necroshine"

[Thatguy]

FELLWARDEN - Legend:Forged in Defiance. Unspectacular but noice.

THE DROWNING - The Radiant Dark. Very noice.

NINE COVENS - ...On The Dawning Of Light. Solid.

ULCERATE - Cutting the Throat of God. On daily rotation until I get tired of it...

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Inanis - Ex Utero Inferni, Germany

 

Ominous Torment - Labyrinth of Perpetual Sorrow and Abandonment, Spain

 

[AlSymerz]

Witchskull - The Vast Electric Dark

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, Thatguy said:

On daily rotation until I get tired of it...

Alright Chocka Doc, I know you're down there in the ACT waiting patiently to hear my caprine perspective review of your new AotY. I finally tried it out for a good 45 minutes after dinner. Before tonight I hadn't checked in with Ulcerate in quite a few years (circa Everything Is Fire) and the memory really fades over time with stuff I don't like very much. So I guess I was expecting something a little more off the wall with convoluted, indecipherable compositions featuring extreme levels of gratuitous dissonance like Gorguts or Krallice or Artificial Brain or Portal or Pyrrhon or Ad Nauseam....you know the bands. But to my surprise it wasn't all wacky & crazy & angular like that, I found it more tedious and boring than anything else. Went in expecting a trapezoid, got served a rectangle.

Definitely too much dissonance for my delicate sensibilities, but it wasn't overdone to the point of being stupid where you can't even make heads or tails out of it. I'd even go so far as to classify this as actual music Doc, unlike some of those bands I just mentioned. I tried (half-heartedly at best) to get into it, but there's just no groove, no catchy riffs, can't hum along with this, can't bang your head or tap your foot to it, it's not even mysteriously dark and evil sounding like DSO can sometimes be. It just sort of plods along aimlessly with plenty of slow quiet 'breather' sections that seem like they've been strategically spaced out to let the dudes catch a little rest mid song, when instead they should be running more laps and playing longer sets to improve their conditioning. Lazy bloody Kiwis. I can't honestly say that I hate this, like I could very easily say regarding Ad Nauseam and Pyrrhon, but I will say this is deffo not something I'll be coming back to anytime soon, or more likely not ever.

The Drowning - The Radiant Dark: fuck me blue, just slit my fucking wrists and let me bleed out slowly, one excruciating drip at a time.

Fellwarden- Legend, Forged in Darkness: not terrible by any means, but there's really no need for this to be an hour long. It's serviceable for post/atmo-black, but bloody legends they're not. I could probably skip this altogether and just put on a Summoning album.

Nine Covens - The Dawning of Light, not a show-stopper, but definitely the cream of this particular 4 album crop. Not a purchase, but I would probably give this a second listen voluntarily in a week or so just to be sure.

[AlSymerz]

Obituary - Slowly We Rot

[Thatguy]

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Alright Chocka Doc, I know you're down there in the ACT waiting patiently to hear my caprine perspective review of your new AotY.

'Caprine', now there's a word I don't think I've ever seen used. I had to look it up so thanks for educating me. I will not allude to its meaning here so that our unwashed brethren also have to look it up.

As ever, thanks for coming but your wrongness is effulgent. Nah, actually I get where you are coming from but there's a ton of riffs and hummable tunes on the Ulcerate and the sound is so three dimensional, almost transparent, even limpid I would say. I agree that the FELLWARDEN is too long but it's warm and fuzzy.

NP - MARRIAGES - Salome

[AlSymerz]

Black Label Society - Mafia

[Yannis]

Exumer - Possessed by Fire 

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

4 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Alright Chocka Doc, I know you're down there in the ACT waiting patiently to hear my caprine perspective review of your new AotY. I finally tried it out for a good 45 minutes after dinner. Before tonight I hadn't checked in with Ulcerate in quite a few years (circa Everything Is Fire) and the memory really fades over time with stuff I don't like very much. So I guess I was expecting something a little more off the wall with convoluted, indecipherable compositions featuring extreme levels of gratuitous dissonance like Gorguts or Krallice or Artificial Brain or Portal or Pyrrhon or Ad Nauseam....you know the bands. But to my surprise it wasn't all wacky & crazy & angular like that, I found it more tedious and boring than anything else. Went in expecting a trapezoid, got served a rectangle.

Definitely too much dissonance for my delicate sensibilities, but it wasn't overdone to the point of being stupid where you can't even make heads or tails out of it. I'd even go so far as to classify this as actual music Doc, unlike some of those bands I just mentioned. I tried (half-heartedly at best) to get into it, but there's just no groove, no catchy riffs, can't hum along with this, can't bang your head or tap your foot to it, it's not even mysteriously dark and evil sounding like DSO can sometimes be. It just sort of plods along aimlessly with plenty of slow quiet 'breather' sections that seem like they've been strategically spaced out to let the dudes catch a little rest mid song, when instead they should be running more laps and playing longer sets to improve their conditioning. Lazy bloody Kiwis. I can't honestly say that I hate this, like I could very easily say regarding Ad Nauseam and Pyrrhon, but I will say this is deffo not something I'll be coming back to anytime soon, or more likely not ever.

The Drowning - The Radiant Dark: fuck me blue, just slit my fucking wrists and let me bleed out slowly, one excruciating drip at a time.

Fellwarden- Legend, Forged in Darkness: not terrible by any means, but there's really no need for this to be an hour long. It's serviceable for post/atmo-black, but bloody legends they're not. I could probably skip this altogether and just put on a Summoning album.

Nine Covens - The Dawning of Light, not a show-stopper, but definitely the cream of this particular 4 album crop. Not a purchase, but I would probably give this a second listen voluntarily in a week or so just to be sure.I definitely wasn’t expecting Ulcerate to be your thing, but I’m pleasantly surprised that you gave it as long as you did. For what it’s worth Coffins is still my AOTY but our trans-Tasman brethren certainly run a close second. Admittedly 40 odd albums is a fairly small sample size to this point of the year. 

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

57 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

'Caprine', now there's a word I don't think I've ever seen used. I had to look it up so thanks for educating me. I will not allude to its meaning here so that our unwashed brethren also have to look it up.

As ever, thanks for coming but your wrongness is effulgent. Nah, actually I get where you are coming from but there's a ton of riffs and hummable tunes on the Ulcerate and the sound is so three dimensional, almost transparent, even limpid I would say. I agree that the FELLWARDEN is too long but it's warm and fuzzy.

NP - MARRIAGES - Salome

Caprine is to goats as feline is to cats, or canine is to dogs, or lupine is to wolves, or equine is to horsies, or bovine is to an Orca.

Never let it be said that I'm not effulgent.

If this is what you professionals consider limpid...I mean granted, it's not anywhere near as purposefully chaotic, impenetrable and obfuscated as a lot of other stuff you've claimed to enjoy, and I've already said as much. But when compared to other music I'd categorize as "limpid" this wouldn't even rate a mention. It's still something of a difficult, or let's say a "challenging" listen to us caprines and other simple minded blokes who just want everything to be 4 chords in E minor in 4/4 time. I'll also add for no apparent reason that while I believe these Kiwis started out their career as some kind of a death metal band, I think they've now transcended that label because I really wouldn't call this death metal. Never too busy to make time to gatekeep.

But again, this is not at all terrible, and it's not at all what I was expecting based on their reputation and on my distant memories of their past work. On a good day I might even be willing to spot you "three dimensional" but I do think limpid's a bit of a stretch. Yeah there are certainly riffs present here, they're not one of those riffless wonders like Imperial Triumphant or whomever, but these riffs aren't straightforward, catchy or hummable in my world. This ain't the Ramones, Judas Pweest or AC/DC. These riffs have too many high notes juxtaposed against lower notes creating a sense of unease. I'm no music theorist or musician obviously, but it sounds to me like they're all over the neck here. It's exhausting to listen to, and I find it a bit jarring. I can't just relax and enjoy it while bobbing my head, which is all I'm after when I sit down with a new death metal album.

 

 

Obscurial - Heretic, death metal Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. This is more my speed.

 

[AlSymerz]

9 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

 

Never let it be said that I'm not effulgent.

 

I've been called full of effluent before too.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

4 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I definitely wasn’t expecting Ulcerate to be your thing, but I’m pleasantly surprised that you gave it as long as you did. For what it’s worth Coffins is still my AOTY but our trans-Tasman brethren certainly run a close second. Admittedly 40 odd albums is a fairly small sample size to this point of the year. 

Second time through it tonight I listened to the whole thing. Whenever there's a record everyone seems to be talking about I'll generally at least check it out and see how far I get. If it's really that bad I can always click out and listen to something else. But yeah I'm not saying Cutting God's Throat is a shit record, just that I don't personally see the appeal or why it would be anywhere near the AotY discussion. But to each his own man, if you dig it you dig it, it's really not for me to say.

11 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

I've been called full of effluent before too.

All your school mates aspired to be affluent, you had to be the odd one out who said no affluence for me, I just want to be effluent.

[Yannis]

Hooded Priest - Devil Worship Reckoning

 

[AlSymerz]

45 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

 

All your school mates aspired to be affluent, you had to be the odd one out who said no affluence for me, I just want to be effluent.

The more effluent among us rose to higher status.

[Yannis]

Mephistofeles - I'm Heroin 

 

[Arioch]

Metallica - Ride the Lightning (1984)

 

[AlSymerz]

Exodus - Shovel Headed Kill Machine

[Arioch]

Slayer - Hell Awaits (1985)

 

[Yannis]

Slayer - World Painted Blood

 

[Thatguy]

4 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Caprine is to goats as feline is to cats, or canine is to dogs, or lupine is to wolves, or equine is to horsies, or bovine is to an Orca.

Now you've let the others into the meaning they won't have to open the dictionary and that's a shame.

What I mean is that the sound - the production - is limpid, that is clear, transparent, not obscured by muck. This was not a comment on the musical content which I know you don't much care for and I'm not labouring that point. But I love the sound environment as well as the music. Especially with headphones. There is such clarity that I can hear when the drummer hits his sticks together - is this an error or a sound he wanted? Only he knows I guess.

Muck has its place and earlier ULCERATE albums certainly were not as clean sounding.   

[Arioch]

Dark Angel - Darkness Descends (1986)

 

[Kristiko]

Megadeth - Cryptic Writings (album)

Gojira - Magma (album)

[Arioch]

Wrath - Nothing to Fear (1987)

 

[MarkhantonioYeatts]

ALAMBRADA - Rios De Sangre