What Are You Listening To?

[Arioch]

Darkthrone - Panzerfaust (1995)

 

[MacabreEternal]

Witch Vomit - Funeral Sanctum (2024)

 

[Yannis]

Opera IX - The Black Opera 

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

That's the 30 year anniversary re-release of their 1994 demo tape with updated full color artwork. And yes they are indeed a symphonic black metal band, no death metal in sight. Their first actual full length release two years later in 1996 sounds quite a bit more professional, although obviously symphonic anything is not my bag so I'm gonna have to turn this off once I grab the URL.

Avatar - ...Memoriam Draconis, Belgium 1996

 

Now if you want some good shit from 1994...

Graveland - The Celtic Winter, Poland 1994

 

Mütiilation - Hail Satanas We Are the Black Legions, France 1994

 

Nice catch. Maybe it was the fully colored cover art that made me think it at least had some death metal leanings before I played. You don't often see the green fading into yellow with a little red color scheme in black metal. Thirty years though, and people still care enough to reissue it. That's some pedigree for sure. I've had my back and forths with Graveland over the years, but I definitely respect them and of course the Umlaut abusing Muttilation I almost always enjoy when they cross my path.

[Yannis]

Atomkraft - Conductors Of Noize

 

[Arioch]

Grip Inc. - Power of Inner Strength (1995)

Dave Lombardo had a lot of fun on Grip Inc. Even on this first album, he tried never to repeat the same patterns behind his drums, and played differently from one track to the next. And I think he continued to do so right up to the last album. Magical!

 

[AlSymerz]

Crypt Crawler - The Immortal Realm

 

[Yannis]

Obsession -Marshall Law

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Heresiarch - Edifice, Wellington New Zealand, Jon-O's old stomping grounds. First album 7 years ago was cavernous war metal. This new one is closer to standard death metal. Still heavy as fuck, but I need a little time to process the sub-genre change. This new one has been much better recorded, maybe that's what's throwing me. And I was so excited to see there was a new Heresiarch album too. 38 minutes in now and I think it's growing on me. Another listen or two might do the trick.

 

Prehistoric War Cult - Cold Wind Howls Over the Burial Site (EP)  German war metal 2021.

 

Cystic Embalmment - Folklore De Fond D'égout, goregrind Montreal Quebec 2023

 

[markm]

7 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

Witch Vomit - Funeral Sanctum (2024)

 

One of my favorite A'sOTY

[Arioch]

5 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Heresiarch - Edifice, Wellington New Zealand, Jon-O's old stomping grounds. First album 7 years ago was cavernous war metal. This new one is closer to standard death metal. Still heavy as fuck, but I need a little time to process the sub-genre change. This new one has been much better recorded, maybe that's what's throwing me. And I was so excited to see there was a new Heresiarch album too. 38 minutes in now and I think it's growing on me. Another listen or two might do the trick.

It's a total discovery for me and I like what I've heard. Thank you so much!

Edit : Purchased on Bandcamp! 👍

[markm]

When it comes to cavernous claustrophobic, doom laden, horrific death metal, i'm picky. I want more than one trick up the sleeve.

 Phobcosm/Foreordained (2023)- Top tier level shit.

[markm]

Sumac/ The Healer (2024)

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, markm said:

When it comes to cavernous claustrophobic, doom laden, horrific death metal, I'm picky. I want more than one trick up the sleeve.

Phobcosm/Foreordained (2023) - Top tier level shit.

Haven't found a ton of that type of stuff yet this year so far, war metal, filthy black/death and the like. Still have plenty from previous years, but it makes me wonder if maybe the clock is winding down on that sub-genre, or else I just haven't been looking hard enough. That's easily my favorite sub-genre, although I find a lot less of it that makes the grade each year than I do regular black or death metal. Everyone's picky, we all just use different criteria through which to filter stuff.

I hadn't thought much about Phobocosm since Bringer of Drought back in 2016 which I thought was just so-so. But this new one Foreordained is f'excellent. Looks like we've come full circle, I've now got Marky McMarkerson turning me the Goatmaster onto the year's top black/death releases, even if it is from last year. But I still missed it even last year, guess I saw it but just didn't bother clicking on it because of my preconceptions of the name Phobocosm. Good lookin' out Holmes.

 

Phobocosm - Foreordained, Montréal, Quebec

 

before that....

Caveman Cult - Rituals of Savagery, Florida 2014

 

Cult ov Black Blood - Apocalyptic Banner ov Abaddon, Poland 2023

 

1 hour ago, Arioch said:

It's a total discovery for me and I like what I've heard. Thank you so much!

Edit : Purchased on Bandcamp! 👍

De rien!

[AlSymerz]

Crypt Crawler - To The Grave

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Black Sites - The Promised Land

The Promised Land? | Black Sites (bandcamp.com)

Songwriting. Songwriting. Songwriting. They're not the thrashiest, the heaviest, the most technical, or the most energetic, nor is their vocalists the type that can belt in tightly controlled perfect pitch or utilize complicated vocal mechanical techniques usually reserved for opera in the vein of Wagner. What they have is serious natural immaculate talent in their songwriting to the point any error in the technical vein is rendered trivial. If we lived in a fair and honest world these guys would be recognized as metal titans.

[Thatguy]

WINTERFYLLETH - The Imperious Horizon.  It's what you'd expect from this band, but although the songs are fairly long, they feel more focussed than previously. Thatguy approved.

DODHEIMSGARD - Supervillain Outcast. Yeah baby.

NP - YING SHUI DI JIANG - Wind Rising. Atmospheric. Intriguing. You won't like it.

[markm]

5 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Haven't found a ton of that type of stuff yet this year so far, war metal, filthy black/death and the like. Still have plenty from previous years, but it makes me wonder if maybe the clock is winding down on that sub-genre, or else I just haven't been looking hard enough. That's easily my favorite sub-genre, although I find a lot less of it that makes the grade each year than I do regular black or death metal. Everyone's picky, we all just use different criteria through which to filter stuff.

I hadn't thought much about Phobocosm since Bringer of Drought back in 2016 which I thought was just so-so. But this new one Foreordained is f'excellent. Looks like we've come full circle, I've now got Marky McMarkerson turning me the Goatmaster onto the year's top black/death releases, even if it is from last year. But I still missed it even last year, guess I saw it but just didn't bother clicking on it because of my preconceptions of the name Phobocosm. Good lookin' out Holmes.

 

Phobocosm - Foreordained, Montréal, Quebec

Life's ironies never cease to amaze. If you listen close, you'll hear some Ulcerate influence, your favorite band...ulcerate/Incantation....wow!  Now, where's that  Deafheaven album?  

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, markm said:

Life's ironies never cease to amaze. If you listen close, you'll hear some Ulcerate influence, your favorite band...Ulcerate/Incantation....wow!  Now, where's that  Deafheaven album?  

Hey I'll have you know I've been on the record saying Deafheaven's a good band, they've just got nothing whatsoever to do with black metal and as such I'm not interested in what they're selling.

And as much as I can't even listen to any of those Ulcerate/Gorguts/Ad Nauseam/Krallice/Artificial Brain type bands, I'm really not as far away as it might appear. It's only a wee bit of dissonance or atonality (or something like that) they have in there and their steadfast dedication to wacky unpredictable songwriting that separates us, and makes the difference between loving them and hating them, and keeps me from being able to get onboard.

Small amounts of dissonance like you might find in Incantation or Immolation's music I've been able to successfully overcome. I can consume and digest them in moderate doses without issue. But if try to swallow an entire Ulcerate or especially a whole Gorguts, my delicate system just can't handle it, I'll be up all night with agita and acid reflux and just be burdened with a general feeling of unease and unrest for days. An Ad Nauseam or a Pyrrhon might put me in the hospital. 

War metal and brutal black/death are like my Melatonin, they relax me. They provide some kind of catharsis that I apparently need in my day to day life. Really anything in what I'll call the Incantation mold of death metal and blackened death generally agrees with me. They're the ones along with bands like Blasphemy and Sarcofago and Beherit that inspired a good portion of the bands I hold dear.

In just the last couple of years I've also finally started to be able to appreciate bands in that Deicide/Suffocation/Cannibal mold that used to put me off completely not that long ago. Not Deicide in particular, I still can't stomach Glen's vocals, but just that style of death metal. And that's opened up a whole little world of brutal somewhat technical death bands from around the turn of the century that I've had fun exploring. Because I can handle the tech in small doses if it doesn't come tied together with the prog part. But I don't think I'll ever be able to crack the code on the wacky tech/prog thing that Ulcerate and Gorguts have got going on. A man has to learn to accept his limitations.

Do I like being limited like this? Hell no! It bugs the hell out of me that others can freely enjoy some of these bands that I can't appreciate because I just don't get it. It's like if we all took a Metalforum tiki tour to Greece together and I was the only one who couldn't speak Greek. I'd feel left out and I'd be annoyed that I wasn't getting the full Greek experience like everyone else. But that's not gonna help me learn the language or even be able to make heads or tails out of their wacky alphabet. And that's how I feel about Ulcerate and Gorguts, it's like their music is in Greek (not the lyrics - I mean the actual music itself) and unfortunately I can't understand Greek (except for a handful of greetings and curse words I learned from my first wife's mother)

 

NP: Prehistoric War Cult - Under the Sign of the Red Moon (EP) Germany 2022

 

Gotthammer - Godslaying Sonic Barbarism (EP) Quebec 2023

 

Concrete Winds - S/T  Finland

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

29 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Hey I'll have you know I've been on the record saying Deafheaven's a good band, they've just got nothing whatsoever to do with black metal and as such I'm not interested in what they're selling.

And as much as I can't even listen to any of those Ulcerate/Gorguts/Ad Nauseam/Krallice/Artificial Brain type bands, I'm really not as far away as it might appear. It's only a wee bit of dissonance or atonality (or something like that) they have in there and their steadfast dedication to wacky unpredictable songwriting that separates us, and makes the difference between loving them and hating them, and keeps me from being able to get onboard.

Small amounts of dissonance like you might find in Incantation or Immolation's music I've been able to successfully overcome. I can consume and digest them in moderate doses without issue. But if try to swallow an entire Ulcerate or especially a whole Gorguts, my delicate system just can't handle it, I'll be up all night with agita and acid reflux and just be burdened with a general feeling of unease and unrest for days. An Ad Nauseam or a Pyrrhon might put me in the hospital. 

War metal and brutal black/death are like my Melatonin, they relax me. They provide some kind of catharsis that I apparently need in my day to day life. Really anything in what I'll call the Incantation mold of death metal and blackened death generally agrees with me. They're the ones along with bands like Blasphemy and Sarcofago and Beherit that inspired a good portion of the bands I hold dear.

In just the last couple of years I've also finally started to be able to appreciate bands in that Deicide/Suffocation/Cannibal mold that used to put me off completely not that long ago. Not Deicide in particular, I still can't stomach Glen's vocals, but just that style of death metal. And that's opened up a whole little world of brutal somewhat technical death bands from around the turn of the century that I've had fun exploring. Because I can handle the tech in small doses if it doesn't come tied together with the prog part. But I don't think I'll ever be able to crack the code on the wacky tech/prog thing that Ulcerate and Gorguts have got going on. A man has to learn to accept his limitations.

Do I like being limited like this? Hell no! It bugs the hell out of me that others can freely enjoy some of these bands that I can't appreciate because I just don't get it. It's like if we all took a Metalforum tiki tour to Greece together and I was the only one who couldn't speak Greek. I'd feel left out and I'd be annoyed that I wasn't getting the full Greek experience like everyone else. But that's not gonna help me learn the language or even be able to make heads or tails out of their wacky alphabet. And that's how I feel about Ulcerate and Gorguts, it's like their music is in Greek (not the lyrics - I mean the actual music itself) and unfortunately I can't understand Greek (except for a handful of greetings and curse words I learned from my first wife's mother)

 

NP: Prehistoric War Cult - Under the Sign of the Red Moon (EP) Germany 2022

 

Gotthammer - Godslaying Sonic Barbarism (EP) Quebec 2023

 

Concrete Winds - S/T  Finland

 

A great analogy honestly, and tends to be how I feel about blackened death metal. I love black metal, I love death metal, I love when either combine with any of the other genres I enjoy. For some reason though porting the two together it’s like trying to, match meat with chocolate - 90% of the time you’ve ruined perfectly good meat and perfectly good chocolate well to me anyway. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

A great analogy honestly, and tends to be how I feel about blackened death metal. I love black metal, I love death metal, I love when either combine with any of the other genres I enjoy. For some reason though porting the two together it’s like trying to match meat with chocolate - 90% of the time you’ve ruined perfectly good meat and perfectly good chocolate, well to me anyway. 

No, I get it Blivvie. We all have our different combinations of foods we like, there's no right or wrong or accounting for taste. My Kiwi wife used to put pineapple and ham on her pizza - every single time. Maybe in Auckland that's normal but over here in the states, especially in NY it's essentially blasphemy to put pineapple on pizza. And if you're not careful you could be burned at the stake as a heretic like Joan of Arc. We don't put beans and shit on toast either. I do happen to really like baked beans, always keep a couple of cans of 'em on hand, and I like toast as well, but why would anyone combine those two things?

I love black metal, and I love death metal, but as you know a fair amount of the death metal I listen to could be described as "meat & potatoes" with maybe just a little salt and pepper. So for me adding the black metal to my death metal is like adding the herbs and seasonings, the garlic and the cumin and the tarragon and the saffron and the curry powder and e the cayenne pepper or whatever you're using  to bring out the flavor and the umami and make it really tasty, a dish that you'll want to make over and over.

I'll take well executed blackened death over regular death metal 9 times out of 10. The evil satanic thing just enhances the flavor. Some people like to add prog to their death metal to get that enhanced flavor they're looking for, but I don't like the taste of prog. I guess to me the prog is sorta like marmite or vegemite, apparently some people really love that shit and others of us really fucking hate it. But I wouldn't hold it against anyone who likes it, I can't help that it just tastes horrible to me and completely ruins everything you might decide to put it on.

I don't look at black metal the same way though. Black metal and blackened death are two distinctly separate things to me and I like both of them quite a bit but for different reasons. I tend to look at black/death more as death metal that's been enhanced. It appeals more to the primitive death metal side of my brain, the knuckle-dragging Neanderthal side that just wants to smash shit. Whereas black metal appeals more to my intellectual side and to my emotional side. Although I find it a bit harder to make blanket generalizations about black metal, since I listen to a much wider variety of different black metal styles than I do death metal. 

 

 

Gotthammer - Ancient Nature (EP) Quebec, not to be confused with Goathammer from Saskatoon Saskatchewan

 

Goatcorpse/Gotthammer Split EP  (San Jose/Quebec) 

 

Goathammer/Empty Chalice - From the Chalice of the Goat (Split) Saskatchewan/Victoria BC 2022

 

[Yannis]

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath

 

[AlSymerz]

Eradicator - Influence Denied

[Yannis]

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

8 hours ago, Thatguy said:

WINTERFYLLETH - The Imperious Horizon.  It's what you'd expect from this band, but although the songs are fairly long, they feel more focused than previously. Thatguy approved.

DODHEIMSGARD - Supervillain Outcast. Yeah baby.

NP - YING SHUI DI JIANG - Wind Rising. Atmospheric. Intriguing. You won't like it.

I had a Winterfylleth album once. Still here in my library today actually, The Mercian Sphere is the title, and I think I played it once after I bought it. That was their second album 14 years ago, and they appear to have released 6 more albums since then. Are you saying they've gotten better over that time, and it would behoove me to check out their newer stuff? Or won't I like that either?   [OK I've checked the two tracks they have up on YT, above average atmo-black, if anything this one should've been the "yeah baby" of the bunch]

Supervillain Outcrap is fucking terrible btw. Besides the fact that it's weird just for the sake of being weird, there's no groove, no bop, no flow. I've really gotta stop falling for these "Yeah babies."

 

NP: Deranged - High on Blood, BDM Sweden 1998

 

 

Massacra - Enjoy the Violence, France 1991