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What Are You Listening To?

khaos

By khaos
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Immolation - Acts of God (2022) Number eight on my end of year list that if I am being honest, the boredom of being unable to do much of anything with COVID has led me to do an end of y

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Nasty_Cabbage Mentor

Nasty_Cabbage

Posted
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8 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

Armored Saint - Nod To The Old School

A compilation? It gets the job done I guess. My feelings toward greatest hits albums have always been conflicted. On the one hand, assuming the band really does have nearly two full albums worth of "singles" even though that's not really a thing in metal for the most part, they can be a pretty good crash course for the younger crowd who might be burgeoning toward becoming fans, but on the other hand what good is a greatest hits album from Maiden that wouldn't include Ryme of the Ancient Mariner or some of the proggy stuff from 'Seventh Son'. Then you have musicians who bring together a whirlwind of styles or who have "eras" from all across the map. Devin Townsend alone would present a really insane kind of trap for anybody that wanted a good idea of what his solo stuff was all about. The Ziltoid albums? Strapping Young Lad? Do you even acknowledge his touring days with Steve Vai as their ace lived vocalist. It's drive me nuts trying to make sense of it all with only a limited set of tracks.

Still I have always wondered if there's maybe more to Armored Saint and their older material which, if I'm being honest, I really only made fleeting contact with on account of John Bush's personality really rubbing me the wrong way. How do you feel about it? I do have a soft spot for the Metal Blade old guard.

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AlSymerz Grand Master

AlSymerz

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Compilation albums have their place in a digital world. I remember buying a few back in the 80's and 90's and I remember getting a few multi-band comps are freebies with albums like No Sleep At All. I wouldn't buy them these days because music is to easy to get and sample different bands or different eras of bands. But I'll still listen to them occasionally.

IMO JB is a brilliant singer, he made one of the best, if not best Anthrax albums (and then made shit ones). His efforts with Saint are nothing short of brilliant and even the new Cat7 is worthwhile.

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FatherAlabaster Grand Master

FatherAlabaster

Posted
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37 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

What a great band they were. I love those albums.

I was in a band that was friends with them back in the mid 2000s and we got to play a few local shows with them. Also saw them on tour at much bigger venues. They always sounded great no matter the setting, put a lot of effort into getting the live sound on point. 

And yeah... they're great albums. So well put together.

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RexKeltoi Proficient

RexKeltoi

Posted
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7 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I love their albums through the mid 80s, but I wouldn't have minded some more prog epics with intense musicianship mixed in with the radio rock.

I remember when Permanent Waves was released, my cousin loved it and said she changed her mind and like Rush, I told her I hated it because for the most part they sold out and went commercial. I remember these guys live in the early days, they played at my high school, could be wrong but I think John Rutsey was still the drummer 🤔  Triumph played that same year and their flash pots lit the auditorium curtains on fire and the fire department came 😅🤦‍♂️ That was the last concert and my high school 

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Nasty_Cabbage Mentor

Nasty_Cabbage

Posted
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8 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

Compilation albums have their place in a digital world. I remember buying a few back in the 80's and 90's and I remember getting a few multi-band comps are freebies with albums like No Sleep At All. I wouldn't buy them these days because music is to easy to get and sample different bands or different eras of bands. But I'll still listen to them occasionally.

IMO JB is a brilliant singer, he made one of the best, if not best Anthrax albums (and then made shit ones). His efforts with Saint are nothing short of brilliant and even the new Cat7 is worthwhile.

I suppose I don't have any real critiques about John Bush' technique. I think for a bit when I was young VH1 was consulting that Anthrax Scott Ian guy and his bandmates whenever anything heavier than say Warrant came up. This would have probably been the stage where I was just crossing over to more legitimate metal so the whole band kind of bugged me. Maybe I'll check them out... but not today. Tonight while I wait for this medication to take effect is going to be a sort of guilty favorite from last year

NP: Children of the Reptile - Heavy is the Head

Heavy Is The Head | Children of the Reptile (bandcamp.com)

a3946485408_10.jpg

Somebody informed me the other day that apparently a ton of the lyrical content on here is lifted from D&D. I may be losing some nerd credit here, but that, Baldurs Gate, and a few other albums have pretty much colored my understanding of the game having never played myself. I seem to just sort of know about a ton of this stuff through absorbing it from friends. Don't really think it's for me though.

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Arioch Veteran

Arioch

Posted
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10 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I love their albums through the mid 80s, but I wouldn't have minded some more prog epics with intense musicianship mixed in with the radio rock.

I have enormous respect for Rush. I discovered progressive hard rock thanks to two tracks, and I've never looked back.

It was The Trees and La Villa Strangiato.


Just talking about it makes me want to listen to the album.

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AlSymerz Grand Master

AlSymerz

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

I suppose I don't have any real critiques about John Bush' technique. I think for a bit when I was young VH1 was consulting that Anthrax Scott Ian guy and his bandmates whenever anything heavier than say Warrant came up. This would have probably been the stage where I was just crossing over to more legitimate metal so the whole band kind of bugged me. Maybe I'll check them out... but not today. Tonight while I wait for this medication to take effect is going to be a sort of guilty favorite from last year

 

Scott Ian was a VH1 host and programmer at one stage so hardly surprising VH1 played Anthrax. It was probably the only way they could get air play on anything. Someone who uses the term 'legitimate metal' wont like JB era Anthrax

 

Malignant Tumour - Maximum Rock N Roll

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Arioch Veteran

Arioch

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I've finished listening to all the Massacra albums. Unsurprisingly, my favourites are Final Holocaust, Enjoy the Violence, Sign of the Decline and the 3 demos on the Day of the Massacra compilation. The last two albums may have been more in tune with the times at the time of their release (Metallica had come of age with their Black Album, Pantera was taking up more and more space, and Machine Head was about to make a name for itself), but they're still a pain in the arse to listen to! Even if Massacra had released them under a different name, I wouldn't have liked them. But here, after 3 masterpieces, it's impossible.

Massacra - Sick (1994)

 

Massacra - Humanize Human (1995)

 

Come on, let's clean out our ears with :

Crown of Thorns - The Burning (1995)

 

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