What Are You Listening To?

[AlSymerz]

Overkill - The Years Of Decay Live In Europe

[Arioch]

Grip Inc. - Incorporated (2004)

Mekong Delta - Live at an Exhibition (1991)

 

[Arioch]

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic (2017)

 

[MacabreEternal]

Xentrix - Bury the Pain (2019)

 

[Arioch]

Wrath - Nothing to Fear (1987)

 

[Arioch]

Sodom - Persecution Mania (1987)

 

[Arioch]

Onslaught - Power from Hell (1985)

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

5 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

Did a double take on this because I thought Led Zep I couldn't possibly be 1969 could it? Since Zep II also was. But so it is. 

Made me think to raise a topic I intended to mention a month or two ago but forgot to (or did I? - dementia incoming). There was this documentary I saw called 1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything....  (not just a one hour one-off but 8 parts!) It is an interesting social commentary about what was going on at the time, mostly US centric, but UK did come into it. I learned a lot, however:

1. One episode banged on about how great The Stones' Exile on Main Street is. I am sure it is great and it sold a million copies. Do you know what else got released the same year? that Led Zeppelin album with Stairway to Heaven on it which sold 24 million copies. No mention. [could be because Zeppelin famously does not license its music for TV use - but not even a mention of what was probably the biggest band in the world at that point?]

2. I was waiting. Waiting. Waiting. In episode 8 there was some background music to a riot in the UK which credited Black Sabbath - Children of the Grave. There was no mention in the narrative of the band itself, when 1971 could be seen as the year that heavy metal began. Both Paranoid and Master of Reality were released that year. We've debated this before. I reckon Paranoid is legit metal, others say Master of Reality is the most complete first metal album. Either way, it was 1971 when that happened.

No mention of it in the 8 x 1 hour-ish episodes. They seemed more obsessed with David Bowie and bunch of funk and various things. Which is fine...but a missed opportunity to give a more complete account of 1971 as a pivotal year in music. 

I can see why this is an efficient approach, but it does risk overlooking a lot of stuff that might take longer to embed.

There have been a few bands in the last year where my first impression was "that is ridiculous, it'll never work" but for some reason persevered and ended up liking it. Plenty of instances of course where I hear an album once and never go back, but those are normally the ones that already sound familiar and don't bring much new to the table, even if well done; like that Undeath album.

Still, true enough that you don't owe anyone anything. So long as you're buying a few albums from a few bands every so often, you're doing your part. 

I find there isn't really that much that takes any significant time to embed. There's stuff that turns out to be better than I thought it was gonna be, and other stuff that ends up being not as good as I thought it was at first. But there's not much that I think is absolute garbage on first listen that later turns out to be a favorite. I've become pretty good at ruling out stuff rather quickly, it really doesn't take that long with most records to hear that they're not going to be for me. There's some stuff that takes a bit longer for me to assess, but the majority of albums I click on can be ruled out within the first 20 or 30 seconds. I don't worry too much about missing stuff, because if I've given it a quick listen and rejected it, I'm satisfied that it's something I can live without. There are some albums where I'm on the fence so I'll make a mental note to give them another shot at a later time, which is why I always have 50 tabs open. I don't reject everything within the first 20 seconds, there are some albums that require more in depth analysis.

You have to remember that even with as much music as I reject, I do still find a couple - three hundred new releases each year that do make the grade and will get added to the pile. There are only so many hours in the day to listen to music. I'm never lacking for new exciting things I want to listen to. I'm sure if someone like you were to listen to all the ones I've decided to keep throughout the year you'd probably think that there were some redundancies there. A lot of stuff in the same basic vein that sounds similarly familiar, most of which probably doesn't bring much of anything new to the table, and there'll be a bunch of more raw crusty filthy primitive diy stuff that you'd hate. There's not much bigtime major label overproduced stuff that even warrants so much as an audition in my world. When a new record is on a major label that's two strikes against it to begin with.

Because I know what I like Jon-0 Blade. There are several sub-genres I tend to stay within, and I know exactly what I do and don't like within each of them. So I pretty much know what I'm looking for when hunting for new music. Once an album has triggered a few of my red flags that's it, it goes straight onto the scrap heap of history, never to be thought of again. Because life is too short, continuing on with that shitty album would be wasting time that I could be using to listen to something else I really like or even my next big discovery. I'm always amazed by how familiar some people seem to be with bands they claim they don't like. That makes no sense to me, why spend any time listening to something once you've figured out that you don't even like it?

As far as Sabbath is concerned, I'd say there were definitely some metal moments on the first two albums. Surely a case could be made that their eponymous title track from their eponymous first album as well as songs like Iron Man qualify as metal. But Master of Reality (aside from the interludes and instrumentals and such) was their first album where all the main songs were metal. Just like your boys Priest might've flirted with metal a few times in their early days, but '78's Hellbent for Leather (or Killing Machine if you prefer) was the first album that had more metal than rock on it.

As far as your doco is concerned, I know you're aware that the majority of people watching a mainstream music doco about 1971 are gonna be boomer rock fans that don't give a shit about 1971 being a pivotal year for the formation of heavy metal. The fact that they left Zeppelin and Sabbath out altogether to talk about Bowie and the Stones some more tells you everything you need to know. The Stones were arguably still in their prime in 1971 when Mick Taylor was in the band, (if you can even consider such a mediocre band as having had a true prime) but after 1972's Exile there were only two more halfway decent albums (Goat's Head and I Like R&R) before Mick left, and within hours of his departure they were completely washed up has-beens. It was all straight downhill for the Stones after 1974. Their later 70's stuff might've been commercially successful, but it was all absolute fucking rubbish.

 

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home, sometimes known as Subterranean Homesick Blues, NY 1965

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

11 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

The 60's had some of the best music. The Beach Boys, The Who, CCR, Jefferson Airplane, The Hollies, and that doesn't include the Aussie groups!

Can't listen to any of those bands for more than a song or two. This was the music of my youth, but I heard far too much of it back then to ever want to hear any of it again now. How people in my age group can continue to listen to the same old bands from the dark ages over and over for the last 50 years mystifies me. All of those bands had one or two songs that I liked once upon a time, but the vast majority of their output was tedious and forgettable. There's a lot of people online who insist that the 60's and 70's were the epitome of music, the golden age of rock, but obviously those people aren't metalheads. From my perspective those were simply the two decades that I had to suffer through until metal finally came along. 

 

Kazän - Kazän, raw punk from Terceira Island in the Azores, so I guess their native language is Portuguese.

 

Disease - Death is Inevitable, Macedonian crusty filth 2020

 

Crutches - Dödsreveljen, Sweden 2022 d-beat/crust/raw punk

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Kikärtor - Lands of Kikaltur, crust punk de Spain 2023

 

Vastago - La Última Progenie, black/death Spain 2023

 

Hellish - Cannibalistic Madness, Türkiye

 

[AlSymerz]

S.A.S. - Warlords

[Thatguy]

4 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

How people in my age group can continue to listen to the same old bands from the dark ages over and over for the last 50 years mystifies me. All of those bands had one or two songs that I liked once upon a time, but the vast majority of their output was tedious and forgettable.

This statement is Thatguy approved.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

True Black Dawn - Come the Colorless Dawn, Finland 2016

 

 

Grafvitnir - Obeisance to a Witch Moon, Sweden 2016

 

 

Морок (Darkness) - In the Dungeons of Mind, Ukraine 2016

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Karne - Symposium of Torments, France 2017

 

Rienaus - Saatanalle, Finland 2017

 

Norns - Pazuzu, Finland 2016

 

Khragkh - Ersatz, Belarus 2017

 

[markm]

22 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

 

Speaking of Bob Dylan, did you see the trailer for the new Dylan film, A Complete Unknown? It popped up a day or two ago on Youtube and now I want to see the film when it comes out at the end of the year. This kid Timothée Chalamet they found to play the young Dylan really nails it I think.

 

 

 

 

I hadn't, but I'm interested

9 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Can't listen to any of those bands for more than a song or two. This was the music of my youth, but I heard far too much of it back then to ever want to hear any of it again now. How people in my age group can continue to listen to the same old bands from the dark ages over and over for the last 50 years mystifies me. All of those bands had one or two songs that I liked once upon a time, but the vast majority of their output was tedious and forgettable. There's a lot of people online who insist that the 60's and 70's were the epitome of music, the golden age of rock, but obviously those people aren't metalheads. From my perspective those were simply the two decades that I had to suffer through until metal finally came along. 

 

I'm more a don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, kind of guy. I don't listen to those classic albums much, but I still want them from time to time. Every so often I'll do run through of my classic Floyd, Dylan, Hendrix,  Who, CCR, Stones, Jefferson Airplane, Neil Young, The Byrds  and Beatles albums. Same with older alternative like Elvis Costello, Ramones, Blondie, etc. It's just that now, I've got so much other stuff, I don't get to the classics that much. I'm the same with my 80's trad metal. But, I wouldn't turn away from those albums for ever. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Abglanz - Dawn of Eternal Existence, Germany

 

Nimbifer - Der Böse Geist, Germany

 

Vrdrbr - Verderber, Germany

 

[markm]

11 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

There's not much bigtime major label overproduced stuff that even warrants so much as an audition in my world. When a new record is on a major label that's two strikes against it to begin with.

 

Speaking of which, today put on Judas Priest/Invincible Shield  Power metal melodic riffs, screechy vocals. All the things you love!  It has a rousing late career charm, tho.

Tonight giving some headphone time to Opeth/Morningrise, that I didn't buy until this late year in my metal listening...dripping with gorgeous candelabra and moss footed atmosphere, I have to say.

[Thatguy]

UFOMAMMUT - 8.  Quite inoffensive.

GIVRE - Le Cloître. Whereas this is a significant work of art.

[AlSymerz]

of a significant work of art

Kerry King - From Hell I Rise.

 

[Arioch]

Cosmic Jaguar - El Era Del Jaguar (2024)

 

[AlSymerz]

Motorhead - Motorhead