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Banging the head that does not bang


Curt McGirt

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I did not expect to like Pallbearer at all because most of the metal LPs I see sold at the local shops are some trendy shit, and I spotted them out here, but after hearing one song off the last album on Youtube I had to burn both albums immediately. Great vocals, great harmonies, just some awesome mournful doom. I think this was the one we clicked on at random that sold me. 

 

 

And of course it would be the song that 7 mentioned after I scroll up again, haha. I have to add that they played here in Champaign too for a local fest and am kicking myself for not going.

 

Morbus Chron and Dead Congregation (whos first album is a killer) are already on my to-get list.

 

EDIT: Damn, reading the reviews for that album on Encyclopedia Metallum, it's pretty split down the middle. Either you love it or you think it's some shit that Pitchfork is calling metal and forcing down your throat. As a guy that doesn't really pay attention to what's popular and would rather listen to Paul Chain than anything new in doom, I really like the shit, so take that for what you will. 

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Guest The Magnificent 7

Scooped this Primordial CD up on my way home from work.  Expect THE VERDICT in a few days.  Album cover is just brilliant.

 

On another note, I get metal concert promotional stuff for the Louisville area and I always enjoy some of the band names who I've never heard of.  Most metal band names are downright terrible these days.

 

The Browning?  That's something you do to chopped hamburger meat in order to make tacos.  Not signal to a  15 year old kid that your metal band is badass so buy our record. 

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Honestly I've barely played the last three years, and have never been in a real band. Just a thing I picked up in high school where, through absolute dumb luck, I happened to pick one of the few that actually had a full blown guitar class. My only electric guitar is a Fender Squire which is a cheap guitar, though as far as cheap guitars go I really doubt you can beat a Squire because it's never done me any wrong. I also own an acoustic Ibanez.

 

Turned out to be the best class of my school life. I legit miss that class. Teacher was a bit stuffy (jazz musician who also played with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at least a few times), but he also had a great format. Monday-Thursday we did all that dry shit you were required to do like scales and classic pieces no one cared about and all that but you learned a lot and you improved pretty quickly if you put your mind to it. But every Friday, you had to play something in front of the class, and you could play anything you wanted. I ended up doing a ton of acoustic versions of Sabbath songs, a couple Smashing Pumpkins tunes, a little Zeppelin. I'm dating myself well here. I think we got somewhat lucky in that this teacher was really experienced with the saxophone and with woodwind instruments, but he was actually learning guitar along with us at the time I was in that class. It probably gave him a really unusual perspective on the whole thing, and generally it was just a solid group of people that actually wanted to be in a class and were actually enjoying what we were doing.

 

Also, I played Black Sabbath - Into the Void as essentially my grade 12 final exam (which was the one and only time during the year we were allowed to bring an electric) and got actual credits for doing so. This is the best thing possible you could have done at 17 years old to gain high school credits.

 

I really should pick up and play more. It's such a cathartic, relaxing thing to just get your shit out in sonic form with no concerns about anyone listening. I have played on and off for years but for whatever the reason (cough, video games) I often just haven't made the time I should. I don't really do New Year's resolutions but if I was going to do one a month late, that's what I'd probably choose. To this day because of that class I really enjoy working out ways to do metal songs on an acoustic guitar where they still sound cool/interesting. I honestly haven't even used a distortion pedal in years at this point.

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Metal names peaked with The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravagance

 

Ha! My friend got a piece of merch from them that has their name on it... it's a giant Zippo with their name bordering Larry Hagman's face stickered on the side. And when I say giant, I mean GIANT, like something they probably found at Spencer's that was a gag gift and they made stickers to put on it. The thing actually worked at one point.

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Guest The Magnificent 7

So the new Primordial (Where Greater Men have Fallen) is really good, but in my limited time with it I don't think it has the highs of Puritan's Hand.  That album had three all-time great metal songs in No Grave Deep Enough, The Mouth of Judas, and The Puritan's Hand. 

 

I like all the songs on this one, but so far I don't have tracks that I would necessarily put up there with those.  Some close ones, but I probably just have to let this one grow on me.  So far I'd say the best three songs on the album are the opener title track, Ghosts of the Charnel House, and the closer Wield Lightning to Split the Sun.  Vocals are huge on this album.  He's one of a kind. 

 

Puritan's Hand did some growing on me, too.  In the first wave of listens my favorite song was Bloodied Yet Unbowed and I was clearly wrong in that early stage.  So down the road my opinion on this album is bound to change.

 

It feels more like To the Nameless Dead so if you preferred that one than you'll definitely love this.  That album also was consistently really good, but I had a hard time selecting my favorites (high points) from that one, too. 

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Primordial are really good I will have to check that out soon.

 

If I had to name the three albums I liked the most it would be To The Nameless Dead, The Gathering Wilderness, and then Puritan's Hand. But man that opening track on Puritan's Hand is so good. To The Nameless Dead is basically unfuckwithable, to me.

 

Really a band I am glad you put me onto at one point.

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I just got back from Napalm Death/Voivod/Exhumed/Iron Reagan/Ringworm with:

 

- four classic Profane Existence-released 7"s for only four bucks (State of Fear, Diskonto, Hiatus, Assrash)

- an Iron Reagan LP for my friend

- some leftover booze and food

 

and (drum roll please)................

 

- pictures of me with Snake and Away from Voivod, while wearing my Piggy tribute shirt (met the gal that drew it out of nowhere to boot)

- Away's autograph on my ticket

 

If I had any idea this day/night would have gone so good, I think I woulda shit my pants. And yes, they were good, all of them, but Voivod is simply the best band playing right now, even sans Piggy and Blacky. The Iron Gang lives on! 

 

Also, Barney Greenway is one funny motherfucker.

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Guest The Magnificent 7

Not to beat a dead horse,

 

 

but the new Primordial is definitely getting better with each listen.  Babel's Tower is now my 2nd favorite track, and the closer Wield Lightning to Split the Sun is as good as any song they've ever done.  It's epic as epic gets.  Conan the Cimmerian himself throws that song on his Alpine when he rides into battle.  Get this album.

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So I went on an odd Chinese metal tangent recently with Ghost Bath, Deep Mountains and Tengger Cavalry.  Ghost Bath (who may only be fake Chinese) will get the Deafheaven comparisons (deservedly), but Tengger Cavalry is definitely the best.  Mixes in traditional Mongolian instruments and sounds - it's like a metal version of the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack.

 

Tengger Cavalry

 

Ghost Bath

http://youtu.be/mg530raHyuo

 

Deep Mountains

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  • 2 weeks later...

 So with the run of Soundwave festival shows done in Australia, it's good to see that Killer Be Killed lived up to the hype. I saw their fourth and sixth show's respectively and thought they were fantastic, Not having Dave Elitch make the tour was a bit of a bummer, but Ben Koller from Converge was a more than able replacement, plus have Juan from MonstrO as an extra live guitarist, allowing Greg Puciato to do his usual vocal thing was a good choice.

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  • 1 month later...

 

Just to drop a bomb on you. Haven't heard this in years as my CD was stolen and thought to download it today. Epic, dramatic, dark as fuck... it's like if you locked Voivod, Mercyful Fate, Iron Maiden and Repulsion in a studio and forced them to make an album. Based on zombies. Yeah, this is the shit.

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Killer Be Killed. It came out in 2014, but I haven't seen much discussion on it. It's a supergroup formed by Max Cavalera (Soulfly), Greg Puciatio (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Troy Sanders (Mastodon), and Dave Elitch (ex-The Mars Volta).

 

 

Also if you haven't heard Mastodon's "Once More Around The Sun" you really need too.

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Here's some 2015 stuff I've been digging:

 

Visigoth - "The Revenant King" from the album of the same name - awesome swords-and-sorcery metal with not a single tongue-in-cheek to be found. Riffs remind me of Amon Amarth at time but vocals are more clean in a lower Halford register:

 

 

Volahn - "Natjir Ichik" from Aq'Ab'Al - Black Metal inspired by Mayan ancestry and imagery. Some pretty insane guitar work even for this genre.

 

 

Night Demon - "Screams in the Night" from Curse of the Damned - new L.A. band but their sound is more NWOBHM worship

 

 

Death Karma - "Slovakia - Journey of the Soul" from The History of Death & Burial Rituals Part I - tripped-out Czech black/death metal

 

 

Aktor - "Too Young To Die" from Paranoia - Chris Black of Dawnbringer/Nachtmystium jamming out with dudes from Finnish prog-rockers Circle - more 70's in nature but still awesome nonetheless

 

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and a few more...

 

Enslaved - "Thurisaz Dreaming" from In Times - business as usual compared to their last few albums, continuing their prog-black metal mashup progression.

 

 

An Autumn For Crippled Children - "When Night Leaves Again" from The Long Goodbye - post-black metal in the vein of stuff like Deafheaven. Could totally be the next big thing in that scene if the right breaks happen

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7c5ZvO_C7c

 

Midnight Ghost Train - "BC Trucker" from Cold Was The Ground - sounds like Kyuss and Clutch had a baby and then that baby took steroids

 

 

Inculter - "Commander" from Persisting Devolution - Norwegian teenagers doing blackened-thrash ala Toxic Holocaust, nothing original but done really, really well

 

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