Nah, there's nothing of the sort, unfortunately. This column is the closest thing to a "metal" aggregator that we've got (and it's obviously not a complete overview of all the heavy stuff covered by Stereogum over the course of any given month). Maybe one day but not now. Sorry man!
I love Black Breath, it's my fault that isn't on here, but I have been consumed by Horrendous for the last few weeks (and Black Breath aren't exactly a million miles removed from Horrendous in some respects). I shoulda stumped harder for it when we were voting. Maybe they'll have something eligible next month.
We were already done with the column when Baroness came out; it'll be eligible for next month. I dunno how the rest of the group feels about it, but it's maybe my favorite song of the year.
I'm so stoked y'all are feeling that new Horrendous track. I actually think there are three or four songs on the album even better than that one (and I LOVE that one).
I think Doug's intro applies to Motörhead and Slayer as well as Maiden. These are great bands that we love, but whose new songs maybe aren't on the level of the stuff we're covering (in our own humble opinions). That said, maybe we have something special in mind for Motörhead? Have some faith, man!
Yeah I understand that but really, you can see footage of him doing all his old songs everywhere, and why should he make MTV the beneficiary of his new songs, especially considering his (just-revealed and very legitimate IMO) ambivalence about awards shows and the VMAs in particular? I dunno man I thought that speech was pretty fucking intense and inspired. I loved it.
I'm actually convinced Max Martin initially wrote "Can't Feel My Face" for Maroon 5 but they passed, so he gave it to the Weeknd. Listen to it and imagine Adam Levine singing instead and then tell me I'm wrong. Do it!
It's terrible timing in terms of "best of" lists, especially because if this track is any indication, I'd imagine the album would get a lot of "best of" attention. (And historically Baroness records are rewarded come year-end time: Y&G was Decibel's #1 of 2012 and Blue was their #2 of 2009.) But maybe they'll get advances out early enough for magazines/blogs to consider it. The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned -- I've listened to this song six times already today.
If you were to look at my text messages with Aaron (who does Black Market) for like the first four or five months of the year it's just back-and-forth non-sequiturs like:
MICHAEL: Yo "Holy Libations" is MY JAM.
AARON: That one is awesome but it's all about "Strains Of Horror." That is the one.
MICHAEL: No you are right, that is the one. But so is "Holy Libations."
AARON: Oh totally that song is amazing.
[two days pass]
MICHAEL: YOOOO THAT SOLO IN "STRAINS OF HORROR."
AARON: Yep that is the one.
[two weeks pass]
AARON: Dude that organ in "Strange Gateways."
MICHAEL: Look honestly "Motherhood Of God" is lowkey the jam on this thing.
AARON: Oh totally that song rules.
[a month passes]
AARON: "STRAINS OF HORROR"
x100
Yeah, I agree on that point -- I saw Trib when they went out earlier this year with Behemoth and Cannibal Corpse, and while I was just happy to see them AT ALL, I was definitely there for them specifically (I'm not a CC fan, and while I love Behemoth and they are an absurdly GREAT live act, I've seen them a lot over the past few years) and they only did 30 minutes with suboptimal sound to a 3/5 full room. This was also at Webster Hall, as I recall. That said, Children Of The Night hadn't been released at that point (although I'd had an advance for a while, and I knew it by heart) so they only played one of its songs ("Strange Gateways"), so at very least, I'm hoping they do five or six of those songs on this tour. Oh man just talking about this is getting me hyped up I CANNOT WAIT.
I'm trying (or was trying) to keep my enthusiasm in check, to be honest -- for the record's sake, so I'm not just going in with stupidly unfair expectations. But it's like this new Star Wars movie; they just keep ramping it up. Like: Oh J.J. Abrams is directing it? Cool he might be good. Huh so they threw out all George Lucas' terrible ideas? Well that's very promising ... Wait they cast Adam Driver and Domnhall Gleason and OSCAR FUCKING ISAAC? Are you serious? WAIT WAIT it looks like the original '77 Star Wars, like these are real, old beat-up metal machines on a real, hot, horrible desert shot on 35mm film? Jesus fucking Christ this looks incredible. OMG OMG OMG "CHEWIE WE'RE HOME"?! WHAAAA [loses shit, dies, never sees movie]. It's not a perfect parallel but it's having a very similar effect on me (i.e., killing me).
You know, I thought about it, but Tolkien are so associated with black metal (for the reasons you mentioned) but even more because I just can't separate Tolkien from Led Zeppelin no matter how hard I try. Like, Led Zep and Tolkien are forever married in my mind, and I would have felt dishonest trying to associate either with something else. But I did think about it! (Thanks for the kind words btw!)
Man I was in Northport last month and hit up the Sweet Shop for a malted. Next time I'm out there I'll give you a shout.
Not blowing smoke, but I thought both the 1D and 5SOS versions of "Teenage Dirtbag" were noticeably inferior to the original. Something about the vocals? Don't get me wrong, those 1D and 5SOS guys can SING (obviously), but they did it in a different key or something; it just didn't sound right to my ear. It blew my mind just to HEAR them doing it, though, so I can only imagine how proud and stoked you must have felt.
I was actually wondering about the Australia connection, because 5 Seconds Of Summer are Australian, too. Did you ever talk to them about the cover they did of the song? What about One Direction? Did you lose your shit when you heard One Direction covering your song?
Also just want to point out that Graham is now on record as being more of a conservative rockist than Noel Gallagher.
NOEL (2013): "[Yeezus] is fucking great. I really like it. Particularly ['Black Skinhead'] – it’s fucking out there, do you know what I mean? It’s got a great low-fi, punk vibe to it."
http://www.stereogum.com/1591172/noel-gallagher-slams-reflektor-praises-yeezus-in-2013-recap/wheres-the-beef/
Oh nah, that was me trying to be funny -- like I was imagining what Damon would say to dissatisfied showgoers, except my version of Damon was a sort of hamfisted caricature of a hapless middle manager, nothing like the real Damon. "Hey don't blame me! Blame that guy! He wrote the set list!" But it was not funny -- I see that now -- and I apologize.
I thought the review Marc Hogan wrote for us was pretty thorough:
http://www.stereogum.com/1812584/first-impressions-of-apple-music/franchises/essay/
In my limited experience, the pure on-demand streaming functionality (and offline streaming) is pretty comparable if not identical across all these platforms (with the obvious exceptions of Apple-exclusive records like Taylor Swift and Thom Yorke). The added value of Apple Music is the radio/curated stuff as well as the way your MP3 library is integrated into their streaming library. That said, I have no idea if it's buggy or anything, but if it is, I'd guess any bugs will be ironed out over time.
I mean, the word is almost 100% associated with the band; Ethan Kath is extremely metal-literate and he's constantly wearing metal T-shirts from bands of that time period; he totally rips the old-school Deicide dirtbag look and even does the facial self-mutilation stuff ...
I would be genuinely surprised if he didn't intend for the title to at least invoke the imagery of Deicide, and I would pay you three months' salary if he'd never heard of Deicide prior to releasing this song.
That Murg record is in my top 5 metal albums of 2015 so far. Probably gonna slip a few notches by end of year just because there's some stuff I've got high hopes for (VHOL, Deafheaven, Cobalt off the top of my head) and other stuff will surprise me, but no one should sleep on Murg. That record is a total ripper, 100% essential.
Nah, it's my fault. I actually thought we were gonna have at least another month on that one but I went to Spotify over the weekend to listen to Gorgoroth and the whole album was up. But yeah it's definitely worth hearing. It kind of lends itself to understatement -- "it's really good for what it is: no-frills True Norwegian Black Metal" -- and I could see people shrugging it off for that reason. But it's REALLY good. I hope they tour for it (or maybe get added to a certain 2016 festival whose lineup is thus far not so exciting but would be made a whole lot more exciting with the addition of Gorgoroth. And Cobalt.)
These dudes didn't like it as much as I did, hence its lack of inclusion here, but I am pretty into that new Gorgoroth record. It's not going to change the world but it rips really hard, it works a ton of hooks into the chaos, and it sounds pretty raw for a band this deep into their career without being full-on necro. Worth seeking out IMO.
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