Goatwhore is one of the best live bands in metal but their albums just don't do much for me. Dunno why. They are absolutely beloved by people whom I respect, but none of those people contributed to this list.
1. Compared to the last two Enslaved albums, it was a letdown for me. I'll still see them next year when they tour with ... Pallbearer.
2. I've been listening to Kreator since the release of Extreme Aggression. I sincerely believe Phantom Antichrist is their best since Coma Of Souls. I'm a huge Kreator fan and I love this record.
3. It's plainly inspired by Warning and While Heaven Wept, both great bands. It's hardly redundant IMO. I think it's an album of staggering power and sadness. I loved it on its release and I love it more now.
Thanks for the heads up. Not sure where I got Chicago.
While we're doing corrections: Bruni emailed me pointing out that he's at the post office five days a week, first thing in the morning, not two. :-)
I premiered a Bastard Sapling track here back in October. That EP was on my ballot but no one else's. It's absolutely one of my favorite USBM releases of 2012.
Right, and Baroness, Swans, and Torche. Look, those are great bands who made great albums in 2012, but they don't represent an especially vivid or accurate cross-section of the genre. Heck, the metal-only list has 40 albums and is still missing several dozen others that absolutely deserve to be mentioned. It's a diverse and vast community making a lot of great art.
It was on at least one ballot. I slept on it, honestly, to my chagrin. I went to the Messe Des Morts festival in Montreal to see them (among many others) but they couldn't get visas so I've kind of had a few missed connections with that band. I'm gonna get a copy this week; I'll report back here with my thoughts.
Totally. I honestly shouldn't have included that note in my intro -- the only reason I made those four albums ineligible is because they were already represented on the Stereogum Top 50. I was kind of asking a broader question about "what is metal?" -- especially as it is presented in more general-interest contexts -- but I didn't frame it well at all. Clearly all those albums deserve to be included in any conversation of metal in 2012,but I felt it made more sense to leave them off here, because they'd already been voted onto a much higher-profile list published by the same blog.
Totally agree with all you're saying -- to me it just made sense to make those albums ineligible because they were already represented on the Stereogum Top 50. The fact that they're not, like, Cannibal Corpse or Meshuggah makes that decision a bit more defensible, but if you disagree and would prefer to see where they'd rank on our metal-specific list, I can't blame you. (My guess is they'd all place and rank pretty high, but I don't know that any of them would supplant Pallbearer at 1.)
Converge obviously have lots of metal elements and a massive following of metal fans, plus Ballou produces lots of metal bands. If AWLWLB hadn't been on Stereogum's big list, it certainly woud have been eligible here. But 1. This allows us to show love to a few more bands, and 2. It would be oddly counterintuitive to see Converge at 40 on the big list, and then at (let's say for the sake of argument) 5 on the metal list behind Pallbearer et al. Wouldn't that suggest that Pallbearer et al. should have been on the big list, too? I prefer to keep the two lists distinct; it's just convenient that the "metal" albums that made Stereogum's Top 50 (Converge, Swans, Torche, and Baroness) aren't really by definition metal. Which isn't to say they're not metal, though.
Totally understand, and I think yours is an extremely valid reaction to this album, except for the assertion that Walker's vocals are "unintentionally hilarious." Aside from the fact that every listener's experience and emotional reaction is different (what's hilarious to one person can be gripping to another -- take it from someone who listens to a lot of black metal), how do you know his intention wasn't hilarity? It's possible you're misreading his vocal performance as having been delivered with deadly seriousness, with an intention that it be received as such, when he's (maybe) deliberately going for something much more surreal, with no specific reaction in mind. Maybe he's straight-up trying to make you laugh. (There are a lot of weird jokes in the lyrics, so it wouldn't be crazy to assume that.) Having said all that, I certainly don't fault you (or anyone) for having no interest in hanging around to find out (especially when you could hang around forever and never find out anything at all).
I don't think you have to be depressed all the time to listen to Swans and Scott Walker, but I do think listening to Swans and Scott Walker all the time will make you a depressed person.
Right, I was just saying that in his early career, as a pop singer, Walker's voice had a clear, even, masculine tone that sounds not unlike Neil Diamond or Barry Manilow: he was a powerful pop vocalist. (Diamond is the better comparison because both Walker and Diamond are baritones.) Now he sounds like a ghost haunting the closets of the Grey Gardens mansion.
It's a bug in our galleries -- the last two are there, they're just temporarily invisible for some reason. Trying to fix it now. Sincerest apologies, all!
If I could find a writer with the knowledge base, the passion, the free time, and the sheer suicidal nature necessary to take on such a project, I would STILL probably advise against it. It's simply inhumane.
It's lame because it's an example of the continuing degradation of the Slayer brand -- it's totally self-effacing and ironic, and Slayer built their name not on ironic affectations but on being the scariest, heaviest band in the world. It depresses me to see them playing up this cartoonish image, even though it's more profitable to be lovable ol' Slayer than it is to be the dudes whose most famous song is about Josef Mengele. It reminds me of how I felt watching The Osbournes; Black Sabbath never sounded the same after that.
That said -- putting aside the greater meaning -- as a piece of clothing, in a vacuum, it's pretty cool looking, in my opinion.
I used to really love SOA and now I sort of hate-watch it. What it lacks in continuity, logic, and storytelling quality, it makes up for in hate-watchability!
FWIW I think the Crutchfield sisters left Birmingham in part because they weren't happy or comfortable with the scene there and they wanted to be in a place with a more feminist culture. Swearin' moved from Brooklyn to Philly (AFAIK) because it's cheaper. But beyond that I think any band's opportunities for growth increase in a place like Brooklyn, because there are a million places to play in NYC, a million bands to play with, and opportunities for networking that just don't exist anywhere else. It gets boring hearing about bands being from Brooklyn-via-somewhere, and as a NYC resident, it sometimes seems as though the Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Bushwick sections of Brooklyn are populated by nothing but people in bands, but pragmatically -- aside from the astronomical cost of living here -- moving to Brooklyn seems like a sound choice for a band hoping to grow.
Maybe I was too harsh -- neither Twilight album felt particularly rewarding or memorable to me, though, and I tried! I look at it this way: I would rather listen to ANY of those dudes' primary bands (Nachtmystium, Leviathan, Krieg, Isis, Xasthur, Atlas Moth, Sonic Youth) plus several of their other side projects (Lurker Of Challice, Jodis, Old Man Gloom), plus the OTHER Chicago USBM supergroup (Chrome Waves), PLUS most of the other records/bands Sanford Parker has produced (Coffinworm, Dawnbringer, Avichi, Wolvhammer, YOB, a billion others) than listen to Twilight.
In what universe is this a controversial statement? He's plainly one of the best drummers in rock history. He may be one of the most indistinct guitarists.
Assuming you didn't hear 2010 releases from Agalloch, Kvelertak, Dawnbringer, Ludicra, Deathspell, Burzum, Horseback, Castevet, Nails, and Triptykon (plus like 50 others) that might be true.
Also, FWIW, I think there are plenty of metal-curious Stereogum readers who'd like BDN who might benefit from seeing references to bands they know already. I don't think being inclusive is the same as pandering (and again, it's not as though those comparisons aren't warranted).
1. I mention in the first sentence that we did a metal story last Wednesday! We'll have another tomorrow! We just published a list-post with a Hammers Of Misfortune entry!
2. I also compare it to Funeral Mist and Burzum!
3. People compare BDN to Slint the way people used to compare Interpol to Joy Division! Read PFL's bio of the band!
4. Those elements of their sound are reminiscent of MBV and Godspeed! Should I say they sound like Darkthrone instead?
5. OMG Deafheaven cover a Mogwai song on the split! Blame them for pandering! Or just listen to the record because it's fucking great, and because both bands are experimenting with the genre in totally different and pretty exciting ways!
6. Gah! Sorry for the exclamation points. Long day.
Comments