I don't want to start
Any blasphemous rumors
But I think that God's
Got a sick sense of humor
And when I die
I expect to find Him laughing


Epic

Worm - Bluenothing

This is some really good death/doom.
Heavy atmosphere.

Profanity - Disputed Territory

Dave Suzuki as guest guitarist on this track.. I love some good tech death metal and this guys are bringing it..

Vulcain - Fuck the Police

Watch out for them stupid cops out here.

today's long list:

Frame Shift - "An Absence Of Empathy"
Mid 00s prog metal with Sebatian Bach, of all people, on lead vocals. I'd never heard this album but a recent post here about it prompted me to check it out. Solid vocals, less-than-interesting music. Maybe it will take some more listens to sink in.

Godsticks - "Spiral Vendetta"
Absolutely one of the best modern prog-metal bands...interesting, adventurous yet memorable songwriting.

Maiden - "Final Frontier"
The recent 'mega-thread' prompted me to revisit this one for the first time in what feels like a year+. Almost 13 years after its release and new nuances continue to reveal themselves. Love their reunion stuff and wish more legacy bands would follow their muse and not a script (looking at you, Judas Priest).

Marduk - "WormWood"
Another listen prompted by a recent thread. Much of this band's lengthy catalog suffers from too much one-dimensionality but I suppose there's a genuine thirst amongst the fanbase for that. "Wormwood" doesn't suffer from that and its variety helps to accentuate the band's strengths. And these vocals are among the best in black metal, IMO.

Grave Digger - Son of Evil

''The Grave Digger'' album is such a banger!
Love this.

The Gathering - The May Song

I think "Nighttime Birds" is an album I'd give 100% to if I were to review it.

Iommi/Hughes "Don't Drag the River"

Classy piece of work, great melody from Hughes. Would love to see more form the both of them in this vein.

I do get why people wouldn't take to it, but a lot of the critiques I read ("it's repetitive," "nothing happens," etc) just seem off base to me.

Metallica - Where the Wild Things Are

Killer. A really odd song, and a powerful one.

Next, Priest - Painkiller

Some straight-ahead stuff while I write in a sports bar this afternoon.

Painkiller, man, I mean the music is a ton of fun, but Halford, what a charisma factory. Few others could sell lyrics like this. Great stuff.

Bathory - Octagon

I'm liking it in a non-ironic way

Moonspell - Alma Mater

This is great!


To me, it's St. Anger done right. Fun and shitty thrash metal that is not bloated or boring. It has the Lars Ulrich snare and the songs are short and snappy.

Morgoth - "Resurrection Absurd"

I didn't realize that Century Media had mashed this and "The Eternal Fall" into a singular compilation until years later, but for a long time this combination of two EP's was one of the absolute best Death Metal albums ever. Even now knowing it's two EP's, I still think of them as one album combined since they are nearly identical stylisticly. And I still rank this compilation high enough it's probably in my top 20 albums of all time.

That song white gallery it's super fucking punishing, like when the verse actually starts its thrown into with a lot of devastating force, I never got into the whole thing but that song is def a classic in my mind

I discussed this album back in 2020 in a video on my YouTube channel. It's in a series where I discuss albums known for having harmful effects on the careers of metal bands.

Wings - Diatribe

It says "death metal" here, but they're not death in the most traditional sense. There's an occasional gothic feel, some traces of black... They sound like themselves. That's always respectable.

Cult of Luna - Cold Burns

jesus f christ...what a song!!!

Spun...

Immortal - All Shall Fall - Enjoyable album in the style of later Abbath era Immortal. Some good riffs and good songs. 70%

Marduk - Nightwing - Blasty as hell. Not a big difference between this and PDM I think. Still getting it absorbed. Frantic stuff.

Axel Rudi Pell - "Black Moon Pyramid"
This fellow's entire career has been an attempt to create a hybrid of Rainbow's "Dio era" and its "Joe Lynn Turner era".
Dude worships at the alter of Richie Blackmore, to be sure. But he's mostly achieved his objective...tons of solid (if predictable) albums.

Oceans of Time and Mystica were really good - definitely a case where most of us don't need more than an album or two though. Samey stuff even for metal standards.

Beherit oath of black blood

It's funny how music like this takes about the same amount of time to completely click almost in the sense of the way something real complex and theatrical does, but right now this album sounds surprisingly tight and coherent which aren't exactly attributes you'd normally think

Whispered-Victory Grounds Nothing


This is one of the greatest choruses ever.

It's brilliant... just a sloppy wild mess of an album. Though like you said, it manages to hold together.

Katatonia - The Fall of Hearts

The more modern production and style suits them I think. Digging it. Melancholy but also quite smooth and bright in a lot of ways.

I saw you were getting into Nuclear Death a while back I took notice cuz barely anyone cares about them on here it seems but I'm playing carrion rn an album I've heard billions of times and it gives me that same rush it's just on the surface really rudimentary bestial music but there's just something so unnerving and transcendent about it, not to mention the way the rhythm is constantly off kilter is a big influence on how I like to think of death metal in my head, genius band.

That's another band people should like more. Them and Beherit are like the distilled essence of extreme metal. Just hits the sweet spot sometimes.

Imo you gotta loop Blasphemy into that tho the demo and the two studio albums, it's just something about the over the top ness in that sounds sloppy but has legit tight songcraft

Debut Carcass arguably applies as well

I should try Blasphemy again, don't remember being that wowed by em before... and yeah that Carcass debut is nuts. Just sounds like a garbage disposal. Crazy thing for them to release.

Katatonia - Residual

Really nice subdued, Jim Matheos-esque guitar playing on this album...

I think blood upon the altar is even better than oath of black blood, absolutely lethal riffing on that one

I'll give it another shot sometime.

Panopticon - Kentucky

Gone back and forth on this band over the years but this is striking stuff when in the mood. The black metal isn't doing much new, but it pulsates and thrives and bleeds. A tremendously passionate work. Love the themes and the blend with the folk stuff.

Paradise Lost - Accept the Pain

Love how their 2005 album combines some Host and One Second sensibilities with actual Gothic metal. The riffs aren't always super interesting, but these lead guitars are like whipped cream.

Firienholt - White Frost and Elder Blood

This is unabashed Caladan Brood worship, which isn't a bad thing. It's just the CB did it better. Wish they'd come back.

Kataklysm- In Limbic Resonance

Is there anyone who actually enjoys Kataklysm more than Ex Deo?

Marduk Funeral Dawn

This song is malsane and fascinating

Sirius just played...

Enslaved - Kingdom.

Jesus, that sucked. Not sure what that song was trying to accomplish other than make me want to turn it off.

Dark Angel - Cauterization

OK, I'm awake now!

Godflesh - Baby Blue Eyes

Love the digital video game noises bleeding in with the industrial noise churned out on this song. The guitar is so damn heavy sounding on this track as well.

Dead City Crown - Beasts of Fiction

Didn't know the band, 6 Eps released between 2014 and 2022. Labelled as melodic death metal, but at least this one has much more power metal + growls than death metal, including some over the top cheesy keyboards. Highly recommended.

Autonoesis - Moon of Foul Magics

I love that there is a little bit of everything thrown in there. Great album from last year.

Steel Bearing Hand - Command of the Infernal Exarch

Riffs and more riffs, excellent death/thrash.

Marilyn Manson - Hey Cruel World

First spin of this album. So far not bad. I doubt it can match the follow up but I hear this is a more metallic album.

Stormkeep - The Seer

This song makes me want to watch the apocalypse from the top of Everest.