Spiritworld - Deathwestern

Didn't listen to much metal last year and I had to catch up. Didn't get to this until December but goddamn it's such a fun listen. It will be my most listened to 2022 release for sure. Even if they're not doing anything terribly original, it's done so well

Black Sabbath - Cross Purposes

A very enjoyable slab of Martin era Sabbath. Iommi is laying it down.

Deathspell Omega - The Long Defeat

it grows, grows, grows.. stellar song

Iron Fate - Mirage

You really need this kind of slick, acrobatic guitarwork for this style - sounds effortless but complex. A fluid stream of melodies.

Hollow - Rain

This is a fucking boss album of dark, heavy riffs. So good.

Pharmacist - Feeling Young EP

Pharmacist are hands down my current favorite band. I was initially skeptical of them, probably because of my absolute love of Carcass and it kinda felt like I was cheating on them. But on closer inspection Pharmacist have got their own thing going on while still wearing their influences on their sleeves. Everything clicks with me now, the riffs, the structures and the killer vocals, all fuckin rule! I love everything they've released. This little 4 track doozy is from a split with Fluids.

Car stereo:
Impaled - Mondo Medicale

What can I say, I guess I'm cheating on Carcass with Impaled now too. This album is fuckin wicked. Probably my 2nd favorite right now, can't get it out of the car stereo. OK, not quite, it made way for Scorpions on Sunday but it was back wrecking my ears and neck on Monday.

Anvil - Hard 'n' Heavy

Definitely a step below many other debut bands of the time, but still has a certain charm.

Katatonia - Dead End Kings

Nice keyboard use on this - adds a certain different dimension. A serene leavening sense of melody beyond the sparse guitars. Despite having an instantly recognizable sound they know how to switch it up in subtle ways like many of the best metal acts manage to do.

Tad Morose - Undead

Their newer albums are getting better, but man there's nothing else like these classic ones. Just inarguably great.

Turbid North - The Decline

Archives says death/groove, but there's so much more to it than that. Came out last month, great listen.

Accept - Losing More Than You Ever Had

Feeling nostalgic and this is pure fucking gold, when metal was metal.

One of my fav Accept tunes, for sure. Pure gold, indeed.

Vomitory Raped in Their Own Blood

One of best album that came from Sweden (only the cover isn’t at stellar lvl)

The old Accept stuff literally just sounds like a bunch of drunks at a pub stumbled into a studio, and it's great. Been meaning to play more beyond Balls to the Wall sometime (that's just the only one I actually own these days). The newer stuff is occasionally quite cool but it's lost something I think. Too mechanical now.

Tad Morose - Where the Sun Never Shines

Groovy riffs, great haunting vocal style tradeoffs in the verses and chorus.

Faith No More - Jizzlober

Angel Dust is the ultimate grower of an album. Before it was released, a lot of people were expecting FNM to release The Real Thing part 2. Instead, we got something radically different. The first listen will make you think it sucks. Subsequent listens makes you discover more to like about the album and eventually you'll declare it as one of their best. The songs on it are so much different and Mike Patton really stood out and stamped his oddball signature on it. One good thing they didn't do is to make another rap song to capitalize on how 'Epic' became a breakthrough success. During the time when it was trendy in the music scene to mix rap and rock, FNM turned their backs on the trend they helped make popular. Hooray for artistic integrity!

Corrosion of Conformity - Mine are the Eyes of God

I liked this iteration of CoC among all the variants that ever put out their recorded output. The musicianship was top notch as they matured from their hardcore roots. Karl Agell could've gone on to be a more famous frontman if CoC decided to stick with him.

I quite like the Tornillo-era Accept but it is indeed too mechanical and formulaic. They've been on a wash-rinse-repeat cycle for a long time now. (Much like Saxon.) BUT they do a great job with it, so it's all good.

But, yeah, their classic 80s run blows it out of the water.

Dawn Slaughtersun

I don’t know what secrets have the Sweden in the nineties but I can’t believe the beauty of their work

A 10/10 album

Of The Wand And The Moon - Your Love Can't Hold This Wreath Of Sorrow album

Damn you Larsen for making me feel this way....

The Mob - self titled
Amazing side-project (which, sadly, appears to have been a one-off) of King's X's Doug Pinnick and members of Winger and Night Ranger. (Don't laugh too hard.) Light years better than anything the latter two groups produced and unlike anything by King's X.

Scheitan - Riding The Icewinds

This album is so great because of how compact and un-bloated the songs are. I've never heard the other records where eventually they went Death N' Roll, but I'm surprised this album isn't more popular in the mid-90's Black Metal circles.

Eyehategod - Main is Too Ignorant to Exist

My first exposure to sludge. Prior to this, all I knew was heavy, thrash, and death black metal. When people told me that there was music that combined hardcore (punk) with metal, it would come out as thrash. I didn't know that another mixture of hardcore with metal would result in this kind of strain.

Exodus - Deathampehtamine

This is probably my most favorite track from the Rob Dukes era of Exodus. Just pure unrelenting thrash mayhem!

My Dying Bride - Sear Me

Excellent, nice to listen to the first album again!

Katatonia - Tonight's Decision

Oh this is quite good. Seems like a really expansive sound for them. Lots of melancholy for sure.

Black Sabbath - Die Young

Listening to Heaven and Hell and comparing it to the last couple of Black Sabbath album shows how revitalized the band sounded like on their songs. This song is hard and upbeat and full of life.

My favorite Katatonia album.



Amorphis - Sampo

Enjoyable for sure!

Visigoth- Blood Sacrifice

Listening to this after listening to Conqueror's Oath as a 5 year celebration. Even though Conqueror's Oath is the better album, this could be their best song.

My recent Spins

Virgin Steele - The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1 and 2) - I'd give part 1 95% and part 2 90%. A classic set of Virgin Steel. The vocals soar with power over some great guitars. Victory is Mine is a song that I will play after I've slain my last enemy. Vivid imagery in those lyrics. And Life Among the Ruins is just as good.

Slayer - Show No Mercy - Slayer in the embryonic stages, before they became the speed thrash titans of later albums. Some killer riffing and Tom has some of his best vocals before he became a simple shouter. Dave's drumming is there but still getting to his later levels of mastery. Black Magic is always in the running for my favorite Slayer cut. 90%

Delain - Queen of Shadow

I mean, it's fine. Certainly catchy. Nothing particularly mindblowing though. Their new singer sounds almost exactly like Charlotte, lol.
They peaked with "The Human Contradiction", I think.

Death - Flesh and the Power it Holds

I think this album may have been better under the Control Denied name with that vocalist. Killer cut no doubt.

What happened to these guys?

Whitesnake - Still of the Night

One of their best cuts from the later era of Whitesnake. Some slick guitars.

Anvil - Metal on Metal

Way better than the debut, which wasnt bad by any means, still songs like "Metal on Metal, "Mothra", "Jackhammer" and "666" are pure classic anthems

Wytch Hazel - Freedom Battle

Fight for your liiiiiiife, fight or you’ll diiiiiiie.

Slava Ukraini

Falconer - From a Dying Ember
Messa - Close
Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus
Sonata Arctica - Unia
Father John Misty - Chloe & The New 21st Century

Pretty wild emotive playlist today... Falconer and Messa, fuckin brilliant.

Bruce Dickinson - Trumpets Of Jericho

Jeeez...that opening guitars! Like twisting infernal void filled with chainsaws..

Sadistik Exekution - Fukk II

They are dead... Fuck me. But their incredible legacy lives on

Excalion - Soulbound

Pretty cool first single from the new album - Markus seems to be trying to channel their old singer a little more. The keys and melodicism - always first fucking rate with them.

Emperor - With Strength I Burn

My gateway to black metal.

One of the all-time best metal songs (across any/all subgenres).

Agree! High five!

Cannibal Corpse - No Remorse (Metallica cover)

This cover version rips! CC really made this Metallica classic sound brutal on their rendition!