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Metal Thread VI: This One's For the OTTER


Xray the Enforcer

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Agalloch and Alcest are great, some of my favorites actually. I usually listen to Alcest's newer stuff before going to sleep, it's pretty calming.

Same. :P

On a related note, the entire Ecailles de Lune album (on repeat, if necessary) is practically required listening for me on hungover Sunday mornings.

And I just ordered Agalloch's Marrow of the Spirit the other day, hopefully it will be here soon so I can replay
forever. :D

They're not likely to ever top the genius of The Mantle in my mind, but Marrow of the Spirit is really good and has grown on me with repeated listens.

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The "new" Ares Kingdom is kicking my ass. I put it in quotes because it's actually an album of covers, but if you didn't know any better, you'd think they were hauntingly familiar AK songs. They cover Slaughterlord, R.U. Dead and DOKKEN, among others.

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Not exactly about what I'm listening to, or awesome new releases, I gotta share this with you guys...

Descent Mag. Thanks to X-ray for pointing out some NSFW images on the page...

I don't know if any of you guys have seen this before, but this shit is awesome. From 94-99 or so, Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))), Burning Witch, Southern Lord records fame and much more) put out a pretty sick metal fanzine called Descent, and he now has all five issues as PDFs to download for free from his site.

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I'm going to sporadically post albums, EPs and demos from 2013 as I listen and decide that I like them enough to put them in the running for the year-end list.

This one is for demos. One or two may technically be from 2012, but due to lack of availability (one had a moms-and-girlfriends initial press run of 53) they didn't really surface until 2013. I've linked to each demo or Youtube if you'd like to check it out and d/l where offered.

Old school heavy metal from Texas

Ranger -- Combat Metal demo

Heavy/Speed/Thrash of the Old School from Finland

Arnaut Pavle -- demo

Killer black metal with crust influences from Finland

Old Skin -- demo

Oppressive black/death with some serious funeral doom tendencies from Seattle

Irkallian Oracle -- Grave Ekstasis

Raw black/death from Sweden

Bolzer -- Roman Acupuncture

Murky and raw black metal two-piece from Switzerland. This demo was released in 2012, but it went mostly overlooked until early 2013 when the entire tape run sold out in an orgy of intercontinental violence. I think I got the last copy available of the fucker. (Iron Bonehead has since re-pressed the demo)

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Nice, I just got the new Altar of Plagues a few weeks ago, and been loving it. I understand its a bit of a departure, I'm working my way back through their catalogue, great stuff

Irish black metal is terribly under looked, there is some good bands to be found.

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Just bought Old Mornings Dawn by Summoning, listening for the second time right now. Great album, love the atmosphere.

:cheers:

That reminds me I need to pick that one up when I get home. All of their stuff from Minas Morgul onward has been stellar.

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I'd like to hear people's picks for the best releases of the first half of the year... There's been some really great stuff coming out lately, what stands out for you?

So far...

Vhol - S/T (of you haven't heard this yet do your self a favor and check it out, can't talk this shot up enough)

Portal - Vexovoid ( not for the faint of heart, this has got to be one of the flat-out scariest things I've ever heard)

Portal is definitely an ass-kicker of an album. I've liked everything they've released thus far, although maybe "like" is not quite the right word. :lol:

Re: Vhol -- I want to like this more than I actually do, which is frustrating. It's good, and I will definitely see them if given the chance, because I am sure this shit would rip my head off in a live setting. But there's something about it that's not grabbing me the way that other bands working a similar black/crust/hardcore vibe (e.g. Craft, Antimelodix, Shitfucker) have. I need to spend some more time with it, I think.

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Portal is definitely an ass-kicker of an album. I've liked everything they've released thus far, although maybe "like" is not quite the right word. :lol:

Re: Vhol -- I want to like this more than I actually do, which is frustrating. It's good, and I will definitely see them if given the chance, because I am sure this shit would rip my head off in a live setting. But there's something about it that's not grabbing me the way that other bands working a similar black/crust/hardcore vibe (e.g. Craft, Antimelodix, Shitfucker) have. I need to spend some more time with it, I think.

Well shit, stacking it up Craft will leaving it seeming 2nd tier! But I hear ya... If I could suggest one track to focus on, it'd have to be "Arising" that hook is just killer.

Also, re: Portal. Haha exactly, it's more like whimpering and accepting your fate than "liking"...

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Ohhh, I just found out that Thrawsunblat, one of my favorite Black/Folk metal bands, released a 3-track EP with acoustic songs of their previous albums, which can be found here. :wub:

You can listen to the original songs here.

Awesome. :thumbsup:

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Well shit, stacking it up Craft will leaving it seeming 2nd tier! But I hear ya... If I could suggest one track to focus on, it'd have to be "Arising" that hook is just killer.

I'll definitely focus on Arising -- sometimes it's just a hook I need to better grok an album.

Moving away from the filthy misanthropic underbelly of metal, two epic heavy/power metal albums out this year are worth a listen. Both play the American style of power metal (think Iced Earth), rather than the European style.

Warlord -- The Holy Empire

Yeah, it has overt Christian themes. But it's also killer and lots of fun to sing along.

Attacker -- Giants of Canaan

Straight from Weehauken, New Jersey comes a giant spike of American power metal glory. Put on your goddamned chainmail and go storm a local mall.

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