Metal Reviews

Never got the big deal about Funeral Mist, and I listened to Deathspell Omega's albums like once or twice. People definitely seemed to cream over the latter (Tech Death + Black Metal = the tech-deathers suddenly getting interested?) and really I always thought they were kinda overrated - Negura Bunget and Mayhem made far better, more original albums that still hold up now. I'm sure the DsO fans still dig those albums, though.

edit - darn pagebreak.

Just noticed this. Oceanic is a very good album, but you are ignoring the fact that, were it not for Neurosis' Times of Grace in 1999, Isis very well may have continued in the vein of The Red Sea. I would argue that anyone you're thinking was influenced by Oceanic was actually influenced by Times of Grace first. That's where the ball got rolling.

True, but Oceanic was more popular, wouldn't you say? Plus, it was out this decade where TOG wasn't...

Not among people who play in that style of music. Neurosis are legendary as far as sludge of any kind is concerned. I know TOG wasn't out this decade, I was just refuting your statement that Oceanic got the atmospheric sludge/post-metal ball rolling. Isis may be more popular today, but if you go ask Isis, Mastodon, Cult of Luna, Pelican, etc which of those two albums are more influential in their scene(s), I guarantee you'll get an answer of TOG across the board.

I never meant to say Isis created it, I know that Neurosis were first.

I know you know that, but your wording was a bit ambiguous, and I'm a staunch Neurosis supporter, a fact you also know. As you noted, you posted that comment to ignite discussion, and here we are.

Honestly, I originally wouldn't have labeled TOG as a future classic and have said as much on this site. I have come around though. It has stood the test of time, and you can link almost any post-metal/sludge album that comes out back to it, so I may have to give it a CLASSIC score when I get to it now that 10 years have passed.

haven't really been listening to anything new as of lately with the move and all....
I've dusted off some of my cds and found some of my old Savatage and The Red chord stuff...

I saw a few people post Funeral Mist and DsO albums as the best of the last decade in this thread so I was hoping some would crawl out of the woodwork to get some discussion going. I generally I agree with what you've said above, but what is interesting to me is to think how long these fans will continue to appreciate the music, and how long it'll take for them to go the way of the dodo bird.

That's the thing is that there are still evidently DsO fans today that still dig the albums, but when you consider how many more "rabid" fans of this breed of black metal existed just a few years ago it seems the ranks have diminished quite a bit, even with the release of the latest Funeral Mist. It'd be interesting to see what those who's attentions have remained grabbed by these bands have to say about the music's merits, and the staying nature (or lack thereof) of the music. It'd be interesting to even compare it to something like NSBM that has been around for quite awhile, and yet its ranks seem to increase (irregardless of fans' ideology) or at least maintain themselves rather than decrease while still putting out good albums (of course there is always crap as well, but the major bands haven't seemed to have lost their creativity, unlike the major players in the above mentioned). These guys seem to have been able to write a few good songs and remained unable to continue with it. Was this black metal's version of deathcore or simply a failed experiment?

WTF. The albums are still good. I have no complaints. I don't understand the argument here.

I still dig Deathspell Omega. I have to be in a certain mood for it, but when the time is right I highly enjoy them.

I'll try to break down the argument. It began with a questioning of the rise and fall of certain "trends", shall we call them, in metal during the last decade. I began by comparing the popularity of black metal from the early to mid half of the 2000's to the rise in popularity of thrash in recent years, which seems to have coincided with the decline in popularity of black metal. Since a great deal of people seem to have migrated away from the genre (the fact that this has happened is evident in the number of attendants at live shows recently as well as internet forum discussions, which, as evidenced even on this very forum, have greatly steered away from black metal (when in the past discussion about the genre seemed to dominate) toward thrash (mirroring the rise in popularity of the "newwave") discussion), it is interesting to see which sub-genres of black metal enjoyed the most popularity.

Orthodox black metal, again looking both online and within the community as a whole, saw a huge rise in popularity during the early to mid 2000s and lately seems to have pittered off as far as what people are listening to and discussing. Many are now more concerned with the revival of thrash as well as the old school thrash acts, and many who used to claim to be die-hards as far as black metal was concerned have now turned elsewhere.

Again, it seems that the area of black metal that lost the greatest number of "die-hard" fans was Orthodox black metal...and so I ask what merits these albums had. What attracted the listeners to these albums? I gave my own opinion of them, and found that they didn't really have a lasting effect perhaps beyond a few songs (I'm sure I will always like Circle of Eyes as a song, for example, even when the album as a whole doesn't sit with me as well), and I see less and less people who care much about these bands, not to mention that they seem to have been equivalents of "one hit wonders". And so the question is, what drews the remaining fans to these albums? And is it only a matter of time before they follow the same path as many who once loved and left behind these bands?

Its basically an examination of recent trends in metal (particularly looking at the rise of a certain breed of black metal's popularity, as well as its fall in popularity), and how well certain bands will stand up on their own once the aftertaste has fully faded.

Never rated Funeral Mist that high.

DsO were pretty good, but I think they lost their quality when they went too tech-death. Si Momentum and Kenose were the high points for me.

(Was tech-death ever a fad? Kicked of by the popularity of Arsis? Back in 2005-06 tech-death was everywhere, don't hear much on it these days)

Personally there seems to be a trend more towards pushing the envelope in terms of folk influenced bm or how 'depressive' and or ambient a DBM act can go.

I don't see how it's anything more than speculation, I guess is my problem with the whole diatribe. I don't think I know anyone that really praises the whole new wave of thrash as the second coming of anything more than a bunch of filler. If anything, ftr's mention of tech-death seems more likely to be the culprit than neo-thrash. This lack of discussion is probably due more to a consensus of approval for most of what these bands do (DsO's ep last year was getting into people's top5 lists) more than a general disinterest. Everyone generally praises or simply respects their output while neo-thrash has feelings of strong dislike or like depending on the individual. Another reason I see for the lack of discussion is a generally smaller output by orthodox bm. There are countless neo-thrash acts who release an album once a year or every other year (didn't warbringer just release one last year and now this year as well?) while there are fewer orthodox bm bands who have a few years in between their albums being released. Or am I completely off here?

I think it was more Necrophagist that started it off with the Summer Slaughter tours and stuff.

Trends have more to do with fans than quality of music imo. And just because people aren't talking about something a lot doesn't mean they don't care about it anymore. Another forum I go to had a "Favourite Artist" competition and The Beatles made it to the top four or the top two or something like that even though I'd never seen a thread about them there.



I'd put Blackwater Park ahead of any Isis albums as far as influential 00s albums go, (way ahead of any metal albums I can think of really, unless you count something like Tool's Lateralus) although you're probably right about Isis popularizing the whole sludge metal thing.

I agree with your statement about SMRC, but you have to remember in the minds of the musicians of Deathspell Omega their albums followed that pattern of a trilogy. With that said Fas ite is still kind of hard to digest for me its an odd release but I would take it over any of their older stuff like Inquisitors for Satan.

Don't know what your local scene is like but I'm seeing quite a few more teenagers in denim vests etc. at shows than I did even a year ago. It is undeniably the latest trend whether we're talking the increase in fans (most of which will probably be gone in a few years anyways), to the increase in bands, releases, discussion and so on. Hell, how many more people with usernames like "thrash 'til death" plague more forums these days than they would have two or three years ago?




I don't know, while there was some approval of DsO's latest material I think it tends to be among a certain crowd, you also have Funeral Mists' latest which wasn't received all too well by a great number of fans. I think this might be the only place I've seen people say they really liked the album. That aside, it'd be interesting if websites like last.fm could give you stats not only on how many times a band was listened to in total, but if it had annual or monthly stats for specific bands (if there is such a thing, I haven't figured it out but I haven't been on there in a long time). That might make this discussion a little more fruitful, because otherwise unfortunately we're both sitting here saying "I've seen more and more people become bored with most orthodox bm, while many past fans have moved on to the next big thing" while the other says "no, most people who liked it before still like it now".



This, however, is definitely a big overstatement. While the sentiments may not seem very strong, I've read and heard quite a lot of people voice comments on these bands that was anything but praise or respect. As an example, we can look at the latest Funeral Mist reviews on MA (wouldn't normally point to this as evidence, but it seems to be some of the only concrete evidence to provide right now other than pointing to "this forum and that forum"), and I think that really does show a schism. You have people who have never heard Funeral Mist until recently, people who were and still are huge Funeral Mist fans, people who liked Salvation and think the latest is shite, and others that disliked the band to begin with. I don't think you'll find a general concensus of praise on DsO's latest material as well.

Though I guess my original comments weren't so much on the latest material and their reception as the older material and whether they are truly the unique "greats" many used to claimed they were upon their release. I guess the only way to do that other than point to various forums as "proof" would be if there were a way of gathering annual data from a place like last.fm and see how the frequency in plays over time rises and falls.



True for many orthodox bm bands, with the exception of DsO I'd say. They definitely release material more often than pretty much any other orthodox bm band.

http://bindrunerecordings.com/pages/digital_body.html

Some decent bm offered free and legal!

Ooops not qutie free, but pay what you want at least.

Ulcerate is a band I just discovered yesterday, they are really good atmospheric tech death. Everything is fire made my day

DsO for April 2007
DsO for April 2008
DsO for April 2009
DsO for July 2009

It looks pretty consistent to me, looking at the SMRC stats. Fas Ite peaked when it came out and Katechon jumps up there but SMRC is at a 220 average or so.

As for Funeral Mist, their recent is a large departure from Salvation in quality so it's not a surprise that people have some backlash towards it. I still enjoy it though.

@Steve: Ulcerate is fucking stellar.

of course they backlashed against the new Funeral Mist, they were too comfortable with the black/thrash sound on Salvation and when Mortuus decides to throw in more elements they bitch about it.
Fuck them!
Satan bless Deathspell Omega Anno 2009-2010