Metal Reviews

Yet another band I've never heard of before, I need to do a deep dive into goth...

Slight change of pace, a personal favourite. Some goth/post-punk elements, they got far more commercial since but this is from probably their best album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlyP5Luf3AM

This Manic Street Preachers is great stuff! I've already listened to the whole album (several tracks multiple times), the track you linked characterized the memorable choruses and good musicianship throughout, loved the bass in particular. Intense Humming of Evil wouldn't have been out of place on a good NIN record, Revol is addictive, Die in the Summertime uses the Middle Eastern scale extremely well, Archives of Pain has a killer bass intro and excellent guitar solo, and 4st 7lb is haunting. I read up on the history surrounding the album on Richey Edwards death/disappearance and I suppose it is no surprise they went in a more commercial/less bleak direction after this album.

Speaking of favorites from 1994. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lZjAHnuStM

Not available in your country, again! But found an alternate, and like this more than I did the last VS track you posted.

Ahh, 1994. Not the most obvious pick, but I have a fondness for this guy's solo work, and this is at least the third best track he put out in that year...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ishbOoEiE

Well Bruce is someone whose voice I always admired more than I loved, but the main riff here is great. More 1994.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbezitUACv8

Yet another band that I've had on my list to check out for a while and never got around to. Terrific stuff, that bass is visceral.

Reminded me a little of one of my favourites, so I looked up what they were doing around 1994, and found one of their most underappreciated albums:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moeruBaGftQ

(By the by, you might find this as helpful I did for some lesser known shoegaze recommendations, despite being from pitchf**k:

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-an ... f-all-time)

Not a bad list at all, the classic six bands (MBV, Ride, Slowdive, Lush, Catherine Wheel, and Swervedriver) all have multiple entries in the top 27. More consistent than Rollingstone's top 50 grunge list was https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/50-greatest-grunge-albums-798851/ I'll eventually post some other favorites from that list like Swervedriver, Curve, and Autolux. I am confused why Jesu and Alcest were included but Deafheaven wasn't, this is Pitchfork after all!?

To Voivod! I really like Nothingface/Dimension Hatross but never checked out their other albums. Clearly I need to give this one a deeper listen because the clean sound works great on the track you posted.

From 1994 all the way to 1995. Who needs guitar when you can use 8 string bass? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYU3XGGKshA

You should! Voivod's proggy phase was terrific.

Necromantia! A band that I've heard of but not really investigated; I dig the bass and the overall goth-y sound, though! Let it sit on my mind and it reminded me of another group, one that I regretted not reviewing this pillar of weirdness a couple of years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbv75mhBWGc

I did listen to Outer Limits today, pretty great stuff. Jack Luminous was 17.5 minutes long and still felt short.

Cultes des Ghoules is a band cry of the banshee got me into many years ago. But I hadn't heard anything from their most recent two albums. This is really good: from the off-kilter vocals and synths to the audible bass and the hypnotic riff. I wouldn't be surprised if this was influenced by Necromantia either.

Another relatively recent black metal release (I know Husker is a fan of this one!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPqZU_wcFgA

Was stuck on those guys for a long time!

Seriously, Voivod are GOAT. You should check out Angel Rat for a more melodic, experimental take on this style too.

Aosoth are a great band, but a band I've not gotten deep into so far, despite appreciating them. That's a good reason for this thread, for reappraisals of stuff like this - I like the technicality and dissonance, without merely being DsO-adjacent, and the aggression is on point

It's actually very cool that they're related to these guys, who I had in mind immediately as a more extreme form of aggression (and I think Husker digs these too, and you'll no doubt be aware of them). They're like Aosoth's scary, Satanist cousins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N_YRcyPEJI

Yes, I like Anteaus as well, this track has a few solid riffs and classic black metal open chords and like Aosoth they understand the good side of including ambient breaks in with all that aggression. I have Blood Libels somewhere, but I'm not familiar with their other work. Noted on Angel Rat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsVwujnqffg

Abyssal are still very cool; something like Immolation meets Deathspell Omega. Shame we only reviewed one of their albums, but you can't win them all. I like the ominous doomy breakdown especially.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFvfId1wbfI

Blaze of Perdition is a band I was unfamiliar with but will be following in the future! Great use of dynamics and excellent lead/clean guitar tone.

The other band's track in a split with Jesu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gBa8tkveIk

Hmm, not bad but that production is horrendous - unless it's Youtube's fault? I do like Julie C's voice, prefer her on this though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_O-NZfzvj0

Could be, the other youtube posting they had was going to be blocked outside the US again so I am sure it was better sounding. I sort of knew you'd post the Cult of Luna stuff so I've heard pretty much of all Julie's material in the past few days besides this.

The collaboration here was great like all Cult of Luna that I've heard, perfect riff and gorgeous intro. Julie has a great voice like shown here, but I quite like her screams too, I'll post something more aggressive from another of her projects with a better youtube compression some other time.

Love this band and the evolution they had over three albums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzFhPnYAn9M

I think I've heard each Oathbreaker album but none of them have really made an impression - instrumentally it's fine, but these sort of shrieked vocals don't always work very well for me... maybe I need to give them another shot.

As far as hipster-friendly acts that push at the black metal borders go, these guys impressed me more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6OzOGWnTRI

This drummer on Bosse-de-Nage is excellent but the vocalist does nothing for me. Lets go in a direction without vocalists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hJf4ZffkoI

(Had to give this time, you threw me a little!)

With the caveat that I am terribly unused to discussing classical music, I do recognise this piece as something that I've heard before. It's dramatic, needs blastbeats, has a solid melodic motif if one that it returns to a little too often... I like it, but am not sure, as ever, when I'd pick classical specifically to listen to.

Another instrumental, then, and you'll forgive me for dragging it back towards my comfort zone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PukuQPUKfyU

A massive talent, RIP.

Mozart only wrote 2 symphonies in minor (he was much more comfortable writing 'happy' music in major). I'm quite fond of the motif here as well, but I can see why you would think it returns too often: I picked this one because it is relatively straightforward. Some other time I'll throw one of my favorites like Liszt at you.

Speaking of piano virtuosos, thanks for sharing this brilliant performance! I'm very familiar with Giant Steps, but never heard it solo piano before. I also wasn't aware that Mr. Tyner had just passed, RIP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOm17yw__6U

Please do, I need to be educated in classical!

As for Wes M, hadn't heard of him before but this was good, esp for 60s jazz. Something a little more intense and 50s!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wvXgq3UU7c