Hermóðr - The Howling Mountains - The Howling Mountains

Such a beautiful and sad song.Hermóðr just kicks ass on so many levels

Akercocke - Renaissance in Extremis

I'm not entirely sure about this. The abrupt shifts between delicate acoustic passages and death metal are jarring and the vocals sound dry and strained. It's only a first listen but ehhh it's iffy.

Mercyful Fate - Return of the Vampire

With the start of October tomorrow, there's never a better time for some King Diamond/Mercyful Fate.

Alice in Chains - 'Dirt'

Ugh, this makes me uncomfortable.

Peste Noire-Sale Famine Von Valfoutre

I have absolutely fallen in love with this song.

Cannabis Corpse - In Battle There Is No Pot

Their new album is actually really good. This surprised me because their last one was not that great. Glad they bounced back.

Persuader-War
This song rips, the whole album is great, not as good as When Eden Burns but a solid 88%

Annihilator - All For You

Oh man, I can see why they pulled this from everywhere. Those vocals

Leng Tch'e- Gundog Allegiance

I've been a metalhead my whole life, and I've never checked these guys out. Going to listen to the new one in full.

Seasons of the Wolf - Communion

These guys were restless in their experimentation and continually updated the sound, making it tighter, more aggressive, etc, and adding it new, weird trippy elements too. A treausre... and perfect for October.

Master's Hammer - Vracejte konve na místo

Since these guys will be coming stateside next spring, I figured I'd check out their newer catalog. This is actually pretty cool.

Sadistic Intent - Asphyxiation, fucking amazing and barbaric. Some bm sounding riffs in there too

Metallica - Fight Fire With Fire

Haven't sat and listened to the full Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets albums in a long while. Still just as great as ever. Taking a long break like that makes me appreciate them more. I tend to do that with a lot of classic 80s and 90s metal records. Anyway, "Fight Fire With Fire" kicks in and it's mandatory headbanging.

Evil Invaders - Feed Me Violence

Speed metal the way it should be - not just fast and shrieky, but also heavy and somewhat chaotic. Cool leads all over the place. Unimaginative, but a ton of fun.

I didn't give this much attention.


I can't do this.

(2016) Deathspell Omega - The Synarchy of Molten Bones on my way to work.
This is technically good. Anyway, we'll see if something sticks.

That's a really dense record, and very difficult to approach. It has a hard shell that's difficult to crack, and it feels that the contents are fairly meager compared to the effort it takes to get there. It's probably worth trying, though - just that Paracletus and Drought are immensely more accessible.

BasqueStorm, Esoteric Warfare definitely is an album worth making time for to listen to properly. A totally consuming bm experience.

Sadistic Intent - Ancient Black Earth

Prime shit.

Darkthrone- The Cult Of Goliath

So polarizing as a full album, but this song kills, IMO.

Power Trip - Crucifixation

Saw them last nigh with Exodus and Obituary and they were pretty fucking killer. Grabbed their new CD at the show.

I saw them last week in Toronto and they levelled the place. It was an off-day from that tour. I wish they had played for longer (only did 9 or 10 songs, which for them is like, 40 minutes). I know they only have like, a total of 20 songs, but hitting an hour would have been sweet.

Asagraum - Potatoes something

Good stuff. I might be finally getting into this whole black metal thing.

Ajattara - Hirsipuulintu

Mid-paced black metal with rock solid riffs, minimal but effective keyboards and great vocals.. a really nice surprise!

It's really simple, but i'm enjoying the album quite a lot... at times it sounds like modern Satyricon if they were ten times more interesting

Galneryus-Braving Flag
Love these guys

Novembers Doom- Dominate The Human Strain

This song is like a barrage of punches.

Black metal is one of many metal styles I have yet to fully investigate or truly understand, but somehow Äpäre made an immediate impression on me from the beginning eleven years ago, and I dig that album every bit as much now as I did then.


Symphony X - "The Witching Hour"

At some moments, as in "Medusa's Eyes" and "Of Sins and Shadows," I see why Divine Wings of Tragedy is hailed as Symphony X's "ultimate masterpiece" or something to that effect. For the most part though, the album seems to represent a time when SX was trying to find itself, and "Witching Hour" in particular sounds more like a Malmsteen tribute than a genuine SX song.

Sargeist - Let the Devil In
Glass Shrine - Lapidary
Altar of Plagues - White Tomb

I'll, thanks!



(2017) Nokturnal Mortum - Verity on my way to work.

This is good.
I like my Nokturnal Mortum folky.

Oh, wow. All at the same time?

Oh yes, it made for quite a listening experience

In all seriousness that wouldn't work very well, I reckon.

Cream - Disraeli Gears

So this is psychedelia. Good songs, mostly, and nice to listen on LP.

Cultes Des Ghoules - The Prophecy (Prologue)/Devil, the Devil he is, I swear God (Scene I)

The ambience on this album is incredible, but the metal leaves something to be desired. There are some tasty riffs and exceptional moments no doubt but nothing truly exciting. A lot of repetition, and slow plodding passages that are just boring and too long. I'm sure I'll come around to the Coven experience after a few more listens.

Disqualia - Over The Destruction

Nice band, but badly, that activity has only two years.

Good choice there. Definitely a treasure of a band - like a more evil version of early Morbid Angel or something.

NP: Anthem - Night After Night

The five outputs these guys did from 1986 until 1990 ranged from decent to absolutely incredible. Perhaps I should revisit their post breakup material again, despite remembering it sounded just a bit more generic however.

RE: Anthem

School Shooter-Bad Vibes The Vidya for it is cool too

Skitsystem - Allt Total Skit

Damn, the line between crust and metal is thin - and crusty.

Danzig- Brand New God

A damn fine way to start an album! Also why the hell isn't this a live staple?

Thergothon - Stream from the Heavens

I wanted to enjoy this more than I do, but there's just nothing going on that keeps me interested at all. very 'eh'

Metallica - Lords Of Summer

Nah... I disagree with the majority. Lords Of Summer is a fun song and a great song live but I don't think it should replace any song on Hardwired... To Self-Destruct. In its essence, Lords Of Summer feels like a Death Magnetic b-side with a slightly bluesier edge than normal. It is not very creative compared to the rest album. The other songs on the album try out new ideas and bring throwbacks to almost all of the band's previous albums. You never get a more aggressive Loadish track like ManUnkind or pure Sabbath doom of Am i Savage. The best of both worlds like Halo On Fire and Here Comes Revenge or the sheer attitude of Dream No More or old school Metallica sound of Atlas Rise! or the balls out aggression of Spit Out The Bone. Just because it is thrashier doesn't mean it's better. That is how Metallica has prevailed in the music world, they have tried out so many things that other Thrash bands wouldn't even dream of. Something like Brotherhood Of The Snake may be fun for a few runs but the true artists are the more creative ones.

Alice in Chains - "Pretty Done"

"I don't care to further amuse you. Never had you, how could I lose you?"