Pretty good. I ended up running for comptroller like you suggested!

Well, I've done my good deed for the year. No more kindness until next January.


Oh man, way too much.


Metal-wise, I fell into a cycle of just listening to stuff I already owned. I haven't been in the loop for new releases or anything for over a year. I have the new Akercocke, but I haven't listened to it yet. Hell, I haven't even heard The Book of Souls. Apparently Judas Priest has a new album coming out? Cannibal Corpse put out something too? Warrell Dane passed away? I'm over a year behind on anything metal-related. I have some serious catching up to do!

I dug out Tiamat's Wildhoney the other day and have been spinning it like crazy. It reminded me that I should come back here and get back in the game. What a great album.

Didn't you apply for a new job last time we spoke? How did that turn out?

Sounds like you've been a busy guy. So, I'll ask you: howdy friend, how's it going?

I’ve remained connected to the metal world and I still haven’t heard The Book of Souls either. That probably isn’t going to change.

Book Of Souls had a couple neat tracks if I remember correctly. Still think the previous album was much better.

Catching up on big-name bands isn't worth it. They're all doing more or less the same thing as the last x times. Almost no high-profile bands are in their prime.

I've always felt that I found the best stuff looking a few years back, as it takes a few years to catch on and gain recognition, especially when bands rarely get signed to a notable label without first releasing something strong. I've been to nine festivals this year and choosing my top ten of 2017 was tough, but I could definitely write better and more comprehensive lists for the last couple years, given all this exposure and social time with die-hard metalheads.

Highly intelligent observation. For all the praise and multi-page threads a new Iron Maiden or Judas Priest album gets, there are exactly zero people arguing that they are making their best stuff yet, a position that always comes up in threads about younger, more adventurous bands.

Indeed with the giants most of the time i'm crossing fingers and hoping that they will make an album with at least one or two songs worthy revisiting...

With the small bands you often get unanimously kickass stuff.

The story from the actual people involved appears to contradict your fiction.

I love a lot of new bands, but I feel like most of my favorite stuff is from bands who started a while ago - the new Pharaoh, Slough Feg and Seasons of the Wolf are what I am most looking forward to this year. I hope I'll find some awesome stuff from new bands too though.

Maiden's new stuff isn't as good as their best 80s stuff, no, but I love it anyway and think the years have bestowed them with experience enough to write great songs in a way they didn't used to. I think it's all good. I always enjoy seeing experienced artists create stuff anyway - it's just that metal is more a thing young people excel at typically. Early Maiden had an unbeatable energy and creativity so that's why I'd still side with that. But they had more filler in the 80s albums than now, so that's a benefit of listening to the new stuff for me.

Every time I think you've said the most bafflingly wrong thing, you find a way to surpass it.

For real though, I'm with Zodi here. A lot of classic bands are still kicking but most of them are either on autopilot (Accept, Overkill, Megadeth, etc) or sorely missing the magic that made them classics in the first place. There's definitely a few bright spots here and there but by and large, they're only worth listening to as fans of the bands, not fans of the genre. I thought 2017 was a mediocre year in metal until I started checking out some stuff from the poll and realized there was a ton of great shit from bands I had previously never heard of. 2017 wasn't a weak year at all, it was just the year I became an oldnoob.

Yeah, I guess having an opinion is wrong, my bad.

I play the 80s Maiden albums all the way through every time though. I just think the new ones are more consistent. They've had more time now to get what they want to do down and take more time to put stuff out, is all, so it logically follows that they're written differently and have less of the "Quest for Fire" type stuff. That is really all I meant. If people want to say the highs of 80s Maiden are higher, I doubt anybody would be arguing with that and I'd say so too - but nothing wrong with having a bit of different discussion and opinions here and there beyond the usual "old stuff from old bands was better," ya know.

Sometimes art is more true than the truth.

I started and finished One Punch Man (the anime) this weekend. I LOVED it. It reminds me of Venture Bros. in a lot of ways. It's like Saitama is the only one who exists in the real world. His dead-pan reactions to all the completely over the top "heroes" and monsters was endlessly entertaining.

"CONSECUTIVE NORMAL PUNCHES!!!"

It's a fun time to be had, for sure. My only real complaint about the series is how bare-bones and boring the actual setting is--not a dealbreaker by any means, but certainly a nagging issue. "A City" through "Z City"? Come on, now.

Mumen Rider/Licenseless Rider (his name should've been Common Rider, goddammit!) is the true hero, if you ask me.

I used to be the biggest anime nerd there was but I have to say that while 15 years ago it seemed so much good stuff was coming out and had me watching a few series a week its about once or twice a year now. I have seen a few good ones in that time though but it just seems the creativity in those big studios have stalled.

There's still a lot of great shows coming out today--the problem is that there's also a metric ton of garbage coming out, too, and sorting through the pile can be exhausting. As far as 2017 goes, I've got my eyes on Ancient Magus Bride, Re:Creators, and Made in Abyss to watch sometime in the near future.

Sounds like a justification for bullshit instead of recanting bullshit.

The magic is what differentiates the best music. A lot of the newer stuff by those bands is practically the musical equivalent of fanfiction, or newer Simpsons, where it has the overt hallmarks, but it misses a lot of the nuance, quality, and relatability.

...and about Maiden, I guess filler isn't the word for bloating every track to being over six minutes long through repetition, but their songs have been increasingly overlong and boring. JS once noted that what older bands lost in energy and aggression was compensated for by trying to write longer songs to expand their music in that direction. Seems to be true.

I still have hella respect for Iron Maiden just for continuing to tour the world at their age. But yeah, their newer material is nowhere as great as the classics.

I don't agree that that's what it is though. Last three albums have been amazingly strong to me and I wouldn't change much about them. Brevity isn't a quality that stuff has but I enjoy everything about them anyway. I enjoy Maiden for the long-winded stuff and the signature instrumental prowess they have, which these albums take to the max.

Then you should check out Made in abyss man, one of those gems i just watched and it is great stuff! I was hesitant because it almost looked like a kids show but the seinen tag caught my eye and sure enough it delivers on all fronts.

Oh, I'm well-aware that it is shockingly different from what its art style would suggest--two of my favorite anime of all time (Now and Then, Here and There + Fantastic Children) operate with that very same level of deception. ;3

Bingo. Especially with the last two records. It's just getting ridiculous at this point. I was already hearing them recycle riffs and arrangements on The Final Frontier, and The Book of Souls, which has a few strong points, is mostly a chore to listen through. Despite that, I was absolutely in love with A Matter of Life and Death back when that came out. I still think that is their best amongst the reunion albums. Dance of Dance was pretty hit or miss, and Brave New World is a pretty great album, even though some of those songs do seem to go on forever. I just want them to gamble big and put out one more killer, uptempo, rocking metal record, with most of the songs under five minutes. In the vein of songs like "The Wicker Man," "Wildest Dreams," "Different World," "The Alchemist," and "Speed of Light." Actually, I'm now thinking about compiling my own personal best-of from those records, in the vein of that proposed album I just mentioned.

EDIT: Here is the tracklisting I'd select for that idea...

The Wicker Man
The Mercenary
The Fallen Angel

Wildest Dreams
Rainmaker
Montsegur
Gates of Tomorrow
New Frontier

Different World
The Pilgrim
Out of the Shadows

The Final Frontier
Mother of Mercy
The Alchemist

Speed of Light
Death or Glory
Tears of a Clown

I guess that would work more as a compilation than studio album. Definitely going to burn a mix of these songs and see how it sounds.

EDIT: So it works pretty well. 76 minutes or so. I had to remove "Tears of a Clown" actually. The CD-R was about to go over 80 minutes.

Shit man, I was going to mention Now and then, here and there actually. One of my all time favorites, just grabbed it off Kaa tracker a few weeks ago actually (Going oldschool on that one). Will have to check out that second title, never heard of it.

Well, it's finally official. I got my recording rig set up again and I will officially be releasing Cosmic Atrophy's second album this year, 10 years exactly from the date of the original. Joining me for the first time will be Phil Tougas from Chthe'ilist, which I think will produce some ridiculous results.

Here's a quick little warm up riff I threw down just to get back in the mood. It's been a long time coming.

https://clyp.it/5tpdvjhg

Sounding good, mate. Keen to hear what you come up with.

God damn! I remember buying Codex Incubu in the summer of 09 and listening to it intensely for a long time after that, definitely one of the albums that got me into weirder death metal in a big way. It's been years since I've listened to it, and now it rests (and dreams...) with all my other CDs in a box in the basement, but this got me excited.

\m/

Really looking forward to doing this album. It's been way too long since I've had a reliable way to write, play and record metal. I'm finally back at that spot and I think the several years of pent up creative ideas are going to shine through on this new one. Expect some new tricks along with the old.

There has to be somebody beside me that thinks Rapid Foray is an excellent album. Am I the only one willing to defend it? I can't be the only one!


Yo what the fuck, son.


Accept has always been Heavy Metal The Band. While I'm quite partial to Stalingrad and Blind Rage, they're fairly uninteresting in many regards. OverKill was in a renaissance with IronBound through White Devil Armory, and that trio became a fucking stylistic revelation for the band. Those albums fucking kick, man. Megadeth has had more misses than hits, but EndGame was a return to form in many regards, and Dystopia really brought that sound home, and with MegaDave's comments on commercial albums "not working out", plus bringing interesting musicians in and giving them some freedom, this only spells good things for the future, I hope.

Just remember, before Blood Of The Nations, IronBound and EndGame came out, those albums were considered revelations for each band, as they were reaching a purity-of-sound that had been absent with all of those bands for a very long time. Just go back and flip through old posts on this board regarding all three of those. Most of the responses were nothing short of "holy shit".

In terms of heavy metal, I'm far more interested in what acts like Evil Invaders, Vulture, Air Raid and Ranger are doing than Accept's next outing.


Nah, putting two spaces at the end of each sentence is what makes you an "oldnoob".

Wow, remind me never to say anything about latter day Maiden again I guess. My entire reasoning goes unheard I guess. Clearly I will never agree with anyone on this here I suppose. Ah well.

I've never heard an Iron Maiden song that was recorded after Seventh Son. So far, it's been working really well for me.

I had a smoothie explosion at my desk today. Idly went to shake it up while talking to my boss. I guess the lid wasn't on all the way? Green chalky shit everywhere. Keyboard and mouse had to be replaced. I'm wearing some brand new black jeans I got for christmas and the entire left leg is covered in it. Pretty fucking hilarious.

I didn't realize QUITE how numb I go everyday when I'm here, until this happened. I literally didn't care at all and couldn't think of anything to do but stare and laugh after it happened. I've been enjoying walking around the building and noticing how many people either don't notice or try to be polite and not say anything. There's no WAY you're walking by me in the hallways with one leg covered in anonymous green goop without us having some kind of exchange...

"Excellent" might be too strong a word, but it's definitely their best since their 1990s Golden Age.

Hey you're not completely alone on that opinion! I guess it just depends on one's definition of "filler". For me, it's more irritating when an otherwise good song overstays its welcome (as happens more on recent Maiden, with the exception of "Alexander the Great" which is both long and terrible); than having short throwaway forgettable songs as they did more in the 80s.) Looking at "Only the Good Die Young" and "The Duellists" here. In other words, I agree with you that old Maiden albums had more filler than 2000s Maiden - provided we define filler only as songs that completely do nothing and exclude songs that lose their oompf by being long for long's sake.

Oh for sure. I was just frustrated that my attempt to discuss this in a way that wasn't meant to assign or rank things in terms of quality in a hard and fast way, and instead just to discuss the music, was apparently ignored. A filler is a song that feels like it was written in a rush just to pad out the album - I never defined it as "parts of a longer song that you think are extraneous," never thought of it as such.

They used to be a band who wrote in a very quick way, a new album like every year, all full of energy and that was how they defined themselves. Their later albums are more laborious and they take a lot more time planning these out than they did on songs like "Quest for Fire" or "Gangland" or something. It's just that people don't like the new direction so they don't see it that way.

Zelky's right, it's not necessarily great but it's the first one that holds at least a tiny bit of value in at least 15 years. It's just a rehash of another era (mostly Victory/The Brotherhood, which are both half great fun and half dull as hell) with only "Black Bart" truly reaching back to the early 90s heyday) but it's the first thing with a bit of real energy involved, and it was very refreshing because Running Wild had been so bad for so long prior to it. Still not exactly something I'd recommend outside of long suffering RW fans though, which sorta ties into the point I was making before. It's good for fans of the band but wholly unnecessary in the grand scheme of the metal scene.



Yeah, and I fell into all of them too, and still think 2/3 of them are great. I never really bought into Endgame (it's two amazing throwbacks and then a bunch of weak songs) but Ironbound and Blood of the Nations are two shots in the arm for two old and stagnating bands. Ironbound was my #3 album of 2010 and BotN just barely missed the list, and I think Accept kept it up for one more album because Stalingrad landed #4 on my 2012 list. The problem is that, for as great and unexpected as those albums were, they all just kept rehashing them with diminishing returns. It's not a direct line, because Stalingrad was better than Blood of the Nations and White Devil Armory is noticeably better than The Electric Age, but they're still just reworked versions of the formulas they set with their comeback albums around the turn of the decade. It's just disappointing to me that these old bands found newfound fame and reinvigorated fandoms specifically because they did something fresh and energetic and then followed it up by just doing it over and over again, which is exactly what led them to falling out of favor in the first place before them. Except now "mainstream" metal rags are falling all over themselves to continually heap praise on them for writing the same album four times in a row. Megadeth at least got shitty again before throwing back again with Dystopia!



I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL. FIGHT ME.

You should at least do yourself a favor and listen to "The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg" from A Matter of Life and Death. That's one of their best songs in the past decade. But oh wait, you haven't even heard "Fear of the Dark" then. Getdafuckouttahere!

Dude, what's your problem with "Gangland?" That fits just as well as the rest of the album.

I like Breeg, but people who don't like the sound of modern Maiden and bristle at the thought of the band going more considered/midpaced probably wouldn't go for it. For someone like Jonpo into USPM and the like, I'd recommend Montsegur, Lord Of Light and The Talisman (mind the long intro - I would even say overlong, but stick it out and you'll be rewarded) for some uptempo examples of Maiden kicking ass in this millennium.