The Metal Thread Genre • Page 18

its obviously not technically superior actually. but yeah Im glad Mayhem exists too dude haha

 

I've been neglecting my list because I got sidetracked by thrash, it's like all I want to listen to right now. Any quick recs?

 

Aura Noir - Merciless
Dark Angel - Darkness Descends
Vektor - Terminal Redux

 

another insane drumming album: The Sound of Perseverance by Death

(could also satisfy yr thrashy needs)

 

I've listened to Darkness Descends, it's one of my favs. I'm still trying to digest the Vektor album because it's massive.

Current favs are Anthrax/Sodom/Dark Angel/Destruction

 

people seem to like that Vader band alot. for thrash I think

 

RIYL ISIS + shoegaze

I don't really know how else to describe it, but I can't get enough of this album. Standout tracks "The Grower" and "To the End".

 

Vermis by Ulcerate
Leviathan by Mastodon
Sky Burial by Inter Arma

 

I just got back yesterday to Chicago after spending the weekend in Baltimore for Maryland Deathfest. I need to recollect my thoughts and figured this might as well be the best place to do it. Overall, I had a wonderful time. I definitely recommend it to anyone in this thread who likes even a smattering of metal. The environment itself is incredible, but the comradery and good times were what made it even better. Everyone I talked to this weekend was so generally pleasant and nice to be around...though occasionally a bit smelly, but that will happen when you have like 10 crust punk bands playing the festival.

My buddy and I stuck to Soundstage this year, which is the smallest MDF venue where a majority of the grind/hardcore/crust bands were playing. There were bands scattered throughout the other venues that we wanted to see (Mayhem, Dragged Into Sunlight, Horrendous), but we stuck to Soundstage to reduce the amount of walking we were doing and to keep things cheaper to spend more money on merch and beer. I did the 4-day all venue pass in 2013 when it was just two areas and went to Edison Lot (the biggest area that is remiscent of a European open air festival) in 2015. That exhausted the shit out of us both times. Keeping things simple was a necessity in 2016.

Bandwise, here are the highlights:

-Rotten Sound - 2nd time seeing these guys. They were incredibly tight and probably had the best sound of the weekend despite being at the front of the stage. My favorite set of the weekend.

-Repulsion - These guys know how to bring it. I saw them play one of the open air stages in 2013 at the former Sonar compound and they were good then, but a smaller, club environment is where the shine. Played for around an hour and hit everything in their discography. They also played a Motorhead cover, which was badass.

-Afternoon Gentlemen - I've been listening to these guys a lot in 2016. Their 2015 full-length is one of the best grindcore albums I've heard in a long-time. They brought the party live despite only playing for 20-ish minutes.

-General Surgery - If you're a fan of Carcass's old grindcore influenced death metal and want some stuff with better production values than their early stuff, look no further. Probably the second biggest surprise of the weekend for me. Each member of the band came out with white garb covered in blood, which made for a cheesy but oddly fitting vibe to fit their music. I've never been huge into goregrind just because the lyrical content doesn't do it for me, but they are a definite exception

-Infest - To be honest, Infest sounded like shit during their set. The band were a bit sloppy. The guitarist looked a bit lost on stage and the vocalist seemed a bit more interested in interacting with the crowd than actually performing the songs. However, the crowd went absolutely primal during their set. They were absolutely eating up everything the band was throwing down. Stage dives were occurring at a rapid rate. Trash cans were thrown into the pit at least twice. The moshing was intense. Security only stepped in to remove the trash cans from the pit. Overall,I'm glad I kept my distance on a raised platform to the left of the stage so I got to watch all of the mayhem unfold.

-Wormed - Crust punk OGs Discharge were supposed to headline Saturday night, but had visa issues so they were unable to make the crossing into the US. Wormed played a second set at Soundstage in their place. Awesome technical death metal that was quite different from the vibe of the rest of the weekend at Soundstage (especially playing after Negative Approach). I dug it a lot though. The bass player and the drum absolutely brought it.

-Ringworm - I've listened to their last album a few times (Hammer of Witch) and thought it was decent. My buddy is a huge fan though and said they clicked for him once he saw them live. He was absolutely right. The instrumentation was on-point and they sounded so good. I'm a fan of them now and will be diving deeper into their discography in the coming weeks.

-Test - Grindcore two-piece from Brazil. I'd only listened to their latest album once before the festival, and thought it was okay. The instrumentation and vocals sounded decent, but the production was crap. Needless to say, my expectations were a bit tempered after listening to them. However, when they started playing, something magical happened. The guitar-drum duo were set up right next to each other on stage looking at each other despite the stage being huge. I think being that close to each other...they were just absolutely in-sync. The guitarist's approach to playing was a lot different than your typical grind instrumentation. It felt a lot more rock based, but still was absolutely heavy. The drummer was on-point too. Maybe it could have just been the fact that my expectations were low, but they absolutely killed it. Biggest surprise of the weekend, bar-none.

Other bands I saw that were good: Sick of Stupidity, Yacopsae, Magrudergrind, Priapus, Gets Worse, Negative Approach, Six Brew Bantha, Tragedy, Excel.

Apologies for the grammar and any spelling mistakes. I'm trying to churn this out as quickly as possible at work. :)

 

Cool man!

 

sick report, @swboyd - it's cool to see people into grindcore/crust/hxc

I want some new grindcore/crust/hxc albums and you seem to be the man up for the task - care to share some? : )

I have listened to some stuff that I liked OK (Trap Them), some I found boring (Magrudergrind) and a few killer ones (Longhena, the Body/Full of Hell, the Secret), but I want more!

 

Did anyone ever listen to new Plebeian Grandstand? I haven't yet. It's super crusty with black metal influence

 

I'll check that out, thanks

listening to Unsilent Death, btw... it is immense

 

Thanks, man! Glad you like it.

Quick list off the top of my head (gonna be mostly grindcore, but some crust and hardcore are included):

-Full of Hell - Amber Mote in The Black Vault (4 song EP, but it's killer)
-The Afternoon Gentlemen - S/T (Grindcore about alcohol abuse)
-Gets Worse - One of the 3 7 inches they put out in 2015. (UK Powerviolence. One song on The Blues has a saxophone in it)
-Weekend Nachos - Apology (Needs no introduction hopefully)
-Cryptic Void - Psychomanteum (7 inch featuring people who were involved in PLF/Insect Warfare)
-Rotten Sound - Abuse to Suffer (Swedish grindcore that were some of the progenitors of the HM-2 distortion pedal sound. New album is killer).
-Like Rats - II (Weekend Nachos side-project. Probably more death metal influenced than the other albums I listed, but still effing heavy).
-Gatecreeper - s/t EP (Crusty death metal from Arizona. Not grindy at all, but they have a brutal guitar tone)
-False Light - Forced By The Flame (Grind from SC)
-Harm Done - Abuse/Abused (Beatdown Hardcore and Grind fused together. Reminds me a lot of Weekend Nachos).
-Six Brew Bantha - s/t (Canadian grindcore. They were solid at deathfest).
-Sick/Tired - Dissolution (From 2014. Local grindcore from around Chicago that's pretty solid)

Also add Insect Warfare - World Extermination to the list. It isn't new (came out in 2008), but it's my favorite grindcore album of all time.

The new Nails will join this list when it comes out in two weeks.

 

Reporting back on the recs I listened to:

Arsis was a lot of fun - I feel that I simply wasn't in the proper mood to really appreciate them, however. I will have to come back to these guys later.

I listened to Gorguts's Obscura and while it certainly was a mammoth record, I felt it grew a little too self-indulgent and drawn-out for my personal tastes.

Nile is Nile, and Nile is ferocious as fuck and delicious as always.

Will comment on more as I listen.

 

New Ringworm

 

Not sure how I've never listened to these guys. Easily up there with the Mastodons and Baronesses of the world

 

Probably not a lot of people around here into them, but I saw Hatebreed Friday night and they were great as usual.

 

Great band, very much underrated. On a similar note, I just got into this band at random because the hype sticker on the packaging said "for fans of Mastodon" and yeah, they're basically Mastodon's little brother haha.

The sticker also said "for fans of Alice in Chains and Megadeth" and while I get the AiC comparison, sort of, I do not for the life of me understand how anyone could say this sounds like Megadeth haha.

I feel like, after their last two records, Hatebreed is doing Slayer right now better than Slayer, ha. And I'm not even one of those guys who hates anything post-Seasons. These last two records are definitely Hatebreed's best stuff yet as far as I'm concerned.

 

Hatebreed has more or less stuck to a certain formula throughout their career, but they are really really good at what they do. And like you said, the last few records have been some of their best. They always put on a energetic show too, which is something I can't really say about Slayer anymore sadly.

 

Well, the Nails might just be the best thing they've released yet.

 

is it out now?

 

I really want to like Nails, but I just don't think I "get" grindcore.

I know I sound like an old man, but it just sounds like noise to me, although I feel like it just hasn't clicked with me yet. I had the same problem with other sub-genres that I now love.

What's a good entry point for the genre?