Metal/Hardcore/Grind/Crust people, what'r you into nowadays?

[Recycled_Brains]

I sometimes feel alone around here in my love for all things heavy, fast, and offensive.

I know there are others here that are into heavy music. What are you guys digging these days? I've been going a little nuts lately, buying some really great stuff.

For me, the following are killing me right now:

Trap Them - Seizures in Barren Praise LP, Filth Rations EP, Seance Prime EP. These guys just get it. Super pissed off, aggressive hardcore/grind. Strong punk aesthetic. Recordings all done by Kurt Ballou. Very distorted and aggressive sounding. Intense. Never relents. Just in-your-face heaviness.

Black Breath - Heavy Breathing. Another Ballou recording. Catchy old-school deathmetal, meets hardcore. Def. lots of Swedish (Entombed) influence. Some almost "rock" parts. Simple, and well written songs that are evil as hell. Intense breakdowns. The kind that make you pump your fists, crank your stereo, and drive your car faster. Sounds incredible LOUD.

Kylesa - Static Tensions. In my top 5 of the past few years. Can't get enough of this album. Perfect blend of sludgy-as-fuck metal and psychadelic-errrr-ness. Vocals are top-notch (very reminiscent of Ian from Fugazi at times). 2 drummers. Excellent production. HUGE guitar sounds. Huge. Great use of effects. Going to see them in Oct. in MA. Can not wait.

TRIAC - ...Always Meant to Hurt You cassette EP, Blue Room 7". Pure grind from Baltimore. My band played with them last week, and they blew me away. Jack-hammer blast beats, crazy huge and loud guitars (cranked V4 through fullstack of V4 cabs...). Distorted bass craziness. Just awesome. If you dig super fast grindcore, check them out.

Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood. Absolutely my favorite band right now. Just got around to getting this record (where the hell have I been?). Holy shitballs. Intense is an understatement. No band on the planet has their shit together as much as Neurosis. BY FAR the best concert experience of my life seeing them @ the Masonic Temple in BK a couple years ago. Can't think of another band that reaches inside of your soul like these guys. Haunting and brutal.

Disfear - Live the Storm. Another Ballou production. Members of Entombed and At the Gates doing fast d-beat crust/hardcore. Insanely catchy. Great songwriting. Big hooks, and sing-a-longs. Riffs, riffs, RIFFS!!!

I could go on... but I won't just yet.

What say you!?

[The Scum]

After something like 20 years away, I just rediscovered Cryptic Slaughter.

Does that count?

[wren]

I've been sort of disenchanted with metal lately...then I heard Howl. Have you heard Howl? Full of Hell is the album. Very good. On the one hand there's nothing particularly noteworthy or special about them, but on the other hand they're just really fucking good.

And recently I was inspired to pull some old December off the CD shelf. My god, The Lament Configuration is still one of the heaviest, most amazing metal records ever.

[chris harris]

There's a local band called Komarov featuring members of Destroyer Destroyer that's pretty killer.

[Recycled_Brains]

I've been sort of disenchanted with metal lately...then I heard Howl. Have you heard Howl? Full of Hell is the album. Very good. On the one hand there's nothing particularly noteworthy or special about them, but on the other hand they're just really fucking good.

And recently I was inspired to pull some old December off the CD shelf. My god, The Lament Configuration is still one of the heaviest, most amazing metal records ever.

I've seen Howl twice, and both times was completely underwhelmed. Not saying they suck or anything, but they couldn't hold my attention for more than a song. Lot of my friends are really digging that album though.

Last time was opening for EyeHateGod. Who were just .

I will check out December. Not familiar with them.

[thedonwood]

How about The Sword and High On Fire, Baroness, Mastodonn ? Nightmares Made Flesh is a great album by Bloodbath. I am also completely entrenched with Opeth.

[Recycled_Brains]

How about The Sword and High On Fire, Baroness, Mastodonn ? Nightmares Made Flesh is a great album by Bloodbath. I am also completely entrenched with Opeth.

Love HOF, and Baroness. Going to see HOF with Torche and Kylesa in Oct. Matt Pike's playing on "Death is This Communion" is incredible. Stoked for that show. Baroness's "The Red Album" is unmatched, IMO. So good. I must've listened to it 3x a day when it came out. Dig all their stuff, but that one stands out to me.

I used to have that Bloodbath album. Some great songs on there. Not sure what happened to it. IIRC, it was a "super-group" of sorts, though I can't remember who the members' other projects were.

The Sword, I've found, is significantly more enjoyable live. So much more powerful than the recordings, which are basically standard stoner-metal fare (though it is done very well). The new one is supposed to be awesome. Should have that in my hands for a listen soon enough.

Opeth does what they do better than others who try to walk that path. Not really my thing, but they are amazing musicians.

Mastodon... I don't know. It's hit or miss with me. Some songs I think are mind-blowingly sick....others, I just skip over. I remember seeing them back in the "Remission" days in a tiny club in Albany, with very few people there. THAT was incredible. No one knew what to expect (they hadn't "hit it big" yet).

[palinilap]

I was really impressed by Ehnahre - The Man Closing Up when it came out a few years ago. They have a unique, experimental approach to death metal. Definitely worth checking out.

[Recycled_Brains]

I was really impressed by Ehnahre - The Man Closing Up when it came out a few years ago. They have a unique, experimental approach to death metal. Definitely worth checking out.

Wow. This is good stuff. Going to have to get this.

[Capt. Tripps Ballsington]

This just came out yesterday, Christian Mistress "Agony & Opium." It's not as brutal and heavy as other albums in this thread, more New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, maybe with a touch of Kill 'Em All. I'm probably biased, as I recorded it, but I think it's really killer.

[sonocide6]

If you haven't heard Anaal Nathrakh from the UK they will blow your mind. Atmospheric grindy black/death with great little bits of clean vocals from time to time.

If you're more in to the industrial death side, The Berzerker and The Amenta (both from Austraila) are some of my favorites.

Benighted - French deathgrind - excellent musicianship.

Origin - tech-death from Topeka, Kansas is another of my favorites.

Sigh - avant-garde black metal from Japan. The more recent the releases, the weirder they get.

DarkSpace - spacey atmospheric black metal from Switzerland (huge influence for my band Cygnus Loop (link below)).

1349 - raw brutal black metal from Norway.

Enslaved - prog black metal from Norway - another band whose more recent releases get weirder and weirder - love it.

[thethingwiththestuff]

oh man, Sigh!!! WTF is up with those guys?? 2 minutes of black metal intro, straight into a pedal steel country psych part, then slap bass funk a minute later. i also love the evolution of their image. corpse paint ---> indie rock dudes photoshopped in to space nebulas.

1349 is awesome.

Portal! Gorguts. KRALLICE.

Local to Philly - Cleric, Woe...

[Recycled_Brains]

oh man, Sigh!!! WTF is up with those guys?? 2 minutes of black metal intro, straight into a pedal steel country psych part, then slap bass funk a minute later. i also love the evolution of their image. corpse paint ---> indie rock dudes photoshopped in to space nebulas.

1349 is awesome.

Portal! Gorguts. KRALLICE.

Local to Philly - Cleric, Woe...

Oh man.... the dude that's drumming for Gorguts lives local to me (John Longstreth, formerly of Origin). One day my band was practicing in our shitty warehouse space, and I kept stopping to marvel at how intensely sick the sounds coming from the room across the hall were. I actually commented to our drummer that "that sounds just like Gorguts, it's crazy!". He mentioned there was a truck parked outside with a Quebec license plate.

Well I put 2 and 2 together. Actually was listening to Luc LeMay and John writing new Gorguts material. Took extra long breaks that day... opened the door to our space and listened for a while. So heavy and intense. Can't wait for that album to come out.

For those of you into really extreme stuff, you absolutely HAVE to drop everything you are doing, and check out Wormed, from Spain. There are MP3s of their new 2-song EP on the homepage. Just devastating music, with a fresh approach to the brutal deathmetal genre. They put out a fullength called "Planispherium" that is a must have.

Keep hearing about Portal. The MP3s I've checked out haven't blown me away, but they definitely seem like the type of band that takes some time to sync in.

On the new Black Metal tip, I highly recommend Liturgy from Brooklyn. Lo-fi, harsh, white noise sounds, but within all that is some of the coolest dualing guitars weaving in and out of each other. Almost classical in nature. Counterpoint, contrary motion, amazing harmonies. Intense hammering blast beats that rarely let up. Caught them opening for Shrinebuilder (also rad... members of Neurosis, Om, The Melvins, St. Vitus) and was blown the fuck away.

[Recycled_Brains]

Benighted - French deathgrind - excellent musicianship.

You may have already, but if you like stuff like this, you must check out Aborted's "Goremaggedon" album. All their other stuff is hit or miss, but that particular record is one of the best in that style.

[Brett Siler]

Man I listen to heavy stuff every day. I think it's a shame that metal doesn't get much respect because people just see/hear superficial parts of it and write it off. You go to a "cool" record store and their indie rock section is huge and their metal section is tiny. Frustrating...

Stuff I've been jamming lately

New and active bands:

Boris - "Rock Dream", "Absolutigo", "Smile"
All those albums are very different. Absolutigo is an hour long droney sludge piece, that has really long stetchs of just feedback (no drums), super thick heavy slow guitar riffs and minimal usage of drums or vocals.
"Smile" is mix of pop, shoegaze, and avant garde.
"Rock Dream" is a live album that also features Merzbow on all the songs. He really does a great job collaborating with Boris. You also get a feel for a lot of Boris's catalog. This is probably my favorite album of theirs.

Krallice - "S/T" and "Diminetional Bleedthrough"
Krallice is really amazing. It features crazy avant garde prog guitars Mick Barr and Colin Marston and they put a new smart spin on traditional Black Metal. The songs are long (average time is 10 minutes), all the musicianship is superbe, with dense fast picking guitars and bass, and driving yet complex drumming. The guitars and bass rarely are playing the same things yet it doesn't sound like a custerfuck. Mostly precise melodic playing with sparks of dissonace weaving in and out. It was recorded by Colin Marston and it sounds excellent. Very full and thick but not processed. It has a very natural and ambient feel. A nice mix a room sound and in your face close mic intensity. Highly recommended.

Wolves In The Throne Room - "Black Cascade"
Again another really great and smart newer Black Metal band! They pay homage to the greats but still do their own thing. Recording quality sounds really good and this too also has a great mixture of ambience and in your face closeness. Whats cool about this band is they are eco friendly, taking themes that earlier Black Metal bands sang about a step further (you know, forests, mountains, wolves, the moon, etc).

I could go on, but I gotta get to work on my own bands stuff. About to mix a song that is my tribute to Napalm Death.