Recommend me some new music

I listened to Spoon - They Want My Soul and loved it. I didn't like Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga nearly as much.

I'm off to listen to Thirsty's suggestion of Give 'em Enough Rope.

Michael Barnes wrote: If you go Black Metal......The two biggies to pick up are Deafheaven's "Sunbather", which is one of the best albums of the past five years

Just wanted to say that I'd wholeheartedly agree with this recommendation, speaking as someone who had anti-interest in black metal before. Absolutely one of my top 5 of the past five years, and it flipped that switch that opened my mind to metal and has started me down a huge new fun discovery path (though I haven't found much else that sounds like Sunbather, I have found plenty of new cool stuff I otherwise wouldn't have). It's only too bad that the public libraries here don't have more black metal CDs, as that'd make it a lot easier (I mainly listen to music in the car, and so Spotify doesn't work too well).

You really won't find too much that sounds like Deafheaven...there aren't many BM bands that are doing something that is really so...oddly accessible. Or sophisticated.

Definitely take a listen to SunnO))) while you're exploring. "Black One" is the best.

The funny thing is that the bands that DO get closer to that are bands that tend to piss off the hardcore BM kvlt guys. They hate that Deafheaven are just some regular dudes, not all corpsepainted up with spiked belts and all that, singing about the Northern Forest and the woes of forgotten paganism or whatever. Their record is PINK, FFS.

Liturgy would be the other big one that has made some "indie" inroads, so to speak. I don't think they are as good as Deafheaven, but definitely check them out too. "Aesthetica" is the one to hear.

Velvet Cacoon is another from years ago that made all the BM guys upset. They put out all of these crazy rumours about themselves- that they had all killed themselves before the record came out, that they used some kind of guitar with a diesel engine on the record, etc.- it's a really good shoegazery BM record.

Xasthur has more or less written the same record over and over again but it's a decent one, and it has some of that same gauzy, blurry sound. Really, a lot of USBM does. Leviathan is a major name, and has some...colorful...song titles. Like "Fucking Your Ghost in Chains of Ice" and "Bouqet of Blood for Skull". Lovely.

You can't go wrong with Darkthrone's "Transilvanian Hunger", that really is the starting point for ambient, dissonant BM. It's a sharp break from the more Venom/Bathory influenced stuff and into something that is really quite a bit more avant garde. I would probably rate it as the best BM record ever made.

Negura Bunget from Transylvania (no, really) has some really interesting, very sophisticated material. Drudkh from the Ukraine does too but there may/may not be some questionable politics involved there.

You might like some of the French stuff- I tend to. Some of it is more melodic and melancholic and less abrasive. Mortifera and Celestiia are great. Amesouers (another band that pisses off BMers) has an almost new wave angle. Alcest is one you should definitely hear, VERY much in the vein of Deafheaven. Their more recent records aren't really BM at all though, closer to Slowdive. Deathspell Omega is usually considered the top of the Franco-BM pile, but I'd give the nod to Blut Aus Nord. Do yourself a favor and listen to their stuff. I think the best one is "Sects-777" or something like that.

And then there's Furze, which is kind of...I dunno, just listen to it. Maybe Zappa goes BM?

Wolves in the Throne Room is a MUST listen. "Diadem of Seven Stars". Mystical hippie BM.

Unbelievably, Spotify has a VERY nice selection of BM...I can't believe they have all the Paysage d'Hiver records. Extremely cold, remote BM that will lower the temperature in the room. They have Ruins of Beverast too, which you should definitely listen to. They don't have anything like the Les Legions Noire stuff (Brenoritvrezorkre, Vlad Tepes,etc.), no Peste Noire, no Moonblood...but you can definitely hear almost all of the classic Norwegian stuff and lots of the more recent stuff. I think most of the major BM labels today are on Spotify.

The thing about BM is that there is just a VAST amount of it, and so much of it is painfully obscure. But if you dig around, you find some absolutely incredible stuff that thwarts what you expect from anything tagged "metal". It isn't all just the chuch burning, viking stuff. Not all Cradle of Filth bullshit. There's some very beautiful and moving BM, some very raw and nasty BM. Some of it is epic and cinematic, some of it is just filthy and punkish.

And then there's total retrograde, barbaric BM like Maniac Butcher, Bestial Warlust, Carpathian Forest, and so on. All that is really fun if you're in the right mood, but at that point you're way far away from Deafheaven.

Barnes, you have a frighteningly deep knowledge of music.

I listen to a ton of metal, but fuckall BM, maybe the whole cartoonish appearance or cultish murder scene always turned me off. I should check out some of Barnes' list (not the first time he writes this post BTW).

Michael Barnes wrote: Drudkh from the Ukraine does too but there may/may not be some questionable politics involved there.

You don't say "the" France or "the" Hungary. Apparently saying "the" Ukraine rather than simply Ukraine pisses Ukranians off.

Man, The Clash...Give 'em Enough Rope is pretty damned awesome. I really need more Clash in my life.

I loved Velvet Cacoon when their debut came out. Totally fell for that diesel guitar creating vibrations in a tank of water thing.

I gave it a very positive review at the time:
www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=7685

Their earlier shit, Dextronaut and the demos that were released, is pretty weak though.

I'm a big fan of Horned Almighty which is a nice blend of Blackened Thrash with some catchy riffs. I typically prefer more up-tempo Black Metal as opposed to the droning/ambient stuff. "The Devil's Music", their album from 2006 hit me hard. Apparently I even interviewed them after that came out and don't remember that at all.
Review of "The Devil's Music" - www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=10154

Cult of Daath always tickled my fancy as well, although they mix a bit of Death Metal into the Black. "Slit Throats and Ritual Nights" impressed me mightily in 2005 - www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=8099

Mutiilation gets banded about a lot, and Meyhna’chs early work is pretty good, but Epheles took their style and kind of perfected it. "Souviens Toi" was a keeper - www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=10822

Another French Black Metal outfit that was tearing it up with quality was Merrimack. "Of Entropy and Life Denial" was an album I listened to over and over again - www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=10451


Thanks for giving me a reason to look at some of my old reviews. Forgot about a few of these.

Columbob wrote: I listen to a ton of metal, but fuckall BM, maybe the whole cartoonish appearance or cultish murder scene always turned me off. I should check out some of Barnes' list (not the first time he writes this post BTW).

Michael Barnes wrote: Drudkh from the Ukraine does too but there may/may not be some questionable politics involved there.

You don't say "the" France or "the" Hungary. Apparently saying "the" Ukraine rather than simply Ukraine pisses Ukranians off.

Ukraine means borderland, so quite some time ago, English speaking people called it The Borderland, figuring it makes more sense and this obviously shifted to The Ukraine. As they don't have a word for 'the' in Russian, they wouldn't have this issue crop up.

stormseeker75 wrote: Barnes, you have a frighteningly deep knowledge of music.

Just don't ask me to distinguish between Iggy Azaela and Ariana Grande.

I haven't heard Epheles, I'll have to check it out- LOVE Mutiiliation. "Black Millenium" is the best BM record cover ever, the one where he's all in BM corpsepaint and gear sitting in the wheelchair.

Columbob- all the church burning/murder stuff is now 20 years in the past...much of BM has moved WAY on from that. Well, most. Not Nargaroth (song titles- "Fuck Nowadays Black Metal", "The Day Burzum Killed Mayhem").

Michael Barnes wrote: I haven't heard Epheles, I'll have to check it out- LOVE Mutiiliation. "Black Millenium" is the best BM record cover ever, the one where he's all in BM corpsepaint and gear sitting in the wheelchair.

That is an excellent album, although the cover is like a Black Metal caricature. His shit after that album though was not too great.