2008: The Year in Music

[Gary Floyd 0]

Los Angeles by Flying Lotus is some damn fine ambient hip-hop.

Agreed. "Golden Diva" and "GNG BNG" are major highlights.

 

Is the new Tricky album any good?

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

Maybe its too soon to tell, but I just can't get into this new Metallica album. There's no big huge fuck off riffs that get my attention. Yes, there are riffs, but it just sounds so... boring.

[Slayer 0]

I'll wind up getting it in due time, but nothing of what I heard from the samples and leaked tracks just jumped out at me to make me want to buy it ASAP.

 

One big question mark for me is looking at the tracklist and seeing nearly all the songs on the album breaking the 7-8 minute mark. The only metal bands I can think of nowadays that can pull off a full album of such songs are Dream Theater and Opeth... otherwise you just wind up with long overbloated albums that would have been much better had they been scaled back some (see also: A Matter of Life and Death) and I can't say I have that much confidence in a revived Metallica.

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

The songs actually don't feel that long. Most have pretty long intro's, but that's about it, really. They're rather complete, outside of a couple, but considering what we've been handed for the last 13 years? It's pure gold. Not amazing, but it's a better return to form than Slayer's Christ Illusion or even Cannibal Corpse's Kill.

[Slayer 0]

At the very least, it does certainly sound better than most anything they've done in the short-hair era.

 

It's also good enough to avoid putting Metallica in the Disappointments of the Year column yet again, an honor which currently belongs to Judas Priest's Nostradamus (speaking of overbloated) and the complete and total WTF that was The Unspoken King

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Just how bad is that Cryptopsy? I haven't heard it yet. I'm expecting the worst, mind you.

[Slayer 0]

You can venture on down to their Myspace page and hear "Worship Your Demons" and "Anoint the Dead", as well as "It's Dinner Time", which is a (poorly done) middle finger bit they made in response to all the criticism for TUK.

 

Bad as the songs themselves are, that's nowhere near as bad as Flo Mounier's faux-hawk

[Mik 0]

Heyyyyy everybody... the new Killers CD, Day and Age has gotten a street date of November 26th.

 

First single, "Human" should be out within the next two weeks.

 

I know everyone here is as excited as I am.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I hope this one sounds as Springsteen-esque as the last one*

 

*I heard absolutely nothing out of the last album that made me think of Springsteen

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

You can venture on down to their Myspace page and hear "Worship Your Demons" and "Anoint the Dead", as well as "It's Dinner Time", which is a (poorly done) middle finger bit they made in response to all the criticism for TUK.

 

Bad as the songs themselves are, that's nowhere near as bad as Flo Mounier's faux-hawk

 

Oh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horribleOh my god that singer is fucking horrible

 

Now that I have that out of my system, that's not even heavy! Fuckin' puke.

[Slayer 0]

The name catching on internet metal circles is "Job for a Cryptopsy"

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Oh my.

 

I can't even figure out what they're going for there. That's just..

 

That is this generation's Cold Lake

 

I mean, say what you will about their last release; it certainly wasn't good, but at least it was heavy. The uninitiated would get their teeth kicked in.

 

Makes me sad, because I love those fuckers when they're really on.

 

Fauxhawks are gay and all, but it's hard for me to bitch about a dude's hairstyle, especially with chops like that on the damn drums.

[At Home 0]

That song "Anoint The Dead" is quite possibly the worst metal song I have ever heard.

[Slayer 0]

That is this generation's Cold Lake

There's one for the record books. I'll have to remember to resurrect that quote whenever we do the Best/Worst of 08 thread

 

Here's an even worse thought: Imagining this new superhardcore singer trying to do concert performances of songs like "Slit Your Guts" and "Cold Hate, Warm Blood"

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Here's an even worse thought: Imagining this new superhardcore singer trying to do concert performances of songs like "Slit Your Guts" and "Cold Hate, Warm Blood"

 

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Why not just call them iwrestledaCRYPTOPSYonce. Only, you know, without the odd curiosity attached to hearing this little petite cute scenester chick out-growl most male contemporaries.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

That song "Anoint The Dead" is quite possibly the worst metal song I have ever heard.

 

I really hope you're familiar with some other Cryptopsy. That would put it in perspective just how bad that really is.

[Slayer 0]

That song "Anoint The Dead" is quite possibly the worst metal song I have ever heard.

I really hope you're familiar with some other Cryptopsy.

bwahaha

 

I'd love to subject Pbone to real Cryptopsy

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

I just tried to listen to those new tracks again, and no Just no. Wrong. Never before have I had to play the Cold Lake card, but this deserves it.

 

Look at the similarities! A revered influential as all hell badass metal band puts out a career worth of great shit, starts to slip a little bit, changes their lineup around, and then puts out a complete laughable disaster that sounds just like all the other bullshit that's popular at the moment. Sad.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Yeah, I'll be avoiding the new Cryptopsy.

 

The new Tricky album is really hit and miss. It's the best thing he's done since Pre Millenium Tension, though that's not saying much.

 

The new Leviathan is actually the first album of his that I like. The improved production is actually quite fitting, and makes the project sound more convincing and interesting. Also, good to see he's dropped the horrible song titles.

[Adam 0]

I absolutely love Death Magnetic. Haven't stopped listening to it, and playing it on Guitar Hero. Also excited for Black Ice, the new AC/DC album that's out next month. Should be a good last quarter.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

That song "Anoint The Dead" is quite possibly the worst metal song I have ever heard.

 

I really hope you're familiar with some other Cryptopsy. That would put it in perspective just how bad that really is.

 

Man, I listened to the songs on their MySpace and then looked up some of their older stuff on YouTube and I really couldn't discern much of an obv. difference in quality. I guess I just don't have an ear for this stuff.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Don't take it as a diss, but yeah, basically. It's night and day, dude.

 

Sure, it's all death metal, but Lord Worm (don't think I'm not grinning when I say that name) has a totally different approach in the vocals. Essentially, he roars guttural insanity. This new guy is a fucking girl.

 

...You really don't hear a difference between "Slit your Guts" and "Anoint the Dead"?

 

I'm interested in what death metal sounds like to open minded listeners with no real frame of reference.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

...You really don't hear a difference between "Slit your Guts" and "Anoint the Dead"?

 

I mean, they obviously sound different, but I find myself incapable of judging the quality of one in relation to the other. But then the only metal I've ever been able to really get into is old Black Sabbath and stoner/doom stuff, so I'm pretty out of my depth here.

[Smartly Pretty 0]

I hope this one sounds as Springsteen-esque as the last one*

 

*I heard absolutely nothing out of the last album that made me think of Springsteen

 

No one was comparing Sam's Town to Bruce Springsteen. The Killer frontman (what's his name again? Something Flowers) just said in an interview that he was listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen while they recorded it. You shouldn't have been reminded of Springsteen while you listened to it.

[Copper Feel 0]

No. That's absolutely wrong. What is 'When You Were Young' if not a subpar rewrite of 'Born to Run'?

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

I'm interested in what death metal sounds like to open minded listeners with no real frame of reference.

Before I really got into it, back when all I listened to was power metal and the Bay Area bands (so replace "power metal" with "death metal" and you pretty much have most of my music right there, but there was a time when I was big into Helloween and Rhapsody), I thought all death metal sounded like that awful "LEMME CALL YOU SWEETHEART, I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU" horseshit from this mix-CD commercial back in the late 90's. I blame Six Feet Under, primarily. Now? It seems like people are hearing shit like Job For A Cowboy (again, AKA Skinless Lite), Devil Driver, and Otep, and suddenly they're into "death" metal.

[Nighthawk 0]

I believe my introduction was likely Cannibal Corpse, who I still like... speaking of, I'm meaning to pick up their new Centuries of Torment dvd. I dunno if I can sit through a three hour documentary about them, but I'll give it a shot.

 

I loved it instantly. I still have a fondness for Z-grade death metal. The Corpse, I believe I first heard them in Ace Ventura, and I was like "What is that? I want to listen to that!"

 

After that, I started listening to Nile and Dying Fetus, because I heard Jerry Lynn talking about them in some wrestling magazine. So that's good. This was still in the Purification Through Violence era, so it was more violent than what they're doing now. And I started going to a lot of shows, Tampa still had a decent metal scene back then. From there, I got into black metal, and then punk, which provided the rebellion and chaos I sought, but in a more authentic way, I thought.

 

And that's my history with metal.

[Slayer 0]

Slayer's abridged history of metal:

 

Prior to 1997 the only metal I listened to was hair, grunge and the "Big Four" thrash bands. From 97 to 00 I opened up to classic bands (Maiden, Priest, Motorhead, anything with RJ Dio), other thrash bands, power and prog metal. In 00, after a relationship fallout, I opened up to doom, black and death metal. As far as death metal went I started off with the Florida bands (Death, which still my favorite, plus Morbid Angel and Obituary), and then picked up the Swedish bands shortly afterwards. It wasn't until a couple years ago I actually started to embrace the brutal DM bands such as Cryptopsy, Suffocation, Nile, CC, DF and the like.

 

Ironically as I picked up the brutal DM bands, I've found myself largely shying away from black metal, only listening to maybe five bands at this point (Bathory, Mayhem, Emperor, Immortal and... some other one, I'm sure). Also, I refuse to admit to myself that there was ever a time when I liked Dimmu Borgir.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I just tried to listen to those new tracks again, and no Just no. Wrong. Never before have I had to play the Cold Lake card, but this deserves it.

 

Look at the similarities! A revered influential as all hell badass metal band puts out a career worth of great shit, starts to slip a little bit, changes their lineup around, and then puts out a complete laughable disaster that sounds just like all the other bullshit that's popular at the moment. Sad.

Speaking of Celtic Frost, I still haven't checked out anything beyond To Mega Therion. Based on that one album, I prefer their punchier, shorter songs to the longer ones. "The Usurper" is totally perfect; the 5 to 6 minute cuts overstay their welcome by a minute or two.