Bands worth hearing thread

[Flesh And Blood]

Thougts on:

Arghoslent - Hornets Of the Pogrom

Best album of last year. They did it again. The production is a bit messy, but after awhile you couldn't imagine it sound any other way. Just as epic as previous releases, but perhaps a bit more harsh.

[Devamitra]

Goatmoon's "Death Before Dishonour" belongs to the better class of Finnish releases from this decade, RAC-influenced "mood" black metal in the vein of Satanic Warmaster's "Strength and Honour" which is the album that basically started the current era of Finnish BM. So if you hate SW, maybe also skip Goatmoon but the first album is of the same quality. "Finnish Steel Storm" was more emotional, and worse (with lots of cheesy melodies repeated).

Grom had a good beginning, songs basically combinations of various riff influences from Bathory to tremolo BM, shifting with every song, NS/traditionalist lyrics, with some solid tracks on the demos and splits but never got quite there. Njiqahdda is "weird black metal" (drone music combined with emo-regressive BM tendencies, imagine the worst of Xasthur, stuff he would throw out of the window) for hipster purposes, avoid!

[ASBO]

Gentlemen:

We're fighting over scraps fallen from the table of greater people.

The bands mentioned in this thread are uniformly a distant B -- at fucking best! -- to the original black metal.

Let's not dignify them with sitting around, pompously forcing ourselves to intellectualize trivial differences between which chords the drunken monkeys accidentally hit on their way through jail, drug abuse, life failure, hate crimes and accidental poopypants. These people are retards and their music is a pale imitation of the past.

Find the motherfucking CLASSIC bands that are new since 1995 and promote the living shit out of those. Ignore the rest, because when you start taking it seriously, you suddenly invite every stupid monkey in the universe to play in your Metal Happy Fun Room, and sure enough, they bring shitty indie/emo/punk bands with them and dress 'em up as metal.

Do not sit around comparing the trivial differences between drunken monkey rock bands that pretend to be metal. You are like people at a wine-tasting party trying to find academic reasons to praise the grape juice.

[wood]

This experiment boiled over into me gushing about sup-par bands after a few listens, I apologize.  Back on track!

Arghoslent - Hornets of the Pogrom
Blacksabbath type blues riffs by disorted guitars aren't new, some interesting angles, but ultimately incorporates to many familiar parts to be considered worthy of repeated listens.

Hooded Menace - Fulfill the Curse
Doomy trudging riffs that trudge along well beaten paths.  Sometimes you're surprised by a bouncy chunk riff, but is bouncing along a beaten path any better?

Dead Congregation - Graves Of the Archangels
Nothing new in concept here, see Incantation or in a lesser extent Drawn and Quartered.  There are some passages where feedback is used to create a 'filler' ambiance which works well, but I'm not sure if it's something that's been explored.  There are multiple layers of guitars at most given points, this is worth listening too.

[Humanicide]

Gentlemen:

The bands mentioned in this thread are uniformly a distant B -- at fucking best! -- to the original black metal.

Let's not dignify them with sitting around, pompously forcing ourselves to intellectualize trivial differences between which chords the drunken monkeys accidentally hit on their way through jail, drug abuse, life failure, hate crimes and accidental poopypants. These people are retards and their music is a pale imitation of the past.

Find the motherfucking CLASSIC bands that are new since 1995 and promote the living shit out of those. Ignore the rest, because when you start taking it seriously, you suddenly invite every stupid monkey in the universe to play in your Metal Happy Fun Room, and sure enough, they bring shitty indie/emo/punk bands with them and dress 'em up as metal.

Do not sit around comparing the trivial differences between drunken monkey rock bands that pretend to be metal. You are like people at a wine-tasting party trying to find academic reasons to praise the grape juice.

There is no uniform taste. Despite what many on here may say, I believe that taste IS subjective. Why else would I find Ildjarn to be awful, when most everyone here praises them so highly? Same goes with Gorguts, Testament, Candlemass, and other bands here.

back on topic. I mentioned S.O.B. earlier in this thread, and I am kind of shocked that no one else mentioned them. Surely as important to grindcore's development as Napalm Death/Siege/Repulsion, etc. the "Leave me Alone" EP is around 8 minutes of Cryptic Slaughter - like hardcore punk, but predates that band by over a year. "Don't Be Swindle" and "What's The Truth?" are two of grindcore's most under-appreciated albums.

[JewishPhysics]

I believe that taste IS subjective

Taste is subjective, but quality is not.  People like the taste of deep fried oreos, but that is completely irrelevant as to whether they are good for you or not.  The same is true with music.  Some bands may sound pleasant, but that doesn't mean they have any artistic merit.  Conversely, (or would it be inversely?) you may not like Ildjarn or Gorguts personally, but that doesn't change the fact that these bands have produced works of art worthy of praise.

[Humanicide]

I believe that taste IS subjective

Taste is subjective, but quality is not.  People like the taste of deep fried oreos, but that is completely irrelevant as to whether they are good for you or not.  The same is true with music.  Some bands may sound pleasant, but that doesn't mean they have any artistic merit.  Conversely, (or would it be inversely?) you may not like Ildjarn or Gorguts personally, but that doesn't change the fact that these bands have produced works of art worthy of praise.

i absolutely agree with you. quality is not subjective.

the thing is, a lot of people here equate quality with taste. just because a band has produced worthwhile music does not mean that everyone needs to like it. that is the attitude i get from a lot of posters, particularly throughout this thread.

[Devamitra]

There is no uniform taste. Despite what many on here may say, I believe that taste IS subjective. Why else would I find Ildjarn to be awful, when most everyone here praises them so highly? Same goes with Gorguts, Testament, Candlemass, and other bands here.

Thinking of it literally, taste is a sense. Your senses, combined with your intellect, give you basically the same information about the albums as to the rest of us; the only variation can be provided by the quality of our ears and the workings of our brains (IQ, background in musical/philosophical studies etc.).

So it should be easy to reach the same conclusion when being rational which has nothing to do with whether you or I want to listen to the album, what moods/experiences it gives and so on. It should be acceptable to you that if one wants to study minimalist abstract black metal of an "organic" nature, Ildjarn is the way to go - Candlemass for establishing the gothic "doom" aesthetic of heavy metal in building epic, plodding journeys of Black Sabbathian material, and so on...

A kind of "I had fun/entertainment listening to this" description or evaluation does not help anyone because it's a description of an experience with too much variables to be useful to anyone else but we can establish scientifically what is the form and content of each piece and is it just a crappy variation on a classic (even if enjoyable when you are in the mood but then why not go back to the classic?) or a new approach / work of art that deserves to be studied and enjoyed.

[JewishPhysics]

I believe that taste IS subjective

Taste is subjective, but quality is not.  People like the taste of deep fried oreos, but that is completely irrelevant as to whether they are good for you or not.  The same is true with music.  Some bands may sound pleasant, but that doesn't mean they have any artistic merit.  Conversely, (or would it be inversely?) you may not like Ildjarn or Gorguts personally, but that doesn't change the fact that these bands have produced works of art worthy of praise.

i absolutely agree with you. quality is not subjective.

the thing is, a lot of people here equate quality with taste. just because a band has produced worthwhile music does not mean that everyone needs to like it. that is the attitude i get from a lot of posters, particularly throughout this thread.

I see.  While I understand why/how someone would equate taste and quality, and how that would lead them to believe taste is objective, I don't agree.  So you and I are on the same page here.

[My AIDS, Your Arse]

the thing is, a lot of people here equate quality with taste. just because a band has produced worthwhile music does not mean that everyone needs to like it. that is the attitude i get from a lot of posters, particularly throughout this thread.

It's similar to parents feeding vegetables to their children, and the children reject them:
They won't learn to enjoy it until they discover the potential benefits they get out of it.

There's plenty of vegetables to choose from though, and plenty of these overlap in the nutrients and flavors they have to offer.

[Humanicide]

There's plenty of vegetables to choose from though, and plenty of these overlap in the nutrients and flavors they have to offer.

so i will think of Ildjarn as broccoli (which i dont like), and Pestilence as cucumbers (which i really enjoy).

[Flesh And Blood]

What is meant by "quality" then? Well played? The idea of quality is just as subjective as the idea of taste. A shitty sounding demo may have the perfect sound to suit a particular band, but would that go with the "objectively correct" idea of quality? No way. But to me it would be a good quality piece of music. 

I don't understand the typical whining comparing the old with the now found it's way into this thread, I believe the purpose of it was to get to the cream metal? If so, then a lot of shitty bands have to mentioned as well in order to know what to avoid if you agree with the taste of the person who says so.

Objective quality...... come on people, stop this nonsense..... It is all relative. The only thing close to objective quality would be a 10 years after agreement based on historical importance in music of the discussed bands. A LOT of bands initially marked as shit crap bullshit by the metal elite with the same ideas as the pompous people in here bragging over this thread, have now become accepted music; perhaps not by the old school elite, but by a new one, who later will change the perspective on what's good and not, but still accept the old dogmas of the previous "elite" as truth to build upon. This dogmatic thinking is so typical for musical "experts" but it's pure bullshit from people with conservative nostalgic longing. Claiming that anything you say is objectively correct is a philosophical problem that you can never get around, so just drop it already.

[Baard Staartjes]

There's plenty of vegetables to choose from though, and plenty of these overlap in the nutrients and flavors they have to offer.

so i will think of Ildjarn as broccoli (which i dont like), and Pestilence as cucumbers (which i really enjoy).

you know that broccoli is really healthy and that cucumber is enjoyable yet lacking nutrients ...

[JewishPhysics]

It is all relative

Claiming that anything you say is objectively correct is a philosophical problem that you can never get around, so just drop it already.

So what you're saying is that everybody's perception of reality is equally valid.  This concept of universal relativism is solipsistic and politically correct.  No, thank you.

This dogmatic thinking is so typical for musical "experts" but it's pure bullshit from people with conservative nostalgic longing.

What exactly does nostalgia have to do with whether something is of importance or quality?  People (including me) are nostalgic about all sorts of stupid shit.  The quality of metal music is judged by the same standards used for any other art form.  Can this thread please get back on topic?

[Pro Abortion]

There's plenty of vegetables to choose from though, and plenty of these overlap in the nutrients and flavors they have to offer.

so i will think of Ildjarn as broccoli (which i dont like), and Pestilence as cucumbers (which i really enjoy).

you know that broccoli is really healthy and that cucumber is enjoyable yet lacking nutrients ...

heh, I was going to make the same point.  cucumber is mainly water, and it's white in color, broccoli is all green (more nutrients).