Now Playing

[OpenSores]

Judas Priest - Painkiller
Celtic Frost - Morbid Talesa
Night Cobra - Dawn of the Serpent
Coroner - Grin (first time listen)

Is that the one James Hetfield did guest vocals on?

 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

  

[Carnage]

Hey-hey-heeeyeah!

[Pentagrimes]

Yeah, gonna have to admit this Cryptic Shift is pretty great and not the Blood Inc wannabe I'd pegged them as. Definitely more like 80s tech thrash gone warp speed - I can hear Voivod, Obliveon, the first Sieges Even, Coroner, Cynic..really good.

Also the solos are outrageous.

[Carnage]

I gave it a couple of minutes but the jazziness put me off, is that a regular feature? It's why I can't listen to Atheist, Cynic or even Individual Thought Patterns.

[open face surgery]

Dunno if I already posted this but really liked the first tune they released off it and then saw an instrumental track the other week that completely killed it for me. Obviously worth giving it a proper listen.

[Anvil]

Enforced - Kill Grid
Blaze - Silicon Messiah
Gojira - L'Enfant Sauvage
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

[Maggot Colony]

I see the debut is a more manageable 46 minutes. I must give that a listen.

It's hard to get the time for 60+ minute albums these days. Getting the wife to mind our 5 month old and toddler while I chill with an 80 minute tech thrash album just doesn't happen unfortunately.

I made it to 61 minutes

Yeah, this new Cryptic Shift is quality. Has put me in the mood to plan a full day of sci-fi metal albums next time I find meself home alone 

On my second listen. It's fucking brilliant, like Atheist on crack. Still haven't listened to the debut. It will be interesting to hear how they compare.

3 of the lads from Cryptic Shift are in a death metal band called Slimelord. Shite name, but they released a great album a few years ago that I can't pronounce. I was bleating about it on this forum but people ignored me because they're fools.

[Bürggermeister]

Gave that Cryptic Shift a spin based on the comments here. It sounds like a load of riffs searching outer space for a song, to be honest. Writing loads of riffs is easy, crafting good songs out of them is the tricky bit, which only a select few have accomplished. Noble effort but it did nothing for me.

Now listening:
Juggernaut - Trouble Within
King Diamond - Them

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Personally I dig the riffs-strewn-into-space vibe, more than the other extreme, which would be 50 riffs crammed into a few minutes. No beating the peak happy medium of the masters though, natch

[Cailleach]

Rotting Christ - The Heretics

[Trev]

Xoth - Interdimensional Invocations

[Anvil]

Sleep - The Sciences
Summoning - With Doom We Come
Pain of Salvation - Entropia
Devil - To the Gallows
Temptress - Catch the Endless Dawn
Leatherhead - Violent Horror Stories
Sanhedrin - Lights On. 

[Thorn]

Big six from Bathory dusted down these last few days. Not that there was a whole pile of dust on them..

Bathory - 8.5/10  (1984)
I'll take the 'fuck you' from AA (ZT#91) for not awarding this full marks but Quorthon bested this again and again, the songs were there, savage songs, but the lo-fi, washed out sound isn't for me. I actually prefer to hear the multitude of cover versions of these songs. Hanging offence?

The Return - 9/10 (1985)
This has the songs AND the sound, impenetrable darkness had descended and Black Metal had truly arrived.

Under The Sign Of The Black Mark 9.5/10 (1987)
What Quorthon had unearthed previously he basically perfected here, this was the blueprint for Norwegian Black Metal and even a cursory glance at the song titles should send shivers down the spine of any acolyte of the dark arts.

Blood Fire Death - 10/10 (1988)
Quorthon's finest moment, no arguments brooked, here was the supreme clash of fire and ice,  a perfect blend of the crude Satanic Black Metal and the visionary voyage to Valhalla he was soon to embark upon. Masterpiece.

Hammerheart - 9/10 (1990)
Now fully fledged Viking Metal, long ,languid song structures,sweeping melodies and epic tales prevail at the expense of the visceral savagery of yore.

Twilight of The Gods - 9/10 (1991)
The final jewel in the crown, a sombre mid paced affair utilising acoustics and narration to maximum atmospheric effect. This was the best sounding album of the lot too and probably Quorthon's peak vocal performance if we gloss over the verses of To Enter Your Mountain.

[91/30]

Fair bit of driving the last few days and luckily the work vehicle still has a CD player

Darkthrone- Astral Fortress. Love the current DT albums.
Dokken - Tooth & Nail. Bouffant hair aside this is some manly heavy Metal from 1984, great stuff
Rage - The Missing Link.
Valutir - Exobnos
Valuation- I.  French folk BM
Reverend Bizarre - In rectory of Bizarre Reverend. Quare stuff to be listening to driving 110klm
Skyclad - In the All Together. 2009 album, I'd sort of given up with Skyclad but this CD is I think a great effort, very enjoyable