Mental Metal Obsessions

[son of the Morrigan]

Bejaysus by the sound of It I'll have to have a delve into Sodom myself, never heard a note of their music but whenever I saw band pics on mags or the like I thought the looked like a pack of tits and wrote them off.

Re. obsessions - not metal, but when I was a young lad I did a year or more listening to nothing, and I mean nothing, but The Doors.

[Carnage]

Pleasure To Kill is seen as THE German thrash album but for me it's Persecution Mania. That and In The Sign Of Evil are untouchable. Never liked Obsessed By Cruelty for some reason.

[Don Gately]

For me last year it was Primordial. A band that never clicked with me years back and I kind of ignored, saw they were playing in Dublin and I delved into them big time. Have most of their albums and would rank them up there with my favourite bands ever.

[Eoin McLove]

A few years ago when Malthusian were preparing to record Across Deaths I got it into my head that I NEEDED a Gibson V... The first one I tried was a white beauty and I loved it but felt maybe it's a bit rock n roll for me. The following week I tried out a black and white one, which was also beautiful, but as I was playing it I couldn't help thinking the white one was so damn sexy. It was on my mind the whole time, haha. I couldn't deny my true love and bought that white beauty. It still gives me a little buzz when I take it out of its case.

[Giggles]

Holy shitballs. Those first 3 or 4 releases are brilliant. Blew me away. Some of the newer stuff is only fair but the 2 eps, Persecution Mania, Agent Orange.. all killer. I'm constantly searching for on original shirt from those albums but the prices..

M-16 is also very good 

[Eoin McLove]

Oh, and then there was the time I stalked and killed Bono. Or was in Enya. Anyway, it was one of The Beatles.

[Circlepit]

Pleasure To Kill is seen as THE German thrash album but for me it's Persecution Mania. That and In The Sign Of Evil are untouchable. Never liked Obsessed By Cruelty for some reason.

Kreator fall into the same category for me. Know the name, know they are well respected and Pleasure To Kill is seen as a stone cold classic.
After hearing it in the Netflix show Dark I looked into them.
I didn't and still don't get anything from them. Same with Destruction.
Sodom are just head and shoulders above them. The sound alone is absolutely razor sharp.
The riffs and vocal delivery are excellent as well.

[Don Gately]

As a young buck I loved Kreator. I think they had 3 really good albums in a row there in the 80s. Yere being harsh

[Trev]

I remember going to see Sodom when they played the Music Centre about 10 years ago. Never listened to them before but thought they were brilliant and meant to check out their stuff, but still haven't got around to it

[Eoin McLove]

I remember going to see Sodom when they played the Music Centre about 10 years ago. Never listened to them before but thought they were brilliant and meant to check out their stuff, but still haven't got around to it

Unobsessed by Cruelty!

Back to my Sabbat education. I've got Sabbatrinity from 2011 on now and, fuck me, it sounds like Brocas Helm gone black thrash. What a ripper.

[Ducky]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think Renewal is Kreator's best album. Less unpopular would be Agent Orange being Sodom's best.

Wonder how much of that is Frank Blackfire playing on both (although both bands were still great at various points without him).

[Circlepit]

As a young buck I loved Kreator. I think they had 3 really good albums in a row there in the 80s. Yere being harsh

It's not that I think Kreator are poor.
When I put them beside Sodom they kind of fade.
Keeping with the thread theme Sodom are the ones who made me really want to get as much of their back catalogue as I can.
Normally seeing such an extensive back catalogue I don't bother going through it.

[astfgyl]

Ok so mine so far haven't been terribly metal and this one is no exception:

Lol anyway it's Radiohead. Picked up Hail to the Thief a few years ago in Dealz for 1.50 and was so impressed that I suddenly couldn't get enough of this band that I'd actively despised for over two decades. Have all the stuff now except for Pablo Honey because it's shit but I fucking love all the rest of it, in spite of its Tom-Dunne-Ness. I even have the Thom Yorke solo stuff on CD here and that's also very very good stuff.

I definitely never saw that coming

[Mithrandir]

Last year I went through this weird period where I must have listened to The Last Day by Messiah Force at least once a day for about 6 months. Don't know what I was going through but I've never done that with an album I don't think.

Also not sure if it's an obsession but it's gotten to the point where the only thing I can listen to in the gym is War Cul Supremacy by conqueror, I've tried so many other things but I always come back to it like some sort of weird soothing frantic white noise.

[Bürggermeister]

Probably an unpopular opinion, but I think Renewal is Kreator's best album. Less unpopular would be Agent Orange being Sodom's best.

I agree with you, Renewal is the best thing they ever did. There's nothing quite like it, either by them or anyone else. It was amazing to read, in the liner notes of the recent reissue, that part of the reason was that Frank refused to tune down. He plays in standard tuning throughout so was forced to play something different to Mille almost all the time which, now that I know about it, makes so much sense why that album sounds the way it does. I love their earlier stuff but Renewal just has a unique vibe to it which they have never bettered. SodomI can take or leave. Agent Orange was ok but they're nothing special to me.

Another obsession of mine... Cynic. I first read about them in a Metal Forces pre-Human interview with Chuck, where he discussed the Spiritual Healing lineup falling apart and how he had gotten the best musicians in Florida to record this new, aggressive music. I was intrigued. As a result, I picked up Testimony of the Ancients and Unquestionable Presence, too, on the strength of them featuring one of the Cynic lads, based on the logic that "if they're good enough for Chuck..." These were the pre-internet days where you couldn't just listen to anything, anytime. Many purchases were made based on something I read, word of mouth, thanks lists or even someone, in a band I liked, wearing a band t-shirt in a picture. Human, UP and TOTA are still among my favourite albums to this day. I still remember the bitterness of opening the inlay to Individual Thought Patterns and finding out Reinert and Masvidal weren't on it. In fact, I'm not sure I ever got over that 😂

When Focus eventually came out, it was like nothing I had ever heard and the Cynic associated albums were among my main listening material through the dark musical wastelands of the mid-to-late 90's. Since then, I have continued to pick up anything featuring any of them. As the internet became a thing, finding out about Imperial Doom and On The Seventh Day... and being able to get those CDs on e-bay, learning about Portal and Gordian Knot, then Aeon Spoke, the joy of it all. That fucking Aghora album, when I found out about it, was like a light in the dark. The Cynical Sphere became invaluable and great to see there were other people out there who shared the obsession.

The reunion has delivered in spades and I'll pick up whatever comes out, be it new stuff or remixes, even though the post-Reinert and Malone years just won't be the same. Cynic is essential.