Mental Metal Obsessions

[Anvil]

At the start of this year I was totally obsessed with doing Sudoku while listening through the Rotting Christ back catalog chronologically. No idea why, but helped get through the winter evenings.  Tried to do the same with Immortal but struggled with the Sudoku. 

[Don Gately]

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

I was going to weigh in with Radio head myself today. For me it was 97 when OK computer came out. I enjoyed the Bends but wasn't really in the bandwagon but OK came out and they played the RDS the same week IIRC. I was hooked, still a massive fan. Seen em 4 times and really love the more experimental direction they have gone. Their sound shimmers rather than rocks now.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

This is a related phenomenon which I'm much more "guilty" of: latching onto one or two albums by a band to a really obsessive extent, all while never bothering with any of the rest of their output. For years. Leviathan is a top 10 metal album for me, but it was years and years before I gave Remission any time at all. It wasn't that I didn't like it. Apart from March of the Fire Ants, I didn't even know it.

Every so often this turns into an obsessive dive though. Alan Parsons Project comes to mind. I listened to I, Robot for years before one day going on a binge of the whole discography that lasted for a couple of weeks. Iron Maiden too back in the day. I only listened to Seventh Son for ages, then went on a similar binge where I wanted to know all their stuff. That was related to seeing them live for the first time though.

[Don Gately]

This is a related phenomenon which I'm much more "guilty" of: latching onto one or two albums by a band to a really obsessive extent, all while never bothering with any of the rest of their output. For years. Leviathan is a top 10 metal album for me, but it was years and years before I gave Remission any time at all. It wasn't that I didn't like it. Apart from March of the Fire Ants, I didn't even know it.

Every so often this turns into an obsessive dive though. Alan Parsons Project comes to mind. I listened to I, Robot for years before one day going on a binge of the whole discography that lasted for a couple of weeks. Iron Maiden too back in the day. I only listened to Seventh Son for ages, then went on a similar binge where I wanted to know all their stuff. That was related to seeing them live for the first time though.

Recommend me some Leviathan please.

[Eoin McLove]

He's referring to the album Leviathan by Mastodon.

The only Leviathan album I ever heard was The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide back when I was beginning to take a real interest in BM. I haven't listened to it in a long time.

[Don Gately]

Ah feck you're right I didn't read it properly. Never listened to Remission.

[DaveG]

Deceased and Twisted Tower Dire.  I've paid money for some rough auld splits Deceased have put out.

[Ducky]

This is a related phenomenon which I'm much more "guilty" of: latching onto one or two albums by a band to a really obsessive extent, all while never bothering with any of the rest of their output. For years. Leviathan is a top 10 metal album for me, but it was years and years before I gave Remission any time at all. It wasn't that I didn't like it. Apart from March of the Fire Ants, I didn't even know it.

Every so often this turns into an obsessive dive though. Alan Parsons Project comes to mind. I listened to I, Robot for years before one day going on a binge of the whole discography that lasted for a couple of weeks. Iron Maiden too back in the day. I only listened to Seventh Son for ages, then went on a similar binge where I wanted to know all their stuff. That was related to seeing them live for the first time though.

I've definitely done this with PJ Harvey's "Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea". 

It's one of my all-time favourite albums, I've been listening to it almost religiously for around 20 years, yet outside of a handful of songs, I know nothing else about her output.

[Don Gately]

Is this desire is the only one apart from Stories from the city that I own. It's great too.

[Ducky]

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.

I never knew that about Blackfire's tuning, that's pretty cool. As you say, there's something so appealing about that album that they never replicated. It's trash, but their own unique spin on it. I do like most of their output, but that album is just one of THOSE records you never forget. Probably helped a little bit by the fact that the first Kreator song I ever heard was Winter Martyrium (on a magazine compilation CD with some other really cool stuff like Voivod and Coroner).

You've touched a much bigger nerve for me there with the other stuff - Human is my all-time favourite album recorded, Focus isn't far off it, Unquestionably Presence and Testimony are pretty close to the top as well.

I did similar in that I gobbled up anything those lads touched. I even ended up buying two Sean Malone books when I picked up the Gordian Knot albums. Aghora first came to my attention via Formless, and realising Reinhert played on (some) of it made me track it down as soon as I could.

Was gagging to hear the Portal stuff for years, so when it was reissued as The Portal Tapes, yeehaw. In my head it's as clean and smooth as Steely Dan's Aja.

Those were a few heady years for me; I was about a decade late to the party, but getting my hands on Atheist, Cynic, latter Death, Gorguts, Pestilence (and also discovering Rush, how are my favourite band that aren't Death) all within 24 months of each other made my head spin.

    

[Trev]

Black metal was something that never clicked with me for a long time,  but I was having cans in a mates house and he stuck on RIITIIR by Enslaved and next day I ordered a rake of their stuff and listened to nothing else for about six months.

I still prefer their later stuff, but working backwards through their discography gave me a much better appreciation for BM in general and I moved on to really exploring it from there

[blessed1]

The first time I heard Cradle Of filth when I was around 12 or 13 blew my mind. It was The Twisted Nails of Faith on some Metal Hammer cd. All I'd been listening up till then was Iron Maiden, Metallica and Helloween. I'd never heard anything like it before. It started an obsession with delving into darker sounds. Still to this day Cruelty is still in my top ten albums.

[Necro Red]

Yea, I'd be similar to most folks here. I get very obsessive when it comes to bands/albums, directors/movies and writers. I just latch on and have to know everything like a big nerd. I go on these kind of music binges from time to time. Anything from Depeche Mode to Death.

[ochoill]

I've had a few over the years, many are now my favourite bands, but it would happen in long bursts rather than a short "I need everything" thing.

[Eoin McLove]

Just fired in an order for a few Sabbat CDs and a tshirt. I nabbed Envenom, The Dwelling and Karisma... allow the obsession to formally begin 

Edit. I picked up the Evoke LS because the image is class but don't tell the Japanese that I haven't bought that album or they'll bar me from entry...

BAN FROM JAPAN