Blows me away every time.



2014 will have new albums from:
Allegaeon
Beyond Creation
Ne Obliviscaris

It will be a good year.

And I forgot that Archspire has an album coming out in April, too.

New Cynic was dreadful, as expected. Fukpig re-recording was decent but not an improvement on the original. Highlights of the year so far have been the new (and last ) Gripe, Doom and Nechbeyth. So yeah, pretty good year for punk so far, mediocre for metal.

I don't mind the new Cynic having had a few listens, it certainly can't stand up to Traced In Air but If I put that out of my mind I can enjoy it.

My buddy and I have a metal show on a new station here in Portland. Just getting started. Web site is Xray.fm and our show is Strike of Death. 3AM to 5AM on Sunday (Saturday late night). Only one episode so far and no archives yet. I may put it on Soundcloud. Plenty of death metal , grindcore, doom, sludge and the like. Small terrestrial signal locally soon as well as full web site and mobile apps. Will post again when you can listen.

Track is here

Actually that link is broken. Use this one https://soundcloud.com/xrayfm_djs_sk...f-death-show-1

Good stuff man, having a listen on my grind. Prob a bit too brutal for me to listen too while I play as I try to keep it a bit more mellow but good selection/variety. Could add a bit more banter beween you guys - more info on tracks e.t.c but I guess in the AM when you guys are most people just want tunes.

Thanks for the listen. In terms of more info on the tracks what kind of stuff are you thinking of? Just curious.

Nice to start with Brutality, great, underrated band.

I think this next band is post-Legion Deicide? Not really a fan.

Don't recognise the third track (maybe Gigan?), it's kinda dull.

Track four (I think, lost track after being bored ****less by the last couple, hardcore-ish stuff), eh.

Next one. Boooooo tech-death. At least it's not Necrophagist (I think).


Oh. So Severed Saviour, Despised Icon, Cephalic Carnage and I was right about Deicide. Don't like any of that stuff really. Not a fan of modern USDM (mostly except the Incantation worship stuff, or other super-old-school stuff).


Sepultura. Nice. Ew. Kairos. Everything since Chaos AD (including that album) has been **** IMO. Roots is the single worst album ever made.

I know this one... it's great, just my sort of metal, but for some reason I can't place my finger on it. Pretty confident I've listened to this precise song several times and the vocalist is pretty distinctive...

Next one's a cover of Fight Fire With Fire. No idea who by. The chorus is butchered in terms of instrumentation, in the same way that Vader butchered Freezing Moon.

This next one I don't know but it's pretty decent. Would still like more of a filthy production, but the snare sound is awesome.

Next one sounds like early Cannibal Corpse. It's not though, that yelping isn't any CC vocalist. It's one I think I've heard a few times but never really paid attention to. It's okay.


Oooooh, Aborted. Huh. I don't really like them. Brutal Truth, I'm really hoping that wasn't off Extreme Conditions because I love that album to bits and if I've just been sleeping through a track each time... not really a fan of their later stuff though. And haha, yeah, it was Vader. And ****, I should know Massacre.


Six Feet Under, no, please god, no. Yeah, this is ****ing dreadful, I really wish there was a skip button.

IMMOLATION. IMMOLATION.

****, this is TERRORIZER. ****ING LOVE TERRORIZER. Thank **** you didn't use the ****ty re-recording of this song.

That was quick, and very good. Another '****, I know this' one.

Yeah, I don't know this, but I like it. Sounds kinda sludgy. Soilent Green?

Don't know this, don't like it.


Blacklisted huh, not going to check them out. Skitsystem? Should've known that. And I should definitely know Assuck.


Black metal. Cobalt are okay, not the best prog BM IMO.

This next track I don't think I'd really call it BM. Sounds a bit like early SepticFlesh? Maybe one of the less BM-y early Greek 'BM' bands?

Don't like the keys in the next one and the melody is a little bit too upbeat. I think it's pretty clear we wouldn't see eye to eye on black metal.

Is this Nachtmystium? I'm not really a big fan (Instinct: Decay and Assassins are pretty decent) and obviously Blake Judd is a MASSIVE ****. (3 minutes later) **** this is too long for the number of good ideas.


Oh, okay, Samael. Their first couple are fantastic, most of the stuff since then has been poor, though I was surprised that I didn't dislike that more. Helheim, eh. USBM is okay. Weakling and Von are great. And NO, PLEASE GOD NO RE-RECORDINGS. 'Crisp' production is just 'overproduced' in my eyes, and most modern thrash vocal performances are awful (please kill that **** in Exodus nowadays).


Yeah, this Destruction re-recording is complete blasphemy. I'd only heard the (second) re-recording of Mad Butcher and that convinced me never to listen to the album.

Modern Kreator, eh. Pleasure to Kill is one of the best thrash albums ever, and although Hordes of Chaos was surprisingly acceptable, not much else of the post-2000 stuff is good.

Vocals are awful on this one, too tough-guy-ish. Pity because the songwriting's okay (or at least it was until that ****ing chuggachugga breakdown).

Yeah, this one is way too modern for me.

More meh. Sounds like one of the try-hard new bands.


Yeah, I always thought both Warbringer and Lazarus AD were very dull.


Never heard of Disembodied. Holy **** that intro is awful. Oh **** it continues. I have to turn this down. Sooooooo bad. Yeah, this is bad enough to ruin my day.

Nope, still not for me, the fast bits are okay. I get the feeling this is the 'hardcore' section but none of it's good hardcore IMHO.

This is much better. Melodic, crusty stuff. Still don't recognise it though.

Something super-chuggy. Not for me.

Next one's okay. Sounds like semi-AG screamo. Would give the album a listen out of curiosity.

MORE CHUGGA CHUGGA. Not for me, again.


Blessing the Hogs... heard of them, knew from descriptions I wouldn't like them. Surprised that was Kylesa, though I've only heard Static Tensions. Yeaaaaaah, this section, not for me.


tl;dr while we're doing shameless plugs... True Metal and Punk.

(I realise that you probably didn't expect feedback of this sort)

Thanks for the listen. Love all feedback. I should have given this caveat earlier: our station is not fully online yet. We only have a limited beta audience listening right now. No FM yet. So we are not playing all our best stuff yet. Saving most for when the show is really on FM and streamed with an online archive and track listing.

That said I do like most everything we played. Not surprised everyone else may not. Nature of the beast.

Have a new FB page and Twitter @Strike_of_Death if u want to follow or make requests.

Dig your page TDA

I'll listen to this show. FWIW, I dig most of the parts of the show that TDA doesn't.

You trippin', TDA; Cobalt is outstanding.

Also, it is cuh-noot.

Yeah I knew it. Russian for whip. My partner was just razzing me.

Killitorous and Animals as Leaders as well.... It's going to be a great metal year.

TDA which guy are you on the FB page? Guessing Jesse.

Nah, I'm Joe. Jesse has pretty similar taste to me though, I like punk more (hence the name).

Some good recent-ish metal stuff:

Cruel Force (black/thrash)


Eliminator (not the thrash band, NWOBHM worship which is not overproduced - skip to 9:10 for the best track)


Atomwinter (song-oriented German OSDM worship, best death metal album of last year)

Good stuff.
Our second show aired. Here is the link to Soundcloud

http://rangerheavymetal.bandcamp.com/

You're all doing yourselves a huge disservice by not checking out Ranger if you haven't already.

The new Carnifex album is pretty good

I was looking through rateyourmusic.com to find some black metal, because I'd never really gotten into that.

Reading the wikis of some of those bands, they're some really bad dudes.

Emperor had two of their members sent to jail, one for burning a church, the other for murder. Music's pretty good though. Their album, Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, is called "black metal's greatest stand-alone creative achievement" by Allmusic.



Dissection, which has the highest rated black metal album ever, also has a murderer in the band, this time the lead singer/main songwriter, who eventually committed suicide.

Pretty good album, though:



Probably old news to a lot of you guys (these albums came out in the 90s, after all), but I've never really followed the black metal scene at all.

Tbh the only Emperor album that I've ever really cared about was the debut. Anthems had this awful bass-less production (even by black metal standards) and the others were just too flowery.

Dissection's 90s stuff is great though.

If you are looking to get into BM, a few good starting points (covering most of the styles) would be:

Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark
Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Blasphemy - Fallen Angel of Doom
Sarcofago - INRI
Silencer - Death - Pierce Me
Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky
Beherit - Drawing Down the Moon
Judas Iscariot - Heaven in Flames
Hellhammer - Demon Entrails (or just the Apocalyptic Raids EP)
Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales

Some would include Venom and Mercyful Fate (hell, even early Running Wild) here along with Bathory, Hellhammer and Celtic Frost as good examples of proto-black metal but they're just a bit too far stylistically in my book.

Funny that you say that. I'm listening to Anthems right now through headphones, and I had to put on another song because I wasn't sure if these headphones were working properly because I don't hear any bass.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Back to the technical death metal genre, just discovered this album by Quo Vadis (Defiant Imagination (2004)). Haven't finished listening to it, but this leaps pretty close to the top of my favorite technical death metal albums.

Quo Vadis is great.