The General Metal Thread

The hype is real.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjgo8IhpMR2/?igshid=NmNmNjAwNzg=

Gotta say this is my favorite song on the album, but bravo :clap: absolutely spectacular album hype goals achieved. Probably one of the best deathcore albums ever.

Lorna Shore really know how to write hooks, but after listening to it several times since it came out I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s extremely formulaic and each song is the same formula moved around at different parts of the song. It’s definitely a good album for fans new to Deathcore, it’s extremely accessible if not too accessible, kind of wish this was an album that had to grow on you, but it’s totally non-offensive and makes for perfect background music. Pain Remains will be a lot of people’s album of the year and the band will blow up even more on tiktok and everywhere else on social media. I’m not a gatekeeper, or being a hipster just to be different, I thought that the EP was excellent, but this is over an hour and the repetitiveness is exposed in that one hour. I’m not really a big fan but apples to apples Shadow of Intent’s Elegy is the same run time and has more originality and depth than this album. Will is pretty talented and Lorna Shore were at the right place at the right time and could very well make Deathcore as popular as SS MySpace days all the while Signs, Chelsea Grin, Shadow, etc muddle about in the doldrums of 100k listens on Spotify.

I’m not blaming this on Will, LS have had their signature sound since CJ was there and they‘ve continued it since Will joined, but it’s not evolving. This album is somewhere between blackened Deathcore and modern Deathcore and the popularity is arguably all thanks to Will getting the idea to snarl before a breakdown, but yeah. Pain Remains is here, but it’s a bloated egotistical unrestrained slog of an hour with the exact same formula as Elegy by Shadow of Intent down to the three songs at the end with the same time with the song essentially in three parts.

Lorna Shore has s bright future if they can keep their members and nothing comes out about Will which it shouldn’t, but CJ is looking for redemption and Immortal Disfigurement could drop an entire album on a whim any day, the band guaranteeing this week that we’ll get more before the year is over and have plenty of songs already written. Next year will be really interesting if they do indeed put out an album, not to mention Chelsea Grin dropping a double album in November, and March, respectively. The future of Deathcore is bright as it isn’t fading away anytime soon like we all thought it would after Mitch and MySpace died and the aforementioned bands carried the torch, so it’s time for a Deathcore renaissance. Will all of the attention, and eyes on the genre now everyone else should be poised to bring their best if they want to be mentioned or tour with Lorna and cash in on this 2020s Deathcore boom.

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Ridiculously excited for this album.

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New High Command is on way, and the two new tracks sounds stellar. Siege Warfare is an abdolute bone-crushing thrasher of a song, and Imposing Hammers of Cold Sorcery is a longer, more epic track along the epics on their debut album. I’ll be surprised if this album isn’t a contender to AOTY.

High Command, along with Enforced, are easily the best of the new wave of crossover thrash. The one’s that play a heaviermore and more hardcore punk influenced style of crossover thrash kick-started and popularized by the likes of Iron Age and Power Trip.

And speaking of newer hardcore influenced crossover thrash, the new Mindforce is pretty good, and the new track off Ninth Realm’s upcoming album is really good.

New album by Blodhemn. Really good.

Omg Sverger Hemn is so good a lot of Post-metal and Doom Metal elements.

God tier album, also I highly recommend this YouTube channel Black Metal Promotion.

Been waiting for years and years, and now… the new album of the mighty Thy Darkened Shade is close at hand! Sounds like they’ll deliver another majestic complex mammoth of a release.

Easily my most ancitipated metal release of 2023 so far!

For last year’s New Year’s resolution I promised myself I’d listen to as many new releases as possible since at the end of 2021 I noticed I had fallen waayyy out of the loop with them. Sure, sitting through +350 eps and lps when my main genre is black metal does burn a man out but hey, figured I’d share a few favourites so no one else has to do that!

“Become the Soul of Mist” by Dark Fount blew me out of the water with its careful yet powerful mix of black metal with dark folk and I’ve been returning to it quite a bit since it dropped in June. I keep tabs on Pest Productions and had no expectations for this release knowing what else the label puts out, but this release turned out to be a positive exception for them.
Become the Soul of Mist | DARK FOUNT | Pest Productions

In similar but maybe a bit more grounded vein, “Zorzysta staje oćma” by Wędrujący Wiatr found its footing in my rotation very early on. There’s a welcome attempt at storytelling through more ambient pits to it but I never looked into a possible story of it further, not being Polish and being too lazy to translate the lyrics and all. (A honorary mention here for “Ebwaidilīsnā” by Aūkels, a related side-project, that gets overlooked a lot but is a treat for anyone looking for atmo instead of pagan stuff.) (Proceed with caution though, they are Polish lmao.)
Zorzysta Staje Oćma | Wędrujący Wiatr | (Ebwaidilīsnā | Aūkels)

Nietzu’s been a funny band to keep tabs on, because as much as I adore the sound they’ve built up, the releases don’t quite get there. There is, however, a curious mix of post-punk and something jazzy there on “Farewell to the Stranger” that keeps me going back to it, and as little as I care for the current state of United Kingdom black metal, I have high hopes for this band.
Farewell to the Stranger | Nietzu

I’ve had a soft spot for Ateiggär since their very first singles back in the day, and “Tyrannemord” didn’t disappoint. It’s melodic, it’s ominous, it’s a bit theatrical and so, so much fun if you’re in the mood for a good blend of symphonic and melodic. The Swiss scene’s been having a field day lately and this just proves it.
Tyrannemord | ATEIGGÄR

“Madarikazioa” by Ostots flew under my radar for the majority of the year for some reason, but once I got around to it, it was an enormous amount of fun. It seems to have been performed in the Basque language and thought that usually wouldn’t be enough for me to sing praises, the atmosphere’s just tense and oppressive enough to leave its mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0YHRlftBLQ
Ostots - Madarikazioa

I stopped giving a shit about dungeon synth / black metal projects at some point since they seem to have a tendency to be overhyped to hell and back (and yes, I will blame this on Stormkeep crashing into the mainstream consciousness last year), but Vampirska’s “Vermilion Apparitions Frozen in Chimera Twilight” has had me coming back to it quite a bit. It’s not without its faults but for what it’s worth, it’s always a fun sit-through.
Vermilion Apparitions Frozen in Chimera Twilight | Vampirska

But as for my favourite release of 2022, I think that title has to go Aveth’s “Der Untergang”. I’ve had it on loop since January and at this point I can’t even tell if it’s objectively good or not, I just enjoy every second of it blindlessly each and every damn time. It has a curious mix of atmospheric black metal and whatever one would call “that weird bouncy doom-y thing some dsbm projects do” not many projects hold sacred these days.
Der Untergang | Aveth

A few bands fell right out of my rotation with their new stuff (I’m looking at you, Panzerfaust), but I gained a good chunk of new projects to keep an eye out on. There have been a few curious new fads that have become a stable in the black metal scene as of late, notably the raw dungeon synth projects, mixing regular black metal with dissonant death metal, as well as… [checks notes] … American West themed releases, for some reason? Also, a lot of remasters and re-releases and sudden activity by old bands I already thought dead and buried, most notably Kvist as the latest example. I also don’t know who keeps kicking the late 00s dsbm acts awake but let them sleep, they’re tired as it is and deserve their peace even if I will lap up everything they put out.

As for East Asian metal otherwise; the new Madmans Esprit was already brought up above, but it’s yet to grow on me like their other stuff has for some reason, and the new Nazare was just… Don’t know, maybe I had too high hopes for it. Asunojokei is Asunojokei and will always have a spot in my heart even if I wasn’t necessarily blown away by the new release, and I’ve yet to sit through the new Sigh but it has some curious guests to it so I might do that tonight.

So yeah, all in all? It was an “alright” sort of release year for me. Maybe I should dib out of metal and get a hobby and move into a cabin up the mountains to become one with the nature. Maybe the new Metallica release next year will be the one thing to push me to that point, lmao.

… There was also this symphonic black metal Harry Potter release. It was funny. Just putting this here. What’s a few more lines to an already long post, am I right :^)

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What are the local black metal connoisseurs’ opinions of Chinese metal bands like Zuriaake, holyarrow or Vengeful Spectre? I’m not that much into BM, I was just looking for Chinese bands, but I found these, and I think they’re cool. Just curious where they stand in the grand scheme of Black Metal.

They’re not super big or anything, but the first two Zuriaake albums are masterpieces. Unique and different, without straying too much from regular epic black metal. Had some fuzz about them in the scene after the release of their second album.

Holyarrow is also pretty damn good, but less known as far as I know. But their debut a is stellar piece of work. So damn good!

Enforced is just getting better and better, man. Kill Grid was probably my AOTY in 2021, with Casket being song of the year (same recording session, but not on the album). Ultra-Violence however even tops Casket. This shit is just straight up bone crushing. This album can’t come fast enough.

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Just getting around to the double Chelsea Grin album and holy shit.

All this wait and it sounds like a weak Lorna Shore song. Fuck.

Seconding Your_mum; Zuriaake’s great. They indeed hit it through in the late 00s / early 10s and they’ve sort of been regarded as The Chinese BM Band with capital letters ever since especially after it came out that Ghost Bath isn’t actually Chinese lmao. At length, I find the entirety of the discography a bit inconsistent, but when it works? It really works, and survives repeat listens no problem. That’s about how I’ve seen most people discuss them, too; solid good, not too “weird” to push away old geezers, but while everyone knows them, no one seems to be a hardcore fan and they never gained copious amounts of copycats, either. That speaks for their status a little bit, I think.

Vengeful Spectre seems to be a bit more divisive at the moment, mostly because it’s gotten popular enough to gain the attention of people who don’t usually seek out those sorts of releases and people don’t know what to do with it. In my opinion it’s a great goddamn debut, but if someone knows about it but didn’t immediately fall in love with it, they usually complain about how gimmicky the triumphant folk sections on that sound. So yeah, it’s somewhat of an underdog story right now. They’ll either make it or break it on the next release since they don’t have a cult status to shield them (like Zuriaake, for example, does), but I have faith.

Holyarrow, however, is becoming a pet peeve for me. They were on my radar for a while but the latest single and its cover raised some red flags for me, so I looked into it and the dude behind the project seems like an entire ass hassle (see: he posts his shitty swastika record and merch hauls onto his public facebook profile and shit). So yeah, I’ve given up on that project since I’m unreasonably picky with the behind-the-scenes politics in my black metal and he’s not making it past my sieve, and it looks like people haven’t picked up on this yet so I’ll just mention this here in case it’s a deal breaker for someone else. Overall people seem to like their music a lot and the band is gaining momentum pretty fast for a young project like that, but I’m jinxxing that it’s going to become one of those “exotic” asian national socialistic black metal projects sooner or later and fade away from public consciousness and into a cult classic status in the nsbm circles. A first for China but it’s happened before elsewhere around there, as funny as their existences always are.

No one asked but if Chinese black metal is of interest, I’ve really enjoyed the Dark Fount I mentioned a few months back, as well as the debut by 景湖白, both heavily atmospheric. Fu Xi isn’t really black metal but it has that similar stamp of approval from the bm circles as Agalloch’s 00s releases, if that makes sense. iykyk. :^)

There’s a label over there called Pest Productions that I have a hate-love relationship with, but it might be worth keeping an eye on. Like, it’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy that they put out 10 shit releases and then the 11th one will somehow reshape the entire scene because of how good it is. I’m not saying Pest Productions single-handedly normalized blackgaze somewhere around 2010 but yeah, they definitely had their hands in that if you remove the French scene from the picture. … Also, actually, now that I’m checking? It looks like Zuriaake was under their wing for a while in the beginning, too. I’ll personally take Pest’s roster over GoatowaRex’s roster any day (their sub-label Psychedelic Lotus Order concentrates on Chinese bands) but that also exists if someone wants to look around.

Sorry for the wall of text again! ^^

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Dear god, Enforced is a god damned machine. Another crushing track. I’m getting a feeling this is gonna be their best album yet as both songs are nothing short of brilliant.

This album is just great. Straight up 90’s Gothenburg worship by the guy in Obsequiae and a couple of guys from Antiverse and Inexorum. Sounds like a mix between early-to-mid 90’s In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. It’s not original, but it’s pretty damn fucking awesome. Great melodies all around, superb vocals and top notch songwriting.

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Okay yeah, this sounds pretty badass. Gonna listen to this one later, thanks for the recc!