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May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:34 am
by hellboy
May was a great month for metal albums, and a great month for music in general (at least music that I like anyway). Here's the rundown:

Aborted - The Necrotic Manifesto Great metal/grind record. Check it out if you dare. Touring Oz soon I think. 8/10
Ought - More Than Any Other Day Not quite sure what to make of this album. I enjoy it, but on writing this review I can barely even recall any tunes from it. 7/10
Antemasque - EP These guys can do better. 6/10
Ex-Cult - Midnight Passenger Solid indie/psych rock album. 7/10
Holy Mountain - Ancient Astronauts More psych rock, and little more drawn out and stonerish the Ex-Cult thought. And a better album. 8/10
The Black Angels - Clear Lake Forest Not a bad album, but they've done better. Forgettable. 6/10
Earth Crisis - Salvation of Innocents A bit of a return to form for these guys, but somewhat different in style to their more hardcore roots. 8/10
Guided By Voices - Cool Planet Vocals keep reminding me of Eddie Vedder for some reason. Ok but a little forgettable. 6/10
Swans - To Be Kind A couple of good tracks, but ultimately repetitive and bland. 6/10
Killer Be Killed - Self Titled Thought this was going to be disappointing, but can report that I think it's quite good. Better than the last Mastodon and DEP albums anyway. 9/10
Hydromedusa - Suspects/Faceless 7" Not sure I like their direction at the moment. Hope the new album is better than these two tracks. 5/10
Down - IV Part 2 Part 1 wasn't that good, part 2 isn't any better. 5/10
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! I regret downloading this. 3/10
Lord Mantis - Death Mask One of the best Black metal albums I've heard in a while. 8/10
Young Widows - Easy Pain Need to listen to this album some more. 6/10 for now
Hour of Penance - Regicide Another great metal album. \m/ 8/10
Truckfighters - Universe A couple of good songs, but a little disappointing. 6/10
Dead Congregation - Promulgation of the Fall The great death metal release season of 2014 continues. 8/10
King Buzzo - This Machine Kills Artists EP Not the full album. Sounds good but probably not something I'd listen to all that often. 7/10
Lee 'Scratch' Perry - Back On The Controls Needs to get back on the gear. 3/10
Trash Talk - No Peace Better than their last album, but still not as great as their earlier works. 7/10
Enabler - La Fin Absolue Du Monde Only really listened to this a couple of times, but first impressions were excellent. 8/10
Tomahawk - M.E.A.T Bring back Faith No More. 3/10
Fucked Up - Glass Boys Really don't get the appeal of this band. 4/10
Misery Index - The Killing Gods Grindy metal drum fest. 8/10
Young And In The Way - When Life Comes To Death Interesting blend of Black Metal and Crust. Band name is stupid though. 8/10

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:38 am
by The Boss
Nailed it with SWANS.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:43 am
by UndKeineZwEier
Forgot about Killer Be Killed. Need to check that out.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:02 am
by Calfium Jay
Swans was HALF good, half.....eh, ok I suppose.

Lord Mantis ain't black metal but it was a good album nonetheless.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:04 am
by UndKeineZwEier
hellboy wrote:Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! I regret downloading this. 3/10
I want to know more about this one.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:07 am
by hellboy
UndKeineZwEier wrote:
hellboy wrote:Me First And The Gimme Gimmes - Are We Not Men? We Are Diva! I regret downloading this. 3/10
I want to know more about this one.
They are a punk supergroup who record covers of popular songs. In this case songs by prominent pop divas. It's not worth the effort.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:09 am
by UndKeineZwEier
Yeah that doesn't sound great.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:11 am
by The Boss
Calfium Jay wrote:Swans was HALF good, half.....eh, ok I suppose.

Lord Mantis ain't black metal but it was a good album nonetheless.
What is it with you and I?

With you on this.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:32 am
by hellboy
Black metal is an adequate description for most, and I think there are some very strong black metal elements in the music, though it may not "vanilla" at all. The bottom line is they are an excellent band who released an excellent album.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 4:22 am
by Calfium Jay
Too many artists these days try and claim some sort of link to black metal. Hell, I've heard Arch Enemy claim to have "black metal influences".

Arch Enemy eh?!

<shudders>

But yeah Lord Mantis are a bunch of up and comers to watch out for.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 5:40 am
by petemasterpete
hellboy wrote:Better than the last Mastodon
without a doubt, by far, and every other synonymous term of agreement you can think of
hellboy wrote:Better than the last DEP
are you fucking high? I bet you are ... go seek help and take preventative measures against future use of mind altering substances

It is a better album than I thought it would be ... certainly better than most "super group" records

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 5:41 am
by hellboy
The last DEP album was ok, but a long way from their best.

Re: May 2014 Musical Review

Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 5:53 am
by petemasterpete
hellboy wrote:Swans - To Be Kind A couple of good tracks, but ultimately repetitive and bland. 6/10

Truckfighters - Universe A couple of good songs, but a little disappointing. 6/10

King Buzzo - This Machine Kills Artists EP Not the full album. Sounds good but probably not something I'd listen to all that often. 7/10

Tomahawk - M.E.A.T Bring back Faith No More. 3/10

Fucked Up - Glass Boys Really don't get the appeal of this band. 4/10

Misery Index - The Killing Gods Grindy metal drum fest. 8/10
Swans: Stoked at first listen especially the immediate tone of the opening track, but agreed, my interest has waned and a month or so later, I'm bored

Truckfighters: agree with your assessment ... not nearly as good as previous releases, but alright, I suppose

King Buzzo: interesting take and likely a great source of output for him, but unlikely to listen to in place of 'electric' Melvins ... still going to see him, cause why the fuck not.

Fucked Up: yes, why does anybody listen to this band ... utter fucking garbage, all of it.

Tomahawk: that or just about any other Patton project (including soundtracks and scores) if this is the output

Misery Index: yet to listen, but sincerely want to check it out ... all reports are positive from those I trust

NEW Reviews not listed:

Agollach - The Serpent and the Sphere

don't think I've listened to any of their releases in a while, andd only got to this once on the NPR stream, but I liked most of it from memory (7/10)

Barrows - Red Giant

actually think this is one Mog posted ... I loved it enough to spend 6 bucks ... solid throughout and I was left wanting 'just one more' track when it was over (8/10)