[Music] Metal

[Duilliath]

That band never clicked for me. Glad you had an awesome time though.

[Heavens Night]

The one I'm most looking forward to this year is The Ride Majestic by Soilwork. I loved The Living Infinite, and if the title track they released from the new album is anything to go by, it's going to blow me away.

[Fencers]

Saw Deafheaven last night. Transcendent. I have a lot to say but I just woke up and I am covered in bruises. I need time.

So this show. Unreal. We (me+hubby) saw Deafheaven in a super small club. The stage was about one step higher than the floor. The room was shaped like a shoebox and if you were on stage and lifted both arms overhead your knuckles would touch the ceiling.

Super dark. Maybe... six lights in total; two red lights along the sides of the "shoebox", two yellow lamps behind the cabinets of Deafheaven and two more of those lamps to the rear of the stage behind the drums.

There was nothing but amps, drums and pedals on stage. Deafheaven came out- tees and jeans. Nothing else. No banter, no hellos, no breaks. They just went breakneck speed; song into song. You could barely tell where one ended and another began.

The sound and volume was crushing. I could feel the music through my legs up to my teeth. I am still semi-deaf/underwater feeling and my ears are ringing in a perfectly quiet house as I type this... 12ish hours after the show. Only two such bands have ever played so loud to make me feel such; Sunn 0))) and Khante.

George, the singer, is a wonderful personality on stage. His charisma and passion are utterly infectious. And goodness, what passion. He was soaked head to toe in sweat about 4 mins into the show at the start. Sweat was pouring off his head and coming down in rivulets off his (lovely) hair mixed with spit & blood pouring on the mic and his hands.

Alternatively George stood like a messiah, arms stretched out to touch the crowd and like hunched over in intense headbanging, foot to the monitor & in full scream mode; in earnest holding hands, locking fingers and even grabbing the back of audience members heads in both assertive and loving caress as he screamed so loud it was barely above the din of the crushing, harmoniums instrumentation.

George had no fear or inhibitions toward the crowd. It looked like he was in utter ecstasy and catharsis. Leaping into the crowd several times being carried from the front to back of the venue like he was riding a cushion of air or something. Mic cord snaking between arms, heads and shoulders- including my own.

I was at the very front with my husband at the start of the show; sandwiched between George's monitor and my husband embracing me from behind. Our usual setup/protection tactic. Well, it failed.

Opening the show Deafheaven played "Irresistible" with a long extended buildup. George was just pacing around Kerry (the guitarist), softly swaying. Very loud, very on point. The performance from a musical standpoint was laser keen. Drums were mic'd amazing and every crescendo hit like a wrecking ball. It literally made your heart plunge; you could feel it physically.

About midway through "Irresistible", George was signaling for the crowd to "come closer". Gesturing with open palms toward himself. Growing more intense with the music, George began pointing to the back and then to the immediate front of the stage. This was where my husband's concert protection plan failed!

The entire venue surged forward, I was utterly crushed!

Hunched over the stage, my torso was bent over George's monitor as the band RIPPED into "Sunbather". So fast, so hard. The entire venue was swept up in the most complete and rapturous headbanging, moshing and hands to the sky, scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs euphoria I have ever experienced in 37 years.

I was so nearly crushed to death, I threw my bottle of beer forward immediately so as to not stab myself in the throat as I hung on to the monitor with one hand and gripped some poor kid's arm in both panic and blackout excitement. My husband was gone, swept into the crowd somehow. I was now about 6 feet from where I started the show but still in the front to George's left.

Midway through "Sunbather" when the breakdown comes and the song goes into overdrive I was headbanging so hard the entire place was a blur. Without a single misstep the band launched into heedlessly into "Dream House"- third song in and the place had not even reach it's apex yet.

Right at the beginning with the tremolo start, the drums of "Dream House" kicked in and the band was playing so furiously I looked up from my self induced whiplash to see Kerry awash in sweat, the bass player Stephan had his head thrown back, swaying with his eyes rolled into the back of his head. I was bouncing/headbanging/moshing? I don't even know. The build-up midway through the song was when George fell into the crowd- totally relaxed and it was like the whole venue was swaying together. He returned to the stage and was reaching out to people.

George grabbed a black kid from the front of stage, a little guy, and grabbed the back of his head in a tight embrace on his hands and keens. Foreheads pressed together. The kid and George were both sweaty as fuck. But the embrace was so intense and loving.

I remember having one hand on the stage but I swear on all that is holy my feet were not on the ground any longer.

Then it happened. George pulled me up on stage. Just before "Dream House" goes all crazy again- I am on my hands and knees now too. George takes my hand puts it on his chest above his heart, his black shirt is totally a wet rag at this point. And we sing together face to face, my lips touching the same mic as his lips.

It was the part where he sings: I'm dying/Is it blissful?/Like a dream/I want to dream.

I sang the, "Like a dream" part and he looked me dead in my eyes and sang "I want to dream too". And we headbanged together, my long hair blurring everything in my sight and I very nearly orgasmed.

I ended up in the crowd somehow. Soaked in sweat head to toe. Think I was crowd surfing according to my husband, but I landed like three people from the stage from that point on and I literally do not know how or what was going on. I was on adrenaline, hormones and euphoria.

I think "Vertigo" was after because I recall headbanging really hard and singing the lyrics. My hands in the air reaching out to George, who was lean 3/4ths his body over the audience.

By the midpoint of the show I was back to the front stage because George kept signalling for the crowd to come closer. Which was wildly irresponsible and dangerous but also exactly what we wanted. At various points I couldn't move my arms, I felt enormous pressure on my back, legs and ribs. I nearly fell to the ground a few times. And at times I am unsure how I was upright because I literally do not remember touching the floor with my feet and distinctly recall wondering if I had my shoes on still.

By the the time Deafheaven got to "Unrequited" I was back to holding on to a stage monitor for dear life. Though I was also lost in the blur of hair and sweat that was equal parts my own, the crowd's and George's.

I have three bruises on my legs, one on my foot, a black eye, my right thumb is bruised, my left pinky finger is bruised and I have two bruises on my lower back. I got elbowed in the face at some point and apparently I was bloody faces half the show without noticing till my husband and I had reunited during the encore when we made out to "Pecan Tree" with my back pressed against a wall.

When we left the show my Bloodbath t-shirt was soaked through with sweat, my jeans were so sweated through I couldn't walk properly in them and I was covered in blood.

Not since At The Drive-In when I was still a kid in the 1990s have I experienced such a show. 10/10.

[Duilliath]

That was a pretty long post, but it was very enjoyable to read. Sounds like a great concert to me.

What he said.

--

Also... new Mgla hype!

[Ciddy]

I'm loving the new Powerwolf release so far.

[Fencers]

Saw Deafheaven last night. Transcendent. I have a lot to say but I just woke up and I am covered in bruises. I need time.

Oh another cool thing that happened was just after the opening band (meh) wrapped up they played N.I.B over the PA. What made this neat was that as the song began people were milling about getting drinks, smoking pot and such everyone was kinda digging the opening to the song. I'm sure everyone versed aware of heavy metal knows the opening chords to NIB.

But right at the start when Ozzy sings, "Oh yeah!", the entire crowd spontaneously shouted "Oh yeah!"

We all sang Sabbath's N.I.B at the top of our lungs as the song blared over the PA. I mean the whole place. You couldn't even hear Ozzy's vocals over the crowd. Half way the sound guy turned off the PA so the crowd could sing it and then turned it back on right when Iommi and Geezer lay down the most vicious groove and riff in metal history- to which the entire crowd headbanged in perfect time. Then we sang all the Ozzy parts again.

Just kinda cool the way it just happened. Kudos to the sound guy for noticing the moment too.

Sabbath are still gods.

[Duilliath]

New Deafheaven in October! Are you guys ready for AOTY??

Sure, I'm ready for an album of the year. What is it going to be?

[hellhamster]

Sure, I'm ready for an album of the year. What is it going to be?

2 more weeks for the AOTY, the new Bullet for my Valentine.

OK that wasn't funny.

We still have:

http://www.metalstorm.net/events/new...php?upcoming=1

tfw ctrl+f "Vektor" or "Nokturnal Mortum": 0 results.

New Riverside for the proggies.



Personally, I don't have a clear AOTYSF winner yet, but Ad Nauseam, Midnight Odyssey and Misthyrming are probably in the top 3. Overall we have a dozen really really strong records so far, but nothing phenomenal and legendary tier yet.

[Deleted]

Brujeria is by far my favorite.
System of a Down (does that even classify as metal..?) and Rammstein are good too.

[Deleted]

Seeing one of the founding bands of the goregrind/grindcore scene in the USA : Hemdale!

[Duilliath]

What's your favorite so far?

Dodheimsgard - A Umbra Omega.

No contest so far.

As to the rest... Marduk - Frontschwein will probably hit my top 10 somewhere, but not in the top 5 for sure. Quite like Solefald's newest endeavour, though I'm not sure that'll wind up in my top 10. Undoubtedly, Peste Noire will be sitting in the top 5. Poison Idea's Confuse & Conquer will probably be up there too. There's a pretty good chance that list will include the new Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Wiegedood might be included, not sure. Misþyrming will likely be in the list as well.

I am very much looking forward to the new Mgła as well. New Lugubrum might be entertaining too. And there's a new Killing Joke album incoming. I'm quite curious about the new In The Woods... album as well.


This does remind me I should go listen to the new Arcturus at some point.

--

A year after I initially planned to, I'll finally go see this bout of teenhood nostalgia:



- - - Updated - - -

Sidenote, might be interested in the following as well, but not sure yet, Lychgate - An Antidote For The Glass Pill

Vhöl - Deeper Than Sky will probably be a contender for my no. 1 spot, seeing how I absolutely love the previous album.

[Cairhiin]

I'm loving the new Powerwolf release so far.

Enjoying this as well. Thanks for the links! Hadn't even realized they had a new album.

[Duilliath]

I thought the new GY!BE was a letdown, tbh. Not to say that it was bad, but I think their first album and Lift yr. Skinny Fists are way better.

Fair enough, but it needs only be better than other albums released this year.

[Feali]

NEW TRIVIUM is.. uhm... different. To say the least. I still like it. But it might take multiple listens.

[Feali]

Sounds like watered down mid-2000s In Flames. I wish Heafy would start a solo project and explore some of the genres that he personally enjoys. I'm sure that'd be a lot more interesting to listen to.

I agree but I still want to see the direction this is taking.

[Duilliath]

Just found out I need to clear some space on my AotY list. Krallice announced their new album.

https://krallice.bandcamp.com/album/ygg-huur

[Duilliath]

I have no clue yet. Which probably means it'll turn into one of my favourite albums. That's usually the way it goes.

[hellhamster]

Yeah new Krallice is definitely hype, I still need to listen to their older stuff.

[Duilliath]

This one blew me away when I first heard it. Remains a favourite of mine. 100% stole some of their 'melodic' tendencies for a few of the riffs/solo-lines in my own band.

[Deleted]

Im looking for death n roll songs, something like : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVkCYpVX7oQ
I already know Six Feet Under and Entombed.