Saturday, January 2, 2010

Today in Metal and My Life: Jan. 2, 2010

In an ongoing effort to figure out which direction to take this blog, I have decided to experiment just a little bit. I'd like to get a little more personal in the blog, without moving far away from the point of the blog.

Today I went to the local music store. I had not been there for awhile and I have not bought anything new in nearly a month. Oh the horror. I went with the idea of looking for any new releases. I did not find anything terribly exciting so I figured I would pick up the recent Scar Symmetry release. I also saw that they had the band's first release, which was the only other album by the band I did not own. So, now I own all four of Scar Symmetry's full length albums. I also bought a few albums online which I will name later. I have not listened to the Scar Symmetry albums yet, but will soon enough.

Also while at the bookstore, I picked up the January 2010 issue of Decibel. Mastodon was on the cover, of course. The issue featured the magazine's Top 40 albums of 2009. Mastodon was surprisingly not #1, neither were Isis, Coalesce, or Converge, the bands I would have most suspected would get the top spot. No, instead Baroness got the top spot. Not a bad choice, but they seem to get a lot of love from the critics these days as well. I have not heard anything off the new Baroness album, not being totally impressed with what I had heard off their previous release.

Other information gleaned from the Decibel magazine:
-Hirax has a new album out.
-A new Swedish old school death supergroup formed out of members of Expulsion, Treblinka, and Tiamat (though Treblinka became Tiamat). This band is called Mr. Death. I liked this idea better when it was Bloodbath. I suppose I am willing to check something out though.
-Pelican think Between the Buried and Me sound like In Flames or Soilwork. Pelican need to get their ears checked.
-Nile's Karl Sanders is fat.
-Rammstein's Richard Kruspe has never heard Bathory despite the fact that Jonas Akerlund who directed music video/porno video "Pussy" played drums for Bathory.
-I might have to check out the online store Rockadrome. They seem to have an awful lot of 1980's metal bands, including Watchtower, Slauter Xstroyes, Devastation, and Militia.
-I really did not need to see Watchtower in their underwear.
-Albums that made Decibel's Top 40 list that I approve of: Suffocation, Goatwhore, The Gates of Slumber, Asphyx, Paradise Lost, Nile, Obscura, Immortal, Marduk, Slayer, and Napalm Death.
-In news that fails to shock anyone: Coalesce and Converge were #'s 3 and 2 respectively.
-This has to be the 100th Mastodon article in Decibel this last year.
-They loved the Nirvana 2002 compilation, so did I.

I still can't find the Best of the Decade special issue and don't feel like ordering it online.

In doing my normal blog search, I have become a little disenchanted. Metal Inquisition has not updated in a couple of weeks. Metalsucks has not been updating lately, either. I'm sure a lot has to do with the holiday season, but it's been frustrating. I haven't exactly been a fount of activity of late either, but still. I don't find fault in myself, just in others.

I did decide to view a couple of music videos online which were linked from another blog. I saw Converge's recent video and can honestly say that I don't see what everyone sees in the band. They really are not very good. They're just loud and noisy with no structure. Not metal, more like metallic hardcore. I also saw the recent Behemoth video, weird stuff.

Other than all that, I have been at home. My fiancee worked most of the day, so it was my job to take care of the animals. It's snowing again, I hate snow. Not much else going on. Fun stuff.


Albums I listened to today:
Graveworm: (N)Utopia
Guillotine: Blood Money
The Crown: Possessed13
Nihilist: Nihilist 1987-1989
Carnal Forge: Testify for My Victims
Darkane: Insanity
Nevermore: Dreaming Neon Black
Nevermore: Nevermore
Fates Warning: No Exit

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