Octopus Overlords

I was in a weird mood the other day and looking for new music, and ran across an article where several heavy metal bands were recommending bands they loved. The first recommendation on the list was Twin Tribes, and now I've been listening to them non-stop. They are a darkwave duo from Texas, and I love the heavy 80s influence:

Man, this track is just mind-blowing. Progessive melodeath with a wonderful combination of clean and unclean vocals. Reminds me a bit of a melodeath version of Manticora's progressive power metal masterpiece Hyperion, which is also F'n awesome.

IOTUNN - The Weaver System (2021)

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Nov 18, 2022 9:38 am

Sudy wrote: ↑Fri Jul 15, 2022 2:38 pm

hepcat wrote: ↑Sun Jul 10, 2022 8:26 pm So Id posted a video for the song Sports by Viagra Boys a while back because I wasn’t sure if it was good or awful…but it made me laugh. Now that I’ve seen their latest effort, Punk Rock Loser, I’m here to say I love the band. They’re freakin’ hilarious. Like a goofier version of Idles.

At first I presumed they were just a joke band, but their first two albums are amazing. I love the jazz influences. I haven't heard post-punk-inspired music this good in a long time. There are so many older styles being invigorated by amazing Swedish acts recently.

On their latest album I'm enjoying Creepy Crawlers, whose unhinged vocals spout conspiracy theories from the perspective of a deranged alt-righter. The song is the soundtrack of the disturbed mind. That's followed by the mournful The Cognitive Trade-Off Hypothesis which laments mankind's ancestors descending from the trees. The chorus is especially catchy. They're both humourous tracks in their way, but they're played completely straight.

And they've made it onto American late night talk shows.

Damn, gonna have to stop listening to them now....

Everyone hates Nickleback still, so you should be okay.

Sudy wrote: ↑Tue Nov 22, 2022 4:53 am Man, this track is just mind-blowing. Progessive melodeath with a wonderful combination of clean and unclean vocals. Reminds me a bit of a melodeath version of Manticora's progressive power metal masterpiece Hyperion, which is also F'n awesome.

IOTUNN - The Weaver System (2021)

Thanks for this one, really like it.

The clean vocals sound a lot like another band, but I can't for the life of me place who it is. It's driving me nuts!

you're

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 11:14 pm

Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin - Ali

if you're into the contemporary Malian stuff, this is a must hear. Vieux's tribute to his father by covering some tracks in collaboration with Texas band Khruangbin

https://deadoc.co/ali-album

Just in case you were getting through the day and NOT feeling old. This album came out 40 years ago today...

I was never a big MJ fan. At the time of that album I was 13 and found Beat It ok. My step brother and his girlfriend got my the thriller album that Christmas. I ended up playing it a lot. Played a lot of Thriller due to the creepiness of it and Vincent Price and PYT and Beat It. PYT is still a good song. Haven't heard it to death either. I really hated Billie Jean though. Did until a few years back and found it ok now.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Nov 30, 2022 2:06 pm I was never a big MJ fan. At the time of that album I was 13

MJ would have been a big fan of you then.

This is like Ralph Carney meets Phillip Glass meets Igorr. Not new to Matmos, but don't remember hearing this despite it being saved to my Spotify playlist. Feel like this has been in a show I watched but I can't place it.

Power of Love 12" version. This is the rare long play of the song with more synth and such. Only been released on one album I think..or one re released hits album maybe. Was the flip side to the original I think. Im not sure on all this.

I always get a kick out of the fact that a band called Brothers of Metal has a female lead singer.

Nevertheless, here's their latest single.

This Wesley Willis tune came up in my rotation today. I laughed.

Oh goddamn yes, Wesley Willis was a special individual.

We saw him three times, the last being one of his last performances. He died two weeks later. He did not look good at that show.

He reaaallly like giving my wife headbutts. He would only headbutt girls but he would actually get up off his stool to come and headbutt her. He had a big permanent hematoma that she said was as soft as a baby's butt...

Best doom album of 2022?

Best doom album of 2022.

I've been on an 80s new wave British metal kick.

I don't know if I've heard this before... I know I liked one of their tracks like fifteen years ago. I certainly don't recall it. If this is the first time I've heard it, it's one of those rare songs that you fall in love with immediately.

Nothing wrong with Demon! Here's one of my favorite songs from them...

This one's hitting supper hard this morning.

This rainbow collage generator for Last.fm is seriously cool.

No making fun of when I tried to get into emo for my then-girlfriend/fiancée Mrs. Nym fifteen years ago. I am not embarrassed. Well, I'm kind of embarrassed. Because I'm a fucking snob who feels the need to catalogue every aspect of my life for internet points.

I went on a Peter Gabriel kick today. Probably haven't listened to this song in 15 years, and it brought me to tears as I was driving around this afternoon.

I had forgotten just how damn powerful it is.

If ya dont move to this ya dead.

Some more lesser known (at least to me) 80s metal. This album's really good.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun Dec 11, 2022 12:41 am I went on a Peter Gabriel kick today. Probably haven't listened to this song in 15 years, and it brought me to tears as I was driving around this afternoon.

I had forgotten just how damn powerful it is.

Rumors of a new PG album and tour next year. I saw him in concert 3x, two of them are among my top 5 of all time. I don't think anything can beat the first time I saw him (touring after his "Plays Live" album came out), but it would depend on the mix of musicians. I next saw him on the "So" tour with Youssou N'dour....another fantastic show. The "US" concert (relevant to your post) was still very good, but didn't quite make the emotional connection he did with the other shows.

Because of my job, I'm listening to radio a lot lately, more than I have in decades.

Current artists I find compelling:

Sam Fender -- damn, he has father issues but his songs just draw you in. My 6 year old daughter listened to "Spit of Me", I explained he didn't get along with his father. We got home, she started singing the refrain. I asked her, "what, you can't talk to me?" She replied, "Daddy, I changed the lyrics", and proceeded to sing "I can talk to anyone, I can talk to anyone, and I CAN talk to you!"

Caamp -- Daughter loves them too. On their song, The Otter, she commented, "Daddy, I didn't know boys can sing!" I showed her the YouTube video and she proceeded to play it 10 times in a row.

Wet Leg -- Power pop with a touch of grunge -- damn it's a great sound!

Nathanial Rateliff and the Night Sweats -- one of the best new pure R&R bands I've heard in a long time.

Yeah Yeah Yeah's -- apparently they have several albums out, but their latest is the first in 9 years. I was listening to their single this morning, and thought, "hey, this sounds like a James Bond theme song." The DJ then said it was "a song in search of a Bond movie."

Nothing else coming out this year that I'm anticipating, so I suppose it's time for the annual top 10 albums.

10) Pillaging Villagers - S/T - Holy shit, this album is an absolute blast. Folk metal meets punk. it's like a medieval Dropkick Murphys with a death metal kick. Try not smiling while listening to this, I dare you.


9) Imperial Circus Dad Decadence - Mogari - This is madness...just pure Japanese metal madness. Sigh meets Cradle of Filth meets Cthonic.


8) Aeternam - Heir of the Rising Sun. These dudes are a seriously underrated metal band, mixing middle-eastern influences and symphonic arrangements into solid metal tunes. All of their albums have been fantastic, and this one is no exception.


7) Sentient Horror - Rites of Gore. No frills here, just a ton of killer riffs and superb production by Dan Swano (of course). There wasn't much straight death metal that really grabbed me this year, but this album did.


6) Septicflesh - Modern Primitive. Upthread, I compared Septicflesh to a lumbering elephant. It can be slow and relentless, but it will absolutely crush anything that stands in it's way. Their symphonic metal is simply massive...just listen 40 seconds into this track and you'll see what I mean.


5) Strigoi - Viscera. Easily the nastiest, gnarliest, brutal album on this list. Greg Mackintosh is a supremely talented songwriter and he absolutely nails it here. I love the way it switches from absolutely crushing doom to speed metal to grindcore. It's a remarkably diverse and superb album.


4) Ghost - Imperia. Yes, it's Scooby Doo chase music. No, I don't care. It's fun, it's catchy, and we loves it.


3) Zeal & Ardor - S/T. Z&A started as a joke but have proven themselves to be anything but. Their mix of slave spirituals and black metal is always fascinating. Manuel leaned more into the aggressive side on this album, to excellent effect.


2) Sigh - Shiki. It's tough when your favorite two bands working today both release an album in the same year. This is more like 1b to Wilderun's 1a. literally the only reason it's down one notch is because I listened to it slightly less. Mirai proved he is still an absolute genius on their 12th album. This is unhinged and psychotic in all the right ways. I've always maintained that Sigh is the auditory manifestation of slowly going insane, and this absolutely fits that bill.


1) Wilderun - Epigone. There is no better American metal band right now than Wilderun. Period. This album is brilliant, captivating, beautiful, haunting, and incredibly uplifting. I always end up with a smile every time I listen to it. The instrumentation is impeccable, and Evan's vocals are truly something to behold. It's not quite as good as "Sleep at the Edge of the Earth"...but it's pretty damn close.


Honorable Mention:
- Amorphis - Halo
- Witchery - Nightside
- Ripped to Shreds - Jubian
- Exhumed - To the Dead
- Acid Witch - Rot Among Us
- Heads for the Dead - The Great Conjuration
- Shape of Despair - Return to the Void
- The Chasm - The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow

Song of the year: Wilderun, Woolgatherer. This wasn't even close, really. Woolgatherer defines "epic", moving effortlessly from style to style while blending perfectly together in every aspect. A true masterpiece.


Disappointment of the Year: Behemoth - Opvs Contra Natvram. It kinda pains me to say this, but this album was a dud. I tried really hard to like it, but just nothing about it stood out to me at all. Every time I went back to it, I found myself bored within a couple songs.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 13, 2022 8:52 pm Nothing else coming out this year that I'm anticipating, so I suppose it's time for the annual top 10 albums.

Thanks, always love trying your recommendations!


Here's my list. As I've probably mentioned before, I often don't get around to new releases for years, so I've fleshed this out with older songs I've discovered or had on repeat:


Top Songs Released This Year:

1. PIG - Feed The Wound - The catchiest electronic industrial rock I've heard in years. The first time I heard it I listened to it 20 times that day.



2. Viagra Boys - The Cognitive Trade-Off Hypothesis - Usually known for their humour, the Swedish jazzy, art/post-punk band has become one of my favourites of the past several years. My thanks to hepcat for sharing them. My favourite song from their new album is moving with interesting lyrics.



3. Nicholas Britell - Niamos! (Morlana Club Mix), from the Andor soundtrack. An amazing electronic dance track the internet fell in love with the first moment they heard it.



4. Patient Number 9 - Ozzy Osbourne featuring Jeff Beck - I imagine anyone who still listens to rock radio has heard this a million times by now. Of course this album is overproduced, but I love it. The metal snob in me is kind of put off that 30-year-old pop songwriters share the writing credits, but who cares.

5. KMFDM - Hyëna - Similar to PIG, the catchiest KMFDM song since Total State Machine on 2017's Hell Yeah.



Other Top Songs:

1. Graveyard - The Siren (2011) - The chorus blows my mind every frigging time. Psychedelic hard blues rock, also from Sweden.
2. Truckfighters - Get Lifted (2013) - Just can't get enough of this psychedelic stoner band from, you guessed it, Sweden.
3. Mountain Witch (2020) - My favourite stoner doom rock band, carrying on the legacy of Sabbath.
4. Vesperian Sorrow - Invisible Kingdom (2019, originally recorded 2006) - An amazing symphonic melodic black metal song. Incredible solo beginning around 05:47.



5.Polvo - Light, Raking (2013) - Indie/math/noise. Amazing song, amazing video. I'm a huge fan of 1996's Exploding Drawing, on which the plays bizarre little songs in a mind-bending angular, out-of-tune style. On 2013's Siberia they're a little less experimental, but in their maturity, better for it.





Albums I'll Never Stop Listening To:

1. Monster Magnet - Spine of God (1991) - Psychedelic stoner rock, my favourite album to get stoned to.



2. A Hill To Die Upon - Holy Despair (2014) - One of my favourite blackened death metal albums of all time. Often considered a Christian band, their lyrics may surprise you.

Friend of mine is doing a fundraiser down the street. Live music and improv. Steve Alibini is serving dinner later.

https://www.24hourmarathon.org/


Edit: Jeff Tweedy was great!

Tentatively excited for the new Mechina album on 1/1. While I haven't really loved an album of theirs since 2015's Acheron, this slab of industrial "Mass Effect Metal" certainly sounds promising. We shall see.

Cause Im in a mood...holidays and missing my wife. This Bruno one is great anytime though.

I mentioned this in the Whatcha Watchin thread.... I recently saw Talk Radio (1988, Eric Bogosian, Oliver Stone).

I'm really, really frustrated that I can't figure out which industrial song samples the dialogue "This country is rotten to the core and somebody better do something about it!" Front Line Assembly? Ministry? Someone here must know.

That seems a flicker on my memory nodules.

Start this and let it play the songs. Its the soundtrack to the crazy stupid fun movie Young Einstein lol. Its good music.Turn up the bass.