Announcements
The Spotify Stars Program: Celebrating Values Week!

Help Wizard

Step 1

NEXT STEP

[Metal] What Are You Listening To?

Reply

[Metal] What Are You Listening To?

Artist: Iron Maiden

Release: Rock In Rio

232 Replies

Currently inside the metal i'm hearing Opeth, the last disc contains stoner and progressive elements. An original band that released each disc has more quality and daring

Been way behind on posting about new and current material I have come across, and that I find appealing in the metal direction of music. With one thing or another, here it goes again.

 

Artist: Asphyx
Release: Incoming Death
Year: New September 30th, 20616

Labels: Century Media Records 
Style of Music: Death/Doom Metal
Origins: Oldenzaal, Overijssel, Netherlands

Very nice well done death doom metal. Has a very nice even balance between the death vocal sound not too over done, one can hear the words among the growling, with a heavy droning doom sound from the instrument section, very very doomy, and heavy.

 

Artist: Epica
Release: The Holographic Principle

Year: New September 30th, 2016
Labels: Nuclear Blast
Style of Music: Symphonic/Power Metal
Origins: Reuver, Limburg, Netherlands 

Another great release by the band this time around, first 12 tracks are strong Symphonic soaring Power Metal musical tracks with plenty of orchestra music and opera vocals at play here. The last five tracks on the release are much more relaxed musically, balancing on the European Folk music direction, and show casing Simone Simons vocal talents in a much more lighter musical direction.

 

Artist: Gojira
Release: Terra Incognita
Year: Original released - 2001, re-released August 24th, 2009, and due for another re-release on October 7th, 2016
Labels: Original label - Gabriel, re-release label - Listenable Records
Style of Music: Progressive/Groove/Death Metal
Origins: Bayonne, Aquitaine, France 

Original debut, but from a re-released North American version that adds three live tracks from a 2006 show in Antwerp, Belgium. For Metal fans who like Gojira, but have not listened to the debut yet, or gotten the physical copy release yet. Hear the release now while you can, available in these listening regions currently on the Spotify service: CA US

 

Artist: Opeth
Release: Sorceress
Year: New September 30th, 2016
Labels: Nuclear Blast
Style of Music: Progressive Hard Rock/Metal
Origins: Sörskogen, Stockholm, Sweden

Well Opeth have done it again, quite possible one of the most interesting bands in many many years to come about. They always do something slightly different and unique on musical output. Even though any seasoned music listener will be able to easily pick up the classic 70's rock vibe here and which classic Rock musical artists Opeth draws from with this release. Opeth does something most bands do not do with drawing from their musical influences, Opeth adds their own touch, style and very different musical creativity to the musical influences they draw upon in their musical output. All I will leave off, do not discount this release at first listen, give it a few spins. I am on my second listen of this release, and I am already drawn into what made classic Rock great the first time around, but these guys give the musical style and influences here a breath of fresh air from all the modern bands and artists that just rehash the same old same thing again.

 

Note, I have access to the 16 track version of this release, which is essentially just the two disc set pulled together in a continuous track number order. The first 11 tracks are the standard release, and the other five tracks are two bonus studio tracks, and also three live tracks. The two bonus studio tracks draw from Jazz fusion Rock, and Blues Rock musical influences, the three live tracks recorded on September 19th, 2015 at The Ancient Roman Amphitheater in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, featuring the Orchestra of State Opera Plovdiv and Rodna Pesen Choir.

 

Artist: Suicidal Tendencies
Release: World Gone Mad
Year: New September 30th, 2016
Labels: Indie self released - Suicidal Records
Style of Music: Crossover Thrash/ Funk Metal
Origins: Venice, California, U.S.

Well Mike Muir and new lineup crew have done it again, another stellar recording of fast up tempo Crossover/ Funk Metal. S.T. fans will find some familiar ground here, and even some wilder new territory if that was possible for S.T..

Lineup for this release: 

It is always a good time for S/T. 🙂

I'm about to check out Avatar's new album.

https://play.spotify.com/artist/4jpaXieuls7LVzG1uma5Rs

Artist: Meshuggah

Release: The Violent Sleep Of Reason 
Year: New October 7th, 2016
Labels: Nuclear Blast
Style of Music: Extreme Metal / Progressive Metal /  Avant-garde Metal 
Origins: Umeå, Sweden

Meshuggah have their own unique sound and direction when it comes to their musical output, their music is always a bit chaotic and jarring which is the intent I do think. 🙂 Very complex guitar work here with a familiar feel for the bands signature sound, does not stray very far from the bands past sound and direction. Give this release a few spins for fans of Gojira, Strapping Young Lad, SikTh, Animals As Leaders, and Mastodon.

 

Artist: Raven
Release: Wiped Out (Bonus Track Edition) / All For One (Bonus Track Edition) / All Systems Go! The Neat Anthology 
Year: 1982 / 1983 / 2002
Labels: Neat Records / Sanctuary Records
Style of Music: NWOBHM

Origins: Newcastle, England, U.K. (early) / New York, United States (later)

 

Well these three releases showed up on the Raven artist page over the last couple weeks, not sure exactly when? Hopefully fingers crossed this is a sign that the bands debut album Rock Until You Drop, a re-released version of it will show up soon? Note, thanks to whichever Spotify team cleaned up the artist page as well, they was a mess for awhile, having other artists that are using the Raven name all mixed in. This made difficulties for music listeners listening to music directly from the main artist page.

 

This was one of the bands from the earlier 80's that was part of the NWOBHM that exploded onto the music scene from the late 70's to the early 80's along with bands like Saxon, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Diamond Head, Tygers of Pan Tang,

 etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_wave_of_British_heavy_metal

 

Anyway check these three releases out for fans of this type of early 80's Metal that was so instrumental in influencing so many Hard Rock / Metal bands that would follow.

 

 

 

Artist: Heaven Shall Burn

Album: Wanderer

Year: 2016

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

 

Nearly all of the songs are great I would say. August Burns Red and Heaven Shall Burn never miss.

 

spotify:track:7JPbtFvuscfYiKEen8d2eh

Artist: Faith No More
Release: King For A Day... Fool For A Lifetime (Remastered, Deluxe Edition) / Album of the Year (Remastered, Deluxe Edition) 
Year: Re-released September 9th, 2016
Labels: Slash Records / Warner Records
Style of Music: Avant-garde/ Alternative/ Heavy Metal
Origins: San Francisco, California, U.S.

Faith No More has been over the last couple of years, re-releasing their past material in remastered and deluxe editions with additional bonus content and live tracks from shows during the tours for those releases. Already finished a few weeks ago listening to their debut re-release of We Care A Lot (Deluxe Remastered) Version: https://open.spotify.com/album/3kS5TLtHJ68AXea5FsoLxg

 

 

A couple of live album releases to highlight here that were made available on the Spotify service.

 

First up:

Artist: Saxon
Release: Let Me Feel Your Power (Live)
Year: September 23rd, 2016
Labels: UDR GmbH
Style of Music: NWOBHM / Power Metal
Origins: Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, U.K.

A live release recorded during the Battering Ram world tour. The release has recorded live material from three different live shows:

Tracks 1-13 were recorded live in Munich, Germany in November 2015
Tracks 14-16 were recorded live in Brighton, UK in January 2016.

Tracks 15-32 were recorded live in Chicago in September 2015.

This is a very well done and put together live release by Saxon, which highlights the best the band can be live.

 

 

Next Up:

Artist: Twisted Sister
Release: Metal Meltdown (Live)
Year: July 22nd, 2016
Labels: Rock Fuel Media / Loud & Proud Records
Style of Music: Hard Rock/ Heavy Metal
Origins: Long Island, New York, U.S.

A live album recorded from The Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. This was a show recorded from July 22nd, 2016 for the T/S farewell, and also a memorial tour for A.J. Pero who passed away while on tour in March of 2015. Very nice song set which highlights the power of T/S live, has Mike Portnoy setting behind the drum kit for this show to fill in the missing spot for Pero.

 

Edited to add: Warning the whole live show is well explicit language, as Dee Snider just does so to annoy the PMRC and has done so for a very long time now. So avoid playing this around your boss at work. 🙂

 

Artist: The Dillinger Escape Plan

Release: Dissociation

Year: New October 14th, 2016
Labels: Party Smasher, Cooking Vinyl

Style of Music: Mathcore / Experimental Rock 
Origins: Morris Plains, New Jersey, U.S.

 

Well I missed this new one by a few days, even though I had been keeping up with the bands singles that were being released previous to the full release coming. I did not notice this new release until Tuesday this week, when the new release showed up on my Discover page under the New Releases For You section.

 

Anyway onto the release, the band mixes things up a bit here, this release has the bands signature Mathcore sound they are known for and music time signatures, but also mixes in some experimental Rock track numbers that break things up a bit. An interesting mix here, the changes in music styles seems to work as a weird type of mashup between standard Mathcore music numbers, and experimental Rock tracks, some of those tracks seem to push in the direction of avant-garde rock some, but this is just me and my views. Check it out, definitely something interesting going on here with the bands music direction now.

 

Artist: Autopsy
Release: Skullgrinder E.P.
Year: November 27, 2015 Vinyl release version / September 23rd, 2016 CD release version / October 21st, 2016 streaming version.
Labels: Peaceville Records
Style of Music: Death Metal
Origins: Concord, California, U.S.

 

Well this is the official CD / Digital / Spotify Streaming release of the Vinyl version of the E.P. that was released last year. Like always Autopsy has that interesting Death Metal direction and sound that makes any die hard Death Metal fan appreciate. Take this one for a few spins, music is for fans of such bands as Obituary, Morbid Angel, Asphyx, Incantation, Terrorizer, Bolt Thrower, Nocturnus, etc.

 

Artist: KoЯn
Release: The Serenity of Suffering
Year: New October 21st, 2016
Labels: Roadrunner Records
Style of Music: Nu Metal / Alternative Metal
Origins: Bakersfield, California, U.S.

 

The twelfth studio release of the band, they like to mix things up, but the band does draw from their older familiar music style here some with this release, one could say this is the band in a return to their roots sound as can be said sometimes. I have always liked KoЯn, seen them several times live and it is always a fun show to see. This release offered here is the standard 11 tracks, hopefully when the KoЯn tour is over they will release a tour edition of this release like what was done with The Paradigm Shift Tour Edition, with the left off bonus studio tracks from the standard release, and selected live tracks from the current tour. Anyway this is for fans of such music, check it out it grows on you like most of the band's releases does.

 

Note the release comes in Explicit and Clean versions:

Explicit Version:

 

Clean:

A couple of releases to highlight from New Music Friday, one release is a re-release 20th anniversary edition, and the other new release this past Friday is a live release.

 

First up:

Artist: Pantera
Release: The Great Southern Trend Kill (20th Anniversary Edition)
Year: October 21st, 2016
Labels: Atlantic Recording Corporation
Style of Music: Groove Metal
Origins: Arlington, Texas, U.S.

 

The Atlantic label that has copyright ownership of the 90's era Pantera content has been re-releasing the past content in remastered deluxe anniversary edition releases when the year dates approach. And just so happens it is the 20th anniversary this year for T.G.S.T.T. release this year. The release contains the original studio release remastered with additional live tracks, plus studio tracks of early mixes during the recording sessions for the release.

 

 

Next up:

Artist: Obituary
Release: Ten Thousand Ways To Die
Year: October 21st, 2016
Labels: Relapse Records
Style of Music: Death Metal
Origins: Gibsonton, Florida, U.S.

 

Live album with a couple of new studio tracks. The live tracks were recorded during the Inked In Blood world tour from various dates and locations throughout North America for that part of the world tour. Very solid song highlights from the band's tour.

 

Artist: Tygers Of Pan Tang
Release: Self Titled
Year: October 21st, 2016
Labels: Mighty Music
Style of Music: NWOBHM / Power Metal / Hard Rock
Origins: Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, England, U.K.

 

Well this release is a scorcher. First two tracks off this release brings the listener into a brick wall literally, a couple of rather hard hitting numbers that set the tone for this release. The music mixes elements of classic New Wave of British Metal, with Power Metal elements, and slows things down in the bluesy rocker / ballad areas with Hard Rock overtones. Even though Robb Weir is the only original member of the incarnation of the Tygers this time around, the band sure does pull out all the best here possible on this release. For fans of classic British Metal / Power Metal. Up the Horns!!! \m/

 

Line up for this release:

  • Robb Weir – Guitar (1978–1983, 1999, 2000–present)
  • Craig Ellis – Drums (2000–present)
  • Jacopo Meille – Vocals (2004–present)
  • Gavin Gray – Bass (1999, 2011–present)
  • Micky Crystal – Guitar (2013–present)

 

@Alvin_ti4200

 

I am hoping to get to this release sometime soon in a week or two maybe? I have a Releases To Check Out playlist I have been dumping all new content and some past releases that gets highlighted through the Discover personal page feature. I just ended up with way more content in it than I had intended, about 198 hours worth of listening material now, only about a third of the way through it now currently. 🙂

Artist: Crowbar
Release: The Serpent Only Lies
Year: October 28th, 2016
Labels: Steamhammer / Entertainment One
Style of Music: Sludge Metal
Origins: New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

 

11th Studio album release and band led by vocal - guitar player Kirk Windstein, rather sludgy doomy sounding stuff like Crowbar's sound direction is. Has a steady even sound going through most of the songs. For fans of music by bands such as C.O.C., Eyehategod, Down, Cathedral, Kingdom of Sorrow, The Sword, and Goatsnake. The new release is well worth a few spins.

 

Suggested posts