You must listen to the album below you: canon edition

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

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Those Who Fear Tomorrow by Integrity

I can't really tell you much about this album. It came and went without making a great impression on me. The fact that its main genre on RYM is Metalcore is very strange. I thought it had to have been a mistake, because the album came out in 1991. I can't think of any other "metalcore" music that was prominent at the time. I think most of the stuff that could have been classified as that might have been classified as Crossover Thrash or just Hardcore at the time. At any rate, this is like Unsane kind of. Or something along those lines. It's a strange mix of sounds that were somewhat popular in the underground at the time. Hard to describe. Definitely not what "metalcore" would become associated with. Just a hard and heavy album with both Metal and Hardcore influences. Pretty OK.

So many good ones Merc. My favorite is number 1 Nomeansno with Wrong.

Brutal Truth- Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
Painkiller- Buried Secrets
Believer- Dimensions
BUCK-TICK- Darker Than Darkness -style 93-
Sentenced- North From Here
Michael Gira- Drainland
Sol Invictus- In The Rain
Bethlehem- Dictius Te Necare
Directions- Directions in Music
Pan.Thy.Monium- Khaooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion

[EyeKanFly]

1.

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Brussels Affair (Live 1973) by The Rolling Stones

Even a few songs in I know I like this way better than Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out, the only other live Rolling Stones album I’ve heard (I think). “Starfucker” or “Star Star” is great, I know I’ve listened to Goat’s Head Soup so I must have heard the studio version, but I either barely remember it or it’s much different live. It’s excellent live. Really glad I’m listening to this album which combines some of their greatest songs and some which I barely know but are becoming my favorites.

The album has some great songs with slightly different live interpretations than on the studio albums. In particular “Gimme Shelter” and “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” have different arrangements here and both are still great despite the lack of additional singers.

@LedZep: This is up there as far as Rolling Stones live and/or comps go, although I'd agree that despite the Stones' magnificent discography, there's not a single great compilation that does all their (good) music justice. I'd give this a shot, but Singles Collection: The London Years is also up there. The only problem with both of these is that this live album only covers until 1973, and the singles comp goes through 1971.

2.

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Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Respo...utal Truth
This is the only one of the list I've heard, and I dig it for the most part.

3. I'm going with some combination of highly ranked albums on RYM that unfortunately are now out of order since they were added to my wishlist months ago, but they all fall within the top 500 on RYM's all-time list (including live, archival, and soundtracks without de-weighting them... which means that pretty much all these albums will fall into at least one of those categories):

• Knebworth 1996 by Oasis (archival / live)
  
• NieR: Automata by Keiichi Okabe & Keigo Hoashi (soundtrack)
  
• The Real Royal Albert Hall 1966 Concert! by Bob Dylan (archival / live)
  
• Rock Dream by Boris with Merzbow (live)
  
• Archive 1967-75 by Genesis (archival / live) - I realize this is 4+ hours of music, it still seems really interesting
  
• Live in Europe 1967: The Bootleg Series Vol. 1 by Miles Davis Quintet (archival / live) - same comment as above
  
• Chrono Trigger by Yasunori Mitsuda (soundtrack)
  
• Live at the Fillmore East (March 7, 1970): It's About That Time by Miles Davis (archival / live)
  
• Mother 2/Earthbound by Hirokazu Tanaka & Keiichi Suzuki (soundtrack)
  
• The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask by Koji Kondo (soundtrack)

_________________
51 Washington, D.C. albums!

[Repo]

[EyeKanFly]

[LedZep]

(1)

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(GI) by Germs
I remember GI as a typical hardcore punk record which didn't move me much, but was mostly enjoyable and interesting. Especially because it was arguably the first of its kind. That assessment is still correct, it's cool, but not among the best in the genre. Besides, I have a lot of the same problems with hardcore punk as I do with grind, crust and other related stuff: it's more of an experience than a normal album with songs. Which is fine, but it makes it hard for me to connect to a particular band/album/song. That being said, like a lot of albums in the aforementioned genres, it's fun, it's chaotic, and I enjoyed it while it lasted. Shut Down (Annihilation Man) is the only oddity here, an almost 10 minute noisy, proto post-hardcore jam which closes the album. The highlights were Communist Eyes and We Must Bleed, especially the latter, which might be the most developed song on the whole record. It's also among the longest (>3 minutes). Fun time, not sure how often I'll listen to this though. 7.5/10

(2)
Let's go with Miles (the slightly more manageable one), Live in Europe 1967.

(3)
Picks from BEA metal charts, 2023 wishlist, some other cool stuff.
R marks relistens

Sacramentum - Far Away From the Sun (Gowi) (R)
Pyrrhon - Mother of Virtues (AfterHours)
Sufjan Stevens - Javelin
Sampha - Lahai
MIKE - Burning Desire
Mitski - The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
The Cardigans - Life (R)
Swell Maps - ...In "Jane From Occupied Europe"
Klaus Schulze - X
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
_________________
Finally updated the overall chart

2020s
90s

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

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Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Respo...utal Truth

2 references to Hieronymus Bosch in a row? Gotta love metal album covers.

On RYM this album's only genre is "Deathgrind". I won't get into the weeds with metal genres, but that seems fairly appropriate I guess. I'm figuring out that sometimes I don't quite have the vocabulary to describe metal albums adequately. The group was started by the ex bassist from Anthrax, SOD, and Nuclear Assault, Dan Lilker, so add this group to his impressive career. This is a "brutal" pummeling album that is probably mostly what you'd be expecting. The biggest surprise were actually the social justice themed lyrics. Mostly about like "capitalism is bad" and stuff like that, but there's even a song called "Anti-homophobe" which is pretty cool. The music is best when they slow everything and breakdown. Blastbeats and mindless shredding usually get to me over an extended period of time. That's why I'm cool with Napalm Death, because they don't fuck around when it comes to song or album lengths. Luckily this album does a great job of mixing in diverse tempos and memorable riffs to offset some of the monotony of the instrumentation. Ill-Neglect, Regression-Progression, and Time were all highlights. Time is actually the longest song here, and it has nearly every element that this group has to offer over the runtime. In your face blast beats, chugging breakdowns, and even some power tools. Oh! I almost forgot. Vocally, this album has more guttural throaty vocals, but there are also incredible screams throughout. Like blood-curdling psychotic screams. The kind that I can appreciate. They sound legitimately painful.

Ledzep, Swell Maps for sure. Love that band.

Painkiller- Buried Secrets
Believer- Dimensions
BUCK-TICK- Darker Than Darkness -style 93-
Sentenced- North From Here
Michael Gira- Drainland
Sol Invictus- In The Rain
Bethlehem- Dictius Te Necare
Directions- Directions in Music
Pan.Thy.Monium- Khaooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion
Theatre of Tragedy- Velvet Darkness They Fear

[Repo]

1. Blowing Bubbles

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Back At The Chicken Shack by Jimmy Smith

Everyone wants to be him. That guy who is just effortlessly cool. Wherever he’s at, well, THAT’s the place to be at. He makes it THAT.

At first, I didn’t really get this album. Thought it was just background cocktail lounge music and fairly generic at that. Stuff I’d heard a thousand times before. But its slow charms and easy going nature eventually won me over. I let it in, you see. I let it ease that nagging tension in my lower back that'd been bugging me for weeks. Felt my muscles melt aways and relax. And slowly, a smile crossed my lips. And I thought, “THIS is the life.” Just chilling, not racing. My magical organ blowing bubbles as my boy Stanley Turrentine blows that sax and the rhythm section just bounces along with not a care in the world. No negativity on our block. No siree. No time to be wasting my time running around all ragged like. No. We’ll have none that. Not when I can be blowing bubbles.

The Rating:

2.

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Drainland by Michael Gira

3. Bowie + 1963

Repo Ranks: '90+s Bowie
Black Tie White Noise
Outsider
Earthling
Hours
Heathen
Reality
the next day
Blackstar


1963
1. Sam Cooke - Night Beat
2. Dylan - Freewheelin'
3. Mingus - Black Saint
4. The Searchers - Sugar & Spice
5. Jimmy Smith - Chicken Shack
6. Roy Orbison - In Dreams

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

What a dichotomy of albums there.

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Drainland by Michael Gira

I am not the biggest Swans guy. I like 'em but not overly so. I'd say that this is another Swans album, but with more personal lyrics. Gira goes deep on his alcoholism on this one, which is the only real draw besides the typical Swans-fare. Pretty much what I expected, and it was good. A mix of neofolk, industrial, singer-songwriter, etc. If you are a Swans completiionist, or a fan, then this should probably be listened to.

Repo, let's look at Outsider.

Painkiller- Buried Secrets
Believer- Dimensions
BUCK-TICK- Darker Than Darkness -style 93-
Sentenced- North From Here
Sol Invictus- In The Rain
Bethlehem- Dictius Te Necare
Directions- Directions in Music
Pan.Thy.Monium- Khaooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion
Theatre of Tragedy- Velvet Darkness They Fear
The Third and The Mortal- Painting On Glass

[LedZep]

(1)

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Jane From Occupied Europe by Swell Maps
A difficult 1st listen, that's for sure. There's a lot of cool stuff going on, sonically it's exactly what I love and expect from an album of this style and calibre. Artsy, experimental post punk, most of the tracks are groovy and repetitive. A few tracks even sound like half-improvised jams, which is not all that typical for what is essentially a punk record. Dense wall of noise is the band's signature from what I understand, and it's obvious why. The closing short instrumental Raining in My Room is fantastic. Listening to the album for the second time now and, predictably, it's even better. Will have to read the lyrics as well. A cool band indeed, 7.5/10

(2)
That Bethlehem album is fun (as fun as something called "depressive suicidal black metal" with harsh vocals in German can be)

(3)
Picks from BEA metal charts, 2023 wishlist, some other cool stuff.
R marks relistens

Sacramentum - Far Away From the Sun (Gowi) (R)
Pyrrhon - Mother of Virtues (AfterHours)
Sampha - Lahai
Lana Del Rey - Did you know there was a tunnel under Ocean Blvd
MIKE - Burning Desire
Mitski - The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We
The Cardigans - Life (R)
Ultravox - Ha! Ha! Ha!
Klaus Schulze - X
Roxy Music - For Your Pleasure
_________________
Finally updated the overall chart

2020s
90s

[Tha1ChiefRocka]

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Dictius Te Necare by Bethlehem

I had heard some of this before, but I mostly only remembered the absolutely unhinged vocal delivery of the singer. That first track is one of his most over the top performances on the album, so I think it might spook some people from listening to what is otherwise a great black metal album with some doom elements.

What struck me the most were the dynamics and lack of incessant blast beats. It makes this the kind of atmosphere that I always want for an album of this kind. Verses of pure mania are intercut with quiet and contemplative passages that work really well together. Their are some light dungeon synth elements floating around on this album that lend itself nicely to overall tone of the album, which is correctly called "depressive". The last two tracks were the highlights for me, and I came away used to the vocalist by the end of the album. Probably will listen to again.

Klaus Schulze would be my choice.

Painkiller- Buried Secrets
Believer- Dimensions
BUCK-TICK- Darker Than Darkness -style 93-
Sentenced- North From Here
Sol Invictus- In The Rain
Directions- Directions in Music
Pan.Thy.Monium- Khaooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion
Theatre of Tragedy- Velvet Darkness They Fear
The Third and The Mortal- Painting On Glass
Vinterland- Welcome My Last Chapter