Last album you absorbed?

[Reign in Acai]

Bounty! "The quicker picker upper." I have more albums than I have minutes in the day. I say this knowing that my collection is a fraction in size of some of us here. Voidhanger, Vittra, how you lads doing tonight? As often is the case, I'll crack out an album, give it a couple spins, then put it back in the registry for another spin months or even years down the line. Perhaps 1/12th of every album purchased is given a proper listen to extract all the various nuances that lie therein. Now lads, I ask you, what was the last album that you dined, drove, and shat with?!? None of this wham bam thank you mam' shitola. For me personally it would be Thyrfing's - Vansinnesvisor. This album witnessed the band making generous strides away from the jolly go lucky mead swilling of their previous releases, shifting towards a more atramental styling of blackened folk metal. Sure there's an occasional yo ho ho riff good for a shot of whiskey and a beard stroke, but the majority of the tracks keep a soberly dark edge, even venturing in to proggish waters at various times. The chorus to The Giant's Laughter is simply sublime.

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness. It's pretty much everything I want in music, and I only just heard it for the first time like a month ago.

 

[Anom@nder Rake]

Karnarium - s/t. I've had this cd in my car for nearly two months. It's essentially everything I want in a DM album. It's easily in my top 5 death metal albums this decade.

 

[Dark One]

Nice thread Jer, I agree with your thoughts on Vansinnesvisor and find myself digging it more with each passing listen. In terms of the last album I sat back and needed to absorb due to lack of immediacy would be The Green Evening Requiem - Bastards of Atlas from 2009.

The Green Evening Requiem employ a style of Progressive Death Metal that combines elements of bands like Opeth, Gwynbleidd, Velnias, Woods of Ypres, Amorphis, November's Doom and Enslaved without blatantly worshiping any of them.

Their debut full length is one of the more interesting releases I've heard in a long time. There's a huge mix of upbeat rock passages, melodic & peaceful jam sessions as well as the heavier headbanging moments found throughout. The vocals are mostly growls but there are some very classy clean vocal passages to be found at times as well (particularly on the track "Severance"). At times dramatic and moving, at others relaxing and introspective, this is definitely water that requires wading in rather than diving full on into the deep end. Be sure to let the full album envelop you before formulating an initial opinion, but if impatience gets the best of you, jump to the tracks "Atlantis in Winter" and "Severance" for songs that have elements of more immediate appeal as well as plenty of variety that showcases the band's range. Still a bit raw (especially in the drumming department), this is a band honing its craft and refining its sound, but the ambition is obvious and there are plenty of signs of great things to come.

Jason

 

[einride]

"världsspegeln" from vansinnesvisor is really great but i'm pretty sure "farsotstider" is the better album in the long run

anyway i think FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM "dawnrazor" and "elizium", i've been playing those like mad the last year or so, totally timeless classics

 

[Disgustipated]

Sólstafir's Köld was the latest album I really absorbed in the playing over and over kind of way.

Definitely went through a stage where Vansinnesvisor was that album though, back when it came out 'twas one of the first viking/folk metal albums I got into.

 

[Demilich]

 

[Plastic Nathrakh]

All I listen to is Devin Townsend still. Oh, and Nifelheim. I listened to Devil's Force like 5 times yesterday.

 

[Vittra]

Voidhanger, Vittra, how you lads doing tonight?

I'm doing fine good sir and yourself?

The last album two albums I spent a significant amount of time absorbing was Enslaved - Vertabrae, and Caïna - Temporary Antennae,

Both albums took many subsequent listens over a short period of time to fully appreciate and enjoy. That was expected with Caïna, but not with Enslaved, of which i've never had a problem being instantly hooked by. I had however listened to Vertebrae far too much and have since shelved it for awhile as it's again lost it's appeal. I still listen to Temporary Antennae (and the rest of Caïna's catalogue) frequently.

More recently, as of last week I finally began listening to Krallice (One of a few albums in 2008 I had yet to hear) in anticipation of the show on Monday. They will be playing a pre-show with a different setlist than the one they play with WITTR later on that night.

I'm really enjoying some parts of their album, but it still hasn't clicked with me yet. Perhaps seeing them live will change my perception.

 

[Ars Magna]

Vomitory - Terrorize. Brutalize. Sodomize. It's basically all I have listened to in my car for the past week. Nothing that really needs to be absorbed, per se, just a great slab o metal.

 

[General Zod]

Nice thread Jer, I agree with your thoughts on Vansinnesvisor and find myself digging it more with each passing listen. In terms of the last album I sat back and needed to absorb due to lack of immediacy would be The Green Evening Requiem - Bastards of Atlas from 2009.

The Green Evening Requiem employ a style of Progressive Death Metal that combines elements of bands like Opeth, Gwynbleidd, Velnias, Woods of Ypres, Amorphis, November's Doom and Enslaved without blatantly worshiping any of them.

Their debut full length is one of the more interesting releases I've heard in a long time. There's a huge mix of upbeat rock passages, melodic & peaceful jam sessions as well as the heavier headbanging moments found throughout. The vocals are mostly growls but there are some very classy clean vocal passages to be found at times as well (particularly on the track "Severance"). At times dramatic and moving, at others relaxing and introspective, this is definitely water that requires wading in rather than diving full on into the deep end. Be sure to let the full album envelop you before formulating an initial opinion, but if impatience gets the best of you, jump to the tracks "Atlantis in Winter" and "Severance" for songs that have elements of more immediate appeal as well as plenty of variety that showcases the band's range. Still a bit raw (especially in the drumming department), this is a band honing its craft and refining its sound, but the ambition is obvious and there are plenty of signs of great things to come.

What? Is there some reason you didn't tell me about this band? And here I thought we were friends. Is this because I'm a Democrat?

Vomitory - Terrorize. Brutalize. Sodomize. It's basically all I have listened to in my car for the past week. Nothing that really needs to be absorbed, per se, just a great slab o metal.

Just curious... what genre?

Zod

 

[Ellestin]

Kerbenok - O. I wish I could give every purchase that much time and perseverance. Been playing it at least once a day for several weeks. Now once a week or so, but it lost none of its appeal. One of the few albums bought in the 2000's that I can say I know by heart. Ended up claiming the #1 spot for 2008 btw.

 

[Ars Magna]

Just curious... what genre?

 

[Dark One]

What? Is there some reason you didn't tell me about this band? And here I thought we were friends. Is this because I'm a Democrat?

LOL - and in true Pelosi form you fail to remember that I briefed you on this album long before the issue was brought to the forefront of the public's attention.

 

[Dark One]

Just curious... what genre?

They're pure Death Metal (Vomitory).

 

[Reign in Acai]

Karnarium - s/t. I've had this cd in my car for nearly two months. It's essentially everything I want in a DM album.

The Chasm - Deathcult For Eternity is the superlative expression of the dm sound to my ears. I've been given this baby alot of attention lately, but she still remains a stranger in my arms.

 

[swizzlenuts]

I've spun Deathcult and Conjuration each 50+ times, and I still hear something new each time I listen!

 

[Dev]

If we're talking anything remotely metal then : Secret Chiefs 3 - Book of Horizons. Easily their best album, proabably even better than - dare I say it - California and on par with Bungle s/t, Disco Volante being beyond reach. An amazing journey, with very easy-listening morriconesque/middle-east flavoured tracks and others totally free such as "The Owl in Daylight" and "On the Wings of the Haoma". I love that stuff.

On the other hand, there is the classic Kind of Blue by Miles Davis which I finally "got", a year after having bought it and tried to explore jazz music. Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley saxohpone chassé-croisés are truly memorable.. I guess you need to be in the good mood to approach such music as with folk, classical or even drone-doom metal.. Its beauty appears so obvious to me now, it just shines from the dark if that makes sense. This is music that lives, that breathes. And all tracks but Flamenco Sketches in one take.. it give chills only to think about it.

One of the finest moments for me, which, funnily enough has not been composed by Miles itself, origianally, but by Bill Evans (piano) :

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoPL7BExSQU&feature=related[/ame]

 

[Demilich]

^ The only jazz album in my collection, and it has a welcome place! Strangely I never found anything to "get" about it, it simply worked perfectly for me from the first time I played it.

 

[Dev]

Yeah it's not that hard to get into, it has a very distinctive atmosphere and such, but Jazz, as a whole took me a bit longer, and now I can perceive its full magic.. to be honest my first tries were kind of b..oring.