np: "All Nightmare Long" - Metallica
I've had this since last Friday, but due to a writing deadline this weekend I'm just finally getting around to listening to it. Initial thoughts? It's pretty frickin' great. Time will tell if this is really, truly great or if I'm just happy to have something so far away from the horrid St. Anger - but I'm really liking what I hear so far. Some of the lyrics are still pretty lol-worthy, but really - when has Metallica ever been about the lyrics? I'm just really happy to hear them doing thrash again, as opposed to the... well... whatever the hell they were trying to accomplish with that last one. I'm also absolutely loving Kirk's solos, glad to hear those again. Something about this album seems to be bringing out the faithful and the haters alike, there seems to be little middle ground on this one. Whatever. I like it and I'm tending to side more with this guy than this guy (and no, not just because he's my editor over at Metal Edge).
Speaking of the Metal Edge though... the October/November issue is out there on newstands and, in addition to the really interesting Manowar feature by Adrien Begrand, you can read what I had to say about recent albums by Grand Magus, Hero Destroyed, and Knights of the Abyss. The Grand Magus is a solid outing, finding them moving further away from their typical doom sound and more into traditional metal territory - but it's a good fit for them. Hero Destroyed is a promising new addition to the Relapse roster and I'll be interested to hear their full-length, even if the arrangements on this teaser EP did run a little same-y. As for the Knights of the Abyss, well, I found it hard to say much positive about that one. It just struck me as deathcore-by-numbers, nothing that isn't being done better by other bands.
In other metal news, thanks to the long lead time for print journalism, its time to start compliling my list of favorite albums for Metal Edge. This will mark the first year I've had to put together a single genre based list and I'm finding it tougher than I expected. I've heard tons of great stuff, but I don't know that I've spent enough time with some of the albums to determine just which are the cream of the crop. As of right now I can see the albums from Harvey Milk, Krallice, Black Mountain, Coffins, Nachtmystium, Opeth, Torche, Gojira, Testament, Disfear, Lair of the Minotaur and, yes, Metallica placing on my list. Now I just need to spend some time relistening and figuring out just how they drop into the overall ranking and see if there is anything else I've missed.
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