Happy Metal Fun Time (Chuck)

I hate trends. We all say these words and then tend to fall into the traps laid by those who shape the media, me included. Taste makers and trend setters glom onto the latest and greatest in an effort to look like they are ahead of the curve and have some kind of insight into what is “cool” or “now” or whatever you call it. My favorite thing about trends is watching it come to an end. When something goes down, the only ones who seem to survive are the actual originators of it, many times decades old bands revived from the depths of carpentry, plumbing or a meth addiction to play that one song a genre has been derived from and imitated over a thousand iterations. Those bands at least deserve a little credit given that they were panned for 25 years ago and discarded only to be resurrected and paraded around.

The most recent trend for my end of the spectrum Doom Metal, which is characterized by Early Black Sabbath, obviously a trend setter as one of the original ‘metal’ bands, but the second wave brought bands who took their sound, slowed it, and became more deliberate with heavy riffs and distressed vocals. Thinking about it, this may be the third time we have had this particular genre resurge, maybe only the second if you consider the groovier spawn in the mid-90s as something different.  So this month, DOOM METAL, a few classics and the trendier modern crap packaged and sold as Satan’s soundtrack, enjoy!

:Acid King – Infinite Skies:
:Yob – Nothing to Win:
:Candlemass – At The Gallows End:
:Valkyrie – Golden Age:
:Cathedral – Ebony Tears:
:Ufomammut – Temple:
:Crowbar – Existence Is Punishment:
:Trouble – The Tempter:
:Goatsnake – Elevated Man:
:Saint Vitus – Born Too Late:
:My Dying Bride – The Poorest Waltz:
:Pentagram – Sign of the Wolf (Pentagram):
:Lucifer – Purple Pyramid:
:Pallbearer – Fear and Fury: