The Metal/Punk/Rock Thread

[Panhead]

On 8/19/2025 at 10:10 AM, cobra_gordo said:

So we played Arctangent festival on Saturday. Just after midday, PX3 stage and it was rammed from start to finish. That tent holds 1500 and it was spilling outside of it so to walk on the stage to that and to notice that nobody left for the whole set was unreal. It was one of those gigs oddly where there were no nerves, just rode the wave and enjoyed the whole experience.

Just look at that lot.

To have a crowd that up for it, to be invested, to be cheering so loudly, screaming and clapping along is a high I'm really crashing from at the moment. Can't explain how that feels, seriously. This was the highlight though, something we do at all of our gigs called The World's Slowest Wall Of Death. We'd set a challenge to make the one at ATG the biggest yet and fuck me, they delivered. Felt like Moses when that crowd parted. Also, this looks so ridiculous from the stage, it gives me life every time.
 

Finished the set, got flashed by two ladies who had clearly enjoyed themselves too much and then randomly bumped in to Shane Embury from Napalm Death who it turns out, has heard of our band and is the nicest man on the planet. What a day.

I've been completely depressed since, really don't know how we'll ever top that without being asked back, playing Bloodstock again or getting on Download.

This is awesome! Well done mate, so chuffed for you!

[Egg Shen]

Brilliant stuff @cobra_gordoget on that Bloodstock bill next year and i'll get in on that wall of death action.

[Merzbow]

Jürgen Bartsch, founder and full time member of german Black Doom band Bethlehem has passed away. One of the most interesting black metal acts of the era with a sound that was unlike your average kvltist and he wasn't afraid to leave the genre fully at times either.

[Merzbow]

Faust and Mortiis are rejoining Emperor again for gigs, big day for violent murderous homophobes. 

[Egg Shen]

My Mortiis listening experience never got past Parasite God

Edited September 10, 2025 by Egg Shen

[cobra_gordo]

I'm sure I've told my Faust story on here before but fuck it, I'll tell it again. Back when I was reviewing for a magazine, probably 2007, I went to see Blood Tsunami, Faust's then new band, at Corp in Sheffield. This was just after the Emperor reunion shows. Got chatting to the singer, told them they were great. had a beer and a laugh but I had to leave, left my mates with him drinking.

Got the last bus home and I'm just about to walk in to my house at midnight when my phone goes, it's Faust. One of my mates has given him my phone number. I'm like, this is weird but Nightside Eclipse is awesome so no objections to having a quick natter. I genuinely didn't know why he wasn't involved with the Emperor shows so I asked him why and he said he'd been in prison. Muggins here didn't know what had happened so I said "Oh, why were you in prison" and his matter of fact answer was "I stabbed a gay". So there I am, half cut, desperate for a slash with this fucking remorseless weirdo on the other end of the phone. Made my excuses and hung up.

[King Mal the Glorious]

9 minutes ago, Egg Shen said:

My Mortiis listening experience never got past Parasite God

In recent years he's gone back to playing his original Dungeon Synth style which is by far his best work. Never cared for the Parasite God era stuff.

[The Gaffer]

In addition to being full of all manner of shit people, that whole infamous end of the Norwegian black metal scene is also home to some of the dullest blokes imaginable. That's one of the demystifying things that struck me when I went down my own "Dodgy but intriguing" rabbit hole of it all when I was younger. 

Other than Fenriz, none of those lads are good for a decent sound bite. The 'wrestling smart' end of them will usually blurt out some ethno-pagan disciplined lifestyle shtick that sounds like a CM Punk promo from 2006 that's in danger of becoming vaguely racist at a moments notice. The rest of them in any documentaries and clips I've seen (and I've seen the lot) sit there with the indoor shades and the half drunk pint barely able to muster enough enthusiasm or care for the interview to be anything more than needlessly nervy. But not in a spooky, living the gimmick way. Just in a "You seem like a crap time" kind of way. 

I know my own "I want the band to look chuffed that we all turned up" thing hasn't got a home here - even on a base theatrical level - but still. Grumpy auld bunch. 

[Merzbow]

Funny that the worst racist cunt of the lot is the only one to actually have a sense of humour, Varg's somehow kept himself raking in the cash by being a shitposter and making Gen Z laugh on TikTok.

[WyattSheepMask]

Did anything ever come of him putting out new Burzum material? I got tricked into hearing whatever new track he put out on a podcast last year and it sounded like someone who’d just learnt their first scale.

[Merzbow]

Yeah it's all pretty shitty, and for some reason he's calling the project "Burzum NEW". 

[cobra_gordo]

Reports starting to circulate that Tomas Lindberg has died. What the fuck is going on this year.

 

[Tamura]

Truly gutted about Tompa dying. Hung out with him a lot whenever they were touring the UK back in the 90s. For various reasons didn't see him again until 2016 when At The Gates played Damnation Festival in Leeds and we tried to do twenty years of catching up in the space of twenty seconds. Luckily I got to hang out with him again right at the start of COVID when Disfear played London. Such a lovely guy.

[King Mal the Glorious]

I never got into At the Gates but I liked his stuff with Disfear and The Lurking Fear, RIP.

[SuperBacon]

Never heard of Emmure, and I don't think I even know what deathcore is, but this article popped up on my feed, and it was a really interesting read about them, that, nihilism etc. 

https://www.elienis.com/emmure-deathcore-extremism-edgelord-nihilistic-violence/