[wrathzombie]

I have heard that Unhuman album and Gigans mudtidementional blah blah blah. If I wanted to listen to a band like Gigan I would just listen to Blut Aus Nord's Liber 111 2013. Or a multitude of bands that play fancy tech-death like Unhuman. I really never heard of most of those bands. That just goes to show you how much metal came out in 2013. So that list is really a list of bands who are creative unknowns maybe climbing the ladder to be high profile.

And he states that the bands on my list are going to be the ones who you may have never heard of. I still wonder if some lists are made by true industry insiders who are on the future cutting edge, or folks that just try too hard to be cool because they have knowledge of 2nd level semi cool bands who are just listed in an end of the year list because they are obscure.

I also heard the Serocs album, and I really want to get away from year end lists like this one. I want to find a list of gems I missed not just more 2nd rate stuff to waist my time on.

I have spent a good deal of my life searching, finding and enjoying underground music. Sometimes though, the music is underground because it's never going to be popular and right on the edge of falling between the cracks and rightfully lost forever.


On a positive note, if there really is soo much metal out there, maybe we will see more of these interesting release lists at year end. I guess I could post a list too, filling it with 25 obscure underground releases that were somewhat entertaining to listen too, but never heard of. Also on a positive note, it looks like we are not ever going to get to a place where there is not enough to listen to.

Now that anyone can record an album, the fact that there's millions and millions of metal heads that can all play, makes the only hassel, finding the great releases in an ocean of music.

But then, I think Digital age has killed the Underground... And BTW, I like that list; I was not amused by Gigan but Unhuman was fun and even the Pomegranate band. It will take me few weeks to go through it all.
 
Also, one very disturbing trend that I have noticed is we are all talking about the same bands. Its either from metalstorm or AMG etc.. I mean, I might know about a band two days before you but you get to know about them eventually.. That was a good thing about the No Clean Singing list. The bands were truly unknown. Since, I havent given them my complete attention I don't know if they are a waste of time but I am hoping to find at least a couple of gems there.

 

[Redcarmoose]

You're right. I meant Dt770's. Was thinking about something else.

 


Don't get DT770 unless you really need closed phones. They don't sound too great and there are a lot better options out there. HD-25ii or Amerior sound a lot better if you can stand the on-ear deal. I couldn't even though they sound great. I've been digging AKG K712 more and more... they are really full sounding and very detailed without being fatiguing. They are giving me a newfound appreciation for really fast tremolo picking.

Redcarmoose, sorry you're so wrong about Gigan. My sympathies.

Haha, did you get a chance to here that album. I may be suffering from music overload, never mind me..

 

[campj]

Yeah, I preordered it. I like tech-death wankery though. Gigan is pretty far out there.

The new 'underground' is music that sucks. Anything good gets plenty of recognition even if it's some indie nobody band that 5 people know about prior to their epic debut.

 

[Redcarmoose]

But then, I think Digital age has killed the Underground... And BTW, I like that list; I was not amused by Gigan but Unhuman was fun and even the Pomegranate band. It will take me few weeks to go through it all.

Also, one very disturbing trend that I have noticed is we are all talking about the same bands. Its either from metalstorm or AMG etc.. I mean, I might know about a band two days before you but you get to know about them eventually.. That was a good thing about the No Clean Singing list. The bands were truly unknown. Since, I havent given them my complete attention I don't know if they are a waste of time but I am hoping to find at least a couple of gems there.

Haha, did you get a chance to here that album. I may be suffering from music overload, never mind me..

Ok, so ya, I mean, music is a personal thing and everybody has their own taste and I respect that. So maybe there's somthing to this list. That is what this stuff is all about, some guy has an underground radio show, people start listening in, they dig the DJs style and folks get turned on to a bunch of new music.


That was the whole thing with seedy underground record shops. They were dirty but cool, the guy behind the counter would play some song you never heard and there was this strange magic to it all. It always helped if it was late at night in a bad part of town, it made the whole thing edgy.


So if somebody who didn't know about Gigan found out about them and likes them, cool. I just think that there were another 30 or 40 albums out there that were equal or better this year. I wonder because he states it's the best of 2013, if he really likes those albums the best? Are they all truly the best?

The service he provides is if a bunch agree with the list then great, they found some new music they like for the year. That is why we read the lists in the first place.

 

[ferday]

  But then, I think Digital age has killed the Underground... And BTW, I like that list; I was not amused by Gigan but Unhuman was fun and even the Pomegranate band. It will take me few weeks to go through it all.
 
Also, one very disturbing trend that I have noticed is we are all talking about the same bands. Its either from metalstorm or AMG etc.. I mean, I might know about a band two days before you but you get to know about them eventually.. That was a good thing about the No Clean Singing list. The bands were truly unknown. Since, I havent given them my complete attention I don't know if they are a waste of time but I am hoping to find at least a couple of gems there.

 
ya there isn't really an 'underground' anymore since those releases now go to bandcamp LOL...underground used to be tape trading or buying from the back of the tour van from the artists at a local show, which made it really hard to get a real copy of something
 
but...the 'underground' was always (and will always be) a haven for crappy music, and that hasn't changed...like 'moose said, it's easy to make a list of bands no one has heard but that doesn't make them any good (or bad) and sometimes it's too tempting to make a list of stuff no one ever heard of just for the sake of making such a list, not because it's great music.  i own the gigan album and it's not bad but not awesome IMO.  i think what the internet has done over time is stepped up the game for the "major" labels (quotes intended and emphasized), now to get a label deal is pretty huge like it used to be in the early 90's so the bands are working harder for that support.  one of my favorites this year (protest the hero) was a complete self release from one of those community money pool websites, and then got picked up for distribution from a label because of the success of the money raising thing.  so they'll be able to make a living and that will make their music better....maybe...

 

[Redcarmoose]

Underground music had that secret trendy supercool status to it. The records or CDs had a limited pressing, they kind of went around the mainstream business profile and buyers thought the music was real and not corporate BS.

Maybe you thought you were ahead of a trend if you owned it. At times it had lyrical content that went against the grain, kind of that rebel spirit that rock is about.

Maybe there is no underground music in the same way today. It sure was hard to get music out to the public 16 years ago. Now you can put a recorded song on the cloud and everyone knows who you are. Or a band like Job for Cowboy gets songs on MySpace then sells 13,000 copies of their debut album the first week it's out in 2007.


But that's just the thing these newer bands are suppose to replace the big guns. Heck a lot of our big names, especially in the old school death metal genre are really getting old. Lol

Maybe I don't give em all the respect they should get?

 

[campj]

That was the whole thing with seedy underground record shops. They were dirty but cool, the guy behind the counter would play some song you never heard and there was this strange magic to it all. It always helped if it was late at night in a bad part of town, it made the whole thing edgy.

 

http://www.brutalashell.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/blackmetal1.jpg

http://www.onemetal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/euronymous-helvete-500x281.jpg



Hmm, too bad my html tags didn't work. Click the links, whatever buh

 

[Redcarmoose]

ya there isn't really an 'underground' anymore since those releases now go to bandcamp LOL...underground used to be tape trading or buying from the back of the tour van from the artists at a local show, which made it really hard to get a real copy of something

but...the 'underground' was always (and will always be) a haven for crappy music, and that hasn't changed...like 'moose said, it's easy to make a list of bands no one has heard but that doesn't make them any good (or bad) and sometimes it's too tempting to make a list of stuff no one ever heard of just for the sake of making such a list, not because it's great music.  i own the gigan album and it's not bad but not awesome IMO.  i think what the internet has done over time is stepped up the game for the "major" labels (quotes intended and emphasized), now to get a label deal is pretty huge like it used to be in the early 90's so the bands are working harder for that support.  one of my favorites this year (protest the hero) was a complete self release from one of those community money pool websites, and then got picked up for distribution from a label because of the success of the money raising thing.  so they'll be able to make a living and that will make their music better....maybe...

You do understand,


Especially with cult like underground black metal, there is a trend to where it's almost too easy to like a small mildly talented Northern European band. There is this strange mystic quality about the fact that no one knows about them and they don't sell records. Some of these guys are around for years and years and go nowhere. It is like routing for the underdog. But if you somehow connect with the music, also finding friends who like it, it makes the whole thing into this elitist club. The bands don't have to be totally good, in fact if they are mediocre it actually helps the cause somehow.:rolleyes:

 

[Redcarmoose]

That was the whole thing with seedy underground record shops. They were dirty but cool, the guy behind the counter would play some song you never heard and there was this strange magic to it all. It always helped if it was late at night in a bad part of town, it made the whole thing edgy.

 

http://www.brutalashell.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/blackmetal1.jpg

http://www.onemetal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/euronymous-helvete-500x281.jpg



Hmm, too bad my html tags didn't work. Click the links, whatever buh

For whatever reason I could only get the bottom link to post a picture. But ya
That is funny......I never thought of it but, Euronymous was the DJ behind the counter. Because he was so smart and not only connected to the genre, he created the genre.



You know you were going to buy that record from him.

 

[ferday]

You do understand,


The bands don't have to be totally good, in fact if they are mediocre it actually helps the cause somehow.

 
 
this has been my feelings about the underground for 25 years ha ha ha.  metal and hip hop are the same this way...a couple of the underground artists are really great but never get recognition, while the rest are mediocre but everyone rallies around 'the underground' as if it somehow makes it all sound better.  at least with the underground stuff i might actually see a show once in a while as the mid sized bands never come through my area

 

[Redcarmoose]

For whatever reason I could only get the bottom link to post a picture. But ya
That is funny......I never thought of it but, Euronymous was the DJ behind the counter. Because he was so smart and not only connected to the genre, he created the genre.



You know you were going to buy that record from him.

Also the music was rare and obscure at that point. That made the records that much more valuable and rare. If you listen to Darkthrone talk about early influences the strange and obscure factor was always some kind of hidden power.



That's the hidden power in that guys obscure list.

 

[Navybsn]

  Regarding Sleepers Awake, do you see Ed Vedder Comparison??

 
Uh, no. Hadn't seen that anywhere. Strange comparison.

 

[wrathzombie]

Ok, so ya, I mean, music is a personal thing and everybody has their own taste and I respect that. So maybe there's somthing to this list. That is what this stuff is all about, some guy has an underground radio show, people start listening in, they dig the DJs style and folks get turned on to a bunch of new music.


That was the whole thing with seedy underground record shops. They were dirty but cool, the guy behind the counter would play some song you never heard and there was this strange magic to it all. It always helped if it was late at night in a bad part of town, it made the whole thing edgy.


So if somebody who didn't know about Gigan found out about them and likes them, cool. I just think that there were another 30 or 40 albums out there that were equal or better this year. I wonder because he states it's the best of 2013, if he really likes those albums the best? Are they all truly the best?

The service he provides is if a bunch agree with the list then great, they found some new music they like for the year. That is why we read the lists in the first place.

So back in the day, when I recorded Death - Sound Of Perseverance on a Hindu devotional songs tape and was playing it loud on the crappy Philips music system and suddenly Painkiller  ends and the remaining Devotional song kicks in (because the total time for the Sounds of Perseverance was lesser than the length of the tape). My parents freaked. I got a lesson about religion too.
 
At that time everything except Metallica and Megadeth was impossible to find here in India and I used to wish for the day when music would be easily available.
 
And now, everything is available easily and I wish for those days to come back. Not always!! Sometimes 

 I miss the feeling of being part of a cult, which was metal...

 

[wrathzombie]

   
Uh, no. Hadn't seen that anywhere. Strange comparison.

Comeon... That dude sings like Ed Vedder.. Yes he does. Yes he does. Yes he does!!! Since I have typed this thrice, it means its true...

 

[Navybsn]

I think we see alot of the same bands because there are so many sources covering them. I usually read Invisible Oranges, Metal Storm, Metal-Fi, Angry Metal Guy, and this thread. I get some reccomendations from a friend that frequents the Relapse Records board. He always has something out of left field for me. But alas, gone are the days of the unknown band. Then again you sometimes discover old bands that blow your socks off (ie Hecate Enthroned).
 
And thanks to everybody for the headphone recs. I think my next pair will be open. I'm quite satisfied with my HD 428's bacuse they are comfy, aren't fatiguing, and I can listen to them for hours. Just wish they isolated better. I'm seriously considering one of the Hifiman sets. Probably the HE300 unless I come into enough cash for the HE500's. Maybe Senn HD600's. TBD at a later date when funds allow.