What Heavy Blog Is Really Listening To – 2/17/17

Heavy Blog
What We're Really Listening To
For those who missed our last installment, We post biweekly updates covering what the staff at Heavy Blog have been spinning. Given the amount of time we spend on the site telling you about music that does not fall neatly into the confines of conventional “metal,” it should come as no surprise that many of us on staff have pretty eclectic tastes that range far outside of metal and heavy things. We can’t post about all of them at length here, but we can at least let you know what we’re actually listening to. For those that would like to participate as well (and please do) can drop a 3X3 in the comments, which can be made with tapmusic.net through your last.fm account, or create it manually with topsters.net. Also, consider these posts open threads to talk about pretty much anything music-related. We love hearing all of your thoughts on this stuff and love being able to nerd out along with all of you.

67 – The Critique Of Pure Shitpost

Noyan
Podcast
This episode is just too good. Seriously, just listen to it. What does it contain? Edgy cultural/political jokes, a history of black metal and racism, an extended cool people section shitposting on philosophers like Kant, and much more. I'll just tag some of the relevant bands here for SEO purposes, and the left is at your own peril. Abandon all hope, we who enter here. Warbringer, Suicide Silence, As I Lay Dying, Dream Theater, Overkill, Nidingr feat Myrkur, Sikth, Megadeth, Angra, Killswitch Engage. There you go.

Overkill – The Grinding Wheel

Andrew Hatch
Reviews
Overkill is back. And although they haven’t reinvented the (grinding) wheel, the old thrash geezers still have an impressive array of riffs to offer. Although the riffs are generally pretty crushing for a bunch of nearly sexagenarian metalheads, the veteran production job is what really makes this album’s millstones turn. It might sound like a poor compliment to say that an album’s most resounding success is in its production, but it really is that effective. One can hear it as soon as the riffs of “Mean Green Killing Machine” rip through the speakers. The guitar sounds appropriately meaty and aggressive, but it’s the thrum of D.D. Verni’s bass, sonorous and yet foreboding, that sticks out as unusually excellent.

Heavy Blog Primer – Our Most Anticipated Albums of 2017

Scott Murphy
Lists!
Though it may seem like we talked ad naseum about how fucking spectacular 2016 was in terms of new music, the fact remains that we saw more fantastic albums drop than we could seemingly keep up with. But just when we thought our palates were satiated, here comes 2017 with an excellent early roster of release announcements, some we've expected for a while and others that came out of nowhere. The following is a surely incomplete list of all the albums worth craving as we ring in the new year. Some of these albums have been fully announced with pre-order links and all that jazz, while others are merely probable assumptions based on various updates on social media. Regardless, these are all phenomenal projects worth looking for in the coming year. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and we encourage you to comment with some albums you're anticipating so we can share in your excitement.

From Deicide to Self-Destruction: How a Death Metal Pioneer Fell Behind the Pack

Scott Murphy
Deep Dive
Way back in 2012, Paul Mazurkiewicz (drummer for Cannibal Corpse) sat down with Billboard (via Metal Injection) and was posed an interesting question: who are death metal's Big 4? Now, boiling any genre down to a definitive group of four is realistically impossible - as important as the Big 4 of thrash are to the genre, bands like Sepultura, Overkill, Kreator and Destruction deserve just as significant a portion of credit. So too was the case with Mazurkiewicz's naming of Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide and Suffocation as the Big 4 of death metal, which leaves out a whole slew of bands seminal to the genre's evolution (Death, Bolt Thrower, Obituary, Autopsy, Carcass and innumerable others). Yet, in terms of balancing popularity, influence and an active status, it's hard to argue with Mazurkiewicz's picks; all four bands are nothing short of genre pioneers who played pivotal roles in defining death metal from its post-thrash transitional stage. However, when we fast forward to the genre's current landscape, it's clear time hasn't been as kind to the infamous blasphemers from the Sunshine State as it has for the rest of DM's Big 4. Despite being near the top of the pack in terms of influence and album sales, Deicide has experienced a noticeable fall from grace from their prime in the early-nineties. But the question is - why? What caused these luminaries to become lost?