** Metal ** The Thread! II

[MagnarTheGreat]

Sleep Token Scores First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 With ‘Even in Arcadia’

Sleep Token scores its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with "Even in Arcadia."

www.billboard.com

I don’t like their music (what if Hozier tried to make TOOL songs badly) but it fits my hypothesis that rock is on the slow upswing after hitting its nadir in the late 00s and early 10s with weaker competition now.

 

[Zantera]

I'm on the fence with Sleep Token myself (for me all their albums are in that 7/10 range where you get some good stuff, some meh stuff) but it's nice to see rock/metal get some popularity again at least. Maybe it will lead to more people diving deeper into the better stuff.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

some recent enjoyable listens w/ videos

Architects

2025: Blackhole

Delain - The Quest and the Curse (2023)



new era of Delain (2002-present) w/ Diana Leah (2022-present): Beneath, Moth To A Flame, Queen of Shadow

Evanescence - Afterlife (2025)



Nova Twins - Choose Your Fighter (2023)



also fun: Monsters, Soprano

Nova Twins on silencing the heavy metal doubters: ‘People don’t question men’

The duo count Elton and Rage Against the Machine among their fans, but being two Black women in a largely white, male scene means working twice as hard. The duo discuss winning over the mosh pit – and why they’ve banned synths

www.theguardian.com

SETYØURSAILS

2024: Lately, Bad Company, Best of Me
2022: Mirror, Ghosts, Nightfall

Sleep Theory - Static (2025)



also fun: Gravity

Within Temptation - The Reckoning (2019)

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Besides the obvious recommendation services on Spotify and YouTube, where do you discover new music online?

SiriusXM (paid) has their metal/hard rock stations which I sometimes listen to but a lot of it doesn't quite line up with my taste, I think they need more Napalm and Sumerian Records stuff on their stations.

As for free online radio, these are some good stations to listen to using one of the very many free radio apps that are out there:

• Loaded Radio
• Nuclear Fallout Radio
• Full Metal Jackie
• Decennial Gothic Radio
• Epic Rock Radio

 

[Gee]

I'm on the fence with Sleep Token myself (for me all their albums are in that 7/10 range where you get some good stuff, some meh stuff) but it's nice to see rock/metal get some popularity again at least. Maybe it will lead to more people diving deeper into the better stuff.

I don't like ST at all. I don't even like Ghost but I'll take the latter over the former any ****ing day.

Pop, rap and R&B fused with metal? No ****ing thanks... Sorry if I sound like a gatekeeper... Heck, I'm not even a TRVE KVLT metal purist!

 

[Zantera]

I don't like ST at all. I don't even like Ghost but I'll take the latter over the former any ****ing day.

Pop, rap and R&B fused with metal? No ****ing thanks... Sorry if I sound like a gatekeeper... Heck, I'm not even a TRVE KVLT metal purist!

They're too light on the metal and too heavy on some of the other ones (like the vocal effect can be very annoying if you listen to more than a few songs) but I'll always have a fondness for bands that mix up genres. For me Sleep Token are 'fine' but I wouldn't say I would rush out to see them live or anything.

There's definitely better bands who mix genres within the metal space.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Obviously I like that metal isn’t just locked into the British 1970s Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and Judas Priest sound. Genre evolves or it declines into an incestuous death of copycatism. I think harder rock music is in a good place now more than it’s been in a while in terms of variety. Different generations, technology, locales and cultures in the world have different spins on heavy music.

But it doesn’t mean you’re automatically great because you hodgepodge your sound like Sleep Token or Falling In Reverse. There’s a finesse to these things.

A good chef can take really random parts of your refrigerator and cook something good out of them for a significant percentage of consumers even if it’s not cracking over 40 percent.

A bad chef will take those same elements and just put them into a blender and 5 out of 100 consumers will think it’s the best tasting thing they’re tasting lately.

 

[Gee]

They're too light on the metal and too heavy on some of the other ones (like the vocal effect can be very annoying if you listen to more than a few songs) but I'll always have a fondness for bands that mix up genres. For me Sleep Token are 'fine' but I wouldn't say I would rush out to see them live or anything.

There's definitely better bands who mix genres within the metal space.

Obviously I like that metal isn’t just locked into the British 1970s Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and Judas Priest sound. Genre evolves or it declines into an incestuous death of copycatism. I think harder rock music is in a good place now more than it’s been in a while in terms of variety. Different generations, technology, locales and cultures in the world have different spins on heavy music.

But it doesn’t mean you’re automatically great because you hodgepodge your sound like Sleep Token or Falling In Reverse. There’s a finesse to these things.

A good chef can take really random parts of your refrigerator and cook something good out of them for a significant percentage of consumers even if it’s not cracking over 40 percent.

A bad chef will take those same elements and just put them into a blender and 5 out of 100 consumers will think it’s the best tasting thing they’re tasting lately.

I don't mind mixing genres in the metal scene. Bands have perfectly mixed death and doom together... Some even create new subgenres like blackgaze (black metal + shoegaze). Alcest and Sylvaine are two of my favourite artists in the genre. I'm even starting to warm up to Deafheaven with their latest album.

I was really into 90s-2000s nu-metal back in my teenage years. Bands like Limp Bizkit, Korn, and Linkin Park essentially play(ed) alt rock with rap/hip-hop elements. Yet, they still put out heavy bangers.

I quickly listened to ST's new album with a co-worker who is also a fellow metalhead, and yeah, they're like a heavier Imagine Dragons but in "scary" costumes.

 

[Zantera]

I wouldn't put Sleep Token near the quality level of those late 90s/early 00s bands you mentioned. Linkin Park got me into music and I still have a lot of love for them. Big fan of other nu-metal/alternative metal bands like Deftones, Faith No More, System of a Down and so on. There's a lot better modern metal bands as well in other genres like Deafheaven or Blood Incantation (among many others).

Even though I don't love bands like Greta Van Fleet, Sleep Token or the most recent Ghost albums, at least it's nice that there's some "heavier" music being popular? If nothing else maybe it will inspire better bands to start making rock/metal music.

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

METALLICA Scores Massive New RIAA Certifications: Black Album Hits 20x Platinum, Master Of Puppets Now 8x! - Loaded Radio

Metallica has received significant new RIAA certifications for two of their most iconic albums. Their 1991 self-titled release, The Black Album, has now

loadedradio.com

 

[Gee]

Some new singles. Got my ticket for Blackbraid this fall!







All releasing new albums later this year. Can't wait!

Katatonia's new album releases today. Listened half-way through and had to stop out of boredom...