** 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...

 

[Zantera]

Yeah I was bummed with the new Katatonia too. I think they had a really great run of albums in the 00s and 10s, for me it started to drop off a little bit album by album but I would say up until The Fall of Hearts I was on board. The last 3 have all been very underwhelming and probably the 3 weakest albums in their discography sadly.

Been listening a lot to Iron Maiden recently, just saw them live again and been on a binge. So many wonderful albums and even the weakest ones have grown on me a bit.

In terms of newer stuff, Sigh just dropped their rerecorded Hangman's Hymn on Friday and it's pretty great!

 

[Gee]

Been listening a lot to Iron Maiden recently, just saw them live again and been on a binge. So many wonderful albums and even the weakest ones have grown on me a bit.

Nice. I really want to see Maiden live one day and they recently went on tour in North America, but the ticket prices were crazy. I think for the seat I wanted was in the $200-300 range. For the same seat, it was around $100 pre-COVID according to a coworker who saw them live back then.

I was on a Maiden binge 2-3 years ago. What are your favourite albums? Mine are Number of the Beast and Brave New World. I also have a soft spot for The Book of Souls.

Staying on the subject of concerts, here are the ones I've been to this year so far:

• Apocalyptica + Nita Strauss
• Sylvaine
• Swallow the Sun + Harakiri for the Sky
• Alcest
• Machine Head + In Flames + Lacuna Coil
• Enslaved
• Ministry (industrial music isn't really my jam but I went with a few co-workers)
• Paradise Lost
• *warning: non-metal band*: Metric
• And last Saturday: Mononc Serge & Anonymus (comedy/humourous French Canadian metal collab)

At the end of the month, I will be seeing Babymetal... Yes, you've read that correctly. Baby ****ing metal... I think I'm just getting old, but should be fun. Will be seeing it with some co-workers.

July and August is pretty much dead until autumn arrives and I'll go see Be'lakor, Deftones and Blackbraid.

 

[Zantera]

@Gee
I would rank their albums probably something like this (best to worst)
Powerslave
Somewhere in Time
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
The Number of the Beast
Piece of Mind
Killers
Iron Maiden
The X-Factor
A Matter of Life and Death
Dance of Death
Brave New World
Fear of the Dark
The Final Frontier
The Book of Souls
Senjutsu
No Prayer For the Dying
Virtual XI

I would say I really do like most of these and it's only once you get into the bottom 4-5 where I go "these are good but they're not AS good". For example even Virtual XI which is my least favorite has The Clansman which would be among my favorite songs by the band. It's hard to rank their albums though because I look at albums in the middle (like Dance of Death or Brave New World) and I think "they're still very good"

Nice run of shows you have! Been a while since I saw Alcest but they were great. I'm also seeing Lacuna Coil this fall (not with Machine Head or In Flames though). And I'm actually listening to Enslaved as I'm typing this haha!

 

[Gee]

@Gee
I would rank their albums probably something like this (best to worst)
Powerslave
Somewhere in Time
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
The Number of the Beast
Piece of Mind
Killers
Iron Maiden
The X-Factor
A Matter of Life and Death
Dance of Death
Brave New World
Fear of the Dark
The Final Frontier
The Book of Souls
Senjutsu
No Prayer For the Dying
Virtual XI

I would say I really do like most of these and it's only once you get into the bottom 4-5 where I go "these are good but they're not AS good". For example even Virtual XI which is my least favorite has The Clansman which would be among my favorite songs by the band. It's hard to rank their albums though because I look at albums in the middle (like Dance of Death or Brave New World) and I think "they're still very good"

Nice run of shows you have! Been a while since I saw Alcest but they were great. I'm also seeing Lacuna Coil this fall (not with Machine Head or In Flames though). And I'm actually listening to Enslaved as I'm typing this haha!

To be honest I haven't really bothered with the albums with Cooke on vocals, but yes, The Clansman is a pretty good song.

Among the albums released since Dickinson's return, BNW is my favourite. DoD probably comes in second specifically for the songs Dance of Death and Paschendale.

I will have to re-binge their discography to give a proper list.

 

[Zantera]

To be honest I haven't really bothered with the albums with Cooke on vocals, but yes, The Clansman is a pretty good song.

Among the albums released since Dickinson's return, BNW is my favourite. DoD probably comes in second specifically for the songs Dance of Death and Paschendale.

I will have to re-binge their discography to give a proper list.

I've gone back and forth on the reunion albums over the years. Brave New World was a huge album for getting me into the band and one of my early Iron Maiden experiences was Rock in Rio which is like 60% of that album or so played. I would say with time it has faded just slightly but I also think DoD and AMOLAD have climbed for different reasons.

DoD for me has some of those big standouts (title track and Paschendale) that I find myself returning to more than any of the songs on BNW. AMOLAD I saw performed in its entirety live, so I will always have a soft spot for it I think. But I think all 3 of them are very fine albums and I don't think any of the albums since have been as consistent as them.