The Wolf is no Longer Free…
This has been by far the most bi-polar winter I have ever experienced in Northern Michigan. One day is a snow storm. 2 days later it’s nearly 60 and thawing. Then back to snowpocalypse. It has had a weird effect on the psyche and the playlist maybe a bit of an indication. But as we roll with the impending climate change, there are some good things on the horizon for Worm Gear. Jim and I continue to hit our weekly goal/update which may be harder than you think with families. The long promised interviews with Evoken, Canis Dirus and Vex are finally moving forward. I have begun work on an extensive Sacred Reich discography retrospective/essay that will be a different change of pace. Also we will very soon be working with the occasional label and offering free album streams for select albums that we like. Hoping this begins next week, but we shall see. It is all culminating to make Worm Gear a more relevant and “current” entity in the blogosphere/webzine world as we strive to earn more visitors, and hopefully long time readers. It has been great to read your playlists and interact. Keep doing so and maybe help spread the word if you like what you see in these digital halls. It has been a blast sharing with the class and until next week, here are a few morsels to tide you all over until then. Thanks for your time and support! -Marty
Marty Rytkonen Playlist
Emperor – Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Sentenced – Amok
Iced Earth – Alive in Athens
Chapel of Disease – Summoning Black Gods
Various Artists – The Absolute Supper (Cold Meat Industries 2CD compilation)
Symphony X – The Odyssey
Forced Entry – Uncertain Future
Canis Dirus – Andem Om Norr
Evoken – Atra Mors
Seidr – Ginnunagap (unmastered mix)
Jim Clifton Playlist
Rodrigo Y Gabriela – S/T
Megadeth – Rust In Peace
Megadeth – Peace Sells But Who’s Buying
Trouble – Psalm 9
Trouble – The Skull
Trouble – Run To The Light
Trouble – S/T
Sargeist – Let the Devil In
Septic Flesh – Mystic Places of Dawn
Metal Church – Blessing In Disguise
Binah – Hallucinating In Resurrecture
Armoured Angel – Stigmartyr (thanks to Z for pointing these guys out)
Abyssal – Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius (thanks to Patrick for this one!)
S. Craig Zahler Playlist
Lymphatic Flesh – Pathogenesis Infest Phlegmsepsia (A high water mark in the history of goregrind. Recommended to anybody even mildly interest in the genre.)
Rancid Flesh – Pathological Zombie Carnage (Fun stuff.)
Disgorge – Forensick (Sloppy & sick grinding death metal. Some bad recording errors, but good overall.
The Kill – Make ‘Em Suffer (Probably the most enjoyable grindcore album I’ve ever heard. Great wild riffs that sounds kind of like grindcore Nifelheim.)
Amebix – Arise (My first real foray into crust punk, which is a bit more metal sounding than I expected it to be. Kind of sounds like a mix of Venom and Motorheard with uglier chords and some hooks like old german thrashters Kreator & Destruction. Not bad at all!)
Dahmer – Dahmerized (So yeah…um…this is really scary.)
Manilla Road – Metal
Morningstar – Finnish Metal (Damned Child = Moody epic metal classic.)
Manowar – Kings of Metal (My favorite Manowar album of the digital era. The stadium ending of Blood of Kings is so ludicrous that it is actually not ludicrous at all.)
Black Sabbath – Tyr (The best thing Sabbath did post Heaven and Hell. [though I dig Eternal Idol & Dehumanizer])
Worm Gear 
Jimster: I like that the Sloth Herder is free on BC, so I am listening to that as we speak.
Marty: Fair review on Voivod. Very carefully worded, hehe..I also really dig the Chapel of Disease.
Craig, you’ll probably not like me after this, but I don’t see the attraction to Grind, be it gore or whatever. That is simply a genre that has a very narrow bandwidth of potential. But! I love what you bring to the table here, i.e. divergence, a whole other angle on Metal, and obscure stuff / good reviews (even if i don’t like the music) Me, I say all you need is Repulsion, Agathocles, a little Napalm Death (especially last 4 releases), first Carcass album, and call’er done.
Playlist this week (i am getting new music overload, too much Bandcamp browsing these days, it is becoming a weird obsession)
Thorns – 1st 2 Demos
Arcturus – All Albums they released!
Disfigurement – Abyss of Hatred Demo
Void Forger – Ruined Demo
Diskord – Hdfh 7″ Ep
Fellwoods – Wulfram
Ghoul – Transmission Zero (Fuck yes! This band rocks!)
Diskord – Dystopics (Doomscapes is better, but not by much. one of the best DM bands out there now)
Manilla Road – Courts of Chaos (my favorite, Marty – don’t get angry)
Incantation – Vanquish in Vengeance (why am I still listening to this? Can’t help…must listen..Help!)
Hopelorn – From Withered Branches
Konkeror – Abysmal Horizons (excellent new DM band on Bandcamp. Nothing original, but very enjoyable!)
Here winter has gone from icey and white to wet and grey, hence the need for some good old english doom…
My Dying Bride – As the Flower Withers
My Dying Bride – The Light at the End of the World
Misery and woe and oh those RIFFS! MDB are (or were) true Riffmeisters IMO and Aaron Stainthorpe’s deathgrowl can be one of the most vicious in the genre.
Old school death metal is also on the menu:
Dead Congregation – Purifying Consecrated Groud
Ataraxy – Curse of the Requiem Mass
Ataraxy – Revelations of the Ethereal
Horrendous – The Chills
Cruciamentum – Convocation of Crawling Chaos
Cruciamentum – Engulfed in Desolation
Nominon – Diabolical Bloodshed
Nominon – Recremation
This stuff never gets old, and the old school never seems to die. In fact, there seems to be a revival, most of the bands mentioned seem to be part of a sort of new school of old school… Ha!
And then there was also the pinnacle of epic metal:
Bathory – Hammerheart
Seriously, is there anything out there more f’n EPIC? Those first strums of opener Shores in Flames give me the chills, and everything after that… Words can’t describe (seriously, I’ve typed and deleted several attempts hahaha). One of my all time favorites. Now bring me a horn of ale, you wench, and warm my bed for me, it’s been a hard day’s battle in Odin’s name! Har! \m/
Zahler> thanks for the tip on Armoured Angel! Can’t find the anthology online but I have ordered Angel of the Sixth Order. But really: Manowar’s Kings of Metal??? I really wanted to like their post-Fighting the World oufit but have failed miserably…
Jim> Wow, classic stuff on your list. Especially much respect for Blessing in Disguise by Metal Church. Anthem to the Estranged has the power to move me to tears (occasionally, when I’m in the mood and eh… inebriated hahaha).
Yes the Armoured Angel is awesome!
Yes, awesome to see some Sentenced love on here! Last weeks playlist:
Jess and the Ancient Ones – S/T (I have a weakness for these throwback bands)
Addaura – Burning for the Ancient
Rotten Sound – Species at War EP
Bad Religion – True North (The AC/DC of punk rock? Little bit of a throwback)
Lightning Sword of Death – Baphometic Chaosium
Watain – Casus Luciferi
Inquisition – Nefarious Dismal Orations
Holy Grail – Ride the Void
Avenger – Bohemian Dark Metal
twisted tower dire – make it dark (So fucking catchy)
Sepultura – Chaos AD
Rotten Sound – Murderworks
Summon – Fallen
Eïs – Wetterkreuz
Master’s Hammer – Vracejte konce na místo
Darkthrone – F.O.A.D.
Darkthrone – Dark Thrones and Black Flags
Darkthrone – Sardonic Wrath
Graveyard – Lights Out
Kevin> Hell yeah! Sentenced’s Amok is great (Nepenthe… Death Metal’s got soul?) but North From Here is simply stellar! Venomous, vicious and grim, but with a healthy dose of progressive songwriting. Have to reach for that one soon.
(now playing: Pentagram – Relentless)
eviltails–
i hear you on this—for a long time, i didn’t quite “get” grind. i am more into traditional, epic, death, doom and black metals (as well as progressive rock and soul music)…but there is something about good grind, which is unique, especially with albums like make ’em suffer by the kill and pathogenesis infests phlegmsepsia (or also show-off cadavers) by lymphatic phlegm. these album don’t have “songs” in the classic sense as much as bursts of music, memorable vignettes that sum to a long, suite like experience. so they require VERY memorable hooks to function properly.
if you like nifelheim, you should like what the kill does on make ’em suffer.
if you like moonblood, you should like what lymphatic phlegm does on pathogensis infests phlegmsepsia.
TRY BOTH OF THESE ALBUMS. if you don’t like either, shut the door on grindcore and goregrind, since that’s as good as it gets. both are EXCELLENT and better than almost all of the classics.
I will certainly check out the Kill and Lymphatic Phlegm. Never heard Moonblood though. So I guess I should back reference that first!
Schitzo weather here too this winter; 3 days a week are 50s-60s, then we have some apocalyptic storm/ice/tornado event. Wacky.
Glad some folks liked the ARMOURED ANGEL recommendation. You can buy their stuff on ebay; a few people have been distributing the anthology on there for $15-20 + shipping. Here’s a link; I’m pretty sure this seller is Lucy from the band.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Armoured-Angel-Hymns-CD-Hobbs-Mortal-Sin-Thrash-Death-Metal-Slayer-Morbid-Angel-/330865336938?pt=AU_Audio_CDs&hash=item4d091c626a
Shadow Kingdom and Nuclear War Now have carried some of their stuff in the past, not sure what they currently have in stock.
Looking forward to the EVOKEN interview. Not looking forward to the SACRED REICH retrospective (sorry, they always struck me as the pinnacle of generic thrash (sic) but hopefully others will dig the article).
Playlist-
Minotauri- II (digging this, props to Craig for the tip)
Dark Quarterer- The Etruscan Prophecy (cool Italian epic metal. Not as great as their immortal debut, but still a cool album)
Thin Lizzy- Johnny the Fox (my favorite by these western vagabonds)
Overkill- The Years of Decay (second-most favorite album evah)
NIghtsblood> Thanks for the link, ordered it straight away. And I’m curious; what is your MOST favorite album evah? Mine changes from time to time, impossible to choose just one for all eternity for me… Right now it’s Bathory’s Hammerheart. But next week it could be Rain Dogs by Tom Waits…
well lucy should be happy cause i just bought mine too. very cool CD!
Anybody interested in doing a dropbox share folder where we can drop files that are hard to find and nearly out of print? Certainly not things we can all buy readily.
We could drop on a discussion basis only, so we don’t get bombarded with everyone’s hermetic favorites. hehe..
Hard to keep up with you guys as I typically don’t have time during the day at work to reply, so here it goes…
Sentenced – Amok… LOVE their early stuff, but this album was always so special. I know it pissed off the older fans at the time, but you cannot deny the class and unique step they took during this era. Sure it got a bit irrelevant towards the end and losing Jarva was a crippling blow, but Amok is fall/winter weather music for me. Great passion and a rocking goth flair.
Patrick… regarding he Voivod review. Glad you liked it. I do like the album, but a lot of the songs just aren’t there yet/sound forced. I was careful with the wording because I do like it and the more I sit with it over the years, it may be a grower and I end up eating crow. I do know people are going nuts for this and I believe that once the excitement tapers off, they’ll realize that Voivod still have some work to do to fully get back on track.
Armored Angel… I believe Zahler sent me one of their CDs and it’s lurking in the basement. Going to finally check it out with all of your recommendations as my guide.
Favorite albums… It is impossible to chose one album as there are so many genre defining favorites, BUT if I could hand pick select tracks from both Melissa and Don’t Break the Oath and make a new album out of said tracks, that would likely be my favorite album. Or would it? What about Awaken the Guardian? Rust in Peace. In The Nightside Eclipse. The Nephilim. Hotter than Hell. Cross the Styx. Dimension Hatross. Illusions/Chemical Exposure. Deception Ignored. Retribution: Storm of the LIght’s Bane. A Blaze in the Northern Sky. Det Som Engang Var. Walls of Jericho. Blood on Ice. Left Hand Path. Like an Everflowing Stream. De Mysteriius Dom Sathanas. Again Shall Be. Pleasure to Kill. Symphonies of Sickness…. the list is endless and ever changing.
Alan/Nightsblood… regarding the Sacred Reich piece… it has been something that I’ve been wanting to try and after realizing that I still love and listen to “Ignorance” often, and have a lot of things to say about their entire catalog, the wheels started turning. If people end up liking this format, it will likely continue. I think it’ll be fun to revisit and write about bands that I used to enjoy as a teenager before my writing “career” began. We shall see!
I for one am looking forward to that Sacred Reich piece. I was at the Dynamo Open Air festival in I guess ’93 and Rob Halford’s Fight was supposed to play but cancelled at the lost moment. We all thought this sucked and though we didn’t know who would play in their place we expected nothing from some last-moment local replacement band. The field in front of the stage emptied and I was heading back to the camp site and stopped by a toilet on the way when suddenly this big-ass opening riff of Independent blasted through the air! I zipped up and rushed back to the stage while from everywhere on the festival grounds people came running like mad, super excited, a great sight it must have been for Phil and the guys. They played Surf Nicaragua, a massive cover of War Pigs and some more older stuff which I didn’t know at the time and they kicked ass. At the time I was a big fan of the Independent album, haven’t played it in ages though…
So, revisiting Sacred Reich; yes please!
Sacred Reich boring no good thrash band…..me no likey, but for those that do, cheers!
Patrick my man, when are we gonna agree on something?!
We can agree to disagree, and be all the fun for it! What would a metal blog be without dissent and arguments? No fun, thats what it would be….
I agree. And compared to some other metal blogs/sites we are utterly gentlemanlike in our dissent.
Fuck you dick licker! haha. just kidding
Sentenced- Agree that ‘Amok’ is a great album; it was a different style but I always liked the fact that it had a very clean, ‘simple’ sound (compared to NfH) but simultaneously sounded murderously angry. I hated it when they wimped out in later years and started playing their blase ‘suicide rock’; that stuff just had no punch or fire to it whatsoever. ‘North From Here’ is an old favorite from back in the days when I had to special order stuff like this from the indie stores in NW Ohio. It’s such a vicious sounding album that teeters on that thin edge between technical wizardry and total chaos. The hateful spite delivered in songs like ‘My Sky is Darker Than Thine’ always impressed me. Back then the ‘in’ thing was all brutal death bands like Cannibal Corpse and Massacre. I always found such bands rather clownish and uninteresting; I had no use for Florida when it came to death metal, my preference was always North From There 🙂
Hope folks enjoy the ARMOURED ANGEL stuff they ordered, they’ve always been a personal favorite.
Marty- enjoy doing the new column, it sounds like a fun format. And I’d be a liar if I said I never moshed around the parents’ living room to the ol’ ‘American Way’ video.
Re: Favorite Album Evah- I’ve actually never had trouble answering that question: HELLOWEEN- Keeper of the Seven Keys part 1. It was my first foray into German speed metal and blew me away. My Top 3 albums haven’t changed in the past decade:
Helloween- Keepers 1
Overkill- Years of Decay
Iron Maiden- Live After Death
After that things do shift around a little from time to time.
Re: early Mercyful Fate compilation: yes, move ‘Evil’ and ‘Curse of the Pharaohs’ onto ‘Don’t Break the Oath’ in place of…… crap, painting myself into a corner here….. uhhhhh, let’s say “To Our Far Away’ and ‘Come to the Sabbat’, and yeah, you’d just about be there, though room needs to be made for the faster version of ‘Black Masses’ too 🙂 Oddly, I don’t own a copy of ‘Melissa’ right now, but I own 3 copies of ‘Oath’, and I’m sitting here typing beneath a 4ft x 4ft vintage ‘Oath’ banner- kind of looks like the demon is pointing at me saying, “don’t you fuck up my track listing puny human!”
‘In the Grip of Winter’ would be a good song to describe things down here in southwest Michigan. Cold and snow and more snow due to lake effect. It’s kind of got me in a bad mood (aka funeral doom mood). Morgion – Solinari and Shape of Despair – Angels of Distress were the playlist for today. I also have the latest Worship CD en route in the mail and the Tempestuous Fall album coming via Marty.
I received the Hellwell CD today, too. I’m on my first spin right now and from what I’ve heard so far I’m liking more than what I’ve heard off the new Manilla Road. I’ll probably be spinning this a lot tomorrow and ‘Mystification’ which is my favorite MR title.
I also have to say fair review on the new Voivod, Marty. I picked it up a few weekends back and haven’t visited it again as much as I thought I would after initial listens.
Steve, I the Tempestuous Fall but haven’t managed to put it in the CD player yet for the last month. I have been in so much awe of Midnight Odyssey, his main project that I can’t get to it. Let me know what you think. The Hellwell does seem better than the newest Manilla Road release (at least from what I heard). I still don’t get why they called it Hellwell and not Manilla Road. I know the reasons they gave, but still…..
Steve—
Agreed. Hellwell and Voyager are my favorite Shelton projects since the eighties. Mystification and Open the Gates are my top two.
As for the name Hellwell, there is a big writing presence of the guy named Hellwell, so it is a bit more of a collaboration than usual Manilla Road albums are, like Circus Maximus was, and in this way, using the Hellwell name, it seems like the other major creator involved will get more credit than if it were under MR.
I would also recommend Wrathblade’s album, which is another very good epic metal release of 2012. It’s like weirder, less obvious and better Brocas Helm.
Never responded about the mutual ‘Blessing In Disguise’ love, so I will now – from ‘Fake Healer’ forward, a woefully underrated album, stuffed w/ great songwriting. And ‘Anthems …’ has pulled a tear or three from me as we’ll \m/