Newest acquisitions - what are your thoughts?

Went on a crazy buying spree over the last two weeks and wanted to share initial impressions.
Please note some of (most) these albums have been out awhile and due to time constraints don't have as much time to devote to finding new music/artists.
As such please don't thrash me for just discovering 3 year old music.
Here's the list with a brief thought and please feel free to chime in and agree or disagree etc…
Please feel free to share any new (or new old stock) music you've picked up……..

1Vulvagun - Cold Moon Over Babylon
Holy crap, good stuff. Rocking it as I type and enjoying every track wishing I was in my truck with the volume on 11.

2Katatonia - Dead End Kings
Nice chill with a consistent driving beat and guitar. Opethy and I'm fine with that….

3Kadavar - Abra Kadavar
Good stuff, sludgy, great bass lines to compliment. Calling it Doom is a bit too far, but one that will be spun regularly. Do yourself a favor and check this threesome out.

4Orchid - Mouths of Madness
Geezer and Tony would be proud……Doomy and riffy with good vocals.

5Witchcraft - Legend
I'm digging on this one too. When you think of Sweden and metal you immediately go to Black Metal, but the vocals are clean and it has more of a stoner metal vibe, check it out if slightly upbeat stoner metal would appeal to you….

6Times of Grace - Hymn of a Broken Man
Everyone that's a Killswitch fan is already all over this, but here I am way late. I don't feel tardy. Nice mix of slow and good pounding riffs and drums. Also a nice mix of vocal styles…both clean and …well, not clean. - Well done!

7Intronaut - Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words With Tones)
Hard to describe if you're not familiar, and even though I hate comparisons I'd say a heavier version of Tool. Well thought out musically with complex chord progressions and rhythm changes. I'm a very novice guitarist and can appreciate how challenging their music and timing is.

8Clutch - Earth Rocker
If you're a Clutch fan, pick it up. Classic Clutch by a band that only keeps getting better. They are an acquired taste….

9, 10Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol.1 and Bloodlust
Admittedly I'm new to this threesome. A friend burned me a copy of Vol. 1 and it was love at first feel. I went to Amazon and bought Bloodlust. It's hard to explain why I like the sound so much but it's almost like vintage up to date production vs bad up to date production with the former winning out. Has a great feel musically and vocally. Either disc could be played on the front porch on Halloween and would feel right at home. Fun, gloomy, sludgy, doomy, riffy driven rock/metal that gets stuck in your head and demands to be played ASAP.

11Moonspell - Alpha Noir/ Omega White
My guitar instructor suggested this one and man was he right. I probably could have saved $8 and just bought the Alpha side without the Omega, but this one grows on me every listen. Omega to me is too Goth vocally which doesn't do much for me (no offense if it does for you), but Alpha is wicked, wicked, wicked. I was listening to it on my way in to work this morning. Windows up, stereo on 11, in my own little world and it dawned on me that I had goosebumps. That's how badass the riffs are. Probably TMI, but you know when a song does that, you're into it. I'll keep trying the back half of this 2 disc set and see if Omega grows on me, but right now Alpha has me under it's spell.

Guess I really only focused on the positives, but there wasn't a lot of filler on any of these discs. Witchcraft had a bit, Moonspell on the Omega side, Clutch has a bit too, but overall I had a great two weeks of music and tons to listen to over the next month.
Rock on and please share yours…. 
C

VULVAGUN is great euro-power metal worth owning for sure. Not really familiar with the rest.

[quote="onrypt']Times of Grace - Hymn of a Broken Man
Everyone that's a Killswitch fan is already all over this, but here I am way late. I don't feel tardy. Nice mix of slow and good pounding riffs and drums. Also a nice mix of vocal styles…both clean and …well, not clean. - Well done![/quote]

Liked that also, but not as much as KSE stuff. Still a very enjoyable album.
My recent discovery is Sithu Aye. Fully instrumental, absolutely mindblowing and free to download on his bandcamp. Prog/djent/fusion/whatever it is, it rules.

Several good ones in there.Clutch,Witchcraft,Orchid and Uncle Acid all solid releases

I dig the Kadavar, Witchcraft and Uncle Acid albums. That Orchid record is good, but for some reason these guys don't quite trip my trigger the way I would expect.

BearOnUnicycle wrote:

\"onrypt' wrote:

Times of Grace - Hymn of a Broken Man
Everyone that's a Killswitch fan is already all over this, but here I am way late. I don't feel tardy. Nice mix of slow and good pounding riffs and drums. Also a nice mix of vocal styles…both clean and …well, not clean. - Well done!

Liked that also, but not as much as KSE stuff. Still a very enjoyable album.
My recent discovery is Sithu Aye. Fully instrumental, absolutely mindblowing and free to download on his bandcamp. Prog/djent/fusion/whatever it is, it rules.

If you like Sithu, you need to do yourself a favor and check out Chon and Plini.

Wurthless wrote:

BearOnUnicycle wrote:

\"onrypt' wrote:

Times of Grace - Hymn of a Broken Man
Everyone that's a Killswitch fan is already all over this, but here I am way late. I don't feel tardy. Nice mix of slow and good pounding riffs and drums. Also a nice mix of vocal styles…both clean and …well, not clean. - Well done!

Liked that also, but not as much as KSE stuff. Still a very enjoyable album.
My recent discovery is Sithu Aye. Fully instrumental, absolutely mindblowing and free to download on his bandcamp. Prog/djent/fusion/whatever it is, it rules.

If you like Sithu, you need to do yourself a favor and check out Chon and Plini.

Already did. Chon has too much fusion, or jazz, or something that irritates me. Not in this song surpisingly.

That Orchid album is one of the best of the year.

While on the surface it would appear Orchid would be a band that I would love...it just hasn't happened.

I've been getting much more enjoyment from bands that do the retro thing but don't directly copy Black Sabbath.

S.D. wrote:

While on the surface it would appear Orchid would be a band that I would love...it just hasn't happened.  

I've been getting much more enjoyment from bands that do the retro thing but don't directly copy Black Sabbath.

Saved me saying it. I do like Orchid, but there's no way that record will be in my top five retro albums this year.

I might try to see them live when they come to London in a couple of months but even then, I think that they will get owned by the support act (Blues Pills)

I REALLY liked that Witchcraft album! Have you ever heard of Mars Red Sky?

I've never heard Vulvagun or Intronaut, & haven't liked Katatonia since Dance of December Souls. Every other selection was great though. Particularly the Moonspell, Uncle Acid, & Clutch.

that kadavar album is really good.

I haven't heard the newest Intronaut yet, but their last two before it have been really good atmospheric sludge.

VULVAGUN is awesome. If it wasn't for the silly moniker it would have been on the EMP or Nuclear Blast radar for sure!

It is a supergroup actually, with band members from cult 80s Aussie bands such as Nothing Sacred, Taramis, Black Majesty, and Captain Trips just to name a few.

Judge for yourselves:

I like that. On this list it goes.

Gotta admit, that Vulvagun sounded pretty damn good. Thanks for the samples.

Any Clutch is good Clutch to me. Earth Rocker is a top ten for the year on my list. Most of the other stuff you got is on my wants.

chewie wrote:

I REALLY liked that Witchcraft album! Have you ever heard of Mars Red Sky?

No, I'll check it out!
Thanks

mc666 wrote:

I've never heard Vulvagun or Intronaut, & haven't liked Katatonia since Dance of December Souls. Every other selection was great though. Particularly the Moonspell, Uncle Acid, & Clutch.

MC, check this out. It's off of Habitual….
Haven't figured out how to embed vids yet, I'll work on that later…..
C.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJEW2PHyspE

The only one off your list I have is the new Clutch. Fantastic album. Feels like a return to form after they've spent a couple of albums exploring their blues connection. Beale Street and Strange Cousins were excellent albums as well, but were a different style than Blast Tyrant or Elephant Riders. Earth Rocker is by no means a rehash of anything they've done previously. It's a more mature version of the early days. Fallon even brought back a little of the surrealism in his lyrics too. Very enjoyable! And you're right. This band keeps getting better and better.

I really like the Mars Red Sky song.

Since I had mentioned KSE I thought I would share this link….
There is hope for the future!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dce9MdDklo

 

onrypt wrote:

mc666 wrote:

I've never heard Vulvagun or Intronaut, & haven't liked Katatonia since Dance of December Souls. Every other selection was great though. Particularly the Moonspell, Uncle Acid, & Clutch.

MC, check this out. It's off of Habitual….
Haven't figured out how to embed vids yet, I'll work on that later…..
C.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJEW2PHyspE

Thanks for the link. I liked the busy drums, but not to keen on those vocals.

That Vulvagun I just ordered fantastic stuff!

Metalwargod