I’d guess a vague familiarity with 9’s and 100’s, and virtually no understanding of how the two might possibly be combined.

900% Quilbert

Wear what you want. If a tank top isn’t expressly verboten by some dress code there isn’t anything wrong with it. People will judge you based on what you wear, regardless of the merit or lack thereof in going about life like that. If you’re comfortable with that, and comfortable in a tank top, do what you do.

As far as the professor’s hairy armpit comment, they can go fuck themselves.

Cool isn’t really a factor. Everybody can and should like what they want, and shouldn’t be faulted for not having heard of this or that band.

The meme factor re: that Wintersun album has more to do with the backstory of how it would never get released with the stipulations Jari was putting up for years toward his record label and fans and whoever else before he would release the album. I didn’t follow the situation that closely, but it’s been a long standing saga in the metal scene chatter-sphere.

If there’s anything you ended up liking from my post, cheers. If not, cheers all the same. 👍

I didn’t pay as close attention as I typically do to new release throughout 2024, but I’ll give a handful of standouts I was either already looking forward to or happened to grab my attention for their quality.

Doedsmaghird - Omniverse Consciousness - Experimental Black Metal - I’m a Vicotnik überfan. This release hit a lot more squarely than the last Dødheimsgard. Stoked to see him back in peak form.

öXXö XööX - + - Avant Garde Prog Doom -This project just keeps getting better. I thought Ÿ was a masterpiece already, but they upped their game again. Brilliant stuff.

My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding - Gothic Doom - Their grittiest release in at least 20 years. Still very apparently newer MDB, but they certainly didn’t shy away from dirtying it up on this one. Big fan of that, personally.

Wintersun - Time II - Symphonic Melodic Death Metal - Well holy fuck, this meme album ended up being the best thing since the debut. Pleasantly surprised to enjoy this like I did since I didn’t find anything after the debut to be particularly worth my time

Brodequin - Harbinger of Woe - Brutal Death Metal - I can understand pushback on the clean production from longtime fans given this band’s back catalogue, but that didn’t bother me at all. The 20 years since the last full length hasn’t dulled their songwriting capabilities even a bit. I don’t listen to a huge amount of straight death metal these days, but this album even got me to do back to back repeat listens more than once.

I love it when two things that I adore find each other out in nature and create some kind of apotheosis such as this. Truly, the fruit and flower of life.

First things first; not everyone is suggesting Death, which means that not enough people are suggesting Death.

If I’m going off of your list with the angle that I am wanting to suggest more stuff that you might like that are classics I’d go with stuff like mid-80’s through mid-90’s period Pestilence, Gorguts, Exhorder, Coroner, Kreator, Nihilist, etc. Someone mentioned Napalm Death earlier, and that’s probably not a bad rec for you.

If I’m just wanting to throw out some stuff that I consider to be classic without regard to your list I’m going with stuff like Suffocation - Pierced From Within, Dissection - Storm of the Light’s Bane, Cryptopsy - None So Vile, My Dying Bride - Turn Loose the Swans, Ulver - Bergtatt, Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy, Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, Edge of Sanity - Crimson, Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve, Samael - Ceremony of Opposites, …there’s a lot, and it’s not hard to keep going.

Something that’s cool about metal is it’s history of being an underground art form. Tape trading scenes, indie zines, and basement headshops being the places to find out about different stuff. A lot of people have different ideas about what constitutes classics based on where they’re from, and at what point they entered into the fray. Even with the internet granting access to virtually everything, there still really isn’t consensus on a question like this, and the fandom remains seemingly immune to homogeneity. That’s fucking awesome. Discovering what you like is a big part of the fun. Enjoy.

The Kremlin’s Pawn opening, Kraznov variation.

Man, am I glad to hear that Wingard isn’t directing this one. Not to be overly-shitty about it, but his approach really just isn’t my style. GxK was a mess (though still fun).

Looking forward to this next installment.

Weird that a computer could have an allergic reaction to gluten, but that’s Australia for you. 🙃

Sometimes language is subjective. >:D

Veeb isn’t a real word.

I don’t want to become a waffle waitress.

I’ve heard that raptors, being pack hunters, will draw your attention overtly in one direction so that another can ambush attack from an untended vantage. They’re clever like that.

My experience has been cooler at forty than I was at thirty. Twenty-year-olds might not think so, but none of them are cool enough for me to care much about their opinions.

Alright, keep your secrets.

Yeah, after I looked at it a bit and saw that exposure to/inhaling nanotubes probably isn’t the greatest idea I figured nontoxic paint was the next go to.

Vanta Black

I’m gambling that the experience of it would mitigate how much of a pain in the ass the repercussions would be.

Edit: I suppose I ought to have looked before, but this appears to be not the healthiest decision (who’d have though‽). Maybe we’ll go with some kind of closest equivalent nontoxic paint?

Roil for initiative.