Jul 042017
 

 

Today is Independence Day here in the United States, a day on which many Americans celebrate the beginning of the country’s great (and occasionally bizarre) experiment in democracy with vast quantities of cold beer, cookouts, and ardent efforts to blow off their own digits with equally vast quantities of illegally deployed explosives. Here in the metallic realms of NCS, however, it’s just another day (partly in consideration of the fact that more than half our readers are located outside the U.S.).

We have a couple of good song premieres coming your way, and maybe the second part of a SHADES OF BLACK post I began on Sunday, and who knows what else.

But to begin the day I want to talk about hot dogs, and then I want to ask our readers for your opinions about the best metal releases of 2017 so far.

 

 

There is an organization in the U.S. known as the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. I imagine something like the Round Table from the days of King Arthur, at which an array of large wieners are seated, draped in sauerkraut and secretly plotting and planning the course of our lives. How could this be any worse than the people who are actually doing that from D.C. and Wall Street?

Sadly, the Council is instead an industry trade association. Whatever else they do, they are a source of data about the American consumption of hot dogs.

They tell us, not surprisingly, that the Fourth of July weekend (which has extended well into the work-week this year), is when Americans consume the most hot dogs. Depending on where we live, we might choose to top the dogs with mustard, coleslaw, cream cheese, chili, or peppers. This year, the Council estimates that Americans will celebrate their independence by eating 150 million hot dogs (and the number would undoubtedly be higher if they included vegetarian and vegan dogs, which of course they don’t).

During the peak hot dog season lasting from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the Council estimates that Americans typically consumer 7 billion hot dogs, which on average breaks down to 818 hot dogs being consumed every second. You probably can’t guess which U.S. city eats the most hot dogs.

Because you probably can’t guess, I’ll tell you: it’s Los Angeles. (This particular study of rankings by the Nielsen survey organization may be skewed because it includes only purchases from grocery stores and doesn’t include consumption from hot dog carts or restaurants).

 

Metal has also delivered a large quantity of tasty musical hot dogs for our hungry ear holes this year (how’s that for a transition?). With the month of June reaching an end, many print and on-line publications have been rolling out lists of the best releases from the first half of 2017. Such lists have been popping up on metal sites as they have in locations devoted to other genres of music. We, however, did not do this — mainly because I didn’t get my act together in time to canvass all our writers for their picks. But I almost never do that anyway…

…because I’m even more interested in finding out what our readers have heard, and what’s gotten all of you excited. So, as I’ve done in other years, I would like to invite you to use the Comment section as a vehicle for sharing with us (and anyone else who drops by for a visit) your list of what you deem to be the best metal albums, EPs, or splits you’ve heard during the first 6 months of 2017.

I’d like to suggest that it be a Top 10 list, in an effort to ensure that some serious thought and winnowing has taken place, to make the lists more valuable as a guide to other people hunting for new things to hear. But if you want to make it a Top 5 list or a Top 20 or a Top Any Other Number, no one is going to berate you. I mean, shit, I’m not capable of making a list at all, so I’m not exactly in the best position to criticize.

SO, please give us your hot dogs.

 

Source of data in this post: National Hot Dog and Sausage Council and Fortune on-line.

The flag above made of black smoke is an art installation called Western Flag by John Gerrard (details here). It is set in a simulation of Spindletop, Texas, a site considered to be the birthplace of the modern oil industry, but it is in face located at Somerset House in London, England. The installation was opened to commemorate World Earth Day in April of this year, and “will stand as a symbol of climate change and modern society’s dependence on oil”. I just thought it looked metal AF.

  70 Responses to “HOT DOGS: THE BEST METAL OF 2017 SO FAR (AN INVITATION FOR YOUR LISTS)”

  1. Uhm. Would say my top BDM albums so far are :
    1) Bacteremia – Furiosly Reduced
    2) Animals Killing People – Eat your Murder
    3) Seminal Embalmment – S/T
    4) Dissociative Healing – S /T
    5) CENOTAPH – Perverse Dehumanized Dysfunctions
    6) Abuse – Nothing is Safe
    7) Interminable Corruptions – Xenodimensional Conflux
    8) Barbaric Penetration – Graveyard Hunt for Carnal Pleasure
    9) Defleshed and Gutted – The Profecy in The Entrails

  2. Gonna do another top 10 (Non BDM releases)

  3. My favourites so far….

    Venenum – Trance of Death
    Havukruunu – Kelle Surut Soi
    Full Of Hell – Trumpeting Ecstasy
    Artificial Brain – Infrared Horizon
    Immolation – Atonement
    Lantern – II : Morphosis
    The Ominous Circle – Appalling Ascension
    Wode – Servants of the Countercosmos

  4. For those of us who like Some Clean Singing:

    Below – Upon A Pale Horse
    Unleash the Archers – Apex

  5. Top 5:

    1) Suppressive Fire – Nature of War
    2) Death of Kings – Kneel Before None
    3) All Hell – The Grave Alchemist
    4) Nemesis – Atrocity Unleashed
    5) Hellripper – Coagulating Darkness

  6. Hey guys, long time reader, first time commenter. NCS kicks ass and I’m glad there are people so dedicated to the scene sharing all this good shit with others. Anyways, here’s my mid-year list in no particular order–

    Impetuous Ritual– Blight Upon Martyred Sentience
    Triumvir Foul–Spiritual Bloodshed
    Ascended Dead– Abhorrent Manifestation
    Full of Hell– Trumpeting Ecstasy
    Necrot– Blood Offerings
    Ensnared– Dysangelium
    Artificial Brain– Infrared Horizon
    Dying Fetus– Wrong One to Fuck With
    Weregoat– Pestilential Rites of Infernal Fornication
    Obituary– S/T
    Suffering Hour– In Passing Ascension

    The demos from Sovereign and Command Sacrifice are fucking sick too, and the Witch Vomit MLP absolutely kills it.

  7. 1. Svartsyn- in death
    2. Merrimack- Omegaphilia
    3. Nargaroth- era of threnody
    4. Havukruunu- kelle surut soi
    5. Orm- orm
    6. Nightbringer- terradamnata
    My list, so far, and in no particular order.

  8. That transition tho…

    Woe – Hope Attrition
    Bufihimat – I
    Ingurgitating Oblivion – VWISOL
    Black Harvest – Attrition
    Norse – TDLOANS

  9. No particular order.

    The Ominous Circle – Appaling Ascension
    Power Trip – Nightmare Logic
    Extremity – Extremely Fucking Dead
    Necrot – Blood Offerings
    The Ruins of Beverast – Exuvia
    Pallbearer – Heartless
    Highland – Loyal to the Night Sky
    Below – Upon a Pale Horse
    Mutoid Man – War Moans
    The Obsessed – Sacred

  10. Shit…know I’m going to forget a bunch of stuff, but…

    Father Befouled – Desolate Gods
    Harvest Gulgaltha – Altars of Devotion
    Triumvir Foul – Spiritual Bloodshed
    Ruins of Beverast – Exuvia
    White Death – S/T
    Bestia Arcana – Holókauston
    Cemetery Urn – S/T
    Condor – Unstoppable Power
    Inferno – Gnosis Kardias (Of Transcension and Involution)
    Nightpröwler – Unholy Rawness
    Hellripper – Coagulating Darkness
    Pig’s Blood – S/T
    Sickdeer – The Wretched of the Earth
    Lantern – II : Morphosis
    Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape

    • Ah, that Bestia Arcana album.

    • No way! Another person who is loving White Death. Have you checked out Ende’s newest release, it’s got my black metal release of the year written all over it.

      • Oh yeah..that White Death album is killer! Told Islander to check it out, but I’m sure it got lost in the huge amount of music he gets all the time

        Haven’t checked out Ende, but I’ll put them on my list for sure…thanks for the reco’

  11. Been an outstanding year so far. My top-10 looks like this:

    1. Au Champ des Morts – Dans la joie
    2. Sorrow Plagues – Homecoming
    3. Archivist – CONSTRUCT
    4. Mesarthim – Absence
    5. Vanum – Burning Arrow
    6. Violet Cold – Anomie
    7. White Ward – Futility Report
    8. Imber Luminis – Nausea
    9. Wode – Servants of the Countercosmos
    10. Enisum – Seasons of Desolation

    And then there’s a whole bunch of releases, which have also been great. Among these are new shit from Warbringer, Venenum, Artificial Brain, Planning for Burial, Persefone, Nightbringer, Falls of Rauros, Ascended Dead, Au Dessus and Power Trip.

    • So… “Absence” was definitely a 2016 release… BUT… that just means you get another pick!

      Also, good to see that Violet Cold album on there. And another album which I’m reviewing for Friday too.

      • Ah, I just checked, and you’re right, of course – I was just confused that it says 2017 on Apple Music. But then it’s awesome that I was just about adding Asira’s ‘Efference’ on my list. It has grown on me that last couple of weeks – definitely a top-10 album so far.

  12. Acrimonious – Eleven Dragons
    Immolation – Atonement
    Venenum – Trance of Death
    The Great Old Ones – EOD: A Tale of Dark Legacy
    Wode – Servants of the Countercosmos
    Dodecahedron – Kwintessens
    Ingurgitating Oblivion – Vision Wallows in Symphonies of Light
    Dumal – The Lesser God
    Sunless – Urraca
    Au-Dessus – End of Chapter
    Ende – Emën Etan

    Great year so far, also strong albums by Nightbringer, Obitus, Emptiness, Tomb Mold, Rebirth of Nefast, Au champ des morts, Whoredom Rife and Contaminated among others.

  13. I haven’t put too much thought into yet, but this is what has received the heaviest play for me this year.

    Power Trip – Nightmare Logic
    Death of Kings – Kneel before None
    Hideous Divinity – Adviniens
    Pale King – Monolith of the Malign
    War Crab – Scars of Aeons (not sure this counts, but put it anyhow)
    The Ominous Circle – Appalling Ascension
    Skeptic – Worship the End
    The Fevered – I Have Seen Death
    Incendiary – Thousand Mile Stare
    Unleash the Archers – Apex (Yes, it’s power metal. Yes, I hate power metal. I have no idea why I can’t stop listening to this, but I’m too old to care. I like it.)

  14. Amazing year so far
    LP
    1) Contaminated – Final Man
    2) Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape
    3) Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition – Raping Angels in Hell (NOT bdm, French death metal/grind)
    4) Excommunion – Thronosis
    5) Harvest Gulgaltha – Altars of Devotion
    6) Gorephilia – Severed Monolith
    7) Vintersong – Till Falls
    8) Blasphemer (UK) – Self Titled

    EP/Demo
    1) Cosmic Void Ritual – Transcendence
    2) Mortiferum – Altar of Decay
    3) Ljosazabojstwa – Piekla
    4) Hyperdontia – Abhorrence Veil
    5) Crypt Rot – Embryonic Devils

  15. Immolation: Atonement
    Memoriam: For the Fallen
    Extremity: Extremely Fucking Dead
    Ingurgitating Oblivion” Vision Wallos in Symphonies of Light
    Necrot: Blood Offerings
    Au Champ Des Morts: Dans la joie
    Wiegedood: De Doden Hebben Het Goed II
    Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs: Feed the Rats
    Power Trip: Nightmare Logic
    Gnod: JUST SAY NO TO THE PSYCHO RIGHT​-​WING CAPITALIST FASCIST INDUSTRIAL DEATH MACHINE

  16. 01 Rebirth of Nefast – Tabernaculum
    02 Bestia arcana – Holókauston
    03 Triumvir Foul – Spiritual Bloodshed
    04 Nightbringer – Terra Damnata
    05 Venenum – Trance of Death
    06 Marthyrium – Beyond the Thresholds
    07 Inferno – Gnosis Kardias (Of Trascension and Involution)
    08 Turia – Dede Kondre
    09 Ulsect – Ulsect
    10 Dodecahedron – Kwintessens

    ** Sinmara/Misthyrming – Split

  17. i like that shcammasch ep

    • not enough to spell it correctly in my sleep induced haze though, lemme tell you about 2016

    • also the nathan’s hotdog contest is fucking disgusting, it takes what little joy left out of an already garbage food and smashes it into a fine water and bread paste.

      • Hot dogs are mainly a condiment-carrying device wrapped in a bun and infused with nostalgia.

      • And btw, the two hot dogs I bought from a street vendor on the last night of NWTF on the way to Highline are probably the only reason the Orange Goblin I had there didn’t hit my head like a poleax.

        • I watched that dude flip the sign from a $5 hot dog to a $7 hot dog right when they rolled the cart up outside of Neumos and remained angry about it for the whole night. I did the same thing when I watched Rams Head flip the six to an eight (or nine?) at MDF when it came to Beer prices that one year. I work retail and understand the markups on a captive audience but you have to be a little less cavalier about it with me watching.

  18. There are a ton of great records that I just haven’t listened to enough yet, but I keep going back to these, no particular order:

    Coldfells – s/t (AOTY for me)
    Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape
    Elfsgedroch – Op de Beenderen van onze Voorvaderen
    Ende – Emen Etan
    Shaarimoth – Temple of the Adversarial Fire
    Laster – Ons Frije Fatum
    Havukruunu – Kelle Surut Soi
    Acrimonious – Eleven Dragons
    Artificial Brain – Labyrinth Constellation
    Orm – Orm
    Woe – Hope Attrition

  19. Coldfells – S/T
    Tomb Mold – Primordial Malignity
    Contaminated – Final Man
    Phrenelith – Desolate Endscape
    Venenum – Trance of Death
    Fluoride – S/T
    Captain Caveman – Failed Species
    Ruins of Beverast – Exuvia
    Full of Hell – Trumpeting Ecstacy
    Elder – Reflections of A Floating World

  20. Not in any order.

    Sunless – Urraca
    Echopraxia – Candle Cove
    Dodecahedron – Kwintessens
    Artificial Brain – Infrared Horizon
    Raster Density – Mother ov Mankind
    Bufihimat – I
    Ingurgitating Oblivion – Vision Wallows in Symphonies of Light
    Midnight Odyssey – Silhouettes of Stars
    Moonloop – Devocean
    Arphael – Ancient

  21. Fuggin Vonlughlio +1 – one of best lists I’ve found.

  22. Man, there’s a lot of good reminders in these lists. 2017 has been a hell of a year so far.

  23. Death:
    1. Suffering Hour – In Passing Ascension
    2. Impetuous Ritual – Blight Upon Martyred Sentience
    3. Azarath – In Extremis
    4. Immolation – Atonement
    5. Artificial Brain – Infrared Horizon
    6. Heresiarch – Death Ordinance (I have promos from Dark Descent, if you asking)
    7. Bacteremia – Furiously Reduced
    8. John Frum – A Stirring in the Noos
    9. Dark Matter Secret – Perfect World Creation
    10. Hideous Divinity- Adveniens

    Black:
    1. Ulsect – Ulsect
    2. Falls of Rauros – Vigilance Perennial
    3. Time Lurker – Time Lurker
    4. Endon – Through the Mirror
    5. Tome of the Unreplenished – Cosmoprism: The Theurgy – Act I
    6. Dodecahedron – Kwintessens
    7. Inferno – Gnosis Kardias (Of Transcension and Involution)
    8. Progenie Terrestre Pura – oltreLuna
    9. The Ruins of Beverast – Exuvia
    10. Hexis – Tando Ashanti

    Other Metal/non Metal (no order):
    – The Heads Are Zeros – The Heads Are Zeros
    – Elder – Reflections of a Floating World
    – Pharmakon – Contact
    – Incendiary – Thousand Mile Stare
    – Condor – Unstoppable Power
    – Arca – Arca
    – Planning for Burial – Below the House
    – Power Trip – Nightmare Logic
    – Full of Hell – Trumpeting Ecstasy
    – Spaceslug – Time Travel Dilemma

  24. In no particular order:

    -Violet Cold- Anomie
    -Shaarimoth- Temple of the Adversarial Fire
    -Miserist- Miserist
    -Aversio Humanitatis- Longing for the Untold
    -Cloud Catcher- Trails of Kozmic Dust
    -Havok- Conformicide
    -Craven Idol- The Shackles of Mammon’
    -The Night Flight Orchestra- Amber Galactic

  25. No order.

    Goatwhore – Vengeful Ascension
    Mastodon – Emperor of Sand
    Mavradoxa – Lethean Lament
    Arcadea – s/t
    Death Fortress – Triumph of the Undying
    Condone – World of Human Wreckage
    Wode – Servants of the Countercosmos
    Mother Moon – Bathed in False Light
    Pallbearer – Heartless
    Devilish Art – Temple of Desintegration

  26. As per usual I’m way behind on my metal listening these days, and these lists are just a reminder of that fact. But a few picks I haven’t seen mentioned so far:

    Ulvegr – Titahion- Kaos Manifest
    Dawn of Ashes – Daemonolatry Gnosis
    Wolfkhan – Cyber Necro Spirituals
    Diablerie – The Catalyst vol I

  27. No order:
    Horn – Turm am Hang (2017)
    Witherfall – Nocturnes and Requiems (2017)
    The Ominous Circle – Appalling Ascension (2017) !!!
    Heretoir – The Circle (2017)
    Synaptik – Justify & Reason (2017)
    Hellripper – Coagulating Darkness (2017) !!!

  28. Seide – Beyond the Fallacy
    Atrexial – Souverain
    Aversio Humanitatis – Longing for the Untold
    Au Champ des Morts – Dans la joie
    Eskapism – Tales of Elder Forest
    NONE – NONE
    Whoredom Rife – Dommedagskvad
    Solbrud – Vemod

  29. 5 to start–and judging from the number of albums mentioned above that I’ve not even heard yet, lots of discoveries yet to make! Good problem to have.

    ENDON–Through the Mirror (I mean, holy fuck)
    VIOLET COLD–Anima
    FALLS OF RAUROS–Vigilance Perenial
    DARKFLIGHT–The Hereafter
    PHRENELITH–Desolate Endscape

    Really psyched to check the new Pyrrhon in a month or so.

  30. Been building mine since Jan. Tons of great stuff so far.
    Including my finds of older stuff too cause it’s all been heavily listened too as well.

    1. Pallbearer – Heartless
    2. Dool – Here Now, Then There
    3. Wormwitch – Strike Mortal Soil
    4. Black Anvil – As Was
    5. Forming the Void – Relic
    6. Venenum – Trance of Death
    7. Wode – Servents of the Countercosmos
    8. Tyrannosorceress – Shattering Lights Creation
    9. In the Company of Serpents – Ain-Soph Aur
    10. Azarath – In Extremis
    11. Henry Kane – Den Förstörda Människans Rike
    12. Goatwhore – Vengeful Ascension
    13. The Furor – Calvalries of the Occult
    14. Assault – The Fallen Reich
    15. Dig Me No Grave – Immemorial Curse
    16. Wrath From Above – Beyond Ruthless Cold
    17. Barbarian Swords – Worms
    18. Norska – Too Many Winters

    Top older records found in 2017
    1. Necropanther – S/T (2016)
    2. Bewitcher – S/T (2016)
    3. Sear Bliss – Eternal Recurrence (2012!)
    4. Goat Semen – Ego Svm Satana (2015)
    5. Hellbringer – Awakened from the Abyss (2016)
    6. Funeral Chic-Hatred Swarm (2016)
    7. Graveir – Iconostasis (2016)
    8. Slugdge – Dim & Slimeridden Kingdoms (2015)
    9. Barbarian Swords – Hunting Rats (2014)
    10. Orwell – AVOHFASIH (2011!)

  31. Personal 2017 Top 10 so far (with so much to hear)

    Mors Principium Est – Embers of a Dying World
    Persefone – Aathma
    Dark Portrait – A Harrowing Atrocity
    Serenity in Murder – The Eclipse
    Falls Of Rauros – Vigilance Perennial
    Depeseblo – Nightmare Desolation
    Pure Wrath – Ascetic Eventide
    Wormwood – Ghostlands: Wounds From A Bleeding Earth
    Nightbringer – Terra Damnata
    White Ward – Futility Report

  32. Falls Of Rauros- Vigilance Perennial
    Pillorian- Obsidian Arc
    Grima- Tales of the Enchanted Woods
    Arkheron Thodol- Thaw
    Cover of Night- The Depths
    Fen- Winter
    Fellwarden- Oathbearer

    Honorable Mention:
    The Hill You Die On- Morningstar EP

  33. Greetings fellow metal miscreants:
    I’m a frequent reader of NCS, but I have now lost my commenting virginity–horray! Every year is packed full of great metal releases and 2017 is definitely not different in that sense. Without further adue, I’m just going to list a few bands that have appealed to me the most thus far:
    Death metal Band So Far:
    Hideous Divinity (the demon child of Hate Eternal and Hour of Penance)
    Very close runner up:
    Immolation
    Black metal band so far:
    Corpus Christii
    Grindcore band thus far:
    Phobia

    I will have many more to post once the official year-end Listmania season arrives.
    Thank you to all the resourceful metal maniacs that peruse and post on this site.
    What I’m listening to right now that I’d recommend: Heresiarch

  34. that flag is anarchist as fuck.

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