Jason - I know this isn't a formal review, but if you were to assign a grade, what would it be?

Damn there is a lot of good metal coming out now.  New Intronaut, new Ghost, new Kylesa, new The Ocean, and now new Red Fang?  It's been a great couple of months.

Other examples: Tortoise, The Mercury Program, Pelican, Maserati.

Yeah I read that bit assuming it would be credited to Heller, and was surprised to see Dowd's name on it instead.  Seeing as there's no Loud anymore, I'll be happy to see some heavy stuff get covered in slots like this.

HQ: my hat looks like a muffin… over…

I like the new album a little better than Valley of Smoke, but they are much of a muchness.  If you didn't like VoS, I don't think the new album is sufficiently different to change your mind about them.

Damn, @avclub-d542a3419c3ad57206a96bcc86155ebc:disqus, thanks!  I am copying this info for future reference!

Oh shit, new Dead Confederate.  I will be getting on that.  I positively adore Wrecking Ball, although their follow up did less for me.

I'll be spending a weekend in Houston in late September.  Anybody got any suggestions for sites to see?  I'll take restaurant suggestions too.  And I've become a little bit of a cocktail fancier, so if there's a noteworthy cocktail bar anyone wants to name, I'll be sure to make a note of it.

Metal/Loud Thread

They could always pick up the recently-cancelled Futurama and bypass Viacom with new episodes.

Metal music generally has a negative vibe.  But there are some exceptions.  If you want recent metal in the vein of Led Zeppelin with non-dark lyrics, I'd suggest Witchcraft's "Legend" album or the recent output of Graveyard (despite the name, it's not all ghosts and ghouls).

It's obviously far too late to be joining the discussion of this show, but I finally got around to watching this series and this episode was definitely a highlight.  While I had some suspicions about all the "honeyed wine" remarks in previous episodes, I hadn't particularly laid the blame at Lucretia's door prior to…

Geezer Butler, on the other hand, looks ready to walk right onto the set of Game of Thrones.  He could be Ned Stark's long-lost older brother.

I kind of wonder whether anyone factored the annoyance factor into playing your advertisement over the song itself.  Prior to listening to this, I had never heard of "i heart radio on demand."  Now I know that I hate them, whatever they are.  Is that a brand win?  Seems like setting the "win" bar awfully low.

Branca's guitar symphonies are very metal.  Hell, No. 6 is subtitled "Devil Choirs At The Gates Of Heaven" - it doesn't get much more metal than that.  And let's not forget the classic track "Fuck Yourself" from his "Songs '77 - '79" album.

I've been listening to that Ancestors album a bunch lately, too.  It's got a Floyd-ish vibe in places that I really dig.

Their latest is on Spotify, if you stoop to such measures.

Oh man, I made the mistake of eating at a Mexican restaurant in Rome (this was back in '99, fwiw).  In my defense, it was during the siesta, and I needed to get some food before an early evening obligation.  Man was that terrible.  The salsa was like Italian tomato sauce; the burrito was like lasagna with tortilla…

Do you say that as someone who liked their first album?  I enjoyed it, but I haven't heard a note from the new one.