Awesome! I’ve heard a little Yothu Yindi before. Excited to check this out.
Great album, which I think got stronger as it went on, with Gopuro (Tuna Swimming) and Wulminda (Dark Clouds) being favorites. I really love the instrument choices (deep strings and brass), which I think went well with the vocals, neither overpowering the other for too long. Everything worked well together. I’m relistening to the ending, from Saltwater Crocodile on, while the wife is watching season 1 of the Australian show Offspring in the other room. Later I’ll throw on some live Gizz. Is being an Auzziephile a thing?
This is BEAUTIFUL. The instrumentation reminds me of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians (and maybe also a bit of David Byrne’s orchestral record The Forest), but the comparisons end there. Knockout stuff. (Wish the vinyl was easier to come by in the States. I’m finding that with a lot of Aussie releases lately.)
Oh nice. Its been a while since I listened to that one but from what I remember its a bit more straightforward folk style, definitely got to revisit it now.
Yeah, I don’t know much about orchestral instruments/production but I do love how they sound here. Theres something so clean and minimal about them, and like you say, so well balanced with the vocal.
Haha a lot of Americans get surprised at how much they like it here with how familiar but unusual it all is, but I think you have to go a bit deeper than Offspring to claim Auzziephile 
I’m glad you like it. I haven’t heard The Forest but that’s all I need to know, thanks for the comparison.
Haha thats just payback for how much we have to pay for everything else!
I think you’re right on track here. I also find ‘making a judgement’ difficult or redundant for this, like say ranking it in a best of 2018 list.
Its part of the significance of it being so culturally remote (at least Gurrumul’s part). Obviously the orchestra stuff is a big anchor to what we usually expect from music, but otherwise its a huge reminder that basically everything that we normally consider music (post-Elvis/Beatles, part of the music industry, made as a product etc.) is still really very insular when people have been singing like this for quite literally hundreds of generations.
With all that in mind, I’m just very satisfied that everyone seems to have been able to grasp it on some level for what it is, regardless if it makes it into regular rotation or anything.
Definitely one of those special occasions ones for me, including last weekend which was probably the most powerful connection to my local land, environment, and the universe at large I’ve ever had, thanks in part to this recording.
But it doesn’t have to be that deep for everyone. Next week’s album will be up soon, and by the rules I established at the start we are running very low on eligible picks. @AlteredBeef @Doompunk @lucid @cwar or anyone else, we’d all appreciate a comment in here and a suggestion if you can, it can be very simple and quick!
we can just roll through the 4 of us for a while if no one else is interested or until more are interested. I have plenty of recommendations up my sleeves and would rather not pressure or receive less than the attention than people’s recommendations deserve.
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I was listening to this when I was making dinner just now. I’m in on this for sure, will give more in depth thoughts soon!
Shoot I missed out on Grandaddy? I love that album!!
I came up with a short personal list and I’m gonna submit one suggestion right now.
Edit - submitting a pretty sick one, hope it gets picked 
after that I’ll submit another. Don’t want to reduce the chance of this album getting picked, after all 
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Are you ready to metal?!
I am so friggin excited to share with you all this week, one of my favorite albums of all time:
Death - The Sound of Perseverance (1998) is our week 5 selection!
I remember reading a thread on Reddit about metal bands that would be good for a Gizz fan. There were plenty that obviously come to mind (Motörhead, Tool etc), but buried in the comments someone mentioned Death and immediately it just clicked. Of course Death, a death/thrash/speed metal band from Florida, would be amazing for headbanger Gizz fans.
This is the final studio album from the band, as Chuck (lead singer and guitarist and only constant member of the band) would sadly die of brain cancer in 2001. Chuck was always highly technical and massively talented, and this album sounds soooo clean to me. His vocals are understandable, unique and at times almost operatic.
The drumming is on point thanks to Richard Christy. Does that name sound familiar? If so, you probably watched/listened to Howard Stern in the mid-late aughts, he was the guy on the show with the massive porn collection.
Death rarely put a bad song on an album (I might be biased because I know all these tracks like the back of my hand) and the subject matter of the lyrics are mostly dark but often fantasy based, kinda reminds me a bit of Gizz. Also like Gizz, IRL he was apparently a very nice and positive dude despite these darker tendencies. The musicianship of the album is just prime, lots of tempo changes (I think I’m not really good at detecting those but something is changing a lot lol, lots of twists and turns) and it ends with a really sick Judas Priest cover.
This album really changed my perspective on what metal could be…while of course absolutely as brutal as you’d expect from a band called Death, this is a beautiful album.
Hope that you enjoy this one, it’s in my forever rotation no doubt.
Note - DSPs don’t have the regular version, which stops at Painkiller. The rest is like extra/deluxe stuff that I haven’t really listened to. Only disc 1 is the original release.
Despite a couple of my earliest concerts being Ozzy Osbourne back in 1992 in high school, I’m not into metal, or at least haven’t been much into metal since high school. Ozzy, Guns and Roses and some earlier Metallica had been the extent of my interest back then and I’m not sure Ozzy and Guns and Roses are even considered metal anymore. I can’t say I’m a fan of many metal songs. However, I never dove into any of the various metal genres that emerged after the early 90s, with huge swaths like new metal and death metal that I know next to nothing about. I am a curious about and am planning on digging into Misfits and maybe some other early thrash bands like Anthrax some more, but really don’t plan on devoting too much time to metal unless something clicks for me that hasn’t really clicked in a long time with metal. I may check out Symbolic and Human, two earlier (and higher rated at besteveralbums.com) from Death. Curious why this one over the other 2?
I found the album very impressive musically and I’ll probably check to see what they sound like live, if any decent recordings exist. My favorite songs were Spirit Crusher, Story to Tell and Voice of the Soul, the last of which probably sounded least metal. I can see the Gizz comparisons, especially when a more melodic guitar solo pops up among the thrash, reminiscent of Gaia, or when you get a flood of drum fills that sound like Cavs on any Petro Dragonic Apocalypse song. Truth is, Gizz’s metal music isn’t my favorite. If that is all they played, I would of never made it to my first show. I enjoy the metal songs more live than studio, but still I would find an entire show of all metal a huge disappointment. I can imagine what a metal Gizz fan must go through attending a one-off show where they don’t bust out any metal songs, must be crushing to the big Ratt’s Nest lovers.
Lastly, when it comes to metal, I’m more of an Ozzy vocal fan than a Ronnie James Dio vocal fan. I know this was more of a howling screech than Dio, but as you mentioned, there are certainly operatic tendencies here. Similarly, the cleaner the instrumentation, then less I like it. I’m surprised how clean and operatic so much metal has gotten lately…at least that is my impression from YouTube reactors that get pushed onto certain bands. So, count me as a member of the not a fan of this vocalist camp, as I’m sure that camp exists. I think when more melodic bits of instrument composition cut through the thrash components, giving it all more texture and layers, those would be my favorite bits. Hope that makes sense and thanks for sharing one of your favorites. I hope you get a chance to go back and check out some of our first-round recommendations as well if you haven’t already.
Thank you so much for taking the time to listen and share your thoughts, even though it’s not something you would ever seek out!
Sometimes with things like this album listening club… not only can you discover new artists and albums you’ll love but also you get an opportunity to mindfully listen to something you won’t. Metal is tough to recommend and I really waivered on whether to go this route especially for my first recommendation, but when I read your response here I was really glad that I did. It makes me excited to listen to the albums going forward (and in the past - I’ve actually listened to all the recommendations, just never commented… at some point I will make a post about my thoughts!) and expand my musical perspective.
I actually don’t listen to a ton of metal these days. I say this wearing my Metal Night Gizz shirt right now but really, my favorite residency night that I saw on youtube was probably the acoustic night. I do love the Gizz metal tho, that’s for sure.
Regarding some of your questions:
I may check out Symbolic and Human, two earlier (and higher rated at besteveralbums.com ) from Death. Curious why this one over the other 2?
Two main reasons for this particular album in their discography:
A lot of death metal has really hard to understand growly lyrics. This vocal style on this album from Chuck is no doubt different… but if you listen to some of his earlier albums he actually does sound a lot more classic deeper raspier angrier death metal-ish… A bit harder to understand (imo) and show different emotions in. Also the music is more “brutal” in general to me (which I do like, to be sure) while Sound of Perserverance feels more melodic and elegant. There’s anger there but it’s more resentment and anguish maybe? I dunno. Anyway, with metal being such a hit or miss kinda thing, I thought this one had the most chance to appeal to someone who was on the fence about the genre.
Interesting quote from Chuck about the tranformation in his vocal style throughout the years, which has always endeared me to him even more:
He said in 1993 that “it takes a lot of energy and a lot of throat abuse to get through a show.”
Check out some of the vocals from earlier albums, here’s one of my favorites:
The second reason is the drums. Like you said, it sounds like Cavs on PDA. I think Richard Christy was the best drummer the band had, and this is the only album that he’s on.
I guess also third is Voice of the Soul… something that really has more universal appeal than anything else in the discography!
You also mentioned live recordings, so I wanted to share one that I’ve watched/listened to so many times, which is Live in L.A.:
It’s great, its got Christy on the drums and as a sidenote it was released to raise money for his brain cancer treatment.
There’s a ton of live footage of them out there, we used to watch a lot in basements back in the day for sure. Good times 
Thanks again for listening to the album and sharing your thoughts!
Nice change of pace from our previous selections! I have to say I don’t listen to heaps of metal usually, and when I do its usually sludgier/noisier/hardcore punk stuff. I had a prog-metal phase in my teens (particularly for Dream Theater), and hardcore screeching/screaming vocals are about my typical limit, but I thought this had a good blend of that with the proggy high operatic style.
Totally rad name for the band, very bold move to do that that often doesn’t seem to pay off, but it looks like they had a good run with it. I am very keen to now hear what these guys sounded like at the start of their career over ten years earlier, as yeah they are impressively clean and technical here.
I can’t say I get the King Gizzard comparison to be honest, which is totally fine, I think its very important to listen to the progenitors of the genres that they do ‘dip’ in and out of. I wasn’t really able to follow the lyrics, so perhaps I am missing a lot of the progressive nature though. When King Gizz are in this mode, it tends to seem much funnier, camp, or more ironic than this kind of thing; which seems to be wanting you to take it very seriously? Maybe not, I don’t have a good sense of what the scene for this was like in the late nineties.
The name is totally rad! When they originally formed (1984) they did so under the name Mantas (Chuck was 16 years old at the time). They circulated a number of rehearsals/demos including one called Death by Metal which led Chuck to dissolve Mantas and reform the band under the name Death.
Their first album (1987s Scream Bloody Gore) is widely regarded as the first death metal album. Chuck was known as “The Godfather of Death Metal” … his thoughts on the nickname:
“I don’t think I should take the credits for this death metal stuff. I’m just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band.”
Regarding the King Gizzard comparison… I think it’s just a feel. Death is death metal, for sure, but they incorporate alot of elements of thrash metal. And from interviews like this one (sidenote - this interview seems to be missing from the archives?), I do think that this sort of band was an influence for Rats Nest as well as PDA.
Quote from Stu:
That was my introduction to heavy metal, and soon Rammstein led to Metallica, Metallica led to Slayer, Slayer led to Kreator and Sodom.
Kreator and Sodom are great btw, the next step in this evolution here would be something like Death… more extreme side of thrash metal (although I still think that Death is more palatable than something like Sodom).
Take a song like Self-Immolate. Constantly switches time signatures, quite techincal, lots of great drum fills, heavy. A track like this has Death written all over it (imo). PDA is even more so akin to Death, in my head. Supercell, Dragon, Witchcraft, Flamethrower.
Lyrically, it’s not quite as “lighthearted” as KG, but the angst is there… speaking against those who would have us suffer for their own benefit (those damn suits in charge of the world!). A lot of the lyrics on Sound of Perserverance specifically are great bits social commentary.
A couple faves…
Scavenger of Human Sorrow:
Big words, small mind
Behind the pain you will find
A scavenger of human sorrow
Scavenger
Abstract theory the weapon of choice
Used by a scavenger of human sorrow
Scavenger
Spirit Crusher:
Human at sight, monster at heart
Don’t let it inside it could
Tear you right apart
No guilt, it feeds in plain sight
Spirit crusher
Stay strong and hold on tight
Spirit crusher
Maybe it’s a bit of a stretch, but having “lived” in this album for years and years of my life and doing the same now with Rats Nest (and starting to with PDA), they seem to be coming from similar points of origin even if the execution is a bit different. And I wouldn’t have it any other way… I love the KG metal albums and hope they continue to put out one every handful of years.
Thanks for listening and sharing your thoughts! This was awesome!
Scream Bloody Gore was cool, I think I slightly prefer that more raw energy, as impressive as the Sound of Perseverance is. I’ll always be attracted to ‘birth of a genre’ albums, so I’m very glad to have learned about this band.
The whole ‘genre tourist’ thing is funny isn’t it? I guess when it comes down to it I like the King Gizzard metal albums because they’re King Gizzard more than because they’re good metal. I did check out some Gojira shortly after PDA dropped for that comparison, and I did enjoy that too.
How does Perseverance make you actually feel @cwar ? Is it like an energizing, affirming thing? Or mostly an appreciation of the musicianship?
I absolutely love this! I love the idea of a genre tourist, too. Sometimes you’re a tourist for a bit and then you decide to stay a while…
So glad you checked out SBG! I really do love all of Deaths albums. When I listen to Perserverance it makes me feel… like I’m listening to greatness. SBG, Human, Symbolic etc… these were all steps in the journey to the absolute masterpiece that is TSoP. Earlier albums were closer to start… the nascent comsic soup of death metal… and have more in common with where the genre would go… But I really don’t know of another album that hits the same as TSoP.
That being said it still gets me PUMPED UP ( ) and I really do appreciate the musicianship… especially as a lifelong novice guitarist. I mean check out some of his live footage, look at how hard he’s shredding while nailing the vocals too.
34 is such a young age to lose such a talent, a real unfortunate example of the american healthcare system (his brain cancer treatment was denied by insurance because it was a pre-existing condition).
I really enjoyed this Death album! I’m far from a metalhead, although I like dabbling in music that is metal-tinged or metal-adjacent, esp with a multi-genre element (think Mr.Bungle’s first album) or a psych/heavy vibe (Earthless and, to a lesser extent, Sleep). I’ve also messed around in Satanic black metal (Gorogoth specifically). Gizz slots for me perfectly in that regard.
I was surprised at how melodic The Sound of Perseverance was. The lead singer took a minute for me, but I ended up digging his tone and rasp. Kind of like a crazed Geddy Lee or Jon Anderson. (For some reason this Death album kept reminding me of “heavy” Yes tunes like Gates of Delirium or Machine Messiah.) The guitarists can shred and I found several moments truly stunning. (End of To Forgive is To Suffer, which I see @phreakbrain has mentioned, was a highlight.) One of my favorite aspects: I could understand the lyrics!
Thanks @cwar for giving me a reason to step out of my comfort zone. I’m going to add more metal to the audio diet thanks to this.
Cool, never heard of this band or this album. Excited to get into it!
Added boogie