The Metal Scholar's Weekly Listening List (14th April 2020)

Watching 90s Wresting Re-Runs And Listening To Pantera

As lockdown continues to drag on, I have been reliving my childhood by watching late 1990s/early 2000s wrestling. I remember for a long time always wanting to be a wrestler, with Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, etc. all tearing it up week in week out while Hulk Hogan ran the nWo. It made me realise something though, my absolute favourite wrestlers were always The Undertake and Kane. Considering that The Undertaker is the ultimate Goth and Kane is a destructive demon, you can see what fired my imagination and drew me to the darker areas of fiction and music when I was young. The Brothers Of Destruction with all their macabre imagery and pyro just enthralled me for sure. After binge watching some WWE programming the other day, I then rifled through my CD collection and  found my Pantera CDs which I forgot I had. Cranking up Cowboys From Hell on my stereo and reliving the violent grooves of Dimebag Darrell, regressed me back to my teenage years and when I was getting into metal. It's been a really interesting week in that case for me, even though I know wrestling is fake, I still find it entertaining, my favourite description is a 'Male Soap Opera' which I fully agree with. Anyway, enough reminiscing, besides that I've been enjoying albums on my 10km runs and state sponsored walks with the dog has been awesome. So, without any further ado, this week's lists!

Singles Of The Week

I. Valdrin (🇺🇸) - Red Burning Candles Of Hatred (Blood Harvest), Melodic Black Metal 

II. Nightmarer (🇺🇸) - II: Metastasis (Primordial Grit) (Total Dissonance Worship, Technical Death Metal

III. Wayward Dawn (🇩🇰) - Upheaval Of Earth (Might Music), Death Metal

IV. Auroch (🇨🇦) - Coffin Nails (20 Buck Spin), Blackened Death Metal

V. Slaves BC (🇺🇸) - Third Temple (The Fear and the Void Recordings), Black Sludge 

VI. Loviatar (🇨🇦) - Horse In Thrall (Prosthetic Records), Doom Metal

VII. Damonacy (🇺🇸) - Corpulent Carrion (Independent), Death Metal

VIII. Svartkonst (🇸🇪) - I Am The Void (Independent), Blackened Death Metal

IX. Foetal Juice (🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) - Gluttony (Gore House Productions), Death Metal

X. Vengeful (🇨🇦) - Anguish (Independent), Death Metal

Albums Of The Week

I. Ritual Dictates (🇨🇦) - Give In To Dispair (Artefact Recordings), Death Metal  

II. Wayward Dawn (🇩🇰) - Haven Of Lies (Might Music), Death Metal

III. Auroch (🇨🇦) - Stolen Angelic Tongues (20 Buck Spin), Blackened Death Metal

IV. Svartkonst (🇸🇪) - Black Waves (Independent), Blackened Death Metal

V. Vengeful (🇨🇦) - TOCMMXIX (Independent), Death Metal

Throwback Of The Week

Considering that I've been reminiscing on my past metal loves, it will come as no surprise that this week's throwback is a Pantera album. Far Beyond Driven is an iconic groove metal album and it is still hard to believe that Pantera started out as a glam metal band. For me it has tons of aggression and  great riffs that are perfect for psyching you up for a game of rugby.

Pantera (🇺🇸) - Far Beyond Driven (Atlantic Records), Groove Metal

The Weekly Listening Playlist