RBOTD: 151 - 200 Recap
How have I done 200 of these?
Welcome to the first RBOTD recap. I'll post these every 50 entries, which I'll refer to as "blocks." This recap will be the first and last that bridges the Twitter and Substack eras. Therefore, it'll look a little weird. But hey, I do, too.
Quick rundown on the Substack because we have some new subs:
The Plague Rages Podcast, VaccZine, and the Booster reside at the top level. If you want recommendations on new metal music sent to your inbox a couple times a month, that's the one to subscribe to.
Random Band of the Day, this particular newsletter, is me clicking the "Random Band" button on Encyclopaedia Metallum and reviewing/digging deep into the findings. It runs on weekdays. The music is mostly terrible, not going to lie to you. I'll try to make it entertaining.
Your Least Favorite Lupine is non-metal stuff. In the best of times, I do one of those quarterly-ish. I needed a vacation after the Garfield essay.
Plague Rages Stacks is old pieces I've dusted off and annotated. This is only available on the site.
Annoyingly, you'll have to subscribe to all of these levels separately because I am irritatingly conscientious and don't want to cause inbox clutter. Substack isn't clear about that, for whatever reason.
OK. Let's ride.
Country Leaderboard
This Block:
United States - 9
United Kingdom - 5
Brazil - 3
Sweden - 3
Canada - 3
France - 3
Germany - 3
Overall:
United States - 43
France - 13
United Kingdom - 13
Germany - 10
Indonesia - 8
Italy - 8
While we saw only one Indonesian band this block (Soulsick, RBOTD #179), the country continues to outpace its comparative Metallum standings. Take a gander at this:
Top Countries Per Metal-Map
Percentage of Metallum's total database in parenthesis.
United States (22%)
Germany (8%)
Italy (5%)
Brazil (5%)
United Kingdom (4%)
Indonesia (1.4%)
I don't know. I'm a nerd. I find this nerdy stuff neat. Good on you, Indonesia.
Genre Leaderboard
This Block:
Death - 17
Black - 14
Thrash - 10
Heavy - 5
Melodic - 5
Overall:
Death - 57
Black - 55
Heavy - 39
Thrash - 38
Melodic - 26
You can read more about genres in Metallum here.
Band Formation Data
This Block:
1960s - 0
1970s - 0
1980s - 6
1990s - 12
2000s - 19
2010s -10
2020s - 1
N/A - 3
The lone newbie is Paydretz (RBOTD #157), which was formed in 2020.
Most Common Lyrical Themes
This Block:
N/A - 21
Death - 9
Violence - 3
Anti-Christianity - 2
Darkness - 2
Evil - 2
As you can see, lyrical theme data in Metallum is sparse, thus why I only track it for these recaps. The two best lyrical themes this block belong to Bonecrusher ("headbanger ideals," RBOTD #151) and Château Pansen ("sandstorm," RBOTD #167).
Heard 'em
I added three to my total, bringing me to 10 overall.
Altaar, RBOTD #155
Beastlor, RBOTD #160
Blood Money, RBOTD #172
Best Band
Blood Money, RBOTD #172
1986's Red, Raw and Bleeding! and 1987's Battlescarred are two of my all-time favorite speed metal/NWOBHM albums. Easy choice. Beastlor, which cracked my best-of list last year thanks to its excellent Galaxies of Death, is the worthy runner-up. Tellingly, I had heard both of these bands before.
Out of the bands I hadn't heard, Russia's thrashing, proto-death ripper Крематор (RBOTD #152) takes the prize. Kronix (RBOTD #162), the California thrasher with future members of Snot, Soulfly, and Ultraspank comes in second.
Worst Band
All told, this was a pretty miserable block that was light on highlights. So, uh, congratulations, Situs Inversus. You were the best of the worst, handily out-shitting your fierce competition like the winner of a chili eating contest. "This section is so shoddily recorded that you can hear the pops of terribly encoded MP3s layered on top of each other," I wrote about "Love You After Death," the opener of its debut demo, Psicofonia. "It's a symphony of audio defects. Astounding."
Highest Rated Albums
Per RateYourMusic, using the adjusted formula.
Blood Money - Red, Raw and Bleeding!
Крематор - За чертой
Beastlor - Galaxies of Death
Paydretz - Chroniques De L’insurrection
Altaar - Altaar
Coolest Find
Ikhon
Discovering that this band's post-Fartgod iteration is reasonably decent and has Daniel Liljekvist, formerly of Katatonia, in its ranks was a treat.
Runner-up again goes to Kronix because "One Psychotic Mind" is also a time capsule of skate history.
Weirdest Connection
Sextiger
It was always going to be Sextiger. Shout out to Adrenaline Kings (RBOTD #166) for getting me here.
Otherwise, it's crazy that Hollow Sign (RBOTD #191), formerly Asshole, had Jacek Grecki of Lost Soul in its ranks.
Best Name
Fartgod, RBOTD #153
I've written about this to no end, so there's not much left to say other than marveling at that name once more. I'm never going to beat it. An all-timer.
Worst Name
The Molly Hatchet album cover of band names. No splatter, no brains. Boo this band. Torturhaus (RBOTD #171) is also stupid, but it doesn't have the same annoyance factor.
Best Post
Traitors Return to Earth, RBOTD #187
This post has done the best according to the view count. Makes sense. It has graphs. I mean, what more could you want out of a newsletter? Engaging content? Get out of here.
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