Filed under: Death Metal, Experimental, Progressive Metal, Shows, Thrash Metal, Uncategorized | Tags: Baroness, Live, Meshuggah, Metal Shows, MetalGF, Metalheads, MetalSucks, Vince
Cross posting this because it’s always nice to see a show review, and especially one from someone not normally into metal.
When I first arrived I thought every guy was Vince. They all had his uniform on and I literally went to hug one or two bearded fellows before stopping myself just in time. I didn’t think Vince had a “Battlestar Galactica” t-shirt! Wait, I was right, he doesn’t have that shirt BECAUSE THAT’S NOT HIM! I just went to kiss a stranger who I now realize looks like a modern version of our 16th President. This is a sea of white men in black t-shirts like the (non-metal) world has never seen. There are no girls, no black people and no items of colored clothing in sight. I stick out like a sore thumb in my white bohemian top and blatant womanhood.
You know how at every show there is the one super psyched guy? He or she is always a row or two in front of me feeling the music in their deepest of souls and moving their bodies in a way only they understand. I remember I went to an Indigo Girls concert in the 1990s and there was a hundred pound girl dancing and singing and yelling with an enthusiasm known only to the superfan. Well, at Meshuggah superfans were everywhere. They are such a loved band. I had the feeling people had been waiting for this night for weeks, maybe months.
Filed under: Death Metal, Deathcore, Deathgrind, Thrash Metal, Uncategorized | Tags: Death, Death Vocals, Demi Lovato, MetalSucks, Sergeant D, Slam Metal, Twitter
Sergeant D of MetalSucks treats us to this lovely tribute to Demi Lovato from his slam projekt ENPEDESTALMENT. I wish I had a million tweeters, too.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bad music, Breakdowns, Christcore, Deathcore, Emmure, Metalcore, Music for tweens, Scene, Screamo, Shitty music, SxE, Victory Records
Thanks to everyone who contributed to this juvenile display of hatred. I laughed. I cried. But mostly laughed.
Real articles resume tomorrow (maybe).
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Progressive Metal, Black Metal, Metal, Melvins, Boris, Japan, Candlelight Records, Jazz Metal, Album Reviews, Black Breath, Avant Garde, Spotify, Sigh, Hawkwind, In Somniphobia, Mr. Bungle, Shining, Overkill
I never imagined a dead baby sales(wo)man to peddle their wares to beggars, but I never really anticipated aforementioned morbid capitalist to dawn regal garb to further accentuate her gluttonous womb. Tokyo’s Sigh returns! I’ve never been scarce on my praise for Hangman’s Hymn, and In Somniphobia packs just as many refrained declarations of antagonism, four thousand foot guitar solos, and loin soaking saxophone as the last. This album excretes intoxicating auditory delirium that seamlessly galavants through, what I would’ve originally imagined as disjointed if described this way, a blackened avante-garde opera giving a nod to free form barefoot jam, pocket protector prog rock and even other worldly Hawkwind spiced rock ‘n roll. Further on one will find this opus littered with zany fits of keyboard guitar synergy, and even a arousing bluesy interlude that could’ve played a couple riffs just a bit longer to avoid further rewinding. I had to rewind four times for the record. I won’t ruin any more surprises, but god damn can Dr. Mikannibal tear up that sax. If you, the reader, appreciate the genre bounding acrobatics of bands like Boris, Mr.Bungle and Shining click the link below or click here to order it from Candlelight Records.
Sigh is streaming In Somniphobia for FREE on SPOTIFY.
I’ll be electing In Somniphobia as a potential best record for March 2012. However, the competition should get pretty fierce with new Melvins, Black Breath, and even Overkill out this month as well. If your band, or your friend’s band, is releasing something this month send me an e-mail. If it sounds anything like this video please be sure to delete your e-mail prior to sending. Thanks.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Autolatry, Black Metal, Krallice, Of the Land, Post-Metal, Prog or Steaming Log?, Progressive Black Metal, Rosetta, Rusian Circles, USBM
Cold wastelands of Mansfield, Connecticut I beseech your black metal brethren! Some criticize the recent upheaval of several black(ened) metal in North America, but when you have bands, like Autolatry, tearing and tilling their own terms and territory it excites my appreciation for stylistic integration. Since some critics have attributed their song writing to the “progressive” buzz line, I’ve decided to examine these claims. Autolatry initially exhibit well rounded organizations of the mid-tempo and speedy give and take that most modern black metal utilizes. In addition to that, the first two tracks have small delineations that echo an influence of Rosetta or Russian Circles.The third track, entitled Stag, alters this established consistency by introducing off-time tempo jerking only second in. Resemblance to Krallice with a significantly more elaborate emphasis on posty chord progression becomes more and more apparent following to introduction of Stag until the conclusion. Another Name Your Price download too. This most definitely earns the title of PROG.
Click here to check out Autolatry on Facebook.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Album Reviews, Always Never Fun Records, Blackened Slugs, Buzzoven, Doom Metal, Meth Drinker, New Zealand, Sludge, Sourvein, Stoner Metal, Wizard Smoke
Blackened Slugs is a blog I’ve recently taken a liking to, and I thank Nick for posting this record on his blog. My Google Reader radiates with music that consistently challenges my comfort zone, but then there’s Wellington New Zealand’s: Meth Drinker. When I went to see if MD had a Facebook page I came to find the search results included girls named “Beth Trinker”, “Beth Rinker”, and “Beth Brinker”. That probably shouldn’t be as punny to me as it was.If you’re a fan of bands like Buzzov*en, Wizard Smoke and Sourvein these broken bad brutes conjure up that familiar down home fuzzy feeling. Essentially it sounds nastier than a nap in the Okefenokee.I’ve never ingested meth, but I can imagine gargling down some melted crystals could inspire this festering two song feature. Kick start your hump day, drink up buttercup:
This self-title can be purchased from Always Never Fun Records based in New Zealand.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chicago Bulls, Drone, Luol Deng, Minimal Music, NBA, Noise
Every now and then something in sports fandom intersects with my music fandom. Nike decided to hype up Chicago Bulls veteran forward: Luol Deng. This ad exhibits that the use of minimalist sound stacking is actually digestible enough to make a commercial.
No player is more dedicated to sound than Luol Deng. Maybe? I don’t know. Cool little clip either way.
Just thought I’d share. Article coming.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Anteviluvian, Blasphemy, Blood Harvest Records, Brutal Death Metal, Death Metal, Death-Doom Metal, Doom Metal, Encoffination, Khanate, Liturgy, Mitochondrion, O' Hell, Parasignosis, Portal, Profound Lore, Shine in Thy Whited Sepulchres, Through the Cervix of Hawaah
2011 was a hell of a year for metal all around. Fairweather fans and die-hards alike found a lot to be happy about (and a few things to be overly upset about.) For a lot of people that meant demanding workman’s comp for Morbid Angel‘s little industrial accident. For me it meant spending far too long cursing a certain “black metal” band from Brooklyn and their supporters for deciding black metal was music for basement-dwelling would-be Nazis which needed to be transcended. But enough of my well thought out and completely understandable hate of Litugy…
Instead, I’m going to talk about death metal.
Death metal, I often feel, is metal’s most deliberately misunderstood subgenre. To your mainstream and “indie” music observers, black metal and more Neurosis-esque derivatives of sludge and doom metal have gained a certain amount of praise, attention and (shockingly) understanding. This attention and praise from reviewers with less-than-heavy taste in music has always seemed to evade death metal. It would seem that death metal still gets branded as a gimmicky genre, full of gore, misogyny, and a bunch of knuckle-dragging idiots making cookie-monster noises.
In fact, even amongst a lot of metal fans, there are still those uninitiated into the wonderful, wide-reaching, and weird variety of death metal to be released this year. You might be fooled into believing death metal is going through some sort of dryspell if one looks only at the bevy of generic melodeath, computer-generated shredding, and what (sadly) passes for “popular” death metal nowadays. But as always, the underground is there waiting for you, ready to console you with new discoveries.
In the absence of such an article, here are just a few of 2011′s best death metal releases:
Antediluvian – Through the Cervix of Hawaah (Profound Lore)
Antediluvian’s Through the Cervix of Hawaah came as somewhat of a surprise for many death metal fans in 2011. It’s not that Antediluvian hadn’t released any material prior to this year, it’s that Through the Cervix of Hawaah is the most solidified manifestation of the band’s musical efforts to date. Imagine Antediluvian as the bastard spawn of bestial black metal, bizarre technicality, and dirty ancient death metal. Every other reviewer with a blog and a certain sort of thought often compared to an asshole felt the need to compare this to Portal or Mitochondrion, but for what it’s worth I don’t find those comparisons helpful sound-wise (though I’m sure fans of the aforementioned bands will lap this up.) If anything, Antediluvian are definitely more death metal than either of the above, knowing when less is more for their approach. This sensibility is something that makes the band unique, they can harness a technical sense, while at the same time maintaining an attacking speed connecting them to the larger Canadian black/death sound.
Encoffination – O’ Hell, Shine in Thy Whited Sepulchres (Blood Harvest Records)
Remember that time you put a record on the wrong speed? At 45 rpm it was good, but knocking down the speed to 33 created the ugliest, slowest sound you’d ever heard. If in that moment you wished someone would create a band that mimicked that feeling of, Encoffination would be the living manifestation of that wish. This band is a project between the guitarist and drummer of Father Befouled, playing the slowest, doomiest death metal imaginable, bordering on funeral doom, and informed by frontman Ghoat‘s experience as a mortician (which you can read all about in a piece on Invisible Oranges.) Encoffination manage to do something incredibly rare, which is to slow death metal to a crawl without giving ground to other styles – this is unmistakably death metal (albeit in slow motion.) The atmosphere is dominated by lurching guitars, vocals from beyond the grave, and the sense that when you’re crawling towards the inevitable, there is no purpose to be in a hurry to get there. The result is not unlike the death metal equivalent of Khanate‘s approach to doom metal – stripped down to the elementary parts, then pushed to the limits of human effort. Interested? Luckily, in an ironic contrast to their take on death metal, Encoffination show no sign of slowing down, with six releases in the last two years, and the participation of both members in numerous other projects.
Mitochondrion – Parasignosis (Profound Lore)
Of the bands on my list, Canada’s Mitochondrion are the only one I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live. Their sparsely-lit set was one of the highlights of Rites of Darkness III, shocking the uninitiated by looking like Blasphemy, yet sounding like nothing of this earth. It was for this very reason that I was filled with dread at the prospect of writing about Mitochondrion’s 2011 sophomore release. The fact is that describing the contents of Parasignosis is difficult because there is little to no precedent for the band’s sound. Usually the Portal comparisons are popular, and while the bands definitely share an obscure approach to death and black metal, there’s honestly not all that much common ground here. The music here is dissonant, meandering technical death metal blended with black metal. I’m beyond words to describe the sound, but I have a comparison that might work for some of you. Parasignosis is a bit like a film with a non-linear plot – without seeing for yourself, it all can appear intimidatingly esoteric, and unabashedly obscure – and even a listen might leave you more confused than ever. But, if you’re like me, you appreciate this kind of depth in a record. It can’t be simply explained, it can’t be pigeon-holed, but when it suddenly becomes clear it hooks you. The songtitle ‘Trials’ is a reference point here: this record is a trial – a reward for the intrepid listener, for the daring.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Between the Buried and Me, BTBAM, Chowder, Djent, Escher, Hardcore, Metalcore, North Carolina, Periphery, Prog or Log?, Progressive Metal, Raleigh, Sikth, The Arusha Accord, The Faceless
Time for another new segment specific to progressive metal. I call it: Prog or Steaming Log? Due to the overwhelming amount of incorrectly depicted progressive metal bands that are actually just alternative press trash attempting to usurp another demographic I wanted to objectively evaluate releases that I’m sent/find. I attribute this phenomenon to the lack of creativity amongst suburban white kids, I say kids because isn’t that the ultimate dream of every prefixcore band, to stay relevant, nineteen and a size 26 waist forever? Looking at Escher, from Raleigh North Carolina, I’m presented with a challenge. At first look the cover reminds me of how the Cartoon Network show Chowder and the way characters colors move like this.
I discovered Escher this morning while casually browsing some popular website on the internet. The post caught my attention because the title cited that this band SOUNDS LIKE (because everyone needs a warning before they listen) Sikth, Periphery and Between the Buried and Me. Seems standard enough, outside of Periphery I admit that Sikth and BTBAM are two of my influences personally as a musician. What I found after the first couple of seconds was a shrill guitar lead with tone equivocal to a half melted ColecoVision joined by a series of drum fills and disjointed nearly inaudible gitfiddle rhythms. It’s definitely not easy to count though, and I found myself having to rewind to fully comprehend the time changes amidst the jumble of elicited sounds. I’m not sure what’s going on vocally here either, because at moments vocalist James Broadhead catches a nasty pedantic wail that is quickly overshadowed by it’s lack of furious consistency. He’s using so many different voices in rapid succession. I feel that if each vocal tone was organized in a more consistent fashion he could exude a more powerful delivery. That way different muscles would impart the physical strain.
Second track. There’s that distracting lead tone again, but this time it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome before the breakdown. I feel The Faceless influence here more so than anywhere else on the record, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing depending on the listener. This track also contains wandering spoken word vocals, but the language doesn’t help to engage the listener (too many pronouns altogether). I’ll mention that with a record like this, though, lyrics fall in the arbitrary zone. They conclude with a calming instrumental section that was the most innovative organization yet. Going for the brief syncopated lead out rather than a predictable cheesy fade out is always a good decision. So far, no complaisant macho chugging. Thumbs up.
Track 3, entitled “Nerve Damage” i- uh-oh. Dissonance time. This could’ve gone many ways, most of them would’ve forced my stomach into turbulence. I’m thankful that these dudes broke into a unmemorable solo rather than another brutal down. The cold war era machinery guitar tone still distracts me three tracks in and I still can’t really hear the rhythm guitars, or the bass. I assume this was double tracked too since there is only one guitar player listed on their roster. Climactic reprise was this song’s saving throw. Following the solo similar to a swarm of infuriated 56k modem bees they close with a segue into some guttural vocals and jerking kick pedal patterns. All of this accompanied by more love/hate guitar digs. Fans of The Arusha Accord will definitely get their fix from “Nerve Damage”.
Fourth track. More unintelligible talking through a guitar filter. The guitar(s) are maintaining their off again on again style until the complete slow down. Leads are kicked up here with some palpable flange tinted atmosphere. Sadly, textural bliss is short lived, and I’m thrown headlong into a gelatinous tank of overly mixed solos led by more leading guttural vocals. I turned it off at the start off another breakdown.
What was Prog: Seamless time changes, impressive and athletic percussion, dynamic song arrangement
What was Steaming Log: Inconsistent vocal tenacity, overindulgent solo arrangement, spoken vocals into filter
Overall, I didn’t want to turn this off until the last minute. This is a strong and thought out freshman release, so while my criticism might seem excessive I am interested in hearing future releases from Escher. Definite room for growth and improvement here so:
FINAL RULING: “Not quite prog, but not quite hot steamy log”
Check out Escher’s self-titled EP on their Bandcamp available for a FREE download.
Click here to check out Escher on Facebook.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Aerosmith, Christmas, Erlosung, Metal, Run DMC, Satan, Saturnalia, Slayer, Twisted Sister
Hey fools! If you’re like me, the holiday season makes your dick soft (or your vagina drier than my sense of humor, insert gender here). After black friday shows us the true dark side of the human spirit, everyone across America is exposed to bullshit politeness, relentless campaigns to put the “Christ” back in Saturnalia, and the always-present spectre of Zombie Bing Crosby crooning that timeless Nazi anthem, “White Christmas.” Unless you really love wool, Jesus, the colors red and green and/or are missing one of your parietal lobes, the holidays tend to jack up your blood pressure by more than a few mm/Hg. What better way to sneeze the hate out of your charred black soul than to revel in the best and worst holiday-related metal videos? Join me in my rage cage, kick your feet up and grab a bowl (of popcorn, or something.):
I feel no holiday is complete without this song. Fellow doomhead Sean McDonnell agrees. If I had it my way, this would be blasting in every Zales and Macy’s in the country instead of the 999 version of Silver Bells. The King turns the holidays into an effigy, declaring “There’s no presents, not this Christmas!” Right on! KD would be more likely to drop down the chimney to perform a sacrifice in your living room than to actually give you anything, anyway. I feel he missed an opportunity to say “Satan needs a helping hand” in the second verse, but hey, I’m not the King.
VH1 says that Run DMC has rock cred since they performed “Walk This Way” with Aerosmith an eon ago. VH1 also confuses rock for metal on a regular basis, and since I can only think thoughts that are fed to me by the tube attached to the back of my skull, Run DMC must be metal. If you think I have brain damage, watch the video and tell me there is anything heavier than seeing Crackhead Santa and his strange, half-pubescent illiterate elf slave. Shouts to Bobby Lee from Hong Kong and Iman Zumbal from Lagos, Nigeria. Nice.
Everybody’s probably seen one of these before, but this is a brand new 2011 edition of Slayer Christmas Lights. I love how creative this guy is with his light sequences, and even gets the Snowman’s mouth to move very accurately with the words. Very cool, and anything that injects Slayer into Xmas gets my approval 100%.
Christmas ist Krieg! Erlosung has been doing the Xmas metal thing for awhile now, and I love me some frosty black kvltic covers of Christmas classics. I encourage anyone who works in retail to troll their customers and hijack the PA to put this on.
Finally, we approach this mindfuck of a video. Everything is wrong; leopard print guitar straps, drummer with a headset, 80’s butt metal values and tenets, everyone has shades in the studio, Twisted Sister still has a career…this is the closest thing to a compressed, 6 minute long experience that brings forth all the same putrid emotions and fears that I feel over the entire holiday season. I am in some ways thankful for finding this and in others, very deeply regretful. It should provide some catharsis if you just got elbowed by some fat bitch at Best Buy, or if you need inspiration for finally going out into the living room and mowing down your family, holiday sweaters and all.
Alright, so these are neither the best or worst holiday videos out there, but they all hold a special place in my heart. Have a laugh, inhale some artificial snow and always remember that Santa has a list, but if you’re reading this, you’re probably not on it, you filthy, godless atheist. Happy Saturnalia!
