Jucifer, Testament
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Music critics are privileged in that people send them music for free. They are also cursed in that people send them music for free. Ever since I became a music critic, I have been deluged with such piles of shit that part of me wants to say "fuck you" to all "benefactors" and just buy records like everyone else. Then again, everyone else now probably downloads the same piles of shit. Does anyone listen to records more than once anymore - or make records worthy of such?
Jucifer - Birds of a FeatherTestament - The Persecuted Won't Forget
I've reviewed two records that I actually want to get to know better. The first is Jucifer's sprawling L'autrichienne, which will require the rest of this year for me to digest fully. The second is Testament's The Formation of Damnation, which sounds like shit but has good music on it. This quote by Bob Dylan is applicable: "I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really. You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like...static."
Labels: clee, rock, thrash metal, usa, writing
7 Comments:
Your comment on the new Testament is spot on. The music is pretty good, and it reminds me of old Testament, which is a good thing, but it sounds so bad. I've found that it's acceptable in the car, but not on headphones. Is it so hard to master an album?
The Jucifer album is alternately brilliant and perplexing...it's going to take the whole year to digest that whole sprawling, highly enjoyable mess.
I have a hunch this is one of those albums that gets even better when you have the full package, with liner notes and such. Unfortunately, us writers were stuck with a lousy download version, and I can't even find this album where I live!
I'm glad you posted on Jucifer. I thought I was the only one who had discovered this.
Adrien, isn't it nonsensical that labels give writers *less* than what the public gets, in terms of content?
It's absolutely absurd, especially when metal is one of the only genres where other factors like artwork, lyrics, and layout really contribute to the enjoyment of an album.
But I'm pretty much used to it now. Have to be, really. Four of my five Decibel reviews this month are download-only advances. Relapse and Metal Blade are download-only for writers, Earache is now too. Of course, this would have never happened if so many fellow "writers" hadn't abused the label-critic trust and leaked stuff months in advance.
Agree on all points. The new Jucifer album is quite a beast. Definitely one to be digested over the next few months.
I like the new Testament, although I must confess that I haven't really come back to it very often. I did notice the lack of sound quality on that one listen, though.
The correct spelling is L'Autrichienne (in titles, a capital letter follows "le" or its cognates, just as we capitalize titles after "the" (but if the title contains more than one word, the French capitalize only the first word, excluding prepositions, of titles)).
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