Pure Testosterone #1: Austrian Death Machine, Demonical, Exaltation (Ger)
 |
What I listen to when I work out is much different than what I listen to otherwise. My ideal workout music has power, regularity, and low end. This excludes mathcore, most black metal, and technical death metal, but includes metallic hardcore, brutal death metal, and Amon Amarth — none of which I enjoy for recreation. Still, my workouts are important to me, so their music is important to me. Thus, I'm starting this column to share some of my favorite workout music. It's a lot of stuff that wouldn't normally make it onto this site — get ready for some critically unacclaimed music.
Austrian Death Machine - It's Simple, If It Jiggles, It's Fat
Austrian Death Machine make no bones about their brand of stupidity, which I happen to love: Arnold Schwarzenegger jokes. I am the target audience for Austrian Death Machine. The one-man army movie is my favorite cinematic genre. I practically know Predator by heart. As long as Tim Lambesis keeps finding Arnold one-liners to turn into choruses, I am on board with Austrian Death Machine. The music is just like Hatebreed, but the difference is you're laughing with it, not at it. Just forget the second half of Double Brutal (Metal Blade, 2009), which is horrible metalcore covers of metal classics. Stay away from metal, Tim, and pay your Ahnold impersonator union scale. He's half your record, you know.
Demonical come to me highly recommended, but I can't take them on any level other than workout music. Hellsworn (Cyclone Empire, 2009) is really a distortion pedal disguised as an album. This pedal is the Boss DS-1 with knobs all the way up that underpins old-school Swedish death metal. It's a great sound, and it's perfect for workouts, especially when there are no pesky distractions like songs. Don't be fooled by the track markers and song titles; this is just 35 glorious minutes of pure DS-1.
Exaltation also do exactly one thing. Their one thing, though, is a little unusual: snare drum. Tales of Total Sickness (Sevared, 2009) is really a snare drum disguised as an album. I have never heard a snare so upfront and constant. Luckily, I enjoy its sound. After half an hour, it becomes the death metal equivalent of "Om" in yoga: a resonating frequency. Others probably find these German clones of mid-period Krisiun annoying, but I find them kind of soothing.
Buy:
Austrian Death Machine (CD)
Austrian Death Machine (MP3)
Demonical (CD)
Demonical (LP)
Exaltation (CD)
Exaltation (MP3)
Labels: clee, death metal, features, germany, metalcore, sweden, usa
17 Comments:
MY GOD, that's the most inescapable snare I've ever heard! I couldn't get past the one-minute mark of that track.
There's something about that nasty old-school Swedish distortion that makes for great work-out music - various Dismember records and particularly Clandestine have always been successful accompaniments at the gym.
Once, in a serious lapse of judgment, I tried working out to Gorguts' Obscura. It was disastrous, despite my adoration of that record.
The snare kind of reminds me of the joke covers of St. Anger on You Tube where it sounds like someone is beating on a garbage can...and in that vien it reminds me of Sepultura's Morbid Visions.
Austrian Death Machine should not exist.
Old thrash, first wave death, and the latest brutal/tech death work for me. I can't really handle lifting weights to anything else.
Props on the GSP picture.
I have had 'much success' with the latest Absu album, and am in total agreement with Amon Amarth. Other favorites: Satyricon, Carcass, Vreid, and Pantera. Strangely, I went about two years where Cradle of Filth and... Bloc Party (!?!... at least it was their first album) scored my workouts exclusively... probably my two most productive years in the gym, no less.
Hot Rockin', dude. Hot Rockin'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki3TpFZY7cU
Dude, Austrian Death Machine is thrash...
I do the same thing - I have specific music reserved for working out. I generally like my workout music to be evenly paced, aggressive, well-produced and containing breakdowns or all varieties. Lately, I have been using As I Lay Crying, Cavelera Conspiracy, Hatebreed, Revocation etc. Occasionally I will go w/ Killswitch's 1st album (Life to Lifeless gets me going), or God Forbid (Crucify My Beliefs worx) Nothing beats Vulgar Display of Power for workouts.
I think it also depends on what type of workouts your are doing. Lately I have been running. And for runs I like fast and soaring. My main track lately is Painkiller. I am not normally into Judas Priest, but the track makes me move faster than I otherwise would/could.
I would think that Man In The Box would be a good pumping iron song. Maybe I'm wrong.
Painkiller and Far Beyond Driven are my all-time favorite workout records. Alice in Chains does make good workout music, though I worked out recently to their first record and found it frustratingly uneven.
Grindcore! I just put my ipod on Genre->grindcore and click shuffle. A little Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Magrudergrind, Nasum, etc, can really get the blood pumping.
Crowbar. Especially Sonic Excess. It's the perfect pace for slow reps.
I don't work out regularly, it's very interesting, all the music you've listed so far is stuff I've tried to keep very clear of. Perhaps I'm neglecting some part of my psyche by not engaging in metal calisthenics.
About the snare: any snare that is mixed 6 db above the music (basically four times as loud as everything else) and is sitting alone with the vocals, regardless of whether the snares are on or not, will get you this exact same result.
Also, the new Burnt by the Sun record is stellar to work out to.
Until recently, I had never heard either Austrian Death Machine or Dethklok, and I had mentally grouped them under 'comedy metal'. This defect has now been remedied (via this blog?), and I find Dethklok were far superior to the Schwarzenegger effort...
OTOH, Demonical sounded great; I could listen to that quite happily. Not so much with Exaltation.
On my rather infrequent running episodes, I always look for music that has enough happening to distract me from the actual running - but tech-death doesn't work because I can't capture everything when it happens too rapidly. I have found Enslaved and Opeth to be close to the sweet spot.
oh come on now! there's some good tunes on demonical! i thought so anyway.
(i meant to leave this a while ago, obviously.)
Post a Comment
<< Home