Wolvhammer - EP's

Photo by DeGross Punk Photography Text by Cosmo Lee

PR is not something most nascent bands worry about. Their first concerns are usually stable lineups, local shows, and maybe a demo or two. But right out of the box Wolvhammer got called "racists," which led to the requisite Internet damage control.

The issue was this: the Minneapolis band's logo (see kick drum above) resembles that of the Hammerskins, a white power organization whose logo evidently comes from the fictional neo-Nazi group in Pink Floyd's The Wall. Phil Freeman called them out on this here. They rebutted the allegations, which led to Freeman's retraction here. For all involved, this was an unnecessary mess.

Now that the issue is settled — "working class," not "racist" — the focus can return to music. It's good: blackened, sludgy punk. Celtic Frost, Darkthrone, and Eyehategod are certainly influences.

Cobrafist

Two things stand out. The songs are memorable, with measured pacing that highlights actual riffs. The vocals are like rusty blades. This stuff is usually disposable — the world does not need another 7" petroleum product — but Wolvhammer have that certain something that staying power requires.

You can download their two demos for free here. The second, Dawn of the 4th, is essentially a reworking of the first. I'm not the type to fetishize demos, but I hear some raw power here.

Let's interview Burzum

by Cosmo Lee

I got this email yesterday.

This is too good an opportunity to pass up.

So, let's put our heads together.

What questions do you have for Mr. Vikernes?

- - -

For reference, here is an excerpt from the new album's one-sheet.

It's been eleven long years and now the world will finally see the return of Burzum. Belus is not a religious album, or even an anti-religious album. It is not a political statement or means to provoke. It is simply an attempt to explore the myths about the ancient indo-aryan solar deity of light and innocence and unveil the oldest roots of European cultural heritage. The album deals with the death of Belus, his sombre journey through the realm of death and his magnificent return. In essence, the story of Belus is meant to be an entertaining story about something that once upon a time played a major role in the forming and shaping of Europe.

Belus has been recorded in a professional recording studio with the highest quality equipment available but has been made according to the musician’s heart and soul. The music can best be compared to the music of some of the earlier Burzum albums; in particular the ground breaking Hvis Lyset tar Oss and the atmospheric brilliances of Filosofem. However the ambient parts present on these albums has been almost completely ommitted. There is no special reason for this other than mere coincidence.

Brees

by Cosmo Lee

Congratulations to Saints quarterback Drew Brees on being named the Super Bowl MVP.

However, for the entire game I couldn't help but think of a different kind of "brees," namely, "pig squeals," namely, the most annoying style of metal vocals ever invented.

I first noticed "brees" as a phenomenon several years ago, when Job for a Cowboy got hot. On MySpaces of metalcore and deathcore bands, I would see fans requesting "more brees." (See above).

Generally I can get where kids are coming from, having been one myself. But on things like crunkcore and "brees" (the two intersect in Brokencyde's "Bree Bree"), the generation gap is insurmountable.

Where did this contagion originate? Wikipedia says that Mike Patton invented the technique on Angel Dust. I don't hear it, even though his versatility is peerless. I've also heard a lot of breeing in brutal death metal. When did Cookie Monster become Porky Pig?

If you don't know of what I speak, YouTube can fix that. See, e.g., The Top 10 Pig Squeals, 10 Awesome Pig Squeals, and The Best Pig Squeals Ever. The most infamous video by far is the pig squeal girl.

Marches of the Saints

Thankfully the Saints won the Super Bowl. Otherwise, I would have had to look for metal songs about colts.

Speaking of Armored Saint, have you heard the preview track, "Left Hook from Right Field," from their new album La Raza (out March 16 on Metal Blade)? You can stream it here.

To be honest, it gives me idiot shivers. It would have made a decent Anthrax song in the late '90s. But John Bush is singing for Armored Saint, not Anthrax. I am afraid for this album. What do you think?

Interview: Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates)

Photo by Mark Coatsworth Interview by Cosmo Lee

Tomas Lindberg needs little introduction. Former vocalist for At the Gates, current vocalist for Disfear, with a slew of bands and projects in between, he has branded his gritty growl on some of metal's finest moments. In 2008, At the Gates undertook a triumphant, one-time reunion tour. On February 22 in Europe and April 6 in the US, Earache will release The Flames of the End, a 3-disc At the Gates DVD box set. The first disc is a documentary of the band's career, the second is the band's set at Wacken, and the third contains rare and archival live footage. I talked with Lindberg about At the Gates, his new career as a school teacher, and Fred Estby's upcoming solo record (!).

- - -

At the Gates got a tremendous welcome from fans on the reunion tour. Do you wish that this recognition had come earlier?

No. We've always been very down-to-earth people. We don't think like that. We did what's best for the band then, and we do what's best for the band now. All the good stuff that happened between the band's breakup and the band's reunion — maybe that wouldn't have happened if the band was still together. Then we would have become a washed-up copy of ourselves.

Could At the Gates have avoided breaking up?

I think so. If we were just a few years older, maybe we could have made some mature decisions and had more respect for each other as persons. We were not the best diplomats (laughs). You're not [so] in your early twenties.

Many bands who reunite often say that they've mellowed out and moved past their conflicts from when they were younger. Did you experience that with At the Gates?

Yeah, of course. Not only that we could avoid the conflicts, it's, like, "What were the conflicts?" (Laughs) That's the feeling. There were really no big conflicts back then, either. It was more a sense of pressure and tiredness.

You guys have said you won't record again as At the Gates. But some of you have said you might record together under a different name. How likely is that?

You never know what can happen. I don't want to say something that I'll have to take back. We enjoyed this [reunion tour] summer, and we really felt that we were a band again, and we became really good friends and started to hang out normally again. I realized that these are childhood friends that are meant to hang out. Because we all are musicians, we want to keep the door open. Who knows? One day we could do a punk band or a 7", maybe. I'm not talking about the whole five of the band doing a complete record. It's just more like if any of us play together in different lineups. I could see that happening, some project here and there. We'd like to do music together. It would get rid of that expectation of being At the Gates.

When the twins (Anders and Jonas Björler) went off and did The Haunted, were you pissed?

No. I was really tired of the whole death metal thing. Anders made the wisest decision, and that left me to not make the decision. The couple years after that was a lot of confusion with different directions musically, but it was good for me to discover all that.

Can you go more into that?

It was just an opportunity to try out [different] things. At the Gates was one of those bands that were really limitless when it comes to death metal. There were no restrictions. But there are still other areas of music you want to try out. Some projects — it was probably good that they never got official (laughs). But it's good to try your wings in different settings. It develops you as a person and as a musician as well.

So you have a rap album no one's heard.

No (laughs). It was more like the same type of context — hardcore, punk, post-rock, whatever. You don't have to master everything, but you want to try to do different kinds of stuff.

Your career is split between more melodic bands like At the Gates and Nightrage, and crustier, more punky bands like Skitsystem and Disfear. Is one side closer to your heart?

You have to remember that most of those bands on the melodic side were bands I didn't form. The bands I formed were Skitsystem and The Great Deceiver, who were more on the hardcore, noisier side. I was more active in the punk/hardcore ideas, not only musically but also lyrically and politically. That's a big part of me. But the metal side, I grew up on that, too. I love doing a death metal album. It's more on an enjoyment kind of level. I enjoy it, but it's not what I was meant to do, I think. It's more important with the punk/hardcore thing. I portray something I really want to get across.

What do you want to get across?

It's hard to sum up in one sentence. The whole concept of writing lyrics for me has always been to work myself through different subjects and to try to find my own standpoint, to not be guided by already fixed ideas. That was the same when I was writing more occult, mystical lyrics with my old band Grotesque. I always tried to find different paths and experiment with different ideas to see what I could come across. But I can say definitely that [my approach is] more left-wing. I am a strong believer in historic materialism.

What do you mean by that?

Everything has an economic meaning behind it. Everything happens for someone gaining something from the situation. It drives history forward.

Are you educated in economics?

A little bit. I'm one year away from being a teacher in social studies, which includes economics — not on the big mathematical scale, but social economics.

What level of school will you be teaching?

High school. Geography, social studies, politics, history, and religion.

When did you decide to become a high school teacher?

Five years ago. I had been teaching without a diploma for a while. It was quite a big step, because even if school is free here, you don't really earn money [in school]. So if you have kids and everything, you have to take a step to go into education, because it's close to five years. But I really felt that it was something that brought me forward as a person and [was] the next natural step. I'm able to combine it really good with my musical [endeavors].

In the town where you'll teach, will people know who you are?

It has happened. I try to downplay the role. I noticed that [with] the "cool" teacher, the kids think they can slide their way through that course (laughs). There's no secret that I'm a singer in a punk or metal band, but it doesn't have to be the first thing at their ear.

One thing I got from the Swedish Death Metal book (by Daniel Ekeroth, reviewed here) was that much of the '90s scene was due to Sweden having a good social support system. Is that still true?

It's eroded due to socialism on a big scale being brought down. It's on the way down in Europe, the whole welfare idea. Everything is [being] privatized. But it's still better than in most countries. You can still get money to rent a rehearsal room, which is great. My son is starting to play guitar, and it would cost me 20 quid for a year.

After having toured America, what do you think of our country?

Sweden is starting to look more and more like America every day. The poverty [in America] is really striking. What I feel is kind of sad is the idea of the new continent when it was taken over [by Europeans] — which was kind of brutal — it was one of the most socialistic countries in the world. It had a lot of big dreams for the common man to have a place and all that. But all the welfare structures were torn down before they got started. It's a really brutal country. It's harsh. I'm not living there; I can't really comment that hard on it. But from a more historical or social studies kind of perspective, I really hope that you get some communal health care system or try to get some welfare situation going, at least.

In what ways is Sweden starting to look like America?

They're selling the previously state-owned companies, like the post, the national railway line, and stuff like that. Some of these companies are being sold to private interests, and schools as well. Things that weren't about money before have started to be about money. With globalization, you have good things, of course. We are a good multicultural country. We have a good infrastructure for that. But at the same time, with the Internet, it's harder...before, it was more isolated. We weren't allowed to have commercials on TV before. But now they broadcast from Denmark, and there's commercials for kids. Five year-old kids can watch commercials on morning TV. That could never have happened before. It's more about money, and who can buy stuff, basically. I have a teenage daughter — she gets all excited with advertising and billboards thrown at her every day. It's getting more brutal.

What musical projects are you working on?

Right now it's mostly Disfear. We are writing material for a new album. We are taking it slowly, to choose what shows we want to play. We're getting [to be] old men now; we want to keep the focus and happy about it all the time. So we try to make it as enjoyable as possible for ourselves, therefore being more honest to the people as well.

There's more musical projects here and there. Some should be secret for now; we'll see what happens. I'm going up to Stockholm in two weeks to sing on Fred Estby's solo record, for instance. That could be interesting.

Fred Estby from Dismember!

Yeah, he's doing a solo record with, like, 10 different singers, and I'm one of the lucky [ones].

That's cool!

I think it [has] the singer from Grand Magus. I know Martin van Drunen is on one track. I think Chris Reifert should be on one track, too, I'm not really sure. It's an all-star singer lineup.

Speaking of old men, you go way back with Fenriz, since you did the Darkthrone logo. He's also another guy who has both a metal and a punk side. Do you still talk to him?

Not really on that basis. We are in contact through Fredrik [Wallenberg] from Skitsystem. I'm really a social person. I like to talk to people. Fenriz does not. When we meet, we click. We have a lot of fun, and we talk a lot. But that rarely happens.

What are you listening to these days?

A lot of stuff, actually. I listen constantly to new music and to old stuff, too. I really like those new bands from America, like Liturgy and Krallice, the new kind of avant-garde black metal bands. Some of the new old-school death metal, like Funebrarum. A lot of old stuff like Axegrinder, Hellhammer, stuff like that always gets played. Black Heart Procession — I really like the new one. The important [thing] is to keep it interesting, not to lose interest in music. That's why I got into Liturgy, Krallice, and those bands. That took some effort to get into, because it was really harsh and really weird. Therefore, they stuck harder when I got through it.

Do you educate your kids in metal and punk?

Not really. They know where all the stuff is if they want to find it, because I've got this large collection. If I should force it, they'd probably rebel the other way. They don't really listen to any brutal music at all (laughs). I let them have their own idea. [But] of course, I comment on stuff. I'm being the boring dad: "This stuff's crap. You should listen to this, and not this one." But I try my best to behave. I know it always tracks back the other way if you try to "educate" them too much.

Right, they're going to rebel and listen to soft rock.

Yeah, exactly. That would be horrible, wouldn't it? Like Nickelback or something.

Disfear
At the Gates
Earache Records

Who wants to take Ludicra on the road?

by Cosmo Lee

Evidently the Mayhem tour with Ludicra, Krallice, and Tombs has been cancelled. The reason so far is unknown. Ludicra are moving forward — you can't arrange a month off from work and not do anything with it — and seeking to tour in April anyway.

Personally, I'd love to see the original grouping of Ludicra, Krallice, and Tombs. (I've been on a major Tombs kick lately.) But the whole point of the Mayhem tour (other than seeing Mayhem) would have been to expose these bands to new audiences.

Would any big(gish) band want to take some or all of these bands on the road in April? Do you know people or people who know people? If so, have them contact the bands at their respective MySpaces.

Ludicra
Krallice
Tombs

Anatomy of a chorus: AC/DC - "War Machine"

I've always wondered why extreme metal bands don't write more choruses. By "extreme," I mean growling/screaming/etc. metal. Singing metal is often based on pop music, so choruses aren't lacking there. But extreme metal is full of "the voice is just another instrument," so entire songs and albums go by without the listener understanding a line, much less remembering one.

They say you need to tell a message seven times before people will hear it. So full-blown choruses aren't even necessary; just repeating a line or two will suffice. Watain's "Sworn to the Dark" and Cannibal Corpse's "Make Them Suffer" are the only songs I remember from their respective albums because the vocalists repeat those lines often enough. Are they the best songs on those albums? I'm not sure. Are they the most memorable? By a country mile.

I bet choruses were why AC/DC won a Grammy for "War Machine." The song's music is solid, but nothing extraordinary. As the above video shows, the lyrics are about...well, virtually nothing. It's kind of sad that this song, which didn't even come out last year, won "Best Hard Rock Performance." I like the song, but to call it an industry-wide best-of-anything is a stretch.

Enter its chorus. When I first heard Black Ice, "War Machine" immediately registered with me due to its call-and-response refrain. I've broken it down above. Brian Johnson sings the first "War Machine"; his bandmates reply with the second one.

War Machine (chorus)

This chorus is interesting because of its rhythm. Johnson's "Machine" starts on beat 2 and ends on its "and." This is off the beat, leaving the word hanging, almost creating a question. His bandmates answer by offsetting the second "Machine" by half a beat. Now the "chine" in "Machine" falls squarely on beat 3, pinning the word down, creating a feeling of resolution. It's subtle but unexpected, and it totally makes the song. Instead of simply echoing Johnson, his bandmates add a slight tweak, with a big payoff: the band's first Grammy.

Upcoming metal releases: February 2010

Due to popular demand, I've resurrected the "Upcoming metal releases" list. However, it will take a different form now. Instead of a static page, which gets unwieldy with even a fraction of the 10,000+ releases annually, I've opened up access to my Gmail calendar called, naturally, "Upcoming metal releases."

Here is the calendar as a web page. (If you have Gmail, you can incorporate the calendar into yours as well as search within it.) You can subscribe to the calendar via XML here, though I'm unsure how user-friendly the feed is. If you view the calendar as a web page, I recommend using the "Agenda" view (see tab on upper right). Click on the entries to expand and collapse them. The presentation is primitive, but should suffice for most purposes. I have included this information in the sidebar as well.

I maintain the list on a rolling basis as information enters my inbox. Thus, the list is hardly complete but should contain most of the major releases that people care about. As always, use the comments box for corrections or additions.

Personally, I'm excited this month about the Meshuggah live DVD. (See trailer above.) I'm also curious about the Dark Fortress and Hayaino Daisuki records, as well as the US release of the new Heathen album (preview tracks here). This is not a strong month for releases, but the year's just starting.

Metal pronunciations

MAR-duck? MAR-duke? Mar-DUKE? by Cosmo Lee

What metal names can't you pronounce?

Let's help each other out. Use English words and syllables to denote pronunciation, with all caps for syllabic stress. For example, Metallica's bassist is Robert True-HEE-yo. Got it? Good. I've listed some names below that perpetually stump me. Can you help?

- - -

Celtic Frost

SELL-tik or KELL-tik?

Dan Swanö

SWAIN-oh? SWAN-oh? Swan-OOH?

Jørgen

There are a lot of metal guys named Jørgen. How do you pronounce the o with the slash through it?

Also, is the J a Y sound, i.e., Jens Kidman = YENZ Kidman?

Marduk

MAR-duck? MAR-duke? Mar-DUKE?

Mieszko Talarczyk

One of my all-time heroes, and I still have no idea how to say his name.

Mikael Åkerfeldt

We Yanks say "Michael ACK-er-FELT." Is this right?

Every time I see that A with the little circle above it, I think of the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels logo.

Peter Tägtgren

Umlauts always throw me. Can any Scandinavian help out here? Takk!

It pays to read this blog

by Cosmo Lee

Someone read this blog and signed a band as a result. That someone was Digby Pearson of Earache, and the band is Wormrot.

According to this post on Earache's blog, Digby downloaded our grindcore mixtape, loved the Wormrot track, got hip to the Grind and Punishment blog (whose Andrew Childers compiled the mixtape), got over his reluctance to sign bands from obscure countries (Wormrot are from Singapore), reached out to the band, and signed it.

This is the track that got Wormrot signed:

Born Stupid

Interestingly, Digby says that he downloaded Wormrot's album from mediafire to check them out. This is the first time I've seen a big label head openly admit to illegal downloading (especially after past posts denouncing filesharing). Then again, Wormrot's album Abuse originally came out on a tiny Singaporean label, so I'd guess that 95% of those worldwide who have the album downloaded it illegally.

And then again, Earache recently released Gama Bomb's new album as a free download, with a follow-up release on CD. So the label is now comfortable with manufacturing physical versions of albums that have already leaked all over the Internet. In Wormrot's case, the investment is miniscule, as the A&R costs = zero (perhaps we should get a referral fee!), the album has already been made, and all Earache has to do is slap on a logo and add some bonus tracks.

Typing this entry, I get the feeling that CD's are now the real "niche market" instead of vinyl.

Bassists and pigtails

Fieldy (Korn)

What is it with bassists and pigtails?

Robert Trujillo (Metallica)

Does it have something to do with crabwalking?

Summer Welch (Baroness)

Weird, isn't it?

Tim Commerford (Rage Against the Machine)

Maybe it's a white guy thing.

Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo)

Like I said, maybe it's a white guy thing.

This is the most disturbing video ever made.

Interview: Ihsahn

Interview by Cosmo Lee

Since the demise of pioneering black metal band Emperor, frontman Ihsahn has led a collaborative life. He did three albums as Peccatum with his wife Ihriel. Then he made three solo albums, which have featured Garm of Ulver, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, and Lars Norberg and Asgeir Mickelson of Spiral Architect. In this interview, Phil Freeman explores the Spiral Architect connection and the aesthetics of After, Ihsahn's new solo album. (It came out this past Tuesday on Candlelight). After features the sax playing of Jørgen Munkeby, of Norway's Shining. I used that as a starting point to probe Ihsahn's life after Emperor and his collaborations with others.

- - -

What was working with Jørgen Munkeby like?

It was very nice. I sent him the demos and [told him] where I wanted him to play, what melody lines I wanted him to contribute on, and [where] the more improvisational parts [were].

For the improvisational part, he would do a great take, but it was not necessarily in touch with the emotion I was going for. In the process of writing this album, I had abstract landscape pictures on my laptop for inspiration. When [Munkeby] wasn't spot-on at first, I just explained to him from these abstract [images], and he totally got it and played something different that's so much more in line with where I was heading. So [he was] a fantastic musician in all senses.

He is obviously a very sophisticated musician. I'd like to ask you about someone that you've played with who's probably the opposite: Ildjarn.

(Laughs) My relationship to him was because he's a very nice guy. He played bass in Thou Shalt Suffer, the band me and Samoth had prior to Emperor. When that broke up, he continued his solo thing with Ildjarn. The Ildjarn demo that I sing on is recorded on the same 4-track in the same rehearsal space as the Wrath of the Tyrant Emperor demo. So he was there recording his stuff, and he asked me if I could do vocals for it. I said yes. I came there, he gave me the lyrics, and I put vocals on his songs in an evening. So that's the extent of our collaboration.

Thou Shalt Suffer - The Goat of a Thousand Young
Ildjarn (w/Ihsahn on vocals) - Sola Skjultes

That was a long time ago, and Emperor as well. Do you still follow black metal?

No, not really. It's so much these days. It's hard for me to keep track. I've been listening to so much metal over the years, and I feel like I've missed out on so much other fantastic music. These days, working so intimately with the genre myself, it's hard not to be thinking professionally when listening to music. So I really enjoy listening to other forms of music that I have no direct experience with because I can just enjoy it for what it is, and I don't think subconsciously about how I would have done it differently (laughs).

What have you been listening to?

I'm a huge Radiohead fan: anything Radiohead-related, like Thom Yorke's solo album, the soundtracks of Jonny Greenwood. I'm a huge Prince fan. Just yesterday I bought something called Russian Circles. I thought it was quite good. Geneva, I think it was called? Some of the Icelandic stuff — Sigur Rós and Múm. Classical music, both contemporary and older stuff. Recently I've been listening to some Tom Waits and an all-time favorite, Diamanda Galas.

Speaking of other influences, there's a riff in "After" on your new album that seems like a Pink Floyd reference.

The only Pink Floyd album I have on my iPod is Dark Side of the Moon.

Yeah, it might be on that album (actually, it's on Wish You Were Here: "Shine On You Crazy Diamond").

I just got that recently. Of course, I've heard it before. Anyway, it's not a conscious ripoff or anything like that. If I caught onto the same idea, I'll take that as a compliment, I guess (laughs).

Pink Floyd vs. Ihsahn

In "Austere," your vocals seem very Katatonia-like. Was this a conscious decision?

No. I really like Katatonia, and other people have referred to Opeth. They all feature great clean vocals. It's easier for people to hear connections where there's not necessarily in any connection, because Mikael [Åkerfeldt] did a song on my previous album, and I mixed my album at Fascination Street in Sweden with Jens Borgen, who produced the two [bands]. So there are those similarities. But, no, I've not tried to do Katatonia's style. No disrespect to them at all, because I really like that stuff.

It's me trying to come to a point with my clean vocals where I sing with my natural voice. With my black metal voice, I've been doing that for so many years that it's second nature to me. It's like playing distorted guitar. But my clean vocals have always changed. My natural voice, my talking voice is a bit soft, really, for metal. So I've never really got comfortable with my clean singing voice. But over the years, especially doing these solo albums, and my wife not letting me cut any corners with the recording, I've come to a point where I'm getting more comfortable with how I would naturally sing.

Austere (excerpt)

Ihsahn w/ custom 8-string guitar

Wikipedia says you're a music teacher at a school. Is this true?

Yeah, I tutor guitar once a week.

Presumably you're teaching kids much younger than yourself.

Yeah. I've had some grownups before.

Do they know who you are?

For the most part, yes. It's a small town, so it's up and down. Sometimes it feels a bit frustrating when you have an 11 year-old kid telling you that they didn't really have time to rehearse. And I'm thinking, well, to be honest, if I had the resources of being taught by someone like me when I was your age, I would fucking rehearse (laughs). I never had any lessons myself. But it's all good. I've had some really great talents. Half my live band are previous students of mine.

Leprous, right?

Yeah, yeah. Both guitarists have taken lessons from me, and even the keyboard player is tutoring with me.

Can you read music?

Very badly (laughs). I'm horrible. I was the worst piano student ever. I read tabs and all that very well, but I always played by ear. I always sucked at reading scores. My piano teacher was very frustrated because I'd rather watch her fingers and learn the pieces rather than watching the score. I can read the score and understand it, but it's not like I can play from [sheet music].

I wish I could, but on the other hand, I have some families who play, who are really good at playing, but they're lost without the paper in front of them. So having to figure out how to play songs by listening to them on record — it's probably been good ear training. And also not having taken lessons and [being] forced to play so much cover material, I've been forced in the direction where I start drawing my own material at a pretty young age.

So that's the rock 'n' roll side of music, as opposed to the academy side.

Yeah, I guess. And there's some parts now where I use [written music]. I wrote the Emperor tablature book, and I use a score program called Sibelius. Me and my wife took compositional lessons with a composer. We had homework, to just write music from the head straight to paper without the piano, without anything. Of course, that would be very valuable, because sometimes the ideas that pop up in your head — as soon as you strike the wrong note on your guitar to replicate it, it disappears like smoke.

Speaking of your wife, will Peccatum ever make a new record?

It all depends, really. We do Mnemosyne Productions together. We run the studio together. She's invaluable for me in my work. She's really contributed to helping me form the concept of this new album and being my invisible bandmate. She will tell me if my singing sucks. Or if I think all my new material is crap, she will tell me otherwise. We have that kind of communication.

We've been working separately. She's been doing StarofAsh albums and working with other people, and I've been doing my solo stuff. But we both worked together on a project called Hardingrock, together with a Norwegian fiddler. We are always running ideas by each other. When she was doing a soundtrack to an Irish movie, I was engineering and setting up the film. So, yeah, at some point we might resurrect Peccatum, but we work together on music all the time. If time and the project are right, we will definitely be doing something together.

Peccatum - Parasite My Heart

That's great. I really enjoyed the Peccatum project.

Actually, a lot of people ask about it. Maybe there's a sense in the market now for people that want that extra edge in the way of the experimental. I don't know if you heard the Hardingrock album?

No.

That's kind of Peccatum mixed with Harding fiddle (a traditional Norwegian stringed instrument). It was a very interesting project in the sense that he's in his sixties now. A Norwegian fiddler [Knut Buen], probably the most famous folk musician in Norway, contacted us and wanted us to interpret these old Norwegian folk songs. So it's all rearrangements. Some were arranged for more traditional extreme metal, and some were more in a more electronica-jazz type of [vibe]. He really wanted to have that all, because he really liked the Peccatum album and the dynamic range of that. So he wanted to implement this music in that type of scenario.

I'll check it out.

Yeah, if you like Peccatum, you very well might like that.

Links

Amazon
MySpace
Mnemosyne Productions

Robert E. Howard, by Crom!

by Cosmo Lee

Recently I read Robert E. Howard for the first time. Fantastical settings are not my thing; only last year did I read the first "fantasy" book I've ever read, other than books by Tolkien and Rowling. That was a free offering on Stanza, an e-reader iPhone app that I recommend. So was the Robert E. Howard anthology that I read. Free was the right price; I wound up enjoying both.

The Howard anthology seemed very long, so I think I have a decent grasp of what he is about. However, even a cursory perusal of his Wikipedia entry and various fansites reveals that he and his work are more multifaceted than I thought.

At any rate, here are my impressions. Howard was not much of a writer, in the sense that he did not wield language well, at least for my taste. I prefer streamlined language; I often found myself mentally editing his sentences to be shorter. I also found his dialogue abysmal. His characters tend not to speak, but to orate. He falls into the sci-fi crutch of having his characters explain the story. Finally, I often found his characters one-dimensional. The men are usually supermen, and the women are usually scantily clothed.

Howard's most famous creation

Such characters have their appeal, though, and not in the obvious ways. Howard focuses on big themes: justice, loyalty, physical prowess, individuals as movers and shakers in history. He writes about heroes, which, despite a popular TV show with that name, are rather unfashionable today. Heroes these days are more interesting when they fail — see, for example, tabloid culture, Blabbermouth, TMZ, and so on. It seems corny to have some dude just slaying everything. The superman of my generation, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is usually appreciated through a heavy dose of irony.

Ironsword - Cimmeria

Thus, Howard's work is idealistic in a way that's very metal. It was eye-opening to see how much inspiration metal has drawn from him. His fans in bands are legion: The Gates of Slumber, Manilla Road, Ironsword, Bal-Sagoth, Reverend Bizarre, and on and on. The wonderful Shadow Kingdom label takes its name from a Howard story. Even the most infamous commenter in Blabbermouth history got his handle from Howard: Kull the Valusian.

However, Howard's metal acolytes seem to miss, or at least fail to convey, his gift for atmosphere. His stories involve temporal instability, shape-shifting, things not being as they seem, and a general wispiness that belies their sword-and-loincloth trappings. From what I've read about Lovecraft, he has a similar way with atmosphere. (I'd love to read Howard's correspondence with him.) I've never read Lovecraft — a metal sin, I know — because he seems to have similar weaknesses to Howard's. But I made it through Howard, so I can probably make it through Lovecraft. On deck for me is a free Lovecraft collection I just downloaded on Stanza.

Deathspell Omega box set

by Cosmo Lee

The Deathspell Omega vinyl box set is stirring up the expected circles — but if you're not in them, here are the details. Five picture discs, five art prints, and an A1 poster in a logo-decorated box. The discs cover DsO's early period: the first two LP's (Infernal Battles and Inquisitors of Satan), and three discs of material from various splits. For a large discussion of the box set, including the requisite debate about pic discs, see here. A real-life photo of it is visible here.

Lethal Baptism (from Inquisitors of Satan)

In the EU, you can order it at Eisenton, Undercover, and W-T-C (and probably other distros also). In the US, Hells Headbangers has no pre-orders, but says to watch its new arrivals space; see here. The AJNA Offensive sold out of its first batch, but will likely have a second batch available this Thursday and Friday.

Speaking of DsO merch, I stumbled across Deathspell Omega jackets.

Pure Testosterone #3: The Spartacus Workout

Not my abs by Cosmo Lee

Want those abs? To have them, that is (not to hold them)? Then try The Spartacus Workout. Spartacus is a Roman gladiator TV series that premiered on Starz last Friday. The Spartacus Workout is inspired by the workout routine of the series' male lead, Andy Whitfield (pictured above). The workout is online here, and in print in the February '10 issue of Men's Health, which is on newsstands until February 9. If you do this workout, I recommend getting the magazine, as it contains the workout in a handy poster.

I've been looking for something like The Spartacus Workout for a while. Until I discovered it, I was doing a one-body-part-a-day weight training routine. This is standard practice, and it works. But it can take a long time — e.g., doing separate exercises for all three tricep heads — and it's not terribly practical. Bicep curls, for example, are really only good for headlocks and drinking beer.

The Spartacus Workout addresses these problems. It centers around two concepts: compound exercises and high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Compound exercises hit multiple muscles at once. They are better training than isolation exercises (which hit only one muscle, e.g., bicep curls) for sports and daily life. HIIT is short, intense bursts of activity, as opposed to long, steady-state exercise (e.g., slogging it out on a treadmill). It has been demonstrated to be superior in boosting fat loss, strength, and endurance.

You may be wondering how metal ties into this. It has to do with the workout's structure. The workout consists of doing 10 exercises for a minute each, with 15-second breaks between them, and a two-minute break after the last one. You do these 10 exercises three times. The workout takes about 45 minutes to complete.

I didn't want to use some boring timer to count time, so I made a little mixtape to do that. It has 10 one-minute songs. Naturally, most are grindcore. For the 15-second and two-minute breaks, I put a synthesized female voice (she happens to have an Indian accent) to count down time over hip-hop beats from Cypress Hill and Da Lench Mob. The tape works perfectly for the workout. Just put it on repeat, and you're good to go. Here's the download link and track list.

DOWNLOAD: The Spartacus Workout [32.57MB .zip]

1. Impending Doom - When Waters Run Deep
2. (15s rest)
3. Crowpath - Pigeonsmasher
4. (15s rest)
5. Trap Them - Day Twenty Nine
6. (15s rest)
7. Nasum - När dagarna...
8. (15s rest)
9. Abscess - Street Trash
10. (15s rest)
11. Repulsion - Pestilent Decay
12. (15s rest)
13. Maruta - Man Versus Gravity
14. (15s rest)
15. Defeatist - Maruta
16. (15s rest)
17. Antigama - Orange Pills
18. (15s rest)
19. Mumakil - XIX
20. (2m rest)

A brutal workout requires a brutal soundtrack. And this may be the most brutal workout you'll ever do. I've been doing it for over a week. Each time it has left me drenched in sweat, gasping for breath, and borderline nauseous — and I'm fitter than most. This workout comes from a men's magazine, but I see no reason why women couldn't do it (other than, say, pregnancy). The only equipment you'll need is a light pair of dumbbells. Evidently the average man will burn 730 calories (give or take 130) by doing this workout. You'll also burn calories afterwards, as it will jack up your metabolism something fierce. Download this mixtape, get to work, and tell me how it goes.

Dream Evil: Gay pr0n or power metal?

Flaming, indeed by Cosmo Lee

Fredrik Nordström has one of metal's most glittering production discographies. Slaughter of the Soul, The Jester Race, The Gallery, Still Life, Wages of Sin, A Predator's Portrait — the list goes on and on. Basically, he is Fenriz' worst nightmare. He is also in a power metal band called Dream Evil. Until recently, I did not know this. I don't really follow modern power metal, except to make fun of it.

So I thought In the Night (Century Media, 2010), which comes out today, would be another "Power metal LOL"-fest. Just look at those promo photos! Look at the album cover! Even in an age of horrific Photoshop graphic design, it's bad. I am so not the target audience.

The Ballad

And yet I like this. It's not full-on cheese like Dragonforce or Freedom Call. Instead, it's mostly mid-paced, like Wolf — Nordström produced The Black Flame — but con un poco más queso. There's the obligatory Eurometal piano ballad. It's called...wait for it..."The Ballad."

We are made of metal
Our hearts are made of steel
Even if we're stained with blood
You know we've kept that sex appeal

Edguy must be green with envy. But I won't lie. I've banged my head (and probably my IQ) to this record. I may have thrown a goat. If you like Judas Priest's "Eat Me Alive" — the greatest gay metal anthem of all time — you'll like this. Just don't forget: no glove, no love.

Amazon (MP3)
Amazon (CD)
Relapse (CD)
The End (CD, ltd. ed. mediabook)
CM Distro (CD, ltd. ed. mediabook)

Powermad Men

Suddenly Powermad are back in the spotlight. In Decibel #64 (American Carnage tour cover, buy here), Adem Tepedelen profiles guitarist Todd Haug, now the brewmaster at Surly Brewing (motto: "Beer for a glass, from a can.") Tepedelen's beer-and-metal blog Brewtal Truth has these outtakes from the interview.

Also, Powermad are writing a new record!

If this means that every '80s thrash band is reuniting, I am all for it.

This is a good time to revisit Powermad's appearance in David Lynch's Wild at Heart. Actually, it's not revisiting for me because I have sadly never seen the film. Judging from the above incredible scene — if Powermad truly attract a primarily female audience, I cannot wait for them to tour — I need to rectify that posthaste.

What's your price?

Price in Indecent Proposal: $1m by Cosmo Lee

They say that every person has a price. That is, every person has some monetary threshold at which one can be induced to do things one normally wouldn't do.

Let's tweak that to apply to downloading.

First, let's assume that the default behavior by a metal fan in 2010 is to download music for free.

The "I buy CD's" and "I buy vinyl" folks might protest. They are valued and integral members of the metal community. They are also in the minority. Or if they aren't, they will be soon. The vinyl folks are certainly in the minority. Vinyl is expensive, so it will forever remain a niche market. CD's are on their way out, and downloads (paid or not) are trending up. This is undisputed.

It might seem cynical to assume that metal fans would download music for free. Metal carries notions of "supporting the band" and "supporting the scene." But in the face of illegal downloading, these notions become ones of honor. Honor is not a business model. The rational metal consumer (ignoring the theoretical flaws of the "rational consumer" construct) will download music for free. The cost is zero both in terms of money and chance of getting caught. You're almost a dummy if you don't download illegally.

However, as I've pointed out before, illegal downloading has other costs. The biggest one is of time. To download illegally, one must find a suitable Internet back alley. For obscure releases or those where the record label has clamped down on illegal downloads, the search time can be great. And, as everyone knows, time is money.

Metalhit.com sells MP3 albums for $5.25 each. Would you buy them at that price?

So you're at a website that sell MP3 albums. Your natural inclination is to click away from the site to search for a free download. At what price point do you stay on the site, buy the album, and avoid the hassle of seeking the free download?

For one commenter on the Amie Street post last week, $2 was still potentially too high.

Some people are hellbent on getting music for free. They will expend great amounts of time and energy to avoid paying for music. For them, no price is low enough.

I would wager, though, that most people would pay for convenience. I have better things to do than to trawl the Internet looking for illegal free music. My price is $2. If an MP3 album is $2 or below, and I'm thinking of getting it, I will pull the trigger 99% of the time. Between $2 and $3, I will think for a bit, but still pull the trigger over half the time. Anything above that is more iffy.

What's your price?

Hirax - El Rostro de la Muerte

Artwork by Ed Repka, logo by Tom G. Warrior Review by Cosmo Lee

It amazes me that Hirax aren't more well-known in their home country. Instead, they seem to be most popular in South America. The Spanish title of their newest album, El Rostro de la Muerte (Black Devil, 2009) is perhaps a nod to that. Endless lineup changes haven't benefited the band, and even its current incarnation has only two constants, vocalist Katon De Pena and guitarist Glenn Rogers.

Eradicate Mankind

But that's been plenty adequate. 2004's The New Age of Terror is my favorite post-'80s thrash album, 2007's Assassins of War EP was solid (review here), and 2008's Thrash and Destroy DVD, recorded at the Keep It True festival, is one of the best live sets I've ever seen.

El Rostro continues this hot streak. It's straight-up, balls-out thrash about war, death, and other metal standbys. ("Blind Faith," however, has curiously sunny lyrics about religious open-mindedness.) Hirax won't win points for innovation, and some fault them for lack of catchiness. De Pena's air raid siren vocals are more than memorable for me, though, and I don't expect the band to do anything other than thrash. In this respect, they have few peers. If you're up front at a metal show, banging your head off, songwriting isn't your first concern. You want your ass kicked. Hirax do that with aplomb.

Amazon (MP3)
Amazon (CD)
The End (CD)
Relapse (CD)
eMusic (MP3)
Metalhit (MP3)
Hirax (CD, shirt, patch)
Hirax page at Amie Street

Scion Rock Fest 2010 lineup

by Cosmo Lee

It's official.

It's hot.

And it's relatively hipster-free.

Cannibal Corpse and Hate Eternal are not for the stovepipe jeans set. Neither are Voivod nor Thou. The flyer spells Deadsea wrong, but you can't have everything. Speaking of having everything — if I had a budget of a million dollars, or whatever Scion is throwing at this fest, I would pick a lot of these bands. I've written about 70% of them. I'm particularly jazzed about Deadsea, whom I wrote about here.

Deadsea - Coming Home

I admit that part of the allure of this event is potentially visiting Ohio for the first time.

Details and free ticket RSVP here.

MySpace clutter, begone!

by Cosmo Lee

MySpace band pages have become practically unusable. Now bands are sticking huge images at the top and Twitter feeds, videos, widgets, flashing banners, instrument endorsement logos (seriously, who cares about those?), and other nonsense everywhere else. I'll never like a band for its MySpace design, but I'll dislike a band for it.

Here's a way to cut through the clutter.

Go to this page. (Thanks to reader shep for the tip.) Find the "Music-Only" button halfway down. Bookmark that link (hint: use right click). Then, when you open a band's MySpace, click on that bookmark while the page loads. It will eliminate the clutter, leaving the only component that matters: the music player.

Try it. Life will be better. I've been using it, and my life has been better. Now "Music-Only" is at the top of my bookmarks.

- - -

While you're at it, check out The Endless Blockade. We reviewed them here. Sweet live footage of them from last weekend is here. They have a split with Bastard Noise out here, and a split with Unearthly Trance forthcoming. One of them keeps a blog here.

How to get to Amie Street

by Cosmo Lee

Amie Street is a legal MP3 store with a unique business model. Albums start out free, and rise in price as more people buy them. The incentive is to find undervalued albums. It's easy to set up an account, and each album has listening samples. I've found lots of great music here for cheap.

Recently I discovered that Amie Street sells metal. The organization is haphazard (the categories are "metal," "metalcore," and "death metal"); Amie Street is hardly the final word in buying metal MP3's. But because no one knows about its metal offerings — until this post, anyway — most everything is ridiculously undervalued.

For example, as of the time of this writing (Friday morning), Jesu's albums are all less than $4. Devin Townsend has two albums below $3. All of Sunn O)))'s albums cost less than $2.50. Vreid's Milorg is less than $2. And so on. These numbers will disappear as people (perhaps you guys) wise up to these offerings.

I've separated out Amie Street's metal offerings by label below. Go to town. If you don't know where to start, I suggest Metalhit.com, a distro in and of itself (whose own site sells MP3 albums for $5.25 each). Evidently Metalhit.com has licensed out its entire catalog to Amie Street. I believe it has a similar arrangement with eMusic. This is the future of distros: swapping MP3's instead of CD's.

- - -

The End
Facedown
Flingco Sound
Housecore
Hydra Head
Ibex Moon
Indie
Inside Out
Ipecac
Mascot
Megaforce
Metal Blade
Metalhit.com
Nuclear Blast
Pathos Productions
Prosthetic
Rotten
Southern Lord
Steamhammer
Translation Loss
Tribunal

The Record Vault

L-R: Michael Denner, King Diamond, lucky duck Text by Cosmo Lee

Umlaut is a true metal old-schooler. Not only was he friends with Metallica before Cliff Burton joined the band, he had the good sense to document his life in metal meticulously. The result is a priceless treasure trove of metal memories.

Every so often Umlaut sends me a link to such memories. They always blow my mind. The most recent one was to a Facebook group for The Record Vault. (Facebook is good for something!) The record store was the center of the '80s San Francisco metal scene. If you think about Bay Area metal in the '80s — yeah, it's a big deal.

Now you, too, can experience The Record Vault. Here is the Facebook group page (no login needed), and here is the photo gallery. I suggest starting at the first photo, and going through each and every one. Your mind will be blown. You will see in-store appearances by Venom, Lemmy, Slayer, Metallica, and more. You will see lots of cool bootlegs, demos, and vinyl. You will gnash your teeth and wish that you had lived in San Francisco in the '80s.

L-R: Timi Hansen, Pam Smith, furry thing, Hank Shermann

My favorite photos come from a magical day in 1984 when Mercyful Fate did an in-store signing, then played a show at the Kabuki (now an upscale cinema). The top one above features (from left to right) Michael Denner, King Diamond, and a lucky young fan. The second features Timi Hansen, a proprietor of the store, a stuffed monkey, and Hank Shermann looking like the prettiest girl you ever did see.

L-R: Timi Hansen, Lars Ulrich, King Diamond, Hank Shermann

And this last one? Yes, that is Lars Ulrich with a guitar. Onstage with Mercyful Fate. Umlaut was there that night. He recounts,

Lars was air guitaring.. King summoned Metallica to the stage ("Lars!! Where are YOU?!!") and James, Cliff, and Lars pushed through the crowd and climbed onstage to air guitar on the encore.

On the photo's Facebook page, Hank Shermann adds more commentary. (His new thrash band Demonica has a record coming out in February.) For more mementos of the occasion, including a ticket stub of the show and details of driving the band to the gig, see here and here. Read 'em and weep.

MySpace vs. Facebook

by Cosmo Lee

Have you switched from MySpace to Facebook for music?

Recently I spoke with a touring band who said that "MySpace is dying." They said that their rate of new friend adds was plummeting, and that their fan action had moved to Facebook.

This doesn't necessarily mean that MySpace is dying. Although this particular band is very much up-and-coming, perhaps it has already captured the majority of its potential MySpace friends. Or perhaps the band's fan demographic is the type to switch to Facebook. An NPR story last year suggested that MySpace and Facebook may be dividing along racial or class lines.

MySpace is still my first destination for music, simply because it offers instant streaming sound. If I open a press release in my inbox, I immediately skip all the text and look for the MySpace link. Additionally, the comments/top friends system allows for fluid movement in the network. I've learned about many bands by looking at comments and top friends.

However, in all other respects, MySpace is awful. It looks bad, it takes forever to load, and messaging on it is a chore. You'd think that its mega-corporate backing would throw money at and solve these problems.

Facebook is just as bad for music. The lack of instant streaming sound is a dealbreaker for me. Although the interface is prettier, it's much harder than MySpace to move through its network. MySpace works visually through comments and top friends. Facebook is more text-based and doesn't reward "clicking around" as much.

Also, creating a band page on Facebook is a major pain. Facebook has a confusing profile/page/group architecture that few can figure out. Thus, while Facebook may have more users than MySpace, it's still behind in tapping their potential. In this respect, MySpace has an advantage by being first. It will be a while before the gazillions of connections made on it transplant themselves to Facebook.

This is just my perspective, though. As a music fan, have you switched from MySpace to Facebook as resource? As a musician, have you switched from MySpace to Facebook as a promotional tool? Whether fan or musician, have you noticed trends in MySpace and Facebook usage? I'd like to hear your perspective.

The rules of metal t-shirt wearing

Deth by tight jeans Text by Cosmo Lee

Rule 1: If one goes to see a band play, one cannot wear its shirt to the show.
Rule 2: A band cannot wear its own t-shirts.

Why do these rules exist?

Combined, these rules mean that no one at a show can wear shirts of the band that's playing. Which is absurd. Two clichés come to mind: "the elephant in the room" and "reading Playboy for the articles."

I don't buy the oh-so-cool end run around this rule: wearing the shirt of an associated band. Do you think that when a band drives hundreds of miles to your town and looks out into the crowd, it's glad to see t-shirts of its side projects?

Of course not! It wants to see actual support. (Downloading a leaked album and singing along to unreleased songs does not count!)

And cut the band some slack if it wears its own t-shirts. Yes, that reeks of poverty and desperation. But what is touring if not poverty and desperation? A band is sleeping on floors, showering every nth day, and schlepping pounds/kilos of shirts from town to town in the hopes that fools who sing along to its unreleased songs will take monetary pity on it (despite the fact that its shirts are ugly as hell).

If I were in a touring band, I would dip into ye olde merch box to clothe myself. In fact, it would be only be right. When the UPS guy rings my doorbell, I don't expect him to wear a Fed Ex or DHL uniform, even if that "supports the scene" of overnight shipping. UPS guy wears UPS merch because he's a UPS guy. 1+1=2.

Not for you

This reminds me of athletic jerseys. The standard is exactly the opposite of that for metal t-shirts. Why is it OK for overweight civilian shlubs to wear jerseys of elite professional athletes? Who aren't even of the same race? I have no business being in the jersey of star linebacker Terrell Suggs. Neither do you nor your dad nor your grandmother, no matter how big (of a Ravens fan) she is. The only person who belongs in Terrell Suggs' jersey is Terrell Suggs.

Would anyone tell Dave Mustaine above that he can't wear the shirt of his own band? Big names break the "own band shirt" rule all the time. Dave Lombardo wore a Slayer shirt on the back cover of Reign in Blood. Members of Iron Maiden still wear Iron Maiden shirts live (and they are neither poor nor desperate). Jason Newsted wore Metallica shirts all the time around ...And Justice for All. That makes perfect sense. Pushead was on fire then. If I had unlimited access to Pushead designs, I'd put it to good use, too.

So these "too cool for school" rules have got to go. If I go see a band play, I will wear its shirt. However, I reserve the right to wear a shirt from its early days — when, of course, it was better.

Mayhem to tour with Ludicra, Tombs, Krallice

Photo by Askar Ibragimov Text by Cosmo Lee

Mayhem will tour the US this spring, with support from Ludicra, Tombs, and Krallice.

No official announcement has been made yet. But the Internet has been batting this ball around, so I figured I'd give it a good whack.

"Mayhem" is still the most loaded word in black metal. No one would make black metal documentaries if it weren't for Mayhem. I find it sad that people still fixate on events from so long ago, which paled in scope next to truly newsworthy things like wars and natural disasters. For black metal to grow up, it must leave teenage work behind.

Key to the Storms (from Ordo Ad Chao)

I find later Mayhem more interesting — the inconsistent albums, the return of vocalist Attila Csihar, the fantastic Ordo Ad Chao, and milestones like Maryland Deathfest last year (a subpar performance) and the Blackened Fest tour, which yielded some spectacular shows (see here, for example) and an equally spectacular meltdown.

Photo by Christian Misje

Curiously, none of the support bands on this upcoming tour are black metal. They're black metal-influenced, but they've branched out and found their own sounds. Selecting them is a gesture by Mayhem of passing on the torch.

The contrast is not just sonic, but also visual. Mayhem are heavily theatrical, especially vocalist Attila Csihar, who is known for his wide range of costumes. The support bands are average Joes and Janes who wear t-shirts and jeans onstage. I asked Ludicra drummer Aesop Dekker what he thought about Csihar. He said,

"Well, he's like a diva. He's like a showman. I have the utmost respect for that. Mayhem — they have this huge history, this huge legend behind them. As much as they're obligated to do it, I think they love it. It befits what they do. That's going to be a really strange juxtaposition when you think about the bands that are going on that tour. It's going to be these very modest and plain-looking folks playing metal. Which is cool, because [Mayhem] are the draw. They're the show. They have this rich history. I can honestly say that if it wasn't for Mayhem, there'd be no Ludicra."

One date is confirmed so far — Seattle on April 21.

Scion Rock Fest 2010 is in...Columbus, OH

by Cosmo Lee

The date and location of this year's Scion Rock Fest are now public.

In case you don't remember, Scion Rock Fest last year was a gigantic free festival with a beyond-ridiculous lineup. We interviewed Wolves in the Throne Room, who played at that festival and regretted it, citing a "slimy, Satanic energy that surrounds that corporate culture."

Satanic energy: sounds like metal to me.

(See here for a lively discussion about Scion's forays into metal.)

last.fm lists three confirmed artists so far for this year's festival: Pelican, YOB, and Shrinebuilder. I'm not at liberty to disclose who else I've heard is playing. But suffice it to say that I'm leaving the weekend of March 13 open.

What bands make you proud of your country?

L to R: least to most proud by Cosmo Lee

When I broached the idea of reviewing Epica last October, one Dutch reader commented that he was ashamed to live in the same country as the band. I remember thinking, "Yes, the Dutch should indeed be ashamed for birthing such a monstrosity."

That got me thinking. What bands make me ashamed of America? That might require a separate blog: awfulamericanmetal.com. But, also, what bands make me proud of America? For all the fingers jabbed in my chest (I practically have a callus there) when people overseas find out I'm American, what rejoinders could I have? Yes, we produced Bush, but we also produced...

Kylesa make me proud to be American. They couldn't have come from any other country. Their metal methodology is very American: pick up scraps here and there, warp them into something funky and individual. America has originated many things, but metal is not one of them. American bands must draw from European traditions. Kylesa are a beautiful mutt of nth generation Sabbath progeny.

Later Iced Earth and later Pantera make me ashamed to be American. They are "The Ugly American" turned into metal bands.

What bands make you proud — or ashamed — of your country?

High on Fire hot sauce

by Cosmo Lee

How about that new High on Fire song?

You can hear it here. (See artwork for the new album, out February 23, here. Up until the release date, pre-orders are available at Relapse for $9 here.) Debate is already raging over whether Greg Fidelman, who did the most recent albums by Metallica and Slayer, was the right choice for producer.

I think it's hot. It's great to hear Matt Pike palm-muting. I've always wished that he would strum less and machine-gun more. The machine gun is a staple of metal. (Cue Ride the Lightning tabs with open strings marching across the pages with "P.M." above them.) Take that, black metal strummers!

High on Fire hot sauce is less hot. It's good, don't get me wrong. It's sweet yet tangy; the ingredients include habanero peppers (natch), Saint Arnold Lawnmower beer, vinegar, brown sugar, and lime juice. I've been slathering it on eggs and veggie burgers. But the fact that I can slather it on food means that it's not that hot. "Hot" to me is "one drop = pain," like Mega Death Sauce, which I wrote about here. High on Fire sauce brings no pain, only pleasure.

You can order it below from Houston's Big Daddy's Hot Sauces (who made it), and from Austin's Tears of Joy. I've had a good experience ordering from Tears of Joy; hopefully I can visit it someday. Thanks to Liz from Earsplit PR for hepping me to this fine shop.

Big Daddy's
Tears of Joy
Pre-order CD for $9

The death metal tour of the year

It will be tough for any death metal tour to top this one: Nile/Immolation/Krisiun/Dreaming Dead/Abigail Williams. (The tour starts tomorrow; see dates here and ticket info here.) Abigail Williams aren't death metal, nor particularly good...but it happens. (This just in: Abigail Williams cannot play this tour due to an injury to the drummer.) As for the other bands — unholy moly!

This tour has three of the genre's titans, all of whom are at the top of their game. Nile are supporting the fantastic Those Whom the Gods Detest (review here). Immolation have Majesty and Decay coming out on March 5 in the EU and March 9 in the US. Krisiun are true road dogs. Their records are enjoyable, but their magic is in the live show. The most metal show of my life — in terms of hair, sweat, horns, and just plain losing my mind — was a Krisiun one.

Krisiun just put out a video for "Sentenced Morning." (See above.) It's a small but tasty taste of the live show. Note the spiffy Azarath shirt the frontman is wearing. Note also the inexplicable shots of the guitarist outside in a wintry forest. Huh??? Low budget, but high impact. If hell had a marching band, it would sound like Krisiun.

Be sure to arrive early for Dreaming Dead. They were a Top 10-er for me last year. Recently they acquired second guitarist Laura Christine (of Warface), creating the shreddingest female guitar duo in metal. I wrote about Elizabeth Schall Elliott here and here. I interviewed Christine here. She excels at the Suffocation/Dying Fetus thing, while Elliott is very lyrical. Their styles should mesh nicely. Dudes, get ready to get schooled by some dudettes.

Woe unto Candlelight

"Woe" by Cosmo Lee

Candlelight has signed Woe, Krieg, and Yaotl Mictlan. These are American black metal bands, which is interesting for a European label known for European acts (e.g., Emperor, 1349, and Blut aus Nord).

In recent years, Candlelight has made a concerted effort to sign US black metal bands. Now its roster includes Abigail Williams, Absu, Averse Sefira, Sothis, and the above new signings. (The label also distributes American label Battle Kommand; see here.) These acts vary in quality, but their presence is significant. Americans are pushing black metal beyond the Scandinavian template.

In addition to these bands, acts like Tombs, Krallice, Liturgy, Brown Jenkins, Leviathan, Xasthur, Ludicra, and Agalloch have driven purists crazy by carving out unique styles. Some are stronger than others, and they form no cohesive "scene." But interesting things are happening in America, and Europe is recognizing that.

Woe - Wake in Mourning

All of Candlelight's new signings have new albums out this year. I'm excited for Woe's, as I've been listening a lot to 2008's A Spell for the Death of Man. It's available here at 320kbps on a pay-what-you-want basis from Communitas Media, which is run by Woe mastermind Chris Grigg. (I wrote about the pay-what-you-want model here.)

Also, Deli Magazine is running a poll for best emerging Philly artist of 2009 here. The poll ends at midnight EST this Friday 1/15. Vote for Woe — it requires just one click, and the chance for the one metal band to win is too good to pass up.

Woe MySpace
A Spell for the Death of Man (pay what you want)

Metal reality shows

by Cosmo Lee

Let's get some metal reality TV shows going. Not Osbournes or Battle for Ozzfest nonsense, but real extreme stuff. To start things off:

Fear Factor-y

Contestants must listen to Fear Factory's Digimortal album. Vomiting or being too scared to attempt this will result in elimination.

Rock Star: Anthrax

15 contestants compete to become the next singer of Anthrax. There is no band more appropriate for this show.

Man vs. Milwaukee Metalfest

Bear Grylls is left stranded at Milwaukee Metalfest. He must find Jack Koshick to get paid in order to find a way back to civilization.

Man vs. Shitty Deathcore

Adam Richman attempts to digest the entire discographies of Emmure, The Acacia Strain, Rose Funeral, and Whitechapel. Who will win, Richman or breakdowns?

Blabbermouth Commenters vs. Literacy

So You Think You Can Mosh

You can base your reality show off an existing format or create a new one. The best one by midnight EST this Friday the 15th will win a copy of the Pure F*cking Mayhem DVD...which reminds me of another possible show: Man vs. Black Metal Documentaries.

Drawn and Quartered - Assault of Evil (DVD)

by Cosmo Lee

Many of my favorite bands are so underground that I never get to see them live. Either they're too busy with day jobs or families to tour, or they're not plugged into the infrastructure (big label tour support, publicists, booking agents, etc.) that mainstream metal bands enjoy. I've seen countless metal bands with boring music but great live shows, simply because they get to hone their act on the road. Meanwhile, my favorite bands remain in 2D.

Thus, I was excited to see Drawn and Quartered's Assault of Evil DVD (Moribund, 2009). I reviewed them here some time ago, and have since tried to imagine what they would be like live. This no-frills DVD may be the closest I'll ever get. The main presentation is a composite of two professionally-shot shows. Extras include four bootleg shows, three music videos, a discography, and a photo gallery.

Go go invisible oranges

The main footage is basic, but acquires a certain atmosphere over time. Part of the appeal of live DVD's is band-crowd interaction, but that's minimal here. The crowds are small, the stage presence is functional, and the whole thing feels a bit like a rehearsal. However, it's a whale of a rehearsal, as the songs fire with fury and precision. I spent much of my viewing time thinking, "Man, this band is good." I don't need fancy moves or witty banter when the music speaks for itself. The black/death feeling is strong. Drummer Dario Derna, one of the most talented men in metal — I reviewed his Krohm projects here and here, and his Vetus Obscurum one here — is particularly on point. His attack is tight and energetic; his bandmates follow suit.

The bootleg shows, discography, and photo gallery are all forgettable. But the music videos are fun. "Hail Infernal Darkness," shown above, has some of the best flying hair footage I've ever seen. "Merciless Hammer of Lucifer" also makes the most of its small budget, showing the band playing in a house that reeks of serial murder. That video is also viewable on YouTube. But like most YouTube content, it's much better in its original form. The colors pop, and the atmosphere is so thick, it's almost 3D. May sales of this DVD enable the band to emerge from the screen, like The Ring, into real life.

Amazon
CM Distro
Moribund Cult
Overstock.com
Negative Existence

Defend the indefensible: Modern power metal

Click to enlarge Text by Cosmo Lee

OK, this is just an excuse to post the album cover. It's my favorite so-bad-it's-good artwork from last year. Just look at it! Click it to make it really, really big. There's a lot to take in.

Seriously, though — can anyone explain modern power metal to me? I like the '80s stuff. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Accept — that's good, strong music (given the right albums). But at what point did power metal become so saccharine, synthed-out, and bloody ridiculous? The only "power" it has is in making me laugh.

Admittedly, that has its value. There are worse reactions to music than laughter. And I do admire technical aspects of modern power metal. Chops are surgical, songwriting is action-packed (in the way that Jerry Bruckheimer movies are), and songs are super-hooky. Modern power metal is pop music with everything turned up.

But when I listen to it, I don't feel what it wants to make me feel: strength, mystery, fantasy, drama. My only feeling? THIS IS SO CHEESY. Perhaps I am wired differently from power metal's target audience: Europeans. Europeans have wonderful things like history and culture that America lacks (see "EU metal vs. US metal" here). But maybe they lead to misguided attempts to invoke them. Utopia's cover has both a monstrous sea creature (antiquated) and a gleaming domed city (futuristic). Americans don't harbor such illusions.

Waterworld

That's not necessarily a good thing. Sludge metal, an American phenomenon, is as present tense as metal gets. 99% of the time it feels like a dead end (into the bottom of a bottle) for me. That's just as unproductive as sea creatures and domed cities. To me, anyway. There must be people who find this stuff immensely fulfilling. Why else would it be so popular?

The Chicago Reader had a great article some years ago on the influence of Tolkien on metal. It indirectly argued that metal wasn't escapist so much as romantic. Mythical worlds of primordial evil and unironic heroism are alternate ways of contextualizing "reality." But at some point — after several hundred million dollars, perhaps — science fiction just becomes fiction.

Hence "For You I Will Die," a mind-boggling construction. It smashes together minimal techno sounds with Scorpions worship, then peaks with female choral vocals. In some alternate universe — Japan, probably — it's a #1 hit. Why are the Japanese and Germans so adept at making cheese? Maybe there's something to the name: Axxis.

For You I Will Die

Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
The End (CD)
CM Distro (CD)

What band got you into metal?

Photo by D Is For Duende Text by Cosmo Lee

What band got you into metal?

It doesn't have to be good metal. Many people have one gateway band into metal and another into the good stuff. Few of us were down with Bathory since day one.

If you grew up in the '80s, your gateways were probably Iron Maiden and Judas Priest (if you had a wise older brother), or hair metal (if you did not). (Did anyone actually get into metal through Black Sabbath? I'd bet that 95% of us discovered them retroactively.) In the '90s, your gateways were probably Metallica (early '90s), Pantera (mid '90s), or nu-metal (late '90s). In the '00s, your gateways were probably metalcore (first half of decade), Mastodon (for those not otherwise inclined to like metal), or deathcore (last few years).

As for me, I discovered hair metal (through Top 40 radio) and thrash metal (through friends in school) around the same time. Both were equally foreign to me, so I didn't discriminate between them. I liked Def Leppard as much as I liked Anthrax. My first metal electric shock came from Metallica's $5.98 EP. (I wrote about it somewhat incompetently here.) I was lucky to find the good stuff right away.

Exodus DVD premiere w/ Brendon Small

L to R: Gibson, Hunting, Holt, Altus, Dukes, Small by Cosmo Lee

Shovel Headed Tour Machine (Nuclear Blast, 2010), Exodus' new DVD package, comes out tomorrow. It includes a DVD and CD of the band's 2008 set at Wacken, and a second DVD containing a documentary, music videos, and other bonus material. Last Friday the documentary premiered at the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. Afterwards, the band fielded questions from the audience. Brendon Small of Dethklok/Metalocalypse emceed the event.

My first impression was how small the venue was. If Slayer had done a DVD premiere with a live Q&A, the line would have been around the block. Instead, this event was intimate. Substance abuse and band instability are probably why Exodus aren't in the "Big Four" of thrash.

Their current lineup is clean, though. It's taken me a while to embrace it. I generally dislike bands who only have one or two original members left (hello, Sepultura). Usually they are just brands whose need for existence is financial, not artistic. But I'm listening to 2007's The Atrocity Exhibition...Exhibit A right now, and I stand by my original review. Guitarist Gary Holt still has the fire. New vocalist Rob Dukes is no Paul Baloff or Steve "Zetro" Souza, but he is competent enough. The spirit of Exodus is still alive.

This documentary is about Exodus' current lineup. Thus, guitarist Rick Hunolt, despite his integral role in the "H-Team" alongside Holt, is merely a footnote. His split with Exodus was well-publicized, so it's understandable that the band wants to move on. But it's strange that the film devotes less time to him than to Kirk Hammett, who was in Exodus but never recorded an album with them.

As metal DVD's go, this one is typical. Its organization is haphazard, its Spiderman font is distracting, and much of the humor only the band would find funny. But it's good at showing the band members' personalities. Exodus aren't media darlings, so until this film, I didn't know much about the members. I liked what I learned. Generally individual personalities don't factor into my estimation of a band. But here they reinforce why I still like Exodus after all these years: they are humble and devoted to their craft.

The Q&A afterwards bore this out. Some good tidbits emerged. One fan revealed that in the '80s, he and his friends stole cars to go to Exodus shows at Ruthie's Inn. Drummer Tom Hunting, who lives in the wilderness of northern California, disclosed that he owns no computer. (Only recently did he get an email address.) To heat his home, he chops wood for fire; occasionally used drumsticks serve as kindling. Dukes, the consummate frontman, wore a big red zoot suit. The event closed with a raffle that gave away autographed schwag, including a beautiful ESP guitar, to several lucky fans. This was a night for fans only, in the best sense.

Amazon (LP, 2DVD/CD, MP3)
Nuclear Blast (2LP, 2DVD/CD)
Upcoming tour dates with Arch Enemy, Arsis

Cobalt on Fox News

Cobalt singer Phil McSorley just got interviewed on Fox News' Red Eye talk show. Both the mainstream media exposure and the interview itself are interesting. The host asks him about music and and his service as an Army Staff Sergeant. I've never seen McSorley this "in the flesh" before. 7.62 Design, a military design site (yes, there is such a thing), recently featured Cobalt here. People are really latching on to this Army angle. McSorley isn't the first American metaller in the military — see this fine feature on grindcore guys with government guns — but he's probably the one who's made the most compelling music so far. Here's a quote from the interview.

I've never considered myself to be the most patriotic person out there. I would say that my politics are pretty nil when it comes to the band Cobalt itself. What I really believe in is the oath that I've taken as a human being, to be a lion in combat, to face the enemies of my country. It doesn't really necessarily mean that I'm patriotic on every level that everyone else would portray me in.

Metal elitism

Text by Cosmo Lee

Above is the first part of a three-part video about metal elitism. It's just two guys shooting the breeze in a restaurant, and the editing is loose; this should have been a single five-minute video. But they make interesting points about the "us vs. them" mentality of metal elitists, the fact that most people don't have the time to listen to thousands of bands because they have actual lives, and more. Below are links to parts two and three, along with some highlights.

Watch Part 2

"The more technical the metal is, the more elitist the people are."

Watch Part 3

"They're totally trying to dehumanize people that like a certain type of music. That's really what pisses me off about metal elitists."

"How has being a metal elitist helped you? Has it made you a better person? Has it improved your life?"

"Most importantly, let other people listen to what they want. One of the hardest lessons I've learned in my life with anything is you cannot be trying to control other people."

Suffocation @ Fuel TV

Photos and text by Cosmo Lee

Yesterday Suffocation played on The Daily Habit, a show on Fuel TV. (The episode will air in a few weeks.) I went to the studios to watch. They played two songs from their latest album. Three celebrity types introduced the band. I didn't recognize any of them. The main guy kept screwing up. He mixed up the album and song titles, which caused the production to grind to a halt for a while.

The band screwed up twice, too. They're just starting a tour alongside DevilDriver and Goatwhore (dates here). Obviously some kinks still need to be worked out. The second screwup was pretty funny. There was some confusion over whether the band would play the video version or the original version of the song. It was weird to hear the band discuss that.

It was also weird to see a makeup girl running around between takes. That never happens at Suffocation shows. She didn't do the band, just the celebrity types. In take after take, they kept repeating the same canned banter. I guess that's what acting is about.

Terrance Hobbs

Luckily, the band didn't have to act. They seemed to be into it. Frank was on point with his death metal spirit fingers. The band's tour manager calls it "the chop," which is probably more accurate. Frank also has another move, "the machine gun," that he pulls out during blastbeat sections. He forms his hands into pistols and blasts away at the audience. It's actually pretty cool.

The band sounded great. Seeing Suffocation up close in a sterile setting actually made me appreciate them more. Without the distractions of a typical show, I could zero in on what the band was doing. Terrance Hobbs is one of the most underrated guitarists ever. He doesn't just play rhythm guitar; he grabs notes and throws them outwards. It's a very physical way of playing. He also has this sick technique where, instead of sweep picking, he rakes his non-pick fingers across the strings. Classical guitarists do this, but I've never seen anyone integrate that with pick playing.

Homemade Suffo shoes

I asked Derek Boyer why he holds his bass so vertically (like Fieldy and Robert Trujillo). He said that it's more comfortable. Holding it horizontally involves twisting the wrists, whereas holding it vertically involves no wrist twisting. Maybe that's why the classical guys do it. Boyer modified the position of his strap lock so his bass would fall downwards naturally. Sometimes he sets his bass on the ground like a cello, and plays it that way.

I asked Mike Smith what was going on with his hip-hop project. Evidently he has a new album in the can. He was happy to talk about it. He was also happy to show off his homemade Suffocation shoes. (He just put patches on the back.) Someone should make an official shoe for Suffocation. I'd buy it in a second.

See full photo set here.

Interview: red5standingby

All images by red5standingby Click all to enlarge Interview by Cosmo Lee

Some time ago I stumbled across a wonderful gallery on Flickr. It had images of Kerry King, Steve Harris, Dimebag Darrell, and other metallers — rendered in stunning fidelity with MS Paint. (I nicked a portrait of King Diamond for this review of his reissues.) Yes, MS Paint: the primitive art program that comes bundled with Windows. It's not just a tool for scatological jokes. Simon, aka red5standingby, has elevated it into a brush of the finest caliber. I commissioned him to do the above rendition of Morbid Angel's Trey Azagthoth. Then I asked him some questions about his talent.

- - -

Who are you?

I'm Simon, 33, and live in London. I work for Channel Five ensuring that all our TV shows look nice when they air.

What is your artistic background?

I have practically no artistic background. I've always enjoyed doodling and printing t-shirts with stencils (many with weak metal puns), but for the main part I'm an art appreciator. From getting my first cassette of Live After Death for Christmas to ordering a Book of Black Earth t-shirt a couple of days ago, I've loved heavy metal almost as much for its artwork as the music. Even when I got heavily into dance music and breakbeat in my early twenties, nothing looked as good in the record racks as Manowar records did.

Eat & Destroy

Why is MS Paint your weapon of choice?

I'm not so hot with computers, so when designing stencils for making t-shirts, I started using MS Paint, as it was easy to understand and pretty much did what I wanted it to. I'm a firm believer in keeping things simple when I can. I wanted simple images, so [I] used a simple programme. An added bonus is that MS Paint is on my work computer, so when I'm bored at work, I can get on with something fun.

How did you get the idea to MS Paint-erize metal musicians?

Like I said, I've pretty much always loved metal and have spent hours painting band logos onto bags and jackets as well as doodling invented band logos during important meetings. My first computer art/metal interaction, though, was recreating a pretty accurate Annihilator logo back when I was 15. Bored at work one day a couple of years ago, I thought it might be fun to doodle over some photos with MS Paint and see what the effect would be like. Naturally enough, I chose something close to my heart and made a start with a photo I found looking for "black metal" using Google Image Search. From there, I thought I'd do musicians I really liked, and have been knocking them out fairly regularly since then as and when work allows!

Galderdash

Why do your pieces have funny lines going through them?

The funny lines are a quirk of MS Paint when you hold the mouse down for too long. They don't always happen — the Trey I did for you guys is free of them — but sometimes I leave them in, as I think they add to the pictures. They're not, as some people might think, a tribute to The Omen. That would have involved way too much thinking for me!

What makes subjects easy/hard to MS Paint-erize?

First off, the bigger the photo I can find, the easier it is to do. I like them to be recognisable without me having to say who they are, so there's got to be something distinctive about the person. Corpsepaint when it's for an individual is great. King Diamond is a favourite. Sometimes something as simple as a beard or guitar can give it away. My Eddie Van Halen looks like pretty much every hair metaller there is, but his signature guitar gives him away.

On Fire

Who do you have planned next to MS Paint-erize?

I'm always up for suggestions, and the only restriction is whether I can find a good photo of the person I want to do. I'm keen to do all of Manowar at some point, and despite a lack of knowledge of the genre, there must be plenty more corpsepaint wearers who are distinctive enough to do.

Do you plan to publish your MS Paint pieces in any formal way?

My friend put some together in a small zine. But when I've got enough together, I'd like to do an all-metal zine or an all-black metal zine myself. Long term I'd like to turn some of them into paintings and maybe prints or t-shirts.

To Scion or not to Scion: that is the question

I wish I could have observed the Scion meeting where they decided not just to be a car company, but also a lifestyle brand.

Auto marketing is tied to lifestyle ("sport," "green," "luxury," etc.), but Scion have taken this concept to new heights. They're sponsoring free metal shows (see, e.g., commentary on Wolves in the Throne Room show; remorse by the band afterwards), they put on a huge free metal festival, and now they have an A/V arm that's sponsoring remixes (Boris, Redman, etc.), with a fancy website whose main tabs are "ART," "FILM, "LIFESTYLE," and "MUSIC."

The A/V arm even has its own iPhone app. It contains radio stations of many genres (including metal). I deleted it, though, because (a) AT&T's network can't handle streaming content, and (b) the app can't run in the background behind other processes — a basic, fatal flaw.

I wonder if Scion sees its A/V arm as a viable commercial enterprise and not just advertising. This stuff is serious. And a little curious. Presumably the point is to make Scion seem "hip." Featuring hipster-hot artists like The Juan MacLean and Acid Girls makes sense. But metal? Do they picture metalheads running out to buy Scion cars? Admittedly, they favor hipster-ish metal (Hydra Head, Southern Lord); it's not like they're featuring Krisiun or Watain.

Now Scion has hired directors to do videos for bands. Above is the one for Torche's new song "King Beef," from their upcoming split with Boris. The song and video are both great. I've never been a fan of Torche, but this song sounds different for them, and I'm digging it. Scion-sponsored directors have also done videos for Pelican (here) and Acrassicauda (here); those are less interesting.

I don't know what to make of all this. In the latest issue of Decibel (#64, Testament/Megadeth/Slayer cover, buy here), J. Bennett asks Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta about the ethics of accepting major corporate sponsorship. Jasta answers, "They're doing things that the labels aren't doing."

On one hand, I agree with Jasta. If labels can't support artists properly, artists should be able to pursue other means of getting their music out there. If that involves an ad or corporate logo — hey, consumers can make their own choices, right?

On the other hand, underground labels might as well close up shop. Corporate resources blow those of labels out of the water. Labels are good for four things: branding, financing, distribution, and marketing. Money takes care of the last three. As for the first — Scion's brand probably opens more doors than that of any metal label. With proper A&R, which Scion has shown it is capable of doing, a major corporation could run a street-legit label.

What do you think?

Would you buy an album by your favorite band if Scion put it out? What if Scion treated the band better (no artistic compromise, more money for recording and touring) than the underground label your favorite band is on? What if Scion sponsorship enabled your favorite band to make a living from its music?

Sasha Grey, metal critic

by Cosmo Lee

Adult film actress Sasha Grey is now a metal critic for a yet-unnamed "pretty well known publication." In this blog post, she states that she seeks black, ambient black, stoner, drone metal, "or items that might come from Southern Lord." She also provides her PO Box address. She should be careful what she wishes for. I can see her mailbox quickly overflowing with bad music. She need not have my job; hers is probably more fun.

Grey contributes vocals and other noises to an experimental music outfit called Atelecine.

Did anyone see The Girlfriend Experience? If so, how was it?

Sign them already: Inswarm

Photo by Scott Irvine Text by Cosmo Lee

If Isis had pursued their early industrial leanings instead of their later atmospheric ones, Inswarm might have resulted. I miss that dirty, Godflesh-inspired sound, and thought it was extinct (with the exception of Hyatari) until I heard Inswarm.

This Moment

The band has connections to many others. Along with Cobalt's Erik Wunder, Inswarm are Jarboe's touring band. They remixed Secrets of the Moon for the box set of Privilegivm. Vocalist/programmer Fade Kainer drummed for Burton C. Bell's Ascension of the Watchers, and is now in up-and-coming NYC doom outfit Batillus (review here). With so much talent, it's amazing that the band is still unsigned.

It's also amazing how evolved its sound is. Like early Isis, grit streams like silt over everything. Concrete and decay fight a pitched battle as machines whir in the background. Delicate melodies cast a luminous glow at times, though darkness wins in the end. It's a refreshing change from how watered-down post-metal has become. The point is to span extremes, not to straddle the middle.

Inswarm have made Surely Death Is No Dream available for free download below. You can also buy the CD from the band here.

DOWNLOAD: Surely Death Is No Dream [121.02MB .zip]
MIRROR

Top 10 Most Anticipated Records 2010

by Cosmo Lee

Which metal records coming out this year are you excited about?

Below are mine. My standard is "actually excited about, enough to buy on the first day," not "should be excited about." Evidently I'm not excited about any black metal. Last year was a big year for black metal — and pretty much all the big names disappointed me except for Immortal. Now I'm feeling more gun-shy about the genre. The new Watain should excite me. But after their live show bored me last year, I'm only academically interested. I'm curious about the new Keep of Kalessin, I guess. If Averse Sefira make a new record, I'm definitely excited about that. But not much news has come from that camp. After so many huge releases last year, I'm tuckered out from hype. Better to have no expectations than to be disappointed, right? Still, I can't help but be excited about the records below.

- 2009's list -

Aghora - ?

If Cynic were more metal and had beautiful female vocals, Aghora would result. (Sean Reinert even played on their first album.) Midway through last year, the band's updates about recording their new album suddenly stopped. What happened?

Armored Saint - La Raza

It's been 10 years since the last Armored Saint record, so I am eagerly awaiting this one. The song titles are terrible. But I love John Bush's voice, and the demo song "Loose Cannon" on the band's MySpace sounds promising. Out March 16 on Metal Blade.

High on Fire - Snakes for the Divine

I liked Death Is This Communion, but I hope High on Fire will cut out the arty stuff and get back to meat-and-potatoes rocking. Out February 23 on E1.

Hooded Menace - Never Cross the Dead

Between Claws and Hooded Menace, Lasse Pyykkö is on a roll. Expect more doom death (or is it death doom?) domination. Out March on Profound Lore.

Ion Dissonance - ?

Ion Dissonance are one of the most violent bands I've heard on record (their first two albums, anyway). Three years after their last record, I wonder if they've still got the feeling. Out sometime on Century Media.

Landmine Marathon - Sovereign Descent

Will Landmine Marathon be able to translate their vaunted live energy to record? Will a release on Prosthetic mean overly slick sound? Will Dan Seagrave's artwork rule hard, or will it merely rule? We wait with baited breath. Out sometime on Prosthetic.

Ludicra - The Tenant

This was on the most-anticipated list last year, so anticipation has only risen (daily!) since then. Metal's most underrated band might finally shed that status. Profound Lore is metal's "it" label right now, so look for critics to get on the bandwagon four albums after they should have. Evidently Ludicra will tour with Mayhem in the spring! Out March on Profound Lore.

Overkill - Ironbound

Laugh all you want — I love Overkill. I love the early stuff and the later stuff, but not the middle stuff. Overkill have Dave Linsk (the later stuff enabler) on board, which means this record will probably rule. The Nuclear Blast thing means that it will probably be over-produced. But they will escape clean sound and over-compression by going on tour! To celebrate their 25th anniversary! Yes, they're old! They're so old their MySpace is in Comic Sans Italic! Only old people make websites in Comic Sans. Out February on Nuclear Blast.

Samothrace - ?

Samothrace have been quiet for a while because they moved to Seattle from Kansas. It rains a lot in Seattle. As we know from England, TERRIBLE RAINY WEATHER = SOUL-CRUSHING DOOM METAL. Bring a helmet and an umbrella for this one. Out mid-year on 20 Buck Spin.

Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones

After the success of Celtic Frost's final album, Triptykon is hotly anticipated. I bet it will be a lot like Celtic Frost, only harder to spell. (Clips from the new album, up at the band's MySpace, bear me out.) The typos are already rolling in. Both Decibel ("Tryptykon") and Terrorizer ("Triptypkon") have already misspelled the name. Pre-orders are up here for Tom G. Warrior's Hellhammer/Celtic Frost book on Bazillion Points. Out March 22 on Century Media.

- Pretty stoked -

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis

The "earlier stuff was better" folks yearn for the old mathcore. The "artistic progression" folks (read: music critics) like the poppy, sing-y songs. I don't think the earlier stuff was better, but I prefer the math. My reaction to the poppy stuff: "that was cute." My reaction to the math-y stuff: "OMG MY HEAD IS UNSCREWING VERY RAPIDLY." Out March 23 on Season of Mist.

Immolation - Majesty and Decay

Immolation will sound like Immolation. This is a good thing. The artwork is a different matter. Out March 9 on Nuclear Blast.

Intronaut - ?

Their last album was over-produced and over-compressed, which turned me off to Intronaut for a bit. Then I saw the band play. It was an enigmatic, moving experience. I hope they can translate that to record without the sanitized sound this time. Out sometime on Century Media.

- Morbidly curious-

Burzum - Belus

No record will ever arouse more morbid curiosity. The title is no longer The White God, and the artwork is no longer this. Now the title is Belus, and the artwork is this. Out March 8 on Byelobog Productions, whatever that is.

Fear Factory - Mechanize

I am actually excited about this, thanks to the new song "Powershifter" up at Fear Factory's MySpace. But (a) I am probably the only person excited about this record, and (b) Fear Factory's career bats well below .500. Let's just hope they don't pull any U2 cover BS this time. Out February 9 on Candlelight.

Year-end thoughts 2009: Cosmo

by Cosmo Lee

I found much to love about metal in 2009. Despite the New Waves Of Music Already Made Before, the conveyor belt of high fructose corn syrup metal, and enough Internet negativity for a hundred Swift Boat campaigns, I ended the year feeling positive about metal.

Ironically, to do so, I had to look outside it. Midway through the year, I burned out hard on metal. I started seeking something, anything that didn't involve people yelling over high gain distortion. In the process, I rediscovered my love for all kinds of other music: blues, Latin jazz, classical, techno, hip-hop. More importantly, I rediscovered what it's like to be a fan: to go to shows for fun, to discover art on one's own terms, to enjoy it for what it is.

At some point, I decided to apply this feeling to metal. I started rediscovering old albums. I started looking for the good in new bands. (This is harder than it sounds. After years of new bands flooding my inbox each day, my filters have become extremely sensitive.) And I saw the metal tree was indeed strong. The roots were healthy. (The Shadow Kingdom label is much to credit. I'm listening right now to Iron Man's latest album; it's a happy reminder that bands can still write songs.) So were the branches. Converge's "Axe to Fall" gives me a charge I haven't felt since Kill 'Em All.

Converge - Axe to Fall

Metal has become so much larger than any of us. You don't have to drink its ocean. You need only learn where to cast your line. Here's to good fishing in 2010.

- - -

1. Converge - Axe to Fall
2. Horseback - The Invisible Mountain
3. Kylesa - Static Tensions
4. Suffocation - Blood Oath
5. Burnt by the Sun - Heart of Darkness
6. Sinister Realm - Sinister Realm
7. Saros - Acrid Plains
8. Revocation - Existence Is Futile
9. Dreaming Dead - Within One
10. Culted - Below the Thunders of the Upper Deep

For my top 10 in haiku, see here (near bottom).

Your favorite metal show this year

Pictured: Lightning Swords of Death Text by Cosmo Lee

What was your favorite metal show this year?

I saw lots of great shows in 2009. Landmine Marathon and Victims laid waste to NYC's Lit Lounge (live reviews here and here). Stinking Lizaveta and Brendon Small were stellar surprises (reviews here and here). I saw Fuck the Facts in two cities in one weekend (review), Unearthly Trance at least twice, and Brutal Truth three times (review). Maryland Deathfest was a rewarding test of endurance (review). (Hopefully I can go to MDF next year. The lineup is insane.) Shrinebuilder and Belphegor (reviews here and here) helped me feel at home in Los Angeles, in a good way. I could go on for a while.

But the show that stands out for me is Valdur and Lightning Swords of Death. They played at The Blvd, a hole-in-the-wall in East LA with a good Mexican place next door that's open late. Half of it is a bar; the other half is a performance space that caters to punk shows. The stage is one step up from the floor, and the feel is bare-bones. It was a perfect setting for a bill that included Japanese spazz-core band Black Ganion and ambient sludge outfit Laudanum. They were enjoyable, but the night belonged to black metal.

Valdur

Perhaps last year's Lightning Swords of Death/Valdur split will be seen someday as a watershed. Both bands have the potential for big things. I talked to Valdur before their set. They had driven five or six hours from their home base of Mammoth Lake. It's a small tourist town in northern California in Yosemite National Park. Evidently, vocalist/guitarist Thor just showed up there one day. He's an actual Norwegian from Norway, so there's a story there I'd like to know. Luckily, he found drummer Sxuperion, the other metal guy in town. The result was one of the best American black metal bands today.

Valdur - Step into the Pentagram

Valdur played first. The only illumination came from a single light attached to the drums, so the band was hard to see, even at close range. But one could certainly hear — and feel — them. Valdur are one of the few black metal bands who aren't afraid of The Riff. The Riff is ideally a bold gesture, punchy and punctuated with space. It's not common amid black metal's tremolo picking and blurred strumming. Valdur are full of big riffs; "Step into the Pentagram," from last year's split with Massemord and The Frost, is a marvel of riffage. (The chromatic figure a minute in is a pumped-up version of the opening riff in Black Flag's "Rise Above.") With such varied percussive (cymbal clutches, blastbeats, rolls) and six-string (low jabs, high kicks) assaults, the set was death by stones, knives, and punches.

Lightning Swords of Death - Damnation Pentastrike

Lightning Swords of Death brought a professional attack that showed why Metal Blade signed them, with upcoming tours alongside Behemoth and Kreator. Their drumming was hard and explosive. The bass playing was also virtuosic; I've never seen a bassist do both two-handed tapping and sweep picking (!). But this was no chops fest. The songs were mean and had hips. Lighting was also scarce for this set, which added atmosphere. With all the darkness, spikes, leather, and bullet belts, evil was palpable in the air. I've seen precious few bands that actually sound evil live, that darken a room and make one feel like one might actually go to hell for hearing them. Koldbrann is one; Slayer is another. That night, Valdur and Lightning Swords of Death joined that unhallowed pantheon.

Metal Mixtape: Best of 2009

by Cosmo Lee

Here are my favorite (mostly) metal songs of 2009. Well, as many as I could fit into an hour, anyway. I heard a truckload of new music this year. It was tough to pare it down for lists. Even assuming that 99% of art is bad, the total amount is so huge now that the other 1% is still overwhelming. I just picked songs that make me excited to hear them. At the end of the day/year/life, that's what this is all about.

DOWNLOAD: Invisible Oranges Best of 2009 [124.84MB .zip]

1. Sinister Realm - Mongol Horde
2. Scale the Summit - The Great Plains
3. Keelhaul - Waiting for the Moon to Speak
4. Necrophobic - Revelation 666
5. Dreaming Dead - Within One
6. Suffocation - Cataclysmic Purification
7. Revocation - Dismantle the Dictator
8. Burnt by the Sun - Inner Station
9. Converge - Axe to Fall
10. Goatwhore - Apocalyptic Havoc
11. Struck by Lightning - Supercell
12. Vader - When the Sun Drowns in Dark
13. Kylesa - Unknown Awareness
14. Doomriders - Lions

King Diamond - "No Presents for Christmas"

At the Sound of the Sleigh Bell by Cosmo Lee

This is the KING of all Christmas songs.

The lyrics are so strange. "Donald Duck is still in bed"???

No Presents for Christmas

Global Metal (film)

Review by Cosmo Lee

I finally got around to seeing Global Metal. It was a pleasant surprise — I'd call it essential — as I found Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, the previous documentary by directors Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, enjoyable but soft. That film was an overview of metal, an over-large task. Because its target audience was the general populace, it was uncritical (with the small exception of a segment on black metal).

With Global Metal, however, Dunn can dig a little deeper and put his anthropology degree to use. That's because he's asking a question that isn't metal-specific: what happens when an artform gets globalized? This documentary could have been about hip-hop, techno, or any other pop music.

Unlike hip-hop or techno, however, and despite its blues influences, metal has decidedly white male roots. Thus, it's a thrill to see so many skin colors here. The filmmakers travel to Brazil, Japan, India, China, Indonesia, and the Middle East. As expected, there's travelogue content: look, white man out of place! But beyond the requisite footage of culture clash, Dunn pursues two substantive lines of inquiry: how does metal get to a non-Western country; and, once it's there, what do the locals do with it?

This footage of Rock in Rio '85 is insane

The answers vary for each locale, but they're all interesting. The Japan segment is particularly eye-opening. One commentator states that, unlike Western fans, Japanese fans don't get into metal to express anger or rebellion. He doesn't answer the question begged of what the draw is, but it's something to chew on. In contrast, another commentator states that Chinese metal fans are totally in it for anger and rebellion. Like with other aspects of life, it's impossible to paint Asia with one brush.

This film's coup is showing that that's true now for metal as well. Having spread far and wide over time, it's gone from being an influence to the thing being influenced. Bruce Dickinson hints at this when he talks about Iron Maiden being the first major international metal act to play in India. He uses the phrase "riding the elephant" to illustrate how much bigger India is than Iron Maiden. That's a reversal of traditional UK-Indian colonial roles.

As one musician in the film points out, this bi-directionality has always been a trait of globalization. Think of the inventions that moved from East to West, like gunpowder, paper, dentistry, and chess. In the film, metallers from oppressed countries credit Internet downloading with allowing them to find out about bands. As I watched the film, I found myself furiously taking notes on bands from those countries. Now the finding out and downloading will go the other way.

Amazon (DVD)

Giveaway: Hellbent for Cooking

Pictured: Black Metal Berry Pie by Sadistik Exekution Text by Cosmo Lee

We're teaming up with Bazillion Points to give away one copy of Annick Giroux' Hellbent for Cooking: The Heavy Metal Cookbook. You want this. You want this because either you like food or you like metal, and preferably you like both. I just got my copy, so I haven't had a chance to try any recipes. (For a review by someone who test drove some, see here.) The 101 recipes, covering everything from appetizers to entrées to desserts to drinks, are by members of heavier-than-thou bands, the list of which is staggering. You can see the list, as well as page closeups and ordering info here.

I must point out that this is probably the most physically beautiful book I've ever seen (and that's counting the paperback edition last decade of Elie Wiesel's Night that had a matte white finish so sensual, it was practically lingerie). Giroux is a graphic designer by trade; she puts her skills to great use in her now-legendary Morbid Tales 'zine. (Parents, don't raise your children to be writers; raise them to be graphic designers so that they will be employable.) Nagawika, who did a sketch of Fenriz for one of our podcasts, liberally sprinkles the book with cute, sardonic illustrations. Finally, publisher Ian Christe ponied up for sturdy, high-quality paper. I'm almost afraid to bring this thing into the kitchen, it's so nice.

For a chance to win, simply email invisibleoranges at gmail dot com by midnight EST, Sunday 12/27, with the subject header "Appetizer for Destruction" and your full name and address. I will choose a winner randomly. International entrants are welcome.

Full book info here

If you were a professional fighter, what would be your entrance song?

Not a big music guy Text by Cosmo Lee

If you were a professional fighter, what would be your entrance song?

I've been watching a lot of UFC lately. Normally I focus on the actual fights, but recently I've been noticing fighters' entrance music more. Almost invariably, it's super-lame. Professional athletes are not known for good taste in music. You don't see them trolling Internet forums to discuss the latest Archgoat split. They've got better things to do. "I honestly am not a big music guy," Dan Henderson said in this USA Today story. "I'm not out there to listen to music. I'm out there to beat somebody up."

Helpfully, mmafighting.com has compiled lists of entrance songs for UFC events. I've done the Google search here. (If links are outdated, click on the "Cached" option.) The lists are good for a laugh. There is a lot of horrible moose rock and nu-metal. The usual clichés ("Eye of the Tiger," "Welcome to the Jungle") abound. In UFC 69, Kurt Pellegrino walked out to MC Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit." If I had been his opponent, I would have laughed my ass off. In UFC 89, Terry Etim walked out to Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight." I don't get it. Just thinking of that song drains my testosterone.

Behemoth - Demigod

A few fighters have decent entrance songs. Andrei Arlovski probably has the best one: Icepick's "Onward to Victory." It has everything one could want in an entrance song: snarling dogs, air raid sirens, and Jamey Jasta yelling the title a lot. Rich Franklin walks out to AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock." You can't go wrong with AC/DC. In UFC 87, Dan Evensen walked out to Manowar's "Gods of War." That's an appropriate use of Manowar. But if he truly wanted to scare his opponent (and probably 98% of the crowd as well) with a martial intro-ed metal song, he should have used Behemoth's "Demigod."

Judas Priest - Painkiller

My first choice for an entrance song would be Judas Priest's "Painkiller." My second choice would be Slayer's "Raining Blood." Both songs are instant testosterone surges for me. They make me want to lift heavy objects and crush my enemies and do extra-large loads of laundry. However, knowing me, I'd run the risk of headbanging and throwing goats/invisible oranges so hard that I'd never make it to the octagon. Sigh. Maybe there is a point to wussy entrance songs: to fill one with so much rage that one can't help but go and whoop ass.

What metal albums get you through tough times?

by Cosmo Lee

Your heater's broke, and you're so tired.

Which metal albums do you reach for?

The strangest records get me through tough times. You'd think that I'd blast Black Flag or Motörhead — classic hard music for hard times. But, no, sometimes wussy music does the job. And sometimes, as you'll see below, sometimes it's just whatever's at hand.

Here are five records that have kept me going.

- - -

Mastodon Leviathan (2004)

I listened to Leviathan a lot in a backpacking trip around Europe that culminated in Morocco. The nautical theme seemed relevant when I crossed over from Spain. Granted, the ferry trip took less than an hour, and was in fact rather comfortable. But I soon felt alone in the most exotic place I'd ever visited. Leviathan feels very American to me. Its twangy tones suggest proggy indie rock gone metal. From reading descriptions of Built to Spill, I imagined that Leviathan was like a metal version of them. (Hearing clips of BtS now, I realize I couldn't have been more wrong.) In any case, it felt like home.

Shadows Fall The War Within (2004)

You're traveling alone, living out of a backpack and a diminishing wad of cash. Your backpack is your wardrobe, library, and often your pillow. You carry one and a half changes of clothes, which you wash by hand and dry on a portable clothesline. You rent a room in Marrakech for $30 a day. It's cold in December. Cats run wild in the streets. The food is strange and makes you sick. You wonder what you are doing there. At night, what do you do? You crank up some anthems and air-guitar your ass off, that's what!

Soilwork Stabbing the Drama (2005)

This record was sort of a spring fling, the right thing at the right time. It got me through my worst ever work experience. I was working in an office under a boss so bad, the turnover rate in one year was 75%. It was a classic situation of trudging to work and dreading each day. I eventually got the hell out. During that time, I listened to this record almost every day. Its melodies were sweet and unchallenging, precisely the opposite of my work experience. It was just what I needed, even though it's a pretty bad record.

Madball Infiltrate the System (2007)

My year in Brooklyn was the worst year of my life. Madball helped me get through it. They're from Queens, and they're hardcore, not metal, but all that didn't matter. They had what counted: cojones. Much of this record reminds me of Vulgar Display of Power, which was as uplifting as Pantera got before they descended into Southern nihilism. "Stand Up NY" is straight-up warrior music. The shout-outs to the boroughs at the end recall old-school hip-hop.

Stand Up NY

Archgoat The Light-Devouring Darkness (2009)

For some time after I got robbed in Brooklyn, my music collection consisted of two albums. Both were by Archgoat. They were what I had on hand. I got to know them well. I haven't listened to them since. They'll be my weekend fling I remember fondly years later.

Pure Testosterone #2: Wolf, Accept, Vader

Wolf photo by Mark Coatsworth Text by Cosmo Lee

Traditional metal has long been a staple of my workouts. The beats are simple, the riffs are strong, and the melodies cut through surrounding noise. It's only a matter of time before I do a proper Manowar workout. Here are three of my current workout favorites.

Wolf - Whisky Psycho Hellions

2006's The Black Flame bored me, so I took my eye off Wolf for a while. Earlier this year, however, I stumbled across the video for "Speed On," from Ravenous (Century Media, 2009). The helium-fueled choruses hooked me. As per usual for Wolf, Ravenous is full of Judas Priest. But it's also full of the small details of smart songwriting. Songs subtlely modulate keys; lithe guitar breaks crackle throughout. At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul works the same way. Its riffs are sturdy, but it's the little things that kill. "Whisky Pyscho Hellions" is ridiculous, from its title to its drunken Chipmunks chorus. But it vaults into the sublime with a bridge in which guitars tangle arms and legs, then join the bass in an ecstatic threesome. From gym to pub to boudoir, this record makes a fine companion.

Accept - Demon's Night
Cannibal Corpse - Demon's Night

Adrien Begrand's Hall of Fame feature on Accept's Restless and Wild in Decibel #61 (Baroness cover, order here) was my favorite HoF in a while. Not only did he elicit from the band members the requisite nerd details (obscure anecdotes, recording minutiae), he also brought out their personalities. They turned out to be humble, mischievous, and innocent about their importance. On the other hand, Cannibal Corpse's Alex Webster waxed passionate in a sidebar about the influence of "Demon's Night" on death metal. Death metal is generally thought of as an extension of thrash, but Webster is right; "Demon's Night" has pockets of dissonance and noise that presage darker times. Cannibal Corpse covered it on the Worm Infested EP, and the cover makes surprising sense. Maybe the singing and growling generations of metal aren't so far removed.

Vader - When the Sun Drowns in Dark

"When the Sun Drowns in Dark" is an example of this. Necropolis (Nuclear Blast, 2009) is in most respects just another Vader album. (That's fine with me.) Like most later Vader albums, it has some filler and a few blinders. "When the Sun Drowns in Dark," however, stands out. Instead of the death metal that preceded it, it's a mid-paced chugger, as if Painkiller-era Priest had growled vocals. Its palm-muted engine is similar to that of Mötley Crüe's "Kickstart My Heart" (see 1:29) and, more recently, Megadeth's "Head Crusher" (the midsection, starting at 2:00). But it's not just gears and pistons. Modulations in the bridge take a series of turns that somehow end up back on the main road, as a graceful solo floats above. Evidently Vader and Wolf have been drinking the same unholy water.

Pure Testosterone #1

Defend the indefensible: Symphonic black metal

by Cosmo Lee

Actually, a black metal "ghastly saga of naval terror and elemental fright" (according to the band's PR) might be interesting. What if Leviathan redid Leviathan? That promo image suggests J. Crew gone black metal. After all, we already have black metal skinny jeans.

Carach Angren - The Carriage Wheel Murder

Symphonic black metal might be the worst kind of metal ever invented. It's even worse than metalcore, deathcore, or goth metal, because I can think of good exceptions for those, but I can't think of any for symphonic black metal. For a hot second, I liked Dimmu Borgir's Death Cult Armageddon for the live orchestra angle. Then I realized that if I wanted to listen to Danny Elfman with huge budgets, I'd rather watch Batman movies. I like orchestras, and I like Elfman, but I don't like keyboard facsimiles of them. In black metal, I want blood and guts, not 1's and 0's.

Is anyone willing to defend symphonic black metal?

Can you tell MP3 bitrates apart?

by Cosmo Lee

Sometimes "not good" is not only good enough, it's preferable. Jonathan Berger, a Stanford music professor, conducted tests in which students listened to the same music in different audio formats. Each year, students increasingly preferred the sound of MP3's. (Story here and here.) He attributed this to familiarity. Older generations prefer the distortion ("warmth") of vinyl; younger generations prefer the distortion ("sizzle") of digital compression.

I won't replicate Berger's study protocol, as I have better things to do than to track down, say, the vinyl, cassette tape, and CD of the same album. But I have set up a related taste test.

Here are MP3's of "Onward into Battle," from Katatonia's latest album. Using LAME encoding at highest quality settings, I ripped them from CD at constant bitrates of 320, 256, 192, and 128kbps. These are the most common MP3 bitrates today. 320 is the highest, 256 is what Amazon uses, and 192 and 128 are common in the lo-fi rips that permeate torrents and donwnload blogs.

Can you tell a difference among these?

Onward into Battle (320)
Onward into Battle (256)
Onward into Battle (192)
Onward into Battle (128)

This test is rough, for several reasons. First, there is considerable debate as to the merits of constant vs. variable bitrates. For the sake of simplicty and uniformity, I chose constant bitrates. Second, "Onward into Battle" is hardly an ideal song for an audio taste test. It's dense, over-produced, and mastered too loudly, resulting in dynamic-less, over-compressed sound. Ideally, I would have used, say, an original pressing major label metal album from the early '80s. But I don't own many CD's now, so I made do with something I felt was varied enough in content to yield varied results. (Lo-fi black metal, for example, sounds lo-fi regardless of bitrate.)

Finally, each person's equipment and ears are different. Much of my stuff is in storage, so right now my setup is low-quality. On $13 headphones, these MP3's basically sound the same. When I had studio-quality nearfield monitors, 192kbps MP3's sounded so bad that my hairs would stand on end. Since most people listen to music now on low-quality iPod headphones, perhaps bitrates above 192 are moot. Wired has a good article on how technology (e.g., MP3's and YouTube) has shifted from "best" to "good enough." I grew up before over-compressed mastering and digital compression, so I won't ever prefer that sound. But for many kids now, that's all they know.

Top 10 Metal One-Album Wonders

Pictured: Blind Illusion by Cosmo Lee

Name metal bands who recorded only one full-length album, which ruled hard. Active bands are ineligible.

Here are 10 to start things off. Go!

Armoured Angel - Angel of the Sixth Order
Blind Illusion - The Sane Asylum
Control Denied - The Fragile Art of Existence
Damn the Machine - Self-Titled [review]
Disincarnate - Dreams of the Carrion Kind [review]
Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death [review]
Nailbomb - Point Blank
Pailhead - Trait [review]
Repulsion - Horrified
Weakling - Dead as Dreams

Heavy metal weddings

Now that metal dating has worked out for you, what's next?

Why, a metal wedding, of course!

Below are three videos of metal at weddings.

- Cosmo Lee

- - -

Jimi and Jenny's Heavy Metal Wedding

"With this ring, I pledge my commitment to you, to metal, and to matrimony."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this takes place in West Virginia. You have to see this one all the way through. The entrance music is Whitesnake, metal references fill the ceremony, the groom wears an Iron Maiden shirt, and the bride wears...I have no idea what she's wearing.

Wedding Mosh Pit

What a wedding DJ! Watch drunken men mosh to Ministry's "Thieves" in a counterclockwise whirl of khaki pants and Blackberries. My favorite part is when the bride bravely steps out on the floor.

Emmure Wedding Dance

As far as I can tell, this is not a joke. A German wedding party gets down to Emmure's "When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong." The lyrics are indeed so wrong. This one truly is the pits.

RIP Mat Arluck (Sweet Cobra)

Photo by Brxan Text by Cosmo Lee

Mat Arluck, guitarist for Sweet Cobra, recently passed away from cancer. He had battled the disease for several years (full story here, tribute site here). People's memories of him have been overwhelmingly positive. Those include mine. I saw Sweet Cobra this year one cold night in Chicago. They engulfed the venue with a sound that warmed the air and filled every nook and cranny. I sat down, closed my eyes, and savored the electric bath. The feeling is still vivid in my consciousness. Thank you, Mat, for that.

Sweet Cobra - Spider Scraper

OMG you like heavy metal

by Cosmo Lee

Invisible Oranges is not a dating advice site, because, you know...heavy metal.

But along comes "bbrian12" above, and suddenly I want to "help a brother out." Well, not really. But his plight (in addition to poor spelling and grammar) illustrates a real-life conundrum.

At what point do you tell a love interest/potential mate/significant other of your metal-ness?

When I meet couples where only one person is a metalhead, I always ask at what point such disclosure occurred. The answers are always different and interesting.

I read all 16 pages of bbrian12's message board thread. (Brain...leaking...slowly...) It comes from a US-wide site that is truly general interest. (A thread started two minutes ago: "We wanna live in Orlando - hear me out...") The unwashed masses weigh in on all sorts of metalhead dating issues, and it's fascinating to observe.

With regards to disclosure timing, "cdubs3201" says:

I am exactly like you and I have this exact same problem. The answer: don't tell them until deeper in the relationship. Say you like a lot of types of music or just say you like rock. You don't have to tell them what type of rock (heavy metal is rock). I just don't bring it up anymore, because it prevented me from getting another date. It's a flag for women, I don't know why, but it is, just don't bring it up.

Poor bbrian12 responds:

very good advice
but...
id rather know now that these people have a problem with my music than after a while when i really like the person.

and if they should ever come to my place they are gonna see my cd collection and be like WTF.

Your thoughts?

Slayer - "Black Magic"

Recently I've been obsessed with old Slayer concert videos. It's fun to trace the evolution of a band over time, using one song as a control (see Sepultura with "Troops of Doom"). With Slayer, it's particularly fun, as they've had so many different looks. Here's "Black Magic" from 1983 to 1986. Even during that short time, the band changed significantly. Dig in — these videos are a blast.

- Cosmo Lee

- - -

Los Angeles, 1983

"Ladies and gentlemen, to open our show this evening, please welcome...Slayer!"

Not something you'll ever hear again.

When Slayer played The Woodstock in March 1983, they were still unsigned. (Brian Slagel would see them here five months later and sign them to Metal Blade.) That's obvious from this video. Attendance is sparse, and no one is moving. But the band is — note the synchronized guitar waving. Imagine walking into this show. "Who's this?" "I think they're called Slayer." "Never heard of 'em."

Reseda, 1984

Obviously, getting signed helped the band. The crowd is very up for it. Check out Jeff Hanneman banging Kerry King's head during the intro. They don't act so brotherly now. Note the cool inverted cross light show and the monster stage dive at 2:27. Another fun video from '84 is the Hollywood one, which features Tom Araya wearing a spiked armband and Kerry King striking lithe spread-leg stances.

Holland, 1985

The band is on fire at this point. King still wears the porcupine on his left wrist. Hanneman has swapped his early Les Paul for what looks like a BC Rich. Even from a distance, his pick hand posture is unmistakable. Hanneman, Kirk Hammett, Marty Friedman — you can tell it's them just by the way they hold their picks.

San Francisco, 1986

This video is great for its stage banter. Tom Araya is trying to get the crowd worked up — imagine that nowadays. "Shit, man, I don't want to think I'm working my butt off here for nuthin', am I?" The synchronized guitar waving is out, though Hanneman hasn't worked it out of his system yet. Note how hair-ful the crowd (and Kerry King, who has left the porcupine at home) is. I wonder what year "angry, shirtless guy with a buzzcut" started showing up at Slayer shows.

Metal dreams #2: Animosity

Photo by BubaSmith Text by Cosmo Lee

Last night I dreamt that Leo from Animosity chainsawed to death an entire summer camp, except for me. He took the blade to, like, 60 people in 60 seconds. It was much cleaner than one would expect. In fact, there was no blood. It was like a paper cut, the kind where you look down and find a V-shaped divot in your finger, and you wonder how it got there. Except instead of fingers, these were necks, and the divots were rather large.

I'm a little hazy as to details and motivations, but I think Leo spared me because we were in cahoots. Or at least some implied endorsement was involved. Why else would I watch someone slice open 60 people in 60 seconds, and not lift a finger?

Anyway, something must have changed, because the scene switched to New York City, and I was hunting Leo. Hunting a guy who chainsawed 60 people to death in 60 seconds probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. Then again, I've never been that bright. I eventually tracked him down in a bookstore. He was in the magazine section. For some reason, there was a big knife display behind it. (This must have been '80s New York.) I and some girl broke the glass, busted out some knives, and turned Leo into a pincushion. The end.

Do you dream of metal?

Metal dreams #1

Your black metal album of the decade

by Cosmo Lee

The readers of this site have voted Deathspell Omega's Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice (Norma Evangelium Diaboli, 2004) the black metal album of the decade. I prefer the more fully-formed Kénôse, but the sound of a band finding itself can be thrilling.

Odium Nostrum

Such was the case with SMRC, which along with Funeral Mist's Salvation, helped usher in "orthodox black metal," the most significant advance in black metal this decade. Instead of the genre's previous semantic soup (praise Satan/Odin/forests/the end of humanity), orthodox black metal appropriated Christian discourse to address Satan. On the plus side, calling Satan "Him" and turning church choirs into black masses felt subversive and scary. On the minus side, verbose Latinate language flooded album and song titles. "Pretentious as hell" took on new meaning.

Musically, SMRC was a major leap beyond black metal's usual minor chord moved up and down. Keening dissonance raked the high end, adding elegance to previously primal settings. Even sludge bands today like Lord Mantis and Coffinworm draw from DsO's legacy to color their higher registers.

Despite the completeness of this package (theology with artwork and music to match), Deathspell Omega helped out their cause by literally taking themselves out of the picture. By shunning live appearances and promotional presentations, they helped move black metal beyond corpsepaint and church burning. No longer did the genre rely on shock value; it demanded to be taken seriously as high art.

eBay
The End
Interview
Hells Headbangers

The metal albums of the decade: A consensus?

by Cosmo Lee

Here are the top vote-getters among readers of this site for metal albums of the decade (poll here; there were ties at #4 and #5):

1. Mastodon - Leviathan
2. Converge - Jane Doe
3. Isis - Oceanic
4. Opeth - Blackwater Park
4. Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless
5. High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings
5. Strapping Young Lad - Alien
5. Gojira - From Mars to Sirius

Compare this to Metalsucks' poll earlier this year of 57 industry professionals for metal albums of the decade:

1. Mastodon - Leviathan
2. Lamb of God - As the Palaces Burn
3. Opeth - Blackwater Park
4. Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing
5. Converge - Jane Doe

See also Decibel's Top 100 Metal Albums of the Decade (which came from a poll of its 30+ writers), in which Leviathan placed highly and Jane Doe, Oceanic, and Blackwater Park placed very highly.

There is little overlap among the readers of this site, Metalsucks' panel, and Decibel's writers. Yet their voting is coalescing with similar patterns. This is extremely surprising to me, as I surmised last week that the explosion of releases this decade would make reaching consensus difficult, if not impossible.

But evidently there is a consensus:

The metal albums of the decade are Leviathan, Jane Doe, Oceanic, and Blackwater Park.

Interestingly, all of these albums/artists represent departures from metal. Mastodon is/was headed towards prog rock, Converge are hardcore punk with metallic elements, Isis get less and less metal with each release, and Opeth are most interesting when they play prog rock, not metal.

Your thoughts?

3 Inches of Blood - Here Waits Thy Doom

by Cosmo Lee

It's hard to believe that 3 Inches of Blood ever got tagged as "metalcore." Minus vocals, they've always played traditional metal. The "metalcore" tag came from the fact that one of their two vocalists screamed. Also, perhaps people confused their Iron Maiden-inspired guitar harmonies with those of metalcore, which ripped off Swedish melodic death metal — which ripped off Iron Maiden.

Call of the Hammer

Now the screaming guy is gone, and there's absolutely no doubt: 3 Inches of Blood are heavy metal, the kind that aficionados capitalize, with zero crossover appeal. The New York Times once described the art-metal set (Pelican, Sunn O))), etc.) as "not your older brother's metal crowd." Well, this is your older brother's metal crowd. It's denim, patches, beer, shredding. There are a few reasons why this kind of metal has not only survived, but is also experiencing a resurgence. It has no shtick; it requires no outsider approval; it thrives on its own terms.

This album is proof. Now that Cam Pipes' falsetto has no competition, his bandmates are free to surround him with suitable riffs. The soul of Here Waits Thy Doom (Century Media, 2009) lies in the late '70s and early '80s. Think Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest, and their glass-shattering singers. "Preacher's Daughter" glows with Hammond organ and hearty choruses. "Call of the Hammer" gallops with the verve of classic Metallica. Jack Endino dials up a gorgeously dry, natural production. It's woody in every sense of the word. This record is an oaken slab with spikes of pure metal. It'll last a while.

eMusic (MP3)
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
Relapse (CD, LP)
CM Distro (CD, LP)

Your Top 3 Metal Albums of the Decade

Pictured: Year of No Light by Cosmo Lee

Some readers have asked what my votes were for Decibel's top 100 metal albums of the decade list. I don't know why that matters to anyone, but I'll indulge them. I'll name my top four, as they came to mind immediately. That's a good test, I think, for list-making. If you have to think hard on it, it's not a top choice for you.

These four were so far ahead of everything else on my list that I had to consult it to remember what was #5. My criteria for voting was "favorite," not "most important" or "best." Those standards often compare apples against oranges, but "favorite" has a consistent yardstick: oneself.

My four choices are extremely personal to me. They are not generally iconic — only one of them made Decibel's list — though they are iconic to me. In terms of my tastes and personal development, they are my metal beacons of this decade. In alphabetical order, they are:

Hate Eternal - I, Monarch
Ludicra - Fex Urbis Lex Orbis
Premonitions of War - Left in Kowloon
Year of No Light - Nord

It's only fair to ask what your favorite metal records of this decade (2000-2009) were. Let's limit them to your top three. With the explosion of releases this decade, I'll be surprised to see any overlap.

Nocturnal Fear - Metal of Honor

by Cosmo Lee

Nocturnal Fear are the most accurate update of old-school German thrash I've ever heard. They are as if Pleasure to Kill-era Kreator could play like today's Kreator. But Nocturnal Fear don't have the click-tracked monotony of modern bands. Songs speed up and slow down in old-school fashion, and have that German explosiveness: gritty crash, cut away to one guitar, then off to the races. Riffs rain down from often stupendous angles. The picking technique is unreal.

Death Before Dishonor

But it's a means, not an end. Nocturnal Fear know how to write long songs with tons of riffs. I once read a book by Jaroslav Hašek called The Good Soldier Švejk. Its interminable length and black humor reflected its subject matter, war. Nocturnal Fear's songs aren't interminable, but they're grueling. They're five-minute firefights of beltfed ammo. The Sodom-esque cover of Metal of Honor (Moribund, 2009) is apt. Slayer used to own this "smoke rising from rubble" vibe. Now, appropriately, it belongs to a band from Detroit.

Amazon (MP3)
Amazon (CD)
The End (CD)
Relapse (CD)
Moribund (CD)

Decibel's Top 100 Albums of the Decade

by Cosmo Lee

Decibel's "The Top 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade" may be the best $5.99 you'll ever spend. I don't say that because I write for Decibel, or because I agree with the list. In fact, I disagree with most of it. At least 15% of the list isn't metal, and only one record in the top 10 would I put there myself.

But that's the beauty of it. Lists are meant to cause disagreement. If everyone's list were the same, the world would be intensely boring. Ask 30+ people to pick 100 (actually, we each voted for 40) out of the 36,248 albums (more if we count not-metal, ahem) that came out this decade, and it's a miracle there's any overlap.

There was, though, and it's fun to observe. The list has a spread of blue-chip dinosaurs and forward-thinking hybrids. The latter are the story of the '00s. This was the decade of -core. Mathcore infiltrated metal (Converge & co.), as did straight-up hardcore (Hatebreed & co.). So-called metalcore eventually morphed into deathcore. Even the post-metal trend (Isis & co.) had roots in hardcore; Neurosis started out as a hardcore band.

Little of this stuff is actually like hardcore. True hardcore is Black Flag and NYHC (pre-metal) and Bridge Nine and so on: punk with a capital P. That scene is probably dealing with similar hybridization. (See the fuss in the '90s when hardcore bands got "too metal.") It's weird to see Kreator mentioned on Lambgoat. But that's what happens when scenes evolve on the Internet instead of in real life. Behind your screen, no one can tell if you have long or short hair. You're free to like what you like.

That's evident in the Top 100 list. There's hipster stuff, tr00 stuff, and stuff that's WTF. It's all over the map, and it'll drive purists crazy. Hell, it drives me crazy. I cannot believe what some of my colleagues voted for. But they write well about it, and that matters more. It's fun to write about bad music, but it's even more fun to write about good music. This list is proof of that.

Order it here

10,000 metal releases came out this year

Click to enlarge by Cosmo Lee

Metal-archives.com, metal's great database, has interesting search capabilities. I did searches for the total number of metal releases, full-lengths, and demos per year for the past 30 years. "Releases" constitute all media formats: full-lengths, demos, box sets, DVD's, and so on. Above are the results as a graph (click to enlarge).

Notice that from 2001 to 2006, the total number of releases rose more much quickly than before. The number of demos roughly rose in proportion, while the number of albums rose, but not as steeply. I would guess that this is due to the increasing affordability and availability of home-based digital recording.

Here is the data in table format:

First, note that 2009's numbers are much lower than those of previous years. I would guess that this is because Metal-archives' users are still inputting the year's data, which will likely take a year or two to settle down after peer review. (The site is sort of a wiki.)

Second, note that the number of demos peaked in 2005 and has decreased each year since. I would guess that digital recording is allowing musicians to "convert" demos into full-lengths. Since hard drive space is trivially cheap now, the only real cost of home recording is time. Instead of making a three-song demo, why not make a 10-song album?

Finally, note the general increase in numbers over the past 30 years. It is absurd. In 1986, what I consider metal's best year ever — see what came out then — 458 full-lengths came out. It would have been possible for someone to hear all of them, at a rate of 38 per month. Last year, over 10 times as many full-lengths came out. One would have had to listen to over 400 albums per month to hear everything.

Such multiplicity means that consensus is likely impossible to reach nowadays. Year-end lists show much less overlap because people have many more choices. This comports with Chris Anderson's The Long Tail, a book I highly recommend. He explains how aggregators like Amazon make it possible for people to indulge their individual tastes more than ever before. In the past, people had limited, overlapping access to information — the same few TV channels, record stores, and so on. Now technology has blasted everything wide open. The only year-end list that matters now is yours.

Upcoming metal releases: December 2009

Pictured: Onset of Serious Problems Text by Cosmo Lee

Here is the list for December's metal releases.

The end of the year is a wasteland for releases, though I look forward to debuts by Impetuous Ritual and Abraxas. Impetuous Ritual has connections to Portal and promises similar sickness. Abraxas is the new band of guitarist Makoto Mizoguchi (ex-Pyrexia and Internal Suffering, sometimes live bassist for Hate Eternal) and Monstrosity vocalist Mike Hrubovcak. They play straight-up, unapologetic brutal death metal. You can hear tracks from their upcoming EP here.

I've also filled out the releases list for the entire year. This damn near killed me. About 37 or so hours into this task, I realized that a complete list of this year's releases would not only be impossible but also undesirable. Too much noise obscures the signal. So I've tried to capture the essentials, plus some trimmings. Most of the major releases should be there, but if anything is missing (and necessary) or incorrect, let me know in the comments box.

Hopefully this list will be handy in seeing what you've missed this year. I know I have a lot of catching up to do. I still haven't heard the God Forbid, Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, and Paradise Lost records. Higher priorities for me include Urfaust, The Ordher, and the Drawn and Quartered DVD. I also stumbled across a Megadeth EP of electronic remixes that might be so bad it's good.

Finally, I discovered an Indonesian grindcore band with the best name ever: Onset of Serious Problems. Ain't that the truth. I should never have attempted this list in the first place.

Black Metal Symposium

by Cosmo Lee

Hideous Gnosis, a "Black Metal Theory Symposium," will take place on December 12 at Brooklyn's Public Assembly. (Details are here.) It looks to be a presentation of papers, along with moderated discussion. The presenters include Nicola Masciandaro, a university English professor; Brandon Stosuy, whose writing portfolio includes Pitchfork, Stereogum, and The Believer; and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, guitarist/vocalist for Liturgy.

What it is about black metal that attracts academics? You don't see people writing treatises like "Anti-Cosmosis: Black Mahapralaya" or "'Remain true to the earth!': Remarks on the Politics of Black Metal" on thrash or doom. I get wary when academia crosses with metal. Deena Weinstein and Keith Kahn-Harris have done good sociological work on metal, but I have little inclination to explore further. When brainy people take metal seriously, that helps justify it to the non-metal world, which is nice but not necessary. Louis Armstrong comes to mind: "If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know." So does Bruce Lee: "Don't think! Feeel!"

Scott Wilson, one of the presenters, says in this blog post:

Black metal and academic discourse are no doubt heterogeneous and cannot be conjoined, but in bringing one into proximity with the other it is, I believe, our expectation that this clash should result less in the academic illumination of black metal than in the blackening of discourse itself wherein the forces of black metal restore some of the powers and dangers of discourse which the procedures of academic institutions seek to ward off and master by controlling and delimiting them.

Black metal in 2009 is a curious source of "power" and "danger." 15 or so years after its prime, those elements have faded. In terms of danger to anything, black metal is pretty low on the list now.

Gaza - He Is Never Coming Back

by Cosmo Lee

Gaza's new album illustrates the potential gulf between live and recorded music. Live, Gaza have a fearsome reputation. Their legendary set at Dude Fest this year involved people stage-diving into a moshpit onstage. I'm not sure what that has to do with music, but it's useful for myth-making.

Windowless House

For me, Gaza's myth began with 2006's I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die. True to its title, it sounded like someone gutting himself in front of you. Guitars and vocals stood in for rusty blades. In today's generation of bands fusing everything -core (mathcore, grindcore, hardcore) with sludge, noise, and whatever else is on the iPod — see Trap Them, Ed Gein, and Premonitions of War, to name a few — Gaza are perhaps the most "extreme."

He Is Never Coming Back (Blackmarket Activities/Metal Blade, 2009) dims their ragged energy. The sound isn't clean, but it's cleaner now. The mastering is over-compressed, which rounds off the jaggedness that made I Don't Care hazardous. Now the band just sounds loud. It's also more given to shuddering doom, which gets exhausting over 51 minutes. I've listened to this record many times, and I still can't prise songs out of it. Some riffs jump out — the big-bearded opening theme, the loopy pull-offs of "Windowless House." Otherwise, it's constant force-feeding, with pretty chords for breathers. What's the point of a record if "you have to see the band live"?

Buy:
Gaza (CD)
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
Relapse (CD)
Metal Blade (CD)

Top 10 Metal Box Sets 2009

Floor - Below & Beyond Click to enlarge

At one point in my life, I was a box set person. I had box sets of James Brown, The Police, and Motown. They were just CD sets with extended liner notes, but they were immensely fulfilling. Now music box sets come in all sorts of packaging at all sorts of price points. For various reasons, I stopped being a packaging person, so box sets hold no appeal for me now. But the rest of the world must think otherwise. Why else would holiday seasons bring deluge after deluge of environment-destroying box sets? Here are 10 metal ones for this year, in order of increasing price (and absurdity).

- Cosmo Lee

- - -

Various Artists - Grind Madness at the BBC
$14
This one is not absurd. It is affordable and awesome: a 3-CD box set of the BBC Peel Sessions from Napalm Death, Carcass, Bolt Thrower, Extreme Noise Terror, Godflesh, Heresy, Unseen Terror, and Intense Degree. Three hours, 38 minutes, and 30 seconds of face-peeling (mostly) grind. Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris contributes liner notes. Get it from Earache US, Earache EU, or Amazon.

Nihilist - Carnal Leftovers
€29,99
All the studio recordings, officially released on vinyl for the first time. Five 7"s, booklet with intensive liner notes, photos, etc. Each 7" has its own separate artwork. Red vinyl limited to 500 copies, black vinyl limited to 700 copies. Available from Nuclear Blast DE.

Belphegor - Walpurgis Rites (Mailorder Edition)
€49,99
Nuclear Blast has been manufacturing rather ridiculous "mailorder editions" of its releases. For example, the Korpiklaani one includes four liquor jugs, and the Legion of Damned one includes a cheese slicer. The Belphegor one takes the cake by including a stick grenade, which is presumably non-functional. Get it here.

Metallica - Francais Pour Une Nuit (Collector's Edition)
$89.99
This is Metallica's new live DVD, packaged in a round box that includes five photo prints, a t-shirt, a lanyard, a laminated show pass, and a CD of Death Magnetic. For a picture and ordering information, go here.

Sentenced - The Coffin (Box Set)
$124.50/€79,99
Sentenced's entire discography in a coffin-shaped box. It includes 16 CD's, 2 DVD's, and a 100-page booklet. For US orders, go here. For EU orders, go here. The EU site has a picture of the contents.

Immortal box set Click to enlarge

Immortal - All Shall Fall (Mailorder Edition)
€89,99
This package includes a digipak of All Shall Fall, the album on four picture disc 7"s, a poster flag, a patch, and a button. It seems like listening to an album over four 7"s would get annoying quickly. If you wouldn't mind, order this box set here.

AC/DC - Backtracks
$199
OK, not metal, but definitely of interest to metalheads. This box set comes in a working guitar amp! Inside are three CD's, two DVD's, one LP, a 164-page hardcover book, and various tchotchkes. For pictures, videos, and ordering information, go here.

Enslaved - Wooden Box Set
€160,00
This box set comes from Viva Hate, who also put out the infamous Opeth and Immortal wooden box sets. Enslaved's includes 6 LP's on 180g vinyl, a demo tape, a belt buckle, and a cadet cap. It looks like white vinyl is sold out, but green and black vinyl versions are still available. For details, go here; for ordering, go here.

Floor - Below & Beyond
$249.99
We have entered the land of the absurd. Robotic Empire's box set for Floor includes 10 12"s (each with a different color of vinyl), a 7", eight CD's, and a 32-page booklet in a cloth-bound box. (The box set is pictured up top.) Pre-orders will also get a limited-edition t-shirt. 275 copies will be available to the public. Ordering information is here. I have no idea why in this recession economy a record label chose to manufacture and sell this monstrosity.

Rammstein - Liebe ist für alle da (Deluxe Version)
$250
In comparison, Rammstein's box set is almost tame. It's a flight case containing the CD, six dildos, handcuffs, and lubricant. Yawn. I can't imagine anyone ordering this. If anyone does, I don't ever want to meet him/her/it. Photos and ordering information are here.

Cry for the Indians

It's Thanksgiving, so here's Anthrax in better days, with "Indians." Give thanks for thrash. Give thanks for Scott Ian's picking hand. Here's to the best mosh part ever. WARDANCE!!!!!!

Debemur Morti: Take Five

If you know black metal, you probably know Debemur Morti. The French label, along with its distro Eitrin Editions, has been a bastion of quality, with bands including Horna, Archgoat, Spektr, and Old Wainds. It also handles European distribution for many Moribund releases. Debemur Morti recently put out five records which amount to an embarrassment of riches. I like them all. They have formed the majority of my black metal listening over the past few months. Below I will discuss each one briefly. I will not provide audio samples, as the label has set up web pages that stream each record in its entirety.

- Cosmo Lee

- - -

Ruins (Aus) - Front the Final Foes
Stream: Here | Buy: Amazon, Relapse
Ruins are rough and tough, with over-compressed production working in their favor. Thankfully, the sound isn't slick. At times the guitars assemble spectacular sheets of sound. The punchy drums are punishing. If you turned Tom G. Warrior's "Ooh!" into an album, it might sound like this. The jackbooted vibe recalls Hiems' latest record, but with less complexity and more malevolence.

Tenebrae in Perpetuum - L'Eterno Maligno Silenzio
Stream: Here | Buy: Amazon, Relapse
Never mind the iPhone photo-quality artwork; Tenebrae in Perpetuum are Magnum-caliber black metal. Their singer is delightfully crazed. They epitomize what I love most about black metal, the harmonic inventiveness. A minor chord is never just a minor chord; it modulates all over the place and arpeggiates upwards and downwards until guitar picks melt down. With all its tremolo picking, black metal is sort of a wayward descendant of Dick Dale.

Vetus Obscurum - Blood Revelations
Stream : Here | Buy: Amazon, Relapse
Vetus Obscurum is a project of Numinas, drummer of Drawn and Quartered. He is also the mastermind of Krohm, a one-man black metal band on Debemur Morti. (I reviewed Krohm here and here.) Vetus Obscurum is more robust-sounding than Krohm, though it's still plenty dark. Vocals come from Herb Burke of Drawn and Quartered and Nihilist of In Memorium. Numinas is underrated as a drummer and guitarist; both aspects shine here. The harmonies are rich, and the melodies are dramatic. Vetus Obscurum could be a crackin' band if Numinas so desired.

Way to End - Desecrated Internal Journey
Stream: Here | Buy: Amazon, Relapse
Way to End are a French outfit making a strange and satisfying debut. It reminds me of Ephel Duath's black metal side. Images come to mind of creeping through labyrinthine Venice at night. If 20th century serial composers made black metal, this might have resulted. Skewed tonalities abound. Just when they threaten to collapse sideways, along come gorgeous acoustic guitars. The elegance and artistry have an ineffable Old World feel.

VI - De Praestigiis Daemonum
Stream: Here | Buy: Amazon, Relapse
The French strike again. At the time of this recording, VI were a duo with connections to many other bands (most notably Aosoth), plus a drum machine. Now they have a drummer with the apt name Blastum. I didn't even notice the drum machine at first. The programming is skillful, and the deliberately lo-fi production obscures it. I would never expect to like a lo-fi drum machine record, but this one is special. It's crunchy as hell, with wave after wave of gritty guitars. The layers fuse into a free-flowing feeling that's both dirty and holy. The French are great at that.

- - -

The first four records are available in a package deal here.

Live review: Belphegor, Vreid

Belphegor

"Los Angeles, are you ready for the devillll?"

I laugh. But not at Helmuth. Belphegor's vocalist/guitarist is dead serious. All the stage lights are red. It's dark, and it's hot. Others are smiling, too. Eyes glint. It's time for revenge. Payback for the hours burned to get to this point. James Brown saw red and made it a party: "That's it! Payback! Revenge!"

Backtrack a few long, long hours. Some opening bands not worth mentioning. A bill almost not worth mentioning. "Heathenfest," a collection of bands bent on shoehorning Trinklieder into metal. It's hours of polkas and bad costumes: a Finnish singer as a German beer girl, a crowdsurfer in a bear costume, keytar-wielding pirates. People wear eye patches and host beer steins. It's a fustercluck of nationalism. See Casablanca:

Major Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick: I'm a drunkard.
Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

Vreid kill the buzz in a big way. Who knows how they got on the bill, but if Norwegians killing Nazis is "heathen," so be it. They are frustrated at first. Their amps sound like transistor radios, thanks to clueless soundmen. Vocals take some time to emerge. Eventually, the sound falls into place. Unlike what came before, it has national backbone. Songs hiss forth about the Norwegian WWII resistance, and staying true to it. It's not hard to hear them as being true to metal. Fists rise and sweat drips.

Vreid - Disciplined

Belphegor offer the night's other succor. They have the best timing I've ever heard from a band. It takes them just a few minutes to set up. The room turns red, and they're off. They are as if shot from cannons. Riffs and blastbeats rain down hard and fast. Every so often, Helmuth picks out a solo. He's economical. His fingers move twice, and four notes ensue. He hands a bottle of (hopefully) fake blood into the crowd. Of course, it goes airborne; some of it splashes on me. Horns fly, cameras snap, and it's go, go, go. Between songs, Helmuth makes sure that we're ready for metal, the devil, and so on. His English isn't great, so he keeps things brief. This is a hurry-up offense, and we're in the red zone. It's over too soon. Sluicing for gold in hours of silt: at least tonight paid off.

Belphegor - The Crosses Made of Bone

- Cosmo Lee

Buy:
Vreid
Belphegor

Infernal Stronghold - Godless Noise

I'm so excited about Infernal Stronghold, you don't even know. Maybe you'll know a little after you read this, but you won't know completely. You won't know how stuck they've remained on my iPod when it's otherwise a sieve for bands. You won't know how great it is for drowning out my roommate's voice. I put it on, and wood and shrapnel fill my ears. My mind never fails to reel. Each time I think, this is sooo good. How can a bunch of kids — supposedly none are older than 21 — be so good? They sound like the unholy offspring of Repulsion and Mayhem. "I swallow your faith and regurgitate distortion." That needs to be huge letters on the back of a t-shirt. This — 26 minutes of face-melting, feed-backing, fick-stucking filth — needs to be huge, period. Infernal Stronghold want to kill you, your god, and your godforsaken world. Now show them some love.

Crashing Trucks into Churches

- Cosmo Lee

Buy:
KVN (CD)
The End (LP)
CM Distro (CD)
Relapse (CD, LP)
Forcefield (CD, LP)
Infernal Stronghold (CD)

You can stream this record in full here.

Jerry Bruckheimer metal #1: Epica, Forest Stream, Katatonia

Pictured: L.A. Guns

Despite its title, this new column isn't a complete dis. Yes, "Jerry Bruckheimer metal" is slick and over-produced. I dislike the vast majority of it. But I like a little of it. Bad Boys II comes to mind. It's the most over-the-top movie I've ever seen. Actually, it's not a movie so much as a collection of bad jokes plus some awesome action scenes. I didn't mind it. I wouldn't want to make it, nor this column, a regular practice. But sometimes it's productive to discuss excess — and sometimes it's just a guilty pleasure.

Epica - Resign to Surrender (A New Age Dawns - Part IV)

Epica are not a guilty pleasure for me. You sadists voted for them to be reviewed, so here I am, suffering through Design Your Universe (Nuclear Blast, 2009). It wasn't what I expected. I was expecting a goth metal prom dress-fest. Instead, this is symphonic melodic death/prog metal with touches of goth metal. In other words, it's much, much worse. I have to hand it to the band for having amazing technical skills. The keyboards approximate a symphony orchestra, the choirs are impressively grand, the performances are tight and shredding, and the Barbie Doll singer hits her notes. But everything is loud and dramatic, which means that nothing is loud and dramatic. I call this "Carmina Burana metal." It's like if Dethklok weren't a joke.

Forest Stream - Mired (excerpt)

As I grow older and more crotchety, I get more militant about my "no keyboards" rule for metal. Yet a few bands slip through, like Chaos Moon and Dark Tranquillity. In those bands, keyboards stand for themselves, rather than substituting for something (like strings, most typically). They complement guitars instead of fighting with them. That's the case with Russia's Forest Stream. Keyboards, in fact, are so dominant that guitars take a back seat. They crunch out chord progressions and lay down some leads, but that's about it — not much riffing here. To my surprise, I don't mind. The keyboards are ethereal, majestic, and "take me to another place." Normally I want guitars dry and upfront, but sometimes it's nice for music to spur my imagination. The Crown of Winter (Candlelight, 2009) evokes icicles and blue hues. I call this "fantasy fiction metal." It's pagan-ish black metal with Scandinavian melodic tendencies, and it's lovely.

Katatonia - The Longest Year

I hate to call Katatonia Jerry Bruckheimer metal, but they brought it upon themselves by hiring David Castillo as co-producer. Castillo did the pretty remix of "My Twin" from Katatonia's last album. Accordingly, Night Is the New Day (Peaceville, 2009) has a fair bit of electronics. By now, Katatonia have settled into their one song, which has subdued verses with throbbing bass lines and big, distorted choruses: ye olde quiet-loud formula. Now pulsing synths often accompany the verses. They work, but I can't help thinking of the video for Sting's "Desert Rose." It's smugly sleek and upscale. I call this "G-Star metal." Katatonia don't reference class, but now they sound expensive, and I tend not to like expensive things. I also tend not to like "radio modern rock," which is what Katatonia have become. (3 Doors Down's "Citizen Soldier" could, with a few tweaks, be a Katatonia song.) What saves Katatonia here is their gift for atmosphere and Jonas Renkse's disgustingly knee-weakening cooings. This album is over-produced, over-compressed, and a little monotonous, but I still like the one thing it does.

- Cosmo Lee

Buy:
Epica
Forest Stream
Katatonia

Nuclear Assault - Handle with Care

Nuclear Assault's Handle with Care turns 20 today, according to metal-archives.com. Back in the day, I would stare longingly at its longbox in record stores. I never pulled the trigger, though. Metallica and Megadeth were higher priorities. However, I now have a strange predilection for '80s thrash sung by air raid sirens like Steve "Zetro" Souza and Katon De Pena. John Connelly is part of this "pantheon," though even I can't handle his voice for long periods of time.

Still, it's a bracing artifact from another era. No band embodied the '80s thrash stereotype of Ed Repka artwork and nuclear holocaust lyrics more than Nuclear Assault. Their video for "Critical Mass" is amusingly literal, from printing the lyrics at the bottom of the frame to inserting pictures of oil spills and dying forests right when the lyrics mention those things. To add to the '80s-ness, Riki Rachtman introduces this video on the original Headbangers Ball, and Jessica Hahn makes a non sequitur appearance.

Both videos Nuclear Assault made for Handle with Care passed by me at the time. If I had seen either one, I probably would have bought that longbox. "Trail of Tears" (unsurprisingly, MTV misspells the title) is classic '80s metal video material, from the fade edits to the theme of the oppressed young metalhead. (See Megadeth's "Peace Sells" or any number of MTV videos about kids rebelling against parents. Metal was adolescent and more vulnerable then. Now metal is grown up and its videos have more swagger.) Thematically and geographically (dead-end lives in bombed-out New York), this video recalls the ones Skid Row made for their first album ("18 and Life," "Youth Gone Wild," "I Remember You,"), which came out the same year. Of course, the music is different, but the line between glam and real metal in the '80s was finer than most poser-killers would admit.

- Cosmo Lee

King Diamond reissues: The Spider's Lullabye, The Graveyard, Voodoo, House of God

Image by red5standingby

King Diamond has had a big year. Mercyful Fate and King Diamond placed songs in Guitar Hero and Brütal Legend, respectively. A picture disc single emerged from the former. C1rca made shoes of both bands. DVD's from both bands are in the works. Finally, Metal Blade reissued four albums from King Diamond's middle period: The Spider's Lullabye (1995), The Graveyard (1996), Voodoo (1998), and House of God (2000). King Diamond guitarist Andy LaRocque remastered these records, with great results. Their improved sound warrants a second look at them — which we've done below.

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The Spider's Lullabye (1995)

King's long discography can be confusing, so here's a quick summary. Mercyful Fate release Melissa and Don't Break the Oath in 1983 and 1984, respectively. They break up in 1985. King forms a solo band, retaining two former Mercyful Fate members. From 1986 to 1990, King Diamond puts out a record per year. Mercyful Fate reform in 1992, which greatly increases King's productivity. He starts alternating between Mercyful Fate and King Diamond releases; together the bands release nine albums between 1993 and 2000. Mercyful Fate then goes quiet, and King Diamond puts out three more solo albums, the last one in 2007.

Six Feet Under (from The Spider's Lullabye)

The Spider's Lullabye is the first King Diamond record in the 1993-2000 phase. By this point, the Mercyful Fate members have left the band, so it no longer sounds like a continuation of Mercyful Fate. Its lineup is King Diamond, Andy LaRocque, and three guys who need not be named. In his solo band, King Diamond's guitar foil is LaRocque. In Mercyful Fate, it's Hank Shermann. (Aside from King, LaRoque and Shermann are the only constants in their respective bands.) LaRocque's playing is modern and technical, while Shermann's is more rooted in classic metal, though their styles sometimes overlap. The other big difference between King Diamond's solo band and Mercyful Fate is the horror-oriented storytelling of the former, as opposed to the Satanic themes of the latter.

Ironically, The Spider's Lullabye bucks these trends. In contrast to the complexity of its predecessors, it's relatively straightforward and aggressive. It's also the only King Diamond record aside from Fatal Portrait not to be a full-blown concept album. The last four songs do form a story, though it's pretty lame. An arachnophobe named Harry visits a doctor for his phobia. The doctor's nurse scares Harry to death with a spider. The end. Well, it's more colorful than that, but not by much. LaRocque is the reason to listen to this record. He packs it with NWOBHM/speed metal riffing and ripping leads. King obliges with catchy choruses and a powerhouse vocal performance. Most King Diamond records demand close reading for their complicated storytelling. This one is for rocking out.

The Graveyard (1996)

The Graveyard is probably King Diamond's least-loved record aside from Give Me Your Soul...Please. The production is ragged, the artwork is weak, and the drumming is rudimentary. But LaRocque's remastering gives the material new life. There are some great songs here. The story involves an insane asylum escapee and a mayor who molests his own child. It's B-movie fare, but King Diamond makes it come alive. He imbues multiple characters with multiple voices and singlehandedly gives the story atmosphere. King puts us inside the "Black Hill Sanitarium"; we practically feel the narrator's fists pounding on walls, trying to escape. It's a vocal tour de force. Abigail is the only King Diamond story with real legs, but even these lesser ones are pleasures. This record is for diehards — but King Diamond fans are all diehards. With King Diamond, there is no in between.

Black Hill Sanitarium (from The Graveyard)

- Cosmo Lee

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Voodoo (1998)

King Diamond has adopted the image of voodoo loa Baron Samedi — black hat, corpse paint, nasal voice — so the subject of this album is fitting. Voodoo borrows heavily from the plot of Abigail. But instead of driving across the countryside, it oozes through the swamp, the title becoming a primordial chant. There are forces here that are older and bigger than you or the Lafayette family can understand.

Voodoo (from Voodoo)

Where you draw the line in King Diamond's discography depends on how committed you are to the horror story concept album format, rather than the actual quality of the albums. As lame as it is to say that King Diamond is a matter of taste, it's the easiest way for me to explain why there's so little consensus about when King Diamond stops being good. Some people quit after Mercyful Fate, while others are in for the long haul. I'm a glutton for horror — my idea of heaven is infinite booze and a stack of big box VHS tapes — and King Diamond and Andy LaRocque are the Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing of metal. Hence, I am a fan even on the bad days. "Cheese" isn't a question for me. I don't like it when people heckle good horror, and I don't like it when people condescend to like "bad" movies. I like King Diamond. I find his work moving, entertaining, and often scary.

Voodoo is a great album, full of powerful songs. The riffs thrash, and Andy LaRocque's guitar and King Diamond's vocals narrate a compelling story, alternately taking the voices of characters and mourning or mocking their foibles. Of the four Metal Blade rereleases, this seems stylistically closest to Abigail or Them, which are the usual favorites. While some of Voodoo does admittedly sound retreaded — "LOA House" is reminiscent of "The Arrival" from Abigail — most of the album spins surprising variations on King Diamond's style. The title track uses groove riffs and a hooky chorus that are almost dance worthy, but the song is too complex and ugly to be pop. The lyrics deal with spiritual possession and drinking chicken blood, yet they sound pornographic. King Diamond beckons and gloats and tells Lula to swallow. Dimebag Darrell's solo is like Damballah settling into your brainpan. The dead will not rest in their graves.

House of God (2000)

House of God is a haunted house story, but it also brings back some of King Diamond's blasphemy. The production and songwriting have adapted to match the hubris — guitar tones are thicker, the bass is more conspicuous, keyboards throb. "Follow the Wolf" and "The Pact" are tanks with riffs that recall Mercyful Fate's sublime evil.

Help!!! (from House of God)

For better or worse, the melodies are a cleaner, too. King Diamond's voice has always been able to jump from falsettos to growls without losing the melody. The effect is disquieting and atmospheric. As King gets older, he spends more time singing in a middle range, and his vocal leaps are less jarring, which makes the melody easier to understand. It also runs the risk of having the music sound more sanitary, but because of how King layers vocal tracks with contrasting pitches, the results aren't simplistic.

Thematically, King Diamond remains a LaVeyan Satanist. His blasphemy is decidedly humanist. Christ could be a sympathetic figure if he were more than a corpse. In place of salvation, we're bound to the flesh of our narrator: the horror of the wilderness, the allure of wolves, a literal and figurative screwing that ends with him trapped eternally in the House of God(s). When he pleads for mercy, there's pathos in it — the chorus of "Help" is layered and beautiful in a way that's reminiscent of goth rock — but as in Voodoo, religion offers no succor. It's puppetmasters all the way.

- Anthony Abboreno

Let me be a woman

Left: Pre-op Cretin, Dan Martinez on right Right: Post-op Cretin (2/3), Marissa Martinez on left

Decibel's blog has posted an amazing entry by Marissa Martinez, vocalist/guitarist of Cretin. Marissa was once Dan. Over the past few years, Marissa has undergone various surgeries for the gender reassignment process. Her most recent one, and the subject of the blog post, was vaginoplasty. (Decibel writer Jeanne Fury suggested that would make a good grindcore band name. Unsurprisingly, a metal band (Broken Hope) has already used the term in a song.)

Daddy's Little Girl

Andrew Parks' original feature on Martinez (excerpt here, buy issue here) is one of the best pieces of music journalism ever printed. Kudos to him and Fury for breaking and following up on the story. The lyrics of Cretin's much-lauded, Repulsion-worshiping debut, Freakery (Relapse, 2006), are filled with gender and sexual anxiety. Now that Marissa is more or less fully a woman, I wonder what will preoccupy Cretin now. Hopefully Marissa will master the feminine products aisle soon so that she can get back to writing the next Cretin record.

- Cosmo Lee

Devin Townsend - Ki, Addicted

Devin Townsend is one of the few exceptions I'll make for over-production. His music almost requires it. I say "almost" because his recent album Ki has a relatively stripped down sound that fits its material. Otherwise, Townsend's music and production are inseparable. An unabashed fan of Def Leppard's Hysteria, he modernizes its "more is more" aesthetic. In his records, everything is big. Hooks, choruses, and riffs explode in garish rainbows. The music pulses with CPU cycles and the ups and downs of Townsend's bipolar disorder. It's a brilliantly arranged headache.

Coast (from Ki)

Ki (InsideOut, 2009), however, isn't so brain-bending. The first in a four-album cycle after Townsend folded Strapping Young Lad, it feels like an exhalation. Townsend is clearing his head after the relentlessness of SYL's metal. His drummer actually sounds like a human, single-coil Strats pay homage to David Gilmour, and bluesiness speckles the record. He even hires a female soul singer, with mixed results. Townsend isn't slumming, though. He's merely introducing new elements into his world. His melodic sense is intact, and even lean rollers like "Coast" can't escape low-pass filtration. Still, it's a pleasant surprise to hear a toned-down Townsend. His voice plus clean guitar is one of life's small delights.

Bend It Like Bender! (from Addicted)

In true bipolar fashion, Addicted (InsideOut, 2009) is much the opposite. The second in Townsend's four-album cycle, it's deliberately big and dumb. (Townsend has publicly said as much.) The song titles all end in exclamation points. Things like "nu-metal," "emo," and "J-pop" come to mind. Again Townsend hires a female vocal foil. This one, Anneke van Giersbergen, often sounds like a diva on a trance track. Her airy presence makes parts of the record feel like a shampoo ad. But like on Ki, Townsend can't help being himself. Some SYL-esque riffs crunch through, and he airdrops in his patented gonzo arpeggios. Townsend is making pop music, but his quirks banish it from Top 40 consideration. Still, metal edges or not, the pop is a lot to swallow. It's like high fructose corn syrup: repulsive yet addictive.

- Cosmo Lee

Buy:
Ki (Amazon CD)
Ki (Amazon MP3)
Ki (eMusic MP3)
Addicted (Amazon CD)
Addicted (Amazon MP3)
Addicted (CM Distro CD + poster)

Interview: Portal (Aus)

Illogium of Portal

In the same way that old science fiction is retro yet futuristic, Portal's death metal seemingly spans decades. The oddball Aussies have gotten much attention for their recent album Swarth (Profound Lore, 2009). I interviewed guitarist Horror Illogium for the December '09 issue of Decibel (#62, Converge cover, order here). Space constraints meant that I used only a few quotes. Here is the interview in full. I conducted it via email, a medium that allows Illogium to remain "in character." He is known for bombastic interviews by email, but this one was relatively down-to-earth.

- Cosmo Lee

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Portal explores extremes. Could such exploration lead beyond metal, as there is much music more "extreme" than metal?

Portal explores depth and atmosphere in the aim of a descriptive soundscape. The term "extreme" would not really apply to us in the context that other bands would use: the fastest blastbeat or the most technical guitar work. That kind of mindframe as though it is a sport is sickening! Extreme for the sake of extreme in any regard has no place in our art. The feeling must flow, exploring different planes of darkness and atmosphere. There is no interest in taking the main core of Portal beyond Metal at all. In fact, we don't feel as though this form of Death Metal has reached its greatest potential yet.

The fact that Portal organizes sounds into discrete tracks indicates that it still has limits. Why not descend into literal pure insanity like Stalaggh, who release recordings composed of insane asylum inmates screaming and carrying on?

We are indeed making songs, although our structures are unusual. They are constructed with a great deal of artistic, obsessive scrutiny. The songs are incubated, given life, and sent out into the world. Every time we rehearse and play them live, we relive their birth. The only necessity is that we feel the passion for the particular piece. Otherwise, it is cast aside. There simply is no point playing anything unless the feeling is there. An insane asylum is a structure; our songs can be viewed as structures housing insane elements.

Why add more insanity and horror to a world already filled with those things?

It is the same horror and insanity from the beginning. It is just in different forms and exaggeration.

Illoomorpheme

Portal's music often attacks from the side or from underneath, rather than death metal's usual full-frontal assault. Is this a conscious decision?

That depends on the perception of the listener. The style we play has warped itself over time. However, personally I believe our direction is very straightforward and direct. It is important that the point of the song is put forth.

This attack favors the guitars and often obscures the drums. Do you mind that this lacks the blunt power of, say, Bolt Thrower or Asphyx?

In this work, frequencies fight each other. We choose to have the guitars more dominant; it's more important to let the details of the strings reign. No, we do not mind. I think the classic era of Asphyx was excellent, especially the punishing Last One on Earth LP and its heavy, extreme production. We would not be interested in achieving those kinds of productions with our sound at all. We will leave that to bands that feel as though they have to stick within boundaries set in the past.

The tones on Swarth are more cutting and defined than on previous albums. What drove this decision?

The vibe at the time of creation will determine the outcome of the sound. The last few years [we have] spent striving for a sound we enjoy in the rehearsal room, exploring different equipment for guitar tones with enough articulation as well as dirt. Total tube amps are the key for us. Whether it is recording or playing live in a room, there are only so many frequencies that can share a space. There must be a balance to allow the instruments to spill forth and explode when necessary. This will give a more detailed soundscape and accentuate the impact and depth of certain sections of music.

Swarth interior detail

Is technology crucial to Portal? Could its essence have existed at other times in history, whether past or present? Portal's costumes, in particular, harken back to another time.

Technology is helpful but not crucial to our recordings. We strive for a more realistic sound. It is balance, using the digital tools appropriately. Vinyl is the ultimate format for the experience, because we prefer a lot of older productions and despise over-use of digital production. Aesthetically speaking, the aura of the early 20th century is ideal. It is an inspiration [that] we siphon into the feeling and atmosphere.

Many of Portal's song titles feature skewed or augmented words. Are such alterations conscious choices?

These are indeed conscious choices that inspire the music which will eventually envelop it. It goes hand in hand. Word manipulation is something we've been doing for years.

Do you listen to Portal recreationally? Is it possible to divorce your listener side from your musician side, and to listen with virgin ears?

It's impossible to approach one's own music with virgin ears, having spent months and years creating the songs. However, I do in fact enjoy our own recordings for the atmosphere and feeling. [But] I am more interested in exploring and incubating the new broth.

What does Portal strive to be? How successful has it been at achieving that?

Portal only strives for artistic satisfaction in every facet. We are our own ultimate judge, and for the audience it is just preference and perception. We're quite satisfied with where we are taking the music.

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Links

Portal official site
Official Facebook page
Profound Lore Records

Buy

Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
eMusic (MP3)
Relapse (CD, shirts)
Profound Lore (CD)

Strange in Stereo #1: Echtra, Ararat, Coil

Pictured: Echtra

I get sent a lot of stuff that's not metal, but may be of interest to metalheads. This includes side projects by metal musicians, non-metal releases by metal labels, dark ambient, noise, and so on. Some of this stuff is too good to keep secret, so I'm starting this column to feature it. It's not meant to be authoritative; plenty of dedicated resources already exist for dark ambient and noise, for example. This is more of a periodic collection of odds and ends.

Echtra - A War for Wonder I (excerpt)

A filmic aspect runs through this month's column. Echtra's A War for Wonder (20 Buck Spin, 2009) is what might happen if Angelo Badalamenti made black metal. The album has a strange backbone: slowly plucked acoustic guitar running almost all the way throughout. Waves of black metal-esque, shoegazing electric guitars wash over the top. The result is rough-hewn but meditative. I have no idea how it would be performed live, but evidently it has been — see some mysterious pictures here and here. Echtra features one member of nature-themed black metal band Fauna. Fans of black metal's ambient fringes (e.g., Procer Veneficus, Caïna) might dig Echtra.

Ararat - Dos Horses (excerpt)

Acoustic guitar also gets atypical settings in Ararat's Musica de la Resistencia (MeteorCity, 2009). Ararat is a project by Sergio Chotsourian, vocalist/guitarist for Argentinian stoner metal band Los Natas. The name comes from Chotsourian's partial Armenian heritage. (He is also part German; see this great interview with him here.) His eclectic background comes out in Ararat. The album encompasses Spanish classical guitar, Michael Nyman-like piano patterns, Beck-esque strumming, and psychedelic passages that tie into Chotsourian's Los Natas side. Surprisingly, it's not a mess. Rather, it sounds like the soundtrack to a movie. The haunting motifs in Kieślowski's The Double Life of Véronique come to mind. I'm willing to pin the "genius" tag on Chotsourian.

Coil - Hellraiser Theme

Last Friday marked five years since the passing of Coil's John Balance. The Unreleased Themes for Hellraiser (Solar Lodge/Soleilmoon, 1987) was one of Coil's most notorious releases. Supposedly it was rejected as being "too scary" for the film. More likely it was shelved due to studio politics. It scared teenage me, at any rate. (The CD sleeve carried a quote by Clive Barker: "The only group I've heard on disc whose records I've taken off because they made my bowels churn.") Now it reminds me of Burzum, especially the synthetic horns. Some parts, however, are indeed quite creepy, particularly the music box tinklings of "Box Theme." If you track down this EP, you might want to keep the lights on for it.

- Cosmo Lee

Echtra:
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
20 Buck Spin (CD)

Ararat:
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
All That Is Heavy (CD)

How strong is your local metal scene?

How strong is your local metal scene?

This question has been on my mind as I explore Los Angeles, my new home. I've never thought of LA as a metal mecca, even though it has some good bands. For American cities, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York City seem to have stronger scenes. Perhaps this is partially because these cities have decent public transportation and aren't as sprawling as Los Angeles. LA's large distances must hurt things like band rehearsals and getting to gigs.

For venues and infrastructure, Los Angeles is on the ropes. The Knitting Factory, which hosted Murderfest and many mid-size shows, has closed. The Key Club, which also hosts mid-size shows, is in danger of closing. The Black Castle, which hosted underground shows, is closing. Lower turnouts due to the economy (California's is especially bad) are spurring these closures. This blog post offers an insider's analysis of the LA scene; this interview with Murderfest's promoter offers another. The promoter points out that in order to have a large festival like Maryland Deathfest, which has become America's premier metal festival, one needs a large venue. Finding one that's affordable (and receptive to metal) is difficult.

Another issue that comes to mind is the dynamic of local vs. national/international. Do fans support local acts, or do they only show up when national/international acts come to town? If I lived in San Francisco, for example, I would be completely content with seeing only local bands because there are so many good ones. I don't get a huge sense of love for local bands in LA, though maybe I haven't been here long enough to judge that.

I'm curious how these issues are playing out where you live. Are venues remaining viable? Are people still going to shows? Do people still create communities with those physically nearby, or has that energy gone online?

- Cosmo Lee

Live review: Shrinebuilder @ The Viper Room

Al Cisneros, Dale Crover, Scott Kelly Photos by Alysa Pakkidis

I don't see River Phoenix. Or Kobe Bryant, or Paris Hilton, or any of the women from The Hills. Ace Frehley played here recently, and Slash made a surprise cameo. I missed all that. Tonight the Viper Room is a regular club. I wait in line like everyone else. When I get in, the only celebrities are onstage.

They're celebrities to me, at least — and to approximately 250 other people that have packed the place. The bouncer points out a space in the human wall, and I slot myself in. I don't mind the close quarters, because I've zeroed in on the stage. Wino is stage right, Neurosis' Scott Kelly is stage left. Om's Al Cisneros is in the middle, and the Melvins' Dale Crover is drumming. Together they are Shrinebuilder.

And, man, are they together. This is immediately evident. Each of these guys is a giant in his own right, and their bands don't sound anything alike. So I expect this "supergroup" to be not super. Their album was not super. It wasn't bad, but it was the exact sum of its parts: Cisneros' motoric bass lines, Crover's propulsion, Kelly's counterpoint to Wino's harmonic smarts.

Pyramid of the Moon (excerpt)

Live is another matter. This is their first show ever, but these guys are playing like they grew up together. I hear no clams. They even turn Joy Division's "24 Hours" into a stoner rock rave-up. I've never seen any of their bands live except for Neurosis. But that was on New Year's Eve, and my mind was busy exploding from the fact that it was Neurosis on New Year's Eve. Now my mind is exploding from seeing these giants up close. Eventually I worm my way up front. If Kelly swung his axe around, he could chop off my head.

He's wearing Keen shoes, I think. No-nonsense ones with big caps over the toes. I always notice the shoes rockers wear. They're often at eye level, after all. Cisneros wears sneakers. Crover wears beat-up black things that could have come from Payless. Wino, biker to the bone, is wearing cowboy boots. His pedalboard looks like Skylab. He is the Space Cowboy.

Wino is also Shrinebuilder's quarterback. He handles the leads and does much of the singing. For someone synonymous with heavy music, his playing is surprisingly delicate. He uses vibrato a lot; it's lithe and shivery. When the band bangs out unisons, he looks like he's chopping onions: brisk, measured.

Wino

Kelly, on the other hand, throws his body into his playing. Cisneros' head never stops moving. It goes round and round in circles, like his bass lines. Crover is the star of these all-stars. His playing has unreal power and control. I spend much of the night parked near his snare. It sounds like cracking skulls. I'll have to reassess the Melvins now.

They finish their first set around midnight. Much of the crowd leaves. An "improv set" is supposed to follow. This arouses my morbid curiosity, so I stick around. To my surprise, their second set is a repeat of the first. It's not exactly the same, though. Since people have left, there's room to move around. The band is warmed up, and the songs feel even more fluid. Everyone loves it when the band jumps into big doom riffs. It's not the notes, it's how you play them.

I look around. The eyes tell the tale. People are rapt. They're feeling it. Even the non-fanboy types are feeling it. There are more beautiful people here than I've seen in the last year combined. I'm pretty sure I saw the waitress stuff tips down the front of her shirt. There was lots of room there. Welcome to Hollywood. It ain't for everybody.

- Cosmo Lee

For YouTube footage of this show, see here.
For a gallery of photos from this show, see here.

Godflesh - Streetcleaner

Recently I was listening to Godflesh's Pure/Cold World/Slavestate 3-disc reissue that Earache put out, and I couldn't help thinking that the music was fantastic but also quite dated. In referencing the techno and hip-hop of the day, Justin Broadrick was pushing boundaries. But contemporary sounds inevitably become obsolete.

Streetcleaner, which turns 20 today according to Wikipedia, suffers no such fate. It is "industrial metal" in that it employs a drum machine and descends from Swans. But otherwise it is sui generis. Broadrick programs the percussion almost without reference to humanity. There are kicks and snares, but no human would play them so cruelly and single-mindedly. The drum machine transcends being a musical instrument and becomes a pure weapon.

Like Rats

Purity makes Streetcleaner timeless. It does not need genre to operate. It is a howl of humanity in the face of its inhumanity, whether by machines or its own misdeeds: "You breed! Like rauuuts!" Aptly, the cover image comes from Altered States, whose tagline was "When he heard his cry for help, it wasn't human." If Black Sabbath fired the first guitar-based salvo against the industrialized world, fellow Brummies Godflesh completed the task 20 years later.

All those cyborg movies of the '80s — Blade Runner, Terminator, Robocop, Evil Dead — Streetcleaner stripped them down to pure dread. Broadrick created a mechanized monster much larger than himself. No wonder he felt discomfort inhabiting it and eventually abandoned its shell. However, this tweet by Earache label head Digby Pearson has caused much speculation. Iron Man lives again, perhaps?

- Cosmo Lee

Buy:
Amazon (LP)
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
Earache US (CD, LP)
Earache EU (CD, LP)

Troops of Doom

Sepultura's "Troops of Doom" is a sleeper classic. With a strong Celtic Frost influence, it's short and sweet and does everything in all the right places. As Sepultura's oldest "hit," it remains in the band's set lists to this day. Thus, live videos of it show the band's evolution in all aspects — personnel, equipment, even hair styles. Here are four from back in the day.

- Cosmo Lee

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Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 1986

The band is almost unrecognizable here in its youth. Max Cavalera, playing an Explorer, is a lean, hungry headbanger. His brother Igor has huge hair, and Andreas Kisser has not joined the band yet. Original lead guitarist Jairo Guedes is stage right with the big 'fro.

El Paso, Texas, 1990

By now, Andreas Kisser has been in the band for three years, and it is obviously stronger for it. (Arise would come out the following year.) Max breaks a string, and while he changes guitars, Kisser fills in on vocals. That middle triplet section sounds deadly here.

Materia Prima, Brazil, ???

This is a live appearance on some Brazilian TV show. The date is unidentified, but I'll place it around 1991's Arise, as Max Cavalera is playing the same white guitar he's playing in the video for "Arise." I love the random phrases that pop up on the screen: METAL PESADO ("heavy metal") and METAL LETHAL (self-explanatory).

San Jose, CA, 1994

Chaos A.D. had come out, and with custom amp cabinets, the band was clearly doing well. It was in its "baggy shorts" phase. I saw the band twice around this time. The first time was with Clutch, Fudge Tunnel, and Fear Factory; the second was with Prong and Pantera. Both times, Sepultura stole the show. They were one of the mightiest units I've ever seen live. Those who defend the later, Derrick Green-version of Sepultura would never do so if they saw this band.

Horseback - The Invisible Mountain

Records like this are why I write about music. Horseback's The Invisible Mountain (Utech, 2009) brings to mind psych rock, black metal, and Ennio Morricone by way of Neil Young. It's dark, beautiful, and patient. If I could meet a mate like this, I'd be set for life. But I'll gladly make do in the meantime with music. Bass lines billow from old chimneys, guitars light distant furnaces, and vocals rasp halfway between black metal and Tom Waits. So many albums, especially in metal, smell like beer or weed. This one smells like cigarettes. It does much with little — a two-note riff here, a three-note reply there. Everything fits together sensibly. The music takes you in, holds you there, then gently releases you with the aptly-named "Hatecloud Dissolving." That song has been my muscle relaxant for the past few months. It's strange to think of becoming dependent on a record, but that's where I am. Records like this make the world a better place. Seek it and love it and share it like I'm doing now.

- Cosmo Lee

Tyrant Symmetry (excerpt)
Hatecloud Dissolving (excerpt)

Buy:
Utech
Amazon
Aquarius
Forced Exposure

Nile - Those Whom the Gods Detest

Nile's Egyptian-ness is no longer merely a shtick. After 16 years, , Middle Eastern tonalities are now so deeply ingrained in Nile that they seem inevitable. In metal's mongrel tradition, guitarists like Kirk Hammett and Dave Mustaine mixed blues, classical, and Middle Eastern licks, sometimes within the same solo. Not so in Nile, who compose and arrange with meticulous single-mindedness.

Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld

Yet that focus has matured enough to become multi-dimensional. Vocalist/guitarist Karl Sanders alludes to this in the liner notes to Those Whom the Gods Detest (Nuclear Blast, 2009). Nile's older style of writing set ancient Egyptian (and occasionally Lovecraftian) texts as faithfully as possible to music. Now Sanders is playing with text, and the results are magic. (He explains how the ancient Egyptians believed speech to have magical power.) "Kafir" subverts Islam's "There is no God but God" mantra by subtracting the last two words; the title track blasphemes by adding "not" to holy language. It's thrilling to hear metal work on another level than just guitars.

Still, guitars are paramount in metal, and here they are unparalleled. Nile have figured out that "Lashed to the Slave Stick" is their most memorable song because it doesn't move at warp speed. Now songs mix blasting with chugging, and drill refrains into the brain. "4th Arra of Dagon" may be the heaviest thing I've heard this year. The band has also learned to balance high end with low end. "Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld" jabs with precision in the lower register, then floats an insistent, squealing motif overhead. "Less is more" is never something I thought I'd associate with Nile.

Since Nile records are so relentless, I tend to respect them rather than enjoy them. But for the first time since Black Seeds of Vengeance, I am giving into one. The production is much to credit. It's clean and powerful, but not over-polished. Drummer George Kollias doesn't sound so robotic now and sometimes sounds almost funky. The result is that I can sink into this record. Like good science fiction, it takes me to another place, namely, hellish pits of torment in chambers below the pyramids. Actually, they're not so hellish because they come with great reading material. Karl Sanders' liner notes are still the best in the business. They're voluminous, informative, insightful, and humorous. Perhaps the best way to get people to buy CD's is to provide something substantial to read inside.

- Cosmo Lee

Buy:
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
eMusic (MP3)
CM Distro (CD, 2xLP)
Relapse (CD, shirts)

Slow & Low #1: Let the Night Roar, Rush, Heirs

Pictured: Let the Night Roar

In metal, fast is glamorous, while slow is often overlooked. I get sent a lot of great slow stuff, so I'm starting this column to feature some of it. Doom, sludge, stoner, and post-metal are all fair game. Get off the lead foot, and get on those lead boots.

Let the Night Roar - Kill Yourself

The wonderfully named Let the Night Roar come from Atlanta. Frontman/guitarist Jeff Juszkiewicz played leads on the first Malevolent Creation record. Now he's gone sludge, emulating Lair of the Minotaur, High on Fire, and Kylesa. Not only does Juszkiewicz know his way around a riff, he also has a mighty, expressive voice. He's already figured out what it took Kylesa several albums to learn: the dynamics of vocal inflections. He uses them to build "Kill Yourself" to a powerful finale. This is a band to watch.

Rush - Working Man (Slow Edit)

This curio comes courtesy of the infamous online forum I Love Music. Someone there slowed (and pitched) down Rush's "Working Man," turning it into a bitchin' stoner metal anthem. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson practically turn into Ozzy and Tony. Geddy has never sounded so manly. Someone should slow down the first two Rush albums in their entirety. Then I might find them listenable.

Heirs - Cabal

Australia's Heirs feature an ex-member of Whitehorse, but don't expect that band's sludgy doom metal. Instead, they recall Neurosis' The Eye of Every Storm, i.e., their quiet album. Unlike Neurosis, however, they're upfront about their lyricism. This instrumental record is patient and gorgeous. If Low went heavy, perhaps they'd make this. You can stream this record and download it for free here.

- Cosmo Lee

Let the Night Roar:
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
eMusic (MP3)
All That Is Heavy (CD)

RIP Gerhardt "Jerry" Fuchs

Drummer Gerhardt "Jerry" Fuchs died yesterday after accidentally falling down an elevator shaft. (Full story here.) Only a few days ago, I was enjoying this video of Joe Walker, of Philadelphia's Breakfast at Sulimay's web TV show, interviewing Fuchs and his band Maserati. Fuchs and his mustache seemed so alive. I also recently got Maserati's new album, Passages (Temporary Residence, 2009). What I've heard so far has been great. Names like Zombi (whose Steve Moore contributes a remix to Passages), Russian Circles, Pink Floyd, and Bono-less U2 come to mind. Fuchs' drumming had a groove and energy few drummers could match. Perhaps the best tribute to him is the above video, which I learned about through a reader of this site. Rest in peace, Jerry.

- Cosmo Lee

Maserati - Monoliths (excerpt)

Overground vs. underground

Jack Endino at his Soundhouse Studio Photo by Ben Thomas

In interviews, Fenriz often makes the distinction between "overground" and "underground" sound. (See, for example, here and here.) "Overground" is synonymous with "mainstream," i.e., clean, modern production. "Underground" is the raw, dirty sound on Nuclear War Now! and Hells Headbangers releases. Fenriz militantly prefers "underground." On Darkthrone's Myspace blog, he features a new (and sometimes old) band each week. Invariably, the bands sound like the '90s never happened. Like Darkthrone now, their albums usually sound like demos. Unlike Fenriz, I don't want metal to sound like punk — I want it to be massive and sometimes inhuman — but I appreciate what he is doing. He is championing truth in sound.

I wish metalheads were more cognizant of this. We all know that production is important; more than any other kind of rock, sound is essential to metal. But metalheads are too accepting of what labels feed them. The most popular bands usually have slick, hyper-compressed sound. So do up-and-coming bands on big labels. They come billed as the next new thing, but they sound just like the last band produced by Andy Sneap/Jason Suecof/Tue Madsen. I can't tell these bands apart anymore. Metal production has become such an assembly line that records have no sonic quirks anymore. The basslessness of ...And Justice for All; the bassfulness of Severed Survival; the angry, redlined sound of Roots — such idiosyncrasies don't happen now. Metal, as rock music taken to extremes, is supposed to be a bastion of rebellion. Instead, it has somehow become OK to sand off the edges and embrace homogeneity. I can't help but feel that the machines have won.

That said, overground sound is not per se bad. Sometimes it is appropriate for the material. Overground music should get overground sound. Underground music should get underground sound. A goth metal band with two guitars, bass, drums, keyboards, female singer, and male growler that no one cares about — that plastic surgery disaster needs more plastic surgery to fix it. Kreator's last two albums are much more precise and ornate than their primitive early records. Their slick production fits them.

Goatwhore - The All-Destroying
Animosity - Bombs Over Rome

However, one possibility remains under-explored: overground music getting underground sound. (Underground music getting overground sound is metal's curse right now.) Erik Rutan did a fantastic job giving Goatwhore's Carving Out the Eyes of God raw, meaty sound. Why couldn't he have given that sound to Cannibal Corpse's Evisceration Plague, which sounds sleek and clean? Granted, Cannibal Corpse are much more technical than Goatwhore, but there has to be some sort of happy medium. Kurt Ballou, who normally produces dirty, round-sounding hardcore punk, produced Animosity's Animal. Animosity were a technical band, yet Ballou made them sound natural, almost live. Then there's Zao, who actually cut The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here live in Steve Albini's studio. The sound is alive, urgent, and by far my favorite out of Zao's discography.

Here are my top ten favorite records this year in terms of sound. (Their music is quite good also.) Jack Endino recorded two of them, 3 Inches of Blood and Skeletonwitch. If you know these records, you can easily discern my taste. I like dry, robust, natural-sounding records.

3 Inches of Blood - Here Waits Thy Doom
Coffinworm - Great Bringer of Night
Complete Failure - Heal No Evil
Converge - Axe to Fall
Goatwhore - Carving Out the Eyes of God
Keelhaul - Triumphant Return to Obscurity
Skeletonwitch - Breathing the Fire
Slayer - World Painted Blood
Slough Feg - Ape Uprising!
Weird Owl - Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed

What are your sonic preferences, and what records fulfill them?

- Cosmo Lee

Gama Bomb - Tales from the Grave in Space

Gama Bomb's new album, Tales from the Grave in Space, is OK. It's well-played and well-recorded. I don't remember any of the songs, except for one that had a cool robot voice. Like most retro thrash, it just makes me want to listen to Slayer or Exodus.

Skeletron

The real story is that yesterday Earache gave it away for free download here. For physical media diehards, the label is printing up a few CD's (and possibly LP's). This is exactly what I proposed 11 months ago here. I said that labels should give away albums for free and get revenue elsewhere. Evidently Earache and Gama Bomb have a 360 deal, which means that Earache is getting a cut of Gama Bomb's merch/concert revenue. Merch/concert revenue has traditionally gone to artists exclusively, because labels traditionally made money from album sales. Now that album sales have gone kaput, labels need to make money somewhere. In the case of the 360, it's the pocket of the artist.

My gut reaction is that this shafts the artist. (Two bands agree, Intronaut and Cormorant.) Then again, in the abovementioned post, I did propose that instead of manufacturing CD's, labels use that money to print up band merch. If bands sell that merch on tour, labels would take a cut. That's 360-like. The key is in the details. If the label simply takes money from the band that it didn't take before, that's bad. If the label creates new opportunities for the band so that after the label takes its cut, the band is at least no worse off than before, then a 360 could be workable.

I'm curious what Earache plans to do to make up for the loss of revenue from the download. (The download benefits Gama Bomb immediately, because as a small band they may not sell enough albums to pay back their advance and start earning royalties. If they see zero or negligible royalties from album sales, they might as well give the record away and get greater exposure.) Earache has presumably invested money into the recording of the album and promoting it. The label needs to make that money back, plus clear a profit. With the free download, the label gives up first-week sales, as well as digital download sales.

Fortunately for Earache, the numbers involved aren't huge for a band like Gama Bomb, so the label can afford to gamble on it. It would be different if, say, Roadrunner gave away Slipknot's next album for free. Much more would be at stake there, like first-week sales, Billboard chart positions, and so on.

This interview (part 1, part 2) with Gama Bomb vocalist Philly Byrne and Earache Records head Digby Pearson regarding the free download is worth checking out. The focus, however, is on what's good for the band and fans. There's no mention of how Earache will make money from the release. Sure, it may sell a few hundred CD's. But that's something the band could have done itself. The band could also have given the album away itself. Earache promoted this download stunt well, though the band could have hired a publicist to do so. Really, all that Earache offers Gama Bomb here is its brand name (which in 2009 still has some weight) and perhaps money to have recorded the CD (which Gama Bomb could have raised in other ways — see here).

Did Gama Bomb even need a label in this case?

- Cosmo Lee

Why do metalheads tend to be cat people?

Why do metalheads tend to be cat people?

The current issue of Decibel (#62, Converge cover, buy here) has a feature called "The Cutest Kitties in Metal." Obviously it parodies Revolver's annual feature on, well, another kind of kitty. It also makes this issue the best magazine issue ever. If you were a fly on the wall in my home recently, (a) I hope you leave soon, and (b) you would have seen me read and re-read that feature with alarming frequency, constantly exclaiming, "Awww," and "So cuuute." Dez Fafara's pretty kitty Sundance! Joe Axler's giant feline Turtle! Dave Witte's cat Eddie who chases him around the house! I heart them all.

Danzig - Cat People

This got me to thinking. Why do most pet-owning metalheads I know have cats? See, for example, the recurring Metal Pets feature on this site. We have had six cats and one dog so far, and several cats are in the pipeline. I have met metalheads who own dogs, but they are in the minority. (For the record, I am both a dog and a cat person, but much more the latter.)

A sizeable amount of commentary exists on the differences between dog people and cat people. See, for example, this article, which claims that cat owners are more likely to be single, while dog owners are more likely to be married. This blogger claims that dog people are more outdoorsy and extroverted, while cat people tend to be homebodies and have fewer friends. Another blogger says that pet owners tend to be like their pets — eager-to-please/easygoing for dogs and their owners and quiet/finicky for cats and their owners. Then this article says that all that is bunk.

It's easy to see how all this could apply to metalheads. Most metalheads I know are introverted people. The pursuit of metal tends to be an indoor activity. (Although I wonder if hiking-crazed Fenriz is a dog person.) Most metalheads I know have problems finding like-minded people, so they tend to entertain themselves — just like cats. And, ideally, the pursuit of metal stimulates independent thinking and a rebellious streak — characteristics of cats. So maybe metalheads are naturally wired to like cats.

Or maybe we just find them cute.

- Cosmo Lee

The new breed of female metallers

I feel a lot of estrogen floating around the metalsphere. Or, more accurately, a lot of testosterone floating around the estrogen. People got worked up about Revolver's "Hottest Chicks in Metal" issue. Then people got worked up about Leaves' Eyes singer Liv Kristine's blog post about Why Females in Metal Rule. Then people got worked up about Metalsucks' rejoinder to Kristine. The metalsphere proved that it is indeed made up of two factions: knuckle-dragging Blabbermouthers, and women.

Here's my rejoinder to Kristine: Do, or do not. There is no why. Women either kick ass in metal or they don't. With enough research, I could fill this blog every day with worthy females in metal bands. In fact, there is/was a blog devoted to that: stayfemale.blogspot.com. (The site has been dormant since July.) We've gone through this "women in metal" discussion so many times that the names come to mind instantly: Angela Gossow, Jo Bench, Laura Pleasants, Liz Buckingham, Mel Mongeon, Grace Perry, and so on.

They are all great musicians. But we don't have to limit the discussion to them. Here are four unknown female metallers who are potential game-changers.

- Cosmo Lee

- - -

Priscila Serrano (Sinners Bleed)

I discovered Sinners Bleed through Death Metal Invasion. They're a German death metal band that's technical yet vicious. (Suffocation is an obvious influence.) Their new vocalist Priscila Serrano doesn't attempt to hide her femininity; she balances midrange screams with low growls. But her low growls are definitely man-sized. Check out "Behind the Veil" and "Devouring Hatred" on the band's MySpace. The video for the former is above. It is awesome.

Sofia Raykova (Tantal)

Tantal are a Russian band who MySpaced me recently. They're like later Death updated with a modern sense of groove. Their video for "Suicide" pasted my jaw to the floor. It starts off cheesy but gets better and better, with an amazing Between the Buried and Me-style outro. Thankfully, Sofia Raykova's clean singing doesn't last long, and she drops into various pitches of growls. If Tantal were American, Sumerian would be jocking them hard.

Sally Gates (Gigan, Infernal Assault)

Sally Gates has been filling in for Gigan live on bass. But she's a six-string shredder in her own right. The best footage I've found of her is above, featuring her doing Vital Remains solos. She needs to have her own band! Check out also Infernal Assault, her mostly female covers band, jamming on Slayer (here and here).

Jacqueline Mannering

Here is Jacqueline Mannering, then 14 or 15, doing the solo from Metallica's "Blackened." (Thanks to Metal Inquisition for the tip.) Did someone gave her a Stratocaster loaded with humbuckers for her Bat Mitzvah? She doesn't know a thing about phrasing or feel, but those can come later. The fact that a teenage girl can pull this off without breaking a sweat shows that we've come a long way, baby.

Why AC/DC Matters (book + giveaway)

A book called Why AC/DC Matters (HarperCollins, 160 pages, $16.66) may seem redundant. The world's second best-selling music act (The Beatles are #1) obviously matters to millions of people. But for Anthony Bozza, a writer whose portfolio includes Rolling Stone and autobiographies of Tommy Lee and Slash, that isn't enough. He explains his motivation for the book thus:

I'm sick of seeing AC/DC begrudgingly acknowledged. I'm sick of mainstream critics acting surprised when confronted with the band's demonstrable achievements and continuing popularity among generation after generation of obsessively devoted fans. I'm tired of the critical subtext that AC/DC is a band for the tasteless masses, that it is unworthy of the serious consideration afforded bands (like the White Stripes) mining blues and rock with calculated pretension.

This kind of reactive attitude is prevalent among music fans. "Why doesn't X magazine feature Y band?" is a common complaint. Usually there are two reasons: economics and taste. The former is as rational as the latter is irrational. Lamenting them is like lamenting the weather. It does no good. Luckily, the Internet now provides a potential outlet for all. Unhappy about something? Blog about it!

Bozza has more connections and writing skills than most, so he's elevated a blog post into a book. Personally, I don't believe in explaining the merits of bands to others. Telling someone why they should like pears instead of apples is bound to be futile. But Bozza rolls out big guns to turn the irrational into the rational. He gives a brief, colorful bio of the band, a time-honored technique: making one care about the people in a story. He wheels in professors from the Berklee College of Music to vouch for AC/DC's musical talent. He enlists celebrities like Tommy Lee and Slash to plug the band.

He didn't need to go to such lengths. Bozza is insightful and concise, one of the best music writers I've read. He matter-of-factly explains the AC/DC phenomenon: the band is popular because (a) it is good at what it does, and (b) what it does has an integrity that resonates with people. AC/DC fans already know these things. Bozza's achievement is articulating them persuasively for those who have to be persuaded to like music.

Live Wire

Still, the book is worthwhile for AC/DC fans. Few writers have been this succinct and accurate about the band. (For a succinct and inaccurate one, see Robert Christgau.) Angus Young's technique comes from his banjo background. Phil Rudd is irreplaceable because of his feel. Bon Scott's allure came from the fact that he lived his lyrics. And so on. Fans know these things on a gut level. For example, Rudd's entrance on "Live Wire" is one of the most satisfying sounds I've ever heard. Bozza translates it elegantly to the page. Like his subject matter, his architecture is worth dancing to.

- Cosmo Lee

Buy:
Amazon

- - -

You can browse excerpts from the book here.

In conjunction with the publisher, we are giving away five copies of this book. For a chance to win, write a short statement (up to 200 words) on why AC/DC matters to you. Submit it in the comments box by midnight EST this Thursday, 11/5. I will select five favorites as winners and announce them this Friday 11/6. International entrants are welcome.

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 - World Serpent

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 (Ger) - Necrobirth

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.

- Cosmo Lee

Buy:
Austrian Death Machine (CD)
Austrian Death Machine (MP3)
Demonical (CD)
Demonical (LP)
Exaltation (CD)
Exaltation (MP3)

Overmars - Born Again

How's this for a dream band: Neurosis + PJ Harvey + Godflesh. France's Overmars have made this happen without marquee names. Yet they put to shame most of what passes for doom and sludge now. They channel Swans through Godflesh: first gear all the way. But whereas prime Godflesh was purely crushing, Overmars flatten you, then pick their way through the rubble afterwards.

Born Again (excerpt)

Born Again, a single track, originally came out on in 2007 on Appease Me, the label of Vindsval of Blut aus Nord. Crucial Blast recently reissued it in a digipak with different artwork. It tightens its screw for 39 and a half minutes, pulsing through shades and tonnages of black. Male and female vocals bark and moan with increasing agitation. At first, the landscape seems impossibly bleak: "I'm close to dying a thousand times / But this time I allowed myself to cry." However, as the track grinds on, it achieves a violent catharsis, wringing both performer and listener dry. Finally, it howls its rebirth: "Listen to the screams coming out of the hole, holding the sound of joy and pleasure / Listen to my screams announcing the birth of a new man." This record is the sound of sloughing off clichés: four-bar cycles, verse-chorus structures, notions of genre and scene. Eventually, it skins itself down to one bloody chord and the truth.

- Cosmo Lee

Buy:
Amazon (CD)
Amazon (MP3)
eMusic (MP3)
Relapse (CD)
Crucial Blast (CD)

You win, I win

Apartments riddled by Israeli fire in Rafah, Gaza Strip Photo by Zoriah - click to enlarge

Below are the results of the voting for albums to review in November. Gaza tied with Epica for the most, so I will review both. Watching the votes unfold was interesting. It seems there was some power of suggestion going on. People didn't vote for certain names until they saw others mention those names. Perhaps people saved votes for likely winners instead of wasting them on outliers. Whatever the case, the results surprised me. Assuming that each vote represents the opinion of many, Krallice have much more buzz than I thought. An EP by a non-touring band (Coalesce) is somehow quite anticipated. Finally, people seem ready to forgive Nile for the bland Ithyphallic. It should be an interesting month here.

10 Epica
10 Gaza
8 Nile
7 Devin Townsend
6 Krallice
4 Coalesce
4 Horna
3 Brown Jenkins
3 WRNLRD
2 Arkona
2 Black Breath
2 Grind Madness at the BBC
2 Hypocrisy
2 Nirvana 2002
1 The 11th Hour
1 Arckanum
1 Dark Tranquillity
1 Gama Bomb
1 GWAR
1 Hellveto
1 Hirax
1 Hollenthon
1 Katatonia
1 King Diamond reissues
1 Shadow Gallery
1 Teratism
1 These Are They
1 Throwdown
1 Vektor

V/A - Death Metal

No Halloween would be complete without, er, Helloween. Here's an artifact from that band's checkered past. It may be the first ever usage of the term "death metal." In 1984, death metal hadn't been invented yet, so instead we get artwork of a cannibal corpse eating guts that look like caramel apples — a Halloween delight, indeed.

Helloween - Oernst of Life

This split has more historical than musical value. (For full details, see here.) It contains the only released output (thankfully) by Dark Avenger (Ger). It also features early speed metal incarnations of Running Wild and Helloween, long before the former went pirate metal and the latter went, well, weenie. Hellhammer, of course, wins by a neutral country mile. It's kind of inconceivable that Hellhammer and Helloween would share a split. Evidently Noise Records thought having "hell" in their names was good enough. This compilation is long out-of-print, but you can download it at the link below.

- Cosmo Lee

Various Artists - (1984) Death Metal [96.21MB .zip]