How to survive Dude Fest as a dudette

Photo by Jess Blumensheid

Our own Jess Blumensheid has written a feature for Venus Zine entitled "How to survive Dude Fest as a dudette". The latest Dude Fest had an unbelievably awesome lineup, including Torche, Kylesa, Coliseum, Fight Amp, The Gates of Slumber, Pig Destroyer, Insect Warfare, Howl, and Graf Orlock, among many others. As advertised, Fest participants skewed heavily towards XY chromosomes. Jess' guide to survival as an XX is a glimpse into what might happen if Glamour covered metal - but knew what they were talking about.

Howl, Mendozza

Howl

In the current issue of Decibel (#44, Iron Maiden cover), I've done the "Throw Me a Frickin' Bone!" column, which reviews demos and unsigned records. Some of them are actually good. The two of note this time are by Howl and Mendozza. Both are hairy and sound like it. (One of my non-metalhead friends read the column, after which she turned to me and asked, "What is 'beard metal'?" It was so cute.)

Howl - And the Gnawing...
Mendozza - The Rise of the Piscean

Howl hail from Providence, RI, and remind me a little of Lair of the Minotaur, but with more color. Dig that half-speed Slayer riff in the middle of "And the Gnawing..."! This June, these dudes and dudette will play at Indiana's Dude Fest, which really should be called Beard Fest. Also hirsute and heavy are Vancouver's Mendozza, who drop an absolutely nasty wah-wah workout in "The Rise of the Piscean." The criss-crossing bluesy leads are pure Sabbath, and pure awesomeness. Somehow this band ended up on the Underworld: Evolution soundtrack next to Atreyu and My Chemical Romance - WTF?!

Buy:
Howl
Mendozza

Jucifer, Testament

Jucifer

Music critics are privileged in that people send them music for free. They are also cursed in that people send them music for free. Ever since I became a music critic, I have been deluged with such piles of shit that part of me wants to say "fuck you" to all "benefactors" and just buy records like everyone else. Then again, everyone else now probably downloads the same piles of shit. Does anyone listen to records more than once anymore - or make records worthy of such?

Jucifer - Birds of a Feather
Testament - The Persecuted Won't Forget

I've reviewed two records that I actually want to get to know better. The first is Jucifer's sprawling L'autrichienne, which will require the rest of this year for me to digest fully. The second is Testament's The Formation of Damnation, which sounds like shit but has good music on it. This quote by Bob Dylan is applicable: "I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really. You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like...static."

Nadja, Russian Circles

Nadja seem to have emptied their hard drive onto CD's, sent them out, and gotten signed to 10 labels simultaneously. By the end of 2008, they will have put out 15 releases in two years. That's too much. But it's about right if you consider each album as a song. Make one long ambient fuzzfest, divide it into tracks, call it an album - next! At Pitchfork, I've reviewed two recent Nadja reissues, Skin Turns to Glass and Bliss Torn from Emptiness. (The artwork for the latter is above.) I've also reviewed the new Russian Circles record.

Nadja - Bliss Torn from Emptiness (excerpt)
Russian Circles - Youngblood

The Secret, Origin, Sourvein, In Flames

The Secret

I was watching UFC a few nights ago, and it occurred to me that brutal music is like mixed martial arts. One has to vary one's attack. When bands do blastbeats for entire songs, that's like going into a fight doing only high kicks. You look for any opening, then shoot in and take advantage of it. Sometimes you triangle choke, sometimes you armbar, sometimes you go for the good old-fashioned KO.

The Secret - Funeral Monolith
Origin - The Aftermath
Sourvein - Septic Werewolves

Italy's The Secret, whom I've reviewed at Pitchfork, understand this. Using fists, feet, elbows, and knees, "Funeral Monolith" reduces three and a half minutes to a bloody pulp; the breakdown at 2:29 is ground-and-pound in slow motion.

Origin, on whom I did a Decibel feature, are starting to learn this. Previously, they were guilty of blasting themselves into submission. On Antithesis, which I've reviewed here, they insert more space and melody, and launch themselves into my year-end Top 20 list. The CD's artwork, by Orion Landau, is amazing. It's a combination of Aliens, Star Wars, and Motörhead's Snaggletooth mascot. When I opened it up, I actually exclaimed, "Wow, that's cool!"

At Decibel, I've also reviewed the new live disc by Nasum, and a short but nasty EP by Sourvein. Try not to commit acts of domestic violence upon hearing "Septic Werewolves." At Pitchfork, I've reviewed the new In Flames; at Metal Injection, I've reviewed retro thrashers Warbringer. Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. What is up with Celtic Frost???

Ministry - Keys to the City, Cover Up

Ministry @ Lollapalooza '92

Though Ministry aren't in Chicago anymore, they - or at least head minister Al Jourgensen - still retain ties to the city. Jourgensen is a Blackhawks fanatic and friends with the team owner's son. He retooled a shelved song in red, white, and black, and gifted it to the team. As a Ministry song, "Keys to the City" is crap; as a hockey theme song, it's gold. It's basically an improvement on Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2," the most annoying sports anthem ever. You can buy it on iTunes, or stream it (and read its cheesy lyrics) here.

Black Betty (Ministry)
Black Betty (Ram Jam)

At Pitchfork, I've reviewed Ministry's new covers collection, Cover Up. It's mostly revved-up '70s classics, and it's a hoot. The thrash-ified traditional song "Black Betty" well suits Jourgensen's bluesy vocals. (For other covers of "Black Betty," including a beaut by Tom Jones, go here.) Ministry's arrangement builds on Ram Jam's 1977 version, featuring the world's loudest hi-hat and lovely Allman Brothers harmonies at 2:49. These covers are a good excuse to revisit their originals, which come from a time when drums sounded like drums and bands sounded like bands. No over-compression, no Pro Tools; even on MP3, these jams sound better than any CD made today.

Ministry - Cover Up (song originals) [55.4MB .zip]

1. The Rolling Stones - Under My Thumb
2. T.Rex - Bang a Gong (Get It On)
3. Golden Earring - Radar Love
4. Deep Purple - Space Truckin'
5. Ram Jam - Black Betty
6. Mountain - Mississippi Queen
7. ZZ Top - Just Got Paid
8. The Doors - Roadhouse Blues
9. Black Sabbath - Supernaut
10. Bob Dylan - Lay Lady Lay
11. Louis Armstrong - What a Wonderful World

Cavalera Conspiracy, Wrath of the Weak

Max forgot the shoot was for photos, not deer

At Metal Injection, I've reviewed Cavalera Conspiracy, who are to Sepultura what The Other Two were to New Order (kind of). At Pitchfork, I've reviewed Wrath of the Weak, a one-man black metal band with a baseball cap. They are polar opposites. Cavalera Conspiracy project only outward energy, coated in tough, shiny gloss. (Tic Tac mints come to mind.) Wrath of the Weak caves inward, clutching its elbows in an hour-long shiver. It feels good, really.

Cavalera Conspiracy - Ultra-Violent
Wrath of the Weak - A Leap of Faith... (excerpt)

Fight Amp, Avenger of Blood, Brutus, and more

Fight Amp

At Pitchfork, I've reviewed Fight Amp, a '90s AmRep throwback whom I suspect has a Danzig fetish. The recording is tough; the guy-girl vocals are tougher. At All Music Guide, I've reviewed Avenger of Blood (German thrash from Las Vegas), Barbara (artful Israeli sickness), Bilk (Croatian drum 'n' bass 'n' rock), Brutus (Caesar-slaying Dutch death metal), Cypher 7 (Bill Laswell-helmed IDM/dub), Last Chance to Reason (Maine calculus-core), The Phantom Family Halo (retro with a capital R), Primordial (the pride of Ireland), PureH (electronic desolation), Ratos de Porão (the pride of Brazil), and Shinjuku Thief (a soundtrack to Kafka's The Trial). You can also disregard this list and window-shop in the sidebar.

Fight Amp - Bound and Hagged
Avenger of Blood - Death Brigade

Black Tide are sickeningly young

At Metal Injection, I've reviewed the debut album by Miami's Black Tide. Singer/guitarist Gabriel Garcia is 15, and his bandmates are also teenagers. Arizona's Age of Evil, whom I wrote about a while back, are similar in youth and sound. However, Black Tide are really thirtysomethings stuck in the '80s. Why these teens fetishize cock rock and early power metal is beyond me, but it's charming. Even the slightly raw production is quite '80s. The songs are good - "Warriors of Time" is maddeningly catchy - and better than the band. (Trivium, in contrast, are the converse.) Time, though, will make them more of a unit. Oddly, they're not on Cruz del Sur, but on Interscope. They'd better hang on for dear life to their A&R person; Black Eyed Peas and Pussycat Dolls are probably higher priorities for their label.

Warriors of Time
Give Me a Chance

Devin Townsend, DEP, Dub Trio, and more

Devin Townsend

I've published 22 pieces since my last update a month ago. I've also started to write for Pitchfork. Both are somewhat ridiculous propositions, I realize, so I don't even know where to start. Just look at the sidebar and see if anything appeals to you. If you think all that will take a while to read - imagine the time it took to write it. I'm particularly proud of my Landmine Marathon live review. It's the first thing I've written in a long, long time that I actually enjoy reading.

Devin Townsend - By Your Command (excerpt)
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Milk Lizard

Despite all this, I'm already horribly behind on 2008 releases, and hopelessly so for 2007. And the other day, I saw some metal site's top 10 lists for 2006, and realized I hadn't heard the vast majority of those picks. Fie! You'd think it were a crime to listen to records more than once. Devin Townsend and The Dillinger Escape Plan added to my ever-expanding list of Top X records I didn't hear last year. Both appeal to me for their humor - Townsend, for his hilarious space opera about an alien in search of the ultimate cup of coffee, and DEP, for essentially cloning Faith No More, who were always winking and nodding at something, even if you never knew what it was.

Black Cobra, Corpus Christii, Vader, and more

Up at Decibel, I have reviews of Blotted Science (new project of Ron Jarzombek), Devian (new project of Legion, ex-Marduk), and Rigor Sardonicous (slower-than-slow dooooom), as well as a feature on Portuguese black metallers Corpus Christii, whose recent record Rising is sick-sick-sick. The print version (#41, At the Gates cover) also has my live review of Neurosis/Earth/Saviours on NYE.

Black Cobra - Red Tide
Corpus Christii - Stabbed

At Metal Injection, I have reviews of The Great Deceiver (Tomas Lindberg's almost-nu-metal project), Polish behemoths Vader, mighty SF duo Black Cobra, Hot Topic pinups Bullet for My Valentine, and Strapping Young Lad clone The Arcane Order.

The latter's album is noteworthy, as it is a digital-only release in the US - from Metal Blade. CD's are available in Europe, but not in America. Metal Blade must have done a cost-benefit analysis and decided that CD's generally weren't worth manufacturing. Instead, the label has outsourced distribution to iTunes, Napster, et al., not even selling MP3's on its own site (yet). Metal Blade is the first major metal label I've seen do this - but I'm sure it won't be the only one.

Animosity, Impaled, Marblebog, Hirax, etc.

Last year, as a goodwill gesture to hometown fans, Animosity played a free show in a San Francisco park. I wasn't there, but the event was captured on video (see above). It's so San Francisco, from the decidedly mixed crowd to the incongruity of death metal outside on a rainy afternoon. Dig the guitarists' matching Stryper-esque Alexi Laiho Flying V's. The video's sound seems to come not from the gig, but from a demo. I've posted the final version of the song, "You Can't Win," from Animosity's Animal, which I've reviewed here.

Animosity - You Can't Win
Impaled - G.O.R.E.
Marblebog - I Am the Forest Heart (excerpt)

At Metal Injection, I've reviewed South Carolina deathcore-rs Through the Eyes of the Dead and Hungarian black metallers Marblebog. At Decibel, I've reviewed Bay Area goremasters Impaled and Danish death metallers Corpus Mortale. I've also started writing for All Music Guide, so the sidebar gallery will see more flux now. Of the latest batch of records I reviewed, the highlight was Hirax's The New Age of Terror, my favorite post-'80s thrash album.

Also new in the sidebar, some additions to the blogroll - Driftglass (aka Forrest Norvell, an astute musical polyglot), I'm the Most Important Fucking Person in the World (focusing on the heavy and hairy), MetalJazz (does as advertised), Metal Jew (aka Keith Kahn-Harris, author of Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge), and Umlaut (aka Brian Lew, who did the legendary Umlaut zine; he was there back in thrash's heyday, and his blog has amazing firsthand accounts of Metallica, Slayer, and Ruthie's Inn).

High on Fire, Glorior Belli, Inked in Blood, etc.

High on Fire

When I saw High on Fire recently, I was astounded by the number of females in the crowd. Only Enslaved in Berlin had more girls - go figure. Actually, I kind of get that. Europeans invented metal, so it's in their blood. There, black metallers actually have Norwegian names, and girls go to the local Saturn (the German equivalent of Best Buy) in full metal gear, spikes and all, and shop in the "Hard 'n' Heavy" section like it ain't a thang. I think I just gave myself a boner.

High on Fire - Rumors of War
Glorior Belli - Sinister Resonance
Inked in Blood - Somewhere Familiar
Sebastian Bach - Back in the Saddle (feat. Axl Rose)

In American record stores, though, the only long hair in the metal section is male (admit it, guys - you've checked out fit longhairs before, only to have them turn around and be male - oof). I'd basically resigned my American metal life to "bro'ing down" until I saw High on Fire. There were so many women, it felt almost wrong. It was seriously disconcerting. And they were totally getting down. The sight of a girl throwing the goat is a mighty aphrodisiac indeed.

Here's my theory: girls like 3-over-2 accents. You'd see them raise their fists, as one is wont to do at High on Fire. But Matt Pike's guitar playing is mostly strumming, so there's actually not much to pump your fist to. Drummer Des Kensel is a fucking force of nature, and he's cranking out thrash and d-beats like his singer's named Lindberg. So it's a tug-of-war, this percussive onslaught with mushy strumming and the molten river of distorted bass. Thus during the verses, fists are raised but not pumping. They're just drifting.

But when the 3-over-2 accents come, it's indeed like coming, a simultaneously orgasmic vice grip of synchronicity. Fists pump involuntarily - then go back to drifting. High on Fire probably know this, as they dish out 3-over-2 accents with much greater frequency than any other band. The 3-over-2 accent is normally reserved for punctuation at the end of phrases (e.g., "time for primal concrete sledge"). High on Fire practically write entire songs around 3-over-2 accents. And this is why girls love 'em.

At Metal Injection, I've reviewed High on Fire, as well as French black metallers Glorior Belli and Deathspell Omega, Dutch death metallers Severe Torture, hair metal pinup Sebastian Bach, and the mammoth new live DVD set from AC/DC. At Decibel, I've reviewed ancient thrashers Overkill and Christian metalcore outfit Inked in Blood. The latter surprised me - extremely clichéd good cop/bad cop elements, but arranged with creativity, skill, and passion. It's the most uplifting record I've heard this year, and I find myself returning to it often.

Ignitor, Sanctity, Portal, Chiodos, Audiopain

Occasionally, a record comes along and grabs my "too many releases these days," "illegal downloading is cheapening music," "tired of wading through Blabbermouth's endless Aerosmith and KISS news, not to mention every single Megadeth micro-update," "will vomit upon hearing another deathcore album," "will vomit upon hearing another retro thrash album," "Metallica should pack it in" jaded metalhead ass so much that I can only sit back and go: "Damn, this is good." Ignitor's Road of Bones is that record. I've reviewed it here.

Ignitor - March to the Guillotine
Sanctity - Beloved Killer
Chiodos - Lexington
Portal - Omnipotent Crawling Chaos
Audiopain - Holy Toxic

Also on the traditional tip, but with a modern edge, is the excellent debut by Sanctity. I never thought I'd big up Roadrunner releases so much, but this one has been doing it for me. A new metal band that writes actual songs - imagine that! At Metal Injection, I've also reviewed bizarro death metallers Portal and everything-core outfit Chiodos. At Decibel, I've reviewed Norwegian thrashers Audiopain.

RIP Stylus

Behold...The Arctopus

As you may have heard, Stylus Magazine closes its doors today. However, the site's pages will stay up. My final review for Stylus is of Soilwork's new album (I also have a review of Jesu's Lifeline EP and a dual review of Behold...The Arctopus and Byla & Jarboe). This brings me full circle: my first review for Stylus two and a half years ago was of Soilwork's previous record. Since then, my Stylus portfolio has 116 full-length reviews, 19 features and interviews, and 8 Left Hand Path columns. In total, I've reviewed 226 albums for Stylus.

Aetherius Obscuritas - Víziók
Behold...The Arctopus - Canada
Byla & Jarboe - 10:58 (excerpt)

I never thought I'd do half as many. Writing on metal for an indie rock audience has been an uphill battle. I'm proud of some of my work, embarrassed by lots more, and glad for the chance to sharpen my chops. My fellow Left Hand Path writers Stewart Voegtlin and Todd DePalma are working on a new site, so keep your eyes peeled. Looking back at the old Left Hand Path columns is quite a trip.

Up at Metal Injection, I have reviews of Hungarian one-man black metal band Aetherius Obscuritas, deathcore outfit Whitechapel (my review is drawing an amusing amount of ire), and Paths of Possession, the other band of Cannibal Corpse's George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher.

I don't do this enough - big up the work of other writers. Phil Freeman (The Wire, Village Voice, etc.) has a humorous piece on Marduk for The High Hat. Julie Graf has done a nice interview with The Dillinger Escape Plan for Stylus. The tireless Adrien Begrand has two mammoth pieces for PopMatters, on Ulver and former Gathering singer Anneke van Giersbergen, and on The Heavy Metal Box by Rhino. If anyone has the knowledge and stamina to tackle a 4-disc set that purports to cover heavy metal's history, it's Begrand.

Left Hand Path #011

Grave in the Sky

Left Hand Path #011 is up. This installment of Stylus' metal column is massive, featuring 38 album reviews and an interview with Chris Bruni of Profound Lore Records, easily the metal label of the year with top-notch releases by Alcest, Caina, Cobalt, Portal, Pulsefear, The Angelic Process, The Howling Wind, WOLD, and more. Bands reviewed in the column include Coalesce, Crimson Moon, Helloween, High on Fire, Nominon, Rosetta, Skeletonwitch, Sodom, Souvenir's Young America, Unearthly Trance, Yakuza, and many more.

My picks of the bunch include Colorado black metallers Cobalt, Israeli digital doom outfit Grave in the Sky, Polish old-school blackened death metallers Throneum, and oddball grinders Total Fucking Destruction, featuring Rich Hoak of Brutal Truth.

Cobalt - Blood Eagle Sacrifice
Grave in the Sky - Donnie Darko
Throneum - Exhibition of Abomination
Total Fucking Destruction - Warfinger

Aeon, Akimbo, Dethklok, Prong, and more

Aeon

For some reason, I've been in a death metal mood recently. Maybe it's because I've been hitting the gym (TESTOSTERONE! BR00TAL!). Or maybe it's because it's warm here in SF, which enjoys its summer in autumn. It's hard to be grim and cold when the sun's out.

Prong - The Banishment
Dethklok - Hatredcopter
Aeon - You Pray to Nothing
Sickening Horror - An Eerie Aspect of Us...Drowning

Up at Metal Injection, I have reviews of Greek death metallers Sickening Horror and Swedish death metallers Aeon. At Stylus, I have reviews of Christian death/grinders Impending Doom, the incomparable Dethklok, and Prong, whose new album is their strongest since Cleansing. I also have a look back at my favorite Metallica recording, The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited. At Decibel, I have reviews of The Jesus Lizard's live DVD, as well as very drunk band Akimbo and a split by Dysrhythmia/Rothko.

3 Inches of Blood, Fugazi, Ministry, and more

3 Inches of Blood

Some new writing up - at Metal Injection, I have reviews of film buffs/metalcore-rs Killwhitneydead and Relapse retro thrashers Dekapitator. At Stylus, I have a look back at Fugazi's most underrated record, Steady Diet of Nothing, as well as reviews of the Speed Kills...Again compilation on Heavy Artillery, metal-obsessed rapper Necro, falsetto-fueled 3 Inches of Blood, Ministry's final album (that cover of The Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" is unbelievably banging), Xasthur's excellent latest mopefest, and Bloody Panda, who actually sound like their name - slow, fuzzy, wounded.

3 Inches of Blood - Night Marauders
Ministry - Roadhouse Blues
Xasthur - Cemetery of Shattered Masks

I would never have forecast this, but 3 Inches of Blood's Fire Up the Blades is my favorite metal album this year. Their last record was OK, but they seriously stepped it up this time. I have not had this much fun with metal in a long, long time. Every time I hear this album, goats and invisible oranges start flying and one-man moshpits erupt in my apartment. This is the kind of music that leads to unwise, impulsive tattoos. I'm no danger of being like the guy who got Ken Susi's face tattooed on his ass - but I'm just sayin'.

Obsidian, Modern Life Is War, Beatallica...

Slowly regaining my productivity - up at Metal Injection, I have a review of Dutch prog death metallers Obsidian. I think I might like them even more than Meshuggah, their most obvious inspiration. At Stylus, I have reviews of the fantastic Modern Life Is War, Beatallica, 108, and the American Nervoso reissue by Botch.

Obsidian - Footprints
Modern Life Is War - Stagger Lee
Beatallica - Helvester of Skelter

In print, in Unrestrained! #35 (Symphony X cover), I have features on Danzig, Cephalic Carnage, and Odious Mortem, as well as a new column called Invisible Oranges that focuses on metal scenes worldwide (this issue spotlights my hometown of Minot, ND). The magazine seems to have ceased web updates, so you'll have to find #35 on dead trees. It's a fun, voluminous read, and once made me miss two straight buses because my nose was buried in it.

Also on newsstands is my first piece for Decibel (Down cover), a review of the muchly improved The Absence. I remember reading the magazine when it first came out, and dreaming of the day when I could write for them. Many thanks to Adrien Begrand for the kind namecheck in his blog. He's one of the main reasons I got into metal writing, and to be in the same masthead as him is beyond awesome.

The Red Chord, Darkest Hour, Halford, etc.

The Red Chord

I'm moving from Berlin to San Francisco at the end of this month. This, combined with excessive travel (five trans-Atlantic crossings in six weeks, with five destination airports and way too much sleeping while sitting), has severely hampered my recent productivity.

The Red Chord - Tread on the Necks of Kings
Halford - Made in Hell
Year of No Light - Traversée

However, I've published a bit since my last update - dual reviews of Azalea City Penis Club/Robin Allender and Caina/Godheadscope at Stylus, as well as a review of Immolation and an interview with Year of No Light. At Metal Injection, I've reviewed The Red Chord, Darkest Hour, Halford, Mortuus, and Ion Dissonance, as well as a DVD of the Metalmania 2006 festival and a fine book by Keith Kahn-Harris.

Left Hand Path #009

Kronos

After what seemed like a slow start, metal in 2007 has shifted into high gear. Great releases flood in from the underground daily. In Left Hand Path #009, we've reviewed over 30 discs, including must-have splits from Baroness/Unpersons and Eibon/Hangman's Chair, Harvey Milk reissues, Marduk, Municipal Waste, Abigor, Glorior Belli, Irepress, dark ambient from the Cold Spring label, and much more.

The Angelic Process - We All Die Laughing
Kronos - Suffocate the Ignorant
A Second from the Surface - Scene I Don't Remember
Sleeping Giant - Whoremonger

My picks here are French death metallers Kronos, pulverizing grindcore from A Second from the Surface, and yet another strong Facedown release from Sleeping Giant. The Angelic Process has tattooed vivid memories in me - I heard it one night in headphones while falling asleep, and had the most amazing, fucked up dreams.

Neurosis, Watain, Pig Destroyer, and more

Neurosis, upstairs @ GAMH, SF Photo by Brendan Tobin

It's been a while since my last reviews update. There's so much good stuff now, it's almost overwhelming! At Stylus, I've reviewed Cephalic Carnage, Neurosis, Pelican, and Pig Destroyer. At Metal Injection, I've reviewed Akercocke, Toxic Bonkers, N.I.L., Deadlock, Merciless Death, Thought Chamber, and Watain.

Neurosis - Water Is Not Enough
Watain - Sworn to the Dark
Akercocke - The Dark Inside
Pig Destroyer - Heathen Temple
Cephalic Carnage - Divination & Volition

The Neurosis album will make my year-end top three. Watain might get up there, too. Akercocke would have stood a chance if not for the horrible hack mastering job. Check out "The Dark Inside" for the drum 'n' bass part that drops into the song - random but cool.

Visions of the Beast: Metal's Mythmakers

Pig Destroyer - Phantom Limb Original painting by John Dyer Baizley

Up at Stylus today is the final installment of my metal artists feature. It features John Dyer Baizley, who's done artwork for Kylesa, Torche, Pig Destroyer, Magrudergrind, and The Red Chord, among others, as well as the Skeletonwitch EP I reviewed some time ago.

He also sings and plays guitar for Baroness, who has a crushing split out soon with Unpersons. Baizley is one of the few artists today with an instantly recognizable style, and I'm thrilled to have talked to him.

Actually, I'm thrilled to have talked to all the artists in my feature. They've done iconic work, not just in metal in general, but also for me personally. I love the music and artwork for, say, Reign in Blood or Annihilation of the Wicked, and speaking with the artists behind those images added yet another layer of appreciation.

Some of these guys were hard to track down, so I thought I'd end this week with a special treat - clips of them talking.

Orion Landau, on the Coldworker layout and Reign in Blood
Larry Carroll, on why Slayer didn't rehire him after the '80s
Stephen Kasner, on doing the Khlyst cover
Dan Seagrave, on the cover for Entombed's Left Hand Path
John Dyer Baizley, on how he doesn't want to do skulls anymore

Seance - Fornever Laid to Rest

I wonder when Dan Seagrave will start swatting away the metal writers that keep interviewing him about his work from over 10 years ago. Luckily, he patiently and good-naturedly answered my questions about his death metal years. Seagrave's newer covers are just as epic as his old stuff, if not more so, and he recently finished a short film called Shadowline. His interview and artwork are now up in my metal artists feature this week at Stylus.

Reincarnage
Necronomicon

For maximum Seagrave-ness, I thought I'd revisit Fornever Laid to Rest (Black Mark, 1992), the debut album by Sweden's Seance. The cover is hardly Seagrave's best work, but it's unmistakably his style, and the album is one of the lesser-known gems in his "discography."

Seance graduated three members to Satanic Slaughter and then to Witchery, with Patrik Jensen also joining The Haunted. However, the band itself was a force, releasing two albums of raging, old-school Swedish death metal. Fornever's raw, natural production captured ripping performances and righteous riffs; the album is a joy to hear, with none of today's overcompressed bullshit.

Amusingly, the band's original GeoCities website is still up, with awesome text like "With this album SEANCE did penatrate [sic] their fans ears to the limit," and "Seance are still looking for a bassplayer, if you are a bassist over 22, have your own equvipment [sic] and are into the metal of death, send them a mail for more info."

Martin Grech - Unholy

The art of Stephen Kasner is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. Although I'm now familiar with his style, it still d/haunts me. It's a "take a deep breath and leap into the unknown" proposition, which I prize but find so rarely. I'm honored to have spoken with him; his interview and artwork are up today in my ongoing metal artists feature this week at Stylus.

Guiltless

Kasner did the cover for Martin Grech's Unholy (Island, 2005). It's the inverse of a Rothko take on a cross - not religious, but dirty, gauzy, fading. The image fits the the album, which pairs Grech's Jeff Buckley/Thom Yorke/male Bjork vocals with ambient alt-rock and occasional metal a la Tool or NIN. Like an M. Night Shyamalan movie, the result doesn't always work, but it's atmospheric as hell. "Guiltless," one of the album's singles, is a lush, slow burn.

Below are some outtakes from my interview with Kasner.

Do you think there's misanthropy in your work?

I think in terms of the darker side of nature, the darker side of man, buried thoughts, nightmares, regret, things that we as humans often try to bury - things that psychiatrists make a lot of money on.

In your album artwork, you often focus on a central element instead of playing with the edges of the frame.

In my paintings in general, I usually have a central focus or various groups of focus, and there's also areas that are not focused. They're unrefined, and I don't mean that in a negative way. It's almost like pinhole photography, where you have a focus, coupled with areas of distorted image.

I've always been fascinated by early photography. Some of the most powerful images I've ever seen have been in early photography or portraiture, where things are as refined as they can be, but the tools and techniques they employed at the time had a natural distortion to it. There's something about that to me that's so melancholy and so beautiful. Not to read too much into the edges of my paintings, but I think it's part homage to these photographic images.

Are you one of those people that prefer vinyl to CD's?

I most certainly do. But CD's and MP3's become very handy in the studio. If I'm working in the studio, I'm working for many, many hours. My work is pretty dirty. It's pretty hefty work. I don't paint in a very controlled environment. A lot of times I'm throwing huge buckets of paint and washes on my work. It's very tactile and messy. So it'd become inconvenient to always be flipping vinyl. But I do have a vinyl collection that I appreciate very much when I'm at home.

Jedi Mind Tricks & Ill Bill - Heavy Metal Kings

My metal artists feature at Stylus today highlights Larry Carroll, who did the covers for Slayer's Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss, and Christ Illusion. He's also doing the cover for The Hour of Reprisal, the upcoming album by Ill Bill of Non Phixion fame.

It's no coincidence that the title is a Slayer lyric. Ill Bill and his brother Necro once played in a death metal band called Injustice, and Non Phixion's logo was a tribute to Voivod's. His MySpace has a song that's hip hop lyrics over full-on metal, but the flows don't mesh well with the riffs. Bad Brains' H.R. and Daryl Jenifer contribute to The Hour of Reprisal, which evidently will include vocal hooks from Max Cavalera and Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage.

The metal doesn't stop there. Ill Bill dropped a verse on Jedi Mind Tricks' "Heavy Metal Kings," in which "heavy metal" refers to guns, not music. But JMT'S Vinnie Paz says, "We're basically trying to convey the energy of old-school metal, real rugged shit - but in hip hop." The single's cover is totally metal, as is the title of its album - Servants in Heaven, Kings in Hell. The album even takes song titles directly from Slayer, Venom, Amorphis, Sinergy, and Trivium.


Ill Bill's verse features the lines, "I'm a Slayer album personified," and "Blast the black metal at you like Danny Lilker." The latter is technically true, as Lilker has done time in black metal bands Hemlock and Overlord Exterminator. BM is hardly Lilker's calling card, though, so maybe Ill Bill's metal knowledge runs deep?

In the song's video, Paz wears shirts of Iron Maiden and Terror (he seems to be rocking Nike's Iron Maiden trainers in the making-of video below, ). A limited edition of the album even had a remix of the song with Terror on guitars. R.A. the Rugged Man makes a cameo in the video; he's oddly reminiscent of SFU's Chris Barnes. The making-of video below is quite enjoyable, so check it out.

V/A - Contaminated 5.0

At Stylus this week, I have a feature (URL updated) on artists who do metal album artwork. Each day will publish an interview and artwork for a different artist - Orion Landau, Larry Carroll, Stephen Kasner, Dan Seagrave, and John Dyer Baizley. This blog will host supplementary materials and interview outtakes for these artists.

Neurosis - The Tide

Arguably, no label has an in-house graphic designer on par with Relapse's Orion Landau. He mentioned that John Heartfield was his primary influence, which prompted me to look him up. Turns out that Heartfield was a German named Helmut Herzfeld who made powerful anti-Hitler collages. Landau lifted the face from Heartfield's Italy in Chains for the cover of the Contaminated 5.0 compilation, as well as artwork for Relapse's Contamination Festival.

Italy in Chains

The CD itself doesn't need review, as each Contaminated is basically a Relapse greatest hits at the time. From the comp, I've posted "The Tide" by Neurosis (one of Landau's favorite bands) to, uh, tide you over while you read the feature. The interview outtakes below are from a discussion of when Landau first started working for Relapse.

What year are we talking about?

Around 2001.

I actually lived in San Francisco for some time around then.

Oh, cool! Where'd you live?

I was living in the Lower Haight, right next to the projects.

Yeah (laughs). I lived down there for a little while, too.

The prices went up probably because of the tech boom.

Yeah, that dot com explosion happened. What happened was, San Francisco became the Internet news hub of the world. We had a shop for $1500 that we were sharing with a couple other people off of Market. We lost our lease, and our [rent] went from $1500 to $22,000. I was, like, "I'm done, I need a break" (laughs). I'm not a business person; I like doing art. It was really appealing to go somewhere where people who were good at business would do business, and I could just focus on the creative end of things.

Is there some resource where I can see everything you've done?

Oh, god, I'm so unorganized (laughs). You know what? I have no idea how you would do that, sorry.

Are there any creations of yours you particularly enjoy?

I have such a hard time looking at my work. Sometimes I'll come back to something a year later and go, "Oh, wow, that was all right." But I always feel like moving on to the next thing. Recently, I was pretty happy with the Cephalic Carnage and Coldworker layouts, because I felt like I was pushing myself as hard as I could go for unusual packaging.

It must be hard to avoid your work, since it's in stores and on people's shirts.

Oh, yeah (laughs). It is a nice reward. But I don't do any of this for that. Why I do this is I really enjoy working with bands and other creative people. I'm just excited to get to work every day.

Paul Romano offers prints of some of his album artwork for sale. Do you do anything similar?

No. I've been approached by a couple people. I have considered it, and I may do that in the future. I love Paul's stuff, he's a really great artist.

Hirax, Six Feet Under, Obscurus Advocam...

Obscurus Advocam

Some new writing up - at Metal Injection, I've reviewed robust efforts by old-school thrashers Hirax and 420 advocates Six Feet Under, as well as black metal from The Ruins of Beverast and Obscurus Advocam. The latter has been really doing it for me lately - black metal that's heavy for once! At Stylus, I have a dual review of Croatian math rockers Cog and Bosnian electronic/rock hybrid Vuneny, both on the always-inspiring Moonlee Records.

Hirax - Assassins of War
Obscurus Advocam - Verbia Daemonicus
Cog - Up Anchors, Down Sails

Antigama, Throne of Katarsis, Get Thrashed, and more

Antigama

A bunch of new writing up - at Metal Injection, I've got reviews of Polish grinders Antigama, Norwegian black metal band Throne of Katarsis, and Los Angeles prog metallers Redemption, as well as interviews with Spanish band NahemaH and shredder Laura Christine from San Diego death metallers Warface.

Antigama - Neutral Balance