Messages

Wow. Best of luck to you ECH.
I'd love to make you foot the bar tab next time you roll through town.

You know, when I said circus freaks, I didn't mean it in a bad way. I meant like, a cool kind of circus performer, instead of clowns or something.

THIS

I went to this event in Sydney one time with my friends called dark circus (or something), part sideshow, part burlesque and part rave, and there were plenty of girls dressed up like that there.

I have a friend who performs as a clown for something like this here in Omaha.
Honestly, I'm not really into that scene,  just not my thing.

Sweet. I love early 90's death metal (and various sub-genre incarnations thereof). I was all Metallica and G'n'R when I was 14. Just before my 15th birthday I was given a copy of Obituary's classic album "Cause of Death" and, well, the rest is history. I always thought of that early generation of death metal as being the closest incarnation I could find at the time to what the spirit of punk rock was supposed to be about, even though I wasn't savvy enough to put it in those terms back then. I just knew that there was a musical honesty present there that was lacking in everything else I was hearing at the time, and that it didn't even seem possible for bands like that to engage in pretense. As that was a very formative time for me personally and those were some very formative ideas for me personally, the timing couldn't have been better and a lifelong musical love affair was kindled.

It sounds like we're pretty similar in this regard, I remember being into Metallica and G'n'R when I was around 11 or 12 years old. It was at least another five or years or so before I really started to get into any sort of underground metal, I was introduced to the genre by a friend of mine my freshman year of High School.  I remember he lent me Hypocrisy - The Final Chapter, Hatebreed - s/t, Cryptopsy - Whisper Supremacy, the Locust - s/t, and Carcass - Heartwork. Of those albums, I really liked Carcass and Hypocrisy, the Locust was an interesting novelty which I enjoyed, and it wasn't much later that I began to appreciate Cryptopsy... or the more growly types of metal in general. I used to dismiss a lot of that stuff as noise, but as I developed an ear for it, I began to hear what I was missing. That kid had an awesome oldschool metal collection that we would frequently listen to in his jeep, and a lot of my friends started to get into metal around the same time, but back then I was very influenced by the strong opinions of these people so there are a lot of things that I dismissed, which now I appreciate.

It was a lot harder to find back then. There was no Youtube with which to sample music, Napster and Audiogalaxy existed for sharing Mp3's but for underground stuff it wasn't terribly intuitive. Back then, it seemed to be about who you knew, and what they knew... that was how we became exposed to new music. Also, I was lucky enough to live in a town that had a thriving local scene, although I may not have recognized it at the time... I was privileged to play a role in that scene, minor though it may have been. These days maybe it has become somewhat of a joke, a product, but in its roots and at its heart, it has integrity.

Years ago, when I was bar tending, one of my regulars was an older fellow who used to work in some capacity as a talent scout for some major label... I forget which one. He said, regarding punk, that in those days the labels considered it to be mostly an inside joke... that they wanted to take this awful, terrible, unrefined, style of what they didn't even consider to be music, and turn it into a trend so that they could market it, and turn a profit, just to prove that they could. Maybe so, but I can't help but think that the true appeal of that music was in its integrity, and that without it their 'experiment' would have been a failure. None the less, it was the first step for them in taking that music, and perverting it in a way, to achieve their own ends. Such is the way of things. Does it make the music more or less memorable, that these people were being exploited? I don't think it matters so much. Nowadays, it practically is a joke, and this is true for Metal as much as it is for punk. I strongly doubt that there is ANY style of music that does not suffer from this phenomenon in one regard or another.

However, it should be stated that we're just scratching the surface. Those things that are marketed and packaged for the mass media, the watered down 'punk' that sells millions of albums, the Aggro music with nothing to offer but angst over a catchy tune, these are the things that everybody can see but they are hardly an accurate reflection of whats under the surface. That kind of integrity, which existed in the first days of punk, the early days of metal, is something that wont be wiped out until everybody has been completely homogenized. Until they succeed in eradicating identity itself, that kind of integrity, that mode, will always exist. It will be buried under the surface, but it will be there.

I WILL take your advice, Pixie.
Although, It wont be the crux of my strategy.

Gorillaz, Bobby Womack and Mos Def - Stylo

I liked the video.
Its certainly a lot better than the new GaGa.

[excellent]

In the recent months, I've purchased a new guitar and amplifier, which in turn has revived my interest in Metal and Music in general. My interest in these matters has shifted, perhaps matured, enough that I feel that it is worthwhile for me to revive this thread. In the spirit of impeccability, I will address almost every concern posted starting from page one, specifically those that I may not have addressed during the period when I was internet impaired. I also intend to expound upon my own interest in the genre, as it relates to how my interest in that genre has shifted over the past couple years. I would also like to add that I am always open to suggestions, although the degree to which I follow up on them will be a matter of personal discretion. In other words, if you want me to die in a fire, you'll have to make it happen yourself.

I'll start by revisiting notions in the thread, before I move on to expounding on any of my own thoughts.

And giant moon beetles will descend on Washington, and eat all the politicians.

I hope they do.

I prefer to rock out to the madman himself, Sir Elton John.

The famous headbangers, The Rolling Stones, aren't bad, either.

Sometimes, Metal is nothing more than a reduction of rock, like a kind of Rock Stock.

Meshuggah = wanking, for the sake of wanking
not that I dislike them, mind you, I think they're listenable, if a bit pedestrian, but they are DEFINITELY wanking.

Meshuggah has some interesting polyrhythms, but that's about it. I dont care for them much personally.

Seriously.

I'm just wondering how tuning down and having an extra 2 strings on your guitar = technical.

Its a toolbox. For example, a seven string guitar would allow you to have the heavy sound of a B tuning without sacrificing the high E tones for, say, Solos... or whatever. Anyway, I'm sure you already know this. What the guy said that prompted this statement from LMNO was pretty stupid. Also, a lot of things that guy continued to say weren't very smart either. I WILL get around to listening to the song he uploaded, and deciding on it myself, but I'm not looking forward to it (I dont like listening to Meshuggah).

Solitude Aeturnus--The godfathers of modern American Doom

listening to this right now... and I've listened to so muchfuneral doom that to me that this sounds a lot like Power Metal Lite... but I do like it, its just not that Doom Doom Doom Doom Doom Doom.

What album are you listening to?  Into the Depths of Sorrow, to me, is Classic Doom in the vein of St. Vitus, Candlemass, and even Dio era Sabbath.  Later stuff did get into more standard heavy metal but Depths and Beyond the Crimson Horizon seem pretty doomy to me.

In terms of Doom, I DO believe this actually got brought up again in a later thread. I get the distinct feeling that RWHN and I have slightly different, yet related, tastes in music. Whereas the doom that I like tends to be on the extreme end of Funeral Doom, the sort of stuff that he likes is a little bit more ... well I'm not exactly entirely sure how its described, but like Candlemas, and even Dio era Sabbath.

I am currently trying to download metal bands with female lead singers.I got some stuff from Arch Enemy,Lacuan Coil,and Kittie.

Any other suggestions?

Hmm, I actually cant think of too many. Walls of Jericho has a female lead singer, who does growly vocals, but they're a hardcore band. Although if Kittie is metal, than Walls of Jericho might as well be. Also Undying had a female lead singer, and they're pretty good, they're one of those "I ripped off swedish melodic metal" sort of hardcore bands. There are also a lot of good Doom bands with female vocalists, although they're rarely in the lead.

CLUE FOR TEH CLUELESS:  *ALL* METAL BANDS ARE EITHER CORPORATE, OR DESPERATE TO BECOME SO.

THAT IS ALL.  YOU MAY NOW RETURN TO YOUR LABORS.

This would be true, but only in the sense that it would be true if you completely struck "metal" from your statement. A band usually wants to get signed to a label, but that doesn't necessarily mean Warner Brothers.

Unfortunately, Roger is partially right. 90% of all metal is crap, and the fans are usually jock assholes who are too full of themselves to admit that the entire genre of music is idiot. Much like discordianism, its better off when not taken seriously, but I dont think some asshole who's closest connection to the genre is Judas Priest is really the one to criticize it.

This thread is now doomed.  Any Mods reading it may lock it immediately at the authors request.

This is no less true now, than it was then.

meh, I just find 98% of all metal boring, regardless of sub-genre.

ECH,
does get a kick out of the new breed of pretentious indie-metal, though

Now we have stuff like Brokencyde and Attack Attack!.
How could it possibly get worse next?!

Finntroll is really good. Can you link (youtube or whatever) to other good Folk Metal? I'm curious.

Eluveitie:  A Swiss band that plays Celtic-infused metal complete with bagpipes, flutes, fiddles, and hurdy gurdy.  Check out "Inis Mona"
http://www.myspace.com/eluveitie

TYR:  A fun band from the Faroe Islands.  Check out their treatment of the Irish standard "Wild Rover"  A good drinking song for Metalheads.
http://www.myspace.com/tyr001

Speaking of drinking songs for metalheads, Alestorm, a Scottish Pirate-Metal band.  Dr. Payne can vouch for them as well.  Another fun band.
www.myspace.com/alestorm

Turisas:  A Finnish "battle metal" band.  Metal for LARPers.  
http://www.myspace.com/turisasofficial

Moonsorrow:  Another Finnish band.  A little closer to the black metal genre.  Quite a bit darker then some of these other bands I've listed.  
Good stuff though.  
http://www.myspace.com/moonsorrowofficial

Ensiferum:  Yet another Finnish folk metal band.  Similar in spirit to Turisas and Tyr.  A little heavier than those two bands.  
http://www.myspace.com/officialensiferum

That's probably a good start.  

This was an excellent addition to the thread.
I will only add one thing to this list,
Ulver - Kjeldsanger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_R0awatiTY&NR=1

This is just one song off the album, and its during the Ulver transition from black metal to... whatever they play now, fuck.

Also Burzum (who I like a lot these days, despite Varg being an idiot/genius... shit this topic almost deserves its own thread)

Also Aggoloch,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNTpL59t8IE&feature=PlayList&p=47891880F4E1E515&index=0&playnext=1

dude, get the new Haunted CD, "Versus".

It comes out in 2 weeks. It's really really good.

I made pizza for The Haunted once, my friend set up the show at a local venue. The best part was when some crackheads were harassing a couple girls outside the venue, and you know people stepped in, but the reaction of the band was fucking great.

"Do you want us to get our guns? We have guns in the van."

In fairness, I probably am a little over-critical.  It's just hard to reconcile current Metallica with Ride the Lighting/Master of Puppets Metallica.  

Fetus Eaters - The Bus Should Have Fallen on Lars

An interesting new band.  (well new to me anyway)

From Denmark:  Volbeat -- The Human Instrument

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOTGcBon7hE

They've got a very interesting sound.  

Reminds me of Isengard

So, the nominees for the 09 Grammy's are out.  They continue to be COMPLETELY out of touch.  In fact, it seems like they are so out of touch, they just gave their nomination ballots to their teenagers, here are the nominees:

I wasnt aware there was any correlation between the grammys and music.

     the zombie of Cliff Burton needs to come eat the remaining members.
 

As for what I've been up to lately, I've been revisiting the oldschool metal that I either havent listened to in years, or that I overlooked when I was young and I didnt quite have the ear for it. The pinnacle of this, IMO, is DEATH specifically the album Scream Bloody Gore. This was all kicked off a few weeks ago, when talking to my friend Joe down at his record shop, and we sat and listened to it. All of a sudden, I cant get over the awesomeness of the shit that was coming out in the late 80s/early 90s. Simple, straightforward, full of integrity... its all so awesome.

So here is my new and revised list of shit that is awesome, shit I left out of the first list,  in many cases the shit from which my interest in this first sprung, or in other cases the shit without which, the stuff I like wouldn't exist. This list will be in the style of links to songs I rock out to, and a brief description in each case of why I think the song is so awesome.

I call this section of this post....

Awaiting the Oldschool

Death - Zombie Ritual

I've been on a bit of an oldshool kick lately, and it all started a couple weeks ago when I sat down with my friend Joe at his record shop, and we listened to the very first Death album. Death was always one of those bands that I payed lip service too, only casually listening to, and when I did listen to them it was usually out of context... I was fully aware of the influence that Chuck Schuldiner had on the genre, but I was too busy with the new generation to really listen. This is hardly the pinnacle for Death, they get a lot more technical and a lot more developed, but when you listen... you have to realize that these guys are barely twenty years old, and this came out in 87. I'm older than that now, and I'm learning to play this song, its not that hard... but it demonstrates to me that I have a long way to go. In other words, if you dislike this post, blame this song.

Sinister - To Mega Therion
This song is cheesy and kind of catchy, Its included because I used to singalong to it in high school. SATAN WILL BE VICTORIOUS IN THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON, LOL. Hate was released in 1995.

Sinister - Awaiting The Absu
This is a much better example of decent music, off of the same album as the previous link.

Sinister - Cross the Styx
The title track from the first Sinister album... released in 92. Also the working title for my band, atm, is Crust the Styx...but thats mostly a joke between Joe & I. The way things work around here anyway, we'll play half a dozen house shows under one name, change members, and repeat.

Possessed - Seven Churches
Another progenitor of the Death Metal genre. 1985... I still think this is better than most of the shit that comes out these days. To think that I was only three years old when this came out. I had advanced tastes.

Unholy - Neverending Day
This is probably my favorite Doom band. They're pretty old, and sound like the unwanted child of Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath

Scholomance - Bedevilment and Bewilderment Reality Meets I really dont know too much about this band, except that I have thought this music was awesome for some years. Listen, or dont.

Atheist - Pieces of Time
Atheist is just fucking good in general. They set the precedent (along with Cynic) for fusing Jazz with metal, this becomes important later on. This was released in 1989.

Atheist - Air A later track by Atheist(93). More jazz in this one, gives you an idea of how they progressed, its quite nice.

Gorguts - Condemned to Obscurity Here we have Gorguts in 93 as well. I chose this song for the somewhat ironic title. I never liked this era of Gorguts much, but I can hear the talent.

Gorguts - Earthly Love Comparing the earlier Gorguts albums to this one is a little unfair, its hardly the same band. This album is certainly a turning point for them, I wish I could say for metal in general, but my opinion is bias. This has, for a long time, not only been my favorite metal album... but my favorite album of any genre, period. Its truly groundbreaking, and truly unique.

Lead - Meditation of Flesh I honestly cant believe I found this on Youtube. This is one of my favorite metal bands of all time, possibly because they are awesome, and possibly because they are from Omaha. I used to see these guys live all the time, and it was awesome, I've posted their lyrics before on this site as well... its not the best song off the album. I'll have to see about finding a copy of this album to upload to youtube (mine has been lost), I'll have to talk to joe. Its worth saving this shit for posterity, possibly VSB too. Interesting bit of trivia, the bass player is DaPose from The Faint. Actually, come to think of it, one of my very first shows (let alone metal shows) was seeing these guys play in a basement with Mortician and Skinless.

Wasteoid - some live shit cause these guys are local (for me, anyway), and fun to see live. All they have up on youtube are live videos with shitty sound, like that really makes a difference.

Necrophagist - Fermented Offal Discharge this song is from the first Necrophagist album, which came out in 1999. Gives you an idea how far technical death metal has came since the 90's I guess, its ok.

Lead - Misogynistic Mastication Epic Predator sample... also great sing-along. I cant find the one with the good sing-along, "I WANT TO TAKE PICTURES OF MY DOG." Oh well.

Thats enough for now I guess.

How do you propose I should go about bringing back 80's speed metal?

My favorite salad is a classic, but its hardly healthy.

Salad Lyonnaise

A handful of fresh frisee lettuce, torn into bite sized pieces
2 strips bacon
1 teaspoon chopped shallots
1 Poached egg
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Thats the recipe I found online.
When I make it, I usually recycle a small portion of the bacon grease into the dressing instead of using olive oil.
Cut the bacon into fine bits. Mix the bacon grease/vinegar/dijon together.
Top with the egg.
Enjoy.

Tormentor - Anno Domini

This video has lyrics! Which is cool, cause you know, its hungarian black metal, and his bad english is pretty awesome.

Reminds of of Cemetery Man.
"You know, we have a fantastic Ossuary."

I imagine we could have a pretty interesting discussion on parasite fetishism in that other thread.
Or would that be going too far?

Does PD love Lynch as much as I do?

Hoops and I have macked on Lynch here before...don't recall anyone else with the gaga for the dude, though.

I'm a huge David Lynch fan, and in one of my more petty moments here I've used still images from eraserhead to spag up someones thread. Of course, my favorite movie of his is The Straight Story.

I, for one, am just glad that there are valuable news organizations out there like Fox and CNN so I can read about this guy and his invention.

I bet almost every nerd, geek, old lonely guy out there has bought one already.

I use mine to larp FATAL

Right, but what are they exactly?

Speed or Crack pipes.
They sell them in the gas stations and liquor stores around here.
They're little glass tubes that have little flowers in them.

I'd suggest looking into the work of the famous neurologist and writer, Oliver Sacks. He's written a number of books, which are all very interesting, and you can find a number of videos of him speaking on neurology on youtube. I'm pretty sure he's the character basis for Prof. Raleigh St. Clair in the Royal Tenenbaums.

Anyway his books are fascinating, and fun reads, so I strongly suggest you check that out.