Initial Impressions: Lecherous Nocturne: Adoration of the Blade

Lecherous Nocturne is an American death metal band that has recently toured with Cannibal Corpse. They are beginning to get some more underground attention, and rightfully so as this is the kind of dirty, raw, and ugly death metal that we need in a time when many death metal bands are over-produced, overly technical, or passionless. This is a breath of fresh air, as long as that air stinks of evil.

This is occult death metal more in lines with groups like Incantation and Immolation. The riffs have a meaty, otherworldly sound to them. The songs are all relatively short and fast. The whole album clocks in at less than half an hour making this a quick listen. Despite the short nature, each of the songs has a somewhat complex structure, it is not just constant chaos. Even the title track, the shortest song at less than two minutes, does not constantly blast as many death metal bands do.

The only bad thing about this album is the production. The riffs are so high in the mix that the vocals really cannot be heard much at all. It's unfortunate because the vocals are another strong aspect of the band. I would like to see this band develop their ideas a little more as well. At this band, they are a younger band, but they have some potential to be a devastating death metal band.

Initial Impressions: Vorkuta: Into the Chasms of Lunacy

Black metal quickly spread across Europe in the 1990's. Vorkuta formed in Hungary of all places. Eastern European countries have become reasonably well-known for producing some fine black metal bands over the years, most notably Drudkh and Negura Bunget. We'll see if Vorkuta has it in them to reach the same notoriety.

The album starts off with a beautiful sweeping melody and guitar solo and builds up and then falls back into the soft opening for "Gargoyle". As with many other Eastern European black metal bands, Vorkuta's sound is meant to be atmospheric. Several of the tracks on the album have softer ambient parts. There are some moments when the band is playing a more traditional style of black metal, but these are often interspersed among softer moments. "My Flaming Soul" remains a mostly fast-paced song and is probably the best song on the album. The vocals are mostly done in a typical black metal rasp. It's difficult to make out the lyrics.

Much of the second half of the album is done in a more ambient, softer style, including all of "Stardust" and "Within the Fortress of Melancholia". I am not a big fan of this type of sound. I don't mind occasional moments, but this seems a little excessive.

This album is good when the band is playing black metal, but it really drags during the ambient tracks. It's a short album, but seems much longer than it is during those ambient songs.

Initial Impressions: Brown Jenkins: Death Obsession

Of all of the possible fusions of metal genres out there, blackened doom metal seems to be one of the least-explored. Next to blackened power metal of course, which I am not sure exists yet. Something to look out for. But I digress, here we have blackened doom metal band Brown Jenkins. The first thing you will probably notice is the odd name. Well, it's the name given to the small brown rat with a human face familiar in H.P. Lovecraft's The Dreams in the Witch House. Not quite so bizarre now.

Anyway, onto the music. What we have here are mostly doom riffs, but played in a black metal style. That is to say that they are higher-register riffs played with a lot of distortion, fairly similar to alternative rock bands of the 1980's. They kind of have a jangly sound to them. The bass rumbles along underneath the guitar riffs giving the proceedings a kind of spacy feel. The songs are all very slow, as could probably be expected and each one seems to build in urgency until the end when they just fade out. The riffs kind of have a droning quality, while remaining clearly metal. The music gets a little psychedelic and hypnotic at times. The vocals are delivered in a deep roar and sound as if they are coming from a malevolent force deep in a dark cave, particularly on the suffocating "Lifetaker". The whole album sounds like the soundtrack to an intense nightmare.

Brown Jenkins released this album after they had already split up. I am not sure they would have been able to match the sinister intensity of this album. I have not heard their other albums to this point, and I do not know yet whether I will. This is a fine album, but it is a little strange and from what I understand it's a bit more of a unique sound from these guys. Their other albums are not quite like this.

5 Important Bands, 1 Genre Pt. 3: Death Metal

I have not done one of these in a very long time. To refresh memories or, for new readers, to explain this, these are five bands that have helped me become interested in this genre. Not all of these bands are technically death metal, or still death metal, whatever the case may be. But these bands have influenced me enough into looking more deeply into death metal.

CANNIBAL CORPSE
The first death metal band I was ever aware of was Cannibal Corpse. As many of you know, Cannibal Corpse had a cameo in the first Ace Ventura movie. They played "Hammer Smashed Face" in that clip. I was in seventh grade when I saw that and I had no fucking clue what the hell they were (it was also my first date). I was in awe of the vocal style. It was the heaviest thing I had ever heard. At that point, I still had not really started listening to metal so I didn't think much more of them. Later, they appeared on a tribute album to Black Sabbath that I got and one of my friends loaned me his Ace Ventura soundtrack, which I still have because he died in a car accident before I had a chance to give it back to him.

Cannibal Corpse was probably the first real death metal band I ever listened to, but it would be quite awhile before I started picking up their albums. I liked them when I heard them on various artist compilations and the rare times I heard them on TV or radio, but never really bought any albums until after law school. I have no idea why that is to this day. Cannibal Corpse was the first death metal band I ever heard and was the impetus for me looking into the actual genre.

SEPULTURA
Although Cannibal Corpse was the first real death metal band I started looking into, Sepultura's Morbid Visions was the first album in my collection that could be reasonably considered a death metal album. Sepultura is much more of a thrash metal band, but in their early days, they were heavier than virtually everything else out there. All of the requirements for death metal were present on Morbid Visions, heavy riffs, deep and harsh vocals, and an evil atmosphere. This album helped pave the way for both death metal and black metal. This album was initially disappointing to me as I was originally into their later stuff with Max in ninth grade. Now, it's one of my favorite Sepultura albums.

FEAR FACTORY
Fear Factory is a band who used to be more of a death metal band. Prior to their industrial groove metal, Fear Factory played more of an industrial-sounding death metal. They also are one of first bands to experiment with both clean and harsh vocals on their albums. Fear Factory was an early extreme metal band that I got into at around the same time that I was getting into Sepultura. The harsh death growls on their albums helped serve as a gateway into listening to more and more bands who utilized similar vocal tricks. Demanufacture is still a favorite album.

CELTIC FROST
Celtic Frost was a major influence on pretty much all genres of extreme metal over the years. I first heard Celtic Frost on a various artists compilation and then owned a tribute album. On that tribute album were bands from many different metal genres including death metal bands Sadistic Intent, Grave, Slaughter, and more. Their bass-heavy slower thrash riffs had a major influence on death metal. Many death metal bands have covered tracks by Celtic Frost.

DARK TRANQUILLITY
The melodic death metal band that rises above almost all others was a major gateway into the death metal style without being overly harsh or gory. I started picking up albums from this band early in college. From that point on, my interest in death metal exploded. The band utilized harsh vocals, but accompanied that with melody.

That takes us into my college years. It still wasn't until after law school that I started picking up a lot of death metal albums. As a poor college and law school student, I did not have the money. However, after getting my first job as a lawyer, my CD collection boomed and I started getting albums from Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Entombed, Dismember, and more. The five bands I listed formed the core of my death metal listening habits. I filled in the gaps as soon as I could.

Blind Buy Surprise Albums Pt. 16: Benediction: Transcend the Rubicon

The early days of death metal saw the origins of three major scenes: New York style death metal from the likes of Suffocation and Immolation, Florida death metal from Death and Morbid Angel, and Swedish death metal from Entombed and Grave, among many others. Death metal spread quickly though and bands were popping up in many unusual places, places like Norway which was more famous for black metal, Poland, Brazil, and many other countries. Even the U.K., which was at the forefront of the metal scene for a few decades started seeing death metal bands pop up.

The U.K.'s death metal scene mostly developed out of grindcore. Bands like Napalm Death, Carcass, and Bolt Thrower were all originally grindcore bands that progressively became more death metal-oriented. Benediction was another of these bands, though less well-known. They are easily one of the heaviest death metal bands from that time period, with a very deep and bass-heavy sound and some powerful low roars from vocalist Dave Ingram, who also did some time in Bolt Thrower.

This album basically came out of nowhere. It is incredibly heavy and surprisingly fast. It quickly became one of my favorite death metal albums. It is very underrated. Benediction has not been quite the same since Ingram has been gone. They are still an enjoyable enough band, but the vocals are not as impressive.

So, why did I pick this up? Because of the awesome cover. Sometimes that does work out.

Initial Impressions: Witchery: Witchkrieg

Witchery is finally back after a four year hiatus following a mostly disappointing album. The band can be considered a super group, formed by members of The Haunted and Arch Enemy and basically being formed from the ashes of Satanic Slaughter. This time around the vocalist is the great Legion from Marduk and Devian, and one of my favorite evil-sounding black metal vocalists. Hearing him do Swedish thrash is a little different but he of course sounds great.

Swedish thrash has never really taken off as its own scene to the extent that German and Bay Area thrash has done. There are several good groups in the scene including Witchery, The Haunted, Carnal Forge, The Crown, and others, but it has not risen to the same level of notoriety. Nor does it really deserve to do so. Don't get me wrong, there are some good albums, but it doesn't have the same dynamics as other scenes.

As I said, Witchery's previous album was a bit lackluster, but this album sounds great. The thrash is brutal and fast, the vocals are dark and evil, the riffs are mostly impressive, and the solos are great. The band has rediscovered its menacing edge and this whole album sounds like a malevolent force of evil. The additional guitar solos by guest members of bands like Mercyful Fate, Exodus, Slayer, and others are definitely interesting. It does make one wonder what's wrong with Witchery's guitarist, but I would imagine it has more to do with the potential marketability than anything else.

The only real issue that I have with this album is that it does tend to drag a little bit as it continues. Other than that, many of the songs are fairly impressive and this is a very good return-to-form album for the Swedish thrash group.

Initial Impressions: Pathology: Legacy of the Ancients

I've been in a slam death mood for a little while again. These phases come and go I guess. I have been trying to avoid placing too many online orders for albums so finding this CD at Hastings was a pleasant surprise. As far as slam death goes, this group is surprisingly accessible and definitely not as gore-obsessed or misogynistic as other bands. Which means they are probably not well-received by some of the more hardcore fans of the genre.

One other strange note before launching into the music. This band is now on Victory Records, a label heretofore known as more of a hardcore label with groups like Hawthorne Heights, Atreyu, Taking Back Sunday, and lots of other terrible bands. So seeing a slam death band on the label is pretty shocking. This kind of thing usually gets released on Sevared, Comatose, Amputated Vein or occasionally Relapse.

Anyway, things start off melodically and eerie with a string intro and then it launches directly into the first slam early in the second track. The production is extremely beefy with lots of bass. It's otherwise clear and you could almost make out the lyrics if not for the incredibly deep guttural vocals at work. Fairly typical for slam so no complaints here. This album sounds great, it is not nearly as raw as many other slam albums.

As I mentioned before, this is a bit more of an accessible slam album. The slams are all still there, but they are complemented by slightly technical riffing and leads. The musicians are all talented and play well. The songwriting is impressive and these songs are surprisingly memorable and don't blend in with each other, which has sometimes been the downfall of many slam bands.

Lyrically, the band deals with horror themes, as evidenced by the zombie cover art. They do not have the same gore obsession or irritating misogyny as other bands, which is a big plus. Sometimes that makes it extremely difficult to listen to this style.

If I had to point to a new album to look into to get into this genre, this album by Pathology would be the one. It does not possess many of the elements that make slam an intense genre and it sounds close enough to technical brutal death to be interesting. This is a good gateway album into the world of slam.

Cover Art: The Reaper

The Grim Reaper has been the subject of many album covers. This is most likely due to the dark nature of the character, the collector of souls. Here's a sample of the album covers the Grim Reaper has appeared on:








As terrifying as the Grim Reaper may be though, this is way more terrifying. This is our year-and-a-half old blue heeler, The Reaper.
Yep, way more terrifying.

Weekly Recap: 7/4-7/10

Sunday was the 4th of July and my fiancee and I stayed home. Since we have weddings out of town every other weekend this month, it was nice to be home. It also meant that we had the rare holiday where we got to do our own thing. It was a very good holiday that involved grilling outside and then setting off fireworks. We didn't have a lot, but we had a pretty decent show. The Reaper was outside with us as well and gradually stopped fearing the noise as the night wore on.

Monday and Friday I was off work. The office was closed on Monday due to the holiday and Friday was the Madison County Bar Association Summer Outing, which for some stupid reason did not allow families. Very disappointing. The rest of the week was spent briefing depositions. I hate that stuff.

From a metal standpoint, I picked up two new CDs, Witchery and Pathology. These are two more examples of inconsistency regarding Hastings. Witchery is on the same label as Nachtmystium and Nevermore and yet, they got Witchery, but not the other two. Pathology is on Victory Records, a label known for hardcore. Odd for a slam death band.

Absu: Absu
Autopsy: Horrific Obsession
Besatt: Hail Lucifer
Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath
Blaspherian: Allegiance to the Will of Damnation
Blood of Kingu: De Occulta Philosophia
Brain Drill: Quantum Catastrophe
Church Bizarre: Sinister Glorification
Cobalt: Gin
Confessor: Confessor
Danzig: Deth Red Sabaoth
Deceased...: As the Weird Travel On
Deceased...: Luck of the Corpse
Despair: Beyond All Reason
Dokken: Tooth and Nail
Evocation: Tales from the Tomb
Faith No More: Album of the Year
Faith No More: Angel Dust
Faith No More: King for a Day...Fool for a Lifetime
Faith No More: The Real Thing
Goatwhore: Serenades to the Tides of Blood
Goatwhore/Epoch of Unlight: Corruption in Increments
Gwar: Ragnarok
Heathen: Breaking the Silence
Heathen: Victims of Deception
Impaled: The Last Gasp
Impiety: Terroreign
Infernaeon: A Symphony of Suffering
Intruder: Psycho Savant
King Diamond: The Spider's Lullabye
Lethal: Programmed
Metallica: ...And Justice for All
Metallica: Master of PuppetsNailbomb: Proud to Commit Commercial Suicide
Napalm Death: Fear, Emptiness, Despair
Nirvana 2002: Recordings 89-91
Nitro: O.F.R.
Nocturnal Breed: Fields of Rot
Nocturnus: The Key
Nuclear Desecration: Nuclear Demons Attack
October 31: Visions of the End
Pathology: Legacy of the Ancients
Sacred Reich: Independent
Sinister: Diabolical Summoning
Suffocation: Effigy of the Forgotten
The Haunted: Versus
Trench Hell: Southern Cross Ripper
Trouble: Plastic Green Head
Voivod: Nothingface
Warth: Hateful Speed
Wastelander: Wardrive
Witchery: Witchkrieg

Analyzing the Metalness of Faith No More

I have been thinking about this for some time. In my post on true metal vs. false metal, Kelly posited that he and I have some bands that we disagree on whether they are metal or not. He stated that he believes Slipknot is a metal band that I do not and asserted (correctly) that I believe Faith No More is a metal band and he does not. While I certainly understand his viewpoint that Faith No More is not a metal band, after all they have played many different styles over the years, respectfully I do not agree with it. As I have mentioned before, I believe that to be considered a metal band, a band must have one release that is predominantly metal. They may not be metal throughout their careers, but they must be metal on at least one album. I believe Faith No More qualifies under this rule. Faith No More has several albums that can be considered metal albums.

Kelly set forth his own test on Full Metal Attorney, and I still believe Faith No More qualifies under his test. He has two criteria, it must have ties to the sound of Black Sabbath, and it must sound like metal. Again, I believe Faith No More qualifies more often than not.

I will take these two criteria into consideration as I analyze each of Faith No More's full-length album under vocalist Mike Patton.

THE REAL THINGThe Real Thing was the breakthrough album for Faith No More. This album thrust the band into the mainstream with several big hits including "From Out of Nowhere", "Falling to Pieces", and of course "Epic". The album is a combination of a variety of styles including metal and funk.

The metal influence is fairly clear early on. Many of the songs have an underlying thrash metal-inspired guitar riff driving the song. Other elements such as slap bass style and heavy keyboards add on, but the thrash riffs are frequently present. The riff is even present during "Epic" which features rapped vocals by Mike Patton. Guitarist Jim Martin is clearly a metal guitarist and has been in a thrash metal band by the name of Voodoocult after leaving FNM and also doing two solo heavy metal albums in the late 1990's/early 2000's. Drummer Mike Bordin is also clearly a metal-influenced musician and parlayed this into stints with Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, as well as Jerry Cantrell.

The track "Surprise! You're Dead!" is one of the most metal songs the band has ever done. Featuring a strong thrash metal riff and some maniacal vocals including bloodcurdling screams from Mike Patton, this is an absolutely mind-blowing song. "Zombie Eaters" also features very strong metal influences after the initial soft parts and building into the climax. This continues throughout the title track. The band also covers the Black Sabbath classic "War Pigs". The only track on the album that does not have a metal base is the jazzy lounge song "Edge of the World".

This album, to me, sounds like clearly a metal album. There are some other elements present, but the basis is in metal with some heavy keyboard use to provide some melodies. This album can easily be recognized as a predominantly metal album. The guitar and drumwork provides the foundation for the band's sound on this release.

ANGEL DUSTThis album builds on some of the melodies from the previous albums. The keyboards and slap bass have taken on an even more prominent role in the band's sound. Guitar solos have also become more prevalent this time around. The sound overall is a bit more upbeat and funky, even though the subject matter remains dark. This album features the hit "Midlife Crisis".

As far as songs go, "Caffeine" features a repeating powerful metal riff. It is probably the most metal song on the album. "Midlife Crisis" also has, at its core, a metal riff. It is somewhat buried, but definitely present. "Smaller and Smaller" is another fairly clear metal track with a faster Sabbathian riff as its main melody. "Everything's Ruined" also features a metal riff in the bridge to the chorus. Other songs to feature metal elements include the dark and doomy "Malpractice", the more upbeat and funky thrash of "Kindergarten", and the slow-burning rage of "Jizzlobber".

There are a few more non-metal tracks on this album, such as "RV" and "Midnight Cowboy". "Be Aggressive" is mostly a funk rock track and features very little metal influence. It's also pretty damn funny. "Crack Hitler" is another extremely dark funk song.

There are several songs on here that focus more on the funk element of the band's music, but most of the songs remain rooted in metal. This album also appears to me to be a predominantly metal album and fit the criteria set forward by Kelly in his post.

KING FOR A DAY...FOOL FOR A LIFETIMEI reviewed this album in detail recently. It's a departure for the band as the various elements and styles are not combined into a coherent mix this time around. Instead, this album finds the band experimenting with different styles of music that are then released as full, individual songs. The metal songs on this album are more stripped-down and easily identifiable as such, and the non-metal songs bear very little metal influence.

Since I discussed this album in depth very recently, there's no point in rehashing things. At least half of this album's tracks are metal enough to have this album considered predominantly metal. Metal is the most frequent style at play on this album, even though there are several songs that clearly have little to no metal elements.

ALBUM OF THE YEARFaith No More's final full-length album so far finds the band stripping its sound down even more. This is also the only Patton-era FNM album I have a hard time classifying as predominantly metal. It's my least-favorite album from that time in the band's history as it is far softer and laid back. It still has its moments, but it is clear that the magic was gone by this point.

The album starts off promisingly with the track "Collision" which sounds like an outtake from the Angel Dust album but without all the intensity. It does feature a heavy guitar riff at its core, but is not clearly metal. "Stripsearch" features a metal riff at the very end of the song, but nothing more. "Last Cup of Sorrow" is built around a distorted heavy metal riff but does not use it to its full effect. "Mouth to Mouth" also has a slight metal riff as its foundation, although it is much more rhythmic than melodic.

The only tracks that are clearly metal are the skeletal riffs of "Naked in Front of the Computer", and "Got That Feeling". Each of these tracks feature shadows of the former thrash influences of the band's first two albums under Patton.

Many of the other songs feature large influences from other styles of music. There are several slower ballad-type songs on this album. Album of the Year fit in very well with the era's alternative rock mainstream, although few people really knew about it because most metal bands had been relegated to the underground, even those attempting to change with the times. It is unclear if FNM were changing with the times, or if this was a natural progression. I lean towards the latter given the band's other influences even at its most metal times.

CONCLUSION
As I alluded to, I believe Faith No More fits the criteria set out by Kelly in his post about defining metal. The band had thrash influences early in its history which covers the first prong of Kelly's test. In addition, the thrash riffs were a major part of the core of many of the band's songs. It is true that FNM had many other influences and played a lot of songs that would be difficult to classify as metal, but I believe their metal influences for the most part win out over the other influences.

Blind Buy Surprise Albums Pt. 15: Intruder: Psycho Savant

I have covered this album before, quite in depth. Essentially, this is a thrash metal band from the late 1980's and early 1990's when thrash was on the downswing of a spectacular period of activity. The band sounds like a cross between underrated Bay Area bands Death Angel and Heathen. They are a technical thrash metal band with a vocalist with a higher register vocal range. There are some great, cathcy songs on this album, but I have already covered that before.

What I want to talk about is how I came across this album. There is a shop here in Norfolk that is something of a novelty shop. They sell a bunch of random stuff and there is a tattoo parlor inside as well. They also have two walls of music, including CDs and cassettes. I don't think that the store gets new music in. It seems more likely that it somehow inherited this collection of music at one point and is still trying to rid itself of it.

I found the Intruder cassette in this store. Immediately upon looking at the cover, I could tell that this was a metal album. I picked it up without knowing anything about the band, I just knew the cover looked great. Am I ever glad I did that. This is a highly underrated thrash metal band from the genre's glory days. It's fun making discoveries like this.

Dusting Off a Cassette Pt. 48: Metallica: ...And Justice for All

I don't want to spend a ton of time reviewing this album for the music so much as talking about what it meant to me in my formative metal years. This was the second metal album I ever bought, being beaten only by Ride the Lightning. This was an absolutely incredible album to me at that time. I had never heard anything so complex and fast and intense in my life. My older brother listened to Metallica, sure, but he listened to The Black Album. This was different. This was Metallica at probably their most aggressive and extreme.

I had fallen in love with Metallica from the first album I ever bought. This second album reinforced that and kept me looking for more. I would still end up getting Master of Puppets before I ever got The Black Album. Even though the songs from that album were the first ones I really heard, that was not the most exciting album to me.

I listen back to this album now, and it is still a very interesting listen. It does feature some of the best riffs Metallica had ever written and it was certainly their most difficult and complex album. The drums are perhaps too high in the mix, and let's face it, Lars Ulrich is not the best drummer in the world. The bass is also too low in the mix, perhaps the band was being unfair to Jason Newsted, still grieving the death of Cliff Burton. This is an extremely angry Metallica.

"One" is perhaps one of their best-known songs, and certainly their best-known video. Every other track on here is bludgeoning and suffocating, filling the listener's ears with riff after riff delivered at breakneck speed.

While Ride the Lightning was my first metal album, I believe it may have been this album that convinced me that metal was the music to pursue.

Wastelander: Wardrive

Wastelander came out of nowhere to produce one of the biggest surprise albums from 2008. The band features a sound that calls to mind groups like Motorhead, Venom, Hellhammer, and Sodom. They play a combination of styles including crust punk and thrash metal, all played with a blackened style. Their sound is raw, intense, violent, and downright filthy.

Wastelander's music is fairly simple, but that is to be expected as the band is playing a primitive style of metal. The riffs are straightforward and not terribly complex, but they are presented in a high-octane energetic manner. There are guitar solos but they are often played very fast and over as quickly as they began. The vocals are sometimes delivered in an early black metal shriek, but are oftentimes shouted. These occasional vocals are the only real black metal influence on the album, although the riffs have an early Hellhammer/Venom feel to them at times.

The band's sound is heavily rooted in early punk and thrash metal. The guitar and bass riffs are heavily distorted, having a sound very similar to a much more punk-influenced Hellhammer. Even the vocals occasionally have the Tom Warrior grunting quality to them.

The album is short, being just over 36 minutes long and most of the songs are similarly brief. The band keeps their energy level up throughout, playing infectious and even somewhat bouncy songs throughout. The whole album feels like the band is having a great time playing. This sense of fun comes across to the listener very well making a very enjoyable listening experience.

The lyrics mostly deal with the apocalypse and post-apocalyptic situations. They are clearly influenced by movies such as Mad Max and other post-apocalyptic b-movies. Despite these bleak lyrical themes, the album is definitely not a downer.

Wastelander's debut album is an energetic travel through time. It is a combination of old school styles of punk and metal combined into something that feels fresh. It's an intriguing take on styles we have all heard before, but Wastelander pulls them off very well. This is a great first album for the band and they have a promising future.

Weekly Recap: 6/27-7/3

It's been a busy week. This post is a little late because I was in O'Neill for a wedding with my fiancee. It made me really anticipate my wedding next summer. Still 11 months to go.

Alice in Chains: Dirt
Arckanum: PPPPPPPPPP
Atomizer: Caustic Music for the Spiritually Bankrupt
Bathory: Blood Fire Death
Battlelore: The Last Alliance
Benediction: Killing Music
Black Sabbath: Forbidden
Burzum: Det Som Engang Var
Cannibal Corpse: Evisceration Plague
Catholicon: Treatise on the Abyss
Charnel Valley: The Igneous Race
Cobalt: Gin
Cynic: Traced in Air
Dark Moor: Beyond the Sea
Darkthrone: Transilvanian Hunger
Deiphago: Filipino Antichrist
Destruction: Infernal Overkill/Sentence of Death
Dio: The Last in Line
Dissection: The Somberlain
Edguy: Tinnitus Sanctus
Embalmer: There was Blood Everywhere
Emperor: Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Emperor: In the Nightside Eclipse
Faith No More: King for a Day, Fool for a Lifetime
Gama Bomb: Tales from the Grave in Space
Gorgoroth: Pentagram
Havok: Burn
Helloween: Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. 1
Immortal: Battles in the North
Immortal: Pure Holocaust
Impious: Holy Murder Masquerade
Khold: Hundre Ar Gammal
Kreator: Hordes of Chaos
Lord Belial: Enter the Moonlight Gate
Marduk: Rom. 5:12Marduk: World Funeral
Mayhem: De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Mayhem: Live in Leipzig
Nifelheim: Envoy of Lucifer
Overkill: Feel the Fire
Primordial: A Journey's End
Rumpelstiltskin Grinder: Living for Death, Destroying the Rest
Sacred Reich: Independent
Satyricon: Dark Medieval Times
Satyricon: The Age of Nero
Saxon: Into the Labyrinth
Shackles: Traitors' Gate
Slayer: Hell Awaits
Suffocation: Effigy of the Forgotten
Sylosis: Conclusion of an Age
Thanatos: The Burning of Sodom/...And Jesus Wept
The Black Dahlia Murder: Deflorate
The Lord Weird Slough Feg: Ape Uprising!
Trouble: Plastic Green Head
Voivod: Nothingface
Warbringer: Waking Into Nightmares
Wastelander: Wardrive

Dusting Off a Cassette Pt. 47: Radio Mix Tape

I was digging through some of my old music that I never listen to anymore and came across this gem. This is a mix tape I put together sometime around the mid 1990's. This was a time when nu-metal was starting to rear its ugly head. I would have been in eighth or ninth grade at the time this was put together. Back then, I used to sit by the radio with a blank tape and tape songs off of The Blaze. If I liked them, I would frequently get the album. It was at this time that The Blaze had The Power Hour on Wednesday nights when they would play substantially more metal stuff. I loved The Power Hour, and it helped introduce me to Trouble, Voivod, Grave, Paradise Lost, Slayer, and Machine Head, among others. I was very distraught when that show was cancelled. That was the beginning of the end for The Blaze as a decent radio station.

PUBLIC ENEMY W/ ANTHRAX: "BRING THA NOIZE"
This was recorded off of my brother's Public Enemy tape. It's one of the early examples of the crossover between rock and rap. It features Anthrax thrash riffs and the political-minded rap of Public Enemy. I'm pretty sure one of the Anthrax guys takes an ill-fated stab at rapping too. Partially responsible for nu-metal. Not bad though.

DEFTONES: "BORED"
Slow-burning angst-ridden track off their debut. It was enough to get me to buy the album at the time. Not sure I still have it. Never liked it that much. I don't understand the huge amounts of praise this band has always gotten. NFM.

MARILYN MANSON: "LUNCHBOX"
Really? This is one of the better, harder tracks, before he got all gothic and weird. I think I taped this before Marilyn Manson was real well-known. NFM.

TROUBLE: "PLASTIC GREEN HEAD"
This is just a great song. It took me a long time, but I finally decided to pick up this album from the trad doom titans. I have done a post on this album before.

VISIONS: "IN THE MIND'S EYE"
This sounds more like a harder punk or hardcore song. Nothing terribly impressive. I haven't looked into this anymore. NFM.

VOIVOD: "EROSION"
I bought this album, but it didn't have this song on it. Apparently this was only on some versions of the album, which is a shame because it would have been the best track on it. Excellent example of progressive thrash. Voivod is a highly underrated band.

KILGORE SMUDGE: "METAMORPHOSIS"
This is a little-known early nu-metal band. It sounds as good as you would expect. God the vocals are awful. Next please. NFM.

MOTLEY CRUE: "WILDSIDE"
One of the earlier, more metal Motley Crue tracks, this one does sound more like sped-up Priest with some pop influences for good effect.

MOTLEY CURE: "LIVEWIRE"
See above, but even heavier than the prior song. This is the Motley Crue I enjoy the most.

KISS: "HEAVEN'S ON FIRE"
Ugh, what was I thinking? NFM.

KISS: "DOMINO"
I generally prefer Gene Simmons over Paul Stanley when I have to hear Kiss. But this song is really cheesy and a little gross. It's about a famous groupie. He sounds like my grandpa, and that is disturbing on many levels. NFM.

KING'S X: "SOMETIME"
This was disappointing, one of their more blues/rock oriented songs. Not bad, just not what I hoped.

VALLEJO: "BOOGEYMAN"
This has a great bass line, but the vocals suck. Not metal. NFM.

GRAVE: "WORTH THE WAIT"
I now realize this is not the best example of this band's work, but at the time, it blew my mind. Additional points for the Hellraiser 3 sample at the beginning. This thing was awesome. I do own the CD now and it definitely pales in comparison to their other work, but hey, this song got me into them.

PARADISE LOST: "ONCE SOLEMN"
I got the Draconian Times album off of the strength of this song and "Forever Failure". This is a much faster track and is not representative of the band's general sound. The gothic doom band usually plays much slower but they proved they were definitely capable of playing fast on this track.

VOIVOD: "VORTEX"
Another Voivod track off their Negatron album. Another track that does not appear on my version of the album. Disappointing.

MICHELIN SLAVE: "THIS SIDE"
This sounds like some sort of industrial rock. Reminiscent of Ministry at first, although the comparison doesn't hold. It's okay, but I wouldn't check them out. NFM.

SAVATAGE: "HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING"
I love this song. One of the all-time great metal riffs. I'm not sure why it took me so long to get this album, I picked it up early this year. I also did a post on this album.

SAVATAGE: "JESUS SAVES"
This was off one of their mid-era albums when they were more interested in putting together rock operas. Still a decent song, and tells a good story. You can definitely see where Trans-Siberian Orchestra evolved out of on this.

SAVATAGE: "HANDFUL OF RAIN"
This is a ballad from Savatage. It's off of a later album. Not bad, but I'm not a huge ballad guy.

CRUSH: "NOWHERE NOW"
This also appears to be some form of industrial rock. Not terribly interesting either. NFM. Next.

SLAYER: "GEMINI"
This track appeared on their punk covers album and is the only new track on it. A decent song, but it has absolutely nothing on their 1980's material. This is much slower, but still violent and abrasive.

CANNIBAL CORPSE: "MONOLITH"
The first time I heard this version of Cannibal Corpse, I didn't like it. I preferred Chris Barnes's vocals. Corpsegrinder's eventually grew on me, but the first several albums with him were not real great.

THE EXPLOITED: "BEAT THE BASTARDS"
The Exploited was a heavy punk band that began incorporating more and more thrash metal influences into their music. This track is from the height of their metal influence and is basically a crossover track. It's a hell of a lot of fun.

MACHINE HEAD: "DAVIDIAN"
Machine Head sounded real fucking heavy at the time. Now, I recognize they were just a groove metal band riding Pantera's coattails, but this was a time in which the major hard rock played on the radio was from groups like Korn and Soundgarden. This is still a decent song and it is off Machine Head's best album in my opinion.

Dusting Off a Cassette Pt. 46: Faith No More: King for a Day...Fool for a Lifetime

I am planning a longer post discussing the music of Faith No More's discography under the vocal theatrics of Mike Patton. It will probably be up next week some time, but here's a little precursor as I just listened to this cassette recently.

Faith No More is not an easy band to categorize, but they're not typically as difficult as they are on this album. The band has often used a variety of influences in their music, but they don't usually take over entire songs. Many songs on this album are from completely different genres, making this a bit of a shizophrenic listen. For instance, the band experiments with 1970's era R&B on "Evidence", country on "Take This Bottle", and big band funk on "Star A.D." Those are the two more outlandish examples. We even have saxophone solos on this thing.

However, the album is definitely based in metal. Half of the 14 songs are very clearly metal tracks. The band makes very good use of their always-present metal influences in presenting the metallic hardcore crunch of tracks like "Get Out" and "Digging the Grave". "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies" features one hell of an opening thrash metal riff, and probably the greatest metal riff Faith No More has ever written. Even less metal tracks such as "Last to Know" and "Just a Man" feature strong metal elements. Some of these songs are the catchiest tracks Faith No More has ever written.

Guitarist Jim Martin, who was basically a thrash metal guitarist, is no longer with the band at this point, but Trey Spruance did an admirable job filling in and showed that he knew a thing or two about metal riffs as well. The metal tracks are much more straightforward this time around and are simpler riffs, but they are still energetic and get the blood pumping and the head banging.

How could we discuss a Faith No More album without mentioning Mike Patton? You were getting worried, right? Patton is easily one of the best and most interesting vocalists in rock music overall. He presents a wide variety of vocal styles on this album, from soulful crooning to blood-curdling screaming. His vocals can be calming and relaxing one minute and then filled with a terrifying malevolence the next. His screams are well-done and scary and his softer vocals show a range of talent that Patton has become well-known for over the years.

The only real issue I have with this album is its length. It is a very long album with 14 tracks. Some of these feel like filler, but I'm not sure if the album would have the same effect if any of them were taken away.

While this is not my favorite Faith No More album by any means, it is a very interesting album. It keeps the listener's attention even though it is a little long. The variety of styles keep the listener guessing as to what's going to be heard next. Faith No More is a very interesting band, and this album is just one example of this fact.

2010 So Far

It's July 1st, the year is half over. It's amazing how fast time flies when you spend 75% of it in an office with nowhere to go, except for the occasional times when court drags me away. That's why I like going to court: change of scenery. I do love going to court though, for a number of reasons.

Well it's been a fairly good year for metal releases. There have been a few mind-fucking releases and a few bands making extremely strong comebacks. There have been a few disappointments as well, but we won't dwell on those. What am I saying? Of course we will.

Let's start with the disappointments, because I'm a pessimist.

CARNIFEX: HELL CHOSE ME
I heard a lot of good things about how this band was changing and they would not be a stereotypical deathcore band anymore. All lies.

ELUVEITIE: EVERYTHING REMAINS AS IT NEVER WAS
They basically rewrote the same album as last time. That album was great, so I expected great things from their follow-up. It's disappointing when a band fails to do anything different. Still a good album though.

ARMORED SAINT: LA RAZA
The long-anticipated return of Armored Saint found the band mostly playing modern rock instead of the power/thrash of their glory years. A shame to waste John Bush's outstanding vocals on this.

EXODUS: EXHIBIT B-THE HUMAN CONDITION
All the press lead people to believe this was a return to form and the band was putting other long-standing thrash acts to shame. It's a very good album, but nothing like it was hyped to be. More monotonous grooving riffs than thrash riffs.

Now, for the Top 10 of 2010 So Far

10. UNLEASHED: AS YGGDRASIL TREMBLES
Unleashed prove that they still have the same intensity and power as ever. The band is one of the most consistent groups in extreme metal, and almost certainly the most consistent in Swedish death metal. Only Dismember may have something to say about that, but they didn't release an album this year, yet anyway.

9. MISERY INDEX: HEIRS TO THIEVERY
Absolutely lethal death/grind that takes no prisoners and crushes the opposition. This band can do no wrong.

8. DARKTHRONE: CIRCLE THE WAGONS
The always-changing sound of Darkthrone has added some traditional metal influences and pulled it off brilliantly. They no longer resemble the black metal band they were in the 1990's, but even that may have been a facade. The true Darkthrone is always fluctuating.

7. HIGH ON FIRE: SNAKES FOR THE DIVINE
Yet another high-quality release from this stoner/thrash/doom metal band. This one may just be enough to push the band into some sort of mainstream recognition, a la Mastodon.

6. ORPHANED LAND: THE NEVER-ENDING WAY OF ORWARRIOR
It takes years for Orphaned Land to release albums, yet each album is worth the wait. This is a deeply emotional, incredible album. It is epic in length, scope, and sound.

5. IMMOLATION: MAJESTY AND DECAY
Immolation has never put out a bad album. Each album is more twisted and sinister than the last. This is no exception. Immolation is easily the best band still going from the early days of New York death metal, and yes, that includes Suffocation.

4. OVERKILL: IRONBOUND
From the best death metal going strong to the best thrash metal still going strong. Overkill has laid waste to all of their contemporaries from the early thrash metal days. They also have never put out a bad album, but this is easily their best in two decades. It is seriously that good.

3. ROTTING CHRIST: AEALO
Another amazingly consistent band. This album is not quite as strong as their previous album and does get bogged down at the end, but the rest is more of the face-melting gothic black metal the band has become known for.

2. WARBEAST: KRUSH THE ENEMY
Warbeast is a new band made up of veterans of the late 1980's Texas thrash metal scene and they put together one unholy, filthy, and violent take on thrash metal. This is an incredibly strong release from former members of underground thrash greats Rigor Mortis and Gammacide.

1. TRIPTYKON: EPARISTERA DAIMONES
This had Album of the Year written all over it from the cover art to the first sinister notes. A complete mindfuck of an album. It's extremely dark and cold. It's an amazing comeback for Tom G. Warrior. It will take an absolutely devastating album to unseat this this year.

Of course the big metal news this year occurred outside the recording studio. In the span of a few weeks we lost Peter Steele of Type O Negative and Ronnie James Dio. Metal will not be the same without them.

Legal News Regarding Metal Musicians

A couple of pieces of legal news popped up so far this week involving metal musicians.

First off, Danzig is being sued for damages from an accident he was in in January. Apparently, Danzig rear-ended someone in a motor vehicle accident and the injured party is suing for medical bills, pain and suffering, and emotional distress. I can't imagine there's that much money in this case, but I guess it depends on the level of injury. I have not been able to find any information over what exactly the injuries here are. Hard to imagine emotional distress damages in this type of suit. I might have more comment if I had some more facts.

Secondly, Vince Neil of Motley Crue was arrested under suspicion of DUI. That's the nice way of putting it. It's suspicion until they confirm it. As a criminal defense attorney myself, I have handled a few dozen DUI cases. They are not fun. There's a lot of stuff involved. There must be a reason for the stop and there are certain procedures to follow to ensure that the field sobriety tests are being handled correctly. Then there are issues with the breath and blood test that have to be examined. They are not much fun. But, the real key here is that Vince Neil should fucking know better. He was charged with vehicular manslaughter in the 1980's when he was driving drunk and killed the drummer of Hanoi Rocks as well as seriously injuring two other passengers. What a fucking idiot.

Reader Requested Post: Norwegian vs. Swedish Black Metal

This is the final reader-requested post. This was requested by an anonymous commenter. Please feel free to ask for more at any time.

This was the toughest one for me to do, even moreso than the true metal vs. false metal post. As much as I tried to spell out the differences between these two scenes, I could not decide which point was in favor of one side or the other. The issue being that my listening habits within the metal genre are so varied that, at some times, I prefer Swedish black metal and at others, I prefer Norwegian black metal. What I ended up doing then was to make distinctions between the scenes and lay out my favorite bands. If the readers want to decide on their own which they would prefer to listen to based on those distinctions, that is their decision.

NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL
This is inarguably the most famous black metal scene. But what makes it famous is not the music. It's the crimes committed by many of its members. The scene is marked by the suicide of Mayhem vocalist Dead, the murder of Mayhem guitarist Euronymous by bassist and Burzum founding member Varg Vikernes, the murder of a gay man by Emperor drummer Bard Eithun, and a few dozen church burnings. With a backstory like that, it's no wonder the scene became so infamous. However, this infamy has cast a large shadow over what was a very vibrant music scene.

The music evolved out of darker thrash metal groups such as Bathory, Hellhammer, Sodom, Venom, and got its visual aesthetics from groups like Mercyful Fate. The music was often comprised of higher-pitched guitar tones with a lot of distortion, double-bass or blastbeat drums, and high-pitched shrieking vocals. The production is often very low quality. Norwegian black metal can be oftentimes very fast and complex as in groups like Immortal, or slower with one basic riff idea repeated ad nauseum, such as Darkthrone. Some bands evolved a more melodic approach with the influence of classical music such as Emperor and Ancient.

Norwegian black metal emphasizes the dark and cold atmosphere of its compositions. It arose mostly in opposition to death metal. As Euronymous once stated, death metal was not "cool" in Oslo, Norway. It can therefore be easily distinguished from that other form of extreme metal. When dissecting the riffs, it is often true that they are traditional metal or thrash metal riffs, either played very fast or slowed way down. Some punk and post-punk influence is also apparent in the early groups.

The lyrics of Norwegian black metal often touch on Satanism, Anti-Christianity or occult topics. However there is also some amount of fantasy-inspired lyrics. Immortal created an entire fantasy world that is explored in their music. Mythology is also often present and the darker aspects of the human experience. Enslaved started presenting lyrics about Vikings and became one of the leaders in the development of viking metal.

Norwegian black metal was one of the first scenes in the black metal genre I explored deeply. For obvious reasons, it is the most well-known scene and most people who know anything about black metal can rattle off the names of some of these bands. The bands have evolved into often considerably different forms from the time when the scene was at its peak. Mayhem has been exploring extremely chaotic song structures, Darkthrone has returned to the roots of metal, Emperor vocalist Ihsahn has formed a self-titled band in which he experiments with progressive rock, Enslaved has evolved into the black metal equivalent of Opeth, and Satyricon has been experimenting with simple rock structures to form what has been called black 'n roll. Only Immortal is still playing anything close to what they played in the early 1990's but even they have slowed down considerably.

If I had to pick a single favorite band from the Norwegian black metal scene, it would be Emperor, Immortal would come a close second. Emperor was the most interesting band musically because of the combination of raw black metal with classical music and keyboards. Many of the other bands were fairly simple from a compositional standpoint, but Emperor's music was highly complex.
SWEDISH BLACK METAL
The first black metal band I ever bought an album from was Dissection. Despite this, it took quite awhile before I really looked into the Swedish black metal scene. Even now, I am still not entirely familiar with many of the early albums by Swedish black metal bands like Naglfar, Nifelheim, and Arckanum. I am able to form an opinion on much of the scene from the same time period based on what I have heard from groups like Dissection, Marduk, Dark Funeral, and Lord Belial.

Black metal essentially started in Sweden. Groups like Venom and Hellhammer from the U.K. and Switzerland respectively, certainly had an influence on the formation of the genre, but Bathory was quite possibly the first real black metal band. They laid the framework for the basic black metal sound. Despite this, the second wave Swedish black metal bands did not sound much like that framework. The second wave Swedish bands were heavily influenced by death metal. Marduk was essentially a death metal-influenced take on black metal. Dissection had heavy melodic death metal touches in their music and eventually, on their final album, became a melodic death metal band. Groups like Naglfar and Lord Belial have evolved more into blackened death metal bands.

Some Swedish black metal bands have been derogatively called "Norsecore" due to the heavy death metal influences in their music. Marduk and Dark Funeral are two of the bands most commonly referred to as such. The term is meant to refer to the Swedish bands taking some of the Norwegian elements and focusing entirely on them and distorting them into a parody of the Norwegian sound. For instance, the lyrics become outlandishly Satanic and the sound becomes extremely heavy and fast. Swedish black metal bands in this style are often focused on brutality and speed with very little melody.

Other bands such as Dissection, Arckanum, and Nifelheim are extremely melodic, using guitar leads and melodies influenced by traditional metal bands and tremolo riffing, and infusing that with the blasting drums to make up the majority of their sound. These bands are much closer in relation to the Stockholm and Gothenburg death metal scenes than they are to the Norwegian black metal scene. Many bands have crossed over into the Swedish death scene. Other Swedish death metal bands have had black metal influences early in their careers, such as Dark Tranquillity and At The Gates.

The Swedish scene is not nearly as well-known as the Norwegian scene. Groups like Marduk and Dissection have had a considerable amount of influence on the further formation of the genre, but are not often spoken of in the same breath as some of the more famous Norwegian bands. Despite this, there was a very large diversity of styles in Sweden and it should not be overlooked.

Picking a favorite Swedish black metal band is much easier than picking a favorite Norwegian black metal band. I am a huge fan of Dissection's first two albums, even placing Storm of the Light's Bane in my top five all-time favorite albums. It's not even really close.
CONCLUSION
If I had to pick my favorite of these two scenes, I would probably go with Norway. I really enjoy the music of most of the Norwegian bands. Even though Dissection is my favorite black metal band, I am not as interested in Marduk, Dark Funeral, and the like as I am in Immortal, Darkthrone, Mayhem, Satyricon, and other Norwegian bands. Norway's scene has also evolved more. Dark Funeral and Marduk still sound the same, whereas the Norwegian bands have changed their sound markedly.

Update on Behemoth's Legal Issues

As mentioned here, Nergal, lead singer of Polish blackened death metal band Behemoth, found himself embroiled in a bit of controversy when he tore apart a Bible onstage. He was charged with violation of a law which forbids offending someone based on their religion.

Recently, the District Judge in Gdynia, Poland dismissed the charges against Nergal due to lack of a connection between the act and anyone offended in the form of an outrage of religious emotions. Nergal's behavior was also not recognized as a crime.