Year in Metal: 2007

AMORPHIS: SILENT WATERS
I first discovered Amorphis in the late 1990's, around the time that Tuonela was released. However, I stopped listening to them after their follow-up album for several years. This was the album that brought me back to Amorphis. This album is hauntingly beautiful and surprisingly catchy. Gone for the most part are the psychedelic meanderings of their previous albums. These are full songs and they are delivered extremely well. New vocalist Tomi Joutsen fits very well with the rest of the band and they were rejuvenated on this release. I have been a huge fan of them once again ever since.

IMMOLATION: SHADOWS IN THE LIGHT
Immolation has steadily put out classic release after classic release. Their 2007 effort is quite possibly their best ever though, which is really saying something since the band had been around since the early days of New York death metal. Immolation's take on occultish, Morbid Angel-influenced death still sounds amazing more than 20 years later. This album actually finds the band exploring some new melodies that sound great with their usual twisted riffing style.

PRIMORDIAL: TO THE NAMELESS DEAD
Ireland's Primordial have been making quite a bit of noise just underground for several years leading up to this album, but this is when most of the metal world really stood up and took notice of the band. Rooted in black metal, but playing with Celtic folk influences, Primordial went for a much more melodic sound on this release. The result was one of the strongest albums of the year and an album that will stand as a true classic.

ROTTING CHRIST: THEOGONIA
This was the album that introduced me to Rotting Christ. It also still stands as my favorite release by the band. Rotting Christ is another band that consistently puts out great release after great release. It is a little more unusual for them though as their sound has changed frequently over the years. This release finds them adding black metal influences once again into their gothic, Hellenic style. This album would have made my Album of the Year in 2007 had I been doing it at the time. It is simply flawless.

SIGH: HANGMAN'S HYMN-MUSIKALISCHE EXEQUIEN
Sigh is a weird band. But most of you out there probably already knew that. Sigh does not produce the same album twice in a row. This album is much more of an orchestral thrash metal album. It has some truly impressive thrash riffs and some simply amazing symphonic elements. What results is a catchy and bombastic album that gets going quickly and never really falters. It is an easy album to sit down and listen to and become fully engrossed in. It's just unfortunate that Sigh will not release anything like it again.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Akercocke: Antichrist
Arch Enemy: Rise of the Tyrant
Behemoth: The Apostacy
Dark Tranquillity: Fiction
Helloween: Gambling with the Devil
High on Fire: Death is this Communion
Iced Earth: Framing Armageddon-Something Wicked Pt. 1
Machine Head: The Blackening
Marduk: Rom 5:12
Mayhem: Ordo Ad Chao
Paradise Lost: In Requiem
Skeletonwitch: Beyond the Permafrost
Slough Feg: Hardworlder
Symphony X: Paradise Lost
The Black Dahlia Murder: Nocturnal
Watain: Sworn to the Dark

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 2007:
Cavalera Conspiracy

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 9: At the Gates

Sweden's At the Gates is one of the leaders in the Gothenburg melodeath scene. Their album Slaughter of the Soul has been mimicked and expanded upon more than almost any other album of the last 20 years. It was responsible for the influx of metalcore and melodic death metal bands. But, as is usually the case, very few did it better than the original. And At the Gates was definitely the original. But we would be remiss if we did not consider their prior material as well, and that has unfortunately been largely forgotten, which is a shame. Melodeath was completely different back before At the Gates's landmark album. They brought a completely new take on death metal. At the Gates has been out of commission for some time now, but their music does not sound any less potent than it did when it was released.

FAVORITE ALBUM: THE RED IN THE SKY IS OURS

My Favorite Metal Band from the Czech Republic

Root is definitely a different kind of metal band. Rising from the first wave of black metal, their music has become much more grandiose and epic in sound. Vocalist Big Boss delivers the lyrics in a deep, booming baritone style. The music is more theatrical with influences from a variety of metal styles. Root truly has a unique sound that has never really been duplicated.

NOTABLE SCENES: First wave black metal.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Maniac Butcher
Master's Hammer

Poll Results: Other Genres You Listen To

Well here are the results:

Hard Rock: 8
Pop: 3
Rap: 1
R&B: 1
Country: 2
Jazz: 3
Classical: 4
Blues: 2
Classic Rock: 5
Nu-Metal: 2
Alternative: 2
Hip Hop: 2
Techno: 1
Other: 2

I am not surprised by the results of this poll. Metalheads frequently listen to a variety of other styles. I listen to a few bands outside of metal, certainly not very many, and all of them can be fit in the hard rock genre. The non-metal bands I listen to most frequently are Blue Oyster Cult, Misfits, Tool, and Monster Magnet. BOC and Misfits of course were influences on Metallica, among many other metal bands, and since I like some stoner rock, Monster Magnet kind of fits in. I also occasionally dig out some of the old nu-metal bands I listened to early on, stuff like System of a Down, Static-X, Deadlights, and Godsmack. It doesn't happen often though.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 8: Asphyx

I had to get a Martin Van Drunen project in here somewhere and this seemed like the most likely group to do it. Asphyx existed before Van Drunen, but it was his manic, death-shrieking vocal style that really set the band's sound in stone. The band plays a slower style of Scandinavian death metal that helped propel the death/doom genre. Asphyx's sound is heavy, dark and powerful. This is truly the sound that made death metal the most extreme music in the early 1990's and it still holds up great today.

FAVORITE ALBUM: LAST ONE ON EARTH

My Favorite Metal Band from Colombia

I am not familiar with a lot of metal bands from Colombia. Witchtrap is one of the rare exceptions. Witchtrap's sound is unapologetically based in 1980's style metal. It's a mix of early thrash metal and speed metal. The thrash metal influences are mostly of the Teutonic variety. There's not a whole lot of originality in the band's music, but they sound like they are having a blast playing music they love. There is something to be said for that.

HONORABLE MENTION:
Opensight

NOTE: I just recently received an album by Inquisition. It is very possible that my view may change in the next few weeks on this. I have not had an opportunity to listen to the album as of this writing.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 7: Apophis

Apophis is a German melodic death metal band that sounds a lot like Amon Amarth. They have the same catchy, heavy riffing style and deep guttural roars. Their music is infectious as hell, it's a shame that so few people have heard of them. I have discussed this band several times here, and I know I have turned on at least one person to them.

FAVORITE ALBUM: HELIOPOLIS

My Favorite Metal Band from Chile

South American countries produce a lot of surprisingly good death metal bands and Chile is no exception. Thornafire is a terrific death metal band that blends some of the old school dark and occult death metal bands like Immolation, Incantation, and Morbid Angel together to form their own sound. What results is a twisted, writhing mass of riffs and occult darkness. Far from rehashing old influences though, Thornafire puts a new spin on the old style with some modern influences.

Initial Impressions: Pentagram: Last Rites

Intrigued by the recent long article on frontman Bobby Liebling, and some random Pentagram songs I have heard, including a cover by Draconian, I was spurred to finally check this band out on the release of their new album earlier this week. Pentagram is of course one of the first, if not the first, American metal bands and a major pioneer in the doom metal genre. So, it was a long time coming for me to really look into them.

This album is the band's first full-length in several years, though some of the songs are not exactly new. According to the earlier-mentioned article, Liebling wrote some 450 songs in the early 1970's, songs that continue to creep into the band's releases today and will likely continue to do so in the future. There is also some new material on this release, but Bobby Liebling was definitely at a creative peak early on in the band's history.

On this album, the music rumbles along at a medium pace and is largely on the side of stoner doom. The guitar riffs are fuzzy and distorted and are clearly based in blues. Some of the songs straddle the line between metal and rock a little bit too much, but that is to be expected with a band that arrived on the scene before there really was much of a metal genre.

Bobby Liebling sounds surprisingly good for a man in his 50's that has struggled with addiction his entire adult life. His vocals are tortured and haunting as he croons along to the thundering music. It is almost an eerie voice filled with pain and sadness. Well, it is doom metal after all.

This album sounds like something that would have been released in the 1970's. There really are no modern influences here. I would not use the term retro as Pentagram existed back in the 1970's but it is very clear that the band has not moved forward with the times at all. Draw your own conclusion as to whether that is a good or bad thing. I am always on the lookout for something Sabbathian, Pentagram definitely fits.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 6: Amorphis

I remember the first time I heard Amorphis. Their song "Divinity" made it onto some MTV show spotlighting up and coming artists from other countries. Or something like that. I remember I was in high school and was so impressed by the song that I went to Best Buy that same day and picked up the CD. That was a great idea.

Amorphis originally played Scandinavian style death metal but was also one of the first bands to really experiment by adding folk elements and melodies to their songs. Most of their songs deal with Finnish mythology. Later they went in more of a progressive metal direction, and actually continued to put out amazing albums. Their material today is just as good as their earlier material, just in a different way. It's hard to decide which version of the band I actually like the best. That is just one reason why they make this list.

FAVORITE ALBUM: ELEGY

My Favorite Metal Band from Canada

In general, I like Canadian metal. That being said, it was very difficult to decide on a favorite Canadian band. Some like Slaughter did not last nearly long enough. Others like Cryptopsy soiled their reputation with some godawful releases. Still others like Kataklysm are good, but not terribly interesting.

Then there's Voivod. Voivod was an excellent punk/thrash metal band in the beginning, then moved in more of a thrash direction. Then things got weird and experimental. That's when Voivod really shined the brightest though. Their spacy progressive weirdness certainly separated them from the rest of the pack. Voivod continued in more of a progressive direction and now bear little resemblance to the original band, yet they are still good. Weird indeed.

NOTABLE SCENES: Canada had a great thrash metal scene in the 1980's and also some damn good speed metal bands before that. In the late 1980's some very interesting death metal started to evolve as well.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Slaugher
Sacrifice
Razor
Exciter
Gorguts
Cryptopsy
Annihilator
Anvil
Into Eternity
Strapping Young Lad
Kataklysm
Neuraxis

The Metal March Madness Winner is...

All Shall Perish.

I can't...just...but...there are no words.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 5: Amon Amarth

Everyone's favorite melodeath Vikings come in next on my list. Amon Amarth has been around for a long time, and yet they have remained amazingly consistent throughout the years. It is extremely hard to pick a favorite album by the band because every album is good. There is so little deviation in the quality between one album to the next. That's not something you can say about that many bands. While it is true that Amon Amarth has been making an effort to become more melodic as time has gone by, it is not incredibly noticeable. Amon Amarth just puts out some damn catchy and epic songs. Every time out. That is a rare and refreshing quality.

FAVORITE ALBUM: THE CRUSHER

My Favorite Metal Band from Brazil

No surprises here really. Sepultura was one of my first favorite metal bands that was on the more extreme side. Of course I got into them around the time that Chaos A.D. was released. Still, Sepultura put out one hell of a good groove metal album with that release. Even Roots has its moments, mostly due to the use of tribal percussion. However, their best material is undoubtedly their earlier stuff. Morbid Visions and Bestial Devastation are excellent examples of early black/death metal and Beneath the Remains is one of my all-time favorite thrash metal albums. After vocalist Max Cavalera left, Sepultura became more of a hardcore/groove metal band and I kind of lost interest. Of course Max's stuff was not much better. Still though, the material from their debut EP through Chaos A.D. is ridiculously powerful.

NOTABLE SCENES: Brazil had an amazing scene in the mid 1980's that blurred the lines between thrash, death, and black metal.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Sarcofago
Hibria
Angra
Krisiun

Random Thoughts: Bizarre and Completely Random Albums in Your Collection

I recently mentioned that I had money to burn when I first started working after law school. One of the things that I did was to buy some large lots of CDs off of ebay and pick up one of the Century Media Grab Bags in order to get a bunch of undiscovered metal. Well this left me with some albums by bands that I probably would not have discovered on my own.

Here are some of my favorite albums that I probably would not have picked up myself:

ANDROMEDA: EXTENSION OF THE WISH
Progressive/power metal to me is kind of a hit or miss genre with a lot more misses. Symphony X, Queensryche, Dream Theater, and Fates Warning are all great, but then there are a ton of other groups out there that really do not have anything interesting out there. Andromeda though lurks under the radar and consistently puts out decent albums. This is the band's debut that I got in a Century Media Grab Bag.

CROWN OF THORNS: THE BURNING
Another debut album, this is actually the early version of the Swedish thrash band The Crown. However, in my opinion, this album puts all of The Crown albums to shame. It's faster and more relentlessly intense than any of the future band's albums but it also has more of a melodic death metal overall sound to it. Crown of Thorns released one more album under that name but then changed to The Crown.

DIABOLICAL MASQUERADE: DEATH'S DESIGN
According to main member Blakkheim, this album was supposed to be the soundtrack to a horror film with a plot seemingly very much like the Final Destination series. The album is made up of 61 tracks, going for a total of about 44 minutes, so you can imagine how long the tracks are. But there are obvious groups of tracks that form a song, so this can be listened to like any other album. The music is a bizarre avant-garde take on black metal and it is definitely cinematic. I wish the soundtrack story were true, this would have been much better than the original Final Destination.

I SHALT BECOME: WANDERINGS
I am not ordinarily a big fan of atmospheric/depressive black metal, but this album is definitely an interesting one. It's extremely slow and lulls the listener into an almost hypnotic state with its constantly repeating riffs and swirling melodies. I was a little apprehensive about this due to some labeling it as NSBM, but I cannot find any reason behind this label. It sounds like a mix of Burzum and Judas Iscariot.

RAISE HELL: HOLY TARGET
One of many bands that took Dissection's sound off of Storm of the Light's Bane and ran with it. This album is particularly impressive because the members were very young when they recorded it. The album is fast and aggressive with a bit more of a thrashier sound than Dissection. The lyrics were a little laughable, but these were just kids at the time. They were extremely impressive musicians and songwriters for their age.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 4: Alice in Chains

Well, the next band really needs no introduction. Alice in Chains was always my favorite band from the Seattle grunge scene that was hugely popular when I was first getting into metal. AiC is also the most metal group from among them, sounding much more like a hybrid of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin than Nirvana's Beatles-meets-punk oriented sound. The band of course hit it big with the massive song "Man in the Box" and scored even bigger with Dirt. Unfortunately, Layne Staley, whose haunting vocals characterized the band for so many years died of an overdose, but the band eventually reformed and put out the heartbreaking album Black Gives Way to Blue in 2009, a terrific return to form.

FAVORITE ALBUM: DIRT

My Favorite Metal Band from Belgium

Belgium was tough. I only have albums from two bands and neither is particularly memorable. So, ultimately I chose Enthroned. Enthroned is a fairly standard black metal band. Lurking somewhere in between harsh blastbeat-driven black metal and more atmospheric black metal, Enthroned is actually able to pull off some truly catchy songs. That and the use of guitar solos (somewhat rare in black metal) makes this a bit more of a melodic band, but not truly melodic black metal in the same sense as Naglfar and others.

HONORABLE MENTION:
Aborted

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 3: Akercocke

I did mention Akercocke on this blog some time ago. The band plays a bizarre combination of black and death metal with progressive song structures. There are a lot of seemingly unrelated passages running through the music, but it all strangely holds together quite well. On top of all this, Akercocke writes some extremely intelligent lyrics, mostly focusing on Satanism and the occult, but nevertheless surprisingly good. This is not a group of dumb teens invoking Satan for the shock factor. Akercocke attacks the source material from a scholarly point of view. The band even look the part.

FAVORITE ALBUM: WORDS THAT GO UNSPOKEN, DEEDS THAT GO UNDONE

My Favorite Metal Band from Austria

Austria has a decent sized metal scene, but I am not overly familiar with that many of the country's bands. Hollenthon though is a truly interesting group. The band blends a multitude of genres together including symphonic and folk elements mixed with a blackened/death/thrash foundation. Hollenthon definitely has a unique sound. Symphonic metal is a difficult thing to get right, but Hollenthon manages to pull it off by focusing on darkness and not the light.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Belphegor
Wolfpack Unleashed

Year in Metal: 2006

CELTIC FROST: MONOTHEIST
Celtic Frost returned in 2006 after several years away. This album is absolutely massive. It is extremely long at over 75 minutes and the sound is just incredible. Celtic Frost put together one of the most unusually creative and incredibly dense and dark albums of all time. It is eerie and intense at the same time. This is not an album to listen to in the dark. It is difficult to categorize as there is so much going on in this album. It is rare for a reunion album to be this different from the band's original material and still hold up well, but this one does.

DEICIDE: THE STENCH OF REDEMPTION
After the Hoffman brothers left Deicide, the band looked to be pretty stagnant. Not having released a decent album since the mid 1990's, things looked pretty bleak. However, the band was rejuvenated on this release. Ralph Santolla was brought on to provide amazing guitar solos and Jack Owen provided rhythm guitars. Deicide sounded like a completely different band. They were surprisingly melodic yet still deadly heavy. They were completely reborn. This was the best Deicide album in years.

DISSECTION: REINKAOS
Dissection, along with Celtic Frost, was another surprising return to the metal world. Jon Nodtveidt returned from prison with a lot of new ideas and recorded them. What resulted was a departure musically and one hell of a statement ideologically. The melodic blackened death sound was gone and in its place was a streamlined melodic death metal masterpiece. Compared to their earlier work, this is a disappointment, but alone, it's incredible. Nodtveidt committed suicide soon after.

MELECHESH: EMISSARIES
This was an album that I fell in love with the minute I heard it. It was so different, so powerful, and so unique that it was hard not to. Melechesh's sound is rooted in black metal, but they have elements of thrash and death as well. And then of course there are the Middle Eastern folk elements. Playing with Middle Eastern scales and melodies, Melechesh found a way to truly stand out from many of their peers. This was truly the best album of 2006 and sure to go down as a classic.

SCAR SYMMETRY: PITCH BLACK PROGRESS
Being somewhat of a melodeath fan, I was excited when I heard my first Scar Symmetry song. The band blends melodeath with progressive structures and some surprising power metal-esque vocals. Singer Christian Alvestam possesses a very unique voice. Capable of a powerful death metal roar as well as some surprisingly good clean vocals, Alvestam's voice causes Scar Symmetry to stand out among the rest of the Swedish melodeath scene. A great album.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
All That Remains: The Fall of Ideals
Amon Amarth: With Oden on Our Side
Blind Guardian: A Twist in the Myth
Cannibal Corpse: Kill
Enslaved: Ruun
I: Between Two Worlds
Ihsahn: The Adversary
In Flames: Come Clarity
Into Eternity: The Scattering of Ashes
Iron Maiden: A Matter of Life and Death
Mastodon: Blood Mountain
Slayer: Christ Illusion
Vader: Impressions in Blood

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 2006:
Cauldron

New Poll: Other Genres You Listen To

Simple: what else do you listen to other than metal?

Me, I listen pretty much exclusively to metal, but once in awhile I listen to classic rock and other hard rock stuff. I used to listen to jazz music and was a very good saxophone player back in high school. I kind of grew tired of it though. I never really listened to rap or pop, somehow completely avoided that.

EDIT: I had to remove the first draft of the poll with one vote, so please vote again. The title was horribly confusing due to a rewrite and I could not edit it due to it having one vote already so I had to do a new one and remove the old version.

Initial Impressions: Cauldron: Burning Fortune

Canada's Cauldron released a terrific traditional metal album a couple of years and returned to put out their sophomore album just recently. The band built on several ideas from their last album and made just a few changes to their overall sound and definitely improved their production this time around. Unfortunately, this album just did not grab me as much as their debut. Perhaps it will over time, who knows?

This is still a straightforward traditional metal album in the vein of countrymen icons Anvil. The songs are short and sweet and infectious as hell. You will be singing along after hearing the album just once and the songs will stick with you. The riffs are fairly simple and the guitar solos are impressive.

The production has improved immensely. The debut album was somewhat weak-sounding and this album is definitely crunchier and has a thicker bottom end. That is the major improvement. The vocals also sound a little bit better this time around. That was another aspect I noticed right away. They do take a little bit of time to get used to, particularly if you have heard the debut as much as I have.

The problem is that this is merely a good album whereas I found the debut to be one of the best albums of 2009. I suppose Cauldron could not live up to the debut. It happens, nothing wrong with it. Maybe in time, I will hold this album up to those same standards, but for now, this is just another traditional metal album. It's certainly good, but it likely will not make my best of the year list.

Initial Impressions: Woods of Ypres: IV-The Green Album

I was recently in Omaha and stopped off at the local music store. I picked up this album partially on the strength of Patrick's ranking them so highly in his Top 25 bands here. I was very surprised by the sound of this band as I expected them to be more of a melodic black metal band. Perhaps this album is different from their earlier material, I am not sure as I am not overly familiar with this band.

I would classify this album as doom metal with some progressive and black metal influences, but it is definitely more of a slower, doom metal album than black metal. The album opens up with a somber melody delivered by a wind instrument that is either an oboe or a french horn, I am not up on my musical instruments lately. The first song is a heart-wrenching ballad about a breakup and the vocalist's girlfriend packing up and leaving. It sets the tone for this sprawling slow-paced dirge covering heartbreak and suicidal thoughts and finally acceptance and moving on.

The lyrics do get a little cheesy at times and some of the backing vocals break up the mood, such as when they repeat something delivered by the lead vocals that is particularly poignant. The lyrics have been criticized for being somewhat emo, but I do not think that is the case. I think the lyricist is fairly brave for dealing with subjects that most of us can relate to. We have almost all been through a particularly crushing breakup at some time or other.

The band is at their best when they are dealing with slow and heavy songs. Tracks like "Everything I Touch Turns to Gold (Then to Coal)" is a devastatingly powerful song. Some of the tracks are short experimental songs that are at best forgettable, such as "You are Here with Me".

This is an interesting album. It is a little on the long side though, being nearly 80 minutes long. I am not sure yet how much I like it. I think it needs some time to sink in more, but it is an impressively melodic album with a lot to offer musically.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 2: Absu

I will admit that I have just started discovering this band with their latest album, but it is so impressive that the band already ranks on this list. Absu is one of the U.S.'s very first black metal bands and their mystical, occult lyrics and twisted music make one hell of an impression. Their music is a mix of black and thrash at this point but it is catchy and powerful. The drumming in particular is incredible, performed by Proscriptor, who also provides vocals and did the drums on some of Melechesh's work.

FAVORITE ALBUM: ABSU

My Favorite Metal Band from Australia

Yes, some of these favorite bands from each country will also be featured in my 100 Favorite Bands Series, so there will be some repeats.


Well I think most long-time readers would be able to guess that my favorite metal band from Australia is Destroyer 666, the incredible war metal band. D666 mixes black, death, and thrash metal into a sound that brings to mind the soundtrack for an extremely brutal battle, hence the name of the genre.

HONORABLE MENTIONS
Abominator
Atomizer
Gospel of the Horns
Portal
Slaughter Lord

NOTABLE SCENES
Australia of course has the whole "war metal" scene down to a science.

My 100 Favorite Metal Bands Pt. 1: Abominator

Abominator is an extremely raw, brutal, and intense blackened death metal band from Australia. The band is one of the leading bands in the Australian "war metal" scene, a scene that I thoroughly enjoy. Whereas Destroyer 666 is more of a thrash metal band these days, Abominator has retained their chaotic and evil sound that they had from their earliest recordings. This is raw and dirty blackened death at its best.

FAVORITE ALBUM: DAMNATION'S PROPHECY

Compilations: Revolver Presents: The World's Loudest Metal Sampler

Okay, last one of these for awhile. I do not have any more to review. This one was attached to the latest God Dethroned album that I bought at F.Y.E. Somehow I can imagine several of the words in the title are going to be misleading.

DIO: "HOLY DIVER" (LIVE)
Well, we already all know this song. This is included in order to pay tribute to the legendary Ronnie James Dio and is one of his best songs from his solo career. No qualms here. R.I.P.

HOLY GRAIL: "MY LAST ATTACK"
I have this album. Holy Grail is a traditional metal band that formed from some cast-offs from White Wizzard. Pretty impressive stuff actually.

DANZIG: "THE REVENGEFUL"
I have this album as well. Danzig came out with one of the greatest comeback albums of the year last year. He is basically back to the sound that made his first few albums so good. It's good to have Evil Elvis back.

THE CHARIOT: "THE CITY"
Oh lord, this is awful. Sounds like an unholy mix of deathcore and some sort of Converge-wannabe hardcore. Holy shit.

CEPHALIC CARNAGE: "ABRAXAS OF FILTH"
Colorado's own deathgrind goofballs return for some more "hydrogrind", their term not mine. This is more weirdness from the band featuring a variety of styles thrown together.

THE ACACIA STRAIN: "JONESTOWN"
Hardcore band. I never understood the praise this band gets. They are okay for modern hardcore, but I really do not like modern hardcore.

TARJA: "DARK STAR"
Tarja Tarunen is of course Nightwish's former vocalist with the operatic voice. This song also features Phil LaBonte of All That Remains. It's better than I thought it would be but Marco Hietala's songwriting is missed. Of course Nightwish is terrible now too.

CARNIFEX: "SORROWSPELL"
Carnifex is a decent deathcore band with a strong melodeath and brutal death influence. Not to say they're good, but they're listenable.

MUSHROOMHEAD: "COME ON"
I had no idea this band was still around. This is absolutely terrible too. I used to be okay with this band, owned a couple of their albums, but this is so much worse than I remember them being. I think they're challenging me to a fight.

WRETCHED: "CIMMERIAN SHAMBALLA"
More deathcore. This thing is loaded with it. This band actually sounds pretty good for the genre, not overly flashy or image-conscious, just some death metal mixed with hardcore. See, not all deathcore is completely terrible, just most of it.

KINGDOM OF SORROW: "BEHIND THE BLACKEST TEARS"
They have been mentioned before here, the side project of Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed and Kirk Windstein of Crowbar sounds exactly like you would expect: Crowbar riffs and Hatebreed vocals. It's not as bad as I thought, but I am not clamoring to buy the album.

SKELETONWITCH: "REPULSIVE SALVATION"
Skeletonwitch is a great newer band. I have this album as well. Just a great mix of black and thrash metal. I will continue to buy Skeletonwitch stuff for the foreseeable future. Terrific band.

ILL NINO: "AGAINST THE WALL"
I had no idea these guys were still around either. Are all the nu metal bands lying in wait to try to make a comeback? Or did they never leave? Anyway, these guys suck, always have, always will.

SYSTEM DIVIDE: "THE APEX DOCTRINE"
This is a metalcore band featuring Miri Milman who provides session female vocals on Orphaned Land's material as well as Belgian death metal titan Sven de Caluwe of Aborted. The vocals sound very good, unfortunately the music otherwise is fairly forgettable. I am somewhat impressed though.

HELLOWEEN: "ARE YOU METAL?"
I like Helloween and yes this song is cheesy as hell, but the German power metal pioneers can write some damn catchy hooks. This should be a fucking anthem.

WITHIN THE RUINS: "FEAST OR FAMINE"
More lifeless deathcore, although the band did attempt to add some technical elements. It's just kind of boring and predictable.

DAWN OF ASHES: "CONJURATION OF THE MASKIM'S BLACK BLOOD"
Despite enjoying quite a bit of melodic black metal, I have never really looked into this band. Unfortunately, this doesn't really convince me to seek them out. Sorry.

NONPOINT: "FRONTLINES"
Again, really? Nonpoint still exists? I remember them having a terrible song and a rap cover medley several years ago. This is also terrible.

CHELSEA GRIN: "THE HUMAN CONDITION"
Inexcusably bad deathcore. I have run out of things to say.

THE AUTUMN OFFERING: "BORN DEAD"
And we close things out with yet another tired metalcore band. This is just terrible.

I owned most of the decent stuff on here. The only bands I would even consider looking into more are Wretched, System Divide, and I suppose Dawn of Ashes. Otherwise, this is awful.

Grammys Fuck Up Again

Link.

The Grammys, already well known for their vast knowledge and attention to the genre of metal, recently decided to streamline their awards show, combining several awards and dropping some as well. One of the casualties is the metal award which has been combined with the hard rock award. Which means that they will likely stop nominating any metal albums at all. That's just great. Luckily no one has given much of a shit about what the Grammys have to say for a long time anyway.

My Metal History Pt. 9: Post-Law School to the Present

Wow, I really did not mean to put this off so long. Let's finish this series, shall we?

I took the Bar Exam in summer of 2006 after graduating from law school. I passed it quite easily. The Bar Exam itself is not really that difficult. It's the months of preparation leading up to it that are the really stressful part. Honestly, I have no memory of actually taking the exam. It was just sort of anticlimactic.

After the Bar Exam, I reported to my first job in September. I was working at a small law office in St. Paul, Nebraska, a town of about 2,200 people. It was two hours away from my home town in Lincoln, so I knew no one. I was only the second attorney in the whole town. It was a bit of a culture shock going from a city of over 200,000 people to one of only 2,000. But part of the job offer was that the firm was going to pay my rent for my home. They wanted me to live in the town and become a member of the community. This of course freed up a ton of money for me.

Since I had so much money right away, I saved a lot and spent a lot on metal. I immersed myself a lot more into the music. I had no friends within an hour's drive and I had money, so I went out and got as much as possible. I sought out all of the landmark albums from each of the subgenres that I could get my hands on. I found websites and studied the history of the genre. It was then that I discovered the Encyclopedia Metallum. At one point they listed the all-time greatest albums in each subgenre and I went through and found a bunch of those. I learned the differences between all of the subgenres, something I was admittedly fuzzy on before. I had no social life, there was none to be had in St. Paul, a town with virtually no residents in my age range. Metal became my escape. I would come home to a completely empty house (other than my two cats) and turn on the stereo. It would not be turned off until I went to sleep at night.

I discovered all kinds of new and exciting music while I was living in St. Paul and I always was able to buy as much as I wanted at that time. I remember the first real trip to buy music was to Best Buy in Grand Island where I bought the new albums by Lamb of God, Blind Guardian, Iron Maiden, Cannibal Corpse, and the reissued Melissa by Mercyful Fate. From there, it became almost an addiction. I discovered online stores and placed several orders. I started listening to groups from every subgenre in metal. Groups as diverse as Darkthrone, Sonata Arctica, Overkill, Bolt Thrower, and many more became frequent additions to my collection. I discovered several scenes that I fell in love with: Australian war metal, Hellenic black metal, slam death metal, and Canadian thrash metal.

In summer of 2008, I began dating the woman who would eventually become my fiancee for the second time. My spending habits on music decreased to allow for time and money to be spent on her, but it was still definitely high, and in January of 2009, I started this blog. It was at this time that I was informed by my boss that I was no longer going to be employed there. Her reasoning was never really clear. So I began a job search and took a position in Norfolk, Nebraska. The downside was that I no longer had free rent and was not able to spend quite as much on music. It was disappointing, but by that point I was mostly caught up on the classics and looking for undiscovered gems.

I got engaged in fall of 2009 (September 14, yes honey I remember the date). Money began being put more towards the wedding, but I have still been able to pick up music that I really want. Last Fall, I became unemployed again. I will not go into the reasons here. My decision was to go out on my own, to stay in Norfolk, but to open my own office. It has now been just a few months since I really started getting things in gear, but things are going reasonably well. Hopefully business will continue to pick up and I will be back where I was financially in St. Paul. We'll see.

"Mayhem on a Cross" (Bones Episode): Is this What the Mainstream Thinks of Us?

I realize that this is a rerun, but I saw it for the first time on Sunday night. Bones, for those that don't know, is a show about a forensic scientist investigating the deaths of a variety of people. In this particular episode, the victim is a skeleton used as a stage prop by a so-called Norwegian black metal band, apparently somewhat influenced by King Diamond's use of "Melissa", the name given to a skull he used as a prop to tell a story back in his Mercyful Fate days. The victim's name is Mayhem, obviously a reference to the Norwegian black metal band.

We also have a death metal band wearing corpsepaint in the episode, as well as a deathcore band. The music is mostly provided by groove metal band Droid, so don't get your hopes up too high. There is no black or death metal in this episode. But, that's not really why I am writing about this.

The death metal band under investigation in the U.S. for the murder of Mayhem apparently does not play at bars. Their concerts are typically held in slaughterhouses. The band members possess names such as Pinworm and Grinder and even give the investigating team a tip that a deathcore band may be behind the killing, and vocalize their contempt for the genre. Then at another black metal show, the lead singer slits his own throat, which was supposed to have been staged but someone switched the prop knife. One of the investigators has inside knowledge of the scene and professes to have once been a fan of death metal, but grew out of it. One of his theories is that someone killed the victim because he was attempting to leave the scene, viewing death metal as some sort of all-consuming cult. He also believed the killer would have kept a souvenir from the murder. Of course throughout the show, we are treated to random snide comments about metal not being music and metalheads being incredibly violent and offensive.

Obviously, this is meant to be entertainment and not to be taken as an indictment of the scene in general, but I have to ask, does the mainstream really view underground black and death metal as ultra-violent, dark sadistic psychopaths? Obviously there is a social stigma attached to us metalheads. This show really did nothing to dissuade that stigma, there was not one sympathetic metalhead character, unless you count the victim.

Metal from Unexpected Countries

What are some of the most unexpected countries to produce metal bands in your collection? I was recently thinking about this question and went through with a list and placed each of the bands that I own an album from under their home country heading. I came up with some rather interesting results (I do weird things when bored, ask my fiancee). This will be the beginning post in a series where I look at my favorite band from each country, but I will say that I do not have anything by a band in Africa. Not that I have not heard of any, just that I have not heard any.

My Favorite 100 Metal Bands

Later this week, I will be beginning a new series of posts. Each day I will look at one band that I have determined deserves a place in my Top 100 bands. I will look at these in alphabetical order, since I could not begin to rank them due to my constantly changing tastes. This series was inspired by Patrick's similar post. This is going to take a long time.

Initial Impressions: Wormrot: Dirge

As most of you are by now aware, Earache is giving away free downloads of this album due to a recent leak and a May release date. So, you can find it yourself on the label's website.

Wormrot emerged last year on Earache's label to a lot of hype. Sounding like something that would have been released early on in the label's history, the Singaporean grindcore band was refreshing. This is the band's follow-up to their debut which was reissued last year by the label.

I am not normally much of a fan of grindcore. I like some bands but prefer those that mix their grindcore with a healthy amount of death metal, such as Napalm Death in the mid 1990's on. So, Wormrot would not usually be my cup of tea.

This is definitely punky grindcore with some minor death metal influence. I would be hard-pressed to put this under the death/grind label though, it's basically just grindcore. It is extremely fast and features very short songs. This album consists of 25 songs, but the album is about 18 minutes long. Frankly, I am glad I did not shell out 15 bucks for the CD. That's not to say it's bad, just that it's ridiculously short.

As for the music, it's fast, aggressive, violent, and intense. I suppose that's probably what people look for in grindcore, so I guess I could say it's succeeded. I like it well for what it is, but I cannot see myself listening to it too often. It just does not really do a whole lot for me.

Year in Metal: 2005

AKERCOCKE: WORDS THAT GO UNSPOKEN, DEEDS THAT GO UNDONE
London's strange progressive blackened death metal band has always had a style all their own, both musically and visually. Their scholarly take on Satanism and sexual depravity is complemented by the fact that the band wears suits when performing live and in video. Their music is extremely progressive and features a variety of different styles. The music is never boring and goes through frequent tempo changes and melodies. This is one of their best albums.

DECEASED...: AS THE WEIRD TRAVEL ON
By this time, Deceased... had eliminated most of the death metal elements that were previously present in their music. The vocals were still a little on the gruff side, but the music was now mostly in the realm of a blend between traditional metal and thrash metal. This is a true modern take on old school styles of metal and shows why Deceased... is perhaps the most unfairly underrated band in American metal.

KAMELOT: THE BLACK HALO
Kamelot's sixth album is the one that finally got the band the large following that they deserved. The Black Halo is a monumental album in Kamelot's history and truly one of the best power metal albums of the decade. It is not a terribly aggressive album, the band preferring to write powerful, melodic metal instead, but the songs are all incredibly infectious and keeps the listener coming back to hear it again. This is how melodic power metal should be.

KREATOR: ENEMY OF GOD
German thrash metal masters released yet another album of hyper-aggressive and punishingly brutal thrash. Kreator's music declined in quality in the 1990's, just like most other thrash metal bands, but that was due to their desire to experiment with styles such as industrial metal. This album was completely back in the brutal thrash style that they crafted in the 1980's. The incredible album-opening title track is an instant classic and sets the stage for the rest of the album.

NILE: ANNIHILATION OF THE WICKED
Nile's fourth album is my personal favorite. The Egyptian-themed death metal band really perfected their style on this release and found the perfect mix between their brutal style of death metal and the Egyptian-sounding musical interludes. Earlier in their career, Nile was somewhat more focused on the brutality and fast songs while later, they became more plodding and focused on the Egyptian aspects. This album combined them perfectly.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Arch Enemy: Doomsday Machine
Candlemass: Candlemass
Dark Tranquillity: Character
God Forbid: IV-Constitution of Treason
Hypocrisy: Virus
Judas Priest: Angel of Retribution
Meshuggah: Catch Thirty-Three
Opeth: Ghost Reveries
Scar Symmetry: Symmetric in Design

BANDS THAT FORMED IN 2005:
Ihsahn

Initial Impressions: Napalm Death: Legacy was Yesterday Flexi

Yep, it's a Napalm Death song.

Quick Update on the March Metal Madness Abortion

Link.

Your Final Four are Between the Buried and Me, All Shall Perish, Carnifex, and Born of Osiris. Wow, just wow.

Poll Results: Favorite Big 4 Debut

Well it's pretty obvious most of you are sheeple. Metallica's Kill 'Em All won in a landslide. I expected as much. I'm just kidding about the sheeple remark but this was definitely a predictable poll.

The full results:
Metallica: Kill 'Em All: 8 votes
Megadeth: Killing is My Business: 3 votes
Slayer: Show No Mercy: 2 votes
Anthrax: Fistful of Metal: 1 vote

My own feelings are that the Megadeth debut is not one of their better albums. It's good, but it's not one of my favorites and I love Megadeth. Anthrax to me is a step below the other Top 3 bands. When given the choice I would pick any of the other three over Anthrax. Not to say I don't like them, Among the Living is a great album and so are several others, they are just not quite as good.

So, to me, it comes down to Slayer and Metallica. Metallica's debut is certainly excellent, fully-formed thrash/speed metal. It is truly an amazing debut. But Slayer has a kind of NWOBHM/thrash hybrid with their debut. Their material prior to Reign in Blood owes a lot to Venom. My tastes change quite a bit. Right now, I would honestly say the Slayer debut is my favorite.

P.S. One of the people voting for Slayer was my fiancee. I was ranting about Metallica having all the votes early on.

Metal as Evidence in Criminal Trials

Link.

Okay, the band mentioned in here is Slipknot. I am not going to get into a big discussion about whether Slipknot is or is not metal, that's not my purpose. Here's the brief rundown. A 17 year old is being charged with murdering his grandparents and then setting their house on fire. The police seized some evidence against the 17 year old including a Slipknot CD.

The report goes on to state in the last paragraph of the article:

He said Smith admitted to investigators when he was arrested that he was into heavy metal music.

The CD was taken as evidence, whether that means that it will be used to possibly establish mens rea or not remains to be seen.

DOES MUSIC CONSTITUTE RELEVANT EVIDENCE IN PROSECUTING AN INDIVIDUAL FOR A CRIME?
To answer this question, we need to know what "relevant" means. I am licensed to practice in Nebraska, so I will be using Nebraska rules. I would imagine Oklahoma's rules are very similar, if not exactly the same.

In Nebraska, evidence is relevant if it has "any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence." That comes from Neb. Rev. Stat. §27-401.

It's quite the mouthful but what it means is that there is a very low standard for determining whether evidence is relevant or not. Basically, if has ANY probative value, it will probably be admitted.

So basically, we are looking at whether listening to Slipknot would have any tendency to cause this young individual to kill his grandparents and burn their house down. To prove this, the prosecutor need only explain some sort of rational connection between the listening to Slipknot and the killing the grandparents. The prosecutor may do this by a relying on experience, logic, intuition, common sense, or even expert testimony. Basically, if he can find an expert willing to testify that violent imagery in music makes it more probable that an impressionable young person would commit a violent act, then he can get the music in to evidence.

Well then we have the issue of how to use this evidence. If the prosecutor were to use this evidence, then he would have to draw some kind of connection between the music and the act. For that, he would probably have to look at the lyrics and pull particular passages and then offer the CD into evidence. If he cannot find any violent lyrics, this probably does not get offered.

CONCLUSION
Music tastes have been offered in a number of criminal trials before. Look no further than the famous West Memphis Three cases. As much as we metalheads state that our music tastes do not influence our actions, the fact is that it has been used in courts of law to do prove just that. Our musical taste is potentially relevant information. Whether it tells the whole story is a different matter, but it can be used in conjunction with other evidence.

Reader Submission: Netherbird: Ghost Collector

It's been quite awhile since these guys contacted me. I just recently had a chance to check out their music.

I first heard about Netherbird from a Metal Maniacs compilation album. Intrigued by their take on symphonic black metal, I wanted to hear more. So here we have their 2008 album The Ghost Collector. The Swedish band has a lot of ideas and seems to be trying to fit a whole bunch of them together at once.

There are elements of a number of styles on this release. The band seems to be trying to find a middle ground between the styles of Cradle of Filth, Emperor, The Sins of Thy Beloved, and Satyricon. There are black metal elements, death metal elements, gothic metal elements, and doom metal elements, all thrown together into a caustic mix that can be a little overwhelming at times. But when they succeed, it sounds great.

The music tends to plod along at a medium pace, calling to mind Cradle of Filth. The only problem with this is that the production does not really support it very well. If it is to be slower, the guitars and bottom end need to be beefier. Emphasize the doomy elements for a middle-paced album.

The individual instrumentation is very good. The keyboards add a lot of melody and make up the symphonic elements of Netherbird's sound. The guitar tone is decent, but as I said, it could be a little more prevalent within the music itself. The drums do not really do a lot of interesting stuff but they remain decent.

The vocals are impressive. I actually prefer the vocalist's death metal vocals which are delivered in a very deep roar to his more basic black metal rasp. The backing vocals are very interesting. Sounding something like ICS Vortex's backing vocals for some of Dimmu Borgir's work, they add a melodic, yet sinister touch to the overall sound. It's oddly chilling.

This is only the band's debut album. I have not heard their follow-up yet, but if they improve on just a few things, they could be a very good band. There are not a lot of truly great symphonic black metal bands out there right now. Netherbird could rise to the top of the pack quickly.