In a day when there were only two cores—hard and grind— and before anyone crabwalked their way through a music video, before there was a scene for which there could be hair, before anyone auto-tuned the clean vocals in their songs, Morbid Angel released an album called Domination. The year was 1995 and I was 13 years old. I had been listening to Morbid Angel for some time at this point. I owned 1989's Altars of Madness and 1991's Blessed Are The Sick, but it was their third album, 1993's Covenant that was the important one. I have no idea how many times I've listened to this album, but it must be in the healthy triple digits. The count was probably into the triple digits when Domination came out in 95. It was right up there with Vulgar Display of Power and Chaos A.D.

I listened the living hell out of that record. In case you are somewhere around my age and are unfamiliar with Covenant but you were around to see Beavis & Butthead, then you might recognize this video.

http://www.dailymotion.com/videox1qz30

Pretty killer song right?

I know it is.

And then Domination came out and for some reason I thought they'd gone soft on me. I was disappointed with the album and it never really enter heavy rotation the same way that Covenant had. The songs were weak and soft. They basically made a fucking pussy ass country record I thought. I felt betrayed, so Domination was lodged into the back of my brain as Morbid Angel's failed mid-career attempt at selling out.

Then a few weeks ago, I decided I'd give their "new" record a shot. Of course, this was early 2010, 15 years after its release. Morbid Angel had released three records afterward, yet in my head, for whatever reason, Domination was still the "new" one. Weird how that happens.

And, wow. Was I wrong in my opinions of the album. Domination fucking SLAYS. Perhaps you'd be interested in hearing the song that pretty much convinced me that Morbid Angel had gone soft on this record? Here it is.

http://www.dailymotion.com/videox1elnb

What the hell? Was I serious? Something in me thought that this wasn't heavy enough? "Where The Slime Live" is an amazing song, yet 13-year-old Joe thought it was total pussy crap. I was an idiot! In all likelihood I still am!

In case the sample wasn't enough, here are a couple more tracks from the record I had dismissed as not heavy enough.

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Yeah. I know. Totally soft right?

I think I've proven myself here. If you've got some old records around that you maybe didn't get into the first, give them a listen. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you hear.

Because I don't have a whole lot of awesome to talk about right now, here's a pretty killer video of Giorgio Moroder playing with his Vocoder. Please note the mustache.

Enjoy!

I've been listening to Pulp for, oh, about a million years. The This Is Hardcore/Different Class duo were some of my most listened-to records between '98 and '00. It was a period where heavy metal music was stagnating under the ridiculous weight of Nü-metal and I started to explore lighter music. I got way into the pop and other rock coming out of the British Isles, bands like Blur, Supergrass, Pulp, Gomez, Radiohead. These guys and girls were carrying the torch of classic British pop rock music in the vein of The Kinks or The Zombies or any number of other bands. They were writing catchy as hell tunes with a light-hearted sensibility that nevertheless held a tiny shade of darkness below all the major chords and joyful harmonies.

No band exemplified that light/dark condition like Pulp did on 1996's Different Class. The record features a bunch of upbeat poppy tracks propelled by Cocker's sharp, biting lyrics. The songs are filled longing and remorse and shame expressed with witty jabs, all bouncing along to a brisk, danceable beat.

Then they released This Is Hardcore in 1998 which is Different Class's sleazier, darker, less poppy older brother. Lacking the supreme dancey-ness of its predecessor, it's also a whole lot darker. No, that's not exactly right. The darkness is a lot more apparent.

Neither record is better than the other. They've been in heavy rotation in my listening habits for a long time and I'm still not sick of them. What I think I really love is that the songs are like Jarvis Cocker having a conversation with the listener, like he's telling us a story. He allows his thoughts to linger and spread and chooses the right word even if he doesn't rhyme.

I could write a whole bunch of other stuff here, but I won't. Just listen to the music.

Ok. So, I'm a fan. Doy. You would think that I would have seen all their music videos, right? Me too. But until yesterday I hadn't seen a single one. What the hell is that about? At the very least, I guess it's because when I became a fan of Pulp there was no place like YouTube to see all their videos. It was an age when MTV no longer played videos and there was no good way for me to see the videos a medium-sized British band were making.

Well, now I've got YouTube, so I can watch whatever I want! I present to you, dear reader, every decent Pulp video I can find.

Enjoy!

I've been rustling through the interwebs today and found out a little more about Die Antwoord. Apparently, the group is the brain child of Watkin Tudor Jones, aka NINJA. His career in South African hip-hop stretches back to the halcyon days of the mid-90s (remember those?) and across several different projects, such as Max Normal and the Constructus Corporation.

Now, I could go and rehash all the info I read, but instead I'll just send you to the site where I read it.

Die Antwoord, a review.

How about some samples of their previous work?

Max Normal.tv

Constructus Corporation

I've also learned about this concept called "zef" which is a South African word meaning something like "common." Based on the description I got from Kameraad Mhambi's blog post "What is Zef?" is that it's like a blend of ghetto and trailer park sensibilities. Read the article though, it's more informative than what I just wrote.

Where does that leave us with Die Antwoord? Exactly where we were before. They are still awesome. If these guys ever came to New York, I'd be in line an hour before doors. Seriously, I don't care if there's a whole scene in South Africa, this shit is fresh as fuck here in the States and I am into it. I need—NEED—the record. Need it so bad.

Yesterday, before posting Die Antwoord's music videos, I sent them to my friend Gardner, absolutely sure that he would enjoy them. I was, of course, right. He loved the hell out of them right away. And, being Gardner, what does he do? He finds the band's e-mail and send them an e-mail about how awesome they are.

To: Die Antwoord
From: Gardner Loulan
Subject: You are now my gods.

I just came across your stuff via my friends blog TheBlackLaser.net and I am totally obsessed now. I was a VJ for MTV Networks in the US a few years ago and have a knack for getting excited about the next level of music and you are it. It's like you're bitch slapping Lady Gaga while melting The Knife in her propelled by The Sounds and blowing up Golgol Bordello with an M.I.A. bomb---- putting them all int he past and back together again in the future where you clearly reside.

Well done,
-Gardner Loulan

Now, one usually expects this sort of missive to go unnoticed or unreplied to. But did it? Of course not!

From: Die Antwoord
To: Gardner Loulan

what a FUCKIN nice thing to say
we fuckin love you for saying this

once my blaar!

NINJA
out

This trifecta of e-mails was completed with a brief note from Gardner to me.

To: Me
From: Gardner Loulan

My day is now complete.

Awesome. Thank you, internet, for allowing us to have such remarkable instantaneous contact with such diverse people from all around the world. Though we often take it for granted, the ease with which we can communicate with folks from such places as far from us as South Africa is truly incredible.

And also thanks, Die Antwoord, for being cool enough to respond to Gardner.

And thanks, Gardner, for being enthusiastic enough about everything to go out of your way, if only a little bit, to track these dudes down.

If you haven't yet watched the music videos below, do. And get yourself to Die Antwoord's website and listen to their, frankly, amazing debut streaming in its entirety. Go now!

Over at Invisible Oranges today, Cosmo Lee is further exploring his distaste for power metal. Personally, I like power metal. It's cheesy and stupid and ridiculous, but it is also totally awesome. It's like you've got a bunch of dudes sitting around after an epic campaign of AD&D (2nd ruleset, duh) and they're all talking about how to make the most epic metal ever.

"Well guys, we probably need operatic vocals," says one.

"And probably powerful sweeping guitars," says another.

"And the guitars could have solo battles with the synthesizers," says a third.

"Yeah, that would be rad," says the first.

"And we probably need a constant barrage of double bass drums," says yet another.

"And our lyrics should be about elves and unicorns and dragons and shit."

And thus was Power Metal born into this world. If ever there was a metal genre filled with earnest as hell guys pursuing the impossible dream by making the silliest, unicorn-filled music ever, it is Power Metal.

Here is a selection of some of my favorites of the genre. Let's start with Rhapsody, perhaps THE awesome, MOST ridiculous Power Metal band of all time. Even better, they're Italian. This is "Power of the Dragonflame." Is that not an awesome song title?

Next is Demons & Wizards, probably my first intro to true modern Power Metal. My friend Deegan came over one day and was all, "Dude, do you have Napster?" and I was all, "Over dial up, yeah," and he was all, "Dude, find a song called 'Poor Man's Crusade' right now," and I was all, "Ok." Well, I did and it was AWESOME.

This song, "Fiddler on the Green," is from the same record. It is, I think my favorite song on the record and has a 3 and a half minute build to insanely powerful power metal magic.

Star One is a one-off side project by Anthony Arjen Lucassen of Ayreon. The record, called "Space Metal," is a Power Metal concept record based on Science Fiction movies.

Wait. Read that again.

A POWER METAL CONCEPT RECORD BASED ON SCIENCE FICTION MOVIES. What the fucking fuck? That is so awesome. Films include Stargate, Star Wars, and fucking Dune. Honestly, I can't think of anything that combines dork and awesome more perfectly.

Here's a fan-made video for "Eye of Ra" from that record.

Dream Evil, who I posted one below this one, is a Swedish Power Metal band I saw for the first time live playing with Carnal Forge, Testament, Immortal, and Rob Halford—a strange line up to be sure. But they totally rock. Here's "Fire, Battle, Metal!"

Hammerfall is another band doing epic heavy cheese as well as anyone and they totally rock. This is "Renegade."

With this light survey of Power Metal under our belts, what do we now understand. For me, Power Metal is awesome if you are able to relax and not take yourself too seriously. While I think that there are guys in this scene who live and breathe this shit, I also think there's a significant contingent of guys who are laughing right along with the fans. Sometimes you can make and enjoy things just because they're fun. That, more than unicorns and dragons and elves and trolls, is what Power Metal is about for me. I love Pig Destroyer, but my music doesn't always have to be so serious.

Today I learned about a genre of metal called "New Old School Death Metal" or NOSDM. While I think the resurgence of old school style Death Metal is awesome, I'm a little surprised by it. Had it really gone anywhere? I was always of the opinion that since its inception, there have been dudes playing Death Metal the same way. Sure, the bands change and the members of the bands change, but hasn't there always been a core of old school Death going on somewhere?

Did I miss out on something? Was I too busy listening to Old Old School Death Metal (OOSDM) records to notice?

Did Death Metal change so much that we're experiencing a revival of the classic form much in the same manner as thrash suddenly became huge again about three years ago? Do we refer to Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust as "New Old School Thrash Metal" or NOSTM? Are all these labels really necessary? If we didn't call these new DM bands NOSDM, but just plain called them Death Metal, would it be so hard to understand? Would it be wrong?

Let's posit that Death Metal in its traditional form peaked about 1994, to be superseded by the Swedish style that dominated the later 90s and early 00s. (No, nü-metal doesn't fucking count.) The earliest known uses of the term "Death Metal" were found somewhere around 1984, giving Death Metal a 10 year run. Now, if a style falls out of favor but does not disappear completely, can we really call its resurgence by a new name? Composers wrote Baroque music for 160 years. It's not like when Baroque first showed up, went through a wave of initial popularity, decreased slightly in public opinion, and then showed up again they called it New Old School Baroque Music (NOSBM), did they?

The whole thing, and really the extreme fragmentation of metal subgenres in general, seems pretty silly to me.

And, because I am such a caring person, I won't let you go without some examples.

Let's do a chronological survey of some of my favorite Death Metal, shall we?

1987's "Beyond the Unholy Grave" - Death

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1987's "Bleed for the Devil" - Morbid Angel

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1989's "Sacrificial Suicide" - Deicide

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1990's "Burden of Evil" - Monstrosity

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1991's "Jesus Wept" - Suffocation

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1992's "Hammer Smashed Face" - Cannibal Corpse

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1993's "Preacher of Sodomy" - Broken Hope

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1994's "Born Headless" - Cryptopsy

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1995's "Nothing But Fear" - Morbid Angel

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1996's "Permanently Disfigured" - Dying Fetus

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1997's "Save To The Cross" - Deicide

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1998's "Flame To The Surface" - Cryptopsy

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1999's "Blowtorch Slaughter" - Cannibal Corpse

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2000's "Christians To The Lions" - Behemoth

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2001's "Blind The Vision That Shatters" - Neuraxis

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2002's "Dead Sea Scroll Deception" - Lock Up

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2003's "History Is Rotten" - Misery Index

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2004's "Sensual Sickness" - Decapitated

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2005's "The Victorious Reign" - Hate Eternal

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2006's "The Crawl Inside Me Uninvited" - Coldworker

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2007's "Rebirth In Blood" - Blood Red Throne

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2008's "Slaughtering The Will To Live" - Bloodbath

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2009's "Carrion Sculpted Entity" - Cannibal Corpse

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Sorry, for some reason I don't have any Death Metal from 1988 on my iPod right now. I'll fix that oversight when I get home tonight.

Now, listen to the bands on an article by Decibel Magazine about NOSDM. It seems to me that besides some basic evolution in the quality of the productions, that Death Metal has been alive an well since at least 1987. So, do we need this new label at all? Can we not just keep calling it Death Metal? Do we need OOSDM, MEOSDM (Mid-Era Old School Death Metal), and NOSDM? What happens when NOSDM becomes Old New Old School Death Metal (ONOSDM)?

For the initiated and uninitiated out there who take the time to read and listen to this, what do you think? Comment away.

I have never been a huge fan of Black Metal. There is something about it that has never appealed to me. It's not the culture surrounding it, but something about the style, the musical tropes they engage, the synths, the high pitched scream, whatever, that just has never appealed to me that much. I mean, I've listened to as much Emperor as the next guy, but I would not call myself a Black Metal aficionado. It's always a bit "meh" to me.

When I read a post on Metal Sucks in August about the band Celeste, my eyes immediately went to the phrase "Black Metal" in the article as I skimmed it. But I also saw that they had two albums available for free download, so I thought, Fuck it, right? How horrible could they be?

And holy living fuck am I glad I downloaded them. The "Black Metal" thing completely threw me off initially, but it's really only a faint Black tint in the music, not full bore Black Metal. I don't think French lyrics have ever sounded this awesome. Of course, I don't understand a word, but since when have I judged my enjoyment of metal music on whether or not I could understand the lyrics? The songs possess a savage intensity and rawness that seems to be lacking from so much modern Heavy Metal music. It's not a horrid mess of bad production, but it's also not super clean, super mastered, bland. There is fire and darkness in the music and they sound like no other band in my collection, high praise to be certain. In an age when so many genres and subgenres are basically interchangeable, to release a record with a sound that stands apart from the crowd is a significant achievement, one which Celeste has accomplished. They are one of the freshest bands I've heard since I encountered their fellow Frenchmen, Gojira.

Here are a few sample tracks.

Celeste - Misanthrope(s)

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Celeste - Nihiliste(s)

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If you have any remaining reservations about how amazing this band is, do yourself a favor and just download the records. If you don't have reservations, you're probably downloading already.

Yes, I know. You're welcome.

It's the middle of the night (00:37) and I am watching vintage videos of vintage synthesizers being played by vintage synthesists. What are you doing, huh?

You might know Dr. Samuel Hoffman from his exotica records of Les Baxter. Wait, you don't? What about the record he did with Billy May? Not that either? Wow.

How about a demo track or two, huh?

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Pretty great, right?

Add this to the list of "Things People Do Better Than I Will Ever Do Anything In My Life." This young fellow absolutely SLAYS this accordion performance. Who knew you could make the accordion sound like an organ rather than a ridiculous oompah, polka joke? Not that there's anything wrong with oompah or polka music, but you cannot argue that this performance doesn't elevate the accordion to something finer. Is there a whole subsection of amazing accordion music out there that I'm not privy to?

Check out homeboy here.

Haha, I just realized I have a "People Doing Things Better Than I Do Anything" tag. At least I am consistent!