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Posts tagged as “Metal”

I ask you one question about this: Why?

The other morning, I was lying awake in bed with Sarah and this song popped into my head.

Why? Where did it come from?

I mean, I know, but why at that moment at like 6:30 in the morning, all half-asleep and warm and comfortable, did Deicide’s 22 year old song about the film Evil Dead pop into my head?

I just don’t know. I’ll never know. But, listen to it and feel free to add it to your own repertoire of self-song-raping songs. You’ll be glad you did.

Baroness’ “Take My Bones Away”

Does anyone else feel as bad as I do for not being into this new Baroness record at all? It’s not exactly bad, but it’s so underwhelming after the last two that I can’t help but feel let down. Red and Blue are both masterpieces of modern prog metal, but Yellow & Green never even approaches their heights. This video is a perfect representation of that. Composed of fairly uninteresting concert footage, it holds no candle to the brilliant visual powerhouses the band has released previously.

What’s going on? Am I missing something?

Further thoughts on Ihsahn’s Eremita

I realize that I forgot to use the word “jazzy” yesterday when discussing the new Ihsahn record. How terrible of me! The record is definitely jazzy as fuck. It is the best proggy, jazzy, post black metal, Norwegian metal record I’ve heard in ages. In fact, it might be the best metal record I’ve heard since Protest The Hero’s 2011 release Scurrilous.

Unlike the Protest the Hero record, however, Eremita is not a record that will sway non-metal listeners. Indeed, this is a metal album for the truest of the true metal nerds. If you know the difference between Goregrind and Slam, this record might be for you. If you know the difference between Cascadian Black Metal and the New Wave of American Black Metal, this record is probably for you. If you have an intricate knowledge of what made Emperor stand out amongst Black Metal bands in the early 90s and why this is relevant at all, then this record is definitely for you. If you fall into that last camp, you’re already listening. Julian Knöx, I am looking at you.

I was also totally wrong yesterday when I described the record as less heavy than 2010’s After. Eremita is just as heavy, but perhaps more varied, more dynamic. Eremita is a metal adventure

If I was forced to sum it all up with a clip from the Simpsons, I would use this one.

Communic’s “Facing Tomorrow”

After the gonzo masterpiece of a video by Bonde Do Rolê below, comes this archetype to generic shitty metal videos. Let us examine the tropes this video shamelessly embraces, shall we?

  • Band playing in a warehouse.
  • Band lit from below.
  • Band wearing all black.
  • Dude walking through a field.
  • Barrels full of fire.
  • Dude with a shovel.
  • Close-ups of shredding.
  • Chubby baby-faced member of the band.
  • Did I mention unbelievably boring warehouse band footage?
  • Shitty symbolism.
  • I was talking about the sapling.
  • Looks like it was made for a dollar.

Did you spot any I missed? And I’m only talking about the video. The song is just as generic and shitty. The singer sounds like he’s trying to sound like Devin Townsend, but he lacks the fucking balls to pull it off. And what the fuck kind of name is “Communic”? Is it a play on “community” and “cynic”? Because if it is, that is fucking stupid as fuck.

So there you go. Watch the Bonde Do Rolê video below and leave this stinker alone.

Downset’s Do We Speak a Dead Language

I was reading Stuff You Will Hate earlier today and saw a post about their current podcast featuring the drummer from Downset. This, of course, got me thinking about Downset, specifically about their 1996 album Do We Speak A Dead Language, a shining example of mid-90s SoCal hardcore. It’s got the era-specific mix of rap and hardcore, the chunka chunka guitars, the social positive outlook, multiculturalism, punky as fuck drums. Everything! It’s got everything! I can’t even tell you how many times I listened to this album in high school. Many hundreds of times.

How many times have I listened to it since then? Maybe zero times.

I popped on over to Spotify to see if it was there (it was) and I have been jamming out to this thing for a little bit. And, man, it’s still so good. You all are probably going to listen to it and think, “But, Joe, this sounds dated as shit.” Sure, it does, but so does Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony and we all stil like that also. So fuck off. This album rules. It’s actually giving me chills.

Rhapsody’s “Dark Fate of Atlantis”

Happy motherfucking power metal Friday! Wait, is that a thing now? Power metal Friday? It should be. So, I guess, it is now. Fuck it, why not, right?

To celebrate our very first power metal Friday, here’s Rhapsody’s new video from their forthcoming album Ascending to Infinity. I am not even sure which Rhapsody this is, since at some point the band split in two and they both call themselves the same thing which is really weird and annoying, but it means that we get twice as much Italian, dragon-infused power metal and no one can be mad at that. No one.

The main take away from this video, for me, is that Rhapsody’s production values have certainly improved since the video for “Holy Thunderforce”. Also, “Holy Thunderforce” is a fucking rad name. I don’t like the new singer as much as the last dude, but he works.

Anyway, power metal. Do it. Love it. It is all for you.