My finger really hurts. I don’t know what the hell I did to it, but it’s swollen and creaky and just generally not nice at all. I wish I could cut it off, but it would make typing about Protest the Hero much harder. Actually, you know what? Scratch that. I’ve written some words right now about this and haven’t a single time used my pinky finger. Maybe Mavis Beacon didn’t Teach Typing so fucking well did she? Home row, my balls.
Anyweezies, this is a funny video for a song about heartbreak. Protest The Hero is awesome. It looks like they had fun making it and I like the song. I really want a copy of Scurrilous on those old fashioned spinning discs that have grooves in them that, when combined with the proper devices, will reproduce music. Also, I am a total efftard today so don’t be put off by my rambling. I love you. 973.
Oh, Machine Head, you were such a favorite of mine back in the mid-90s with Burn My Eyes and The More Things Change that it broke my heart when you went all nü-metal on The Burning Red and Supercharger. Then there were hints of not only a return to form, but of an entirely new, powerful era of the Machine Head oeuvre on Through the Ashes of Empires. Then came 2007’s The Blackening, which I would never have listened to had it not been for the advice of the internet (Metal Sucks, I think). And holy living shit was I floored by that record. It was as if you guys had just skipped right over that unfortunate flirtation with nü-metal and jumped right into making the most mature, most competent, most thoughtful, most intense record of your career. From its first lilting notes on “Clenching the Fists of Dissent” to the last pummeling bar of “Hallowed Be They Name”, The Blackening is your perfect comeback record, a masterpiece of modern metal that absolutely eclipses both Burn My Eyes and The More Things Change even through the rose-tinted lenses of nostalgia. The Blackening blew my mind in the nicest way possible.
When you announced that you had a new record coming out, I met the news with a mix of excitement and trepidation. How could anything even match the quality of the previous record, much less attempt to surpass it? How do you take a masterpiece and improve on it? I definitely did not expect to have the same leap in quality, but I did expect greatness. When Charlie sent me a track that had been released, my excitement started to outpace my trepidation. When the record finally dropped, I was pumped on it.
But, having listened to The Locust quite a bit more since then, I think that it does not surpass The Blackening, but that it still stands head and shoulders (to rely on cliché) above most other recent metal releases. The Locust is 90% of what The Blackening was, only lacking the prior record’s sense of cohesion. Where The Blackening was a journey, The Locust is a tightly focused package of awesome songs. If the record had been written by any other band, I would have very little to say in the negative about it, but because it came after The Blackening, context demands that it be judged (slightly) inferior. But it is not bad, not bad at all, and I think you should give it a listen or 30 and let me know what you think. Also, go buy The Blackening.
Now that I’ve gotten my love letter to The Blackening out of the way, let’s get to the point of this post. Above is the new video for “Locust”, the first single (do metal bands put out singles?) from the new Machine Head album of the same name. I think the track is a very good introduction into what Machine Head is about on this record. It’s an assault with ups and downs, tempo shifts, tonality shifts: it’s a Machine Head song where they are doing all the things that make them Machine Head quite well.
Unfortunately, the song also houses one incredibly unfortunate lyrical bomb that I just cannot get past. Robb, “descending down” is redundant. To “descend” already implies the direction down. You cannot “descend up.” That would be “ascending.” Phil Anselmo is guilty of the same violence against the English language on “Suicide Note Pt. 2” from The Great Southern Trendkill. And don’t even get me started, Dax Riggs, on your pronunciation of “peripheral” in “Strange Television” from If This is Hell, We’re Lucky. Ok, enough pedantry. If I expected every metal lyricist to be a poetic powerhouse, I would be gravely disappointed all the time.
Wow, this has turned into a long, multifaceted post, hasn’t it? All I meant to do was show this video, but you got a love letter, grammar ranting, and an album review also. Lucky you.
Tesseract is not a band I’ve listened to before stumbling upon this video earlier today, but I have to say I am digging their proggy metal sound and the dude can actually sing, which is nice. The video also has a lot more glitter than your run-of-the-mill metal video. That’s something.
I don’t know what a Hyperzephyrian is, but that doesn’t stop this track by The Sword off 2008’s Gods of the Earth from kicking total ass. Of course, by now, everyone knows that The Sword slays. You should know that. I know it. We all god damned know it. The Sword is awesome.
I post this video now in light of my post about Township the other day. It was directed by my friends Mike Colao and Josh Litwhiler and shot here in scenic Williamsburg, Brooklyn in a warehouse by the East River. Pastoral! You’ll see me as one of the chain-pulling dudes and as the front Ark Bearer wearing a gas mask that was much too small for my face. The pressure gave me a brutal headache, but I was all, “Fuck it, man. Let’s do this shit.” Even better, I can now say I’ve been on Headbanger’s Ball. Check that one off the ol’ bucket list.
This is pretty awesome and the song is rad. Thats right. Rad. Go to hell. I like the shitty vaudeville/nightmare elementary school play thing they have going on, though it is about one step away from Steampunk which would make it terrible.
That’s right, Steampunkers! You’re all awful! All of you!
Another classic from the old Earache My Eye VHS tape that also had videos by Godflesh, At The Gates, Cathedral, Pitchshifter, Dub War, Brutal Truth, Carcass, Napalm Death, Entombed…shit man, if you were a mid-90s metal band, you were on that tape. I still have it somewhere in my parents’ house in CA. Memories.
Anyway, it’s gray as hell outside today and this song is basically exactly how my brain feels, so go with it. Enjoy “Dragonaut” by San Jose, CA natives Sleep.
I recently ordered this as an LP after listening to their first album A Glorified Piece of Blue Sky on Spotify. A lot. I fell completely in love with their sludgey/proggy sound. The album’s a downtempo wall of sound piercing your skull and sending you into the corner to hide. Fear The Atlas Moth. Worship The Atlas Moth.
It’s funny, as I get older I find myself drawn toward this sort of raw, less-produced, noisey, sludgy, loud sort of metal. There was a point when I was really into that super clean Killswitch Engage/Unearth/Darkest Hour sort of sound, but when I listen to the output of those bands these days, it just feels too sterile, a little boring, wildly over-produced. I still love their older records out of some sort of nostalgia, but I can’t help but be turned off by the cleanliness of their recent records.
In fact, the vinyl I’ve been buying is split effectively into two groups: black/sludge metal and indie music. You’ve got Barghest and The Magnetic Fields, Dark Castle and Bonnie Prince Billy, Coffinworm and Andrew Bird. And now we’ve got this new Atlas Moth record on the way and I am super super psyched about adding it to the collection. Maybe, The Atlas Moth and Neutral Milk Hotel?
Anyway, give the album a listen up there if that’s your jam. I am listening to it right now and it’s making these 20+ hours of Under Armor dailies all that much more palatable. I was going to tell you to head on over to Profound Lore and get a copy of the vinyl, but it looks like they’re sold out. Oops! HAHAHA! Suckas!
Holy shit, I am so excited about this album. I preordered the LP yesterday before even listening to the stream. Let me tell you, I was right to do it. This album is amazing. Ridiculously amazing. I regret having missed them play the last time they were here in NYC.
God damn, Mel Mongeon’s vocals on this shit are so brutal. She out-metals nearly every male vocalist I can think of except for maybe Erik Rutan. MAYBE.
If you’re a fan of grind and you’ve never heard Fuck The Facts, prepare to have your face blown off, your wallet lightened, and all your stress blasted out of you by Montréal’s finest.
