With Megaupload down and some real 1984shit going down, it seems that we are in the end times. And my computer is on the fritz. Eventually we're either gotta buy our music or start mailing burned CD's. Fortunately some bands put their shit out for free...
Metal and hardcore have had a long relationship, interbreeding on may occasions (crust, crossover, grind, sludge, powerviolence, metallic hardcore, 90s metalcore, etc.) Each fusion style bring something to the table, combining different aspects of the genres and creating something new. But few bands have combined both genres as perfectly as Integrity. Utilizing the simplicity and visceral impact of hardcore and fusing it to the darkness of metal, they are the forerunners of metallic hardcore and, along with Ringworm, the inventors of "Holy Terror" style played by bands like Pale Creation, Rot In Hell, Withdrawal, among many others. Consisting of dark, brooding hardcore songs are interspersed with abstract acoustic or noise parts, holy terror is as much of a cultural aesthetic as musical style. With extensive use of dark imagery and symbols, most notably the process cross, also known as the "holy terror symbol". Hell, as long as you spell your Ws as 2 Vs you can be holy terror too. And everybody seems to have a thing for Charles Manson:
In a fuck you to their former label, Victory, Integrity mainman Dwid Hellion has put up their early albums up for free download on the website for his label, aptly named Holy Terror, right HERE.
Of the albums available I would say the best is Those Who Fear Tomorrow. Very hardcore and less abstract then most of their other stuff, though it spreads out near the end. It also has their most famous song: "Micha (Those Who Fear Tomorrow)", "Judgment Day" which was covered by Dying Fetus and "Harder They Fall" which has one of my favorite guitar harmoneez in the intro.
On the more metallic side is Humanity is the Devil. HitD is probably the best starter record for the metalhead, and at 15 minutes of actual music what do you got to loose?
All the other bands up for download are good as well, especially Pale Creation. See yall in prison!
Ichneumonidae are a large family of wasps in the order Hymenoptera (wasps, bees and ants), They are identifiable because of their antennae-which have more segments most other wasps, extremely long ovipositors(egg laying structures)-often longer than their body, and their wing structure is different than other families if you want to get technical about it. They often have long cigar shaped abdomen, but not in all species. Ichneumonidae is my favorite family of insects and a strong contender for Most Metal Organism. They earn my vote for this honor with: 1. sheer brutality, 2: literal metal and 3. a Christopher Hitchens-like disdain for god and religion. And they just look fucking cool:
1. Sheer Brutality
Most ichneumon species are parasitoids, the adult laying eggs in the host and the larvae developing within the host's body, often killing it. The main hosts for ichneumons are larvae of other insects. The female injects the eggs with her ovipositor(s), sometimes drilling into the tree that the host is living in. By sensing vibrations made by the host, she can locate it, drill into the tree and lay her eggs in it, through sometimes inches of wood.
Here is the process step by step: (from Wikipedia [check it out because the pic is much bigger])
Tapping with her antennae, the wasp detects and localizes scent and vibrations that indicate a host is present.
With the longer ovipositor, the wasp drills a hole through the bark.
The wasp inserts the ovipositor into the cavity which contains the host larva.
Making corrections.
Depositing her eggs.
Depositing her eggs.
Some species inject venom along with the eggs. The eggs hatch and the larvae develop in the host, feeding off it and killing it before emerging as an adult.
Here's a cool vid from the excellent Life in Undergrowth series on the BBC about an ichneumon that parasitizes caterpillars that live inside ant's nests:
Pretty brutal lifestyle or what?
2. Actually Metal
How do ichneumonids drill into the tree that the host lives in with just a thin ovipositor? How do the adults get out of the tree when they emerge from the host? The tip of the females ovipositor and the adults' mandibles in some species are tipped with actual METAL (zinc or maganese).
3. Disdain for Religion
Philosophers, theologians and naturalists were troubled by the cruelty and br00tality exhibited by organisms such as ichneumonid wasps and cuckoos. How could god create creatures that are so cruel if he is benevolent? Charles Darwin himself wrote:
I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.
Parasites like ichneumonids and cuckoos are and excellent challenge to the benevolence of god and creationism. In real life, shit like "cruelty" and "kindness" don't factor into survival, which is all that matters. As Darwin put it: "Let the strong survive and the weak perish."
All in all pretty fucking metal, and certainly at the top of my list for Most Metal Organism. And before yall get any ideas, I got dibs on writing a song about these sexy hellbeasts.
Yes, this post is about surf rock, by that I mean Surf Rock and not that Beach Boys crap. Fuck that shit. That is "rock about surf" and not surf rock proper.
Surf rock is a mostly instrumental guitar driven music (except in the early days it was fairly common for surf bands to shit out a pop single with a vocalist). It places great importance on melodic guitar lines played with heavy reverb. Reverb is key to surf rock. Surf bands use reverb the way death metal bands use distortion. It is hard to make the case that something is surf if it doesn't have tons of reverb. Also tremelo picking, whammy dips and palm muting are vary common techniques. Since it is instrumental for the most part there is less standard song structure than the other music of its day, though certain lines or themes are often repeated.
Surf originated in the late 50's by artists like Link Wray and the Ventures. But it was Dick Dale that made it is what it is today. He used a clean guitar tone with maximum reverb, tremelo riffs and heavy use of the whammy bar. His style included melodious guitar lines and incorporated elements from Middle Eastern and Mexican music. Sometimes a saxophone would carry the melody; an electric bass and drums made up the rhythm section.
The first true surf hit was his "Lets go Trippin'" from 1961 which became a regional hit in SoCal. Soon the trend became a national fad with both The Chantays and The Surfaris making the top 10 in 1963 with "Pipeline" and Wipe Out" respectively. Soon surf bands started popping up around the country in such as the quiet beachside communities of Boulder, Colorado (The Astronauts) Minneapolis, Minnestota (The Trashmen) Baltimore, Maryland (The Fender IV, featuring future Blue Cheer guitarist Randy Holden) and Sydney, Australia (The Atlantics). There was also a surf scene in Japan.
Surf rock began to decline in poularity in the mid-60's with the rise of the Beatles and other British invasion crap. But it never really died in the hearts of the true fans, and guys like Dick Dale managed to hold on in the Dark Ages. More recently with the release of Pulp Fiction and the internets surf rock is experiencing something of a revival, much like psychobilly and kiddie thrash. Much like psychobilly and kiddie thrash there is some element of dressing up, but fortunately surf rock fashion isn't nearly as bad as those genres, mostly just Hawaiian shirts. The clean cut look has died along with shitting out a pop song with a singer.
Heres a list of some of my favorite current surf bands:
The Aqua Velvets
One of the first surf revival bands, the Aqua Velvets have stuck with the genre since the 80's and are still kicking.
Man or Astro-Man?
One of the higher profile revival bands, they started off as fairly trad surf, but gradually became more abstract.
Gary Hoey
Not exactly a true surf rocker, he started out as a heavy metal shredder. He tried out for Ozzy in 88 but lost to Zakk Wylde. He did some solo type shred stuff in the 90's. In 2005 he released Monster Surf, a collection of hard rock covers of classic surf songs, pretty fuckin rad if you ask me, even if he is an Affliction tool now.
The Madeira Very progressive surf with heavy middle eastern influences. They display more dynamics than the average surf band, with acoustic passages and brooding intros.
Secret Samurai In my opinion the best of the modern surf rockers. They play a progressive style of surf with influences from exotica and spaghetti western soundtracks. No fucking around with samples and intros, just rippin surf.
There are plenty of other good surf bands out there, just search myspace, youtube and bandcamp.
Unfortunately, the surf rock community has not figured out MediaFire and stuff like that, and there is almost nothing out there to download, and no surf mp3 blogs. Anyhoo, here's The Secret Samurai's first album, Gun Sho Gun:
Metal and surf rarely come into contact, but it does happen. Examples: the aforementioned Gary Hoey, Satch's Surfing With the Alien (not metal, but close enough), the intro to "Craving Illness" by Deceased and Agalloch's "Our Fortress is Burning... I" sounds pretty surftastic to me.
The new year is traditionally a time for optimism for the year to come, a time for starting anew. Fuck that shit.
Here is some slow, ultra depressing cult doom from England's Warning. Anchored by Solstice and Sore Throat's Rich Walker's cousin Patrick Walker, who plays guitar and sings. They did a couple of demos in the 90s and a full-length in 1999, The Strength to Dream. It's Ok but your better off spending time listening to Watching From a Distance again. They put out Watching From a Distance on Rich's Miskatonic Foundation in 2006. It is their finest hour, and also their swan song. Tempo change is a foreign concept to these guys. Never getting above a slow crawl, this album could be monotonous if it weren't so good. They have a penchant for Revelation-style arpeggiated chords in addition to the standard doom power chord riffs. Bass: non-existant. Drumming: slow and slower.
Did I mention these guys are sad. They are, or at least Patrick Walker is. He weaves with his Ozzyish voice tales of love lost, regret and plain old loss. And the music reflects it. This album is one blob of negative emotions, real Ghostbusters 2 shit. These guys make Crowbar seem like Blink-182 or some pussy shit like that. Real touchy feely, but still killer, and one of the best post-millenial doom performances.
Warning split in 2009, but it's OK, cuz Walker started 40 Watt Sun, and they sound just like Warning. Except that the drumming on The Inside Room was a little too fast at times. Maybe Christian "Commando" Leitch will slow it the fuck down for the next album. This is doom metal for fucks sake.
Side note: isn't it strange how many doom dudes were in death metal/grind bands before going doom? Must be growing up, cuz it sure aint selling out. Ex: Patrick Walker, Rich Walker, Lee Dorrian, Jus Oborn, Fernando Opazo of Marchefunebre, My Dying Bride, etc.
I kinda got into punk accidentally, and this is the album that did it. Eight months ago I was on the internets looking for the Wartorn from England, the one with Rich Walker from Solstice and Jim Whitley from Napalm Death as I recall. I never found the English guys but I did find the the vid for "Aftermath of a Severed World" by Wisconsin crusties Wartorn:
This band alone changed my mind on punk. The good music and competent musicianship clashed with my ideas of what punk was. Growing up what passed for "punk" was Green Day and Hatebreed and I instinctively stayed away from that Hot Topic shit and until about eight months ago that was still my opinion of punk. After this album I see that punk is not a shitty half-ass genre created to sell clothing and let middle schoolers think that they are rebellious. Now I know that punk is vibrant and legitimate genre that's worth some of my precious time and hardrive space. Musically crust as fuck, with plenty of d-beats, some Sabbathy riffs and some killer leads in the vein of Japanese bands like Aggressive Dogs and Enslave. Nothing gets me pumped like a good guitar harmony. Excellent drumming throughout, and there's some decent acoustic/soft stuff goin on as well. Vocals are standard shouts with the standard liberal arts blah blah #politics. Their first album had better song titles like "Wal-Martyr" and "Stillborn Again Christian." but the music is way better on this one. Two steppin is still retarded though.
A sort of white elephant in the Swedish death metal scene, Seance didn't seem to fit in with the rest of their countrymen. While the rest of the country was turning all the knobs on their HM-2s all the way up, Seance were aping Deicide. Their debut, Fornever Laid to Rest, though decent, is just not as good as Glenn n crew.
Seance must have realized this cuz one year later they came out with this filthy beast of an album. The first thing you notice about Saltrubbed Eyes is the bass sound. It's phat az phuk. Since everybody likes to use weapon analogies to describe the guitar sounds like "buzzsaw," "chainsaw" or "laser beam," I'll say that it sounds like a baseball bat covered in razor blades, because it does as much damage by cutting as crushing. It has a perfect combination of low end, treble and distortion, the closest comparison I can think of is the bass sound on The Erosion of Sanity, but better. On top of that it's LOUD in the mix, so much that it dominates the album. The bass sound on Saltrubbed Eyes becomes its defining feature. It's like the whole album is a sick bass drop. Which isn't to say the music isn't good, it is. Still heavily Deicide influenced but slower and groovier. The band is branching out, evidenced on the menacing "Angelmeat pt II" and "Hidden Under Scars." Also since the bass sound is so strong, the mix doesn't need the guitars to support it, allowing the guitars to do their own thing now and then. Some times they drop in and out of a riff, do an open chord while the bass plays the riff or go for their own leads in addition to the bass part. Drums are well played, with a great sound: nice and loud bass drums with enough pop to stand out but not klickety-klakety. Seance broke up a couple of years later, and members went on to form Witchery,Satanic Slaughter and The Haunted. They got back together a few years back, and recorded a new album Awakening of the Gods, which is surprisingly good, but not as good as this.
But few bands have combined both genres as perfectly as Integrity. Utilizing the simplicity and visceral impact of hardcore and fusing it to the darkness of metal, they are the forerunners of metallic hardcore and, along with Ringworm, the inventors of "Holy Terror" style played by bands like Pale Creation, Rot In Hell, Withdrawal, among many others. Consisting of dark, brooding hardcore songs are interspersed with abstract acoustic or noise parts, holy terror is as much of a cultural aesthetic as musical style. With extensive use of dark imagery and symbols, most notably the process cross, also known as the "holy terror symbol". Hell, as long as you spell your Ws as 2 Vs you can be holy terror too. And everybody seems to have a thing for Charles Manson:
