Metal

Vinnie Paul Abbott has passed away at the age of 54. I know Panter A and their many splinter acts aren't popular here, but it's really sad that this had to happen. R.I.P

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/obituary/8462386/vinnie-paul-dead-pantera-damageplan-hellyeah

Damn, that's young…

My bassist friend Leona's band Weaponlord dropped their debut album earlier this year and it's a contender for the best power and traditional metal albums I've heard. It's a neoclassical take on the classic American style, something that while not unheard of is quite rare (Last Empire, Dragonship, Ancient Creation, and Helstar are the only ones I can think of who've done this). There's an incredibly energetic and at times thrash tinged approach to the genre emphasizing versatile and at times very falsetto style singing over riffing that melds the genre's semi-speed metal roots with some dexterous lead guitar, resulting in a strong combo of finesse and firepower. Also the opener holy bejeezus.

edited 25th Jun '18 6:10:43 PM by StillbornMachine

Not a big fan of the voice mixing, honestly (though the vocals themselves are impressive), but this is indeed pretty solid. The Iron Maiden is very strong with this one, with a slightly more thrashy vibe − the song "Witch Hunt" in particular. Except it feels a bit less repetitive than IM. I might follow these guys.

Also, the title makes me think of what Hail to the King could have been like in a parallel universe where Metallica's 90's albums don't exist… hell, Throne Masquerade Room's rain sounds exactly like the one at the end of Acid Rain…

Speaking of modern old school metal, I've recently marathoned Ghost to see what the fuss was all about (yeah they're more hard rock than metal, but whatever). Listening to their singles individually, I didn't really get the appeal, but I'm starting to get it listening to the albums. The first two in particular have that nice spooky touch to them − Infestissumam is the one that manages the best balance I'd say. Prequelle… is pretty much straight pop rock save for the two instrumentals, but still pretty damn catchy. Not sure this band would have caught on so much without the whole concept and visual theme though.

They really are the modern KISS, in a way. Except… better.

edited 26th Jun '18 12:49:06 AM by Lyendith

I wouldn't say it's *that* Iron Maiden ish (a description I personally feel is somewhat over-used for a lot of bands); sure it's energetic, melodic metal with a notable bass presence but this has a lot more of the at times semi-thrashy riffing and aggressive pacing comparable to the classic American power metal sound of the 80's like Omen, Griffin, Savage Grace, Liege Lord, Attacker, and so on - much of which I'd say had a far more grounded and visceral approach than Iron Maiden. Many of the faster, more nimble riffs are comparable to Nosferatu era Helstar in how they take a lot of ardent neoclassical melodies but communicate them with fast, tightly phrased riffs rather than shreddy guitar licks.

Ghost are one of those bands I like on paper and the occult metal/rock field still has lots of room to explore. The band's imagery is interesting but in practice the music falls somewhat short of expectations. There's a common joke of them sounding like Scooby Doo chase music crossed with Blue Oyster Cult and other hazey 70's rock bands, one I can't really bring myself to disagree with. They've always sounded rather tame to me; they hint at a lot of mysticism and danger but the music gives you the diet or express version of post-Black Sabbath/Coven style Satanic Panic and occult mystery. I do remember their demo days when they were mostly seen as a promising doom metal band. There's a lot of bands like Hell (UK), In Solitude, Hour of 13, Pagan Altar, Jess and the Ancient Ones, Tarot, Hallas, Portrait (Swe), Source (Swe) and so on that capture the idea better.

Edited by StillbornMachine on Jun 26th 2018 at 4:29:48 AM

Well, you're far more well-versed in metal history than I am, but I agree their music doesn't quite live up to their visuals. As someone said, they're nice to play at Halloween parties.

So, I've been slowly continuing my descent into the depths of Black Metal I've started last year, and wish to share my experiences:

• Ludicra's The Tenant: as I understood, this band was one of the first to employ female Harsh Vocals in their music, and Laurie Sue Shanaman does a very good job of adding the necessary intensity to their melodic work, although it's still slower and, for the lack of a better word, gentler than the other Black Metal albums I've listened to. It's also a more doomy- proggy-leaning kind of black metal, the songs, while atmospheric, feel drawn out at times.
• Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet, by Thy Darkened Shade: Ahriman's unholy fucklings, where has this band been my whole life? I've grown fond of heavy metal bands that take a "classical music" approach when writing songs, when besides the technicality in the performance, there is an overarching narrative present. Maybe for this reason I'm not able to get into Death Metal (with its carpe diem aproach): it's a bit too chaotic, there's nothing for the mind to latch onto. Thy Darkened Shade, though? It's not just highly intricate guitarwork and the percussion section, the smooth tempo changes and unusual, but quite fitting, time signatures, the friggin' operatic male choir that emerges seemingly out of nowhere for great effect. It's the fact that there is a sense of purposefulness to all of this, the band has a story to tell, first and foremost. Of course the story is not very uplifting and not very family friendly, but it's nothing but engaging. Where can I find more of this kind of stuff?
• Root's The Book: Ham and Cheese. If the above band managed to make the occult thematic sound genuine and threatening, Root's take on it reminds of stereotypes about Satanism in popular culture. Everything is overblown, the band surpasses Power Metal levels of theatricality in its epic doomy riffs and the voicework. And it's really fun to listen to. There's a competent musicianship hidden behind the admittedly gaudy facade. Jiri "Big Boss" Valter is impressive vocalist when he keeps his voice pitch low. Those times when he was making those screechy whispers (if that was really him), something Obsequiae's vocalist pulled off better, were really grating to the ear. It's like listening to a heavy metal-themed musical full of VillainSongs. The band were clearly enjoying themselves when they were making this album, and it was a joy to listen to.
• Windir's 1184: Windir have limited means of musical expression:
  • Two gears: "blindingly fast blast beats with occasional tonal shifts for variety" and "you have no idea how exhausting this is". Incidentally, most of the songs end with the latter one.
  • Very fast high-pitched medieval folk-themed melody(ies) played on guitar and/or synths (I think I've heard accordion on one song of theirs).
  • Harsh vocals punctuating the inflections in the melody or getting drawn out.
    You can only squeeze this much out of such an approach, sometimes it works very well, the songs are atmospheric and melodic while keeping the intensity, but more often than not it becomes evident just how simplistic the writing is and, unfortunately, it's hard to take the song seriously. It doesn't help that they seem to be reusing the melodies across a couple of tracks.

So, I kind of want to continue exploring the genre, and, after encountering Chthonic's page on This Very Wiki became intrigued by them. Is anyone familiar with their body of work and which is the best album of theirs to start from?

Edited by Millership on Jul 1st 2018 at 12:29:45 AM

I'd honestly say Root's best material is when they more or less dropped the black metal and turned into a theatrical, 70's influenced, semi-Mercyful Fate reminiscent epic heavy metal band. There's some surprisingly nuanced compositions and highly involved drumming from their albums between 1992 and 2001. The first wave black metal element is still there, it's more implicit than explicit.

There's very few to no actual bands I can think of like that Thy Darkened Shade album. At most there's some technical death metal that's similar in terms of the raw level of technical competency involved but "technical black metal" is far from a particularly crowded field. Deathspell Omega can match them in terms of raw velocity and how quickly tempo and riffs can shift but they couldn't be further apart musically. Acrimonious which features the same songwriter have similar riffing but in a considerably simpler form. Personally I'm hesitant to call a lot of metal as being some descendant of classical (something a lot of far right reactionary fuckheads have ruined) but I'd say The Chasm from Mexico is probably the best example of this. Start with Farseeing The Paranormal Abysm and if you like the weirder, doomier parts then go to to Deathcult for Eternity: The Triumph and the riffier and aggressive parts, then Procession to the Infraworld.

Chthonic is basically just pedestrian 2000s melodic black/death with the gimmick of an erhu, which really doesn't add that much to their sound. It's music for the people who posted Naruto fanfics on their Deviantart pages back in 2005, which means I kinda lump it in there with Dimmu, Cradle, Children of Bodom, and other milquetoast-y meloblack or melodeath bands from that era.

Also, while they don't sound like them, I would definitely recommend Averse Sefira as far as Thy Darkened Shade goes because they definitely have the same sort of appeal: chaotic, technical, dissonant black metal with some shades of death metal, though Averse Sefira is way more vicious.

Edited by HasturHasturHastur on Jun 30th 2018 at 2:57:00 PM

Pity... The way Chthonic were described in the article made me think of something like oriental-themed Melechesh.

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I'll check them out.

I saw them live back in I think 2007. Good performers even if I don't care for the music, though the fellow who was handling the sound really didn't get how to mix extreme metal at all.

Edited by StillbornMachine on Jul 1st 2018 at 9:04:13 AM

Don't you normally use this?

BLACK SABBATH, METALLICA, IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, DIO, RAMMSTEIN, and a bunch of bands that aren't nearly as popular!

Am I one of you guys now?

Edited by TotallyNotAnAlien on Jul 4th 2018 at 1:12:36 PM

Um, all of those bands you listed are pretty popular and well known by Metalheads.

Edited by pointless233 on Jul 6th 2018 at 6:51:57 AM

I know. I wasn't saying those weren't well known. The stuff I didn't list is the stuff that's not as popular (not necessarily unpopular, though).

Edit: Also, I forgot to mention I'm not as into the genre as I'd like to be. It's definitely my favorite music genre (if I have a favorite), but I'm far from a huge metalhead.

Edited by TotallyNotAnAlien on Jul 6th 2018 at 9:24:03 AM

Mark Shelton of Manilla Road passed away this morning. Was bitter after reading about it; his guitar work and singing in Manilla Road was a large part responsible for a huge paradigm shift in my metal tastes around maybe 2006 or 2007 when it helped kickstart my epic metal craze. I can think of very, very few other metal musicians who stayed as consistent quality wise as he did and were still pumping out solid material so late into their career. His unusually 70's influenced guitar style (which sounds like what would happen to American metal if NWOBHM never really touched down in the USA and the psychedelic/prog/hard rock predecessors to metal never died out) and nasally, wizardly singing mystified me from the opening notes of "Dementia" and I'm glad I could watch how bands like Solstice, Dantesco, Battleroar, and Gatekeeper rise in the 2000's in the wake of his work. Up the hammers eternally.

I'm back from listening to the infamous Lulu, that pretty much everyone calls an unlistenable piece of shit, so I expected to enjoy it in a So Bad, It's Good way… but I found myself actually genuinely enjoying most of it… Actually, if you ignore Lou Reed's, err, peculiar style of "singing" (which can indeed give hilariously bad moments) and the memetic "I am the table", the musical background is perfectly fine and even beautiful at times. If a bit repetitive (specially "Mistress Dread", which is like the musical equivalent of watching Endless Eight). I actually kinda see what David Bowie meant when he said this album inspired Blackstar. There's definitely some of that atmospheric vibe.

Anyway, I totally get not liking it, but it mystifies me that some people call it worse than fucking St. Anger. Come on.

Edited by Lyendith on Aug 26th 2018 at 2:19:46 PM

I got the news earlier yesterday that another metal musician, Timo Knopf, had passed away recently. According to Metal Archives, it was on the 25th due to a sudden illness. I had known the band since maybe 2007 or 2008 and they made an immediate impression on me with Timo's vicious yet melody driven thrashy riffing and higher register snarls, contributing to a semi-technical and demanding death/thrash style that would quickly become one of my top ten favourite entries in that fusion genre. They were playing live again but it seems that with the passing of one of their original members they might be done for good now. While I wasn't a fan of the direction they began heading in the sophomore, there was still something there that could be salvaged amidst the weirdly jaunty, keyboard heavy black metal sound they were leaning towards. Blasted most of ''Morbus Ascendit'' today in his honour.

RIP.

So, I've listened through The Chasm's Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm album, and kinda have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, the songwriting, the composition and its technical execution is top-notch. On the other hand, they're just two dudes (not counting the session musicians, obviously). So when they go for the more proggier, doomier style of songs that allows such approach to shine, when you can savor every little detail in the musical pattern, it works exceedingly well. "Vault to the Voyage" sounds magnificent. But on their more aggressive, thrashy songs they sound tame and thin. The most common complaint I've heard about this album is that it's mostly instrumental, devoid of vocals. I'd say they don't need vocals per se, they just need to stop being a duo, add richness to their sound, more pronounced bass presence, something like introducing pipe organ sound to their songs would fit into their style well.

I'm definitely going to explore their discography even further, but Paranormal Abysm so far feels like a bit of a missed opportunity to me.

Edited by Millership on Aug 27th 2018 at 11:33:59 PM

I'm not sure what you mean by introducing richness to their sound given they're probably the most harmonically vibrant ongoing 90's death metal band to date. There's a lot of intricate polyphonies and highly varied phrasings of classic riff archetypes into spacier "astral" forms frequently augmented by semi-Voivod reminiscent dissonance. I'm not getting the thinness complaint either as all the shorter and faster songs aren't necessarily focused *on* aggression as much as relaying many of those same complex melodic ideas within what are still fairly lengthy tracks. They've gotten notably less aggressive since Procession to the Infraworld with much of the emphasis moving away from razorwire riffing to spacey nuance and spiralling structures.

Besides, Farseeing... was their final album as a three piece. Having spoken with Daniel Corchado over email, he and Julio don't see eye to eye musically any more even if they are still friends. Julio wanted to play classic heavy metal more hence why he started Heavens Decay.

More bass would be nice (Alfonso Polo did a great job with them back in 2002) but organs I can't see working given that their long, droning tones are ill-suited to the nimble and ever shifting densely packed compositions The Chasm goes for. They always were a guitar driven band and the kind of intricacy they go for requires a lot of the more technical and eclectic summation of over two decades of metal technique organs aren't exactly suited for. I am sure there's synths on a bunch of their tracks but they always took a backing role.

Edited by StillbornMachine on Aug 28th 2018 at 11:55:04 AM

Maybe the word I was looking for is "clean sound". I expected Death Metal to sound a bit dirtier than The Chasm do, to have a bit more layers to it, having a bit more things going on the background. Since you're saying that their earlier albums were more aggressive, maybe I'm simply missing the point of Farseeing...

P.S. According to metal archives they've released a full-length album titled "A Conscious Creation from the Isolated Domain - Phase I" last year. Have you tried it out, and what are your thoughts about it?

Edited by Millership on Aug 30th 2018 at 1:25:44 AM

For more oldschool leaning death metal definitely though even on their 90's albums, The Chasm were more mysticism and mythos than cadavers and decomposition though Daniel did play on the first Cenotaph (Mex) album which is both of those thematically and musically. Though it's a considerably harsher, nastier album being made from a hyper-chaotic combo of the rawest, ugliest, and mostly demo-based European and North American death metal of the 1989 to 1992 period.

ACCFTIDP 1 has received somewhat mixed reception even from hardcore fans due to its fully instrumental nature but I wouldn't rate it lower than a 9/10 (but they've been my favourite death metal band since maybe 2005 or 2006 so it might just be my fanboyism speaking). It continues what Farseeing the Paranormal Abysm was doing but invests even further into ambiguously toned counterpoint arrangements and a more condensed, aggressive sound. The first few tracks might feel a bit normal for The Chasm as they're actually based on earlier riffs that Daniel hadn't really used before. However near halfway through the album starts getting a lot... weirder and cerebral, hard to specifically explain but the progressive aspects of their sound get more prominent the longer it goes resulting in a lot of trippy, celestial segments that I find really cool. The band are touring again now as a four piece too.

Edited by StillbornMachine on Aug 29th 2018 at 12:27:03 PM

I've noticed that the tracks on that album are numbered. I assume, keeping in mind The Chasm's classical music songwriting approach, that they're supposed to be something like an ordered movements in a symphony (for a lack of better analogy) and are supposed to be listened to strictly in that order.

How standalone actually are different tracks? Will listening to the album on shuffle provide a less fulfilling experience?

Compared to prior albums, the songs do feel a bit more like they blend together as they all converge on certain themes more frequently but at the same time, as the album goes on the differences between them start growing progressively more apparent. It sounds like the album might have been intended to be like a progressive rock one comprised of four massive double digit epics but they were broken up into 11 different songs. Still, they still have the band's trademark non-cyclic song structures and extremely detailed melodic frameworks and I think this drummer Antonio Leon's best performance so far. I'd say the album works better listened to in big chunks rather than small ones; it's meant to be a fairly gradual journey from the familiar into the alien.

These boys have been busy.