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StillbornMachine Since: Aug, 2015
#5776: May 22nd 2017 at 1:56:27 PM

Hyped to see how new Kerasphorus sounds but I'm afraid of it sounding way too much like Angelcorpse now that Gene and the drummer from the last Perdition Temple album are there.

HasturHasturHastur from Wheah the fahkin baby wheel is, Jay Since: Nov, 2010
#5777: May 22nd 2017 at 6:02:59 PM

It's Pete's band, so odds are that it'll have far more of a bestial black undercurrent than anything Gene would do.

WhatArtThee Since: Oct, 2015
#5778: May 24th 2017 at 4:34:14 AM

As for me, i've been getting my feet wet in some of the classics. Priest, Maiden, Sabbath, Dio, Queensryche (Queensryche's i've heard the most of, i've heard the entirety of their first four albums and 1 EP) They have lots of great songs, and all 5 of them had awesome vocalists. (Geoff Tate still sounds good now but all the others either sound bad these days or in the case of Dio are dead :() Some favorite songs by each include "Beyond The Realms Of Death" and "Victim of Changes" for Priest, "Hallowed By Thy Name" for Maiden, "Electric Funeral" and "Iron Man" for Sabbath, "Pain", "As Long As It's Not About Love" and "Holy Diver" for Dio, and "Roads To Madness", "Neue Regel", and "No Sanctuary" for Queensryche.

What enabled me to get into them was their vocals. I'm not a big fan of Harsh Vocals (Which is why I don't listen to extreme metal) but they never fell under that. Dickinson, Halford, Tate, Dio, and Ozzy all had excellent, powerful voices in their primes. (As said above sans Tate they don't really sound good now IMO) Dickinson's raspy belting was ace, Halford and Tate were masters of high wailing (Plus Tate also could really convey the emotion of a song really well, such as his imposing, "manly" sound on "Operation: Mindcrime" or the passionate belting of "Eyes Of A Stranger") Dio maintained his voice an incredibly long time and his gritty belting was tops, and Ozzy might not have been a technically good vocalist but I can't think of anyone who could sing the old Sabbath tunes better (I've heard Dio's "Iron Man" and "Paranoid" renditions and to me they can't capture the vibe of Ozzy). As well, Halford, Dio, and Tate could have very lovely softer singing on ballads (Halford on "Dreamer Deciever", Dio on "As Long As It's Not About Love" and Tate on "I Will Remember", "I Dream In Infrared", etc)

edited 24th May '17 4:44:02 AM by WhatArtThee

Just another day in the life of Jimmy Nutrin
HasturHasturHastur from Wheah the fahkin baby wheel is, Jay Since: Nov, 2010
#5779: May 24th 2017 at 5:32:46 AM

Most people don't start with harsh vocals. I certainly didn't. Kreator, Sodom, Sepultura, Sadus, Demolition Hammer, and Morbid Saint all helped me move from thrash and trad (the lion's share of my early listening) to Death, Atheist, Deicide, Pestilence, Morbid Angel, and Autopsy, and from there to Suffocation, Cryptopsy, Origin, and Nile (the first really brutal bands in my repertoire). Most people who listen for long enough at least gain an appreciation for harsh vocals even if they continue to primarily listen to clean vocalists.

HasturHasturHastur from Wheah the fahkin baby wheel is, Jay Since: Nov, 2010
#5780: May 24th 2017 at 11:48:20 AM

If this site allowed emojis, I would probably just post a solid wall of fire emojis.

JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#5781: May 25th 2017 at 6:58:40 PM

Finally listened to Wormphlegm's sole full-length.

Those fucking vocals.

I love really evil doom so, so much.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
HasturHasturHastur from Wheah the fahkin baby wheel is, Jay Since: Nov, 2010
#5782: May 30th 2017 at 6:43:39 AM

So, for anyone wondering, Morbid Angel is 100% back. Steve Tucker is KILLING it with them and it's great to see all those songs that got neglected under Vincent make their return. Suffocation is also in rare form; while I still miss Frank's rants and the blast chop, Kevin has done an absolutely incredible job with them.

JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#5783: May 30th 2017 at 7:49:16 PM

I'm glad to hear it. I should probably take a closer look at Morbid Angel's work than I have, as I was rather disappointed by the lack of dynamics in their early material, particularly in the drum work, but truly floored by those monstrous nigh-atonal guitar leads.

On that note, I guess I'm of two minds about guitar theatrics less because they bother me in principle than because the execution tends to be rather samey or predictable, but I can still find them exciting when they're approached in an unexpected way and feel copacetic to what's going on overall. Morbid Angel's psychedelic explosions and Blasphemy's chaotic scrambling come to mind as more classically "weird" examples, as do things like the atonal anti-solo on This Heat's "Fall of Saigon" and (in a different way) Oliver Amberg's unhinged additions to Celtic Frost's much maligned Cold Lake material, but context is also key: The way that the Burning Spirits bands mixed a fairly raw style of hardcore with joyous unfettered lead work straight out of the NWOBHM and early power metal and made it feel natural just puts the biggest smile on my face. Music is about feeling, not arbitrary rules. Much as I love austerity and asceticism, it's more because I feel that they are useful emotional tools which too many bands fail to embrace where they could benefit from their power. Sometimes simplicity just holds you back.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
HasturHasturHastur from Wheah the fahkin baby wheel is, Jay Since: Nov, 2010
#5784: Jun 16th 2017 at 6:48:38 PM

Now that it's been out for a week, thoughts on the new Suffocation? Personally, it's easily my favorite modern Suffo album. I mean, yes, I'm a massive fanboy for this band, but you can practically feel the newfound energy and drive that the new members bring, and it manages to expand upon the sound of Pinnacle of Bedlam while taking some left turns here and there that are definitely unexpected yet still somehow work. Also, "Clarity Through Deprivation" has officially outdone "Liege of Inveracity" and "Funeral Inception" in terms of having the biggest, dumbest slam in Suffo history. Honestly, they're in the best place that they've probably been in since they first got Derek and got that kick in the ass from a young newcomer who wanted to prove himself, as Charlie, Eric, and Kevin have all breathed so much new life into the band.

edited 16th Jun '17 6:50:26 PM by HasturHasturHastur

MasterInferno It's Like Arguing on the Internet from Tomb of Malevolence Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
It's Like Arguing on the Internet
#5785: Jun 17th 2017 at 8:00:23 AM

Only listened to it once so far, but first impression is that it's my favorite modern Suffocation album as well.

Somehow you know that the time is right.
purplefishman Misanthrope Supreme from Ganzir Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
Misanthrope Supreme
#5786: Jun 17th 2017 at 12:08:42 PM

Watching the livestream of Hellfest, the biggest metal festival in France, right now. Saxon just finished their concert and it's now a group called Come Back Kid, but then there'll be Apocalyptica, Opeth, Suicidal Tendencies and Kreator.

StillbornMachine Since: Aug, 2015
#5787: Jun 18th 2017 at 1:55:11 PM

[up][up][up]Heard a song a month or so ago, felt somewhat tame I guess?

edited 18th Jun '17 1:56:42 PM by StillbornMachine

HasturHasturHastur from Wheah the fahkin baby wheel is, Jay Since: Nov, 2010
#5788: Jun 20th 2017 at 7:08:38 PM

"Your Last Breaths" didn't sound as good as it does on album because that stupid 360 video killed the audio quality, but it's middle of the road as far as the album goes. It's still very much a Suffo album, but it's also got some left turns beyond Eric pushing the BPM meter into the red. Overall, I don't know, it just feels so much fresher than Pinnacle. I guess Summer Slaughter '16 and getting to share the stage and chill with a ton of old and new friends alike was the thing that made Hobbs and Boyer remember why they still did it, and the music reflects it. "Clarity Through Deprivation", "Return to the Abyss", "Some Things Should Be Left Alone", and "Caught Between Two Worlds" are highlights, but even the low points crush almost everything on the preceding album.

StillbornMachine Since: Aug, 2015
#5789: Jun 26th 2017 at 1:05:01 PM

So the new Contaminated album, Final Man, is out to disappointingly little fanfare. A shame because this is so far the filthiest death metal out this year, mixing the most feral parts of early American and Scandinavian death metal with grindcore style abruptness and blasting mayhem. It's similar to Disma in that regard although even more aggressive and far less drawn out on average, avoiding that band's tendency to lose momentum halfway through a song with the more varied, sudden nature of their music.

JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#5790: Jun 26th 2017 at 2:51:28 PM

[up] This looks to be up my alley. Thank you.

On a slightly different note, I've been thinking about something recently which has been playing quietly at the back of my mind for a while now yet which I have only really now been able to fully articulate.

Why is so much extreme metal so harmonically unadventurous?

Melodically, death metal in particular frequently indulges in atonality, or at least in fairly avid modal and chromatic exploration; and frequently the chord progressions of extreme metal follow suit on a structural level. Yet in terms of actual chord forms and layering of sounds, there is a certain deficit of vocabulary, and where extended chordal forms do appear, it is generally within the context of direct reference to jazz fusion and fairly tame in that light. I have certainly heard harmonically adventurous metal bands who could go toe to toe with the likes of Sonic Youth's misfit children, but the fact that Deafheaven and Deftones have more going on in terms of polytonality and chordal sophistication than the average extreme metal outfit strikes me as a bit damning, honestly.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
MasterInferno It's Like Arguing on the Internet from Tomb of Malevolence Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
It's Like Arguing on the Internet
#5791: Jun 26th 2017 at 3:42:16 PM

Well, if you believe Death Metal Underground (which I generally don't), extreme metal deliberately avoids functional harmony for the most part, for reasons that I haven't found any adequate explanation for.

Somehow you know that the time is right.
StillbornMachine Since: Aug, 2015
#5792: Jun 26th 2017 at 4:59:52 PM

If you're listening to the genre that gave us Asphyx and Incantation for that, I think what you're focusing on might be off. Death metal has a lot of its roots in DIY punk functionality and most of it relies on rhythm and tone moreso than harmony, rearranging simple pieces into epic forms. After all, death metal moved the furthest away from more harmonically pleasant and still relatively rock-based heavy metal. There are bands old and new however like Diskord, At The Gates (Alf Svensson era), Blood Incantation, Zealotry, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, Sentenced (North From Here), Polyptych and some other prog/tech/avant-garde bands that have more varied sense of harmony but it's not really different from black metal in that sense. A contingent of relatively more "vanilla" bands (comparatively and very generally anyways) and a whole slew of weirdos.

edited 26th Jun '17 5:23:35 PM by StillbornMachine

MasterInferno It's Like Arguing on the Internet from Tomb of Malevolence Since: Dec, 2009 Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
It's Like Arguing on the Internet
#5793: Jun 27th 2017 at 3:25:06 AM

I don't have a problem as such with death metal mostly avoiding conventional harmony, just hadn't found an adequate explanation for why this was so, so thanks for that [up]

I seem to recall reading that the guys in Zealotry have a fair bit of music theory knowledge and do deliberately work in a bunch of advanced harmonic and polyphonic stuff, which I think shows pretty readily in their music.

Somehow you know that the time is right.
JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#5794: Jun 27th 2017 at 12:20:38 PM

[up][up] I mean, attempting to gloss over it with "it comes out of punk" doesn't really cut it when you take into account post-punk, No Wave, noise-rock, early post-hardcore and so forth, all of which can be equally primitive and equally sophisticated to death metal while embracing sophisticated harmonic textures in addition to exciting timbral and rhythmic ideas. And it's not like there aren't great riffs on the records in those genres, so this idea that propulsive melody is inherently at odds with interesting harmony holds little water. If you can play guitar with the sort of technical finesse to play a masterful, densely chromatic solo, you should be able to play an eleventh chord once in a while, and probably should rather than sticking to minors and diminished triads all the time.

This is not to say that I don't love extreme metal even when it's fairly harmonically straightforward, because I do. I just find this general slackness in a key aspect of musicking a let-down, particularly in a family of genres which I love dearly. That's why I harp on Jute Gyte and Krallice all the time: It's like drinking from a fresh, clear mountain stream where so often I must resort to tap water. These are people who listen to classical music, and really non-metal music in general, and have actually *learned things.*

Zealotry have actually been on my list for a long time for this reason, by the by. Big ups for people who know music theory and play extreme music. (I will add, however, that you don't need to know music theory per se to be harmonically interesting; it simply helps expand one's vocabulary of potentialities and name and understand what one might encounter independently.)

edited 27th Jun '17 2:13:03 PM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
StillbornMachine Since: Aug, 2015
#5795: Jun 27th 2017 at 8:28:02 PM

None of those genres you listed in your first paragraph are the kind of punk metal has its roots in (which is closer to stuff like Siege and Discharge) nor are they even marginally close to death metal from a compositional level. Even then, their riffing style isn't the narrative, sprawling, and nowadays increasingly more narrative power chord heavy approach that is a staple of the genre. Regardless, I think you're criticizing death metal for something that's not as headscratching as claiming its very vocal style is unsuitable but kind of misses the point. Much of death metal isn't very harmony driven because its emphasis was always elsewhere and it didn't necessarily need much of it to attain its compositional ends. For example, classic Suffocation is almost pure brute force rhythm but it's carefully orchestrated in sprawling maze-like structures that in a way create "atmosphere" but in a schizophrenic, "multiple personalities manifested as jagged riffing" fashion while say, Asphyx circa The Rack worked on a colossal, grating contrast between Hellhammer/Celtic Frost style deathblow chords which broke apart to let simple but powerful melodies storm outwards and progress a song thematically.

The idea that nobody is listening to non-metal music also doesn't really hold weight when death metal's DNA is comprised a large part of music outside of metal and nobody has ever made a point of hiding that ever since the late 80's. Bands like Atheist, Gorguts, Afflicted, Dismember, Bolzer, The Chasm, Korpse, Timeghoul, Grave Miasma, Disembowelment, and so on all have a fair share of non-metal influence and weirdness but in a lot of cases, I find that most people don't really care unless you can use it show off how supposedly highbrow a band is.

While I don't like him much as a musician, Chuck Schuldiner apparently never really knew much in the way of music theory but that didn't stop Death from getting huge. A lot of bands that more or less changed the landscape of extreme metal forever such as Sepultura, Hellhammer, Sarcofago, Master, and so on also were generally the opposite of musically educated. However I'd equate their success moreso to stripping a genre down to its utmost fundamentals and distorting them until they were something else entirely and in the process finding new territories to explore.

JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#5796: Jun 28th 2017 at 10:05:07 AM

To cite a specific issue right off the top:

None of those genres you listed in your first paragraph are the kind of punk metal has its roots in (which is closer to stuff like Siege and Discharge) nor are they even marginally close to death metal from a compositional level.
That's not the point. A historical precursor in terms of song structure and so forth does not dictate whether or not a band performing in a particular genre may choose to expand upon those influences. One is not lashed to the mast of one's history. I merely intended to demonstrate that punk was never some monolith of simplicity, but in fact the mother of many harmonically innovative and outlandish strains of "rock" music, insofar as some of those schools can be called that at all.

You're also a *bit* off the mark in focusing exclusively on death metal, as I am not; in point of fact, I feel that black and doom metal are just as if not more guilty of this, albeit in different ways. To that end, your insistence that only certain kinds of punk which were, to your ears, fairly harmonically simplistic influenced extreme metal is a ways off the mark given the impact of anarcho-punk and post-punk on black metal in particular.

The idea that nobody is listening to non-metal music also doesn't really hold weight when death metal's DNA is comprised a large part of music outside of metal and nobody has ever made a point of hiding that ever since the late 80's. Bands like Atheist, Gorguts, Afflicted, Dismember, Bolzer, The Chasm, Korpse, Timeghoul, Grave Miasma, Disembowelment, and so on all have a fair share of non-metal influence and weirdness but in a lot of cases, I find that most people don't really care unless you can use it show off how supposedly highbrow a band is.
I actually agree with this for the most part, and good on you for forcing me to explain my position better.

It seems to me at times that a lot of extreme metal draws on outside influences from a stylistic angle, yet to what degree the theoretical and structural aspects of these styles are actually internalised varies, and at times can feel rather superficial. I will give a great deal of credit to a band like Septicflesh for clearly absorbing and assimilating modernist classical composition into a death metal paradigm in such a manner as befits the tone and sensibilities of each style, but contrast that with the majority of symphonic-leaning black metal acts with cheesy keyboards hanging in the background or travesties like Slow Death and it becomes apparent how easy it is to crib classical ideas without fully understanding what makes them powerful. Likewise jazz, industrial music, hardcore punk, what have you. This can work should the "misinterpreter" be sufficiently creative and talented in their own right, but often the sounds seem tacked on or incongruous.

Exceptions certainly exist, in abundance, but why should they be exceptions? Why not be ambitious?

I would say on top of that, that one need not understand theory per se to grasp it intuitively and figure out how to do things "wrong" on purpose to creative ends, let alone to have strong creative ambitions. The triple-LP début by unhinged teenage punks Half-Japanese back in 1978 should put the lie to any such assumptions—and indeed, I love that strange, strange album. Achievements in ignorance are of equal validity to those made in full understanding, and to my mind one must remain hungry and curious as one is in musical naïveté throughout one's education to remain fresh and versatile.

I should also note that the musical experience which spurred this revelation was Primitive Man's Scorn, and the realisation that regardless of the guitarist's technical skill, I had only rarely heard chords so striking in even more extreme musical settings, and it was thrilling.

All in all, I am playing the Boulezian gadfly here less to suggest that there is a *deficit* in extreme metal than to say that the introduction of greater harmonic sophistication would intrinsically be a great *boon*

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
StillbornMachine Since: Aug, 2015
#5797: Jun 28th 2017 at 2:33:27 PM

— That's not the point. A historical precursor in terms of song structure and so forth does not dictate whether or not a band performing in a particular genre may choose to expand upon those influences. One is not lashed to the mast of one's history. I merely intended to demonstrate that punk was never some monolith of simplicity, but in fact the mother of many harmonically innovative and outlandish strains of "rock" music, insofar as some of those schools can be called that at all. —

It does however, help to explain the compositional arsenal a genre will make use of and explain why some practices are more common than others. Remember, I said death metal has "a lot of its roots" in punk, not necessarily all of them. What death metal took from punk was its conciseness and willingness to be raw and abrasive but when you combine that with the direction thrash was going and perhaps some very early black metal harmonic texture, it's not hard to see why so much of it is fairly flat when it comes to harmony.

— You're also a *bit* off the mark in focusing exclusively on death metal, as I am not; in point of fact, I feel that black and doom metal are just as if not more guilty of this, albeit in different ways. To that end, your insistence that only certain kinds of punk which were, to your ears, fairly harmonically simplistic influenced extreme metal is a ways off the mark given the impact of anarcho-punk and post-punk on black metal in particular. —

I didn't specify any particular punk styles as much as two bands whose style is around the kind of punk that most early death metal was influenced by. Personally I don't hear much post-punk, if any, in earlier black metal though and isn't anarcho-punk not really a musical genre as much as an ideological grouping anyways?

— It seems to me at times that a lot of extreme metal draws on outside influences from a stylistic angle, yet to what degree the theoretical and structural aspects of these styles are actually internalised varies, and at times can feel rather superficial. I will give a great deal of credit to a band like Septicflesh for clearly absorbing and assimilating modernist classical composition into a death metal paradigm in such a manner as befits the tone and sensibilities of each style, but contrast that with the majority of symphonic-leaning black metal acts with cheesy keyboards hanging in the background or travesties like Slow Death and it becomes apparent how easy it is to crib classical ideas without fully understanding what makes them powerful. Likewise jazz, industrial music, hardcore punk, what have you. This can work should the "misinterpreter" be sufficiently creative and talented in their own right, but often the sounds seem tacked on or incongruous. —

I've heard it said before that the best influences are the ones that you don't notice. Strange as it sounds, it makes more sense the more I listen. Some bands like say, Diablo Swing Orchestra and Fleshgod Apocalypse, justify this saying; when a bands only purpose is to serve as a platform for all their supposedly weird, quirky non-metal interests to bounce around on as a trampoline, it tends to result in bands that suffer from what I like to call "big head tiny body" syndrome. Namely, they bank so much on their appeal on outside-genre influences to hold them up that the more "conventional" foundations they stand upon are so underdeveloped so you get lopsided music that might do one thing well that it emphasizes a bunch but those that it doesn't but still are an integral part of it and that it resets upon mean that it's constantly aiming high but stumbling no matter how hard they try. I don't really hear modernist classical in Septic Flesh but then again I lost interest in them after Esoptron so my experiences with them tend to emphasize the early heavy/doom/Greek style black metal approach to riffing and darkwave style keyboard tones.

— Exceptions certainly exist, in abundance, but why should they be exceptions? Why not be ambitious? —

I think a lot of bands are ambitious, each in their own way, but sturgeon general's rule plays no favourite so more often than not, we see plane crashes rather than successful flights.

— All in all, I am playing the Boulezian gadfly here less to suggest that there is a *deficit* in extreme metal than to say that the introduction of greater harmonic sophistication would intrinsically be a great *boon* —

I think that's part of why the dissonant death/black movement got so big really. Ever since Gorguts and Immolation made their landmark albums, a lot of people figured they were onto something with how they inverted common knowledge of tonality and harmony. Though I feel it has gotten somewhat played out at this point.

JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#5798: Jun 30th 2017 at 7:32:03 PM

I was going to say that I felt like your initial response felt dismissive—in the vein of, "I don't see this as a problem myself; therefore you are objectively wrong"—but your latest response makes me feel like we might understand each other better.

I'll put it like this: I come to metal for its sheer force and potential to overwhelm, and I feel like harmony is one of those aspects of music which can, if utilised correctly, really further that objective of total sonic overload; and as with, for instance, studio-as-instrument production weirdness, it's an area which I feel a lot of bands which otherwise have this down fail to capitalise on. And I'm not simply talking about dissonant harmony: I feel like extended chords, polytonality and intricate melodic layering can just as well be applied in a mostly consonant fashion to lend bite and verve to triumphant, aggressive, or soulful passages. Ghoulgotha play with this in some intriguing ways with how their lead lines and chord structures interrelate, and while I don't love their work I do think they do it well, but there's so much more that could be done, so many great vistas yet unexplored. It seems in the Internet Age that extreme metallers should not merely be exploring the potential of the chromatic scale to its limits but embracing extended techniques and microtonality, yet somehow what should be the vanguard of guitar-based music remains so stodgy that such experimentation defines only the fringe of the fringe.

What I want more than anything else, I think, is for the doors to be blown in, and for all of the advancements which have been made outside of metal which are inherently amiable to it—not simply intriguingly heterogeneous or curiously compatible, but truly simpatico—be let in and let run rampant. Bring in heavy chords and wild harmonies impossible in conventional scales or even conventional tuning; bring in drumsticks beneath guitar strings and shrieking microphone feedback. Let in the noise.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
HasturHasturHastur from Wheah the fahkin baby wheel is, Jay Since: Nov, 2010
#5799: Jul 7th 2017 at 7:29:32 AM

For anyone who wants their sci-fi tech/prog thrash itch scratched now that Vektor is more or less a fond memory (good luck getting and keeping that new lineup with your wife in the picture, Dave, you sure as shit are going to need it), Droid - Terrestrial Mutations dropped with like no fanfare despite being an excellent retro-leaning release that nonetheless doesn't feel like a throwback. While it has been compared to Vektor just by virtue of being a modern tech-thrash band with a sci-fi aesthetic, there are virtually no similarities present. Ironically, it's closer to Voivod than Vektor ever was, as well as Obliveon and, to a lesser degree, Mekong Delta and Mandator. Their earlier material had promise but was held back by dodgy songwriting and shitty vocals, but god damn did they turn it around with this one.

StillbornMachine Since: Aug, 2015
#5800: Jul 7th 2017 at 12:04:35 PM

[up][up]I'm pretty sure a lot of the bands I listed are examples of a wider sense of harmony in play in extreme metal, mostly because since the mid to late 2000's there was an interest in less overtly rhythmic and more nebulous, unusual death/black metal with a renewed interest in varied texture and by extension harmony after dissatisfaction with the excesses of the brutal/technical death metal surge at the turn of the new millennium. Personally I don't disagree with what you're saying but at the same time, I feel most of it will end up "cool for a few months, then we'll be complaining about it for the rest of the year." There is a microtonal death metal, Last Sacrament, that do have some of what you're talking about as the guitarist Ron Swords is crazy about bizarre new tonalities (on top of selling unlicensed band merchandise) but they end up just sounding like the death metal you've already heard, just with less riffs and some occasionally slightly wonky sounding scales but put in very plainclothes compositions. Not that this is an argument against further exploring the realms of harmony within extreme metal (my second or first favourite album of the year, Unaussprechlichen Kulten's Keziah Lilith Medea (Chapter X) has some very bizarre twin guitar witchery) but it does show how jaded and harder people are to impress nowadays, as well as the finicky and oftentimes vague sense of growth that metal experiences in the new millennium.

Personally I find that the best kind of experimentation tend to be less of taking what other genres have already done and putting them into metal as much as examining elements that are already familiar and altering them to be not so familiar after all. You could say that this is internal change as opposed to external absorption (not that these concepts are diametrically opposed to one another) but I find that the bands that stick the most, alien as they can be, have a lot of their roots. It's much more difficult to make a new vision out of established ideas but they tend to be fundamental changes to the very foundations of a genre. The Chasm, probably my favourite death metal band, manage to be a very ambitious band with extremely lofty compositional goals but at their hear, it's not uncommon to find riffing ideas inspired by 80's trad/power/speed/thrash and doom. Yet it's how they phrase them, the large scale narrative structures they use, their almost-but-not-quite wandering melodies, the jarring disharmonies they add and other idiosyncrasies from Daniel Corchado that make them sound as old school as they do cutting edge. Same with Prosanctus Inferi, Axis of Advance, Timeghoul, Demilich, Monomakh, Obliteration, Star Gazer and a few previously listed bands. Sure some of them sound completely out of this world but after listening to metal for so long, it's not hard to hear them calling back to distant forms from the past yet altered and molded in such a way to service a completely different spirit.

[up]Seen a few advertisements for Droid here and there; the metal friends of mine in Toronto dig'em and I find that they're more grounded than most prog thrash.


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