Someone had to say it:

Heavy metal hipsters are fellow Hessians who make it their goal in life to find the most obscure heavy metal/hard rock music, buy the expensive vinyl and then proceed to say, “You haven’t heard of Satan’s Love Pump? I thought you were metal. They put out a 7-inch in 1983 in Greece and have a song on a vinyl comp. They’re awesome!” And when you ask, “What else do they have out?” They look at you as if you’re retarded because that 7-inch and 1-song contribution to a vinyl comp is literally the ONLY music that band has released. What makes Satan’s Love Pump so awesome besides the incredibly badass name I made up? Is it the fact that they have no discography whatsoever? Or that the songs they do have are nothing more than basement recordings where the drums are too loud, the guitars are barely distorted, no bass at all, and the vocals aren’t in key?

Look, I’m not bashing obscure music; I love good obscure music. Yes, there were bands back in the day that never got the recognition they deserved and they’re discography is limited. I get it. But for a lot of those old bands, there’s a good reason why they never made it into the big time. All those demos, EPs, and contributions to comps never went anywhere because the band itself was subpar at best. – Jason Corpsemolester (Gravehill)

Hipster: someone for whom all publicly visible choices are designed to make the hipster look cool by being ironic, weird, different, unique, etc.

There’s no reason they couldn’t infest metal, and starting in 1994 they really got entrenched.

“Black metal! Far out, that’s so weird. I need to invade that and make it just like my indie bands!”

Thus the uniqueness of black metal was sacrificed to make it “unique,” and its quality declined because you cannot have quality when everything is a measurement of surface/face value.

Thevetat’s demo CD “Disease to Divide” will be available early September. This is a collaboration between Dark Descent Records and Destro Records. The demo will be streaming on the Dark Descent Records Band Camp page when it becomes active later this month. The CD is the most limited Dark Descent Records CD to date, so don’t miss out. These will not be available for long. More info soon, including a link for preview on the Dark Descent Records Band Camp page.

• Thevetat Facebook

There’s a new style that’s rising which combines progressive metal with the True Metal styles that emphasize a warlike outlook.

While progressive metal has neat instrumentals and all, it’s generally caught in an effete urban altruism and disconnected from Machiavellian reality.

These progressive war metal bands are fixing that with epic, Nietzschean and complex compositions that challenge the status quo of “progressive” metal!

Death metal, like Autopsy or Deicide, really is bizarrely brutal—one of the least-accessible forms of high-decibel torture ever to try to pass itself off as popular music. But once you move into other extreme metal subgenres, like black and doom, you face an uncomfortable truth. A lot of this music isn’t exactly aggressive or off-putting. Instead, it’s … kind of pleasant. Soothing, even.

Ukranian black-metal horde Drudkh, for example, may ideologically flirt with quasi-fascist nationalism, but musically they’re no more offensive than My Bloody Valentine or Sigur Ros. Drudkh is loud, certainly. But its loudness is lyrical and sweeping—less remorseless assault than transcendent sublime. – The Atlantic

From a recent ode to Slayer:

The resulting tune was, appropriately, titled “Aggressive Perfector,” and it ushered in an era during which the band ditched the fake blood and histrionic shock of their formative days in favor of head-down assault. Or, as Araya says, “We started out with devils and demons, but we evolved to focus instead on the true devils and demons of society.” Which explains why the band ditched the D&D-esque vibe of early records like Hell Awaits and Show No Mercy in favor of a scorched-earth vivisection of society’s bleakest moments, often pairing their musical blitzkrieg rush with a lyrical preoccupation with war’s atrocities. Songs like “Mandatory Suicide” (from 1988’s South of Heaven) and “War Ensemble” (from 1990’s Seasons in the Abyss) combined a musical gut punch with lyrical odes to the senselessness of conflict that, to many, signified that Slayer were a band of their times, commenting on the brutality of the pugilistic Reagan/Bush years. – The Phoenix

Protest rock is all crap and Slayer lost focus when they went to protest rock.

Complaining about events in society enslaves the complainer to looking for approval from others, which requires whining about feelings hurt, the tragedy of others, etc.

Describing life in mythological terms instead frames the combat as one that can apply in any situation, and requires no pandering.

All the world is rock ‘n’ roll.

The West used it during the Cold War to seduce the Eastern Bloc population, making them want a Western lifestyle and pressure their governments in myriad ways.

You can’t go more than ten feet in public without hearing it, in stores, from cars, in commercials, hummed by other people.

Metal is not rock ‘n’ roll. Where rock relies on static riffs and returns, metal is narrative music shaped together out of interlocking riffs, much like soundtrack music or Scandinavian folk.

The problem is that when you mix the two, you cannot reconcile those extremes, so you end up with one flavored with the other. The result is a lack of focus.

For their upcoming album, out this fall on Century Media, the Twilight lineup will consist of Moore, Judd, producer Sanford Parker, Stavros Giannopoulos from the Atlas Moth, Wrest of Leviathan, and Imperial from Krieg. Judd told the 1st Five that he hopes to get Isis’ Aaron Turner, Lichens’ Rob Lowe, and Malefic of Xasthur to also contribute. – Pitchfork

I have owned Sonic Youth albums in the past, and think more highly than average of them than of your regular ol’ rock band. Nonetheless, what Thurston Moore does is create indie rock, and indie rock is incompatible with metal.

There are many things in this world, but few are unique. Metal is a truly unique perspective. Outsiders see in it only rebellion and taboo-breaking. Inside, it’s more complex.

When you replace unique things with hybrids of the norm and that unique thing, you destroy the uniqueness and replace it with conformity.

Indie rock is still rock music. Much as the music of 1968 was rebellious in its day, but now is mainstream enough to show up in blue chip commercials, the indie rock of the 1990s is mainstream at this point.

That isn’t an insult or a moral judgment, but a fact of history.

Do you want to be assimilated into the same stuff as everything else, or keep a unique viewpoint that because it is not the same, may have a perspective others have lost?

That’s the dilemma before metal right now.

If you’d like to purchase Absvrdist – Illusory in physical format, pro digipak (and you live in the US), paypal $10 to absvrdist@gmail.com.

PESTILENCE Announces David Haley (PSYCROPTIC) as the new PESTILENCE drummer.

Guitarist/vocalist Patrick Mameli of the resurrected late ’80s/early ’90s death metal outfit PESTILENCE has issued the following update:
We are very pleased that we can officially announce that David Haley (PSYCROPTIC) will replace Tim Yeung for the upcoming PESTILENCE album and upcoming shows. Bassist Stefan Fimmers (ex-NECROPHAGIST) already joined PESTILENCE for the new album OBSIDEO and live performances.

Although Tim was really excited to join PESTILENCE, it was because of his conflicting tour schedules with MORBID ANGEL (and other projects), that made it nearly impossible for Tim to tour with PESTILENCE.

Patrick Mameli commented: But we (Uterwijk, Fimmers and Mameli ) weren’t really too disappointed by this unfortunate development because of our talks with David soon after. The new material will fit David perfectly. He is such an amazing drummer and a really cool guy as well!!! We all welcome him into the PESTILENCE camp.
David Haley commented on joining PESTILENCE: “Im very excited to be performing the drums on the new Pestilence album…and quite nervous about it too!! PESTILENCE have been such an influential band within the metal community throughout their whole career, so it’s quite an honor to be asked to perform for the upcoming album. The material I’ve heard thus far is amazing – and I am really looking forward to start the recording process”

For the new album OBSIDEO, eight of the ten tunes are written, and PESTILENCE hopes to start recording end of 2012. Some new song titles are: Necromorph, Saturation, Soulrot, Laniatus and Superconcious. Overall theme will be the journey of the human soul.

PESTILENCE 2012 is:

Patrick Mameli – Lead guitar/Vocals
Patrick Uterwijk – Lead guitar
Stefan Fimmers – Bass
David Haley – Drums