Staying underground, sort of

by Death Metal Black Metal on November 14, 2011

Mailbag:

In the ’80s and ’90s it was not uncommon to see photos of metal legends such as Slayer, Alice in Chains and Megadeth clothed in the half-skull logo that has become a venerated symbol for Utah metalheads.

While stores like Hot Topic have become a haven for mall rats, Kevin refused a distribution offer years ago that would have put HMS T-shirts in malls because it would’ve cheapened HMS’ authentic metalhead image. Today, sales from clothing eclipse music sales and HMS-branded clothing is sold to customers worldwide.

Although the location of the HMS has changed over the years, the authentic vibe that permeates the store and impeccable customer service has remained consistent. – USA Today

One way to avoid the hype: treat metal like any other specialty, whether gardening or hair-weaving, and ignore the teeny-bopper market entirely.

It seems that sell-outs occur, and consequently failures of quality occur, when some novice sees a successful pop-ish metal band, and counsels a heavier metal band to emulate them.

This then poisons the good name of that metal band, and fails to attract the pop listeners, who want something that is 100% pop, not a metal-pop hybrid.

Morbid Angel just found this out the hard way. Slayer did back in 1998 as well. It’s an eternal cycle.

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Sabbathon

by Death Metal Black Metal on November 14, 2011

It has potential, especially after the recent Heaven and Hell album:

Heavy metal legend Black Sabbath announced they will record their first studio album in 33 years, followed by a world tour in 2012. The group, who will team up with legendary producer Rick Rubin to record the new material, made the announcement Friday at a press conference held in L.A.’s Whiskey A-Go-Go. – H-dawg Today

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Hessians Unite

by Death Metal Black Metal on November 12, 2011

Music is sound that resembles life. It reveals not only the experience of life, but the emotions and ideas that the musician has in response to life. Heavy metal music sounds like a certain way of life, because a similar thought process is required to become a heavy metal musician. For this reason, heavy metal is more than a style; it’s a culture.

The metal genre does not fit into the easy categories used for modern music. While it sounds modern, it champions the values of older times, such as honor, bloodlust, aggression, emotion and passion. It denies the plastic modern existence and insists on meaning being found in experience, not ownership. For this reason, heavy metal is a cross between ancient ideas and modern methods. Our utilitarian contemporary society has no words for what this is.

Since heavy metal isn’t on the radar for mainstream civilization, they write it off and claim that people listen to metal for the sole purpose of irritating their parents. They deny its musical value, explain away its artistic value, and brush it aside by assuming it is not serious and worthy of study. For this reason, Hessians, or those who are part of the heavy metal culture, are one of the most marginalized groups in modern society today.

We have all seen varying ethnic and religious groups fight for their right to be recognized as unique and to have special rights and privileges. If at the “modern” university we have a Black Studies Department, and an Asian Studies Department, why not a Hessian Studies Department? Hessian culture has in the years since 1969 been a fundamental force in shaping our society, and remains one of its most persistent critics, all while developing its own way of existing.

Not all Hessians are alike. Some care about nothing and will not understand this web page at all. The few who believe in life and in the heavy metal lifestyle will find that Hessian culture is something they have sought for years, perhaps without knowing it at all. For Hessians, hessian.org is a reference material of their own society within an outer society. For those of you who are outsiders to Hessiandom, this is a chance to broaden your “diversity” and learn about an entirely singular culture that thrives among the things you consider normal, but will never bow down and join them.

http://www.hessian.org/

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Piracy, MP3s did not kill music industry

by Death Metal Black Metal on November 12, 2011

The conventional wisdom of recent years has been that, while the music publishing companies that hold the back catalogue rights for well-known music, still had some value, recorded music values were slipping due to mass piracy and the digital revolution.

Yet the reported prices for EMI’s music publishing and recorded music divisions are not so far apart, with the former fetching about $2.2bn.

Although recorded music sales are falling in many countries due to piracy, the picture in the US is a bit brighter, with album sales rising 1 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2011, according to Nielsen SoundScan – the first time there has been a rise since 2004. Digital album sales rose by 10 per cent in the same period. – Financial Times

All the gloom and doom talk seems less certain now. What went wrong with the music industry?

Spending $2 million to record a new Britney Spears album that is vapid pop for the masses, and will sell for about three months and then fade away, in order to make massive profits. That’s what has gone wrong, and what is now dying.

What’s replacing these fickle one-time customers are the die-hards who buy music their whole lives: classical, bluegrass, country, and metal.

Raise the horns and buy some metal (and classical) to show EMI they should support a niche or two.

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More mythos, less propaganda

by on November 10, 2011

Forbidden to be seen
Spirit of the elder gods
Are dead but must live on
Still to life and yet they breathe
Dead but dreaming…..
– DEICIDE

When metal opens imaginations, it is a source of power.

When it gets too preachy (Napalm Death, nu-Burzum) it becomes constraint.

When it cares too much about the 75% of popular music fans who are transient, it gets fake too.

Do it for the 25%: future warriors and thinkers. Allahu Ackbar!

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A semi-heroic act

by Death Metal Black Metal on November 9, 2011

From the distant files:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A man has pleaded guilty to threatening to kill members of the band Korn.

Adrian McCoy, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty in federal court last Friday to threatening the band.

The prosecutor told ABC23 that McCoy made threats on a metal underground-related Web site in January of 2006. While metalunderground.com did not confirm if McCoy made threats against Korn on their site, one user using the name, LordAgony, was kicked off the site at that time for making threats against the band, saying he wanted the band destroyed.

On Jan. 7, 2006, LordAgony wrote, “You cannot possibly fathom how much I wish to utterly destroy this band….”

Specifically, the prosecutor said McCoy threatened to slit the band members’ throats and kill their family members.

McCoy’s attorney said in court that his client was taking medication for mental issues. – Channel 23

Semi-heroic, in that it was talked about, not done.

But still, should killing numus be illegal, when we have 7 billion humans?

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Opeth fans identified

by on November 5, 2011

The object of the bronies’ fascination is “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic,” a remake of a 1980s animated TV show for preadolescent girls featuring plucky, candy-colored equines.

…

Bronies say their hobby has nothing to do with their sexuality or gender. “I don’t care about showing to the world that I am masculine,” says Jason Subhani, a 19-year-old college student in Astoria, N.Y. A Pony poster on his bedroom wall mingles with images of heavy-metal icons. – WSJ

We have found the great source of Opeth, Mastodon, Isis, Kylesa, DEP, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, etc. fans — they’re not gay, they’re sit-down-to-pee types.

Consort, summon my legion of rape-vultures. We must feast on the prostates of the self-enslaved.

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