Always sadistic, never holistic.
5 CommentsTags: Batushka, benighted, cannibal corpse, Harikari for the Sky, ihsahn, nile, Witchthroat Serpent
Decimation: Atonality in Death Metal
Never has there been a word in metal as misunderstood as atonal, allowing all kinds of ridiculous claims since most individuals confuse atonality with dissonance and chromatism.
There are two ways to define atonality, one being the complete lack of tonal character and being reduced to noise like some of Kerry King’s solos or the works of Merzbow. The other definition that interests us here is the complete lack of functional harmony. In simpler terms that implies not having the root note that commands a certain melody. Without a root note, the notes in an atonal melody are not connected by scales, modes or chords.
22 CommentsTags: atonality, chromatism, death metal, demigod, Demilich, mayhem, metal, morbid angel, music theory, sepultura, slayer, suffocation, wagner
Crawl/Leviathan
Hipster celebrity and accused tattoo gun rapist Wrest from Leviathan returns with a new sidekick in an attempt to restore some underground credibility. This is a common gimmick used in rap music whenever an artist has faded from the mainstream but wants to continue making money off the young kids consuming the underground’s newest flavors. Unfortunately for Leviathan, they were never respected in the underground and Crawl displays very little potential to make any sort of impact. The split is one twelve minute song from each artist that both manage to be terrible but for very different reasons. Wrest promised “Aural Mizery” and has ironically maintained that promise.
6 CommentsTags: 2018, Black Metal, burnouts, Crawl, doom, dsbm, gimmicks, hipsters, Leviathan, one man bands, one man metal, rap, rape, review, shoegaze, split, suicidal black metal
Musical Dissection of Pestilence “Out of the Body”
Once upon a time Pestilence were a very capable death/speed metal band that would attain great heights with the their magnum opus Consuming Impulse. Leaving behind the speed metal of Malleus Maleficarum for greater freedom in melody and structure, “Out of the body” is by far the most popular track on this album due to its catchy main riff, guitar acrobatics and absolute intensity.
Those are only the surface traits of what makes this song and the album a bonafide death metal classic.
9 CommentsTags: breakdown, death metal, Guitar, lyrics, music theory, pestilence
Strangle Wire – The Dark Triad
Strangle Wire are a northern Irish four piece band that follow the Slipknot tradition of naming each other numerically. The band claims to play psychological death metal with influences from Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus and Sinister. However, none of Sinister’s music appears here and this is typical Nu-Death metal.
Tags: 2018, cannibal corpse, death metal, new albums, nu-metal, Strangle Wire
Control Denied – The Fragile Art of Existence (1999)
Control Denied was formed in the mid-1990s by late Death-frontman Chuck Schuldiner to cater to his desire to explore more traditional metal stylings. Schuldiner, however, was still bound to Death’s contract with Nuclear Blast and thus agreed to record one more album under the Death-moniker before concentrating fully on his new band and musical direction. As a result, songs originally intended for Control Denied were shoe-horned into a death metal context on The Sound of Perseverance (1998) which partly explains the lackluster, two-faced nature of the last and arguably worst Death-album. With contractual entanglements finally sorted out, Control Denied’s debut The Fragile Art of Existence saw the light of day in 1999.
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Tags: Control Denied, death, death metal, fates warning, Heavy Metal, iced earth, jag panzer, Nevermore, power metal, progressive metal, Speed Metal, steel prophet, Vicious Rumors
Analysis of Death Metal Vocalists
Guttural vocals are the only true vocal innovation in metal as other singing styles are derived from other genres. The growed vocal technique is a combination of multiple frequencies and is harmonically too rich to be treated in the same way as more tonal styles. Since they are different to all that came before them they must be analyzed differently. And as metal continues to be penetrated by the mainstream it is important to understand what should be expected from a vocalist and what each one brings to the table since as humans we are inclined to judge vocals first.
In the spirit of understanding the wide variety that the technique has to offer, take a look at some of the more interesting and/or well known vocalists that death metal has given us throughout the years:
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Tags: Alexander Krull, Atrocity, craig pillard, cryptopsy, Dead, death growl, death metal, death metal vocals, Deicide, disma, Glen Benton, gutterals, incantation, jeff becerra, Killjoy, Mike DiSalvo, morbid, necrophagia, Phil Bozeman, possessed, vocals, whitechapel
Heavy Metal In Academia
The last two decades has witnessed an exponential growth of studies devoted to popular music, coupled with a re-evaluation of past theories and models for interpretation and analysis. This paradigm shift has sparked interest in music “at the fringes” which in turn has led to the unlikely emergence of “metal studies”: a multi-disciplinary field of research centered around all things related to metal music.
11 CommentsTags: academia, ethnography, Heavy Metal, heavy metal studies, metal music studies, studies
Morbosidad – Corona de Epidemia
Hailing from Houston, Texas, home to a few great USBM bands, Morbosidad are more likely known for the Spinal -Tap-like deaths of two of their drummers (one in an explosion in the rehearsal room and the other from falling of a building). Multiple lineup changes have plagued this band as well with the only remaining member being Tomas Stench. Due to such changes all releases differ immensely save for aesthetics and Spanish lyrics. Being released on Nuclear War Now! Productions, it is very easy to predict what this band has to offer musically (or lack thereof).
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Dark Horizons: Upcoming Metal for 02/09/2018
As we predicted at the close of last year, a storm of power metal is coming at last and replacing the soon to be dead genre of post-metal. With beta-male hipsters turning toward retro rehashes of classic metal they are at last abandoning the pretentious nasalings of post metal. Let us rejoice in the death of post-black metal!
With Fridays becoming the new Tuesdays for metal releases (for reasons unbeknownst), let’s turn our attention to the next meaty drop of 2018 extreme metal.
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Tags: Brutal Death Metal, Cringe, Crypt Rot, dark horizons, death metal, Frozen Crown, Gore, Ignition, King Witch, metal, news, power metal, Therion, upcoming releases, Visigoth
