Not Metal

Pathologic Tech-Death Insanity

Autopsies Rule

As their myspace indicates, Viraemia (pronounced Vi-ray-me-ah) is the presence of a virus in the bloodstream. Which is appropriate, because these guys have some infectious music. This is some insane, complex and compelling stuff. The guitarist and bassist shred with immense precision, proficiency and intensity. It’s as if Eddie Van Halen and Necrophagist had a baby with 8 hands, 2 guitars, 1 bass and an insatiable urge to tap and sweep pick. Check this vid of the bassist tearing apart his 10-string for a taste.

The vocalist is also good, alternating between death growls, black-metally screeches and grind chirps and pig grunts.  And the drummer is good enough to keep up and add to the cacophony.

Also, the influence of early Carcass is apparent, not only from the autopsy art album cover, but also with medical text song titles such as “Disseminated Intravascular Coagul” and “Necrotizing Fasciitis”.

They only have a self-titled EP out which only has 5 songs (3 of which are streaming on their myspace) but is good enough to warrant attention.

An Alternative Perspective

There isn’t a single song on here that holds a candle to “Conquer All”. Go buy Demigod and put “Conquer All” on repeat.

You have just made a Behemoth album that is better than Evangelion.

Congratulations.

New metal, not Nu-Metal.

Snap judgements are like assholes.

Mortal Kombaaaat!

It’s new to me, and new to you. Here’s a review of two new songs from Revocation’s forthcoming full-length, “Existence Is Futile”.

1. Dismantle the Dictator: Vocals sound a lot like Burnt By The sun. Very technical, catchy riffs. This is like Necrophagist, but doesn’t sound totally impossible to play and learn for yourself. Drumming is pretty sick. Gang chorus vocals before a “make it rain” solo at 2:50 is the highlight here. Very cool stuff going on throughout the entire track. The whole outro sounds like a damn Satriani outtake. And, strangely this works quite well!
2. The Brain Scramblers: Maybe I was bit hasty with thinking it was like Necrophagist but not totally impossible to play…these guys make a trio sound like 5 people. When it comes to technical sounding metal, the production needs to be clear but not overglossed. The drums are a tad too trigger happy on this track, but the guitars and bass are brought up to their level to compete for listening space.  The best thing going on here is a short length. Their not filling a song full of shitty riffs, it’s just enough past a 3 minute mark to remain memorable.

Bottom Line: If you’re into tech-death metal give this band a shot. You can tell these songs apart, which is saying a lot for most tech-metal bands that just fill each song with a flurry of speed picking sweep solos in every song. Bonus points for having Baraka included in the album art.

A Companion Piece to the Previous Article

In the previous post, my notmetal.net cohort Viking Beard mentioned that he is, “more inclined to like doom metal bands with singers who do super low guttural growls.”

I concur, and with that in mind, I want to introduce three of my favorite doom metal bands who employ this type of vocals.

Draconian: Despair Ridden, with a hot chick to boot

Draconian: These guys are doomy enough to make you want to slit your wrists and drown in the blood. Not only are they doom metal, but they are funeral doom (as are the other 2 bands mentioned in this post), which is obviously metal as fuck as implied by the referencing of death. Check out the wonderfully titled track “She Dies” from the album “The Burning Halo”.

Mourning Beloveth: Now these are some sorrowful and morose motherfuckers. Slow and doomy as a train headed for Auschwitz in the early 40s. Check out the song “Disintegrate” from the album “The Sullen Sulcus” for 10 minutes and 38 seconds of slow, doomy goodness.

Funeral: Could a band be more aptly titled? Their songs are like any good funeral procession: slow as molasses, has some bitch screaming and some guy growling. At least, that’s how I want my funeral to go.

Now with less yawn!

Sounds like someones been listening to a lot of old Sabbath.

I gotta say I never really got into these guys that much. I’m more inclined to like doom metal bands with singers who do super low guttural growls or the screaching bellow of Electric Wizardry. I think the best thing and difference I hear in the mix of this song is more bass. As a trio, I felt their last record really pushed the bass lower into the mix.

Your dad is here to pick you up from school.

Let’s hear that fucking thing rumble! I want the doom to split mountains many leagues away! I want to hear reverb and echo and a big fat viking doom tone that was given life from the very after birth of Tony Iommi himself!

I hear all of these traits in “The Bringer Of War”.

In honor of the new Baroness record

Here’s a new Baroness track

It’s posted up on their myspace. The “Blue Record” art is of course, of the highest quality (courtesy of the talented Mr. John Dyer Baizley). The new song has a sweet wailing guitar lead that is something new to the Baroness sound. I’m getting a really good Thin Lizzy vibe from it. Which is awesome because I love Thin Lizzy.

Oh, and here’s a G.I. Joe video.

Um, well…you’ll figure it out

New video for “Ov Fire And The Void”

Holy fucking feathers of Angels Batman! Wow. Just wow.

Behemoth “Ov Fire And The Void” from Metal Blade Records on Vimeo.

All The Fun You Can Have Under One Roof

Top Ten Random Cool Things at Dudefest 2009

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!

1. $2 Beer
2. There were at most, 14 cops in the immediate vicinity of the Emerson Theatre. I didn’t see one arrest the whole weekend.
3. The weather was nice and the stench wasn’t nearly as bad as last year. Holy crap.
4. Girl telling John who Portraits of Past were “They are, like, really good screamo” and then John’s face. Fucking Priceless
5. Meeting other like minded metal fans. And then making fun of them later.

5-1/2. Did I mention $2 beer?

6. Cute grind girls who thankfully don’t smell now that they live in my spank bank
7. Torche still owns Friday night at dudefest
8. Grindcore fanny packs


Grindcore fannypack

9. Its cheap and I got to see my friends
10. $10 t-shirts with priceless slogans such as:

Fuck You
Dudefest 2009

Or

Sodomite (Front)
Meth and a Gay Prostitute (Back)

Top Ten Wishlist for Dudefest 2010

1. It happens. Indy doesn’t decide to ruin the one cool non-racing related thing in a very underwhelming city.
2. Torche on Friday night every year until somebody has a better set and thus defeating them from their ‘King Of Friday’ throne
3. Graf Orlock and Pig Destroyer. I just really like them.
4. Set up a place for people to camp. This would be pretty cool till it got shut down.


Too much cock at the cocktail party

5. Porto-potties, or clean the goddamn bathrooms after each day. Jesus couldn’t save those thing by the of day three
6. Day three ends by 7. I know this is super lame, but some of us have to work on Monday.
7. More bands that don’t really fit, but group them together. I dug Russian Circles last year and wish I’d seen Mouth of the Architect. Diversity is good.
8. More Cops. Keep those goddamn locals in their place.
9. World Cup will be going on next year, can we get a TV in the venue to watch?
10. Start Dudefest Denver. I’ll still go to both, but it’d be nice to have a fest this cool out west. There will be way more weed as well.

Ov Headbanging

The most intense Behemoth record yet

Ancient drawings of biblical stuff is so metal

Evangelion comes from a Greek word ‘Spreading the word of God’ or ‘spreading the good news’…oh well, you already know that we love to play with the meanings and symbolism. We’re here to show you our interpretation of what Evangelion really is. – Nergal

And there you go.

If Evangelion was Behemoth‘s debut album, they might be considered the spiky torch bearers of the NNWOHBDM. That’s the “New-Neue-Wave-of-Heavy-Blackened-Death-Metal” for those of you undereducated in heavy metal acronyms.

If this is your first entry into the mighty Behemoth catalog, let me explain something out for you:

• If you were ever on the fence for liking extreme metal, this will make you a fan
• If you were ever wondering if any awesome metal was exported from Poland. These guys are extremely extreme and Polish.
• If you were ever thinking about redeeming your metal-credibility for being a huge fan of Cradle of Filth, this is the band that will wipe your slate clean.

So, how to go about explaining this album for people that are already fans of Behemoth? Let’s just say If you weren’t that impressed with 2007′s “The Apostasy“, the muddy mix of guitars and drums, and the lack of overall heavy hitting catchy riffs that littered ’04′s “Demigod”, then prepare yourself for a full aural assault of what I believe is the Behemoths’ masterpiece.

Crotch rocking black metal!

You can tell a lot of time and care when into producing this beast. The drumming is impeccable. Snare-gunning intros interspersed with slower minor open chord riffs and time changes are done with mastery (*see “Ov Fire And The Void”). The riffs throughout the album carry an intensity akin to something as intense as watching the second battle scene in Braveheart. You know what I’m talking about: the battle cry-arrow-exchange-to full on blood thirst charge up the field? Intense like that. The outro speed pick/drum blasting heard on “Alas, The Lord Is Upon Me” is what I’m referencing here.

Like past Behemoth records, were given a new concept of rebellion against that leather bound book of stuff that people hate on. Whatever, I don’t need to go into detail about what this album is about. Pop this fucker into your favorite audio electronic playback device and let it do the talking.

Did I already mention the quality of the sound on this record? Here are my top 6 highlights of Evangelion that continue to impress me with repeated listens:

1. Layers of guitars. With each listen I keep hearing bits of different riffs I didn’t hear before.
2. All the atmosphere in all the right parts. Unholy chanting and keyboard synth are heard throughout, but don’t drive the song into extreme symphonic melo-wankery ala Dimmu Borgir.
3. Double bass drum is not too high, not too low in the mix. Inferno commands his kit like a fucking tank batallion general. It’s goddamn impressive.
4. Solos. A few even bluesy in style. It’s nice to hear Nergal expand his sonic repertoire past the usual melodic trem-picking and high speed antics of past records.
5. There isn’t a single song that sounds like filler.
6. An 8 minute epic album close titled “Lucifer”.

I should also mention that their first video for this release has already been banned from youtube (link to come in a future post).

Is that enough for you? Because Behemoth has raised the bar really fucking high for the rest of the metal world.

Graf Orlocks’ Destination Time: Today

I don’t think you understand…..how fun this is.

Night at the movies.

I’ll keep this short, as there are only so many ways to say ‘sweet’ using the typical metal lexicon.

The Good:

• New Graf Orlock!
• Your movie knowledge will expand from looking up the samples on google.
• The riffs swagger and cut like a certain expertly engineered Austrian death machine/governor, but have enough surprises and the occasional WTF moments ‘Days of High Adventure’ to keep you on your toes. I got the Hummer H1 legalized and still managed to marry a Kennedy! Fuck the World!
• More hardcore vibe than actual grind.
• Bad cop / unhinged cop vocals. The good cop got killed at the end of the first sample in ‘Jamming In Traffic’
• It is only 26 minutes long. All killer, no filler.
• Intensely awesome packaging on the vinyl release

The Bad:

• Only available on vinyl! Can’t take in the car without the illegal download and ipod transfer.
• It is only 26 minutes
• They won’t be able to do ‘Days of High Adventure’ live, or at least I don’t think they will. If I’m wrong here I won’t have a problem with it.
• No one from SoCal is ripping them off, but Winds of Plague is allowed to exist.

The Ugly:

• They probably won’t make the Batman theme album I wish they would make.