“It’s like your eye is a cock, balls deep in a peyote button butthole.” – Jay Randall, Agoraphobic Nosebleed
I like grindcore. A lot. I also like it when grind bands express themselves in as many ways possible. If it means having a giant pot monster come onto the stage during your set, awesome. If it means creating a dvd-audio noise-ambient-doom record companion piece, awesome. If it means having beach balls, a mini basketball hoop, basketball, man-thongs, and full frontal nudity, awesome. If it means making a movie based on the concept record you made? Um…I guess?
Uhhhh...
First off, I didn’t really like Fuck The Facts‘ “Disgorge, Mexico”. I suppose I was still too busy digging the shit out of Pig Destroyers‘ “Phantom Limb”. And, I never would have even realized there was enough “concept” behind it to warrant a movie when I did take the time to listen to it. With that said I can’t exactly form an opinion here that a short film would be good or bad. Hell I haven’t even seen the movie! What’s the point of this post again?
Right…here’s the link to the website for the film. And if anyone happens to know the authentication credentials to actually watch the clips that I’m talking about I’d appreciate it if you would leave it in the comments.
I didn’t get to see them because I was still drinking beer and having dinner at CityGrille. Best burger in Denver.
(The blood I bleed is clogged indeed)
Converge
I missed half their set because the Fillmore is a large ass ballroom much like the Aragon in Chicago, but only has three security guards patting people down to let them in.
That is poor planning
I then had to piss really bad after standing in the line (I drank a lot of beer before leaving CityGrille)
Converge needs to actively not play large venues. Their stage presence just lends itself to small venues much better where J Bannon can get down and interact with the crowd.
Their drummer looks like he is having the best time ever every time I see them live.
I am jealous as hell of their drummer
Small pit, but it was pretty obvious a lot of the people there had no idea who these guys were
I only then remembered that I still haven’t heard this new album everybody says is so good.
Mastodon
Full length movie (like, real movie) played on the giant screen behind them while they played Crack the Skye in its entirety.
There are a lot of hashers in the Denver metal scene. I was contact buzzed by the end of ‘The Czar’.
Make really really buzzed
I blame this absurd level of weed intake on why the crowd was too busy to mosh much or do anything really besides watch the screen and bob their heads.
That movie was really cool if not a little depressing. I was high enough by the end of the movie to emotional identify with the kid in the coma from the album. Beat that!
Bran said “hank you Denver” at the end and that was all the chit chat.
Not much movement on the stage during the whole show for the most part
Mastodon is now a live prog band and I’m saying that as a diss.
Did you ever see The Rock with Nick Cage and Sean Connery? If you did, you should remember the scene where Agent Goodspeed is exposed to the insanely deadly VX nerve agent. He is then faced with the ultimate decision to either let his flesh boil and eyeballs pop out, or stab himself in the heart with an over sized syringe filled with the antidote to save his own life. Sorry to be a spoiler if you weren’t around in ’96 to catch it, but Goodspeed balls up to the obvious choice and ends up lunging the syringe into his chest to save his life. Adrenaline rush, dilated pupils. Awesome.
So what the fuck does this have to do with Converge? Watch the video below, and then continue reading.
Wasn’t that fucked up and fast? Let me tell you something, this analogy of facing an adrenaline-amped, life threatening moment and having an even worse life threatening decision to make to save yourself was the first thing that popped into my head while listening to “Axe To Fall” the very first time. This record makes me think of all the artist interviews I’ve ever read in books and magazines where they describe their music as something that “you can interpret in your own way.” This is exactly what I get out of Axe and what I can gather as an insane trip into Deaths’ icy grip and then having to save your own ass to get out.
I think any fan of Converge old or new will dig the shit out of this. Everything on this disc is perfect. Goddamn perfect. Guitars, drums, and bass flame, as well as embellish in the kind of heroics akin to metal gods of yesteryear. All the while, sounding brand new. Jacob Bannons’ vocals are and always have been throat tearing and unintelligible. But in my opinion his frenetic delivery is just one more devilish cog in the grinding speed that the majority of this album delivers. Make no mistake, this is the record you will put on your stereo at ear bleed levels and rock out to in your living room. All the meanwhile, jumping off your coffee table playing air guitar and punching the shit out of the air pretending to beat some phantom assailant who wants you dead.
Mood makers.
Nate Newton’s Doomriders‘ influence bleeds through perfectly into the songs. Any fan of the Motorhead meets Kyuss side project will know what to expect in terms of riff quality. To newcomers, any chance you get to think of this record as “traditional hardcore” will be thrown out with every passing hammer-on-pull-off double-whammy riff infused with a blues (Yes, blues) melody. *See album closers “Cruel Bloom/Wretched World” for what this means.* Although, you may have already had a coronary by the time the intense thrashing of “Cutter” breaks loose and knifes you in the dome.
It’s just too hard to believe and to say that this has easily topped everything they’ve ever written. Um, hello past three Converge releases?! Jane Doe?! I can’t believe I just fucking wrote that.
If they get any better than this, well…worms will feed.
Hands-down the heaviest Converge album yet. Also has about as many guest vocals as the last 50 Cent album. Guests include members of Entombed, Cave In, Neurosis, Himsa, and Ghengis Tron. Obtain with haste.
Soulfly! Tribal tattoos for everybody! Back to the primitive and all that noise. Blah blah blah.
Actually this single five minute and fifty two second track from Torche’s split with Japanese WTF lords Boris is pretty gnarly, and no less gnarly for the tribal drumming that sparked the initial snap judgment above. Pigeon hole this!
The first half of the track is snappy menace and chanting at a marching pace. You are now arriving at the temple of doom. Please enjoy your stay. Two weeks later in the second half of our song. The excitement of arrival has faded and all that remains is sludgy menace and despair. Subwoofer destroying despair that impresses.
My recent introduction to Gaza was at this years Dudefest. While the sound in the Emerson Theater was pretty shitty, the raw intensity that these guys put into their set was chilling. Mosh pit on the stage. Enough said.
Regardless of what you think of their “War on religion”, it’s nice to see they put some effort into song titles. Unlike some other blatantly obvious anti-religious song titles like “Death to Jesus” (*cough looking at you Deicide). I’m looking forward to their new record as my first proper introduction to their style of jazzy-hardcore-skronk-grind-metal. Whatever the fuck that is/means. Hey, at least their not burning down churches and stabbing their band mates in the neck.
Check out a preview track over at BrooklynVegan and some great live footage from their Dudefest ’09 set below.
Second records are always risky for bands whose first were considered achievements in their own right. There tends to be higher expectations and in turn more pressure. As such the second record can go three possible ways:
They can maintain their creative force and make a record that eclipses the first record in greatness.
They can hold the line and while enjoyable, it record won’t have the same emotional impact as the first.
Or they can make a rushed follow up that just stinks and the band will most likely be never heard from again.
Sadly the latter two are what typically seem to happen.
Not this time though thankfully. Baroness come back to the plate after knocking one out of the park with The Red Album back during the summer of 2007. With it’s undeniable classic rock motif, groove infused guitar shoot-outs, and Jesus-hooked-to-a-car-battery-while-on-the-mount vocal delivery it was a record that felt more like a homecoming than an entry into the fray of extreme metal. With all homecomings there comes a time to leave and venture forth one more time and with this vibe I’d say that these savants from Savannah have succeeded.
With all good journeys there are moments of excitement and reflection to take in all that may or may not have just happened. For every “Swollen and Halo” with its harmonized dual guitar lines and thunderous peaks there is a “Ogeechee Hymnal” or “Blackpowder Orchard” to bring all the events full circle and allow for their impact to be truly accepted.
Savannah has the Savannah College of Art and Design and these guys
Baroness release music that makes this reviewer take the tact that it is a full scope art project, and not so much just a piece of music. To break it up into singles is like watching a scene from a play with no explanation to what happened before or after. It can be enjoyed on it’s own, but when included with the other accompanying scenes it becomes that much more powerful and awesome.
The Thrash Revival that doesn’t include Municipal Waste.
Job For A Cowboy. I have no idea why you are as popular as you are. I really can’t think of one good reason.
Vegan metal kids: there is nothing metal about being a vegan. At all.
Tapes. Why in gods name are some labels putting cassettes out now? This kind of hipster refusal to accept technology has to end, and this is , as far as I can, a good stopping point. At the rate we are going, in another ten years the new collectible will be acetate cylinders of the new Endless Blockage ep and only the people with nothing else better to do will be breaking into museums to get a machine to play it.
Black Anvil and any otherband coming out of Brooklyn right now. Its like Jersey; it might not be accurate all the time, but it is accurate enough to count.
Breakdown metal.
Necrophagist live. So boring I cried a little at what my life turns into from time to time.
