Amebix - Knights of the Black Sun

[rapidshare]

http://youtu.be/wozz4mJzIiE

Very interesting, all things considered.

(a) What genres influenced this
(b) What genres it mocks or "re-makes"
(c) What topic it expresses

[vigor]

i really like the lyrics and the vocals. the instrumentation leaves a little to be desired. a bit too rockish for my tastes. i'm generally very confined to classical and black/death, but i do enjoy this.

this reply is utterly useless by the way.

[Chessnut]

Being totally immersed in their influences during the more crust punk times, I'm quite shocked by this music. Fugazi seems like an influence early on in the song. Later Swans are a possible influence at about 2:15-40. Definitely sticking with their post-punk/punk roots but it is very difficult to tell. There is a metallic influence that I can't figure out though. I can usually notice the early Killing Joke influence, but now it might be later Killing Joke (away from the post-punk and more rock/metal).

It's very reminescent of power metal in its epic-sound and lyrics. There's something a bit off regarding the metal sound though, and I can't figure it out.

I can't say I can judge the music based off just one song though. Can't say I'm enjoying it as much as their old material.

[istaros]

Well, that sucked. Arise! is and always will be one of the best albums I've heard, but this... this sounds like Creed trying to imitate any one of today's countless identical post-rock bands. At least it's not another "Radikult", though.

[sofiana]

Even if nobody told me it is Amebix it's recognisable, sounds much like Arise. The video is beautiful.

[rapidshare]

Holy grails of a minor sort exist.

When you're past age 28, popular music loses its appeal.

As a teen or young adult, whether or not a million sweaty quasi-literate rock fans like something seems important. This is your social group, this is who you are.

After that, you start to define yourself by what you have accomplished that is not an opinion in the eyes of others. Instead you want indisputable fact. So the mere popularity does less for you.

At the same time, having ten million sweaty quasi-literate people repeat your memes would give you real power... more than the income, this is what you want.

The minor holy grail of the 30+ musician is to write the album that combines the depth of King Crimson with the mass appeal of the Ramones.

New Amebix... it would be kind of sad if they tried to re-live 1982. It would be kind of underwhelming if they didn't go their own way. This new track is mostly Iron Maiden, got some Motorhead in there, and a lot of punk, but put into a modern rock format. Sounds almost like Jesu mixed in.

The result is something they can play on MTV that keeps the values of masculine power, sentiment for the revered eternal, and so forth. Without buying into a "camp," like deathcore, Christianity, liberalism or hipsters.

[Chaosgoatlaw]

It sounds like "ambient" indie/post rock to the max. There's no deep meaning to what they're doing. Its just following a new trend to stay relevant.

[Conservationist]

Form and content are inextricably linked.

• Healthy music has CONTENT DEFINES FORM as its principle. The best example is classical or free-form death metal, where content is closely calibrated to the complexity of the musical content.
• Shitty music often has FORM DEFINES CONTENT as its principle. There are exceptions like Judas Priest, but even they suffered from the constraints of their chosen form.

Good music will sound good played on any instruments but song structure, rhythm and dynamics will be preserved in relative form.

This new Amebix song is balanced. It takes a whole lot of the old and some of the new, and makes something good of the new. Jesu and Iron Maiden aren't bad comparisons.

It is commercially viable, but think about it this way:

If any good music is going to drive out the hipster shit that has infested metal for the past decade, it needs to find a BIGGER audience than the hipster audience. This is why Iron Maiden still crushes the hipsters. Everyone likes it. So the hipsters can't be a majority there. That's what Amebix is trying to do. Also this is just a good song.

[istaros]

There's a lot of ways to say the same thing. Let's cut to the chase. This is shit music, and if it didn't have the band's name attached to it would be unanimously described as such - if it were noticed at all. It sounds lazy and contrived, is aesthetically little more than Celine Dion with angst, structurally DULL, and all one can really hope for is that the rest of the album improves on it massively.

[hoodwink]

this sounds a lot like a rockist's interpretation of VNV Nation

it may not be a bad song, but unfortunately, beyond any superficial appeal, it smacks of all of the worst cliches of that alternametal gibberish I loathe.  distorted U2 chords and Lemmy rasping intermixed with furtive vocals is fundamentally boring, mailed-in wannabe radio rock.  it's a safe bet that if a song sounds like it could fit snuggly in between tracks from O.A.R and Hoobastank on the local modern rock radio station, I'm not going to bother listening twice.

[Conservationist]

Gotta disagree with you fellas here. It's a good song; reminds me of middle-period Iron Maiden. It's closer to Jesu than U2, although those two are closer than Godflesh and Ministry. It's powerful. It's just mainstream.

You don't see me arguing this shit for other bands who have changed style and in so doing, sold out.

[JewishPhysics]

Parts of this song are good and parts are bad.  I haven't fully made up my mind about this yet, but I was more disappointed by some of the noticeably sub-par riffs than the new aesthetic elements.  If they can get their shit together and form something coherent with a proper focus on some of the more basic elements, I can get on board.  If this is the best they can do, I will jump ship.  Until I hear the album, my ass is planted firmly (and uncomfortably) on the fence.

[istaros]

You don't see me arguing this shit for other bands who have changed style and in so doing, sold out.

Let's be honest, you'd have to be insane to do so. This is crap but it's not quite as fecal as Fallen or whatever that Pestilence album was. It's just boring, not "what the fuck is this shit?" inducing.

[Chaosgoatlaw]

Lets be honest. If this wasn't Amebix, we would dismiss it as indie and not care about it either way. Amebix should get no attention, positive or negative, from us for releasing a boring, meaningless post rock song. Why all the special treatment?

[Conservationist]

I think it's a good tune, albeit a commercial tune. If I make that exception for Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, why not for Amebix?

Also, equality is bullshit. Of course I'm going to pay more attention and be more forgiving of an Amebix track than some recording from Dickall Shitstuff McBallsweat from nu-metal, USA. Now, if D.S.M. does something amazing, they'll get the same consideration. That's the old school meaning of "fair."

I like this track. I think we need to be "open-minded" in that some good music comes out of commercial style. Is commercialism shit? Yes, in the same way democracy, equality, popularity and mass religion are shit.

But sometimes, something is both popular in style and good. Fuckin' examples:

* Judas Priest
* Iron Maiden
* early Metallica
* Patti Labelle
* King Crimson