This seems as good a time as any to note that the music industry, which peaked in 1996, has since died from a lack of ideas.
9 CommentsVulnificus – Innomination (2021)
Recursive percussive riffing dominates the leading riffs of this short EP while gurgling vocals provide a background rhythm and minimal digital drums keep pace, allowing Vulnificus to speak almost entirely through guitar and an overactive bass that adds some rhythmic depth.
4 CommentsTags: death metal, vulnificus
Dead War – Grandfather of War (2021)
Working within a fusion of war metal and death metal with undertones of melody, Dead War bash out high-energy anthems which use distinctive riff forms to differentiate songs but manage song development through an interplay of riffs on either side of a riff-chorus pair.
No CommentsWhat Is The Metal Philosophy?
Most attempts to understand metal have focused on lyrics and interviews with musicians, which both fails because they usually pick lower achieving musicians and because most people do not consciously know why they do what they do, especially in artistic genres based on emotion, gesture, and metaphor.
7 CommentsTags: metal philosophy, Nihilism, solipsism
Neoconservatives At Fox News Go After Death Metal, Aryans
As you may know, people like me are classed as “antisocial” and “unrealistic” because we are realistic, or look at the origins of things and their likely consequences instead of human social function. Consequently we find it hard to get along with either public political stripe.
5 CommentsTags: conservatives, leftists, metal philosophy
Grieve – Funeral (2021)
Black metal established a template, with the original bands knowing that they were the last gasp of sanity before the egomania of humanism took over, but some have carried on. Grieve knowingly works with variations of the template but makes a compelling, carefully-crafted release.
1 CommentTags: Black Metal, grieve
Crone Visions – Devour (2021)
Imagine combining gauzy mystical Brit-pop with Gothic sensibilities and stoner doom riffs that pick up the tempo enough to avoid a post-pizza slowbrain groove, and you have the basics of the Crone Visions approach: pop songs over surging but laconic riffs and occasional psychedelic lead guitar.
1 CommentTags: crone visions, Doom Metal, psychedelic
Imperishable – Deathspawn (2021)
Approaching Swedish death metal as a hybrid of Dismember and Dissection, Imperishable begin songs with tightly-socketed riffs that correspond directly to each other, then build up to melodic riffs that are equal parts Iron Maiden and classic death metal, adding an air of mystery and a shifting ambience of emotion to their songs.
1 CommentTags: death metal, imperishable
Funeral Mist – Deiform (2021)
In the past, the DLA/DMU refused to review utter garbage, which is generally the right decision except when that garbage is the default for the subgenre chosen by market inertia. In other words, when it is what most people see under the $subgenre label at stores.
3 CommentsTags: Black Metal, funeral mist
Chuck Schuldiner (1967-2001)
On December 13, we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Chuck Schuldiner dying of AIDS. While early Death was some solidly good music and the band remained quality through Human, Chuck turned from the metal philosophy of nature-worship to a modernist ideal of humanism, and lost his soul in the process.
No CommentsTags: AIDS, chuck schuldiner, death, death metal
