Higher-powered home computers drove the democratization of music production, then the internet allowed individuals to promote themselves. Many at the time wondered if this would be the death of record labels, which previously were the only way for bands to get known.
38 CommentsTags: bitcoin, home production, podcasting, rss, self-publishing, sir libre
Not many people appreciate the importance of Slayer. Along with other proto-death/black bands — Bathory, Master, Sarcofago, Hellhammer, Sodom, Possessed — Slayer stepped out of the speed metal sound to the tremolo sound and realized the possibilities of through-composed narrative songs based on the riff.
92 CommentsTags: metal, slayer, speedmetal, Thrash
Few bands inspired as much imaginative exploration of ideas as Manowar, which like Bathory looked toward the pre-medieval past for inspiration about the future, finding that humanity had not changed and our path is one of battle, honor, might, pride, death, blood, and victory instead of “progress.”
37 CommentsTags: borys shchuka, hurdy-gurdy, manowar
Coming from the part of the old school that focuses on producing dark cryptograms from the most basic robust and straightforward riffs it can conjecture, Cemetery Urn makes music that sets up a dominant rhythm trope like Immolation or Sinister and then spins contrasts until the theme gains a new weight.
57 CommentsTags: cemetery urn, death metal
Resurrecting the ancient style of early Death and Massacre, Gommorha utilize a contrast between pummeling rhythm and melody twisted out of flowing chromaticism to create a sensation of traveling through a violent and threatening landscape.
257 CommentsTags: death metal, gomorrha
On the surface, Desecresy grafted Bolt Thrower into periodically ambient underground metal like Asphyx and Demoncy, producing a sense of exploring catacombs and labyrinths in darkness while pursuing or being pursued, producing a mood of contemplative calm in the midst of intensity.
3 CommentsTags: death metal, desecresy
Alternative rock got a bad name in the US because it was basically not an alternative, and just mixed a little metal and punk into Morrissey and Bruce Springsteen, making the whiniest genre ever created. These days we laugh about “alternative facts,” but maybe alt-rock had something to do with this.
136 CommentsTags: alternative music, alternative rock, progg, progressive music, progressive rock, Sweden
Old school Swedish death metal stalwarts Dismember represented one of those moments where the heavens, Earth, and natural kingdoms align to produce a window into the world beyond the immediate and physical, unleashing possibility through an embrace of realism and a pursuit of quality in life experience.
36 CommentsTags: death metal, Dismember, Old School Death Metal, Swedish Death Metal
Some of you remember Organic Infest, who terrorized the world with Penitence, a slab of iconoclastic death metal that observed the world in fine attachmentless detail.
71 CommentsTags: death metal, organic, organic infest
Imagine a ship sailing through oceans comprised of memory and dreams of those stranded in a time of decay and pointlessness, and you get the general idea of this mixed-genre band who makes death metal and grafts in other metal genres to contrast the mood.
25 CommentsTags: death metal, transgressor
