Death Metal Underground

Wolves in the Throne Room – Celestite

June 14, 2014 –
43 comments

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Renowned post-metal band Wolves in the Throne Room have returned with a companion album to their 2011 release Celestial Lineage. Entitled Celestite, the new album shows the band moving the synth and acoustic components of the previous album to the foreground and thematically expanding upon them in a total divergence from metal instrumentation and structure. This release has less in common with Lord Wind or Burzum‘s prison albums, although some relationship could be established between Celestite and Ildjarn-Nidhogg’s synth work, in addition to Neptune Towers and perhaps various Beherit projects. Celestite primarily takes its inspiration from artists which are tangentially related to metal rather than derived from it, with Eno being the primary source.

Showing more heritage from avant-garde scoring than other ambient/neo-classical projects, Celestite reveals multi-dimensional composition winding its way from the beginning of a piece to its conclusion without a grounded climax or resolution. Microcosoms of intensity provide linking points to connect various melodic strands together, which along with blending recurring tones with expanding timbrel variance provides enough solidity to congeal central parts within the fluid nature of the album. Melodies are introspective and restrained, though the elongation of their motion increases the importance of each progression. When the album reaches its striving heights, sensation is heightened appreciably whilst still retaining a contemplative essence. Carefully considered, the contrast between the light synth aura which is the operative timbre of the album’s framework, the overlaying of organic winds and lighter keys, and the almost oppressive, technologically demonic and bass-heavy force that intrusively invades the melody and flattens it temporarily before returning, embodies a sonic portrayal of the struggle between the forest and the machine.

The artistic duality of nature versus mechanism constitutes itself again in our times in an art form which is dependent upon the modern and yet wary of it. Celestite may find a re-grounding point for Wolves in the Throne Room, and be an inspiring blueprint for all who seek to move beyond black metal in a backwards-looking yet inexorably-forwards direction – upwards, towards…

Caliban – Ghost Empire

February 1, 2014 –
3 comments

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Through the decades, metal has always been more like a crossroads than a cul-de-sac, with the intersection of punk and industrial as well as metal’s own internal genres, divided roughly between above-ground (heavy metal, nu-metal, glam metal) and underground (NWOBHM, death metal). The different threads feed back and forth into one another and cross-influence, but too much influence from any one would assimilate the whole genre.

Thus Caliban wanders into difficult waters. This band fuses Eskimo Callboy-style techno-influenced metalcore with post-metal and alternative metal, mixing in a fair amount of speed metal technique as well. The core of this band is the stadium hard rock of the 1980s and the alternative rock of the 1990s, which gives it a wistful and yet highly personal sound, like a nobody suddenly placed on national television and told to defend his life through a life history. Thus per its metalcore heritage it is highly emotional, as emo is a huge part of metalcore, but Caliban meld that 1980s stadium rock grandeur into the tendency of techno and industrial bands to make ceremonial moments out of their raging music. As a result, songs tend to rage along with metal riffs, then go into alternative rock choruses, and after a while expand into a bigger “meta-chorus” that sounds like a cross between Nine Inch Nails and a Chemical Brothers set.

Much of the focus is on the vocals which admittedly produce 1990s throwbacks, sounding a lot like a cross between Foo Fighters and Coldplay. They tend to use soaring melodies almost like those found in inspirational music, designed to contrast the distorted vocals which tend to chant in Pantera-style confrontational mode that got lifted from NYHC and Biohazard. This is a lot like what the more aggressive nu-metal bands do, but Caliban turn the volume up to ten with more melodic vocals and angrier chants. Although this leads to a binary focus in songwriting, where the soft conflicts the hard and fades out to an emotional finish, this is what makes for perfect radio/MTV hard rock. It delivers a ballad-like finish to an equal balance of aggression and sensitivity which is what today’s sophisticated audiences desire.

If you’re looking for something that is on the aboveground side of metal and in fact leans toward the rock side, which combines the raw emotion of 1980s stadium rock with the world-weary cynicism of 1990s alternative rock and the social aptitude of techno and metalcore, Caliban Ghost Empire offers something new you might want to check out. It’s like a Foo Fighters or Filter or Devin Townshend for this generation. Ghost Empire will not appeal to underground metalheads but might be a good introduction to the genre for people raised on the MTV-style emotive rock of contemporary fame.

The hipster invasion of heavy metal

December 21, 2013 –
40 comments

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Photo Credit: Instagram.

In the 1980s, the term “poseur” or “poser” was used to near-death by people trying to describe those who were involved with the music simply to make themselves look cool.

In the 1990s, we had “scenesters” who were people who hung around a musical scene to use it as a justification for their lifestyle. If someone questioned their lack of success or purpose in life, they pointed to the “scene” that they were part of.

And now, as the hands of time have run down further, we have hipsters: people who use music as a form of lifestyle adornment to explain why their life is better than yours. Generally they do this from a position of outsiderness, and by proving to be more obscure in their tastes than you, make you look like a herd-sheep in contrast.

What all these definitions have in common is that they reflect people who are using music in a backward thought process. Most people listen to music because they like it, and use their social life as a means to that music. Insincere people use the music as a means to the end of having a social life, and eventually drag down the community by forcing it in irrelevant directions. Entropy, in other words, caused by social need.

Recently No Clean Singing entered the fray with their analysis of the hipster gradient to Deafhaven:

What bothers me is that some people seem to be judging albums (and labeling the music “hipster”) mainly because they’ve become very popular, to the point of becoming “crossover” hits. We all know that the more successful, the more popular, the less “underground” a metal album becomes, the more it’s going to be put down within the community of metal. It’s a kind of perverse streak that our community seems to have.

I hope this author allows me to respectfully dissent here. The problem isn’t that these albums are popular; it’s that they’re not metal. Metal like most outsider genres has a strict sense of identity and purpose, and it fears adulteration for good reason. If metal starts admitting regular music into its inner sanctum, then metal will become assimilated by mainstream music.

We think of mainstream music as some bold direction but, if you look at history, it’s not. Pentatonic music appeared in Europe and Asia as a way to create popular music without having to wrangle with key or mode. The song form we now know as the pop song came from English drinking songs, the percussion from German waltzes, and the call-response format from gospel churches. This music isn’t a single direction; it’s what was compatible between many different directions, a lowest common denominator.

Metal broke away from this and went in its own direction. Part of being an outsider genre is to police your own borders. The only thing that gives you integrity is that spirit that allowed you to break away and have a different vision of reality. The problem is that you are constantly under assault. To the majority, you’re a threat because you’re doing things differently. And yet they wish they could be you, or at least be as seemingly cool as you are.

Hipsters are what happens when a social scene invades a musical movement. Instead of people working toward the music, people are using the music to justify their lifestyles, show off their outsider status (which is a raised status), or give themselves a unique purpose in life that others do not have. When people call Deafhaven a hipster band, they’re acknowledging the obvious: musically, Deafhaven has more in common with emo and indie rock than it ever will in metal, and we want the traitors out.

Cosmic Church – Ylistys

December 1, 2013 –
2 comments

cosmic_church-ylistysSometime after 1994, black metal lost its spark. Hvis Lyset Tar Oss had elevated black metal to its highest possible form and observers were left with nowhere to go. Thus began the ongoing deconstruction of the genre and the blurring of its boundaries.

Like many other contemporaneous black metal bands, Cosmic Church reaches into areas beyond black metal, however in its favor it does it without destroying the texture of the music. A fusion of Hvis Lyset Tar Oss (vocals are directly copied from this era) and what the cool kids these days are calling “post-metal”, the band presents a version of black metal somewhat comparable to a murky glass obscuring a beautiful painting, with poignant moments lost amid a lack of focus and coherency. Melodies briefly break free of rather pedestrian riffing and grant hope that a realization is being reached; before aimless motion dissolves whatever forward progress had been made.

For its genre, it’s a solid release. It’s listenable and has a few nice moments, but this album has nothing that will leave a lasting impression. If the band could isolate their best melodies and craft an album from them, rather than allowing the focus to be on irrelevancy; the end result would be far superior.

Methadrone – Better Living (Through Chemistry)

September 21, 2013 –
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methadrone-better_living_through_chemistryThe point of indie rock was to no longer be conquest music. Ordinary rock was about getting the girl, going out there and being a big star. Indie rock was about being at home in your room, wondering where the hell the world was going.

When indie collided with rock again, they mixed in ambient elements and took out the folk, giving a sensation of pure melancholy. Building in that vein, Better Living (Through Chemistry) showcases two bass guitars weaving simple melodies around droning sounds of emptiness and desolation contrasted by somewhat upbeat vocals.

Methadrone features ex-Incantation guitarist/vocalist Craig Pillard crooning softly over heavily repetitive bass. One bass guitar tackles rhythm; the other dodges and dives around this with noise, counter-melody and sometimes pure droning sound. The result is, like Jesu, a wall of sound from which absences make more impact than additions.

While Better Living (Through Chemistry) demonstrates the melancholy of isolation that indie rock applied to great strength, evoking the lost lone voice of a person trying to find a place in a world gone mad, it underscores this with a fascination with life itself. Despite the requisite anti-hero posturing involved with using drug imagery, this is an album of self-discovery and some mastery.

Indie rock remains ambivalent for many because despite its many musical contributions it sequestered itself in a certain world outlook that while inoffensive had no particular fascination past self-pity. By hybridizing that again with a contemplative but alienated withdrawal and loneliness, Methadrone casts post-rock into a new role from which it can grow.

Soilwork – North American Infinity Tour 2013

April 11, 2013 –
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soilwork-the_living_infiniteModern metal-indie hybrid Soilwork heads out to the buses for a North American tour to support their latest album, The Living Infinite.

Known for their melodic approach to a rock-metal mashup, Soilwork appeal to many who like either modern metal or loud rock. This is the band’s ninth album, and their first double-disc release.

The Living Infinite shows the Swedish melodic metal-hybrid sextet at their most adroit, combining influences into a smoothly integrated package that offers consistency in entertaining variation.

You can catch this post-metal/metalcore act live at the following venues:

  • 3/14 – Albany, NY @ Bogie’s
  • 3/15 – New York, NY @ The Gramercy Theater
  • 3/16 – Hartford, CT @ Webster Theater
  • 3/17 – Montreal, QC – CANADA @ Petit Campus
  • 3/18 – Quebec City, QC – CANADA @ Dagobert
  • 3/19 – Ottawa, ON – CANADA @ Mavericks
  • 3/20 – Toronto, ON – CANADA @ The Opera House
  • 3/21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Altar Bar
  • 3/22 – Cleveland, OH @ Peabody’s
  • 3/23 – Westland, MI @ Token Lounge
  • 3/24 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
  • 3/25 – Joliet, IL @ Mojoes
  • 3/26 – Des Moines, IA @ Wooly’s
  • 3/27 – St. Paul, MN @ Station 4
  • 3/28 – Winnipeg, MB – CANADA @ Park Theatre
  • 3/29 – Regina, SK – CANADA @ The Exchange
  • 3/30 – Calgary, AB – CANADA @ Republik Nightclub
  • 3/31 – Edmonton, AB – CANADA @ Starlite Room
  • 4/01 – Prince George, B.C. – CANADA @ The Generator
  • 4/02 – Vancouver, B.C. – CANADA @ Rickshaw Theater
  • 4/03 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
  • 4/04 – Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre
  • 4/05 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
  • 4/06 – Hollywood, CA @ Whisky A Go Go
  • 4/07 – Tempe, AZ @ Rocky Point Cantina
  • 4/08 – Tucson, AZ @ The Rock
  • 4/09 – Las Vegas, NV @ Las Vegas Country Saloon
  • 4/11 – Salt Lake City, UT @ In The Venue
  • 4/12 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theater
  • 4/13 – Kansas City, MO @ The Riot Room
  • 4/14 – St. Louis, MO @ The Firebird
  • 4/15 – Dallas, TX @ Trees
  • 4/16 – San Antonio, TX @ Backstage Live
  • 4/17 – Austin, TX @ Dirty Dog Bar
  • 4/18 – Abilene, TX @ Lucky Mule
  • 4/19 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Chameleon Room
  • 4/20 – El Paso, TX @ Tricky Falls
  • 4/22 – Corpus Christi, TX @ House of Rock
  • 4/23 – McAllen, TX @ Geo’s
  • 4/24 – Houston, TX @ Scout Bar
  • 4/26 – St. Petersburg, FL @ State Theater
  • 4/27 – Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits
  • 4/28 – Charlotte, NC @ The Casbah @ Tremont Music Hall
  • 4/29 – Richmond, VA @ Kingdom
  • 4/30 – Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage
  • 5/01 – Teaneck, NJ @ Mexicali Live
  • 5/02 – Poughkeepsie, NY @ The Chance Theater
  • 5/03 – Buffalo, NY @ Broadway Joes
  • 5/04 – Columbus, OH @ Al Rosa Villa
  • 5/05 – London, ON – CANADA @ Music Hall
  • 5/06 – Syracuse, NY @ Station 58
  • 5/07 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium

Interview with October Tide

March 29, 2013 –
7 comments

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October Tide create their music in the hazy miasma between funeral doom and post-metal, which means searing distorted vocals, layers of blasted guitar sound, and slow percussion mixed into a dreamy veil of sound.

Tunnel of No Light is their latest album, and it goes further into this direction that ever before, combining post-metal style with the clandestine nature of 1980s dark pop, which makes their music full of mystery.

We were lucky enough to get a chance to talk with Robin Bergh, who plays drums in October Tide, about Tunnel of No Light, metal, what’s not metal and the future of metal.

There seem to be both funeral doom and post-metal/post-rock influences in your music. What were your musical influences, and did any lead in this direction?

There have been so many influences through the years. I can only speak for myself but post-rock is a genre that really attracts me as well as the metal from the 90s. I really like old Tiamat, old Paradise lost, Type O Negative, old Amorphis and of couse the old Katatonia stuff. When it comes to “new” music I tend to listen to some of Porcupine Tree’s albums as well as Cult of luna, A swarm of the sun, PG.Lost and Pallbearer. Perhaps you could hear a little bit of everything in Tunnel of No Light.

You have a lush guitar sound that is both ferociously distorted and seems to preserve the internal harmonies of chords instead of blowing it all on crunch. Can you tell us how you got this sound?

I guess this is a typical Fred/Emil question but I know for sure that Fred loves his GT-10. He has been playing around throughout the GT-series since ages so I guess he has found his comfort zone in his gear.

Do you compare your sound to any of the following: Opeth, Cemetary, My Dying Bride or Jesu?

Nopes. We rather try to catch a feeling then a sound. We are not those technical nerds that spends hour after hour and salary after salary to chase a certain sound. We prefer to spend our time, creating a feeling or some kind of atmosphere.

Do you think metalheads have more trouble reaching your music, or do you think a fan of Joy Division or Sisters of Mercy would?

You might have a point. Most of the metal music these days are quite intense and I guess that is what loads of metal heads expect when they hear a new album. Anyhow, we think the other way around which might attract the old Sisters of Mercy fans, but to be honest I don’t think that they have discovered us yet. Most of our fans are still metal heads.

Your members have been active in the Scandinavian metal scene for many years, always in slightly “outside” bands. Is there some difference in approach or philosophy that made you take this path?

We all play just for fun. We don’t really try to make a break or feed our listeners with music that we expect them to like. It is more important for us to play music that WE like to play and to have a good time together. With that strategy you don’t really get as big as “Swedish House Mafia” which is not really our goal either.

Do you think metal is changing to be more like indie rock and post-rock? Did one swallow up the other?

This is a tricky question. It is quite normal that music tend to develop in some directions and it is hard to predict what the next natural step for the future will be. For some years now a lot of bands have been competing with as high BPM as possible and totally insane guitars. I’m quite fed up with that at the moment so I welcome the post-rock direction with open arms. I have a side project myself that is called Aoria and I find it fun to play that kind of music as well.

One of the most amazing things about Tunnel of No Light is that your vocals are among the most savage in the business, but they get laid over these beautiful guitar tracks. What does this represent to you?

Even if you are surrounded by a beautiful atmosphere in a beautiful landscape you could still be very frustrated. I think that might be more usual in our society to day and that is nothing to be ashamed of. Just walk down the street and take a look at the people that you see. I do like the mix of beautiful and frustration.

How would you describe your sound as having changed since Rain Without End?

We have tried to stay as close to the 90s as possible but with some refreshed elements. The vocals are more intense now and perhaps your hair will stand straight backwards when we crank up the guitars. This is the first album that October Tide have ever recorded as a complete band with the intension to perform it live. That might also have affected the outcome.

These songs seem like they arise out of a clash of emotions. How do you compose? Do you start with a feeling, a picture or a story?

That differs from time to time. It could also be a scenario, that very often will give the song a project name. From there on we start to work it until we are satisfied.

How long did it take to write and record Tunnel of No Light? Will you tour the USA and Europe for this album?

The writing process was much longer than the recording process for sure. I think we did spend 5-6 days in the studio to record this album and the writing was done during the summer 2012. Not really sure what the touring plans are at the moment but check out our homepage at www.octobertide.net for the latest updates.

What do you think the next generation of metal will look like?

Rather synthetic than organic, less dynamic and loads of variation. More of everything I guess. Clean vox + growl + female growl + clean female vox perhaps some keyboards, percussion. Guitars and drums faster than machine-guns and everything is tight as a frog’s ass!

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October Tide – Tunnel of No Light

March 16, 2013 –
6 comments

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Tunnel of No Light has a foot in both the funeral doom world and the post-metal world, revealing that October Tide were way ahead of their time in predicting trends in music. These are lush, beautiful chord progressions with an ethereal sadness about them but a churning power-pop resurgence that gives you a sense of enjoying the process of survival in a dystopic world of sadness.

In metal as in biology, the development of an organism reveals its prior stages in evolution. In the case of post-metal, it seems to me it owes more of its heritage to great 1980s dark pop bands like Sisters of Mercy and Joy Division. The same stygian Gothic moods prevail, but it has the same sense of discovering a lightness in the midst of the storm which made those bands so compelling for high school cigarette breaks in the parking lot.

Unlike most funeral doom, October Tide changes the blueprint frequently, bouncing between churning Skepticism-esque doom metal riffs and open-chorded, nearly hopeful dark pop riffs that have the kind of proud doomed independence that made 1980s music so defiant and great. In addition, October Tide are comfortable with silences and spaces where melody alone carries the tune.

This is not an album for people who need constant distraction or guitar fireworks to hit them over the head, but is more of an album best listened to alone on an isolated island or when driving interstate after the death of everyone you know. Its moods vary and are not all hopeless, instead balancing each other in similar proportions to create a bittersweet sense of determination in the face of the void.

With searing death vocals chanting and rasping over this contemplative music, a listener might be tempted to lump this in with the death metal, but more reasonably it shows a continuation of what My Dying Bride was doing in the 1990s, with the added post-metal twist that brings in the best of 1980s dark pop and its lovely melancholic atmosphere.