Published in Rivethead Magazine

Brett Stevens article in Houston’s underkvlt metal/rock mag:

During the 1950s-1970s we had bombers and cruise missiles, but in the 1980s we had supersonic intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) loaded with multiple independent re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) that blanketed cities like fission cluster bombs, erasing whole patches of the landscape. We were told we had seven minutes of warning

It was a terrifying time; people clung to dogma (“freedom” in the west, “equality” in the Soviet bloc) and tried to block any greater meaning out of their heads. Meaning started two world wars and could get you killed. Being really happy for blue jeans, cable TV and a fat paycheck was safer than bread. This vapidity produced a type of pop culture that was both saccharine and aggressive, emphasizing shallow emotions at the same time it pressed people onward to become part of the machine, to work hard and join the flow. Underground metal threw all of this back in its face.

United by the slogan “Only death is real,” underground metal as an artistic movement sought to remind people that all the crazy distractions, entertainment, politics and economics that filled our news and minds were distractions from the real agenda, which was having a meaningful and purposeful life. – Rivethead

Click the link to read more. Designed to offend numus and mellcores alike. And anyone else, come to think of it. Allahu ackbar!

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“A Day of Death” rebroadcast

One-time only rebroadcast of the streaming video of A Day of Death (July 16, 2011). Final chance to see the entire event. Whether you missed it or attended it and want to relive it for another day, you have one more chance to see Kam Lee join Druid Lord on stage, one more chance to see Kam Lee join Derketa on stage, one last chance to see Kam Lee perform “From Beyond” in its entirety.

$10 via Paypal to glorioustimesdeathbook@gma​il.com (no later than Friday, July 29 at 10 pm est) link and password will be sent via email approximately 1-2 hours before the event airs. Grab some beers, invite the friends over and enjoy this once in a lifetime event, some of the bands of the day will be available in the chat room throughout the rebroadcast.

Lineup:

  • Lethal Aggression (only part of their set was streamed)
  • Hubris
  • Seplophile
  • Resist Control
  • Sam Biles
  • Avulsion
  • Goatcraft
  • Druid Lord
  • Derketa
  • Rottrevore
  • Deceased
  • Insanity
  • Nokturnel
  • Kam Lee
  • plus a surprise or two thrown in for this special rebroadcast.

For more information, see the FaleBook page.

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Ayasoltec post new tracks

Remember how Sepultura tried to go tribal, Nile went Egyptian, Mictlatecuhtli revered the Aztecs, and Cenotaph created a death metal sound unique to Mexico?

Ayasoltec is carrying on that idea and doing it better with their Aztec metal which has a modern metal influence but even more, a rhythmic change from the cadences of death metal to the tribal, without “tribal” meaning “rock played on hand drums.”

New songs posted here:

Ayasoltec @ ReverbNation

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Closed-Minded: an illusion

From someone who should know better:

Especially in metal music, I find that a lot of people can be very closed-minded – Derrick Green @ Sepultura

Another term for closed-minded: having made a decision. Knowing what one likes. Clear and goal-oriented.

People like to use the “you’re just closed-minded” as a way to force you to like whatever it is they are doing.

The fact is that even an open minded becomes closed at some point, once it has made its decision.

Otherwise, it is capable of nothing and sits in perfect suspense, making no decisions — a rape target for miles around.

Derrick Green should know better. He should be, how shall we say, “open-minded” about this issue.

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Support the war… against hipsters

Interesting take on it:

I personally don’t want to label metal ‘underground’. I try to get my friends interested, but for one reason or another metal was meant to hold a limited audience. Which is fine because it has remained resilient through the years with such support. Exclusivity has become a defining pillar of the scene, the implications of which look dismal for the future of the genre.

{ snip }

My problem is not with ‘who likes metal’ but rather why they like metal and what the implications are for the genre.

Hipsters tend to take the honesty out of music because of how they rationalize their choices. People who respect their taste in music do not listen to bands because they are underground; they listen to them because they make good music. If a band gets too popular, they let it slide so long as said band remains honest. If said band loses their integrity, say Metallica, for instance, then one abandons them not for crossing some unspoken popularity threshold but rather because they have betrayed the trust of their fans. This is a powerful bond not easily broken by the likes of the mainstream press.

Hipsters, and I’m generalizing here, define their musical taste by what is unpopular; I’d even venture to say it is a defining pillar of hipsterdom (whatever that means). Metal has rare bouts of popularity but is unlikely to achieve mass appeal anytime soon, especially given the rigid parameters of top-tier saleability in the music industry. These impossible conditions leave metal with one possible future. Since the genre will not likely be rising to the mainstream popularity which could save it from a skinny-jean-clad audience (though I must admit that is pretty thrash) it is only a matter of time before the genre is completely saturated with hipsters. In San Francisco, metal culture has dwindled to only a handful of bands. – Sons of the Atom

The principle of hipsterdom is being different/ironic/”unique” through surface changes.

The hipster is at heart a very normal person, usually working a do-nothing job and living a boring life. Most are SWPLs.

They have, however, embraced failure. They aren’t doctors, lawyers or architects; they’re not even rogue programmers. They’re not real writers or artists. In fact, they’re not very good at anything. So they socialize and try to be “different” to stand out, since they’re not going to stand out for being good people, or smart people, or talented people. They’re faking it.

This is why they like music that’s basically bad: anyone can do it. If you trick it out enough, you get famous for it.

This is why they like ruined social scenes, failed things, and obscurity: they can take over.

They took over metal in 1999ish and have truly wrecked it, because metalcore is noomoo for underground hXc kids, and as a result it’s insipid trash.

Hardcore died in 1987 or before, and really has never come back. The hipsters want to think otherwise. Metal died in ’94.

It’s important to realize that hipsters are a sign of the end of all good things. They are the parasites who are trying to justify themselves into importance.

Supporting the war against hipsters is to support:

  • Substance over appearance.
  • Reality over social reality.
  • Art over personal drama.
  • Idealism over individualism.

All good things come from crushing the hipster, which is a force of decay.

Apple sold 9.25 million iPads and 3.95 million Mac computers. Gross margin for the quarter came to 41.7 percent.

Shares of Apple have emerged from the limbo they had fallen into after Chief Executive Steve Jobs took leave last January for unspecified medical reasons. – Reuters

Capitalist banksters, ganksters and toadies love hipsters because they will buy a bog-ordinary product with a special label and quintuple the margin on it. They are ideal consumers: morons who think they are right and can be easily led to buy something if it makes them feel unique and special.

Allah ta’ala will reward all those who give service in crushing the false (who don’t entry) and raising up the honest. Immortality and righteousness await all those who smite hipsters.

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Erosion of history

Back in the 1980s, it was hard to find Slayer in record stores or big concert halls.

“Heavy metal” meant Judas Priest, AC/DC, Kiss, Iron Maiden and maybe Metallica — although Metallica scared most people, and Iron Maiden was considered Satanic for their Number of the Beast album, which meant many stores would not stock it. (Seems dated, but rather quaint: a society interested in its own well-being, even if a bit ignorant as to how it applies that. For example, Desperate Housewives is more Satanic than Iron Maiden.)

When you went to a big show — Slayer was still playing smaller venues, and until the New Titans on the Block tour, so were Sepultura et al — you usually did it at a place called The Summit. This was a basketball arena with an awesome circular lighting system and one of the first giant TV screens to show your favorite team eating dirt in high definition.

Sometime in the 1990s, it went bankrupt. Sometime in the 00s, it became a Megachurch.

As time goes on, I am reminded of a few things:

  • Most people hate themselves and want crap that feels like what they deserve
  • What is popular is always inferior to what intelligent people like
  • Over time, as new forms of music get discovered, they get dragged down to mediocrity
  • We destroy good bands and venues by forcing them to play the music industry game
  • The music industry game is pandering to idiots and then getting out before the band’s name value falls

And when all is said and done, the ashes fall, and the creatures of decay (including Lakewood Church, a cheesy megachurch that’s half-television and half-circus, with Jesus added) take over. RIP

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