Streaming, Record Sales, and Illusion: The State of Music in 2019

by Robert de Sandford on January 17, 2019

 

If you were active on any social media platforms last month you likely saw the bands you’ve been following celebrate the number of Spotify streams they had in 2019. Just as Myspace plays and Facebook likes were once important metrics used in the industry to determine the success of an artist, the number of plays on a streaming service is now the new standard of how popularity and fan size will be evaluated. But along with these changes in music statistics we must also consider the lessons of the past in how such statistics have been deceitfully manipulated. For there is a dark side to the validity of music streams in 2019 and the very real power held by those who can successfully master their mysteries.
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Retrospective : Intestine Baalism – An Anatomy of the Beast

by Nicholas Vahdias on January 13, 2019


Intestine Baalism are a Death metal band formed in the suburbs of Tokyo in 1991, their first full length only came out in 1997, having only released a pair of demos featuring songs that ended up on this album, it is safe to confirm that Intestine Baalism is a latecomer to a genre that had already seen it’s apex and was now slowly descending into Brutal and Technical Death metal territory. Anatomy of a beast takes advantage of the power of hindsight to successfully fusion the works of Carnage,Dismember and Suffocation against the more Heavy metal derived melodies of Sentenced, bringing to life a potent record that is at times just as peculiar as the band’s name.

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Dead Can Dance: A Retrospective

by Tyrell Dahlstrom on January 7, 2019


Amidst the soulless mediocrity of the Nowadays era labeled by some as “modernity”, there exist certain currents of contemporary music which hearken to a perennial spirit, evoking reminiscences of an ancient and timeless existence of a more vibrant, numinous nature – ultimately putting the listener in contact with a deep intimation of the greater Reality of which they are a part. It is assumed that many readers of this site intuitively recognize that the best of Metal exemplifies this. Many fans and musicians of Metal also tend to recognise similar expressions as they emerge in other styles of music, whether it be Classical, Electronic, Prog, Punk, Folk, Industrial, Goth, or whatever. One enduring group which especially stands out to the sensitively attuned is, of course, the eternal Dead Can Dance.

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The Best Underground Metal Of 2018

by Brett Stevens on December 31, 2018

The task before a reviewer varies widely. If you want to be a big shot, you need to write about what the labels want, since they are the only source of top-down money coming into the genre. They will then reward your publication with advertising, it will then reward you with a promotion, and eighteen months later, you can ditch it and move up to the big leagues.

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Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult Interview Part I

by Max Schoenbach on October 31, 2018

Black metal is a highly spiritual music. At its peaks it is able to create a sort of mysterium and Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, despite its rawness and overwhelming intensity, possesses that potential. DNS picked up the essential traits of black metal, many of which were universally misunderstood and dropped or compromised even by their originators, and with a great sense of application and purpose restored them to their function and dignity.

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DMU Song Contest Results Part 1

by Nicholas Vahdias on October 21, 2018

The second DMU song contest has been closed and the results have been compiled. More than fifteen contestants ranging from the hilariously bad to the inspiringly potent have shared their works for brutal and honest criticism. Our ever growing Discord community has submitted a few of these compositions,here is a permanent invitation for those wishing to partake in various discussions on the subject of metal and other related Hessian activities.

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Levels of NSBM Initiation

by Ioannis Metaxas on October 18, 2018

As a genre less defined aesthetically than on terms of propaganda, NSBM bears the mark of Cain that stigmatizes bands that express a certain ideology. On the basis that music is pure Will, this article focuses on contrasting a split by Der Sturmer, Malsaint and Blutkult with Spear of Longinus on the grounds of understanding and conviction to their ideas, or, to be less dramatic, on how the need to express grander statements creates grander music.

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J.C. Newman – Tampa Trolleys

by Brett Stevens on October 11, 2018

Every review site in the world likes to review fine, nuanced cigars, but this is a metal site, so let us look at cigars with the subtlety of an axe murder on a subway car. J.C. Newman named the Tampa Trolleys after the railcars that workers would take to the last American cigar-making plant in Tampa, Florida which was known as “Cigar City USA.” Coming from one of the birthplaces of death metal, these cigars aim for a similar brutality on the smoker but have lessons to teach.

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