Strangle Wire are a northern Irish four piece band that follow the Slipknot tradition of naming each other numerically. The band claims to play psychological death metal with influences from Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus and Sinister. However, none of Sinister’s music appears here and this is typical Nu-Death metal.
Tags: 2018, cannibal corpse, death metal, new albums, nu-metal, Strangle Wire
Control Denied was formed in the mid-1990s by late Death-frontman Chuck Schuldiner to cater to his desire to explore more traditional metal stylings. Schuldiner, however, was still bound to Death’s contract with Nuclear Blast and thus agreed to record one more album under the Death-moniker before concentrating fully on his new band and musical direction. As a result, songs originally intended for Control Denied were shoe-horned into a death metal context on The Sound of Perseverance (1998) which partly explains the lackluster, two-faced nature of the last and arguably worst Death-album. With contractual entanglements finally sorted out, Control Denied’s debut The Fragile Art of Existence saw the light of day in 1999.
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Tags: Control Denied, death, death metal, fates warning, Heavy Metal, iced earth, jag panzer, Nevermore, power metal, progressive metal, Speed Metal, steel prophet, Vicious Rumors
Guttural vocals are the only true vocal innovation in metal as other singing styles are derived from other genres. The growed vocal technique is a combination of multiple frequencies and is harmonically too rich to be treated in the same way as more tonal styles. Since they are different to all that came before them they must be analyzed differently. And as metal continues to be penetrated by the mainstream it is important to understand what should be expected from a vocalist and what each one brings to the table since as humans we are inclined to judge vocals first.
In the spirit of understanding the wide variety that the technique has to offer, take a look at some of the more interesting and/or well known vocalists that death metal has given us throughout the years:
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Tags: Alexander Krull, Atrocity, craig pillard, cryptopsy, Dead, death growl, death metal, death metal vocals, Deicide, disma, Glen Benton, gutterals, incantation, jeff becerra, Killjoy, Mike DiSalvo, morbid, necrophagia, Phil Bozeman, possessed, vocals, whitechapel
The last two decades has witnessed an exponential growth of studies devoted to popular music, coupled with a re-evaluation of past theories and models for interpretation and analysis. This paradigm shift has sparked interest in music “at the fringes” which in turn has led to the unlikely emergence of “metal studies”: a multi-disciplinary field of research centered around all things related to metal music.
11 CommentsTags: academia, ethnography, Heavy Metal, heavy metal studies, metal music studies, studies
Hailing from Houston, Texas, home to a few great USBM bands, Morbosidad are more likely known for the Spinal -Tap-like deaths of two of their drummers (one in an explosion in the rehearsal room and the other from falling of a building). Multiple lineup changes have plagued this band as well with the only remaining member being Tomas Stench. Due to such changes all releases differ immensely save for aesthetics and Spanish lyrics. Being released on Nuclear War Now! Productions, it is very easy to predict what this band has to offer musically (or lack thereof).
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As we predicted at the close of last year, a storm of power metal is coming at last and replacing the soon to be dead genre of post-metal. With beta-male hipsters turning toward retro rehashes of classic metal they are at last abandoning the pretentious nasalings of post metal. Let us rejoice in the death of post-black metal!
With Fridays becoming the new Tuesdays for metal releases (for reasons unbeknownst), let’s turn our attention to the next meaty drop of 2018 extreme metal.
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Tags: Brutal Death Metal, Cringe, Crypt Rot, dark horizons, death metal, Frozen Crown, Gore, Ignition, King Witch, metal, news, power metal, Therion, upcoming releases, Visigoth
This band from Germany has been around in one form or another since the 90s. Besides having a reputation as an under-rated act, they actively tour and record. They are considered technical/brutal death metal. I would probably count them as old school death metal. Several releases are available, and it feels somewhat unfair to look at just one release and judge, but lets try.
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Tags: Brutal Death Metal, death, death metal, Defeated Sanity, Disposal of the Dead Dharmata, Hindu, mysticism
Anyone hoping for a classic or revitalizing take on the black metal genre should take note of the path taken by the acknowledged co-creator of its infamous guitar style: Snorre “Blackthorn” Ruch. On the debut album of his creation Thorns (delayed almost a decade by his misfortune presence at the scene of Euronymous’s murder), he finds himself aided by some of the genre’s most renowned musicians who, through their own bands, shared a similar direction themselves. Although a careful listen reveals that Thorns S/T was able to surpass above mentioned bands on many levels, it is also immediately obvious that it is indeed part of the unfortunate route into industrial/electronics taken by many in the “extreme metal” genre during the early 2000s. Much like their countrymen in Emperor, Enslaved, and Arcturus, Thorns found themselves on a strange journey that an old issue of Terrorizer magazine accurately described as “The Weirding of Norway.”
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Well crafted and nicely produced, Temple of the Adversarial Fire by Shaarimoth , appears to be a nice mixture of 90s black metal fun. This is more in the epic vein, rather than underground sounding. Lets face it: the first two songs are great. There is a nice mixture of riffs and beats, with short phrasing. It is a bit heavy on vocals. They can get tiring at points. Bands I hear as influences here include Emperor, Morbid Angel, early My Dying Bride, and Bal Saggoth. Making my way through the album, song 3 leads with annoying vocals (minus 1 star), over a slower heavier riff. In song 4, am waiting for the album to get its mojo back. It does, with a European blast beat that has a sick lower grinded guitar counterpart. A fun, evil Samael style rock riff emerges from that. Some of the vocals still are iffy, but the guitar playing is growing on me. Why is the album so choppy though?
9 CommentsTags: Black Metal, caffeine, death metal, review, shaarimoth, walkman diaries
The most technically and musically gifted band of the Norwegian black metal scene, the legendary Emperor are also the most well known outside of the documentary-level engagement that plagues most who know of Burzum and Mayhem. Formed in the small rural town of Telemark Norway as a side project to a soon-forgotten death metal band, the group overcame the imprisonment of 75% of it’s lineup to deliver the most grandiose album of early 90s black metal. Though Emperor’s career was far from perfect, it made a profound impact on the young genre and ultimately proved it’s limitless developmental possibility.
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Tags: Anthems to Welkin at Dusk, band catalog, Black Metal, discography, emperor, ihsahn, in the nightside eclipse, IX Equilibrium, progressive metal, Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise, samoth, Thorns
