There is six-string bass played like guitar—the band is a bass/drums duo; both members sing/vocalise. It is weirdly pretty in places despite being quite heavy.
On that note: Funeral doom. Somebody tell me more.
Happy to be of service.
Thergothon and Skepticism are both good starting places, as they are considered to be the pioneers of the genre, with albums in '94 and '95 respectively. Thereogthen only has the album Stream from the Heavens. As for Skepticism, Stormcrowfleet, Lead and Aether and Farmakon are all really good. Evoken is another really good band. Antithesis of Light, A Caress of the Void and Atra Mors are all standout records, but their entire discography is really good tbh. Ahab, which I'm sure DisasterGrind has brought up at some point, is another great funeral doom band. Their first two albums are pretty much perfect, as far as I'm concerned. I remember the 3rd album being good but not as good as their first two, but it's been awhile since I gave it a listen. Ea is another really good band I don't really have a lot to say because there's not much info about them. The only thing I know about them is that Ea’s lyrics are said to be written in a dead language which was recreated according to the results of archeological study and their concept is based on the sacral texts of ancient civilizations and I only know that because it's on their bandcamp page. Still, good Metal and their whole discography is killer (https://eadoom.bandcamp.com/). Dolorian, Septic Mind, Despond, Shade of Despair, Catacombs, Mournful Congregation, Esoteric, Funeral and Mare Infinitum are all worth checking out too. Also, the band Winter isn't funeral doom, but a lot of Funeral doom bands cite them as an influence, so they're worth checking out.
Also, not Doom Metal, but you should definitely check out Gyibaaw. They were a First Nations Death/Black Metal band. They only put out one album before leaving the scene, allegedly after finding out that some bands they had been playing with or were going to play with were white supremacists/Neo-nazis, but the album they put out was pretty good.
I was already looking into a few of the bands that you mentioned, but Ea were a particularly interesting surprise. Thank you.
Also, I recall the situation with Gyibaaw being a bit more complicated, although the band they were touring with were indeed accused of being Nazis. Whether they were is... murky, but I don't think they are? Or they were at one point, but aren't any more. It's weird.
I think Imi would really like Bell Witch's Four Phantoms. It's sadder than the average "Imi album," in my experience, but it totally is one. Assuming said cowfriend has not heard it yet.
On that note: Funeral doom. Somebody tell me more.
I was already looking into a few of the bands that you mentioned, but Ea were a particularly interesting surprise. Thank you.
Also, I recall the situation with Gyibaaw being a bit more complicated, although the band they were touring with were indeed accused of being Nazis. Whether they were is... murky, but I don't think they are? Or they were at one point, but aren't any more. It's weird.
Yeah, Ea is one of those bands that almost nobody knows about, so I try to promote them as much as I can. Out of curiosity, which bands were you looking into already?
Also, just a random anecdote that you might enjoy, but the guys from Sepultura were big Industrial fans, especially of Einstürzende Neubauten. You can spot Andreas Kisser wearing an Einstürzende Neubauten shirt in the music video for Arise if you pay attention.
The metal/industrial connection outside of the obvious is always a fun one to make. Like, again, Prong being founded by ex-Swans members, or Sepultura being way into Neubauten.
I am listening to Dagger Lust's "Blood Coils in Old Skin" and I swear to the black gods, this is one of the nasties, rawest, most brutal things I've listened to all year. Amazing.
So, I'm listening to Kayo Dot's Coffins On Io right now, and I'm thinking about how their transition to a synth-driven atmospheric prog-rock unit on their last two albums makes a fair amount of sense in the context of their band history and musical ambitions, but taken out of that context seems utterly bizarre.
So, I'm listening to Kayo Dot's Coffins On Io right now, and I'm thinking about how their transition to a synth-driven atmospheric prog-rock unit on their last two albums makes a fair amount of sense in the context of their band history and musical ambitions, but taken out of that context seems utterly bizarre.
Interesting. I haven't listened to any of Kayo Dot's since Coyote, so I'm 4 records behind at this point. It does makes quite a bit of sense though.
"The Assassination of Adam" is pretty metal but that's it on that record. They have more in common with Soft Machine and early Gary Numan on their latest than anything in that genre, the structural rigour and weird harmonies of certain death metal acts and perhaps the overall atmosphere aside.
So the first half of Defeated Sanity's latest—the LP entitled Disposal of the Dead; the second is Dharmata—would be perfect if it weren't for the fact that the drums are mixed in that ridiculous trebly way to make room for the bass and guitars. Other than that, this album is heavy as *fuuuuuuck* and really engagingly excessive. And despite the drum mixing being weak in the low register, the actual drumming is exquisite. Great use of China cymbal and hi-hat.
Oh shit, Dharmata is sick already. It's like everything that's good about noodly-ass prog-death with a bare minimum of bullshit. And this is the same fucking band. So good. And the drumming sounds way more balanced here.
The vocalist isn't as intimidating—he's from Cynic, actually—but he does fit fairly well, and while I would have preferred the pig squeals, I get why they switched over.
I just discovered that Defeated Sanity was formed by a father and son and the father left the band in 2008 and passed away in 2010. He was only a couple of years older than my dad. :<
I am coming to realise that heavy bands whose songs are consistently either under three minutes long or over eight minutes long are my personal catnip. If you write mid-length songs then you'll have to convince me with other points of interest but if you're really concise or really long-winded you'll have me at "hello."
Maybe this is because everything about my tastes comes back to doom or grindcore in some way, which is to say it all comes back to drones and noise.
Another evening of stellar listening with Time is the Sulphur in the Veins of the Saint: An Excursion on Satan's Fragmenting Principle by Abigor. Yes, that is the title. Yes, it is black metal, before you even ask; and yes, it absolutely kills. Lots of intense duelling lead guitar pyrotechnics and interesting industrial-inflected buzzy synth textures blurring disconcertingly with said guitar pyrotechnics, plus portentous Satanic chanting and an astonishing number of musical gear shifts.
I am listening to Despised Icon's début and I really like their female vocalist—Marie-Hélène Landry, her name is; she fronts Obsolete Mankind now. She left after this album, but they stuck with the dual harsh vocalist thing through out their career and I think that was a good move. It creates a neat dynamic, with Steve Marois providing the pig squeals and lower shriek-barks and Landry and later Alexandre Erian doing the mid-low growls and whacked-out screamo yelps.
The Partisan Turbine's self-titled... LP/EP/whatever is pretty neat if you like weird slam/deathcore acts. Basically, these guys were really into Devourment and beatdown hardcore, and decided to combine the two. It leans more heavily in the brutal death direction but regardless, it's really quite a thing, especially with the vocalist alternating between something like four different modes of horrid mouth noises across a song well under the two minute mark.
Also, there are random Renaissance recorder bits. I'm not joking.
Interesting fact I just learned: The touring keyboardist for the once ludicrously popular emo-tinged pop-punk band My Chemical Romance, one James Dewees, started his musical career as the drummer for Coalesce. Who are Coalesce?
The first time I saw Burmese play was a little over a year and a half ago. My band was playing a show with them. I knew their drummer John, a bonafide freak (I mean that in a good way), but knew nothing of the band. Come to find out later that the two Mike's, who comprise Burmese, are from Ohio, or something like that - and that Burmese has been a band for a while and that when they decided to move to the Bay area the original drummer (who was one legged and 'had elements of dwarfism') didn't want to move out here and thusly, John became the new drummer.
But I digress: so they set up on the floor, in front of the small stage, in the already over crowded very small venue (Kimo's if nayone is keeping score). Two huge stacks for the two Mike's and a utilitarian drum set for John. It took them less than two minutes to set up and blast forth with the most ungodly roar of ugliness that could only be compared to moments of extreme terror and hate. Burmese then threw themselves, and literally everything they had, into the audience as the cabinets exploded forth something that resembled a song from somewhere deep within the damage. The two already blown out bass towers did their best not to catch fire as the two Mike's continued to mercilessly beat the living shit out of their basses, screaming the incomprehensible words that they called lyrics right into the faces of the startled crowd; of whom a considerable portion were spending their time ducking the guitar headstocks. John was right there in the fray with them; as he kicked over his drum set, he grabbed onto his snare and was now smashing out a beat in the middle of the crowd and acting as some form of deranged timekeeper to this unholy madness. A minute hadn't even passed and the song was over. The insane volume level went down but the claustrophobic feeling they impartedhad not as John sort of picked up his drums, set them up and they were at it again almost as if they were in a crazed religious fervor, or maybe as an extreme reaction to the horror that they were forcing down our throats. Each song beacame progressively more and more damaged. And the insanity level meters were through the roof. One song in particular had a part that was just a beat with both basses hitting on one single plodding distorted note - for near a minute as little mike screamed for all he was worth when suddenly the song blasted forth sounding like all the equipmnent had tumbled down the stairs in a blaze of fire and extreme devastation, roaring twisting lurching feedback and low end rumble, etc. and just as suddenly as it had exploded it was back to that single plodding march of destruction. The fear level rose in the audience, these fuckers were serious. The shit was goin' down now and they were the soundtrack to the inferno on earth!!
Then as violently as they began, they violently ended. The equipment as strewn about like bodies on a battlefield and what had seemed like hours spent in a bomb shelter as the world was being blown apart above us was in realiy only about 10 minutes!! It was amazing!! And each time I saw them after that, the ugly was nothced up another two. And as for this CD, it encompasses their dameged excessive use of force into a nice safe package so that you too can recreate, in the safety of your own home, a Burmese live show!! 21 songs in 44 minutes, and that's including the 20 minute noise piece at the end.
This should be in anyones colection who claims that they like their devastation hard and ugly. And if and when they come through yr town, be prepared, call in the national defense otherwise these fuckers are going to burn it all down.
Listening to beatdown hardcore has made me understand the existence of '90s/'00s rap-metal way better than I did before. I understand that there was that progression out of '80s punk-funk in the wake of Gang of Four and that NYC hardcore already had links to hip-hop, but 25 ta Life and Bulldoze are like some kind of weird missing link between early metalcore and Rage Against the Machine, except so much heavier than that sounds.
An aside on the aforementioned Burmese: The penultimate track on their album A Mere Shadow and Reminiscence of Humanity, "A Proper Excuse", is over ten minutes long and is mostly long stretches of mic and bass feedback punctuated by deranged power electronics-styled shrieking, disembodied bass riffs, and the occasional burst of massive thrashing. The album then ends with a live track which begins with what appears to be a loop of someone making clucking noises leading to a song which ends in what amounts to the whole band performing a live impression of a locked groove for two minutes.
Final thought for the night: I am listening to Morbid Angel's Covenant right now before bed, and holy shit, that guitar soloing really is insane. It's like I can hear Suffocation and Blasphemy taking form—although this was their third album, so the influence would have been from the first rather than this one.
I do intend to listen to at least the first three Morbid Angel LPs, plus that one from '86 which they scrapped for five years, if only for historical context. I'm not huge on old-school death metal for the most part, but I do appreciate the chops on display here and I want to understand the context which the stuff I am really into came out of.
OK, correction: *Recent* Carnifex is hilarious. Older Carnifex is pretty standard second-wave deathcore with occasional flashes of weird inspiration. Mostly their early work is nothing special, but now and then there's a weird moody phased-bass emo interlude or some really evil black/death stuff happening out of nowhere that's actually pretty cool.
Slow Death, though? Comedy gold. Mainly it's the keyboards and the clearer vocals which do it. Very technically competent, and *incredibly* silly.
So, after subjecting myself to, uh, that, I'm listening to an actually-good deathcore album! The Red Chord's Clients. Which I guess is an unfair comparison—they're practically different genres entirely—but... this is pretty sweet.
Also, the track I'm on now ("Upper Decker") has a lengthy Kayo Dot/Isis-esque clean guitar and toms breakdown with distant vocal noises before utterly exploding and it's amazing.
Listening to N.I.L.'s self-titled, which Naney picked up here on the visit before last, and it's rather good! Very sludgy, morose black metal, minimalistic and concise, with an unexpected and odd but surprisingly solid rendition of Big Black's excellent "Bad Houses"—a very un-metal song musically, but with a spidery spookiness that jives well with black metal aesthetics and the album's overall mood.
Ooh. I've already enjoyed what Suffocation I've heard, so that could be fun.
Right now I'm listening to Burning Witch's first "EP," Towers... and I must say: Edgemont Martin is a really weird vocalist. O'Malley and Anderson seem to like those.
Comments
There is six-string bass played like guitar—the band is a bass/drums duo; both members sing/vocalise. It is weirdly pretty in places despite being quite heavy.
Thergothon and Skepticism are both good starting places, as they are considered to be the pioneers of the genre, with albums in '94 and '95 respectively. Thereogthen only has the album Stream from the Heavens. As for Skepticism, Stormcrowfleet, Lead and Aether and Farmakon are all really good. Evoken is another really good band. Antithesis of Light, A Caress of the Void and Atra Mors are all standout records, but their entire discography is really good tbh. Ahab, which I'm sure DisasterGrind has brought up at some point, is another great funeral doom band. Their first two albums are pretty much perfect, as far as I'm concerned. I remember the 3rd album being good but not as good as their first two, but it's been awhile since I gave it a listen. Ea is another really good band I don't really have a lot to say because there's not much info about them. The only thing I know about them is that Ea’s lyrics are said to be written in a dead language which was recreated according to the results of archeological study and their concept is based on the sacral texts of ancient civilizations and I only know that because it's on their bandcamp page. Still, good Metal and their whole discography is killer (https://eadoom.bandcamp.com/). Dolorian, Septic Mind, Despond, Shade of Despair, Catacombs, Mournful Congregation, Esoteric, Funeral and Mare Infinitum are all worth checking out too. Also, the band Winter isn't funeral doom, but a lot of Funeral doom bands cite them as an influence, so they're worth checking out.
Also, not Doom Metal, but you should definitely check out Gyibaaw. They were a First Nations Death/Black Metal band. They only put out one album before leaving the scene, allegedly after finding out that some bands they had been playing with or were going to play with were white supremacists/Neo-nazis, but the album they put out was pretty good.
Also, I recall the situation with Gyibaaw being a bit more complicated, although the band they were touring with were indeed accused of being Nazis. Whether they were is... murky, but I don't think they are? Or they were at one point, but aren't any more. It's weird.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
As for the Gyibaaw thing, it's very much a he said/she said thing. That said, some of the circumstantial evidence, if not damning, was enough to make me turn my head. Relevant links:
https://shamelessnavelgazing.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/inquisition-and-black-metals-fascism-problem/
https://shamelessnavelgazing.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/inquisition-and-black-metals-fascism-problem-clarification-and-follow-up/
http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/drama/ex-skinhead-who-labeled-inquisition-as-white-supremacists-speaks-out
http://decibelmagazine.com/blog/2015/7/10/ex-skinhead-this-was-never-just-about-inquisition
https://scholarsfromtheunderground.com/2013/03/17/prince-george-indigenous-band-speaks-about-white-supremacist-black-metal-bands/
Also, just a random anecdote that you might enjoy, but the guys from Sepultura were big Industrial fans, especially of Einstürzende Neubauten. You can spot Andreas Kisser wearing an Einstürzende Neubauten shirt in the music video for Arise if you pay attention.
On a goofier note, the Quietus did an enjoyable piece on the wonderfully-named heavy psych act Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, who are basically like the Northern English doom metal version of Acid Mothers Temple with more tempo changes. They're very, very fun.
YES. GOOD.
The vocalist isn't as intimidating—he's from Cynic, actually—but he does fit fairly well, and while I would have preferred the pig squeals, I get why they switched over.
YESSSSS.
Maybe this is because everything about my tastes comes back to doom or grindcore in some way, which is to say it all comes back to drones and noise.
Another evening of stellar listening with Time is the Sulphur in the Veins of the Saint: An Excursion on Satan's Fragmenting Principle by Abigor. Yes, that is the title. Yes, it is black metal, before you even ask; and yes, it absolutely kills. Lots of intense duelling lead guitar pyrotechnics and interesting industrial-inflected buzzy synth textures blurring disconcertingly with said guitar pyrotechnics, plus portentous Satanic chanting and an astonishing number of musical gear shifts.
Also, there are random Renaissance recorder bits. I'm not joking.
These cheerful dudes! :D
But I digress: so they set up on the floor, in front of the small stage, in the already over crowded very small venue (Kimo's if nayone is keeping score). Two huge stacks for the two Mike's and a utilitarian drum set for John. It took them less than two minutes to set up and blast forth with the most ungodly roar of ugliness that could only be compared to moments of extreme terror and hate. Burmese then threw themselves, and literally everything they had, into the audience as the cabinets exploded forth something that resembled a song from somewhere deep within the damage. The two already blown out bass towers did their best not to catch fire as the two Mike's continued to mercilessly beat the living shit out of their basses, screaming the incomprehensible words that they called lyrics right into the faces of the startled crowd; of whom a considerable portion were spending their time ducking the guitar headstocks. John was right there in the fray with them; as he kicked over his drum set, he grabbed onto his snare and was now smashing out a beat in the middle of the crowd and acting as some form of deranged timekeeper to this unholy madness. A minute hadn't even passed and the song was over. The insane volume level went down but the claustrophobic feeling they impartedhad not as John sort of picked up his drums, set them up and they were at it again almost as if they were in a crazed religious fervor, or maybe as an extreme reaction to the horror that they were forcing down our throats. Each song beacame progressively more and more damaged. And the insanity level meters were through the roof. One song in particular had a part that was just a beat with both basses hitting on one single plodding distorted note - for near a minute as little mike screamed for all he was worth when suddenly the song blasted forth sounding like all the equipmnent had tumbled down the stairs in a blaze of fire and extreme devastation, roaring twisting lurching feedback and low end rumble, etc. and just as suddenly as it had exploded it was back to that single plodding march of destruction. The fear level rose in the audience, these fuckers were serious. The shit was goin' down now and they were the soundtrack to the inferno on earth!!
Then as violently as they began, they violently ended. The equipment as strewn about like bodies on a battlefield and what had seemed like hours spent in a bomb shelter as the world was being blown apart above us was in realiy only about 10 minutes!! It was amazing!! And each time I saw them after that, the ugly was nothced up another two. And as for this CD, it encompasses their dameged excessive use of force into a nice safe package so that you too can recreate, in the safety of your own home, a Burmese live show!! 21 songs in 44 minutes, and that's including the 20 minute noise piece at the end.
This should be in anyones colection who claims that they like their devastation hard and ugly. And if and when they come through yr town, be prepared, call in the national defense otherwise these fuckers are going to burn it all down.
I fucking love this band so much.
Unless there's a band named after it, which wouldn't surprise me.
Because it is great
clearly my tastes are superior and I am a better person
I am a trash nerd. .w.
Not bad—the blackened deathcore thing is actually pretty interesting on an instrumental level—but so, so corny.
Slow Death, though? Comedy gold. Mainly it's the keyboards and the clearer vocals which do it. Very technically competent, and *incredibly* silly.
Right now I'm listening to Burning Witch's first "EP," Towers... and I must say: Edgemont Martin is a really weird vocalist. O'Malley and Anderson seem to like those.