Thursday, January 18

Betcha By-Golly Wah-Wah

Though I've never been to the land of YOB, I'm planning a trip. Along the way past the Dead Meadow, I'll probably find the Electric Wizard at the court of the Acid King, and with both their blessings will travel through the Conifer forest to the Ocean, lie beneath the Mammatus clouds and Sleep, dreaming fitful dreams of those Buried At Sea. There are some heavy things going down.

I've completely ignored metal and its sub-genres for over a decade, thinking I was past the need for it. I still had noise, and experimental free-form improv, and the all-genre melding inherent in following Zorn and Patton and their Tzadik and Ipecac imprints. It didn't seem to have a place. Well, I'm happy to say I was wrong. All of the above linked artists (I promise not to go MySpace crazy again in the future) excite me; heavy, sludgy, blistery purveyors of doom, thick with effects and scorching the raw earth with their mellifluous tones. Dirgey bliss, all for me.

For those who are metal connoisseurs, you will probably be asking one primary thing: where be the descendants of thrash? To be honest, I went through a series of short but intense thrash/grindcore phases (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax/Slayer, Suicidal Tendencies, Napalm Death/Carcass, Pantera, Sepultura - in those subsets and order), and the technical riffing and brutal tempos don't really hold much appeal anymore. I can appreciate the skill, but I can't say I enjoy listening.

Regardless of my own predilections and prejudices, I'm looking forward to "rediscovering" my inner head-banger. Should be a fun year, and I'll dutifully share my thoughts as I add yet more music to the all-together too much already lying around the house and clogging up my brain.

6 comments:

Ian said...

Of those bands I'm only (vaguely) familiar with Sleep, but damn is Dopesmoker a fine album.

What do you think of Jesu?

Erik said...

I just got Dopesmoker a week ago. Somehow silly and majestic concurrently. The Mammatus album I am absolutely loving - picked it up at the same time as the Sleep album and it is a early seventies psychedelia/Sabbath cross - lots of wah-wah and Ummagumma-esque spacey jams. The rest are on my radar - Conifer & Ocean are local bands so I hope to catch them both live.

I somehow missed the Jesu (Silver that is) until Christmas time. I absolutely adore it, though I wouldn't call it metal. Shoegazing/stoner hybrid of the highest order. I'll be honest and say I'm really enjoying Conqueror as well, and look forward to its release in February. Never really got into Godflesh and am debating if I should give it another try.

Anonymous said...

See out Age of Winters by the Sword and Leviathan by Mastodon.

Erik said...

Age of Winters is a blast - The Sword do Sabbath very well - but as I wrote before Christmas I don't get Mastodon. Their sound strikes me as a thrash/prog hybrid, and as such it does nothing for me. It's that particular guitar tone or playing style (I'm not a guitarist, and I don't know which is the deciding factor in the "thrash" guitar sound) that I'm entirely tired of, and pretty much have been since about 1987. Though I'd take Leviathan over Blood Mountain - it has more of a bottom groove, at least in my casual listening.

Ian said...

So wait, have you heard Jesu's debut? It's more metal (kind of) than Silver, and is mostly just utterly fucking fantastic.

Also, I hope this is okay (and if I didn't think of it on such short notice I would have asked before hand!), but I quoted you briefly in my hopefully-upcoming review of the new Goslings.

Erik said...

I haven't heard any Jesu other than the two I mentioned - they were completely off my radar a month ago. I'll try to track down back catalog.

Feel free and quote - I love that Goslings album more each time I hear it. It makes me giddy.