I'm still alive!
Sorry for the lack of updates from me, I don't really have a valid excuse, Joe is just much more on top of his life than I am. I have a few different articles in the work, and have been requested, by Joe, to write a focus on Inland Empire after his frustration and bemusement, as outlined in his last review. But for today, I will be doing a much more musically focussed article. I have recently had quite a lot of time on my hands and have been listening to a lot of new music, which I have thoroughly enjoyed, so much so, that I've decided to give a round up of some of the stuff I've found, in the hope of highlighter some stuff some of you lovely readers may not have heard or heard of.
Satanism RULES!
Hang the Bastard
I saw HTB supporting Throats in Kingston at the wondefull Fighting Cocks, a few months ago, and thought they were fucking awesome. With this in mind, I couldn't wait for Raw Sorcery to arrive, once I had ordered it, and was literally screaming when the useless post men hadn't bought it. It finally arrived and I was not dissapointed. There sound is big. HTB have a sound which is similar to Integrity, but with heavy infusions of Black Sabbath, Down and EYEHATEGOD, they are exactly what I like about Integrity, but with a heavier, more metal / doomy sound.
The opener "Failed Harvest" is an epic, building track, with some kickass samples going on in the background, with whats leads into a fucking heavy main riff. The tracks I especially enjoy on this EP are "Failed Harvest" for the solo leading intro to the heavy main riff, "Doomed Fucking Doomed" for its heavily influenced black metal verses and, in my opinion, their best track, on and off the EP; "Oblivion", which is also the most hardcore styled track on the CD. They are a band to watch out for, on the metal and hardcore circuit. Try and catch them live if you can, they are playing the Fighting Cocks again with Fast Point (another great oldschool hardcore band) on the 15th of this month, however, I will be eating burritos and catching up with someone that night, so I won't be in attendance.
Burzum
When one of my best buds came to visit a couple of weekends ago, we ended up pretty blitz from a weekend of smoking bongs and eating Jersey fudge. On the Monday afterwards, while in recovery mode, I decided to download the entire Burzum discog and read as much I could on him. I used to enjoy Black Metal when I was younger and read a lot about it then, so I'm not new to the genre, but I felt it was time to fully immerse myself in some Norwegian Satanic murderous Black Metal. The entire Burzum back catalogue is incredibly cold, almost oppresively so, which ends up leading to an atmosphere of which seems to perfectly fit the freezing cold, snow covered forests that cover much of Norway. This atmosphere is really created by the very lo-fi recording quality, which has tons of reverb and simplified use of drums and synth. While listening to it you can almost feel the evil seeping through the speakers, where you become transported to an image of blood drenched snow, which is only penetrated by the black pillars of leaf-less trees and high burning fires. Or maybe it was just because I was still in perma-stone while listening to it.
Although I feel I am justified with describing Burzum as "evil music" because it is some of the few creative outputs of a convicted murderer which is both good and readily available. For those of you who are behind in their Norwegian Black Metal knowledge Burzum, or Varg Vikernes (aka Count Grishnackh) was convicted in 1993 for the murder of Mayhem guitarist Euronymous and the arson of several Churches (you can read more about this on Wikipedia). Most of his records were released before his imprisonment, but his last two albums have been recorded and released from prison, however, while in prison he was only allowed a synthesiser, so for those records Burzum took a Dark Ambient style, which is not too dissimilar to the longest track off of his album "Filosofem"; "Rundgang um die transzendentale Säule der Singularität". While imprisoned, Vikerness has become very outspoken in his anti-semitism and racist agenda, mostly in regards to returning Norway to its "pure" Germanic roots, while he claims that he is not a neo-Nazi.
The albums which particular stand out to me are "Hvis lyset tar oss" for its roughness and the afforementioned "Filosofem", which I feel is his best work. "Filosofem" is crushingly cold and evil, and perfectly sums up everything that Burzum has created, both atmospherically and idealisticly. If you have an interest in extreme music, or in extreme art, the I would highly recommend listening to any Burzum you can. It is some of the strongest atmospheric pieces of art that you can find.
Trash Talk
I kind of feel like I got to the TT party late. I've heard lots of different people involved in the hardcore scene rant on about this band, throwing things around like "greatest hxc ever" and "saving hardcore", which seems to get said alot these days (Fucked Up anyone), but for whatever reason, I didn't track them down, until Alex Holy Roar (check his blog HERE) came back from SXSW going "dude, they fucking rule, I'm playing it to you now, you'll fucking love it" and he's right, they are really good. To me, they sound like early Napalm Death, but from a hardcore starting point. Almost like early Suicidal Tendencies playing "I Shot The Devil" twice as fast, then breaking into sludgy punky dirge. Trash Talk tease the listener with fractions of riffs, which are then quickly replaces with chaos. Their self-titled debut is a great hardcore record, one of the best to come out for a while. They are going to be held as a very important hardcore band of this time, just because of their word-of-mouth spread across the scene and their brutal oldschool delivery.
Phoenix Bodies
Ever since hearing Pig Destroyer and then Napalm Death I have been a big fan of different grindcore bands. However, while exploring the genre, I found that there are really only a few select bands that are unique and worth following, with these being Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Insect Warfair, Napalm Death, Carcass and Phoenix Bodies. I only just recently got hold of the PB album "Raise the Bullshit Flag" (which you can buy HERE, in a 4 pack deal with some other awesome records for only £10!!!!!!!!1) and I haven't been able to stop listening to it. It is finger tapping, CATCHY Grindcore, which has heavy influences from the "core" side, specifically Converge, with memorable songs which stay in your head all day long. If you have any interest in the harsher side of hardcore (Converge, Trap Them etc) or Grindcore then definetly buy this album, its dirt cheap at the Holy Roar store and its fucking awesome. I cannot stress how good this album is.
Agoraphobic Nosebleed
It is hard to put into words the sound of this band, without sounding completely ridculous, but they are a completely ridculous band, so fuck it. They sound like how someone with ADD and Schizophrenia must think. They sound like a mentally ill japanese robot trying to kill everyone it can while throwing up oil and components. They sound like a feed back induced headache, to the point at which you could vomit at any moment. ANb are the brain child of Scott Hull, the grind mastermind responsible for Pig Destroyer, but where he is allowed to run riot with samples, 99 track mini CDs and drum machines. ANb's exclusive use of drum machines means that the boundries of speed and noise can be significantly pushed, with many tracks going over the 1000 bpm mark! To put that speed into perspective, Dubstep is almost exclusively 140 bpm. ANb are the most extreme band you can ever listen to. Almost all their releases are good, but particular high lights are their awesome split with Converge: "The Poacher Diaries" and their album "Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope". If you are interested in extreme music, check them out straight away.
and for something entirely different
Wu-Tang Clan
Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is the greatest hip-hop album ever made and always will be. If you dont agree then fuck you. WTC will also always be the greatest hip-hop group that ever existed, fuck your J5s and Ugly Ducklings, WTC kill everyone in sight. While talking about WTC with a friend we realised that the reason they were always soooo good, is that every single member is a fucking good MC, with one of the best producers making all their tracks. After listening to 36 Chambers all the time, I got hold of as much WTC albums as possible, including related albums, which has lead me to the fantastic solo albums released by all the WTC members, outside of the group (specifically Liquid Swords by GZA, Tical by Method Man and ODB's first record) and also the Killa Bees compilations, which hold some really great tracks, which the majority of WTC fans would never have heard. One particular WTC related record that I've been stuck on is Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Culture which has some of the best tracks that WTC have done, and guest appearances from Del Tha Funky Homosapien and MF Doom. If you're a fan of either WTC or hip-hop then get hold of this album, it is fucking fantastic. There is very VERY little hip-hop or rap that excites me, and this is one of those records.
What sucks right now...
As well as enjoying a lot of new music, I have also recently heard a lot of shit, this might be due to being home and watching MTV.
Lady Gaga
I just dont understand her success. She isn't good looking and her music very very bland. It is the same electro pop crap that is being pedalled across the pop music charts at the moment, with no differentiating factor which warrants her success. I remember reading her press release a few months ago that said something along the lines of "When Gaga was a child, she would sing along to all her favourite cassettes all the time." WHO FUCKING DIDN'T! I used to sing along to everything, but I cant fucking sing, and I doubt my mum saw it as a sign of my impending musical ability and success, she just told me to sing more quietly because it was distracting my step-dad while he was driving. I guess Lady Gaga is another example of the fact that saturation does lead to short term success. We can just take solace in the fact that Gaga will be forgotten in a few months, and some other stupid untalented waste of musical space will be successful for a couple of months.
James Morrison
Bland, unimaginative, uncreative shit. If you like James Morrison, you don't have a taste in music, your opinion is invalid. I saw an interview with him where he said he didn't like James Blunt's new album, too close to home I guess.
Los Campesinos!
Music made for children. There is some music / bands where I wonder, firstly how adults wrote it, and secondly how anyone but 14 year old girls could enjoy it. Los Crapn ame are one of those bands. Just shit.
Metro Station
Miley Cyrus is hot, I don't care if I sound like a pedo, but her older brother Trace (what a dumb fucking name) is not hot, he looks like he's about to cry all the time, and has a silly amount of tattoos for a 20 year old. I want to get a lot more tattoos, but not cover 75% of my upper half by the age of 20. Check out his video on why he has soooo many tattoos already:
Thats right, because his dad has some, and he likes Blink 182 and Good Charlotte... KOOOOOOL LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Their crappy crunk power pop type nonsense is becoming really popular in the US, and hopefully wont filter across into the UK too badly, because it is truly awful. Metro Station's music matches their name, in the way that it is crappy and probably has no thought put into it. They are only popular because of his slutty little sister, and again will be forgotten soon enough. For the mean while, we can laugh at Trace the whispering retard and his fat emo front man.
Idiot Box
Recently I have been enjoying the new runss of both Family Guy and South Park, especially the just shown rip on Kanye West's ego (do you like fishsticks?), but I will do a full write up of both seasons when they finish, but overall I have been really impressed by both shows' latest output. I have also been thoroughly enjoying the new run of The Inbetweeners. The new episodes are hilarious, which is a great relief. Again, I will do a full write up when the season ends.
Until next time.
MAX
PS - Good night sweet princess, you're an angel in heaven now.
Sorry for the lack of updates from me, I don't really have a valid excuse, Joe is just much more on top of his life than I am. I have a few different articles in the work, and have been requested, by Joe, to write a focus on Inland Empire after his frustration and bemusement, as outlined in his last review. But for today, I will be doing a much more musically focussed article. I have recently had quite a lot of time on my hands and have been listening to a lot of new music, which I have thoroughly enjoyed, so much so, that I've decided to give a round up of some of the stuff I've found, in the hope of highlighter some stuff some of you lovely readers may not have heard or heard of.
Satanism RULES!
Hang the Bastard
I saw HTB supporting Throats in Kingston at the wondefull Fighting Cocks, a few months ago, and thought they were fucking awesome. With this in mind, I couldn't wait for Raw Sorcery to arrive, once I had ordered it, and was literally screaming when the useless post men hadn't bought it. It finally arrived and I was not dissapointed. There sound is big. HTB have a sound which is similar to Integrity, but with heavy infusions of Black Sabbath, Down and EYEHATEGOD, they are exactly what I like about Integrity, but with a heavier, more metal / doomy sound.
The opener "Failed Harvest" is an epic, building track, with some kickass samples going on in the background, with whats leads into a fucking heavy main riff. The tracks I especially enjoy on this EP are "Failed Harvest" for the solo leading intro to the heavy main riff, "Doomed Fucking Doomed" for its heavily influenced black metal verses and, in my opinion, their best track, on and off the EP; "Oblivion", which is also the most hardcore styled track on the CD. They are a band to watch out for, on the metal and hardcore circuit. Try and catch them live if you can, they are playing the Fighting Cocks again with Fast Point (another great oldschool hardcore band) on the 15th of this month, however, I will be eating burritos and catching up with someone that night, so I won't be in attendance.
Burzum
When one of my best buds came to visit a couple of weekends ago, we ended up pretty blitz from a weekend of smoking bongs and eating Jersey fudge. On the Monday afterwards, while in recovery mode, I decided to download the entire Burzum discog and read as much I could on him. I used to enjoy Black Metal when I was younger and read a lot about it then, so I'm not new to the genre, but I felt it was time to fully immerse myself in some Norwegian Satanic murderous Black Metal. The entire Burzum back catalogue is incredibly cold, almost oppresively so, which ends up leading to an atmosphere of which seems to perfectly fit the freezing cold, snow covered forests that cover much of Norway. This atmosphere is really created by the very lo-fi recording quality, which has tons of reverb and simplified use of drums and synth. While listening to it you can almost feel the evil seeping through the speakers, where you become transported to an image of blood drenched snow, which is only penetrated by the black pillars of leaf-less trees and high burning fires. Or maybe it was just because I was still in perma-stone while listening to it.
Although I feel I am justified with describing Burzum as "evil music" because it is some of the few creative outputs of a convicted murderer which is both good and readily available. For those of you who are behind in their Norwegian Black Metal knowledge Burzum, or Varg Vikernes (aka Count Grishnackh) was convicted in 1993 for the murder of Mayhem guitarist Euronymous and the arson of several Churches (you can read more about this on Wikipedia). Most of his records were released before his imprisonment, but his last two albums have been recorded and released from prison, however, while in prison he was only allowed a synthesiser, so for those records Burzum took a Dark Ambient style, which is not too dissimilar to the longest track off of his album "Filosofem"; "Rundgang um die transzendentale Säule der Singularität". While imprisoned, Vikerness has become very outspoken in his anti-semitism and racist agenda, mostly in regards to returning Norway to its "pure" Germanic roots, while he claims that he is not a neo-Nazi.
The albums which particular stand out to me are "Hvis lyset tar oss" for its roughness and the afforementioned "Filosofem", which I feel is his best work. "Filosofem" is crushingly cold and evil, and perfectly sums up everything that Burzum has created, both atmospherically and idealisticly. If you have an interest in extreme music, or in extreme art, the I would highly recommend listening to any Burzum you can. It is some of the strongest atmospheric pieces of art that you can find.
Trash Talk
I kind of feel like I got to the TT party late. I've heard lots of different people involved in the hardcore scene rant on about this band, throwing things around like "greatest hxc ever" and "saving hardcore", which seems to get said alot these days (Fucked Up anyone), but for whatever reason, I didn't track them down, until Alex Holy Roar (check his blog HERE) came back from SXSW going "dude, they fucking rule, I'm playing it to you now, you'll fucking love it" and he's right, they are really good. To me, they sound like early Napalm Death, but from a hardcore starting point. Almost like early Suicidal Tendencies playing "I Shot The Devil" twice as fast, then breaking into sludgy punky dirge. Trash Talk tease the listener with fractions of riffs, which are then quickly replaces with chaos. Their self-titled debut is a great hardcore record, one of the best to come out for a while. They are going to be held as a very important hardcore band of this time, just because of their word-of-mouth spread across the scene and their brutal oldschool delivery.
Phoenix Bodies
Ever since hearing Pig Destroyer and then Napalm Death I have been a big fan of different grindcore bands. However, while exploring the genre, I found that there are really only a few select bands that are unique and worth following, with these being Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Insect Warfair, Napalm Death, Carcass and Phoenix Bodies. I only just recently got hold of the PB album "Raise the Bullshit Flag" (which you can buy HERE, in a 4 pack deal with some other awesome records for only £10!!!!!!!!1) and I haven't been able to stop listening to it. It is finger tapping, CATCHY Grindcore, which has heavy influences from the "core" side, specifically Converge, with memorable songs which stay in your head all day long. If you have any interest in the harsher side of hardcore (Converge, Trap Them etc) or Grindcore then definetly buy this album, its dirt cheap at the Holy Roar store and its fucking awesome. I cannot stress how good this album is.
Agoraphobic Nosebleed
It is hard to put into words the sound of this band, without sounding completely ridculous, but they are a completely ridculous band, so fuck it. They sound like how someone with ADD and Schizophrenia must think. They sound like a mentally ill japanese robot trying to kill everyone it can while throwing up oil and components. They sound like a feed back induced headache, to the point at which you could vomit at any moment. ANb are the brain child of Scott Hull, the grind mastermind responsible for Pig Destroyer, but where he is allowed to run riot with samples, 99 track mini CDs and drum machines. ANb's exclusive use of drum machines means that the boundries of speed and noise can be significantly pushed, with many tracks going over the 1000 bpm mark! To put that speed into perspective, Dubstep is almost exclusively 140 bpm. ANb are the most extreme band you can ever listen to. Almost all their releases are good, but particular high lights are their awesome split with Converge: "The Poacher Diaries" and their album "Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope". If you are interested in extreme music, check them out straight away.
and for something entirely different
Wu-Tang Clan
Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is the greatest hip-hop album ever made and always will be. If you dont agree then fuck you. WTC will also always be the greatest hip-hop group that ever existed, fuck your J5s and Ugly Ducklings, WTC kill everyone in sight. While talking about WTC with a friend we realised that the reason they were always soooo good, is that every single member is a fucking good MC, with one of the best producers making all their tracks. After listening to 36 Chambers all the time, I got hold of as much WTC albums as possible, including related albums, which has lead me to the fantastic solo albums released by all the WTC members, outside of the group (specifically Liquid Swords by GZA, Tical by Method Man and ODB's first record) and also the Killa Bees compilations, which hold some really great tracks, which the majority of WTC fans would never have heard. One particular WTC related record that I've been stuck on is Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Culture which has some of the best tracks that WTC have done, and guest appearances from Del Tha Funky Homosapien and MF Doom. If you're a fan of either WTC or hip-hop then get hold of this album, it is fucking fantastic. There is very VERY little hip-hop or rap that excites me, and this is one of those records.
What sucks right now...
As well as enjoying a lot of new music, I have also recently heard a lot of shit, this might be due to being home and watching MTV.
Lady Gaga
I just dont understand her success. She isn't good looking and her music very very bland. It is the same electro pop crap that is being pedalled across the pop music charts at the moment, with no differentiating factor which warrants her success. I remember reading her press release a few months ago that said something along the lines of "When Gaga was a child, she would sing along to all her favourite cassettes all the time." WHO FUCKING DIDN'T! I used to sing along to everything, but I cant fucking sing, and I doubt my mum saw it as a sign of my impending musical ability and success, she just told me to sing more quietly because it was distracting my step-dad while he was driving. I guess Lady Gaga is another example of the fact that saturation does lead to short term success. We can just take solace in the fact that Gaga will be forgotten in a few months, and some other stupid untalented waste of musical space will be successful for a couple of months.
James Morrison
Bland, unimaginative, uncreative shit. If you like James Morrison, you don't have a taste in music, your opinion is invalid. I saw an interview with him where he said he didn't like James Blunt's new album, too close to home I guess.
Los Campesinos!
Music made for children. There is some music / bands where I wonder, firstly how adults wrote it, and secondly how anyone but 14 year old girls could enjoy it. Los Crapn ame are one of those bands. Just shit.
Metro Station
Miley Cyrus is hot, I don't care if I sound like a pedo, but her older brother Trace (what a dumb fucking name) is not hot, he looks like he's about to cry all the time, and has a silly amount of tattoos for a 20 year old. I want to get a lot more tattoos, but not cover 75% of my upper half by the age of 20. Check out his video on why he has soooo many tattoos already:
Thats right, because his dad has some, and he likes Blink 182 and Good Charlotte... KOOOOOOL LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Their crappy crunk power pop type nonsense is becoming really popular in the US, and hopefully wont filter across into the UK too badly, because it is truly awful. Metro Station's music matches their name, in the way that it is crappy and probably has no thought put into it. They are only popular because of his slutty little sister, and again will be forgotten soon enough. For the mean while, we can laugh at Trace the whispering retard and his fat emo front man.
Idiot Box
Recently I have been enjoying the new runss of both Family Guy and South Park, especially the just shown rip on Kanye West's ego (do you like fishsticks?), but I will do a full write up of both seasons when they finish, but overall I have been really impressed by both shows' latest output. I have also been thoroughly enjoying the new run of The Inbetweeners. The new episodes are hilarious, which is a great relief. Again, I will do a full write up when the season ends.
Until next time.
MAX
PS - Good night sweet princess, you're an angel in heaven now.
1 comments:
U r a fat mother fucker bitch metro station rocks, trace cyrus is amazingly hot and he may be emo but I bet u r to u have no fucking taste in music so don't act like u fucking do bitch if u had a taste in music all time low would be up there and so would a rocket to the moon and mason musso is not fat mother fucker he has had sex more then u his entire life so shut the fuck up mother fucker pussy ass dick head faggot bitch cuz u have no fuckin taste in music and and Miley Cyrus is not a slut But I know u wish she was even though u will never get there with her bitch
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