I first discovered Corrosion of Conformity during the mid-’90s Pepper Keenan (guitar/vocals) era; by then, they had fully traded in the crossover thrash of 1985′s Animosity album in favor of the swaggering, metallic southern rock of Deliverance and Wiseblood. That’s the COC I had come to know and love over the years, so I was admittedly apprehensive upon hearing that the band had reconvened without Keenan at the helm to record their first new material since 2005′s underrated In the Arms of God. Would they abandon the smoked-out stoner-isms that had made COC so near and dear to my heart in favor of revisiting the crossover days of yore? Would Keenan’s absense leave an unfillable hole in their sound?
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Category Archives: stoner rock
Behold! The Monolith – Defender, Redeemist (self-released, 2012)
I’ve always been fascinated by power trios. It surely has something to do with my love of all things raw and stripped down, since it doesn’t get any more stripped down than tres hombres against the world, brandishing only electric instruments and bad attitudes. The power trio is the bare minimum of musicians needed to produce a full and complete sound within a rock or metal format (although I’m sure there are plenty of duos who would beg to differ… eh, fuck ‘em); it’s all about maximizing the minimal, and I’ve often found that power trios are inherently heavier and more powerful-sounding than these bands that feel the need to have three guitarists, two vocalists, four drummers, a percussionist, a keyboardist, a DJ, an acrobat, a lion tamer, etc… just listen to Motorhead, Venom, High on Fire or Hellhammer and you’ll catch my drift.
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Black Pyramid – II (Meteor City, 2012)
The world needs real rock ‘n’ roll more than ever. Have you listened to the radio lately? Go on then, have a listen to some of the limp-wristed, candy-assed, sub-Nickelback horseshit that passes for mainstream rock music lately and you’ll hear what I’m talking about, a bunch of preening jackasses who look like they stepped out of the pages of the Abercrombie & Fuckface catalogue, playing songs about having sex with sluts, drinking, doing drugs and having sex with more sluts. And I don’t mean that in a filthy/sleazy/awesome Venom or Motorhead way either. I mean it in a soulless, sac-less, nauseating, pristinely produced and utterly contrived faux-grunge frat-rock way, replete with vocals that sound like a cross between Eddie Vedder and a goat with a cob up its ass. Yes folks, we need real rock ‘n’ roll more than ever.
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THKD’S NUCLEAR NEW YEAR’S EVIL GIVEAWAY!
Thanks to you, the loyal readers, 2011 was the best year ever for That’s How Kids Die. I can’t believe the great response the blog has gotten over the course of the last year, and I’m honored that so many of you are willing to take time out of your days and nights to read my incoherent ramblings on all things heavy metal.
So, in the spirit of giving something back to you, the readers, and to kick off another year of THKD with a bang, I am proud to announce our first ever giveaway!
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Blitzkrieg #8: Oooh Baby I Like it Raw (from the Trashmen to Transilvanian Hunger)
In a recent conversation about music, my wife pointed out that I tend to gravitate towards stuff that is very raw and simplistic. I believe “garagey” was the term she used. She’s absolutely right. I guess this has long been the case, but I had never really thought about it consciously until she brought it up. I mean, I’ve certainly done my fair share of writing and espousing the virtues of raw, primitive music, but I never really considered just how much my listening preferences are dominated by these characteristics.
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THKD’s Top 10 Metal Albums of 2011
WARNING: The following year end rant contains numerous piss poor attempts at humor and a healthy dose of cynicism. Reader discretion and a grain of salt are advised. THKD cannot be held responsible for anyone suffering from a severe case of butt-hurt as a result of exposure to this rant. Thank you for your support.
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Interview: GLORIOR BELLI
Raw, primal, hypnotic. These terms describe the hellish, killing floor blues of Robert Johnson and Howlin’ Wolf just as aptly as they do the grim, violent black metal stylings of Darkthrone and Mayhem. And yet the two genres are complete polar opposites. Or are they? French black metal quartet Glorior Belli doesn’t think so. Beginning on 2009′s Meet Us at the Southern Sign, the band began experimenting with combining black metal and the blues, to devastating effect. On The Great Southern Darkness, the devastation is complete, resulting a in sound that brings to mind a whiskey ‘n’ weed-fueled musical brawl between Eyehategod, Pepper Keenan-era COC, and the aforementioned Darkthrone and Mayhem. I met Glorior Belli guitarist vocalist J. at the crossroads of black metal and the blues to discuss the making of the new album, the French BM scene and other esoteric subjects.
THKD: First of all, tell us a little about the making of the new album, The Great Southern Darkness. What were you looking to accomplish with this release? How would you describe the album’s conception?
J: Same motivation as usual, we always aim to top our past efforts, this time by going even further into incorporating those Americana/Southern/Blues sounds that we cherish. Our last record “Meet Us At The Southern Sign” left me with a feeling of non-achievement, sort of, it’s still a good album but feels like a transition record while “The Great Southern Darkness” emphasizes all the best of Glorior Belli elements into a monolith of Deep NOLA grooves and blazing darkness. The entire process of creation went smooth, took us about half a year from the very first riff ’til we could hold the Master CD in our hands.
THKD: Unfortunately, my digital copy of The Great Southern Darkness did not include lyrics. What can you tell us about the lyrical themes being explored on the album?
J: Well, it took me longer to write the lyrics than the damn music as I’ve spent a lot of time studying and arranging the texts in a poetic way, like I always did in the past. A French guy rhyming in English and singing about the forces of the nightside, it can’t get any better. It’s really important for me that people understand the lyrics, as my ultimate goal is to give them the opportunity to forge the weapons of their own liberation, yet my words will confuse the weaker minds just like the fire of Lucifer can both illuminate and destroy. This is one of my favorite parts (taken from ‘Negative Incarnate’): “From behind the nervous curtains of my trembling cosmic prison, the dark Gods are firmly waiting filled with hatred for the cosmos; outside the frame of creation lies the darkest of all secrets, the magic of the queen dragon waits for us to crush the gates!”.
THKD: You started incorporating blues elements into your sound on Meet Us At the Southern Sign and have continued to refine your fusion of black metal and blues on The Great Southern Darkness. What for you personally is the connection between the two genres? How are they alike and how do they differ from one another in your eyes?
J: It’s kinda like playing with what may seem like 2 opposite elements but in the end they interact with each other. The very first thought that comes to mind when you think about a desert for instance would be the heat… Yet if you go further more into the reflexion, you’ll realize that it can also be deadly cold at night time. Just like the Blues can be devilishly attractive and hypnotizing too. It’s nothing complicated to mix up the genres if you keep in mind what you’re going for in the end. I wanted this record to be almost inviting but still dark and this duality, that could apply to any other life situation, is what keeps the balance in the right position.
THKD: Is blues music popular in France? How did you discover the blues and what prompted you to attempt combining it with black metal? What classic blues artists have influenced you over the years and more specifically your work on the new album?
J: I wouldn’t say it’s really popular as in “trendy” but lots of musicians of course enjoy it. I personally have a thing for Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson obviously, John Lee Hooker, also some of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s best hits, more or less all the classics. I’m really in love with a record called ‘Negro Prison Blues’, the convicts were singing over a beat that they actually made while breaking rocks at the penitentiary. Primal, deep and going straight to your gut and soul. That’s how I like my Blues.
THKD: Which genre do you feel a closer kinship with, black metal or the blues? Has your work in Glorior Belli influenced you more in one direction than the other or have you found a balance between the two styles?
J: Like I said earlier, I think I found the right balance now. Made peace with my past, I’m not fighting against Black Metal anymore now and I don’t want to be influenced in one direction more than the other but rather maintain that balance.
THKD: Black Sabbath started out as a blues band. Do you think heavy metal has always been some sort of mutant form of the blues at its core? Do you think Robert Johnson and Leadbelly would’ve invented heavy metal if electric instruments had been around back then?
J: Now come on! Basically all the genres are some sort of mutant family tree. People experimenting, mixing, giving birth to a new sub-category and so on. But those things take time and Robert Johnson would still have been Robert Johson even if the devil had given him an electrical 8-string Meshuggah guitar.
THKD: Many black metal bands I’ve interviewed believe that the genre is an inherently Satanic form of music. Do you agree with this and why or why not? Is blues music also Satanic? Certainly the legend of Robert Johnson would seem to support this. Is Glorior Belli a Satanic band?
J: I think we’ve been talking about Johnson a bit too much already. Anyway, Glorior Belli is a satanic band if you base your definition on the fact that we are fighting against the lies of the Demiurge, for our essence is to defy and challenge the bastard gods and to pierce through the walls of our cosmic jails. On a more personal note I have been gathering knowledge over the past 10 years or so and experiencing my own path through practices that you wouldn’t even dare to dream about. I don’t think it’s mandatory to sing about Satan when you’re in a Black Metal band as evil can be found in many forms and most certainly in our very own essence.
THKD: Are you at all influenced by any of the bluesier metal bands that have come before, such as Danzig, Corrosion of Conformity or Eyehategod? Why do you think the incorporation of the blues into metal has been mostly an American trait in recent years?
J: CoC and Eyehategod are amongst my top favorite bands. I don’t think Metal bands in France/Europe understand exactly how to incorporate Blues elements into their sound, it’s more like they’re trying to get as close as possible to the American Stoner Rock scene but fail at defining their own identity, at least for the most parts.
THKD: Glorior Belli recently released a music video for the song “They Call Me Black Devil”. What made you choose this particular song for the video? How would you describe the experience?
J: Well basically, there’s a lot of humor in that video, starting with a fake budget-denied letter that I made myself underlining the cheapness of what’s to come. It’s kind of a fuck off to the music industry that echoes to the Red Fang video clip “Wires” where they waste $5,000.00 on trashing random stuff with a car. I understand it can be confusing but that was the whole point of the video clip anyway. The rest is just really random, as I did it on my own with just a small camera. The most important thing here is the music, and they actually call me Black Devil for a good reason.
THKD: The Great Southern Darkness is your first album for Metal Blade. How did you hook up with the label and how has the partnership been so far? At first glance it seems like kind of a strange pairing.
J: I got to know Andreas from Metal Blade ‘Europe’ by some contacts/friends. But it’s not like we had a special pass or whatever. Sent the new record, they loved it and super agent Ula from Clandestine Music helped us seal the contract. being signed on Metal Blade is definitely the greatest achievement for what started 10 years ago as a small yet ambitious band. I only expect the best out of this collaboration as we are absolutely determined to do what we have to in order to promote our new record the way it should be. I can feel that not a single drop of energy is being wasted and there’s a cool symbiosis in the collaboration. I’ve never been confronted by such professional and yet really supportive people, they know how to take care of business with high levels of passion and perseverance. So that’s one less thing I need to worry about as a musician, and it takes a lot of weight off my shoulders to be honest.
THKD: Will you be doing any touring in support of The Great Southern Darkness? How would you describe the Glorior Belli live experience to someone who hasn’t seen you? Any chance you’ll make it over to the US?
J: Nothing confirmed yet, besides an Australian tour next year with friends from The House of Capricorn that should happen in early 2012. Got a couple of shows in November booked in Belgium/Holland/Germany and an exclusive Canadian date in Montreal on November 25th. Basically you will experience the sense of trekking through dark deserts and evil fields with Lucifer as personal guide.
THKD: The French black metal scene has always been strong and extremely diverse. Why do you think this is? How do your surroundings influence your music, if at all?
J: I’ve never been one to believe that actual geographical frontiers could be determinant in the creative process. I don’t even feel like I belong to any kind of scene, if you close your eyes for a minute and listen to the CD, well except maybe for my ugly accent, I dare you to say this is French BM. What? You did?! Alright then. I guess it must be well-deserved somehow. It’s true we have a bunch great bands around here, but mostly great individuals who don’t care about limitations, just like me. Guys who don’t have to pretend.
THKD: What are you currently listening to? Do you have any recommendations for THKD readers?
J: Lately I’ve been listening to The Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch, Rome, 16HP/Woven Hand, Down, Alice In Chains, Neurosis, Mastodon, Acid Bath, Kyuss…
THKD: Are there any final thoughts you’d like to add?
J: We will defeat and bring down the cosmic scheme! See you all Frogerz somewhere down the road.
Pentagram – Last Rites (Metal Blade, 2011)
Pentagram should have been huge. They should have been America’s answer to Black Sabbath, our very own harbingers of doom. But somewhere along the way, things went horribly awry. Vocalist/mastermind Bobby Liebling let his drug abuse take precedence over his music, and the band couldn’t even get their shit together long enough to get signed to a decent label or release an album until fourteen(!) years after forming. More often than not, Liebling and Pentagram have appeared destined for failure. Yet here he stands in 2011, holding a Metal Blade recording contract and being backed by arguably the strongest Pentagram lineup of all time. Having never been addicted to anything (well, maybe caffeine and heavy metal, but I’ve managed to kick the former), I suppose I’ll never understand what Liebling has been through over the past four decades, but whatever that personal hell might have been, I’m glad he managed to claw his way out of it, especially when an album as stellar as Last Rites is the result. Liebling isn’t here to be a another rock ‘n’ roll casualty. He’s here to kick your ass, and uh, to quote the man himself, “show ‘em how”.
Looking like some kind of fucked up yet infinitely wise old wizard (possibly the same wizard that popped up in my review of Dawnbringer’s Nucleus), Liebling rocks harder and with more energy than a hundred men half his age can muster. The man is unstoppable, as his inimitable vocal performance on Last Rites attests. He’s one of metal’s last truly great, distinctive vocalists, sounding as vital and vibrant here as he did on the archival recordings featured on the First Daze Here collections. Like all the Pentagram full lengths, Last Rites is a collection of classic songs that never received the proper treatment as well as newer compositions, and Liebling attacks them all with equal vigor.
Then there’s Victor Griffin, Liebling’s right hand man. He is an out-and-out master of ten ton doom riffage, wielding a guitar tone that is best described as an iron fist sheathed in a velvet glove. It’s warm fuzziness gently caresses your ears as it pummels them on tracks like “Treat Me Right”, “Into the Ground” and “Walk in Blue Light”. Anyone who’s listened to Griffin’s Place of Skulls knows that he’s all about the savior, but you’d swear that he’d had to have struck a deal with Lucifer himself in order to command this kind of fiery six-string righteousness.
It’s interesting to me that many of the older doom metal practitioners, such as Liebling and Griffin, are down with the good lord. So many modern doom bands embrace the dark side, and it seems they missed the entire point of Black Sabbath (both the song and the band). Ozzy and Co. weren’t happy to see Satan standing before them, they were fucking terrified (“Oh please God help me!”). That to me is what doom metal is about; coming to the grim realization that conjuring up the forces of darkness isn’t a good thing and struggling to attain some semblance of salvation, even if there is little or no hope of it. That might sound strange coming from an avowed atheist, but for whatever reason I’ve always seen doom as a some sort of biblical struggle between good and evil taking the form of debilitatingly heavy riffs. Liebling and Griffin understand this inherently. They’ve danced with the Devil longer than any mere mortal has a right to, and somehow managed to come out of the ordeal not only alive, but at the height of their powers. Now it’s their duty to deliver the warning, keeping all of us from suffering the same fate. These are the things I hear when I listen to Last Rites.
Regardless of your stance on the spiritual matters of doom, you should have no problem appreciating Last Rights. This is timeless music played with conviction and craftsmanship, something all too rare in today’s flavor-of-the-minute fueled metal scene. Last Rites is one of my favorite things I’ve heard so far this year, and hopefully the support of a respectable label will wake more people up to the fact that Liebling and Pentagram are nothing short of a goddamn national treasure. Doom on, brothers and sisters.
Interview: SUBROSA
I absolutely love Subrosa’s latest album, No Help for the Mighty Ones. So should you. I could go on for days about the band’s earth-shaking mix of doom, sludge and vintage alt-rock, but I’d much rather let one of the architects behind this phenomenal recording do the talking. I got in touch with guitarist/vocalist Rebecca Vernon with a little help from the fine folks at Profound Lore, and the following in-depth interrogation transpired.
THKD: For THKD readers who might not be familiar with Subrosa, how did the band get started? What was your initial inspiration?
Rebecca Vernon: I had the idea to start a band like Subrosa, minus the violins, for about three years before Subrosa began. The initial inspiration for me wanting to write heavy sludge music at all was a band from Provo, Utah called the Red Bennies … still the angriest band I’ve ever seen live. They were playing strange, heavy, downtuned sludge with a confrontational punk edge in 1994. They are my biggest influence.
THKD: How would you describe Subrosa’s sound to someone who hasn’t heard your music?
RV: I guess I would call us experimental, melodic stoner/sludge metal with electric violins. I’m not afraid to categorize us. ☺
THKD: What can you tell us about Subrosa’s songwriting process? Is there a “main composer” or do you write as a group?
RV: I started the band with a vision in mind, and wrote most of the parts for the songs for the first few years (except violin—Sarah’s always written her own violin part). But over the last two years, members joined the band who could write their own parts and preferred to … which I welcomed with open arms, because there’s nothing worse than coming up with a great guitar riff, then remembering you also have to write the vocal melody, lyrics, bass, and drum parts. Ugh.
THKD: The song “Borrowed Time, Borrowed Eyes” was inspired by Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. What is it about that novel that prompted you to write a song about it?
RV: For one, Cormac McCarthy is a word-smithing genius. The beauty and pain of his writing is unbelievable, unearthly. His characters’ dialogue, too, is spare and perfect.
In particular though, what I focused on in The Road through the lyrics of “Borrowed Time, Borrowed Eyes” (which is a phrase from the book), is that the silly, banal folk wisdom that we build our lives around, those clichés that appear on refrigerator magnets that everyone clings to desperately amidst the shipwrecks of their lives, are pretty much all transparent lies. Our society has no true moorings, and if and when it falls apart one day, everyone will turn into animals, and I will watch it all, laughing.
THKD: “House Carpenter” is a traditional Celtic folk song. Why did you choose this song to cover? How does folk music tie into what you’re doing in Subrosa?
RV: Well, I used to think I hated folk music. I always thought the people who wrote and performed it were pretentious. But now I know better. There’s something so sorrowful about old folk music written in a minor key … it’s as if the songs, after passing through so many decades, absorbed the pain of all the people it touched, and absorbed the spirit of their times. I’m drawn to any music that smacks of “source” material, not copies of a copy. Sarah and I saw “House Carpenter” performed on The Harry Smith Project Live DVD, and fell in love with it. (The DVD has performances from Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Lou Reed, Beck, Sonic Youth and more, covering songs from Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music.)
THKD: What are some of the other lyrical themes you’re exploring on the album? I definitely get a similar folk/rustic vibe from songs such as “Whippoorwill” and “Attack on Golden Mountain” as well.
RV: “Whippoorwill” definitely was intended to carry that old-school folk feel, and “Attack on Golden Mountain,” has lyrics that follow a folk-like narrative. I think there’s something powerful about telling a story with a few well-chosen, deceptively simple words. Stories are what our lives are based on, and our love of stories is what makes us human. I guess this is why I’m drawn to folk music and that style of lyric-writing.
THKD: Tell us about the song “Beneath the Crown”. I know it has to do with a book on eugenics, but can you go into specifics?
RV: The book, War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America’s Campaign to Create a Master Race talks about a mass sterilization program that occurred in the early part of the last century in America, backed by corporate funding and promoted in academia. It was a social “clean up” of what eugenics enthusiasts perceived as the lower echelons of society—the poor, the diseased, the mentally ill. They felt if they could keep these “undesirables” from reproducing, they could eradicate poverty and disease—and eventually create a master race.
Their philosophies had a direct influence on the Nazis.
It’s a profoundly disturbing book that everyone should read.
THKD: No Help for the Mighty Ones features two violinists. What prompted this approach? What do the violins add to Subrosa’s sound?
RV: My friend, Sarah, was learning violin the summer Subrosa started and so that’s how violins were added to the mix. At first I just visualized a really, really heavy band, and at first I didn’t know how violins would fit into that. But now I’m gladdened by the happy accident … the violins add a depth of haunting emotion to the music that wouldn’t be there otherwise. Kim Pack joined Subrosa in 2009, so now there are two violins—a dual harmonic attack.
THKD: How does the band’s unique instrumentation effect your guitar technique?
RV: I’ve never really felt motivated to play many guitar solos, because the violins take their place. They add the higher-pitched, intense intricacy of traditional metal guitar solos.
THKD: In addition to metal, I hear a lot of ’90s alternative rock (for lack of a better term). I’m thinking specifically of bands like the Breeders, the Pixies, Mazzy Star, PJ Harvey, etc. Were any of these bands or that era in general influential for you or am I way off the mark?
RV: We have gotten that before, but if so, it’s largely unconscious. I was very influenced by the grunge movement when it was happening, but I never directly aspired to capture that era of sound.
PJ Harvey, though, is a major influence on my guitar riffs … her raw, stripped-down approach reminds me that effective riffs are all about simplicity, power and soul. She is one of my top three favorite artists.
THKD: Glyn Smith’s artwork for No Help For the Mighty Ones is as spectacular as the music. What does that visual element add to the album? How important are visuals to Subrosa?
RV: Thanks, I’ll tell Glyn you said that. ☺
The album artwork is based on a story that I feel fits in perfectly with the title of the album and the main themes I was trying to capture lyrically—exploitation of the powerless. It’s the story of Tere Jo Dupperault, and the fate of the man that murdered her family. If you Google her name, you can read the details of her story.
The visual side of music is very important to Subrosa; I believe the right visuals can enhance and amplify the emotions and mood of music.
THKD: No Help for the Mighty Ones is your first album for Profound Lore. How did you get hooked up with the label?
RV: Chris and I were in touch since Strega came out in 2008 on I Hate Records. When the co-owner responsible for signing Subrosa left the label, we found ourselves with no one to release our next album. I approached Chris in fall of 2010 with our finished, mixed and mastered album and he said he would like to release it.
THKD: Subrosa is two thirds female. What challenges, if any, do women face in the metal scene? Does the “boys club” mentality of heavy music still exist?
RV: I think women who write and perform heavy music are actually generally respected in the metal scene, even though they are in the minority.
I think one of the biggest challenges women face in the metal scene is the lazy trap of using one’s sexuality to sell or promote your music. It’s a false shortcut.
THKD: Subrosa hails from Salt Lake City, Utah. What is the metal scene like there? Do you get much local support?
RV: It was kind of in a slump, but is coming out of it now. Most of the heavy bands know each other and support each other. We get a lot of support from SLUG Magazine, City Weekly, KRCL and other media outlets that give us air time and exposure. The alternative media outlets in Salt Lake City really support the local scene.
THKD: Salt Lake City is the headquarters of the LDS Church and the hub of Mormonism. How does the religious/political/social climate of the city effect your lives as metal musicians and the scene, if at all?
RV: It has influenced us greatly. The conservative dominant culture has resulted in a thriving counterculture here. There is a certain sincerity in the music the bands in SLC create … writing and performing music is a need, not a luxury.
THKD: Are there any other prominent Salt Lake City bands we should be listening to? Do you have any recommendations for our readers?
RV: Yes … Gaza toured Europe with Converge last summer and I think are touring again with them this year. They are on Black Market Activities and are one of the most brutal bands you’ll ever hear or see. Eagle Twin is on Southern Lord and are touring Australia with Unearthly Trance right now. They toured with Sunn O))) last year. Bird Eater is also on Black Market, Iota is a stoner delight on Small Stone, although lead singer Joey Toscano has set Iota aside and started The Dwellers with Subrosa bassist Dave Jones and Subrosa drummer Zach Hatsis. Gravecode Nebula and IX Zealot offer great black metal, and INVDRS take the cake as loudest band in SLC, on Corruption Recordings in Oregon. Top Dead Celebrity and Old Timer (Subrosa’s bassist Dave’s third band) are great to watch live.
THKD: What are you currently listening to? What books are you reading?
RV: I’ve been playing The Cure’s Disintegration, along with Agalloch’s new record, Marrow of the Spirit. I’m reading a book called UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials go on the Record, by Leslie Kean, and trying to finish The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, by Ray Kurzweil.
THKD: Will you be playing any shows or doing any touring in support of No Help for the Mighty Ones?
RV: Yes, there are some tour plans in the works, but nothing has been decided yet. We’d really like to go to Europe. Stay tuned!
THKD: What does the rest of 2011 have in store for Subrosa?
RV: Touring, and I am going to start writing new songs with Sarah starting this week, hopefully. It’s high time we starting writing music for the next album.
THKD: Are there any final thoughts you’d like to add?
RV: Thanks for the interview! I think it’s commendable that you run a webzine all by yourself.
photo credit: Peter Anderson
Rant: I wish I could vomit blood on you… people.
For the most part, I try to keep things positive here at the THKD bunker. I only review albums that I would recommend to someone else, or at the very least albums that open themselves up to interesting thoughts and discussions (see the recently reviewed Raunchy album). I don’t single out bands or individuals I don’t like, tempting though it may be. I only let my grouchiness come through on rare occasions, such as my responses to Brandon Duncan’s questions in our dual interview, or in my piece on the sorry state of metal journalism.
But more often than not, I can’t help but get the feeling the majority of metal is turning into something I don’t want to be a part of. Thanks to social networking and the internet in general, metal has become infested with the kind of name-dropping, backslapping industry scumbags that the culture set out to destroy in the first place. I’m not naming names, but when I see so-called “journalists” and “publicists” bragging about what bands they’re partying with or what sweet promos they’re listening to while partying with said bands, I feel like I want to start vomiting and never stop. No one in the world cares about who you know and who you blow.
No, I’m not jealous. I’ve met my share of bands, interviewed “big names” and gotten my share of sweet promos in the mail. I don’t feel the need to go on and on (and on) about it on myspace/facebook/twitter/etc though. Yes, vanity has crept into metal like a particularly nasty case of syphilis. The ego stroking even happens in print, thanks to a slew of writers who think that just because they have a widely read opinion, this somehow makes them “cool” or “elite”. Reviews don’t matter when anyone can go on the internet, google an album and download it instantly for free (In fact, it is probably thanks to these “writers” that albums leak before their release dates).
What does matter in the internet age is conversation, dialogue and interaction. The lines of communication between bands, journalists and fans can and should be wide open thanks to the internet. No one is going to want to interact with you if you come off like an elitist asshole and a braggart, except for other elitist assholes and braggarts. Maybe I’m just getting old and bitter, but as someone who writes about metal because they love it, I find reading these self-serving reviews/articles/blogs/tweets/whatthefuckever extremely hard to take. I’ve been doing this for a few years now, and I’m still humbled by and grateful for the fact that bands are willing to talk to me about their art, labels are willing to send me albums to review and other fans and writers are interested enough in what I have to say to interact with me.
Journalists with superiority complexes aren’t the only ones getting under my skin. I love the many publicists I work with (Earsplit, Clawhammer, Fresno, Nathan Birk, etc) to keep the new content flowing for THKD. Without them, this site wouldn’t be half of what it is. But, there are some I refuse to work with, and it’s for a good reason. I understand it is the publicist’s job to entice me to write about whatever band/label/etc they happen to be pimping at the time. But a good publicist, like the ones mentioned above, understands the tastes and demeanors of the folks they’re working with, and bases their interactions on that knowledge. When someone sends me e-mail after e-mail acting like I owe them a favor, asking me to cover a band that anyone who reads one post on THKD could tell I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, that’s a good way to forget about getting any coverage on my site. I will decide what bands are covered on THKD and I’m not going to compromise my own integrity or stroke your ego by writng about some shit band as a “favor” to someone I don’t even know. Get a fucking clue.
Unfortunately, many metal review sites don’t know the meaning of the word “integrity” and are more than happy to partake in the giant circle jerk that is the metal industry. Did some of these sites ever stop to think that if they stopped reviewing all the terrible and mediocre shit labels pumped out, maybe it would help re-instill some level of quality control? Some sites, like Invisible Oranges have wisely embraced the philosophy of only writing about releases that are “good” or will open up a dialogue. I wish more sites would follow this template, as ignoring an album altogether says a lot more about its quality than wasting valuable time and energy to write an unfavorable review. Maybe the labels would take notice if this happened, but I fear that most of them are so out of touch that it probably wouldn’t make a dent.
There are some extremely high quality labels, like Profound Lore, Hell’s Headbangers and Nuclear War Now! that are obvious labors of love and show genuine care for the music, the releases and the fans. Some of the larger labels on the other hand, pump out records like widgets coming out of a factory. The fact that 4th and 5th tier metalcore/deathcore bands have record deals is undeniable proof that bigger labels are more interested in flooding the market with crap in an effort to turn a quick buck than they are in investing in quality artists who make music that will stand the test of time. I’ve been told that labels have to release a certain amount of albums every year in order to get a distribution deal. Apparently, this is how distribution companies decide if it is a “good” label, encouraging quantity over quality.
The fact that there are approximately 51 billion shitty metal bands out there hoping one of these labels will snap them up certainly doesn’t help. If most of these terrible bands would do the world a favor and break up, we wouldn’t have some of this problem. 99.9% of metal bands need to just get it through their thick heads that they’re never going to be the next Iron Maiden, Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death or whatever the fuck it is they aspire to and call it a day. Trust me, the world would be a better place for it. The more low quality bands there are, the better the chances of low quality bands getting signed to big labels and winding up in your local shops, iTunes and the radio. It’s hard enough to find anything good to listen to without having to wade through an ocean of toxic feces.
Oh and by the way metal fans/listeners, you’re not off the hook either. Not by a damn sight. Some might say illegal downloading is killing metal, but I think it is the passive attitude of metal fans towards what they’re being spoon-fed that is quickly becoming the genre’s death knell. By willingly putting up with this stuff, you’re giving labels, mags, zines, websites and musicians a free pass to fill your eyes and ears with steaming loads of crap. All of us need to band together and say “Hell no, we aren’t going to take it anymore!”. Don’t listen to it, don’t write about it, don’t download it, don’t buy it and don’t talk about it, even to say that it completely sucks. It is time we took metal back from these fat cats, pig-fuckers and assorted blowhards and broke this vicious circle of bullshit. It doesn’t belong to them, it never has and it never will. It belongs to us.
