Diario

2010 Albums I've Listened To:
I need to listen to these again before I decide on my opinion (i.e. rankings, I suppose)

1. Shining (Nor) – Blackjazz
   
2. Sigh – Scenes From Hell
   
3. Ihsahn – After
   
4. Borknagar – Universal
   
5. High on Fire – Snakes For The Divine
   
6. Immolation – Majest and Decay
   
7. Hour of Penance – Paradogma
   
8. Nachtmystium - Addicts: Black Meddle, Part 2

Unlistened:
Just like it says, I haven't listened to these yet:

1. Defeated Sanity - Chapters Of Repugnance
   
2. Ufomammut – Eve
   
3. Menace Ruine - Union Of Irreconcilables
   
4. Alcest - Écailles De Lune
   
5. Misery Index – Heirs to Thievery
   
6. Ramesses - Take The Curse
   
7. The Ocean – Heliocentric
   
8. Orphaned Land - The Never Ending Way Of OrwarriOR

Wanted:
I don't have these yet but I'm interested in them:

1. A Forest of Stars - Opportunistic Thieves Of Spring
   
2. Melvins - The Bride Screamed Murder
   
3. God Is an Astronaut - Age Of The Fifth Sun
   
4. Lair of the Minotaur - Evil Power
   
5. Darkthrone - Circle The Wagons
   
6. Order Of Ennead - An Examination Of Being
   
7. Circle of Dead Children - Psalms of the Grand Destroyer
   
8. Portugal. The Man - American Ghetto

Instantly Bad:
I'm not going to even acknowledge these beyond this. I've not listened to them, don't think I would.

1. Bleeding Through - Bleeding Through
   
2. Whitechapel - A New Era Of Corruption
   
3. Annotations of an Autopsy - The Reign Of Darkness
   
4. Kingdom of Sorrow - Behind The Blackest Tears
   
5. As I Lay Dying - The Powerless Rise
   
6. Throwdown - Deathless

Any albums I missed that I should add to my wanted or instantly bad list?

I hate hearing this. I really do, especially when it comes from someone who listens to all the same stuff. Yeah, I listen to metal. I listen to a lot of metal: death metal, black metal, sludge metal, doom metal, avant garde metal. Why is that such a bad thing? It's not the only thing I listen to, but other genres get the backseat while metal gets to ride shotgun.

Why is it bad when a metalhead listens to primarily metal but it's perfectly acceptable for rap/country/pop/electronic/et cetera to listen to primarily/just those genres?

And it's not just that people feel the need to tell me I need to expand my musical horizons, it's that they go out of their way to tell me. It's one thing when I say, "Hey, do you know anything that's not metal I might like?" Or when my girlfriend goes, "I think you might like this band, check 'em out sometime." But for a random stranger to tell me that I should expand my musical horizons because they're some how better than me because they listen to deathcore (which, as far as I'm concerned, voids your opinion) AND death metal AND jazz. Ugh. It really grinds my gears.

Do I log into your music forum and post in your music forum telling you what music you should listen to? No. Unless I'm trolling, but that's for the lulz and it's okay; you can troll me back, I'll just laugh and we can have some whiskey together afterwards.

But really. I have more important things to do with my time then read your whiny posts about how I should listen to more than just metal. Better things like listening to metal.


Anata His Hero Is Gone The Blood Brothers Enslaved Kekal Adramelech The Lord Weird Slough Feg !T.O.O.H.! Ulcerate Demilich Portal Behemoth Wolfbrigade Ihsahn A Storm of Light Sickening HorrorClutch Zao Hour of Penance Cobalt Immolation Minus the Bear Acid Bath Deadboy & The Elephantmen Spawn of Possession Sigh Muse Archgoat Incantation Disfear Wake Up On Fire The Chasm Martyr Gorguts Akercocke Ripping Corpse These Arms Are Snakes Tragedy Cursed Borgia Engineer Sarsekim Disillusion Torche Age of Silence Nocturnus Gorod Cyaegha The Mountain Goats mewithoutYou Kill the Client Oblomov Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Yogth Sothoth The Killers High on Fire Eagle Twin Faceless and Descending Cold Empty Universe Shining Arcturus

These are albums that didn't make the cut but didn't completely suck like deathcore or Between the Buried and Me or Behemoth.

Gaza – He Is Never Coming Back

Despite it being considered metalcore – though, it's more a practice in hate driven sludge metal, this album left an impression on me. It's less chaotic and more polished – in both terms of production and how the guys handle their instruments – than I Don't Care When I Die, but it still maintains that frantic being chased by wolves feeling.

Fleshgod Apocalypse – Oracles

There will be inevitable comparisons to Hour of Penance – both hail from Rome, both are punishing brutal death metal, they share members – but these are good things. The guitar work is fast and techy, the drums are absolutely monster and the vocals sound like a World's Strongest Man competitor hurling a lead filled piano into a third story window. I wish I could comment on the bass, but I can't hear it 99% of the time. However, the most standout part of the album is the use of classical music – both in some of the song arrangements and as interludes.

Fractal Gates – Altered State of Consciousness

When I first heard of this band I thought this was going to be some spacey progressive death. What I got was more of a technical inspired melodic death band that has some spacey interludes on it – four or five off the top of my head. There's a lot of room for improvement here, especially by working to integrate their spacey parts with their death metal parts. However, ultimately I felt this album did not deliver. Not bad, but not good either.

Celeste – Misanthrope(s)

Misanthrope(s) is that workplace bully – you know the guy, he looks like a UFC fighter, probably does it in his spare time too, who wanders around just to beat the tar out of someone, throw them in the mud and kick them a few times. This album is that happening to you. It begins immediately – no movie clip sample, no ambient lead up, nothing but pure aggression immediately. Track after track after track of being dragged behind a truck, hit with a bat, stabbed, beaten in every imaginable way. However, it gets tiresome after a while and the music begins to bleed altogether. I'll tell you what though, while you're waiting for in a dentist office for your turn to get teeth yanked out, this music goes a long way to psyching you up.

Lord Mantis – Spawning the Nephilim

The combo of sludge metal and black metal is an awe inspiring thought – if it's done right. This album feels like Acid Bath inspired sludge (sans the more stripped down songs -- Dead Girl, Venus Blue, et cetera) done with a black metal attitude, which is not a bad thing but it's not as good as it sounds either. Some of the time it's more hardcore sludge, then it's more doom ridden riffage, next comes a black metal part; unlike Acid Bath, the individual pieces don't transition well and while it doesn't seem necessarily put together piecemeal style it is the next best thing.

Mumakil – Behold the Failure

This album is 27 tracks, 35 minutes of in your face grind; it seems to trample over everything in its path with no hesitation or regret like the oliphaunt – one of those big elephant war mounts in the Lord of the Rings movies and books, mumakil is another word for them; you learn something new everyday– on the cover. However, this is just blast-blast-blast which while that's what grindcore is known for, this refuses to rise above.

Burnt By The Sun – Heart of Darkness

ohnoes moar metalcoar! Unlike Gaza, this is unabashedly metalcore. However, this is not the breakdown laden clusterfuck metalcore or the faux thrash metal metalcore. Yes, there are a few breakdowns but they are used sparingly and never in place of songwriting and they hit like bombs instead of firecrackers. This is a window into the past of what metalcore initially was: hardcore guys getting together with metal dudes and writing pissed off music to piss off people.

Buried Inside – Spoils of Failure

A good band. It's just that their practice of writing a song the length of an album tends to back fire more often than it works. The common mistake I see them making is not having variety. Worth a listen at least.

Clutch – Strange Cousins From the West

Keeping with their less metal influenced stoner rock and heeding more with their blues/funk laden rock direction, Strange Cousins From The West is probably my top album for "Not Quite As Good As It Could Have Been But It's Not A Complete Disappointment". It just lacks something that "From Beale Street..." and "Robot Hive: Exodus" both had. The tracks are catchy and good but I don't find myself gravitating to this album.

I didn't bother listening to the first three on the list. But really, you know I'm right.

8 Deathklok - Deathalbum II

Obligatory Dethklok hate. But seriously, this band is a farce and the music is subpar at best. The show sucks, too.

7 Lamb of God - Wrath

People are still buying this trash? Really? Probably a bunch of drunk rednecks who think this garbage is death metal and the best thing to come along since Dimebag learned power chords.

6 Every deathcore release this year
OceanoImpending DoomABACABBSuicide SilenceWinds of PlagueDead Man In RenoCircle of ContemptThe ContortionistThe Red ChordDespised Icon et cetera

5 Baroness - The Blue Record

Maybe my "advance" copy wasn't the final version, but it sure enough turned me off from this stinker. Their drummer was the best part and it sounded like everything was replaced by cardboard boxes and Rubbermaid containers. I'm going back to my alternate universe where this doesn't exist.

4 Obscura - Cosmogensis

You'd expect with a name like Obscura and a decent line up that this would be an bawesome possum album. WRONG! If you like your "progressive technical" death metal served with a large dosing of jizz and scales, then this is the album for you. If you're expecting something that does Obscura -- the album -- tribute, then stay away.

3 Samael - Above

I had been meaning to check out this band and this album had been talked up and hyped up a lot-- which should have been the first sign, most good things aren't that hyped up. What I was presented with when I listened to this excuse for an album was 16 tracks of hipster grindcore complete with pointless jazz interludes and wandering songs. I didn't realize grindcore songs were allowed to be long to wander in the first place.

...Wait, I'm thinking of Antigama's Warning. Am I? ...Yeah, I'm pretty sure on second thought it's Warning.

Anyways, Above is pretty forgettable, too. Samael should have written a better album so I could at least remember which band to blast in the review.

The cover's pretty cool, though... I guess. Never mind, I was thinking of Warning again.

2 Between the Buried and Me – The Great Misdirect

A part of me was actually excited to see this album come out. I was greatly impressed with Colors for all the wrong reasons but I really enjoyed that album. The Great Misdirect seems more cohesive, better written and preformed with greater skill but lacks the same punch of Colors -- or even Alaska or any of the other albums. Lack of a stand out track like Ants of the Sky or the Sun of Nothing really hurt as well. Better luck next time.

1 Behemoth - Evangelion

It's not that I didn't enjoy this album, I did. Daimonos and Shemhamforash and Ov Fire and the Void are good tracks. But the rest of the album lacks the same punch, and overall it's the exact same pattern as The Apostasy and Demigod. I'm all for "If it ain't broke don't fix it" but I'm also all for improving and changing. Sorry Nergal, but do something a bit more interesting next time.

Good Band Spam -- moar here to piss off fans than spread the word because it's funny:
UlceratePortalTeitanbloodA Storm of LightAuguryClutchGoatwhoreAbsuBuried InsideSoilent GreenDeströyer 666Black CobraConvergeTombsArchgoatGazaAltar of PlaguesFleshgod ApocalypseThe ChasmFenCelesteMossFall of EfrafaIgnivomousAscendedInfinitum ObscureOranssi PazuzuImpetuous RitualLord MantisMumakilNihlotepOmSarsekimThou

Why is the common conception of technical and progressive metal & rock is one with Malmsteen running his hand all up, down, left and right on a fretboard? Yeah, it's impressive but it's not particularly good. Or bands like The Human Abstract and Dream Theater are hailed as the saviors from bland, untalented music when I doubt that they every played a real song in their careers? And since when was August Burns Red technical in any sense of the word -- at least Meshuggah puts on airs, not that they are any better but at least their songs aren't one long break down after another, I think ABR uses multiple breakdowns but I'm not sure.

Meanwhile, bands like Gorguts, Demilich, Anata and Ulcerate are derided as noise? One of the guys I work with actually told me that DragonForce could outplay Gorguts and that Anata was simple trash.

I'm just so very confused. I can understand the lesser appeal of a band like Gorguts or Deathspell Omega, but to go so far as to call them garbage and compare them to Dragonforce? Really? Really?

Keep in mind that these are my favorites hand picked for my list from my library of music. This list itself is ordered more or less in the preference I'd listen to these albums.

Some of the album have blurbs, in fact, most do. Some justify the album's appearnace and some are just observations or stating the album, example: "Basically the black metal equal of Gorguts's Obscura." Guess what album that is? Scroll down to find out.

1.Acid Bath – When the Kite String Pops
This is my all-time favorite album, both responsible for my interest in sludge metal and playing bass. Everything about the music this band put together and played is awe inspiring. It's not the most complex, technical, progressive, depressive, atmospheric or whatever else genre descriptors there are out there, but damn it if When the Kite String Pops isn't the best. This band is like Gene Wolfe and if you don't know who that is, well excuse me.

2.Eyehategod – Take As Needed For Pain
Or honestly: Any EYEHATEGOD album, I just forced myself to pick one so the list wouldn't be half EYEHATEGOD. Seriously, these guys did hate, malice and revenge long before deathcore kiddies knew what those words meant and they founded the most hateful genre around: sludge metal.

3.Clutch – Robot Hive: Exodus
Although Pure Rock Fury is a better rock album, Blast Tyrant is more ambitious and Strange Cousins has more blues elements, Robot Hive: Exodus captures Clutch at their best: hard hitting rock songs with blues, funk and metal elements all rolled into a some what proggy stoner rock envelope.

4.His Hero Is Gone – The Dead Of Night In 8 Movements
This is probably the best band to ever come out of Memphis. And the only reason I don't say the best is because I hear from very, very reliable sources that Jay Reatad is pretty good. Though, I doubt he gives His Hero Is Gone a run. Also, heard they're reforming, can anyone confirm this?

5.Intronaut – Prehistoricism
Jazzy, technical and progressive sludge metal. Wut? Yes. It's a rip-roaring adventure – yes, rip-roaring. The album still continues to surprise me where it goes.

6.Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen Puhuu
This band reminds me if Satan rounded up some trolls then they all did acid before being abducted by aliens who forced them to play a tripped out The Beach Boys tribute album and it was beamed onto my computer. Is that entirely accurate? Yes, yes it is.

7.The Blood Brothers – Young Machetes
Why not Crimes? Why not Burn Piano Island Burn or March On Electric Children? Why not This Adultery is Ripe? Because this is my list and most of my favorite Blood Brothers songs are on this album – that and playing Set Fire To The Face On Fire at work is great for the lulz.

8.Fleet Foxes – Sun Giant
I know it's an EP, shut up. Mykonos is such a great song it alone puts this piece of work here.

9.Ulcerate – Everything is Fire
If you stood on the corner of Obscura Avenue and Close To A World Below Lane long enough you'd witness a terrible car wreck. From that terrible car wreck, this album would get up – still on fire mind you – and proceed to punish your ass.

10.Demilich – Nespithe
The Finns did a lot of things right: trolls, power metal and weird death metal. Demilich is the ultimate embodiment of weird death metal. Nespithe is filled with angular riffs, popping bass riffs, tempo changing drums and burped vocals.

11.Gorguts – Obscura
This album is the gold standard by which all other technical and progressive death metal is judged, and for good reason. This album is barely death metal because it's more a practice in creating the furthest composition from music as possible. Dissonant, technical and zogmazing.

12.Immolation – Close To A World Below
Grinding, crushing, marauding anti-Christian death metal. Just the way it should be? I think so.

13.!T.O.O.H.! - Rad a Trest/Order And Punishment
One of the most challenging albums that I've ever listened to. Progressive and technical death grind that leaves me scratching my head. Complex, weird, deep and excellent are words I'd attach to this album.

14.DEADBOY & THE ELEPHANTMAN – We Are The Night Sky
Hell at this rate, I might as well call this list “My top 50 favorite Dax Riggs bands.”

15.Arcturus – La Masquerade Infernale
Arcturus is a virtual supergroup of avant-garde black metal but functions more like a powerhouse band writing solid if weird songs. The Chaos Path is my personal favorite and this album is largely responsible for my interest in black metal since it showed me that not all of it was blast-blast-tremolo-shriek-shriek-no production because it was recorded in a frostbitten forest in Norway and therefore couldn't mic the drums correctly.

16.Solefald – Red For Fire
Bard sleeps with Queen, Queen says he raped her when the King finds out, King passes the order to execute the Bard, Bard escapes and exiles himself and plots to kill Queen. Thus sets the stage for the most epic black metal album ever, even more epic than Black for Death which finishes the tale.

17.Enslaved – Vertebrae
I wasn't a huge fan until I saw these guys live with Opeth. And seriously, Opeth got blown out of the water if you ask me. Sure, Opeth got a better reaction and had more effects going on (lights, smoke, et cetera), but Enslaved played much better and had more dynamics in their songs. The only reason I'm picking Vertebrae over something like Ruun or Mardraum which are probably better albums is because I'm more familiar with this one.

18.Akercocke – Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone
Satanic black/death metal that isn't your usual run of the mill satanism – at least when encountered in metal, and I have to appreciate that. Besides, suits are snazzy as fuck. This was my introduction to Akercocke – well, I'd heard one song by them on Fuse so many years ago when they still had Julia around – and I have to say that I'm impressed. Are there better bands around? Yes, but ask yourself this, how many of them wear suits when they play? Not too many I bet.

19.Martyr – Feeding the Abscess
Very technical without the wankery. In fact, the wank has been neatly eliminated from this album.

20.mewithoutYou – Brother, Sister
While both I Never Said I Was Brave and Catch For the Foxes were more aggressive, I find the more laid back vibe found on Brother, Sister to be kinder to Aaron Weiss's poetry lyrics and allows more dynamics to take place other than standard post-hardcore wanny nanny songwriting.

21.Severed Savior – Servile Insurrection
Somewhere between technical/progressive death metal and brutal death metal, and I'm not quite sure which one more.

22.Zao – The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here
Sure, not as many fans liked this album since it was a departure from their more metalcore sound and a lot of people hated the production, but the speed and intensity on this album really captures what Zao is all about: Daniel and crew's disgust with the modern world and how Christians treat their own – not to mention dealing with some of their own fears. Too bad Awake? didn't deliver the same results when they went for a sludgier sound and failed. And hey, at least it's not Funeral of God, which while it had the makings of a good album began to drag as the concept went on and then abruptly ended.

23.Septic Flesh – Communion
Sort of strange death metal is good but add in an orchestra and it becomes wunderbar!

24.Cryptopsy – Once Was Not
ogmz no none so vile? Believe it or not kiddies, Cryptopsy did make other albums that were good before they shit out The Unspoken King under the Hottopsy monkier.

25.She Said Destroy – This City Speaks In Tongues

26.Grief – Miserably Ever After
Do you hate the human race? Is it a fucking disgrace? This is the album for you.

27.Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Overrated, overhyped and overplayed but still a good album. Just don't buy into the fan belief that Jeff Mangum is some sort of music Jesus.

28.Spawn of Possession – Noctambulent

29.Stargazer – The Scream That Tore The Sky
If you want blackened death metal and you want Martyr then you want Stargazer.

30.Portal – Outre

31.These Arms Are Snakes – Tail Swallower and Dove
I hear all this talk about how Tool is the best modern progressive rock band – or god forbid Radiohead or Muse, which are decent bands, or can at least pass as such, but so incredibly overrated that it renders their music completely moot – but These Arms Are Snakes make Tool like a bunch of amateurs on open mic night.

32.Celtic Frost – Monotheist
This is a towering album, it's like a tsunami that you don't realize how completely fucked you are until it rises up at the last second and demolishes everything within ten miles. Except its every song on this album, not just a build up of “Oh shit, oh shit oh shit” over the album.

33.Hour of Penance – The Vile Conception

34.Incantation – Onward to Golgotha

35.Misery Index – Traitors
Something good came out of Dying Fetus, too bad its nothing actually by them.

36.Dead Congregation – Grave of the Archangels
Blah blah blah. Incantation's Onward to Golgotha is on here twice. Still one of the most badass albums I've ever had and certainly one of the most kickass names around too.

36. Ripping Corpse - Dreaming With The Dead
After looking past my prejudices (see Voivod below) and some last minute editing, I'm replacing Dead Congragation with Ripping Corpse. This is a killer album that has some of the best riffs I've ever heard. I don't know what Rutan was thinking with Hate Eternal -- come on he even has Alex Webster and that band still has zero redeeming qualities -- but Ripping Corpse is a fucking masterpiece.

37.Deathspell Omega – Fas - Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum
Basically the black metal equal of Gorguts's Obscura.

38.DeathevokatioN – The Chalice of Ages
Another new old school death metal band, this one oozes along and gobbles up everything in sight and crunches it up in its maw while still moving. Everything is pretty much mid-paced with some faster riffs and leads here and there.

39.Demigod – Slumber of Sullen Eyes
The definitive Finnish death metal album if you pretend Demilich doesn't exist.

40.Dystopia – Human = Garbage
After His Hero Is Gone, this is my go to band for crust/sludge goodness.

41.Fleshpress – Pillars
Black metal meets sludge metal and creates a wonderfully punishing album. This chunk of music is a chore to listen to but it's worth it.

42.Psycroptic – The Isle of Enchantment

43.Shub Niggurath – Evilness and Darkness Prevail

44.Sickening Horror – When Landscapes Bleed Backwards

45.Vicitms – Killer
Actually met a fan of this band here in Memphis when I went to see Zombieland promotional show. It was weird because Memphis has shit taste in music.

46.Withered – Folie Circulaire

47.Tragedy – Nerve Damage

48.Wake Up On Fire – Wake Up On Fire
Sort of like Acid Bath without the huge grunge influence and Dax Riggs. More like a crusty Acid Bath without Dax Riggs. Maybe Acid Bath is a bad comparison.

49.Voivod – Nothingface
This is a wonderful album, very concise, well written, deftly executed, an exciting piece of work. So why is it so far down? I can't really stand thrash and I am largely unable to look past my prejudices. It's the only reason Ripping Corpse isn't appearing on this list.

50.Beloved – Failure On
Sludge, sludge, death metal, death metal, folk, death metal, rock, crust, hardcore....melodic “Christian” hardcore? That's probably the reaction a lot of people just go. But seriously, Failure On isn't the bestest album, nor is it anything too terribly special but it's well written and my own real compliant is that the screams start to grate on my nerves after the first listen to the album.

Bands To Check Out
The Rules

1. The list below is simply stuff Last.FM has told me to listen to over time,
   
2. Look at my charts to see what I like.
   
3. Ignore any -core shit that may still be lingering in there, they are bygones from a forgotten era.
   
4. I'd really love to be recommend strange shit (Demilich, Gorguts), stoner rock stuff (Clutch, Queens of the Stone Age) and powerviolence/crust stuff (His Hero Is Gone, Wolfbrigade).

Crust/Powerviolence/Grindcore

1. Cop on Fire
   
2. Man Is the Bastard
   
3. United Nations
   
4. Head Wound City
   
5. Ekkaia
   
6. From Ashes Rise

Hardcore
I got nothing.

Stoner Rock/Sludge/Doom/Drone/Slow And Fucking Heavy

1. Harvey Milk
   
2. Corrosion Of Conformity
   
3. Ramesses
   
4. Made Out of Babies
   
5. Fistula
   
6. Acid King
   
7. Bloody Panda
   
8. Horns of Anguish
   
9. Iron Monkey
   
10. Zozobra
    
11. Minsk
    
12. Melvins
    
13. Boris
    
14. Black Cobra
    
15. Omega Massif
    
16. Jesu
    
17. Godflesh

Death Metal

1. Odious Mortem
   
2. Father Befouled
   
3. Augury
   
4. Visceral Bleeding
   
5. Infester
   
6. Incinerate
   
7. Deeds of Flesh
   
8. Sickening Horror
   
9. Illogicist
   
10. Pavor
    
11. Nocturnus
    
12. Inveracity
    
13. Gorgasm
    
14. Emeth
    
15. Gory Blister
    
16. Sleep Terror
    
17. Wormed
    
18. Severe Torture
    
19. Blood Red Throne
    
20. Appalling Spawn
    
21. Malevolent Creation
    
22. Acid Witch
    
23. Alchemist

Black Metal

1. Drudkh
   
2. Fen
   
3. Virus
   
4. Njiqahdda
   
5. This Is Past
   
6. Hateful Abandon
   
7. Vomit Orchestra
   
8. Urfaust
   
9. Dimensional Psychosis
   
10. Lurker of Chalice
    
11. The Ruins of Beverast
    
12. Bal-Sagoth
    
13. Burzum
    
14. Sólstafir
    
15. Krallice
    
16. Diabolical Masquerade
    
17. Vintersorg
    
18. Mirrorthrone
    
19. 1349
    
20. Transcending bizzare?
    
21. The Meads of Asphodel
    
22. Lifelover
    
23. Ephel Duath

<! -- Band Spam
The Blood BrothersBehemothUlcerateZaoAdramelech!T.O.O.H.!These Arms Are SnakesRipping CorpseAnataDisillusionThe ChasmTexturesWake Up On FireWitheredSpawn of PossessionDiablo Swing OrchestraImmolationUfomammutCephalectomyHour of PenanceTeen CthulhuIncantationThe Fall of TroyAge of SilenceIniquityJewelSevered SaviorA Forest of StarsBook of Black EarthMolestedThe FirstbornInto The MoatStolen BabiesCrowpathDead CongregationArs MoriendiMinus the BearBaronessDefeated SanityDemigodBloodbathToday Is The DayArchitectBenightedA Storm of LightConvulseAcid BathOranssi Pazuzu -->

metalcore. A single word that can induce cringes, vomitting, hate speeches, disdain and all things vile from the metal community. It also elicits happiness, glee, seizures, uncontrollable muscle spasms and random screeches from it's fan base. However, why is something so possessed of duality? Isn't metalcore metal? The answer is partially. Metalcore is usually defined as metal married to hardcore breakdowns. It grew out of two scenes: melodic death metal and nu-metal. Specifically the single album Slaughter Of The Soul from At The Gates as the mainstream fixation with nu-metal. Basically, the genre stole riffs, wrote bad breakdowns and called them songs. The argument against metalcore is the argument against mediocrity and plagiarism and trendwhoring. Not to mention bad fashion sense.

Metalcore isn't the first time that metal and hardcore have met. In fact, metal and hardcore have a long and disgusting history full of incest and theft. Metal and hardcore are both connected at the hip and as different as can be. In the beginning there was Black Sabbath. After that, some bands started combining the basics of Sabbath's sound with the speed of punk, thus was the new wave of british heavy metal – Jesus Christ, that is a long sub-genre, fuck that shit. After that, thrash borrowed heavily from hardcore and punk and fused it into the already punk-influenced NWOBHM. sludge metal is a marriage of Sabbathian doom metal and hardcore punk elements. crust punk combined anchro-punk with metal influenced riffs. deathgrind combines both death metaland grindcore, a hardcore offshoot, into a wall of brutality. There's more if you look closely. So, why is metalcore the most derided of all these genres? Why? Because metalcore lacks any originality and progression; because every band, every album, every song, every riff and breakdown is more of the same; because the songs are hollow and empty. Because the market is completely saturated with mediocre-at-best music.

There's something that's never happened before: the music market being overly saturated with bands that have little or no talent. It totally didn't happen with sleaze rock/glam metal, nor with death metal, nor with punk, nor with hardcore, nor with grunge, nor with boybands and pop princesses, and it's totally not happening with rap/hip-hop/R&B/whatever you want to call it (trash) right now. This is how it happens. First a band comes up with a slightly original sound and it sells alright and influences other bands. These bands grow up, hone the sound to an exact science and practice before being signed and selling records and influencing bands. This next generation of bands play watered down bullshit but since the sound is selling, they are eaten up like special brownies at Woodstock. The sound and scene go into shock and pretty much dies off except for a handful of artists who live on to influence the next wave of trendwhoring.

Back to the music, the real issue at hand. Every metalcore band basically follows this forumla. Cheesy moniker – usually involving some variation of the following: the, blood, sky, fall, die, from, of, kill, under, above, over, through – probably chosen before actually becoming a band, skin tight jeans and extra small shirts, sister or mother's makeup bag, no drivers licenses, a crash course in what instruments are and how to make them make sounds, a crash course in tuning to drop C – turn every knob until every note sounds the same no matter where it's played on the fret board – and finally how to say the phrase “We want to make the most brutal music.” Set loose the retards of rock and see what happens.

brutal is a funny word. When usually said it brings forward images of carnage, murder, war, beatings, things people do not like to think about at all. Applied to metal it calls forth sounds: an awesome riff, a drum solo, bass licks, a voice that sounds like it was recorded at a murder, when a song just comes together and smashes everything in a room before anyone realizes what's going on. Then applied to metalcore it takes on the form of drop C open string notes played in triplets while usually some guy with pants too tight for his children's good cries about how unfair life is.

There's no feeling, no passion, no meaning, no emotion, no precedent, nothing that this person really cares about except his sob story is better than everyone else's, even his bandmates. The two forms of music it is derived from – death metal and hardcore punk – had meaning, had substance, had emotion. They were about going against the grain, fucking the system and the establishment and playing the music that made the musicians happy. For metalcore, the pleasure comes from aping these giants of genres. Aping to the point of mockery. There's no social commentary for the most part, there are no themes of anti-consumerism, anti-government, anti-anything, no themes death, life, or most anything. There's sad songs, more sad songs, songs that make hardly any sense at all even when the lyrics are read, there are some metaphysical songs and songs that contemplate but few and far between. Too many songs are about the positives of mankind and improving the situation the world is in by highlighting how mankind is evil to the point assuming religious views in even the most cynical bands. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve the world, better mankind, and stop discrimination in all forms, there is something markedly wrong about only writing songs in that theme. Considering what the music is allegedly drawn from, these themes should be minor. Hardcore punk – punk in general – is about criticizing the government, exercising free speech, the wrongs done. Death metal is about death, gore, metaphysical existence, transcendence (the latter two filtered through death and gore). Nihilism abounds in these genres. Yet, it's nearly extinct in metalcore.

Metalcore is empty. It is a game of copycat played out in metal once again. It is what happens when record companies care more about the quantity of records rather than the quality of records. It is what happens when immature sixteen year olds put on girl pants and play with grown up instruments. It's what happens when fans care more about how “brutal” a breakdown is rather than if the song is any good. People don't remember Black Sabbath's Iron Man for the jazzy break in the middle of it, they remember it for the riff in the beginning. My girlfriend remembers how Paranoid is a better song. Likewise, people shouldn't remember unremarkable songs for lackluster breakdowns but instead for something worthwhile.

I realize I have made some blanket statements and probably some of my logic and opinion is based on wrong and misleading information I have remembered. I'm citing no sources because most of this is common knowledge and because I wrote this while pooping and from memory of various articles, journals, threads, reviews, and various other sources. There are a few decent metalcore bands, but for the whole then entire genre could be trashed and nothing of any significance would be missing. I speak only for myself – a person once hopelessly trapped by metalcore – and I'm not saying my opinion is right – only better. Feel free to debate and call me an idiot. Feel free to tl;dr. Feel free to spam and troll up this journal.