I think it was about a month or two ago I was surfing
around on YouTube (may have been watching Hate videos, who knows…actually, I
think that was it) when I saw an interesting-looking video in the suggestions.
Now, I don’t often randomly click on songs off in YouTube’s suggestions as I’ve
had more bad experiences with doing so than good, and usually when I listen to
Hate, I want to listen to Hate and
nothing else, but this was some random evening where I threw caution to the
wind and said “why the hell not?”
About
three minutes after the enjoyable theatrical intro, I had fallen immediately in
love with Atrocity’s “Pandæmonium” from their new album, Okkult. Prior to “Pandæmonium”, I had never even heard of this
band, so I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Apparently, though, as I
found out, Atrocity can’t seem to settle on a single genre. As it turns out,
they started out as a grindcore band under the name of “Instigator”, then
became a tech death band with Hallucinations
and Todessehnsucht in the early 90’s
with their new name, only to move on through a myriad of styles including
thrash, folk, industrial, and even doing full albums of 80’s pop covers
(strange, right?). On Okkult, they
took a shot at symphonic death metal and did pretty well for themselves.
Upon hearing
the term “symphonic death metal”, someone might think of bands such as
Septicflesh, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Ex Deo. While very far from wrong in
thinking of such acts, their mind will probably not jump right to Atrocity’s Okkult, even if they’re familiar with
the album. It definitely has its very symphonic moments, most notably at the
beginning of “Pandæmonium” and throughout “March
of the Undying”, though this album tends to be a bit half-and-half. Half of the
songs, such as “Death by Metal”, are completely devoid of any symphonic elements,
which make some of them a little less enjoyable than their symphonic
counterparts. It’s a bit of a disappointment, as Atrocity does a very good job
at including symphony in the songs that have it. It gives a little bit of
extra, and somewhat necessary, bombastic and fuller feeling to the music. There
are, however, some songs that are perfectly fine without the epic symphonies.
Songs like “Haunted
by Demons” and “Beyond Perpetual Ice” have no need for the background symphony
featured on other songs, the latter of which is one of the few that focuses
more on attempting to establish a common-day death metal feel to it, while the
former is one of the more anthemic tunes. The more “deathy” songs aren’t
anything too groundbreaking, but are decent on their own. As a whole, the band
may have featured too many different shifts stylistically, what with having
over-the-top symphonies, simple anthems designed for concerts, enjoyable death
metal, and more symphonies, all on one album. It makes it seem as though the
band couldn’t settle on having one idea for the entire album, making it a bit
less cohesive than I personally favor. The songs are good, and the album is
good, but all the different aspects of it make it feel as though it’s more of a
‘best of’ album or something.
Nothing about
these songs is really bad, except for the few times where it sounds Alexander
Krull is trying maybe just a little too hard on the vocals. He sounded tense on
a few occasions, such as at the beginning of “When Empires Fall to Dust”, and
the vocals would have been a bit better if he had just relaxed and redone them,
though this can be easily overlooked, as they improve as the song goes on. The
guitar work, especially in the solos, is also a highlight, especially in “Haunted
by Demons” and “Murder Blood Assassination”, though it wouldn’t have hurt
anyone if the bass had been a bit louder (welcome to death metal?), though it
does have its moments in the spotlight. The drumming is never overpowering or
underwhelming, though those who enjoy more death metal-orientated drums should
maybe start with “Masaya”.
Overall, I’d
give the album about an 8.4/10 (or an 84%), as it was rather enjoyable despite
it somewhat lacking theme. I’d recommend it to anyone who is new to death
metal, especially of the symphonic kind, and enjoys albums with plenty of
variety.
*If you enjoyed Okkult, also check out Hallucinationsand Todessehnsucht, though you should probably steer clear of most of the rest of Atrocity's discography unless you like goth/industrial metal or 80's pop covers.
This entry was supposed to be finished and posted three days ago, but I got wrapped up in other things and never got around to finishing it. Sorry for the delay, and I'll try to have another quality post by the middle of the week, as well as my next album review.
I can't think of a clever or informative introduction to this post, so let's just get right to it, shall we?
New TURISAS Song-“Into the Free”
We’ve got another one!
Yes, Finnish metallers Turisas have recently released
another song from their upcoming album, Turisas2013
(still a really silly name). This one is called “Into the Free” and was made
available for public listening a few days ago on July 15th. Since I
enjoyed the last one they streamed, “For Your Own Good”, I had some pretty high
hopes for this one. I decided to, as I usually do, take to Twitter while I
listened to the brand new song for the first time.
This is how it went (read from bottom to top):
Those “eyes of disapproval” in the first tweet are basically
how I looked while listening to this song for the first time. It was completely
unexpected in a bad way. It sounded extremely jumbled in the beginning with all
instruments trying to be heard over each other without much coordination. There
is a right way and a wrong way to do this kind of thing. If you’re familiar
with my last review, Vesania’s Distractive
Killusions, the song “Of Bitterness and Clarity” is the right way to have all the instruments
fight for dominance. All very clear and well thought-out so that the mayhem is
coordinated. Turisas’ “Into the Free”, however, is the wrong way to do this, with all instruments clashing with each other
to create a border-line irritating sense of chaos.
Of course, I give all things a second chance or more, so I did listen to this track more than once.
Here is one of those other times (a few days later, on July 18th):
It didn’t really get any better after the first attempt…as a
matter of fact, since it was not my first time listening to it after that, I
ended up getting a bit more judgmental and was able to point out specific
things that annoyed me. Here are a few more, some of which were mentioned above:
-The drums played the same thing practically the entire song
and you can blatantly hear the “BANG BANG BANG BANG” throughout. It drives me
nuts.
-The guitars and bass felt lifeless and boring.
-Again, is Olli even anywhere on this track?
-What the hell is
that “vocal” catastrophe following Mathias’ growling around the minute-thirty
mark?
-The lyrics seemed pretty elementary with mediocre rhymes,
as if catchiness in lyrics now serves precedence over them having a point
-The “woah-oh” choir and sprinkled-in trumpet was
unnecessary
After hearing “Into the Free” (what does that even mean?), I’m going to have very mixed
feelings about this album when I get to listen to the rest of it. Hopefully, if
everything is going to be this different from their previous albums, the songs
will sound more like “For Your Own Good” rather than this…utter disappointment.
For anyone who hasn’t had the displeasure of hearing this
track yet (honestly, I wouldn’t suggest you put yourself through it):
On a brighter note, Swedish black metal masters Watain also
released another new song! This one is called “The Child Must Die” from their
upcoming album The Wild Hunt. I was
pretty excited when I heard they released a new song, as I must admit I haven’t
been listening to Watain for a very long time. They are, however, I must say, a
phenomenal band that I’ve quickly grown to adore (especially Casus Luciferi). That didn’t change a
bit when I heard “The Child Must Die”.
This track has everything that makes me love a song. All
instruments are well balanced, it has plenty of variety, nothing sounds forced,
it isn’t too slow, it isn’t try-hard fast, the vocals have the perfect amount
of nasty guttural goodness – one can always count on Erik for great vocals, and
the production well-done and clear without at all sounding over-produced…it has
just the perfect level of rawness to it.
I didn’t really say too much about this one on Twitter
besides that I didn’t understand why some people were complaining over it. I
understand that not everyone will like everything a band does (surely you just
read my opinion on Turisas’ new song a minute ago) but this song is phenomenal!
It isn’t exactly the regurgitation of anything they’ve previously done (who
ever really wants that?), but it isn’t drastically different, either. It’s
still very Watain, and very good. So much so that I really can’t
pick out anything to give negative critique to, only praise.
If you haven’t heard this song yet, I highly suggest you
give it a listen, especially if you’ve never given Watain a shot before. I’ll
most likely end up pre-ordering this album (alongside Labyrinth) and am even considering getting the exclusive box set
edition. Not a half-bad price for it considering all that it comes with…
For more info. regarding the mentioned box set, please go here.
For the other song recently released by Watain, "All That May Bleed", also off the new album, click here.
Varg Vikernes
So apparently Varg’s gotten into some trouble again…
But for what? Apparently, he and his wife were arrested in
France after his wife, who is a member of a shooting club, bought four rifles…legally.
They both
got arrested because his wife legally purchased rifles.
If that doesn’t make you say “what the hell”, then I’m not
entirely sure what will. Aside from this, the only “evidence” the French police
had against Vikernes was that they had the suspicion that he was planning a
massacre. The suspicion, which
basically had no grounds. The only thing they may have seen as a threat was
that he received a 1,500+ page manifesto of Anders Breivik who was responsible
for the Oslo bombing in July of 2011, as well as the shooting rampage of Utøya
Island that resulted in 77 deaths. However, Varg openly denounced Breivik’s actions, going so far as to say he “hope[s]
[he] kills [him]self” after what he’s done.
Of course, Varg is a racist…but that isn’t exactly illegal
in France, is it? Just socially frowned upon, and such ways of life aren’t
exactly valid reasons for arrest, nor is it reason to believe that someone with
such views is planning a damn massacre, in which case I would be inclined to
question exactly how the police manage to jump from point A to point B.
This can’t have
anything to do with the death of Euronymous back in 1993, can it? He faced his
trial and served time for that in Norway, willingly.
I’m not a supporter of Varg’s actions in that case, as I’m not altogether a supporter
of murder (self-defense is a different story and I really couldn’t tell you,
much less myself, if what Varg did was in self-defense or not), but I am a
supporter of fairness. If the French police had literally no solid evidence to
back up their suspicion, and it seems to be that way, then he should not have
been arrested. Period.
Aside from all that, I am so sick of seeing how he gets romanticized
all the time. Fans of his seem to get a kick out of praising the fact that he’s
burned churches and, for crying out loud, killed somebody.Self-defense or not, he murdered another human being.
What the fuck must be wrong with you to be in full support of that? He
literally stabbed a man twenty-three times and ditched his body in the
stairwell of his apartment building. “So brutal!” What is wrong with you? These aren’t just lyrics to a song, this actually happened. I don’t give a
shit how much you like Burzum or how much the sight of blood, guts, and bodies
doesn’t bother you…Varg took the life of another human being, and there is no
proof other than his word, which you can’t really trust because anyone who’s on
trial for murder will say such, that it was in self-defense. I don’t care how
brutal you think you are; you do not support the murdering of another human
being.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, like every
other, such as Anders Breivik. Someone could walk up to him and put a bullet right between his eyes and I wouldn’t bat an
eyelash because he is simply the absolute lowest form of an organism, lower
than the scum of the earth for what he’s done.
Anyway, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people,
predominantly women, “*swoon*” over how Varg smiled at the camera while his
sentence was being read aloud in court all those years ago. It is disgusting. “Never mind the fact
that he stabbed another man in the head with a knife and is happy about it…his
smile there is just so cute!!!” You are sick.
And just screw all those little 13-year-old “trve kvlt”
bastards who support the church burnings. Yeah, he’s such a badass for
destroying pieces of history and being an ass instead of just ignoring the
existence of those religions. Hail Satan, right? Way to give metal-heads such a
good image. And you people call Jehovah’s Witnesses annoying. At least they
aren’t burning your fucking house down just because you don’t believe the same
things as they do.
Well, I guess that concludes this blog post. Hope you
enjoyed!
KAMELOT-The
Black Halo
UP-COMING BLOG TOPICS
-*NEW REVIEW*: Atrocity-Okkult
-Wintersun
-Hate
-Dimmu Borgir
-That little girl on America's Got Talent
-"Irreligious" (a rant on
obnoxious practitioners of their religions/lack thereof)
So I think it’s time for another relatively-quality post on
this blog, and I figured since my last post was a little bit late (not that this one wasn't...) and I pulled
a lazy and did a list, now would be a good time to do that. Thus, I’ll be
talking about three main topics with this post, the first of which is this:
New FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE Song-“Elegy”
Alright, so…as any repeat-readers of this blog are well
aware, I’m going to be seeing the mighty Fleshgod Apocalypse next month while
they support Wintersun on their upcoming North American tour. Being that I was very
fond of their previous works, Oracles,
Mafia, and Agony, I considered Fleshgod to be one of my favorite bands, and I
have for a while now. The first time I heard the song “Thru Our Scars” from the
Mafia EP, I was utterly hooked. It
was like nothing I’d ever heard before, seriously. I mean, I was a fan of death
metal and whatnot at the time, but Fleshgod was something completely new and
different for me. And this was just with Mafia!
The vocals were amazing, the clean vocals
were beautiful, the drumming was phenomenal and I’m not even one to take note
of the drums right off the bat…it was heavy, fast, brutal, and loud. And I
loved it.
This was how I felt about Mafia and, for the most part, Oracles.
Imagine my reaction to Agony. I’m a
huge fan of symphonic bands, especially of the death and black metal genres,
that do an amazing job with their execution. Wintersun, Carach Angren, and
Septicflesh are three of many prime examples of well-executed symphony.
Fleshgod became another example with Agony,
as it is truly a wonderful piece of symphonic death metal. “The Violation” and
“The Forsaking” are just two great displays of what sheer musicianship went into
this album: they’re polar opposites that came from the same album and band, yet
fit together in a cohesive, effortless way. Francesco Ferrini is a magnificent
composer and piano player, and the outro instrumentals to the three
aforementioned Fleshgod releases as well as “The Forsaking” are excellent
demonstrations of his skill. For you symphonic death/black metal fans out
there, imagine if Francesco Ferrini, Christos Antoniou, and Clemens Wijers
(Ardek) got together sometime and did a collaboration of some sort. If that
doesn’t make you drool just thinking about it, reevaluate your thought-process
while rereading that statement and try again.
Side note: that statement is why I consider the line-up of
Septicflesh, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Carach Angren in Europe one of the best line-ups I
have seen in years, as I have gone over previous tours that I did not attend. Maybe one of the best I've seen, ever.
Anyway…
After all that praise I just put on Fleshgod, I’m sure
you’re expecting me to completely tear it all down with how much I hated their
new song, “Elegy”, and how I have nothing but low expectations for Labyrinth and am already expecting to be
disappointed.
…
Ain’t happenin’.
Hell no! “Elegy” was great. Though, it was by no means the
absolute best song I’ve ever heard. Come to think of it, I couldn’t even tell
you what that would be, but I wasn’t really expecting this to be it. It is a
great song, but it’s a bit of a grower. Not as much as Turisas’ “For Your Own
Good”, but I didn’t fully appreciate it until I listened to it a few times. I
wasn’t exactly blown out of my seat with “Elegy” as I was with “Thru Our
Scars”, but I did find myself nodding along to it with ease. It’s very
“Fleshgod”, as Francesco Paoli liked to say, that much was clear, and it pretty
much picked up right where Agony left
off. After “Elegy”, I’m definitely expecting a superb album that fits nicely
into the growing Fleshgod discography.
HOWEVER.
With ups come downs, thus with praise comes critique.
Usually. Here is no different. Let me make clear this, first: I am not judging Labyrinth with this critique. I am
judging “Elegy”. Not the album. The song. Just the song. When I do
listen to the new album once it is released, I am not going to judge it based
of “Elegy”. I am not going to go into it with negative opinions I have on
“Elegy”. I will not let “Elegy” dictate how much enjoyment I get out of Labyrinth, be it a lot or a little. This
critique stands completely alone.
Clear? Okaaay.
I kind of had the same thought circling my head after I
listened to Agony for the fiftieth
time: where the hell are the guitars?
That’s one of the things that stuck out to me with “Elegy”. Tommaso is finally
adding a little variation to his vocals rather than just droning on with great
growls for 4-6 minutes like he did on Agony,
the drumming is once again a homerun courtesy of Paoli, the clean vocals are a
bit less prominent that I personally enjoy but are still wonderful when they’re
sprinkled in, and the orchestrations are incredible…but I can hardly even make
out the guitars until the solo which is about 3/4th of the way
through the song.
I also felt as though the track overall sounded too “clean”,
but that can be overlooked. The fact that the guitars were so low in the mix is
a bit hard to get over, especially since they were wonderful on previous
releases (perhaps excluding Agony
since they weren’t much different on that).
All in all, “Elegy” was a pretty good track that I was able
to enjoy without forcing myself to. It wasn’t a chore to listen to, and I’m
looking forward to Labyrinth, as well
as seeing the band live next month!
FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE-Elegy
My Local Metal Scene
So I figured I'd do this small portion because I felt like sharing what the metal scene is like here (more so about fans, not bands, as I don't often hear about small, local shows until it's too late). I love hearing about the diversity in other peoples' cities/countries/etc., and it's so fun to think that, were you to go to a completely different country and wear, say, a Septicflesh shirt and walk around, there's a pretty good chance someone else wearing a Deicide shirt or whatever will acknowledge you and treat you as anyone you're familiar with back home would. I think the metal community is one of the absolute, if not the best in the world, and what I just said is only one reason why.
Where I live, it
seems like the metal-heads are pretty scattered. My neighborhood is
about 10 minutes or so away from from the popular venues, and it seems
like the shows are always pretty full. It's as if we all go into hiding
until a band comes around, which is when we'll all come out together. And we're all pretty nice, but it seems like most of the people
who go to the shows stick to those who they showed up with, while at the same time being friendly with those around them between sets and while in line outside the venue. For the most part, the metal-heads
all tend to be in their early-to-mid twenties, with few teenage
headbangers. Making new friends at shows isn't really uncommon, nor is hugging those you stood beside for the roughly four hours you were in the venue good-bye without knowing their name or if they're attending the next concert. Of course, it's usually pretty safe to say you'll see them again at some point. Faces often become familiar, and a good amount of the guys are usually sporting battle jackets. They're fun to inspect while walking around between sets if you don't have one of your own, and anyone is willing to strike up a conversation about theirs if you ask them about/compliment one of their patches.
The diversity at the Ghost show I attended a few months ago was incredible, and was described in my review which can be read here. Crowds aren't often as diverse as it was then, but Ghost caters to a wider audience than bands like GWAR, so it was a bit expected.
Going to Shows/Bands I’ve Seen Live
So this list (ugh, another list!) will be pretty short, as
I’ve only just started going to shows last September (it hurts to imagine all
the tours I’ve missed out on, I know) since I was a bit of a late-bloomer. Not
a late-bloomer as far as getting into metal goes – I’ve been a headbanger since
I was a tiny little thing – but for some reason it took me forever to start
being adamant about going to concerts. Now, however, it is an addiction and I
can’t seem to attend enough!
Before my list, however, I’d like to share the course of
events I go through before attending concerts. I tend to make a day of it all,
tense with anticipation when I know that I have a concert to go to that night.
Anyway, I usually spend the day watching the clock, waiting
until it gets to be in the mid-late afternoon hours no matter where I am or
what I’m doing. I’m usually calm, doing regular things throughout the day, like
reading or miscellaneous work or something on the computer (i.e. tweeting about
how anxious I am), up until it gets to about three hours before the doors to
the show are opened. At that point, I usually shower (it’s fine to leave a
venue sweaty and smelly but you should be courteous enough to smell relatively okay while walking in – you don’t need
to smell like a rose garden, but a little soap and deodorant never hurt anyone)
and put on whatever I decided on wearing that night. Usually jeans – need I
specify what color? – with sneakers (on rare occasions, boots, though not very
often since heels hurt) and one of the many shirts that hang in my closet. I
often go to shows for a specific band, and I usually have one of that band’s
shirts in my closet, so I wear that. In some scenarios, I go to a show just for
the hell of it with my brothers/friends and wear any random shirt. GWAR is a
great example of this, as I believe I wore my Dethklok shirt to the show and
picked up a DevilDriver one on the way out.
My tradition at a show, however, which I’m certain is shared
by many, many other people, is to at least buy a shirt on the way out. I
usually buy a shirt for the headlining band, whether I have one already or not.
Tour shirts are a huge plus for me, but, at the shows I’ve been to recently,
there haven’t been many. My first, and as of right now only, tour shirt is my
Cannibal Corpse shirt I got during the Decibel
Magazine Tour. On the off chance that the merch stand is out of shirts
completely or ones in my size (it’s happened), anything will do. Ghost is my
example, as I was dying to get one of the “Year Zero” shirts, and was pretty
sad when I saw there was none in my size left, so instead I bought a poster and
a copy of Infestissumam because I
didn’t have one yet.
Aside from all that, I like arriving to venues anywhere from
one to two hours early for obvious reasons. One other reason that may not be so
obvious, though, is that I don’t mosh.
“WHAT.”
Yep. I don’t mosh, and I don’t like being unintentionally caught in the mosh
pits. Not because I’m afraid of getting injured or I think it’s silly or I don’t
want to hurt anyone else (believe me, I can’t).
I don’t mosh for two reasons:
1.)I’m
pretty small, so I’ll get thrown around like a rag doll. I’m fairly certain I’m
not even 5’5”, and, while I do have some meat on my bones, I’m not what you
would consider a brick wall like some of the guys I know. I don’t want people
missing out on the fun in the mosh because they feel the need to look out for
tiny little me. Don’t think that it won’t happen, that I’m just being paranoid;
it will. And that brings us to reason
two.
2.) I
don’t want to slow anyone down. I can guarantee that male instincts will kick
in with someone and they’ll feel the
need to “take care of me” while I’m in the pit. I know metal guys know that
metal girls tend to be pretty tough and can take a punch or five, and we all
look out for each other all the time, male or female, but it’s human nature for
a male to feel the necessity to protect a female. I don’t want that guy missing
out on the fun in the pit because I’m there. He may not try to stand in front
of me or wrap his arms around me and push anyone away from me, but he’ll be
keeping his eye specifically on me. I promise
this is what would happen.
Instead, I just like being as
close as I can possibly be to the bands and bang my head until I can’t feel my
neck. Plus, there’s also a weird sense of satisfaction I get out of being
pinned against the guardrail so hard I can practically feel my ribs bruising
throughout the night, but that’s somewhat irrelevant. While my neck is
throbbing, my hair is in knots, my arms are tired from being up all evening, my
legs feel like cement, and my back feels as though I require an immediate trip
to the chiropractor, I head to the merch stand before I leave the venue. On
rare occasions, I stick around with some other fans to see if there’s a chance
to meet any of the performers, but if not, it’s always a fun time nonetheless.
So here’s a list of the shows I’ve
attended:
-MORBID ANGEL w/ Dark Funeral, Grave,
and Vadimvon, 9/28/12 (went for Dark Funeral, met Nachtgarm who was their
vocalist at the time, and bought a Morbid Angel shirt)
-GWAR w/ Devildriver, Cancer Bats,
and Legacy of Disorder, 10/12/12 (went for the hell of it, bought a DevilDriver
shirt)
-DETHKLOK w/ Machine Head, All That
Remains, and Black Dahlia Murder, 12/11/12 (went mostly for Dethklok, missed
Black Dahlia unfortunately, bought a Dethklok shirt; was originally supposed
to be Dethklok, Lamb of God, and Gojira until Randy went to prison in the Czech
Republic, then rescheduled from 10/31/12 to stated date due to Hurricane Sandy)
-GOJIRA w/ Devin Townsend Project and
The Atlas Moth, 2/16/13 (went for Gojira, bought a The Way of All Flesh shirt and an autographed photo of Joe
Duplantier)
-GHOST (B.C.) w/ Ides of Gemini,
5/12/13 (went for Ghost, bought a poster and Infestissumam)
-CANNIBAL CORPSE w/ Napalm Death,
Immolation, Magrudergrind, and Drugs of Faith, 6/6/13 (went for the first
three, bought a Cannibal Corpse Torture
tour shirt and got one of their set lists)
Shows I plan on/am attending:
-WINTERSUN w/ Fleshgod Apocalypse,
Arsis, and Starkill, 8/7/13 (going for everyone but mostly Wintersun and
Fleshgod)
-KAMELOT w/ Delain and Eklipse,
9/5/13 (going for Kamelot)
-VADER w/ Vital Remains and
Sacrificial Slaughter, 9/18/13 (going for Vader – late birthday gift to
myself…happy fuckin’ birthday to me!! also at a venue where my brother says, from experience, you're practically guaranteed to meet the bands...if I meet Peter, I shit you not, I will probably cry.)
OVERKILL w/ Kreator and Warbringer,
10/31/13 (going mostly for Kreator and Overkill, both of which are swapping
headlining throughout the tour – Overkill is headlining while in Philly)
-MORBID ANGEL w/ TBA?, 11/13/13 (as
of right now, going for Morbid Angel - first band I’ll see more than once!)
So that's about it with this post. Hope you enjoyed!
UP-COMING BLOG TOPICS:
-*NEW REVIEW*: Atrocity-Okkult
-Wintersun
-Hate
-Dimmu Borgir
-Latest Turisas Song - "Into the Free"
-That little girl on America's Got Talent
-"Irreligious" (a rant on obnoxious
practitioners of their religions/lack thereof)
