Metal Reviews

Of course you do!

Completely ignoring all the awesome bm bands influence by other genres and death metal that is pushing the sonic limits of the genre like Portal or DsO in its respective genre or just the generally badass bands in both bm and dm that do killer shit, incorporating other genres and reworking the genre itself. Recognize the historical conditions rather than just mystifying it with your 'metal is dying' bullshit.

lol. That was really supposed to be a statement praising the potential of bands like Trophy Scars, rather than demeaning metal. I've recognized in past posts that death metal has more going for it than I originally thought, and I'll admit that was due to me simply not having heard a lot of the stuff that's been coming out recently.

But, I will challenge you guys to look at it from a different perspective. I have been (and will continue) analyzing these genres in terms of their potential for "important" releases--those records that are so good (innovation is not a necessity, but it can be a factor) that, in retrospect, we will associate that era when they came out. The late 80's had Reign in Blood, the early 90's In the Nightside Eclipse and Unquestionable Presence. I mentioned earlier that Crack the Skye and Marrow of the Spirit are two recent records with era-defining potential. Obviously, there are many more I haven't mentioned...

But now, I just don't see anybody looking back at 2009 and seeing it as the year Ulcerate put out Everything is Fire. This is in no way saying that the record isn't good or that there are no good records in death metal as a whole, but I don't think that means that I can't say that death metal is not the most exciting genre in metal right now since it seems to be pretty much treading water, however badass that "water" may be. Maybe this view of things is too "mainstream-focused" and does not lend enough credit to the underground; however, I don't think Focus was exactly considered mainstream in the early 90's, yet we see now the kind of staying power it's had simply because of how great it was. Personally, I don't see anything recently put out in death metal with that kind of importance--underground or not--although ironically, the closest thing may be Traced in Air. But, I invite you guys to prove me wrong.

My problem with "indie" being used as a genre is that it tends to be used as a lame cop-out term for anything that's even marginally hard to classify.

Oh, this band doesn't play something that's instantly identifiable? Call it "indie" and call it good!

If the term "indie" didn't exist, would a band like The Builders and the Butchers be anywhere near the same genre as a band like Comets on Fire? And yet, I've heard people call them both "indie".

(Modern) death metal is an emotionally dead and completely boring genre. (0) The further it moves from its roots, the more pointless it gets. Bands like Augury or Obscura or Portal aren't angry, aggressive or fun; they're just dudes making noise. Horror movies where you don't care about the characters.

Have you listened to Portal, noodz? It's an atmosphere and its noisy but its scary as fuck. I really don't know what you're going for in your comparison of Portal to tech death because it's just not. I almost want to coin Portal as like some sort of conglomeration of noise and death metal but that shit is intense. It's not pretty and it's not even human but the way it makes you feel is so interesting. A friend saw them live and said the sound was so loud and disorienting that it made him want to throw up. He's an uber elitist and doesn't exaggerate so that's the only reason I mention that.

Sounds fun.
Why not save some bread and stick your fingers down your throat?

I'm with noodles on the modern death metal thing; soulless and sterile, technical aptitude notwhistanding.
Not knocking it per se, but it doesn't do a damn thing for me.

Old-school death metal, on the other hand...

Yeah Portal are doing a p different thing so what I said might not apply to them, but I still don't like it :]

To a large degree I agree with you.

Death Metal (and Grind) had it's heyday in 1989-95 and other than more pointless layers of mindless brutality or mindless technicality or mindless groove, not much has been added to it since.

Even stuff like Nile is overladen with excessive blast beating that detracts from both the Egyptian feel and makes the guitars seem superflous as they get lost under a torrent of snare and bass drum.

Thrash is much the same, not having any real evolution about 1988.

But Thrash is a lot more listenable than some uber brutal or uber technical wall of noise so can get away with lack of originality if it's fun and energetic enough.

The old school Death Metal guys could write some really good songs while staying brutal. They used groove in a cool way and didn't overload it. Hell they could write Death Metal anthems (e.g. Cancer's Hung, Drawn and Quartered).

The old school Tech Death guys ala Atheist, Cynic and Death wrote awesome songs that happened to be technical. Compare that to modern Tech Death ala Psycroptic who are just technical for technicallities sake.

It's an experience. I'm interested in forms of art which aren't considered conventionally aesthetically pleasing so it intrigues me. Portal is just a really intense sound is all.

It was a facetious remark... still, I think I'll pass.

We must be listening to different bands. Nile is defined by their guitarwork and uses blastbeats less than most modern death metal bands.

My main experience is with the Catacombs of the Nephren Ka through to In Their Darkened Shrines. Most of the faster DM songs (not the Egyptian interludes) have a ton of blast beating.

Slower songs ala Unas Slayer of the Gods have less blast beating but the drums are still overbearing in the fast bits.

I had the first 5 Nile albums back when I was still more open to brutal DM. Other than a few songs, I couldn't get into it and it was that modern overbearing drum and especially bass drum sound that put me off it.

Suffice to say my brother benefitted from me getting ridding of them as well as some stranger that picked up what my brother already had from a second hand shop.


I really tried to get into the modern DM stuff be it Nile, Behemoth, Skinless, Vital Remains etc but it just doesn't have the same qualities that the 1980's/early 90's stuff has.

To be fair the modern DM bands I've seen live (Psycroptic, Skinless plus a dozen or so local minor acts) have generally been very good live.

Skinless especially put on a great show and had a lot of fun crowd participation such as zombie moshes and getting the long hairs on stage for a headbang.

god dammit people
control denied is where the future of metal is
originial melodic technical songs what else could you ask for

There is very little else to be said on the subject, more modern listeners prefer the streamlined sounds and production jobs of modern death metal as it's more immediately accessible to their ears. It's a lot harder for a fan of say Obscura due to issues such as production and technicality, for them to appreciate older bands that have more of a thrash influence. Modern bands play their niche including Nile which straddles both eras, old school dm is a dying sound in terms of the old "classics" shall we say. That being said I would take any old school death album over anything modern, though there are good bands in modern death metal as well.

I hope Slough Feg and Sahg are the future of metal because they write catchy songs with awesome riffs.

And really annoying vocals!

wrong mike scalzi should sing for every metal band he is the best not sure why i didnt punctuate this post because i am not fucking kidding

I agree. Mike Scalzi is easily one of the best in business.

Yes, he is fine. I don't like the Sahg guy though. Trolling noodz is fun though.