Sunday, March 25, 2012

On Rock - Exerpt

The Swedish rock scene of the mid '00s was suitably efficient in its retrograde ambitions. There was also a clear distinction between the new rock bands that appeared after the mid 90s and the legions of melodic death metal and flamboyantly classicist power metal bands that developed earlier. Swedish garage revivalists the Hives and the the Hellacopters kept rip-roaring beer-soaked garage rock alive and kicking. The Hives achieved a measure of success in the States and managed a few radio hits, while the Hellacopters truly earned the tag of "Sweden's loudest band" with their hellacious live show.

A number of the heavy stoner rock bands of this area were influenced greatly by the rich psychedelic and experimental tradition of their homeland. Carcass, Carnage and Arch Enemy guitarist Michael Amot's Spiritual Beggars, along with Kyuss-worshipping desert gods Dozer, Greenleaf, Asteroid and Demon Cleaner are the best of these, but worthwhile rocking has been done by the likes of Lowrider, Truckfighters, Roach Powder and the Mushroom River Band. Witchcraft and later Graveyeard were more or less untouched by the American desert rock and altarnative rock currents, and did a completely faithfuk homage to 70s proto doom bands like Bedemon, Necromandus, Lucifer's Friend and Pentagram. Gluecifer was harder-hitting and more glammed up than some of the blunted out stoners in those bands, but their approach was mostly a tightened up version of traditional high energy hard rock.

Dungen stand out as the most significant rock band of the period, due to their superior songwriting chops and spectacular use of the recording studio. Strangely enough, their use of Swedish singing caused them to stand out significantly from many of their contemporaries. Their album Ta Det Lungt made substantial inroads in the burgeoning North American indie rock market and raised the band's profile considerably. Main man Gustav Ejstes started the project as essentially a one-man studio project, but eventually put together a full band for touring and recording purposes. At best, their sound married pristine production and indelible if unintelligible hooks to an adventurous musical base that incorporated jazzy interludes, warm acoustic mantras, low-key lounge crawls, and heavy psychedelic freakouts. Estes' guitar was just as likely to let go a screeching feedback solo as release a fluttering butterfly melody.

Opeth began life as an extreme metal band in the '90s, but quickly evolved into something altogether more dynamic. Their Blackwater Park album nicked its name and ambition from 70's prog rock dinosaurs, but it is a high water mark for progressive metal. Opeth also managed to build a titanic live reputation based on their obvious musical skill and crushing take on Zeppelin's classic light and shade approach. This suited them well among some of the bands that were appearing on the heavier end of post-rock experimentation. Opeth's output would become quite influential as more bands embraced the grandiosity and complexity of progressive music later in the decade. Opeth themselves continued to evolve and generated a vortex of metal, folk, rock, jazz, psychedelic and progressive music before committing themselves to full fledged 70's revivalism at the close of the decade. By the end they had more in common with King Crimson than In Flames, but their discography is consistent, expansive, and surprisingly approachable.


Sweden's approach to doom has traditionally been more classically influenced in the heavy metal sense of the term as demonstrated by Count Raven, Isole and Candlemass. Grand Magus were much more dramatic than either their English Rise Above lablemates or their American Southern Lord contemporaries. Cult of Luna
approached Candlemass riffs from an alternative rock angle and showed a flair blissed-out dynamic builds as well. Ghost (not the Japanese band) appeared late in the decade and delivered a killer sludge assault with occasionally Ozzie-ish vocals.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Gig

Motorhead’s Feb. 20, 2012 set at the Abbotsford Sports & Entertainment Centre

Bomber
Damage Case
No Class
The Chase Is Better Than The Catch
Stay Clean
One To Sing The Blues
*Drum Solo*
Going To Brazil
Ace Of Spades
Overkill

The commute to Abbotsford is not an easy one, so we missed out on Lacuna Coil’s set entirely. After sitting through almost an hour of competent but unspectacular pop metal by Swedish band Volbeat, I was salivating for a taste of the real rock, the kind that only Motorhead can deliver. I’m happy to say that these legends delivered the goods in spades. Lemmy’s bass was thunderous and his vocals suitably gravelly. The rest of the band played with a wild energy that stayed tight. These are pros that haven’t tired of pushing themselves. My only complaint is that the set was quite short, only 45 minutes or so. I would have preferred a longer set and about 3 or 4 fewer songs from Volbeat. Actually, I would have preferred a 2 and a half hour Motorhead set and nothing else, but what can you do? Anyways, they hit a number of the expected high points of their discography, and the crowd was enraptured. A definate highlight of my concert-going career.

Megadeth headlined, but it was my fourth time seeing them. I would also say I enjoyed this set the least of the ones I’ve seen. They were good but Dave Mustine engaged in a little crowd-baiting that was only sometimes well-received, and this is a guy who has endorsed Rick Santorum. I will say that the set was too heavy on Countdown to Extinction numbers and missed several favorites from Rust In Peace and Peace Sells, plus they didn’t do “In My Darkest Hour.” A competent set, but Motorhead blew the roof off the place.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Intolerance

These guys are probably the biggest reason why about half the people in North America are suspicious of evangelical Christians. Look man, believe what you want, but the United States has bigger problems than a Radiohead tour. And maybe try protesting like, a government building representing the military industrial complex instead of the funeral for a fallen soldier. This is why people don't like you.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Liberteer - Better To Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees




Band: Liberteer
Album: Better To Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees
Label: Relapse
Year: 2012

Grindcore works best in short bursts. The relentless blast beats and sickening morass of detuned bass rumble underneath a vicious stabbing guitar is exhilarating at first. One good grindcore song is like driving a drag-racer into a brick wall. But our ears aren't meant to be exposed to such frenzy for long. After a while it becomes similar to working in a metal shop. Loud, but indistinguishable. Our ears tune it out, and all excitement is lost. This kind directionless sonic punishment has its place, but as far as I'm concerned, grindcore starts and ends with the first 2 Napalm Death albums.

At least, I thought so until I heard this. There is real depth to this album. But unlike any protest era folk song, nothing about this sounds utopian. It's urgent, brutal and deadly serious. Song titles like "99 to 1" and "Class War Never Meant More Than It Does Now" make it pretty clear what these guys are on about. Even the title of the record alludes to early 20th Century Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Salazar Zapata. The record is uncompromising and complex, but it never avoids a populist streak. Nothing here is too dense to follow, in fact the bone-simple catchiness of the riffs and the red-blooded conviction of the performances force the listener to sit up and pay attention. It's anthemic and populist, music made for filling mosh pits, shaking rafters and inciting riots. Liberteer's opus has a human heart, and it beats red hot with class rage. This isn't political. This is a revolution.

There is a real streak of rurality that expresses itself through the addition of traditionally redneck type instruments to the standard metal band format. Perhaps Liberteer use the gritty, unrefined instruments of the American heartland and eschew any attempts at commercial airplay as a way of expressing their solidarity with the proletariat. In any case, some metal heads may balk at the abundance of non-metal sounds here even while the band brandishes soaring guitars, tuneful death growls and a pristine but ultra-heavy mix. By introducing dynamics and actual musicality into the grindcore palette, Liberteer have up the intensity considerably over any comparable acts.

Intro "The Falcon Cannot Hear The Falconer" begins as a rousing call to arms reminiscent of Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" before exploding into a firestorm of jackhammer blastbeats and ultra distorted death riffs. But the skull-scraping double bass assaults are used judiciously. Half way through, the song explodes into a triumphant trumpet figure, then suddenly shifts into a brief civil war march complete with jaunty piccolo, and finally explodes back into tumbling sludge monster. To say that the album is adventurous would be like saying that David Lee Roth liked to do cocaine. "Rise Like Lions After Slumber" rides a banjo rhythm figure and Gothenberg death metal riffs into a briar of strobbing snare hits. "Usurious Epitaph" rides a circus melody into cacophonous oblivion, while "Sweat for Blood" rides bubbling synths, feedback palls, brass swells and a cowbell into a grand heavy metal crescendo. With such a jumble of sounds, the album should be a fucking mess. Instead, it's an intricately crafted work of art.

This album is immaculately produced, and the standard of musicianship here is excellent. Some of the most extreme metal that has been produced in the past decade has sounded too polished, and tends to take on a machine-tooled precision that is inferior aesthetically to the ragged, human performances of death metal's early '90s golden age. But Liberteer sound natural. This album was no doubt meticulously assembled in studio, but the instruments sound like they are being played by humans. This is as finely crafted a statement as you will hear all year, and the whole thing will only take 27 minutes of your time. The album moves as one cohesive whole anyways, so even if the songs seem to run together, it makes sense to think of the album as one, unified manifesto from the underground. From the sound of it, they're pissed, and they 'aint finished yet.

Spiel

This was in response to a facebook post about Thom Yorke being pro-piracy. No one read it, so I might as well jam it in here.

The music industry has no one to blame but themselves. Their overhead costs are ridiculous, and any act who signs has to go into debt while the label spends hundreds of thousands recording and promoting. Anyone who is a musician should stay the hell away from the sinking ship that is the major label industry and self-release their material or else sign with an independent label. It doesn't take much money to record an album, hire an independent producer or make a home music video and upload it to youtube. Self-finance tours, and build an audience the old fashioned way. You will never get rich, but if you work hard and your music is worth a damn, you'll love what you do and you might someday make a living at it.

I work in the radio broadcast industry. Our job is to sell airtime, not music. That's why corporate radio has been rigidly tightened into restrictive formats over the past 4 decades. Massive media conglomerates have consolidated ownership of radio stations into very few hands, and those hands are huge multinational corporations that have no interest in promoting artistic achievement. They are in it to make money. There is more good music today than ever before, and yet we have been hearing a progressively narrower variety of voices as independent players in the radio industry are squeezed out. In Canada we have 6 media companies that own over 90 percent of the radio stations in all the major markets.

The record industry's business model is flawed. Only 10 percent of major label acts break even, let alone turn a profit. The tiny minority that does pays for all the rest. I can't think of another business in the world that has a 90 percent failure rate and is still economically feasible.

Piracy is the wrong word for it. It's called sharing. I own thousands of records and download gigabytes of music constantly. And yet I'm among the most voracious consumers of musical product you'll ever meet. What does that say? The media channels are broken, and the internet is letting people get their music heard and find fans.