Filed under: death metal, people, popular music, punk | Tags: Entombed, Disfear, Tragedy, Nomeansno, Bad Religion, Slayer, Propagandhi, the partisans, death breath, napalm death, paradise lost, Sokratis Malamas, dying fetus, thanasis papakonstantinou, the hellacopters, broken hope, immolation, new model army, the knife, zeke, best albums if the decade
I can approach this question in two different ways, the following: what personally blew me away, what appears to have made an impact on the music scene. Let’s start with the second one and some comparison with the 90s. The 90s introduced some hallmark records and even scenes. The early 90s kicked off in the underground with swedish death metal and a sound that is being copied today by thousands of bands. These monumental albums include Entombed’s Left Hand Path, Carnage’s Dark Recollections and Dismember’s Like an Ever Flowing Stream. The mid-90s offered the definitive death metal album, At The Gates‘ Slaughter of the soul, which also created a school of its own and even mainstream nu-metal bands today rip it off without even knowing they’re doing so! I won’t refer to the USA since the death metal revolution came earlier in the late 80s there, although there is still technical death metal monuments like all albums from Death, Cynic, and brutal technical death metal like Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse and Monstrosity. The late 90s, however, in the USA introduced a style that would eventually make its impact in the first few years of the 2000s. Other notable musical revolutions of the nineties include of course Grunge and Nirvana’s Nevermind, whose success led to an unprecedented parade of grunge bands, Radiohead’s OK Computer, which reinvented progressive rock, the Bristol scene with bands like Portishead, The Hives, whose monumental first album (accompanied by some post-punk albums of the late 70s-early 80s) sowed the seeds for an awful pop-rock generation of bands like Franz Ferdinand et al, and of course the re-invention of Garage-punk-rock, first with American bands like The Humpers, later on with Scandinavian bands like Turbonegro and The Hellacopters. Many other novel things can be said about this decade, on cover art (Dan Seagrave), video-clips (Tarshem Singh’s Losing My Religion), etc. Now what about the 2000s?
I am afraid that as far as death metal goes, the only notable records that had an impact on the scene would be Dying Fetus’s amazing Destroy the Opposition (2000) and Pig Destroyer’s Prowler in the Yard (2001). Destroy the Opposition is a monument of sheer brutality, full of the infamous break-downs and blast-beats that today’s kids value so much. Of course, the origins of the new wave of brutal death metal scene that rose in prominence in the early 2000s (Origin, Disavowed, Disgorge, Severe Torture, many many more) can be found earlier in early Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Carcass, or even early Deeds of Flesh and Dehumanized. Nevertheless, the more recent additions to the scene, such as The Red Chord and more uninspired and plain silly bands such as Suicide Silence that seem to plague the brutal scene today, definitely owe much to Pig Destroyer and Dying Fetus. As far as softer metal goes, the first thing that comes in mind is Sustem of a Down’s Toxicity. A perfect album which has a little bit of something for everyone. I can describe it as thrash fuelled mainstream hardcore-punk. Many utterly insignificant nu-metal boy-bands tried to copy them and failed miserably, I don’t even remember their names. In pop-rock, the Hives‘ second album Veni Vidi Vicious (2000), with songs like Hate to say I told you so, gave the ultimate push to bands like Franz Ferdinand who then established this obnoxious “hiccups” pop-rock that half of the bands featured in stupid NME (a british pop-rock magazine) play. In hardcore-punk some kind of an innovation that had an impact the scene hadn’t seen for many many years, came with brutal hardcore bands like Tragedy, Severed Head of State and From Ashes Rise. These bands influenced hundreds of underground bands around the world with their death metal infested d-beat hardcore. In a way, through paying attention to production and adopting a dark image, they have made hardcore-punk mainstream again. Cornerstones from this scene include Tragedy’s self titled album and Vengeance, Severed Head of State’s Anathema device and From Ashes Rise’s Nightmares. I honestly cannot think of something else that can be considered to have an impact on music the last ten years…
Now what personally blew me away! I have to admit that 80% of what I listen to came out before the mid-90s. However, there are some records that have definetely had a huge impact on me the last ten years. Here’s 20 of them:
1. Napalm Death – Enemy of the Music business (2000) The band’s first album for the millenium is their undisputed masterpiece, surrounded of course by previous and after masterpieces. However, this album’s collaboration among musicians, musical variety, intensity and production are beyond belief! And the way it kicks off, ohhhhhh!!!
2. Dying Fetus – Destroy the Opposition (2000) The band’s third proper album, and not that much different from the previous one. However, the production in this album does justice to the capabilities of the musicians. Amazing break downs and grind, Kevin Taley is really unstopable, amazing vocals especially by Netherton, and the lyrics are just genious! It certainly kept me busy for at least two years and I still think that it paved the way on how modern death should sound. And the way it kicks off, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
3. Nomeansno – All Roads Lead to Ausfahrt (2006) After more than two decades the band keeps delivering awesome music. Less dark, a bit more happy but equally pessimistic with One and also a bit more punky, this album comprises a remedy in a world of talentless and uninnovative popular bands. And yes…the way it kicks off, ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
4. Paradise Lost – Faith Divides us, Death Unites Us (2009) The entire Paradise Lost’s output over the last ten years deserves to be here! Probably the best thing metal music has to offer. The latest album is among the few albums that I feel like saying “I am proud I have lived to experience the release of this album!”. Hands down the best album of the year. My ears still cannot believe what they hear…
5. Bad Religion – Process of Belief (2002) A great comeback for the band, after a couple of not so amazing albums. The new drummer definetely spiced things up and of course the same goes for the return of Brett Gurewitz. The power of this album and the diversity of songs is unique.
6. Tragedy – Vengeance (2002) A cornerstone of the new wave of brutal hardcore. Some Bolt Thrower and Amebix touches mixed with british and swedish d-beat (and why not some melodies bring in mind Strebers!) and two AMAZING singers make the difference. Dolefull, polemic, offensive, heavy and intense. Vengeance is among the best songs ever writen.
7. Propagandhi – Today’s Empires, tomorrow’s Ashes (2001) See previous post on the best punk albums from North America…
8. Sokratis Malamas – Ena (2002) A composer that has influenced me a lot and is capable of doing what greek people say “education of the soul” (ψυχαγωγία), instead of entertainment. An album that sounds extremely personal, even though most of the lyrics belong to other artists/poets. Nevertheless, this somewhat outright cooperation with some genious lyricists gave birth to this gem of contemporary music. Traditional, ethnic, classical and modern influences blent together make this album so precious to me. (της σιωπης)
9. Thanasis Papakonstantinou – Vrachnos Profitis (2000) Everything I say for the previous artist apply here as well. The only difference is that here rock music is ever present in the mix, a venture tried many times before by various greek artists but never had this result.
10. The Hellacopters – High Visibility (2000) One of the best things that happened in the world of music the last 20 years. This album, which kicks off exactly like TYR from Black Sabbath, has both the energy of the previous ones with the bluesy feeling of the ones that followed. What is amazing about this album, and this band in general, is that it manages to distill all the good elements of 60s and 70s rock and to throw away all the cock-rock mentality. This album makes me wanna play the guitar!
11. Broken Hope – Grotesque Blessings (2000) Monumental album which also set new standards in death metal. This album is unconventional and honest. It is totally unique in the sense that it sounds like nothing else. The melodies are from another dimension, and the lyrics are ingenious! An album that I never got bored of, because it has so much detail in its inventive structures. Masterpiece!
12. Immolation – Unholly Cult (2002) I was not sure if I should put this or the previous album here. The reason why I chose this one, is because it is more accessible. It has songs that you can remember, with bridges, choruses and everything. And they are all inspired like hell! I realised after years of listening to death metal, that at the end of the day what matters is not a thousand notes per minute or a hundred riffs per song. What matters is a good structure with a begining and an end, and songs that will be different from each other on their entirety as entities and not as riffs glued together. This is what Immolation always delivered.
13. Death Breath – Stinking Up the Night (2006) You have Nicke’s compositional skills, music and lyrics, and Jorgen’s and Scott’s voice in one album. What else can one wish for? Christ all fucking mighty must be one of the best songs ever writen…
14. Entombed – Serpent Saints (2007) New line-up and a fierce return to 100% death metal for Entombed. Arguably the record I’ve been looking forward to for more than a decade (although I love all entombed albums before that)! Again here we have an amazing beginning and ending of the album, just like old times. In between we have a big variety of amazing songs, one better from the other! Once again old bands show how music should be played, and that does not include flawless musicianship, a thousand notes per minute and fake plastic productions, just passion and inspiration.
15. New Model Army – Carnival (2005) Surrounded by new musicians, Sullivan makes an impressive return with both this and the previous album (Eight). Much heavier and organic sound in relation to a glorious past, this album has made me think, close my eyes and travel to places I’ll never be and it has made me cry.
16. Slayer – World Painted Blood (2009) Not too much to say here. Slayer are gods! Are they the best group to have walked the earth? Why not! With their new album they demonstrate that only they can do what they do and no matter how many years will pass, no matter how much more extreme scenes will emerge, Slayer will always be able to make you wanna jump out of your body!!! Since I got the new album a couple of months ago, each time I listen to it I feel like I’m in a Slayer concert and I seriously want to hit somebody. Best song of the decade is Beauty Through Order!
17. The Partisans – Idiot Nation (2004) See previous post on the best punk albums from the UK…
18. Disfear – Live the Storm (2008) A monolith of brutal hardcore and a testimony of the state of humanity in the 21st century. All the angst and fears that we experience in an average day and refuse to admit to ourselves. At the same time it is a call to arms, although it does not spell out how… What can you do? Anyway music is supposed to heal the soul, if that will eventually cause a revolution it will be coincidental and I doubt it.
19. The Knife – Deep Cuts (2003) Not exactly my type of music, but still this album is so attractive that I don’t think is possible for anyone to resist. I don’t know how to describe it or why I think it is so important, I just love it.
20. Zeke – Death Alley (2001) Finally the record which I think symbolises the lust for life, having fun, partying and listening to all types of rock ‘n roll music, hehe. Oh, and of course our love for Satan…Amen.
Filed under: death metal, internet and music, popular music | Tags: death metal, Greece, poison, germany, elitism, the forest, zine, demo, into the abyss, fascism
The fight between old scholl death metal and new school death metal is silly. What people fail to understand is that what each one of us thinks as being original is contingent on each one’s personal history. For me, death metal reigned until 1995! Someone who started listening to death metal in 1991, they will most certainly say to me that “…after 1991 death metal became commercial, it died…”. And then another person that grew up with Celtic Frost and early Sarcofago, Sepultura and Carcass will come to argue that death metal died in 1987! Then there will be an even older person who will say that all of these bands ripped off Hellhammer and Bathory, and an older person that they ripped off Venom and Motorhead and eventually a granma will say that all of these bands are fake because they ripped of the Beatles. Do you see the silliness?
The reason why I started this post is because of the arrogance of some people in the extreme metal scene. I’ve been listening to a 1986 demo of a german death/thrash band named Poison. I got this cd years ago from a greek fascist zine (The Forest) praising old black/death metal. These people were obviously arguing that the “true” scene was back in the late 80s, and that everything after that was a shameful commercialisation. The apparent problem, and silliness, about these people is that their lives are so shallow and meaningless, that the identity they built through belonging to an underground scene constitutes the dominant element of their worthless personalities. Therefore, by watching the scene around which this identity was built becoming mainstream and poser hurts them deeply.
The real problem of course lies in the fact that these people based their identity in people/musicians who were either fascists themselves, or silly kids who eventually could not live up to the standards of these fanaticals. These early black/death musicians that these people praise, belong in one of the above mentioned categories. The fascist ones probably killed one another in these early days or ended up in prison. Good riddance! The rest of these early musicians, who were just kids having fun, of course they would not live up to their expectations because they wanted to be rock stars in the first place. They would not give a rat’s ass about some “real fans” and their beliefs about what they were expected to be! Another thing about these assholes writing this fascist zine. Their fascism stems from the fact that they think that they are more intelligent than most people. So they thought that they belonged to an elite that could “understand” the music. It certainly hurt when they realised that they do not belong to any fucking elite. That the music they thought only they could appreciate, was actually a treat to the ears of millions of other people around the world. THAT IS WHY IT BECAME MAINSTREAM!
Anyway, these assholes did a good thing in their miserable lives, ie to give out all these cool cds, such as the Nihilist demos, the Unleashed demos, the Therion demos, “December Moon” by Morbid, and of course this awesome Poison demo! About that. According to the liner notes, this amazing german band was formed in 1982 and disbanded in 1987. If early death metal bands from Sweden had heard this band then shame on them! Because they should have given them credit for inspiration. This demo is fast and brutal, much more than the extreme german thrash scene (Sodom and Kreator). I can also hear resemblances with Razor from Canada. Certainly it has some ideas that were certainly novel, like the very brutal vocals, and soon to be followed by the then-emerging death metal scene. The “Sphinx” kicks off with the lyric ‘into the abyss I fall’ and brings into mind the Carnage album released several years after. The same goes for the slow part around the second minute… Long songs with complex arrangmements, tempo changes and an evil heavy atmosphere. Of course, those elitist wankers in the zine would never acknowledge that in the song “Yog Sothoth”, one of the riffs resembles the main riff off “Sirens” by Savatage! We should not forget the Lovecraftian references, the song Yog Sothoth, ubiguitous in the non-existent at that time swedish scene. In retrospect, “Morbid Visions” by Sepultura was released in 1986… I would not say that Poison push the envelope any further, although the hyperbrutal vocals and heavy slower parts like in the begining and ending of “Sphinx” are killer!
Bellow you can find the links to downoald this amazing demo. Unfortunately, I just got the software and cannot use it correctly yet, so there’s a different link for each of the 4 songs. Anyway, enjoy!
POISON – Into the Abyss (1986 Demo)
Filed under: death metal, popular music | Tags: Blabbermouth, blast beat, death metal, mainstream, Nuclear Blast, system of a down
The fact that death metal is as mainstream as ever is validated everyday by various events. It is quite difficult to interpret why death metal became mainstream. Why a style of music that in the past people who listened to it were ridiculed and considered to be freaks is now respected by, god forbid, serious musicians. Nowadays death metal drummers are respected and even studied at music schools. And the most annoying thing, is that what now is out of the sudden viewed as musically notable, is exactly the same thing that existed in the late 80s-early 90s! Don’t kid ourselves. What Mike Smith (Suffocation) played back then he plays now… What Pete Sandoval (Terrorizer/Morbid Angel) played back then is copied by thousands today. Did anyone notice Doc’s (Vader) amazing performance back in 1995? Of course not! Don’t let me start about the music! There has not been one single innovation in death metal since the mid-90s. Whoever says that Nile is novel then they really have not heard of Immolation or Incantation. Whoever says that Necrophagist constitute innovation, they probably have not heard not only classic death metal (e.g. Death of the Individual thought patterns or symbolic era) but also some classic Thrash bands like Annihilator! Go listen to Never neverland and you may discover some riffs (listen to “sixes and sevens”) that Necrophagist have stolen and more that they will never be able to replicate! So why today this success?
For one thing, I personally am ashamed that death metal is being accepted as a “serious” music. That thing takes away all the energy and rebeliousness from it. The effects from this phenomenon are already visible. Kids are studying to play death metal! What is that about? People in the 80s did not study how “blast beats” should sound. Most importantly, they did not study how MUSIC was supposed to sound. It just came naturally! That is why there was so much variety! Now everything sounds the same! A young brutal band from Australia can sound exactly the same as one from New York, the UK, Sweden or Greece. Before I try to approach the question, why today this success, I will turn to some of the current events which indicate that death metal is more mainstream than ever.
First of all, lets all agree that grind exists since the mid-80s! Septic Death, Repulsion, Cryptic Slaughter, Napalm Death, etc. And then you have Dave Lombardo waking up and saying that he wants to follow the developments, so he added a few blastbeats to Slayer songs. Of course, to be perfectly honest, he did that before with Testament on their Gathering album (which by the way is monumental). In any case, the blast beat is officially recognised as a novelty now that it sells! Secondly, while death metal back in the day acounted for a small percentage of the metal scene, now it accounts for a huge part of it. I have not done a proper research to say that, but if you take a look at any 20 sequential cd reviews in Blabbermouth you would notice that more than 85% are extreme metal and around 50% death/death-hybrid metal. Thirdly, and most importantly, Nuclear Blast is interested in death metal again!!! That is the most crucial indication of death metal’s mainstream success. For those who don’t know Nuclear Blast was the german record company that helped in the emergence of death metal and had some of the most amazing bands ever, master, benediction, dismember, incantation, hypocrisy, pungent stench, revenant, sinister and others. However, it either shed them or just stoped being supportive of them by the mid-late 90s, when death metal was in a stalemate both creatively and commercially. That was the time when melodic black metal was on the rise and power metal like Hammerfall. Grim times… It has been widely accepted since, that Nuclear Blast did what all companies who respect themselves should do, i.e. do it all for the money! And today we have Nuclear Blast (a major label) becoming interested in death metal once more… Newest additions include Suffocation, Immolation and Nile and I’m pretty sure more that I’m not aware of. What pisses me off is that this fucking company (I hate nuclear blast) has the highest vinyl prices in the market. I stll have not bought the latest Suffocation and Hypocrisy vinyls because they are ridiculously expensive. When I first started buying vinyl records I did it because back in the day they were cheaper than cds! Now they are twice the price of the cd or more!
So we have thousands of death metal bands aspiring to make a lot of money and fame by playing brutal death metal. But why? What made death metal widely respectable and a wise career move? Someone could argue that it just happened that some people finally realised what an inspired music and how talented musicians death metalers are. With all the new communication technologies available opinions move around easily, some people in high places (music magazines) get influenced eventually who in turn influence the kids around the globe. However, if you notice today’s death scene and the early death scene you’ll notice differences that are much more than just a high degree of contemporary uniformity in relation to the past. You will also notice that everything today is polished. The kids playing death today are well dressed with nice haircuts and an attitude that even Manowar would envy. Still instead of getting to the bottom of it, things become more complicated. Causality is uncertain and every claim points to endogeneity.
Is it that maintream looking kids became interested in death metal, or is it that companies manufacture death metallers like that in order to be more mainstream? I think that there is a strong case for the former, with some elements of the latter. At this point I want to stress one crucial event that happened circa 2001. That is the huge success of System of a Down, a mainstream band, with a mainstream sound, with a definetely mainstream look. And guess what!? In a couple of the songs there is some grind, or what others call a blast-beat! This is what I think one of the definitive moments in the development of modern death metal and the widespread use of blastbeats. It was that, since a cool band does something, then it has to be cool. Many of the kids that listened to that beat thought that it was cool, because it was in the context of an ear-friendly music and not in the context of world downfall or from enslavement to obliteration! That also could have an effect of making people interested in the origins of this sound. That would eventually lead to the exhumation of death metal. Now where I think the record companies have meddled in is the image. I think that companies learned that what death metal was missing was support from the young female population (that can be easily explained by the fact that it is a musical movement started by empowered young men and reflects all the things that men are taught to like, violence and murder). Therefore they used methods of marketing ubiguitous in the rest of the music industry. That is to make extreme metal musicians look fuckable, instead of the dirtbags that they were in the past. So they combined that which starts to become cool (extremity in music), with a cool appearance. That is not against the interests of the musicians themselves of course.
In my eyes, today’s popular death metal is the death metal of laws, where everything is counted and balanced and make sense. It is not the death metal that goes out of hand, that is unreasonable and that it does not take a thousand notes per minute to be appreciated. The death metal where two chords, a brutal and sincerely pissed-off voice, and passion in performance can make the skin crawl. Many people, among which some expert musicians, be able to listen to the hyperbrutal New Wave Of Brutal Death Metal and even like it, but will never be able to understand the beauty of songs like Shadows in the Deep (unleashed), Life shatters (desultory), across the fields of forever (Edge of sanity) and It awaits (Asphyx). Why? Because it wouldn’t make sense? Why listen to them? They are not goodlooking (so I am either not attracted to them or I cannot use them as role models or I will feel ashamed if my friends find out I listen to these “funny looking” people), they are not technical (so I cannot prove smt to my parents, my friends or my music teacher) and they are noisy! Good stuff!
p.s. all those people who claim that cannibal corpse are creatively in their best period are wankers! Cannibal corpse have stoped being innovative and threatening to any musical conventions since 1996. Today cannibal corpse are the epitome of boredom and routine.
p.s.2. Nile’s last good album was Black seeds of vengeance. After that there has been a constant recycling.
p.s.3. Whoever says that the latest Asphyx album is good, has no idea about death metal or about what Asphyx used to stand for. The Asphyx wannabes try to capitulate on the rise of death metal and they probably achieve that. But the album is so uninspired that Theo Loomans shivers in his grave.
p.s.4 I’ve been reading lately (again) the most outrageous things about slayer’s new album. People saying that Americon is an uninspired song (Blabbermouth), people saying that playing with dolls explores new paths of melody (some wank on Amazon) etc. First of all, it is clear that people still cannot grasp the genious that Kerry King is. I’m pretty sure that if skeletons of society, or temptation were released today instead of 20 years ago people would still say the same stupid things… Sucks to be them. Secondly, slayer have been writing songs like playing with dolls since seasons (dead skin mask, in divine intervention 213, and others). So before you share your unimformed bullshit with other people go listen to the old albums.
Filed under: Greece, death metal, people | Tags: Athens, Lavyrinthos, Monastiraki, Nuclear Death, Oh aman market, Shiva records, social capital, Sokratis Malamas, Zaharias
Social capital is among the most used concepts in the social sciences in the last 15 years. It refers to resources available to people through their social links. More correctly, it refers to the social contructs themselves which allow actors that are a part of them to benefit in various ways. Others may equate the concept with trust. In many instances it’s being used inappropriately (e.g. the occassional simplistic positivist account of explaining economic success by looking at the associational activity in an area), but in any case, the concept of social capital is really fun to employ and explain phenomena of our everyday life, without being too picky about it. Today I thought of an event that happenned in Athens a couple of years ago.
In the area of Monastiraki, in Athens Greece, there is a cluster of record stores that sell new and used vinyl records. Some of the shops are 10, 20 or even more years old, some others are younger. Each store owner is more or less specialised in a specific genre. Shiva records in metal, Tsampas in rock and metal, another nationalist-idiot that my friend Nick has named “the knight” in metal, 7+7 in alternative (and rock and metal in the past), Oh aman market in greek music and rock, (Zaharias is a bit of everything) and others. We could then say that there is a relatively high level of specialisation in different genres. Each owner has knowledge of what is rare in the genre they specialise in. It would be very difficult to buy a rare metal album from Shiva in a low price, becuse he would be aware that it is rare! Similarly, it would be impossible to buy a rare greek record from Oh aman for the same reason. However, my friend Nick bought 2 years ago “the Labyrinth” by Sokratis Malamas, the edition that got recalled after it was released, with the name of the album on the cover, just for 5 euros!!! That happened because he bought it from an idiot who traded metal, but happened to get his hands on that greek artist. Record collectors would be willing to pay 100 euros for that one. I bought the amazing second Nuclear Death album (Carrion for worm) just for 8 euros or so around 7 years ago, from Oh Aman, the greek music store!!! That album again is super-rare but the shop owner couldn’t have known because he didn’t know where to get information on the record from!
That shows me that neither the norm of reciprocity nor the norm of trust is in place in monastiraki among the record shop owners. If one shop owner thought that he/she could trust other shop owners with asking for information on a rare record then they could sell it in the appropriate price. Instead, what happens is that shop owners often “inspect” others’ stores to see if they can find a rare record the others are not aware of. Moreover, noone expects the other to reciprocate the favour. What happens is that a shop owner does not expect others to provide her help when needed and also she doesn’t think that others expect her to provide them with anything as well. This non-cooperative culture works for the benefit of record-buyers, in this example me and my friend Nick.
Of course, someone could rightfully question my analysis by arguing that it is not a matter of lack of social capital but of arrogance. Shop owners are arrogant in the sense that they think that they know everything, that they are the oldest in the business, that it’s not possible that others know more than them. Also with regards to certain sub-genres, like death metal, even metal record shops were illiterate until the late nineties when these apes discovered internet. Oh my god, how many cheap records have I bought from suckers like Shiva back in the day… Altars of madness 1500 dr (4,5 euros), From beyond 2000 dr (5,5 euros), Master, Demmolition Hammer, Terrorizer, Cannibal corpse, … 4-6 euros. Good times. Who says that low endowments of trust is always a bad thing!?
Below is a video with Nuclear Death and the amazing Lori Bravo. She is among the most amazing death metal vocalists ever! Brutal, sick, unpolished, honest, innovative. For me, the most extreme band on earth, period!
I’ve been thinking the following amazing and totally ironic thing. Humankind’s primary worry has always been being able to feed themselves. The satisfaction of this foundamental need has been taken for granted, at least for the “western” world, since at least the first decade following the second world war. Once people managed to secure their feeding, and took food for granted, they went on to value other things more and more. So today if you ask someone what they would take with them on a deserted island, that would probably be “a laptop” or an “i pod” instead of things that would secure their nutrition. With the great importance of technology in our lives, we now consider food of secondary importance.
Countries or regions specialised in agriculture are condemned to under-development because agricultural goods are not high value-added goods. We value bread and vegetables less than mp3s etc. so it takes increasingly more vegetables to afford an mp3 player. It makes sense. Also even countries with a comparative advantage in making computers can also have a comparative advantage vis a vis poor agricultural countries, because the former can substitute labour force with machines and genetically modified crops and produce even cheaper goods!
And here is the irony…! Almost two centuries of capitalism favoured technology which promised to people access to ample and cheap food necessary for their survival. At the same time though, tachnology has led to an unprecedented level of nature’s destruction. That compromises the primary human need, i.e. feeding! And ironically we are now forced to buy more and more expensive food (organic products) to satisfy out basic need, which is to feed without running the risk of dying from it (genetically modified products). All this technological progress is gradually making us realise that what’s important is “living” and not “earning”. It would be fun (and even more ironic) to see poor countries that remain agricultural prosper in the future, because of their capacity to (organicaly) produce what others have been taking for granted!
And I started thinking of these things after I picked the latest “Misery Index” album and read the first sentence on the lyric sheet…
“Only after the last tree has been cut down, only after the last river has been poisoned, only after the last fish has been caught, only then will you find money cannot be eaten.”- Cree Indian Prophecy
It has been quite some time since a new punk album blew me away. The latest Propagandhi album was really good but predictable, the canadian band Vancougar I discovered a year ago plays very impressive pop-punk which amazed me, but besides that I’ve been mainly living on early eighties stuff. And honestly I did not see that coming! First of all let me clarify that I am sick of all those new brutal hardcore or crust bands that are poping up every day in every neighbourhood claiming anarchism, or whatever. The rule of the thumb is that they are talentless and devoid of any trace of inspiration or innovativeness, which were the drivers for bands they may look up to such as CRASS, CONFLICT, DISCHARGE, AMEBIX, NEUROSIS etc.
However, Cross Stitched Eyes is nothing like that. I have only listened to it once and now I am writing this. This record is so amazing that it makes me not want to go to sleep tonight, and instead stay up and listen to it over and over. We are talking about 14 songs that each one is unique. That is a damn hard thing to say for a crust album… We are talking about a terrifying claustrophobic atmosphere, desperate melodies, great playing, and fantastic sceaming vocals! There is a huge tempo for each song, making it a very aggressive album overall. The style is consistent throughout the record, but it brings in elements from different genres. The influence of the early english crust scene, may it be the fast one (e.g. Antisect) or the slow/mid-tempo one (e.g. Exit-stance, Cress) is obvious. Amebix of course is the band that comes into mind after hearing the first notes. However, their influence is implicit and does not become annoying like for example with Born Dead Icons, where at times the resemblance is ridiculous! In other instances, they sound like Celtic Frost (e.g. the song “Sufffer”) and other times the vocals remind of (the other) Tom from Sodom! There is a lot more, however, on this record that I have not discovered yet (for example, my friend George Norton shrewdly observed that they must have listened a lot to New Model Army! Indeed listen to how the record starts!) .
So if you are into good crust music with character definetly check this out. Below is the song “End”, the closing track of the album.
The lyric “I’ve been grasping at rainbows, hanging on till the end, but the rain is so real lord, and the rainbows pretend” by Savatage, can perfectly describe my feelings this summer in several ways. First of all literally, since the weather is awful. It is even worse than last year. At least June and July 2008 have been hot and summery! This year’s July has been miserable and wet, and it seems that August will be similar. Secondly metaphorically, since all my hopes that fieldwork would be carried out smoothly are going down the drain. Both my interviewees and supervisors ignore me. If I open my mailbox one more time and see no e-mails I will eat my feet.
Enjoy some songs (for all tastes) about “rain”, or about “summer and rain”:
Rainy days revisited – The Hellacopters
And it rained all night – Thom York
Έρχεται βροχή, έρχεται μπόρα – Διονύσης Σαββόπουλος
Summer’s rain – Savatage
I hear the rain – Violent Femmes
Rain King – Sonic Youth
Colossal rains – Paradise Lost
Naked in the rain – Dio
Let the napalm Rain – Dismember
Let it rain – The Adolescents
Filed under: Greece, internet and music, people, punk | Tags: Greece, greek punk, Νέα Απ'το Μέτωπο, Νίκαια, punk
I’ve been writing about music in this blog for more than a year now and I’ve never talked about my own music. The music that I compose and the music I used to compose together with my friends in our old band, was meant to stay underground for several reasons. Firstly, we did nothing to promote ourselves and secondly, we felt that we did not fit even in the community to which our music was refering. I personally did not want to have any relationship with a mentally bankrupt punk community, plunged in drugs, macho-insecurity, and a “punks not dead” mentality.
So even if it sounds weird, we played punk music which we would like to be appreciated by non-punks. Since the sound and the style is, however, burdened with stereotypes and certain connotations, the message we wanted to pass on was doomed to remain unheard. I was always fully aware of this situation and the principles of effective communication (being a political scientist…), but I was reluctant to shed the power of my music. Especialy since it does justice to the content.
Our band’s name was “Νέα Απ’το Μέτωπο” (translates to “News from the Front”). I played the guitar and sang the songs I had composed. My friend Nikos played the guitar and sang the songs he had composed. We did not have a drummer, so we played the drums interchangeably. The original bass player Dimitris quit a while after we started. He wrote a song we continued playing after he left, but I never considered it as “our own” because it was completely alien to the band’s philosophy. Anastasia took his place and also wrote some lyrics. We only managed to produce a rehearshal demo tape with 9 songs. Many other songs were never recorded.
My songs dealt with personal emotions (like Ross would say). The eponymous song refers to “the front” which is primarily my town, then my country, and then the world we live in. The song “Πόλεμος” (war), refers to a war of arguments inside my head around established institutions like the family, compassion for other people, etc. The song “Σοσιαληστές” (a play on words between socialists and thieves) deals with the inherent “wrong” of representative democracies, since people who are eager to assume responsibilities of entire nations are by definition arrogant and thirsty for power.
As I said in the beginning, the band was doomed to remain underground. I created a myspace page for the band a year ago, but I was never sure why I did it. Maybe I felt that by doing something “formal” for the band, it would not just fade away without a trace of ever existing. I only befriended two or three of the first greek punk bands, with which I think our band shared a vision, and a couple of personal friends. I never requested friendship from foreign bands I have nothing in common and with which I can only be a superficial friend. Of course I have turned down requests from countless losers who want to increase their friends-list and then advertise their new albums.
Filed under: internet and music, people | Tags: ''black metal album 10 songs'', ''composing punk'', ''Nicke Andersson without hat'', ''pictures little hardcore'', ''what to listen to when you've been cheated''
It’s been one year since I started this blog. My primary expectation, i.e. to engage in dialogue with people interested in the same music as me, has not been really fulfilled. There has been some discussion a few times but nothing even close to a dialogue. I don’t think that the internet and bloging are inhibiting dialogue. After all if one looks at the comments under videos in youtube, they will be surprised by how many timeless discussions are going on and on. However, these do not really constitute dialogue since rarely people have arguments. These discussions are usually between people who like the song/band in question and those who don’t like it. That’s it. And I guess that the limited talkativeness in here makes sense, because the mainstream music community has traditionally being reluctant to discuss. It is easier to insult, or to praise without thinking or without exploring some of the discourses around pop culture. Nevertheless, I have really enjoyed posting this year because, even if sometimes these words fall upon deaf ears, it makes me feel creative and it allows me to organise my ideas around music. Below are some of the funniest terms that people searched and were led to my blog. Now I give them the answer they were looking for:
1. ”composing punk” or a similar search ”how to compose punk”.
Actually there have been more than ten similar searches! What are people thinking?! If you cannot figure it out yourself how to compose punk, then really don’t bother…
2. ”pictures little hardcore”
Someone who wanted to see some porn but did not even admit it to themselves (or the internet)…
3. ”black metal album 10 songs”
I hope you found what you were looking for.
4. ”Nicke Andersson without hat”.
A lot of people have searched that!!! If you are so interested you can look at the back cover of the Left Hand Path album, the inlay of Clandestine, other promotional photos during the Clandestine era, some early Hellacopters photos… Also Paying the Dues is a gatefold vinyl and inside there is a huge photo were you can see his forehead and his nipples for that matter, since he does not wear a t-shirt. I don’t want to imagine why you want them for…
5. ”what to listen to when you’ve been cheated”.
Are you actually asking the internet? The internet is not a person! Anyway, again you are missing the point. These things come naturally! No one is supposed to tell you what to listen to when your boyfriend/girlfriend cheated on you. For example, when you were still together with your partner and you had a common favourite song, or the song you were listening to when you first made out, etc. then these are the songs you may want to turn to! But in any case, if you want guiding I guess I can propose a couple of songs, like ”don’t cry” by Guns n’ Roses, or ‘’summer’s rain” by Savatage, or ”In the Dream” by Savatage. Now if you are angry you can listen to ”you broke my heart so I broke your face” by Wehrmacht.
Filed under: death metal, people, popular music | Tags: DVD, heaven and hell, over the madness, paradise lost
Spring and early summer are shopping seasons for many reasons. First of all, it rhymes. Secondly, many bands (record companies) choose to release their albums at that time each year. Thirdly, the change in the weather makes me feel more artistic and less stressed than the autumn or winter. So it’s time for new music! The last month I bought the new Brutal Truth album which is awesome and the Heaven and Hell album. The latter is much better than I thought it would be. Its sound is HUGE and the riffs and orchestration are massive. I would say that it is a fusion of the Dehumanizer album, with the Strange Highways album and bits and pieces from the Born Again (like Zero the Hero) and Headless Cross (like Devil & Daughter) periods. Bible Black is among the best songs Sabbath have ever recorded. Most of the other songs are awesome with personal favourites, Breaking into Heaven (riff that reminds of Shame on the night, but awesome chorus!), Eating the cannibals (awesome riffs by Iommi and trademark solos), Atom and Evil, Follow the tears, The turn of the screw.
However this post is about the purchase of Paradise Lost’s DVD from 2007, titled “Over the Madness”. This band is among the few most important bands of the 90s. Even though my favourite bands are death metal bands, still if I had to pick the most important and Best bands I would have to choose Paradise Lost. The other band I would have to choose would be Rage! But I save another post for them.
Paradise Lost have released one of the best death metal albums of all time. GOTHIC! This album is one of those albums we used to listen with friends and wonder how the hell they came up with all these melodies in each and every song. Of course, the achievement of Paradise Lost with this album is not that they managed to put together perfect melodies but the amazing coherence of the songs (something which I think is missing from the Shades of God album). Songs are organic entities, which seem to be born, grow and die. There is something extremely alive about these songs. When each song starts something completely new begins. As it continues you can sense its evolution. There are choruses which represent the ‘average’ sentiment of the song and there are magnificent highs (bridges or solos) which represent important events in the song’s life. How else can one interpret the melody right after the chorus on The Painless? Finally it’s the end, where the songs pass on. Certainly my all time favourite Paradise Lost album. I could spend hours talking about all the other Paradise Lost albums. But I won’t. Instead, I will refer to the people behind the band which I got to know a little bit through their documentary.
It is really fulfilling to see that people that you admire without knowing them, are good people. I would rather never find out about the personal lives of most of the bands I love, because there is a big chance they are assholes. For example, in this DVD, Greg (the band’s main composer) mentions an incident from a tour with Morbid Angel, when the singer of Morbid angel stated that he is in favour of ethnic cleansing. There you go. How am I supposed to listen to them again knowing this? However, the guys from Paradise Lost seem to be the best people in the world. Aaron (the guitarist) is a realy nice and sentimental person. What has striken me most was that he is a honest fan of his own band. He mentions at some point that he gets very emotional when he listens to the solo of Forever Failure! Of course, who doesn’t? But hearing that the musicians themselves appreciate the grandeur of their own creation is really nice!
Greg again, who is the mastermind behind at least 2/3 of the magnificence of Paradise Lost, is an amazing person. Very serious, humble and obviously bright, he is a model leader. I was surprised to hear him say that the album “believe in nothing” means nothing to him and was a compromise, because it also means nothing to me. It is clearly the worst P.L. album, although I like songs such as “divided” , “never again” or “sell it to the world”. He looks back at the history of the band and the early years with humility and pinpoints the pivotal points in the band’s history from his point of view. Someone might expect that these would be the monumental Draconian Times album, or Icon. Greg though, values more albums like One Second, Host, and sees As I Die as the turning point for the band’s sound.
Nick (the singer) feels less comfortable in from of the camera and he shares fewer things with the public. Matt (original drummer) is delightful, nostalgic and a really good narrator of the band’s early years. I think that his drumming has been definitive for the development of Paradise Lost’s sound and since he left I ‘ve been missing it.
I am really looking forward to the new Paradise Lost album, which is being recorded as we speak. I am very curious to see what they have come up with after 3 masterpieces (Symbol of Life, Paradise Lost, In Requiem).
