Sunday, September 22, 2013

Comparisons between The Sword an Amon Amarth

Amon Amarth and The Sword are bands that come from very different subgenres of metal, but their image and lyrical themes are similar. 
Amon Amarth is a well known metal band that partakes in a unique brand of melodic death metal that I like to call "Viking Metal." Every one of their albums are completely devoted to Viking themes, with the lyrics being about charging into battle or death and honor. Each of the album covers depict some element of Norse mythology. 
The Sword is a stoner rock band who have a uniquely "epic" sound, and their lyrical themes are not those of Vikings, like Amon Amarth, but they still deal with themes of battle and mythology. They are one of the only bands of their type in the stoner rock scene, especially in sound. They draw from elements of Black Sabbath, but still write all their songs in a key that is not dark, but rather "large" or "huge." How to get a "huge" sound is difficult to describe, but if one was to listen to The Sword, they would recognize what I am talking about. 
To compare The Sword and Amon Amarth is not really a stretch, and despite their differing "scenes," their themes are obviously similar. Both their lyrics are about battles or mythology, their sounds are unique to the genres to which they belong, and they have an undeniably "epic" feel to their image. 

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The phenomenon of ridiculous time signatures

Music can be a complicated thing. There are many different styles in which to play it, and many different ways in which to play the different styles. There's even a different way to count the beats in the song. These are called time signatures. It is based on he number of beats measure, and the number of measures. The standard rock n' roll song is in 4/4 time, meaning that there are 4 beats per measure, and the measures are organized in groups of 4. However, it is just as common (though more difficult) to write a song in a different time signature, whether something relatively simple like 3/4 or a time signature as outlandish as 17/12 (or whatever). 

I generally prefer to listen to and play music that is in simple time signatures, but that is not to say that I don't enjoy the occasional variation. Bands like Led Zeppelin can create awesome tracks that are very difficult to play, but they still sound so good and normal that you can still rock out to them. Then there are bands like Tool, who play in insanely complicated time signatures, but are still enjoyable and accessible because they still sound amazing even if you can't decipher what they're doing some of the time. 

But there is a point when this ceases being "cool" or even listenable, and just gets ridiculous. There are bands that roll twenty-sided dice to get time signatures, and often switch times mid-song to dizzying effect. I understand that it takes immense skill to pull off such a thing, but if it's so complicated that it becomes frankly stupid, then it's time to CALM DOWN with the playing styles. Seriously, I don't care if you can pull off 14/5 time, if it doesn't sound good then I'm not going to listen to it. When the mind-bending insanity goes so far that it almost sounds like you're playing it wrong, then it's not good music, even if whoever is playing it is the most technically skilled musician of all time. There is a difference between technical skill and good musicianship. If you can shred it on the guitar but can't write a good song to save your life, then you're still not as good as the guy who may not even know the notes on a guitar but can jam out and come up with great material. 

So if you, reader, write a song in 5/7 time, just make sure that someone would actually want to listen to it, and you're not just creating something absurd.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Why I will sometimes laugh at death metal

I love heavy music. But sometimes it can get a little ridiculous. I mean, yeah. Pig Destroyer crushes, and they are all extremely talented musicians, but it will sometimes reach a point where you can only take so much of destroyingly fast blastbeats and wildly screamed vocals. At least, it happens to me. And when that point arrives, I begin to laugh. This may occur for a number of reasons.
One is that I just start to think how hilarious it is that there are bands that make music that will melt your brain if listened to for long periods. It's just so heavy that it's funny, which can be a good thing. Sometimes.
 Another reason is that I might be thinking about the song titles and/or subject matter. This one gets me the most often. Grindcore and Death Metal have legendarily brutal/stupid song titles. I will use the band Carcass as an example: "Fermented Innards," "Excreted Alive," "Festerday." There is NO ONE who can legitimately tell me with a straight face that something like "Regurgitation of Giblets" is anything more than the most amazingly stupid song name ever. And even if I'm jamming out to a blistering blastbeat, I will begin to chortle when the mere thought of some such song title creeps into my mind. I mean, it's funny. Come on.
The third and last reason worth mentioning is merely the extreme skill of the musicians creating said music. Some People may think that metal requires no skill to play, but they could not be more wrong. In fact, the combination of bizarre time signatures, extremely fast style of playing, and the requirement that it all be done while ferociously headbanging makes death metal one of the most demanding genres ever, and definitely one that cannot be played by any idiot with a guitar, as some might think. So sometimes my laughter is out of amazement at the skill of the musicians playing it.
But most of the time, it's because of how incredibly hilarious the genre really is.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Southern Metal

With the recent death of Eyehategod drummer Joey Lacaze, I felt obligated to write a post about southern metal. I'm not talking about ALL southern metal (Pantera and other such bands from the south), I'm talking about the phenomenon of sludge metal. It seems that there are more sludge metal bands from the south than anywhere else.

I have always thought that it seems odd that there is a "southern belles and beaus" image from a region whose oppressively hot and biting-bug filled summers certainly do not seem to be condusive to good moods. However, the mere existence of southern sludge metal compensates for this fact. Eyehategod even has an album called "Southern Discomfort." When listening to truly good southern sludge, you can almost feel the buggy humidity in the air. From living in the south, I can tell you that the closest thing to Georgia heat besides actually being there is a scalding sludge riff. 

An especially active area in the south for sludge is New Orleans. There are countess bands in the "NOLA metal scene," many of them sharing members. An especially active participant has been Phil Anselmo, former singer for Pantera. Even before Pantera broke up, he had joined the sludge metal supergroup Down, featuring members from the bands Crowbar, Eyehategod, (both from New Orleans) and Corrosion of Conformity. Since then, Down has released 3 albums and an EP, and Phil Anselmo has joined many other sludge bands including Superjoint Ritual, Philip H. Anselmo and the Illegals, and Arson Anthem. Another huge contributor to this scene is the aforementioned band Eyehategod. The members from this band have been in a huge number of other groups, which has caused the NOLA metal scene to grow immensely. They have also released eight albums, all of which are colossal monoliths of brain-melting sound and force. 

This was an extremely brief overview of a huge music scene which has influenced all of metal. Below is a list of three introductory albums to the southern sludge metal scene:

"Nola" by Down
"Dopesick" by Eyehategod 
"Crowbar" by Crowbar