It's only February, and the best new death metal album of 2011 has already been released.
It is "Infernal Warriors of Death", by Blaspherian.
Tired of death metal that's embarrassed by its genre and throws in elements of "acceptable" mainstream music to cover for that embarrassment? Then, this is the album for you. There's no hardcore breakdowns, no prog influences, no whiny sung vocals, no "socially acceptable" lyrics- just 8 tracks of total death and evil. Exactly the way it should be.
Of course, none of this will be a surprise to those who know this band's pedigree- they were founded by Wes Weaver, former guitarist of Imprecation.
On March 05 2011 13:25 ShadowDrgn wrote: Death metal lyrics are usually pretty hard to understand, but I think that song is extreme. I maybe understood 6 words in the entire 5 minutes.
Sounds about right. I'm fairly certain that death metal fans listen to it more for the instrumentals, rather than being able to sing along with the melody. And the whole dark and brooding thing, I guess.
Out of curiosity, what do people find appealing about this kind of music? To note I AM NOT asking this in a sarcastic way. I really am interested in exactly why people like the music they listen to. I'm not saying its bad in any way, but I don't listen to this type of music and I always wonder what people do. Sometimes it makes me like that kind of music even more. So if anyone would care to describe, that would be cool. If not, cool.
On March 05 2011 14:42 Rev0lution wrote: It's ironic how death metal hasn't changed at all in 20 years, and we are the ones saying Pop music is all recycled crap.
My problems with pop have much more to do with the "crap" than the "recycled", personally.
Even then, in terms of every musical aspect aside from timbre, there's much more variety in death metal than there is in pop. Even among a group of relatively similar bands- consider Blaspherian, Imprecation, Incantation, Father Befouled, early Immolation, Infester, and Morpheus Descends- there's far more difference in how rhythm, structure, and melody are used than there is in your typical radio pop.
On March 05 2011 14:00 TheConstructed wrote: Out of curiosity, what do people find appealing about this kind of music? To note I AM NOT asking this in a sarcastic way. I really am interested in exactly why people like the music they listen to. I'm not saying its bad in any way, but I don't listen to this type of music and I always wonder what people do. Sometimes it makes me like that kind of music even more. So if anyone would care to describe, that would be cool. If not, cool.
Part of is it has a different feel. Usually people start with a mainstream metal band and want more, so they go into thrash metal and get early Metallica, death metal just kind of evolved from that. People who liked the riffs before the singing in Master of Puppets wrote stuff like that, and eventually it got more downtuned and the only real vocals that fit with the music were growls. While initially not appealing, the vocals do their job effectively, I kind of like to think of them as "percussive vocals". They don't create a melody as much as create a unique, dark, percussive sound that fits in with the rest of the music.
For a more basic introduction into death metal try
Death - Pull the Plug, some of the first death metal
i dunno this sounds pretty stale. the riffs aren't exactly exciting and the drums sound like they were recorded in a garage. no solos to spice it up either.
@revolution
death metal has changed plenty in the last 30 years, this is just a boring example
I love Blaspherian but the real story of death metal is always the demos. That said I havent really followed the scene this year and my favorite of last year was an album for once(the new Weapon).
On March 05 2011 14:00 TheConstructed wrote: Out of curiosity, what do people find appealing about this kind of music? To note I AM NOT asking this in a sarcastic way. I really am interested in exactly why people like the music they listen to. I'm not saying its bad in any way, but I don't listen to this type of music and I always wonder what people do. Sometimes it makes me like that kind of music even more. So if anyone would care to describe, that would be cool. If not, cool.
heavy music can be super satisfying to listen to. sometimes im in the mood for something pretty. i listen to kpop ballads. sometimes im in the mood for something mellow - i listen to acoustic stuff. sometimes im in the mood to destroy shit and feel brutal - i listen to death metal. I guess I'm using the term "death metal" broadly in my case, cuzI'm not so much a fan of traditional death metal bands, but tend to like progressive death metal and deathcore bands the most. im probably gonna get a lot of hate from the death metal elitists here for even mentioning that i like deathcore, but whatevs. i definitely think that the heaviness in death metal embodies something innately part of human nature. the same way the beautiful voice of a great singer can give me the chills, a really good riff or breakdown or scream/growl also give me the chills.
for me, progressive death metal, which you can think of as death metal with a lot of other musical elements in it, encompasses many of my "sometimes im in the mood for...." cravings in one go. 2 of my favorite bands are opeth and between the buried and me, both very different bands but would roughly fit under the umbrella of progressive death metal. but they both have 8+ minute long songs that mix together some super heavy moments with groovy moments with mellow moments etc etc.... especially with the atmosphere that opeth sets for me musically, i feel like im almost reading a book or watching a movie (they have many concept albums which have stories to follow). theres some really creative things these kinds of bands do, and its really interesting to listen to.
deathcore on the other hand is usually not really very innovative... its an often hated genre by musical elitists for being "scene" and having a bunch of bands sound all the same as each other. For most deathcore bands, I don't fully deny this - each have their own little nuances to them but a lot of bands do sound similar.... cuz in this genre, its all about the breakdowns. breakdowns are the riffs in the songs that are really headbangy and tend to get moshpits started at shows. idk how to explain it musically, but you will see what i mean if you youtube "breakdowns". to me, breakdowns are the perfect thing for me when my mind wants some straight up heavy with no bullshit music to listen to. it gets me pumped up, and it just feels super satisfying to listen to. of course, i can (and often do) grow tired of it and would rather listen to acoustic stuff or pop or rnb or something else... cuz deathcore is pretty repetitive considering breakdowns are like the bread and butter of the genre. breakdown after breakdown, especially the non creative super generic kind that 99 percent of ___core bands use on a regular basis, really makes the genre not fun if you listen to it too much. but when i mix it up with other stuff in bertween, i definitely really enjoy it for the satisfaction from the heaviness of it.
On March 05 2011 15:54 rauk wrote: i dunno this sounds pretty stale. the riffs aren't exactly exciting and the drums sound like they were recorded in a garage. no solos to spice it up either.
@revolution
death metal has changed plenty in the last 30 years, this is just a boring example
Indeed.
If this is the best that 2011 can offer, then I'm just going to stick with Chuck Schuldiner, and not worry about what's new in death metal.
On March 05 2011 15:06 dydtaylor wrote: Death - Pull the Plug, some of the first death metal
OMin wrote:heavy music can be super satisfying to listen to. sometimes im in the mood for something pretty. i listen to kpop ballads. sometimes im in the mood for something mellow - i listen to acoustic stuff. sometimes im in the mood to destroy shit and feel brutal - i listen to death metal. I guess I'm using the term "death metal" broadly in my case, cuzI'm not so much a fan of traditional death metal bands, but tend to like progressive death metal and deathcore bands the most. im probably gonna get a lot of hate from the death metal elitists here for even mentioning that i like deathcore, but whatevs. i definitely think that the heaviness in death metal embodies something innately part of human nature. the same way the beautiful voice of a great singer can give me the chills, a really good riff or breakdown or scream/growl also give me the chills.
for me, progressive death metal, which you can think of as death metal with a lot of other musical elements in it, encompasses many of my "sometimes im in the mood for...." cravings in one go. 2 of my favorite bands are opeth and between the buried and me, both very different bands but would roughly fit under the umbrella of progressive death metal. but they both have 8+ minute long songs that mix together some super heavy moments with groovy moments with mellow moments etc etc.... especially with the atmosphere that opeth sets for me musically, i feel like im almost reading a book or watching a movie (they have many concept albums which have stories to follow). theres some really creative things these kinds of bands do, and its really interesting to listen to.
deathcore on the other hand is usually not really very innovative... its an often hated genre by musical elitists for being "scene" and having a bunch of bands sound all the same as each other. For most deathcore bands, I don't fully deny this - each have their own little nuances to them but a lot of bands do sound similar.... cuz in this genre, its all about the breakdowns. breakdowns are the riffs in the songs that are really headbangy and tend to get moshpits started at shows. idk how to explain it musically, but you will see what i mean if you youtube "breakdowns". to me, breakdowns are the perfect thing for me when my mind wants some straight up heavy with no bullshit music to listen to. it gets me pumped up, and it just feels super satisfying to listen to. of course, i can (and often do) grow tired of it and would rather listen to acoustic stuff or pop or rnb or something else... cuz deathcore is pretty repetitive considering breakdowns are like the bread and butter of the genre. breakdown after breakdown, especially the non creative super generic kind that 99 percent of ___core bands use on a regular basis, really makes the genre not fun if you listen to it too much. but when i mix it up with other stuff in bertween, i definitely really enjoy it for the satisfaction from the heaviness of it.
I definitely understand the "sometimes in the mood for" aspect of heavier music. I've been a bit of a fan of progressive rock on the more musical side, so I could understand the criticism people would have of it not being "musical" enough. In fact I've probably said the same thing myself. But what I think I'm getting from your explanations is that the music is more about a very raw emotion rather than a progression of emotions through the length of the song. More of a snapshot in stead of a story.
On March 05 2011 15:06 dydtaylor wrote: ... While initially not appealing, the vocals do their job effectively, I kind of like to think of them as "percussive vocals". They don't create a melody as much as create a unique, dark, percussive sound that fits in with the rest of the music....
That's an interesting way of looking at the vocals that I never really thought of. It actually makes me kind of like the vocals now. It may seem like an obvious thing to some people but when you don't understand why someone would "sing" like that it's just noise. I'm definitely going to look into the music more. Great Input.
On March 05 2011 16:21 Turgid wrote: I love Blaspherian but the real story of death metal is always the demos. That said I havent really followed the scene this year and my favorite of last year was an album for once(the new Weapon).
You liked "From the Devil's Tomb" more than "Cloven Hooves at the Holocaust Dawn", "Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm", or "Sigil of Lucifer"?
Don't get me wrong, "From the Devil's Tomb" was awesome (which really surprised me, given that I didn't like "Drakonian Paradigm" at all), but it really can't hold a candle to those two EPs.
Also, if you like demos, and haven't heard War Master- "Chapel of the Apocalypse" and Disma- "Vault of Membros", you owe it to yourself to check those out. War Master is the current band of the previous Blaspherian vocalist; meanwhile, Disma is Craig Pillard's new band.
Also, I will never understand the veneration of Chuck Schuldiner. Death's only good album was the one written by Kam Lee and Chris Reifert.
Yeah I did like Weapon the best out of those. I actually felt a little on the disappointed side for Ominous Doctrines because I felt like Inquisition just didn't have the same edge that they did on previous albums. More melody, less riffs, and some of the "hypnotic" character of their music was toned down a bit. It was still really good but definitely a step below their best.
I've heard the Disma but not the War Master so I'll check it out.
I've got mixed feelings about Death, myself. I have a weird attachment to Human but not anything after it. Leprosy is good but I can't bring myself to enjoy any of the other pre-Human albums. I keep defending them, though. I get really annoyed at the Prozak/Falconsbane-style hate for Death.
Disincarnate - Dreams of the Carrion Kind did the Human and post-Human styles better than Death, IMO, although it's hard to see someone who doesn't like mid/late period Death enjoying it.
On March 05 2011 15:54 rauk wrote: i dunno this sounds pretty stale. the riffs aren't exactly exciting and the drums sound like they were recorded in a garage. no solos to spice it up either.
@revolution
death metal has changed plenty in the last 30 years, this is just a boring example
Indeed.
If this is the best that 2011 can offer, then I'm just going to stick with Chuck Schuldiner, and not worry about what's new in death metal.
Why oh why oh why did you have to follow up a Death track with something from Necrophagist?!?!
I included it because I thought that it was a decent representation of what I just described, it's one of Necrophagist's early (read:good) songs and Necrophagist was actually one of my first death metal and metal bands, so they're one of the first I think of.
its not bad but it kind of bores me a bit. As far as *newer* death metal bands go, this is the only band that has intrigued me.
I love the old scandinavian sound, and you cant really find much new bands doing stuff like entombed, dismember, asphyx or older sentenced and amorphis.
As far as why I like death metal, its hard to explain, I love the guitar tone foremost, slower and deeper guitars with some melodies in places where they fit well. The vocals are just another instrument to me adding to the whole picture. Its hard to explain, I guess something just clicks and you cant get enough of it and just want it heavier and heavier. But I do understand how people consider it pointless noise, its a acquired taste.
On March 06 2011 06:55 besiger wrote: I love the old scandinavian sound, and you cant really find much new bands doing stuff like entombed, dismember, asphyx or older sentenced and amorphis.
You're kidding me, this is like the only thing out there other than bestial blackened war hell metal. Graveless, Vorum, Funebrarum, Eroded...
im having a hell of a time trying to find some of those bands on youtube, and I im not really exposed to any scene where I could hear demo tapes of new bands
EPT
