METAL KVLTVRE

 Mosh Pit  43 Responses »
Dec 232012
 

(Here we have an NCS first. We’re delighted to publish an academic paper prepared for college credit by one of our long-time supporters, a frequent commenter, and a regular source of excellent musical recommendations: His NCS moniker is Utmu. Both Phro and your humble editor happily agreed to be interviewed for Utmu’s project. Usually we only see our names cited in police reports, so this is a refreshing change.)

See what I did there with that title? Yeah, I know, it’s corny. Anyway, I recently took a sociology class and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and luckily for me one of the choices for a final project was a research paper, and I decided to cover heavy metal culture. Also luckily for me, my teacher was quite lenient about sources and other things regarding this paper, and I don’t normally enjoy this sort of thing. Also fortunately for me, I have friends who are metalheads and those friends have opinions and experiences regarding metal culture; both Islander and Phro were very cooperative in the interviews on which I based this project, and I’d like to thank them for their help!

I really enjoyed interviewing them and I also enjoyed writing my paper (even if I did get about 98% of it done from around 2:30 AM to 5 AM the morning of its due date) and I think I did pretty well. I wish I had put more analysis in it, but sadly I had to be able to fit information into 5 or 6 pages — I couldn’t even include everything from the interviews. Also, I realized after reading the project that I utilized in-text citations frequently, but I’m afraid I’m a bit paranoid when it comes to such things.

I sent this in to Islander for a number of reasons: It’s the first academic paper on NCS, I get to help the blog out by contributing something, and maybe this can spark a good discussion (if it does I’d like to send this in to my instructor). Anyway, here is my paper, simply titled “On Metal Culture”. Continue reading »

MEMORABLE MOMENTS IN METAL: EXTREME NOISE TERROR AND FIRING BLANKS

 Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  3 Responses »
Nov 192012
 

(This guest post was written by an Australian writer who calls himself Hoss.)

The other week, while researching for an article on John Peel and grindcore, I came across a nice little moment in metal history. When I first read about it, I thought it was just about one of the coolest things ever. I’m going to share it with you now.

In 1992 British art-electro-hip-hop-kinda-thing band The KLF were invited to perform their hit “3AM Eternal” live at the Brit Awards. The KLF are perhaps best known for being justified, ancient, driving an ice cream van, and, most importantly, being endorsed by Tammy Wynette. Ever the pranksters, they invited Ipswich grinders Extreme Noise Terror to perform in their stead.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking – ‘getting a metal band to perform a pop song!? THAT’S HIL-AR-IOUS!’. But you must remember that in 1992 this irony-laden chestnut was not yet old, and still might have caused at least a few bemused smirks. Part of the joke also included firing machine guns filled with blanks into the crowd (rad) and dumping a dead sheep at the afterparty.

Sounds awesome right? I mean, this photo of The KLF head guy Bill Drummond certainly makes it look that way: Continue reading »

THE METALOCALYPSE SURVIVAL GUIDE

 Mosh Pit  7 Responses »
Nov 132012
 

(The following post was written by guest contributor Happy Metal Guy.)

The unmetal have risen. How protected are you from them?

Only ignorant fools decry the severity—or even the existence—of the unmetal plague. This handy article is your key to surviving the metalocalypse, and hopefully it will enable you to make it through young enough to revitalize the human gene pool. Make haste, for every second you waste in contemplating the validity of this article is a second gained for the cunning horde out there that is always actively seeking out ways to infect you. Everything you need to know to safeguard yourself and your loved ones against the ravenous unmetal can be found here through 10 unproven, fishy-sounding tips. Don’t be an ignorant fool, this article can save your life.

1. Learn to spot the signs!

Prevention is the best cure—this cliché aphorism never made more sense in today’s unmetal epidemic. Argonium may be an untreatable virus at the moment, but Mother Nature is not without her sadistic sense of humor. Thank Lemmy that she’s kind enough to throw in all those obvious symptoms to warn us of infected individuals, which ranges from body graffiti such as tattooed Chinese characters whose bearers usually don’t even know their meanings, to severely gauged earlobes (that seem to serve the purpose of encouraging another form of alternative copulation) and faux hawk or “tsunami” hairstyles, to name just a few off the foremost atoms atop the needle-sharp tip of the Titanic-sized iceberg. In summary, the gist is that the most commonly seen members of the unmetal can have appearances that lean to either end of the following two extremes: resembling either Frankie Palmeri or Andy Biersack. The special infected, however, are a more dangerous and cunning breed and will be discussed last in this article. Continue reading »

ON DOWNLOADS, COMPRESSION RATES, AND ALBUM ARTWORK

 Mosh Pit  37 Responses »
Nov 112012
 

(This guest opinion piece was written by musician Robert Hunter O.)

Batman, starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson, came to theaters one day before my eighth birthday, in 1989. With it came my first cassette, the eponymous soundtrack and eleventh album by Prince. Over the next few years, I stumbled my way through a variety of genres, before purchasing Alice in Chain’s Dirt. It has been nearly 20 years since I laid down $16 for my first CD, and I have spent tens of thousands of dollars on a wide variety of artists and genres, across formats as diverse as vinyl, CD, cassette, Mini-CD, business card CD-r, and paper (Especially Likely Sloth!). No matter what format, the artwork and layout have always been essential to the kind of immersion I prefer as part of my music-listening experience.

Recently, as my free time has decreased, I have been making more digital purchases. Sites like Amazon and CDBaby give me access to mainstream artists, while Bandcamp has made smaller artists and their releases more accessible than ever, with full album streams and a platform that gives artists the majority of money from purchases. Despite the ease with which I can acquire new music, there is one thing which I have really been missing with digital downloads: the artwork. Of my recent online purchases, most did not come with more than an album cover relegated to 300 pixels. Where are the lyrics? What happened to the 8-page booklet with artwork tying together the concept of the album? Who was the producer? Are the engineers not important? Where are the “thank you” lists that used to provide me new artists to check out?

Of the digital albums I have recently purchased from Amazon including Evoken, Mike Keneally, Edison’s Children, Down, and Rush, the only artist to include a digital booklet was the latter. This is irritating for a couple of reasons, chief among them that the price of digital downloads is typically only a few dollars less than buying the physical product. Continue reading »

GENRE POLICING: A PSA

 Mosh Pit  39 Responses »
Nov 072012
 

(Tyler Lowery has taken maximum advantage of our open invitation for guest posts. This is his latest, and more lie ahead.) 

We as a society have become obsessed with the concept of order. Speaking solely for Americans here, we have countless laws for some of the dumbest things imaginable. We have applications on our phones to tell us when to eat and sleep, and how many calories we’ve burned in the interim. We sort our lives into tidy boxes, always pushing to label and categorize what we like and dislike. It was only a matter of time before this obsession seeped its way into our interest in music as well.

First it started with dividing music into genres. At first they were usually loosely defined and were really a catch-all net that was akin to sorting colors from whites in the wash. Then slowly we began splitting our genres into neater categories, taking common techniques and delivery styles and grouping them into arching subgenres.

Then the net became a cupboard drawer. There was a place for big forks, salad forks, meat forks, serving forks, you get the picture. But even still, there seemed to be a need for continual sub-classification, making the pigeon holes smaller and smaller. Now we are stuck with subgenres and offshoots that sometimes only include one or two bands in each. Continue reading »

THE LATEST WORD IN THE COLD HARD TRUTH (FROM CHRIS GRIGG)

 Mosh Pit  44 Responses »
Nov 022012
 

After the nearly three years since I started NO CLEAN SINGING, what I know about the economics of extreme metal has multiplied by orders of magnitude. There are two caveats that go along with this statement:

First, when I started this blog what I knew about the economics of extreme metal wouldn’t fill an ant’s ass, so what I know now is all relative to that barren starting point.  Second, since I’m not a musician, a producer, a promoter, or involved in running a label, even what I know now is second-hand, incomplete, and undoubtedly inaccurate in at least some respects. My learning has come from a lot of reading and a fair number of discussions with musicians, but that still ain’t the same as living the life. I watch, while others do.

I’m still curious and I’m still trying to learn. My latest bit of learning comes from a long piece written by Chris Grigg, posted on his personal blog last night. Chris Grigg is the founder, vocalist, and guitarist for Woe, a Philadelphia-based black metal band that also includes members of Rumpelstiltskin Grinder. Their last album, Quietly, Undramatically, was released by Candlelight Records in 2010 and they’re working on a new one now. Chris has also been involved with Krieg and The Green Evening Requiem as well as a grindcore outfit named Unrest.

Chris Grigg also runs a recording studio and holds down a full-time job with an IT services company.

In the article I read — which is entitled “The Music Industry Is A Fucking Pit” — he explains in detail why independent musicians do not make money, and who does. He summarizes his thesis thusly:

The music industry, as it has existed to date, is a fucking pit. It is a dead-end. Anyone who expects to play rock music in 2012, follow all the old rules about touring full time and signing with a label and all that shit, AND live off of it is living in a dreamworld because by the time the purse floats down to the bottom of the river, everyone along the way has reached in and taken their share. There is nothing left for you. Continue reading »

ON THE TOPIC OF GORY METAL VIDEOS

 Mosh Pit  19 Responses »
Oct 262012
 

(It didn’t take long to get our first guest post in response to our solicitation of two days ago, and even though I hadn’t planned to start rolling out our guest series until Nov 5, I’m going with this one now. Please welcome Tyler Lowery.)

Since the birth of extreme metal, there has always been gore in one sense or another. Be it lyrical content, album covers, stage performance, or music videos, metal heads love to see blood and guts. It’s engrained into the very nature of the music. That being said, there can only be so many decapitated bodies floundering around while a band screams about it in the background, right?

As I’m sure we’re all aware, Cattle Decapitation recently released an extremely gory video for their song “Forced Gender Reassignment”. The video displays sexual assault, rape, and the mutilation of human flesh. With the sophistication in special effects, prosthetics, and computer-generated graphics, making the filthiest video possible is now easier than ever! And because of this, the question has been raised about the feasibility of excessive gore in music videos.

As the post here pointed out, Travis Ryan made the following statement about that video: “It seems nowadays you have to be over the top in your presentation to get anyone to think about anything anymore.” This reminds me of the recent comment made by Ann Coulter about the presidential debates in which she called Barack Obama a “retard”. Whatever point that bat shit crazy nutbag was trying to make was immediately lost under the reckless comment she made. Continue reading »

VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA PENIS PENIS PENIS

 Mosh Pit  48 Responses »
Sep 132012
 

Naomi Wolf

For 2012 to date, the continental United States has turned into a giant microwave oven, experiencing the hottest year since record-keeping began in 1895. And the summer? Third-hottest on record, with 80 million Americans suffering 100-degree temperatures at some point. In other words, most of the country has been like the inside of a boar hog’s hot, sweaty anus since June.

I’ve been privy to a private memo from Dave Mustaine that makes clear this is not the result of “global warming” (lol) but instead a vicious well-concealed plan by the Obama Administration to pave the way for nationalizing all carbon-generating businesses in the U.S. and turning them into abortion factories. Dave nails the truth again. Do the research. I have.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, however, following a near record-tying stretch of consecutive glorious days without rain (49), the weather is starting to turn cooler, and the summer was nothing remotely like what the rest of the country has been experiencing. This is also an Obama plot — geared toward driving hordes of hot, sweaty, anus-like people from hot, sweaty, anus-like Red States into our region, where they will be outnumbered and neutered by latte-slurping socialists, leaving their former home lands vulnerable to takeover by Obama-loving people without birth certificates, thereby killing two birds with one stone.

And yeah, the birds I’m talking about are the freedom-loving American eagles, those magnificent scavengers of decaying flesh, preying on weaker creatures and fornicating in the air, one male and one female, as God intended.

And if it weren’t enough already that the country is under siege from within, we’ve once again become the butt of jokes by supercilious people looking down their noses at us from across the Atlantic. Where am I going with all this? I’ll tell you where I’m going.  I’m going straight to the v****a, that’s where. Continue reading »

“TREAT INSPIRATION LIKE THE BITCH IT IS”!!!

 Mosh Pit  5 Responses »
Sep 062012
 

I hadn’t planned to post anything else today, but I just read something that’s so wise and so vividly expressed that I just have to pimp it.

It’s an article that just appeared at Metal Sucks by Eyal Levi, guitarist and co-writer of Dååth, co-creator of the wonderful Avalanche of Worms by Levi/Werstler, and a talented record producer with Audiohammer Studios (founded by Jason Suecof). The subject of the piece is creativity and inspiration, and how to deal with the unfortunate reality that inspiration can’t be summoned on demand.

In a nutshell, his messages are as follows: Understand and accept that no one can be creatively inspired 100% of the time — and don’t let the low points throw you; but also understand that creativity behaves like a muscle, and the more you work at it, the more natural it will become to achieve a creative state. This requires you to work hard, to force yourself to create even when the inspiration has deserted you, rather than to sit around and wait for that “elusive fucker” to show up again in its own good time. He writes:

“Treat inspiration like the bitch that it is. Move forward with or without it and you will find that it will tag along more often than not.  If you are in the habit of flexing that creative muscle as often as possible your ruts will be of shorter duration. Your next great idea will be that much closer.”

Levi writes primarily (though not exclusively) from the perspective of a songwriter and musician. I am neither, but I think his observations are just as valid when it comes to writing, or for that matter any other form of creative endeavor. What he says certainly fits my own experiences and my own observations of successful creative people I’ve known in my life. They are messages worth taking to heart. Continue reading »

LIES, BULLSHIT, AND SLANDER: ATTENTION METALHEADS OF THE MID-COUNTRY: COME TO SACRAMENTO!

 Mosh Pit  26 Responses »
Aug 052012
 

(EDITOR’S PREFACE: DGR wrote this. To be clear, DGR wrote this. He wrote this before he wrote last week’s flood of reviews. But I’m only posting it now.)

See? Even that fat lesbian approves of the place!

What you are about to read is potentially the dumbest thing that I may have ever written. Yes, this coming from a guy who dedicated close to 1500 words on how much a speed bump in front of his local city college sucked, or wrote an essay-length screed on the merits of the Manny Fresh song “Real Big” as an April Fool’s joke.

You may have noticed that until last week, I hadn’t contributed much to NCS for a couple of weeks, and it’s a pretty simple reason why. A lot of writers will brush off stuff like this and say their personal lives interfered with their writing, but I’ve never considered myself a writer, and if I did, would probably insult a whole shit load of people who do this as a profession. Likewise, you’ll never see me refer to myself as a blogger because undoubtedly the reaction I would get from people being so informed would likely be the same reaction I would get from telling them I dress up like a clown and drive an Aerostar around kidnapping the local children for fun.

Simply put, I place words on a screen and sometimes the well from which I draw said words dries up. This time was far longer than others. I didn’t just get “Writers Block”, I got “Writer drove his car into a fucking wall”, and for the couple of weeks preceding last week’s outburst I was completely unable to get anything out of my mind and onto said screen. However, sometimes an idea hits you in the middle of the night (or my case, work…in the middle of the night) that just won’t let go no matter how fucking dumb it is and you can tell that it is, quite literally, the thing that has been damming up your brain the whole time. Such is the case with the following article . . . . Continue reading »

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