PARENTS (REMEMBERED)

 Mosh Pit  14 Responses »
May 052015
 

Ares Kingdom in Berlin, 2011 — photo by Anan Tan

I’m doing something I don’t think I’ve ever done before — re-posting on the site something we’ve previously published (with just a few word changes). There’s a reason why I’m doing this, which you’ll find in a postscript at the end.

I wrote this almost exactly five years ago, when this site was about six months old. I was a little inebriated when I wrote it; I tend to get emotional when I’ve had a few shots. But re-reading it last night, for the first time since I wrote it, I decided it still reflects what I believe. And I think there’s a decent chance that very few people who are visiting our site these days will have seen it five years ago anyway; we’ve grown a bit since then. So, here we go…

******

I suppose this topic is sappy, and sappy isn’t metal. But maybe it really is. You be the judge. And if you conclude this is just too much emotional tripe, chalk it up to an excess of tequila

What motivated me to write about parents (besides too much tequila) was my recent piece on an awesome KC band called Ares Kingdom and their album Incendiary, and some messages we received in response to it. In addition to praising the music, I praised the album art — the kind of thing that many bands do poorly, and that’s often lost in our download culture when it’s done well. Continue reading »

FATHER SYNN’S METAL CONFESSIONAL

 Mosh Pit  93 Responses »
May 032015
 

 

(Andy Synn, who seems to have become a man of the cloth when we weren’t paying attention, herewith begins a new series…)

Rejoice my brethren and sistren, for today marks the inauguration of a new feature here at NoCleanSinging, that of Father Synn’s Metal Confessional!

For a long time now I have felt your pain brothers and sisters. How you suffer in silence. How you long for absolution. I know of the dark secrets that you keep locked up deep inside, and I step forwards now offering a balm to your soul and a reprieve from your torment.

I ask you to come forth and confess your sins before the congregation. Speak to us of your fears, your hidden longings, and your secret shame… all shall be heard, and all shall be forgiven! Continue reading »

NO! CLEAN SINGING?

 Mosh Pit  24 Responses »
Mar 172015
 


“Prince” by Andrzej Masianis

(Andy Synn has been thinking… and here’s what he’s been thinking about…)

Recently I was chatting with some friends after a show on the topic of clean singing in metal – its history, its use, its place, and its purpose… the how, the when, and the why of it…. and it got me thinking. Thinking hard enough to put together this little piece of persuasive ponderment anyway.

Of course clean singing has been a part of the metal landscape since the genre’s very inception, and despite this site’s (tongue-in-cheek) name we definitely understand and respect it for its importance and its contribution over the years. Heck, I can honestly say that I LOVE a lot of cleanly sung metal, from the majestic melancholy of Primordial and the devastating bombast of Nevermore, through the gritty gallows-humour of Sentenced and the shameless extravagance of Devin Townsend… and that’s not even counting the umpteen bands who intermingle clean/harsh vocals with aplomb!

But when we’re talking about the more extreme styles of metal that we tend to cover here at NCS, clean singing can often be a contentious issue. And I can understand why, as it’s possible to get it very, very wrong when it comes to clean singing. Continue reading »

BLOG SLOWDOWN — TOTAL VOMIT EXPERIENCE

 Mosh Pit, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  5 Responses »
Mar 082015
 

 

The maniacs out there who actually visit our putrid site on a daily basis will have noticed that I didn’t post anything yesterday, which I think is only the sixth day in more than five years when that’s happened. It wasn’t because of fucking off. “Fucking off” isn’t in the NCS dictionary. Once again, it’s because my fucking day job is fucking with me — and that will continue to happen for the next two weeks.

Once again, I’ve been dispatched away from home on a project that keeps me ridiculously busy both day and night. Yesterday I didn’t even have time (or the right frame of mind) to listen to a single song, much less the time to scribble something for the site. There will be days here and there between now and the end of the project when I can throw something together for NCS, or edit, format, and post the scribblings of other people. But I’m afraid there will be a noticeable drop in the volume of content on the site. Continue reading »

RECRUITING FOR A METAL AND GENDER STUDY

 Mosh Pit  2 Responses »
Mar 052015
 

 Transient’s Krysta Martinez

(About two years ago we posted a five-part series on metal culture [which can be found here] by cultural anthropologist and dedicated metalhead David Mollica, based in part on his Master’s dissertation and interviews he conducted in preparation for writing it. He is embarked on a new study, and we’ve agreed to help him recruit participants.)

Hey all. You might remember me from my guest series about my research on the culture of heavy metal. Well, I’ve somehow managed to convince another group of professors that letting me study metal is a good idea and I need some help with the project. In my post about women in metal (here) the content was mostly based on conjecture and anecdotes mentioned by men that I had interviewed because only one woman agreed to be interviewed for my research. Well, I’m finally getting around to addressing that issue.

I’m currently working on a research project that looks at gender in the heavy metal community and what it means to you to be a metal head. I’m looking for 10 guys and 10 girls (must be 18 or older) who are willing to be interviewed over the phone, via Skype, or by email. The interview will take about an hour. Continue reading »

LOCAL FOCUS: AN INVITATION

 Mosh Pit  30 Responses »
Feb 242015
 

 

NCS supporter and budding contributor Grant Skelton wrote me to propose an idea that I thought was cool. But it will become a reality only if we get some help.

Grant’s idea was for NCS to invite guest contributors to write a showcase on bands from their cities/states/regions within the U.S. The bands wouldn’t necessarily have to be unsigned and independent bands, but the mission of the series would be to put the spotlight on lesser known names — bands who don’t get much media coverage, and maybe even don’t have any official releases (beyond demos) under their belts.

The goal would be to post installments in the series once or twice a month, with the lofty aim of eventually trying to cover all 50 states. Grant also suggested that we consider inviting international contributors — which makes sense to me, given that we write about bands outside the U.S. at least as often (and maybe more frequently) as we do home-grown products. So this invitation includes people who live outside the U.S., too. Continue reading »

POLITICS?

 Mosh Pit  40 Responses »
Feb 212015
 

 

(An old subject, and probably not much new to say about it. I get like this when I’ve had too much to drink. At least there’s some good metal at the end.)

We’re not an overtly political site. I emphasize the word “overtly”, because if you’ve been paying attention, you can probably figure out that we have our views, and they influence what we write and what we write about.

But it’s not the result of any kind of editorial edict. We all write what we want to write about. There are no assignments here, there are no litmus tests. Maybe that’s a strength, maybe that’s a weakness. But somehow, I think we do have a basic world view, one that all the writers subscribe to. It’s a minimalist communion, because we are far from clones of each other. The only communion is the worship of art. Our goddess is The Muse, our god is Pan. Except, those are metaphors — we have no god in what we do here, we praise the achievement of human inspiration and talent.

Up to a point. For many music fans it’s impossible to separate the creator from the creation. And to varying degrees, we have trouble doing that, too. Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s not an issue — 99% of the time we don’t really know what bands believe, and 99% of the time their music isn’t dedicated to any controversial philosophies. Resistance to authority, rebellion against the imposition of structure by people who mean nothing to you, revulsion against religious dogma — those really aren’t radical views, and they’re increasingly less marginal, even in society as a whole. That view of the world might be a revelation to 18-year-old’s, but it’s old hat to most 40-year-old’s. It means very little in judgments about the quality of metal. Continue reading »

WHY DO WE LIKE DISGUSTING MUSIC?

 Mosh Pit  39 Responses »
Feb 142015
 


Photo by Tim Flach

 

About the title of this post: I’m using the term “we” very loosely. A lot of people who visit this site, maybe a majority of you, probably don’t like disgusting music. Heavy and harsh, even angry and savage — yes. But disgusting? Not likely. I’m just as sure that many of you do. I do. But why?

I’ve had that question in my head for a long time, but like most hard questions, I put off focusing on it. What got me thinking about it last night was Durf Talitopia’s review of Primitive Man’s new EP, Home Is Where the Hatred Is, at Brutalitopia. He wrote:

These are four songs that make you feel the need to shower after listening, and then maybe consider just drowning yourself in the bathtub…. Home is Where the Hatred Is will definitely not be for everyone.  It’s uncompromising in its ugliness, relentlessly spewing spite and bitterness from every second of every song…. This is music that has little to no commercial appeal, music that most people would probably turn off halfway through the first track.  In short, it’s music made by a band that believes in it…. I love that Home is Where the Hatred Is exists, and I think it’s one of the most distinct, incredible albums I’ve heard in a long, long time… even if I might not listen to it again for a long, long time.

Durf found the EP’s final song particularly disturbing: “‘A Marriage With Nothingness’ is one of the most uncomfortable songs I’ve ever encountered, to the point where I genuinely don’t know if I ever want to listen to it again.”

I hadn’t heard that song, or anything else on the EP, until reading the review. I listened to “A Marriage With Nothingness” first, and then I started writing this post. Continue reading »

TOO MANY COOKS

 Mosh Pit  10 Responses »
Jan 222015
 

quilts made of metal shirts by Ben Venom

(Here’s an opinion piece by Andy Synn.)

It seems like we often (and deservedly) praise bands for having a multitude of influences, for having a multi-faceted and varied sound, for achieving synthesis of diverse and disparate elements and using them to create a unique core identity for themselves. Heck, one of the key ways (although far from the only way) in which Metal progresses is by incorporating new sounds and influences, new styles, into the core genre, so it’s not surprising that we often laud those bands who bring something new, something fresh and exciting to the table.

After all, lack of breadth and variety in a band’s influences often does tend to lead to repetition and stagnation. If your band is happy to describe yourselves as “like Meshuggah” for example, then it’s odds-on that you’re probably just going to sound like a lesser-copy of the Swedish cybernauts. Just as if you’re a Thrash band and your only influences are other Thrash bands – and usually that means going back to the same tapped-out well as every other band – it becomes less and less likely that you’ll be pushing the genre forward, rather than simply rehashing or reworking what’s gone before (not, let me add, that there’s always anything intrinsically wrong with that).

Yet we also have to be careful about praising bands with too many influences wholesale. It’s certainly possible for bands to go overboard with their disparate influences and styles, and end up a directionless mish-mash of bits and pieces of other bands, which never really cohere into a greater whole.

But that’s not the only potential problem bands face when trying to weave together their influences and inspirations… Continue reading »

MISBEGOTTEN CONFESSIONS OF A FORMER FILESHARER

 Mosh Pit  30 Responses »
Jan 212015
 

 

(Grant Skelton provided these confessions.)

(Author’s Note: This article is not intended to be persuasive. It was written neither in support of filesharing nor against it. Instead, it recalls my experiences with filesharing and how those experiences shaped my consumption of music as both an art and a product.)

My family bought our first computer in 1998. I was 13. We had AOL 3.0 (You’ve got mail!). I spent most of my time on the PC playing games that a person my age probably had no business playing. Educational games like Postal, Doom, Blood, and Duke Nukem 3D kept me from completing many a homework assignment. Chat rooms were another productive and beneficial investment of one’s time.

I was still a burgeoning music fan in those days. My CD collection was sparse, and my ears were still very conditioned to ’90s grunge rock provided by local radio stations. I genuinely liked grunge, and I still do. But I always wanted something… more from my music. I wanted something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I wanted the grunge to be angrier, faster, meaner. I wanted music with more aggression. Something with fire and venom. Continue reading »

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