In Review: Blacklisted - No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me

First I suppose I should mention that this is ONLY available on 12” vinyl, which includes a coupon for a digital download by way of Deathwish Inc. Blacklisted is no stranger to these means of release (if you’re a true fan of the band, you’ll remember the vinyl exclusive release of their album, Peace On Earth, War On Stage, or the limited pressing of the split they did with First Blood, titled, Dead Mans Hand Volume: 3 which was also only released on vinyl.) There are plenty of vinyl collectors that obviously are not affected by this, but there’s a lot of other fans that I feel are missing out on this release. In my opinion, the vinyl exclusivity is a bad idea because it forces fans that want the mp3s to pay extra money for something they don’t need. It’s definitely better to give fans (which in this case should be defined as people that go to your shows and buy your records and merch, which puts food on your table and gas into the car you drive) more options for obtaining and enjoying your new music. It’s no secret that a lot of people in this day and age of the iPod and peer-to-peer file sharing software will just “acquire” (read: steal) this album. But not releasing this on other format (i.e. CDs) certainly doesn’t give the Blacklisted fans that want to hear this much other option. The true fans surely will go out and purchase the vinyl anyway, to get the digital download card that goes with it, thus getting it onto CD (if one were so inclined to burn one), but then be stuck with a 12 dollar album format that they won’t do anything with. People will respond to this with internet thuggery saying, “yeah well there’s no money to be made in selling CDs anymore because of piracy and the small turnaround they’ll acquire from CD sales because of it,” ultimately making a vinyl exclusive sound like a good business decision by the band.

But what most people with unfounded arguments as such don’t know is that the music on No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me was most likely recorded on analog, which is then produced and pressed onto vinyl. End of transaction. If they wanted to make CDs, they would have to take a whole other long, pain-staking step of converting the analog to digital and then pressing CDs. Or, I can do you one better: if they were planning from the beginning to produce the album via a CD format, they would have recorded to digital from the start, completely bypassing analog. Another fact is that when Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God was leaked a year ago, Blacklisted flipped shit and traced the leak to a kid in Canada and more or less threatened his life. Certainly stemming from this incident it would be in their best interest to be more careful with future pressings of albums, all the more reason there was no real release date set for this new album in addition to only being available on vinyl. But even with the argument that there’s no money to be made in CDs in relation to the overwhelming masses file sharing, pirating, and having mass-produced CD burners available on any personal computer nowadays, it’s still blatantly obvious that CD players and iPods are bought a hundredfold over record players. I rest my case.

Now that the business aspect of the release has been addressed, I can get down to the nitty-gritty. First of all, Blacklisted has and probably always will be referred to as a hardcore band. However, calling No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me a hardcore album is quite a stretch. Frankly, aside from it being done by a hardcore band, there’s really nothing hardcore about it. It has quite a rock and roll, almost grunge feel to it. It reminds me of Foo Fighters and a non-electronic version of Stabbing Westward mish-mashed into one big pile of shit. It’s waaay different than anything they’ve done to date. And while I suppose it is musically good for what it is, I don’t know if this record is really my cup of tea. Blacklisted messed with my Blacklisted, and if this is the path their musical careers are taking, you may potentially see less and less people attending their shows. It’s definitely bold, to say the least. It’s obvious that each track has been very carefully laid out and executed, and attention should be paid especially to this aspect. Although we can’t really call this a hardcore record, and perhaps Blacklisted has chosen to distance themselves from the scene, the album is still overall quite enjoyable. It’s just at the same time a little disheartening to those of us fans that were expecting another heavy hitter from these guys. It took me quite a few listens to get into it, but I do like it. Just not as much as their other releases (after all, it’s got to be like a gorilla on your back to try and top the Our Youth Is Wasted EP, which is also found on the full length We’re Unstoppable.)

Though I doubt this is the last we’ll hear from them, if my speculation is true that Blacklisted is trying to morph into something more outside the hardcore scene, I feel there’s quite a big margin for a serious decline in popularity. The new record has a series of interludes that honestly just seem to suck time and do not really need to be there, as well as something you don’t see in hardcore bands, a slow, acoustic track halfway through titled The P.I.G. (The Problem Is G.) Despite coming up short in the hardcore sound department, the album still rocks as hard as it possibly can, albeit an extreme polar opposite in comparison to what they’ve done prior. Stand out tracks for me are Everything In My Life Is For Sale, and Our Apartment Is Always Empty. I think the highest I can bring myself to give this is a 6 out of 10. It’s a good effort, but it’s definitely not what I anticipated it being and honestly, it’s a little frightening and I hope they don’t keep this up and get back to the roots that made them arguably one of the most popular hardcore acts out of Pennsylvania.

Blacklisted proclaimed: “let the music speak for itself.” The preceding statements are what the music said to me.

Davey Bx

Decibel Magazine's Top 40 Albums Of 2009 And Why It Sucks

let me start off by saying i'm no means an expert on ANYTHING. i don't like a lot of black metal or bands that have songs longer than my attention span, so perhaps my opinion is biased. also i haven't heard all these records so perhaps i am wrong, but i am familiar with most of the bands on here and have heard other records not even on here to form an opinion, however skewed it may be. keep your internet thuggery to yourself if you don't agree, i'm not trying to start an argument or say i know everything because i don't. just stating what i THINK is good music over bad. now that that's outta the way, i also have to address the fact that this was released in early november, which means it was printed in october, as the december issue of decibel. how can you establish a best of 2009 list when at the time of print there was about 2 months left of the year? and there's still albums that haven't been released yet.

this was decibel's top 40 as follows:

40 Funebrarum - The Sleep Of Morbid Dreams
39 Millions - Gather Scatter
38 Municipal Waste - Massive Aggressor
37 Javelina - Beasts Among Sheep
36 Suffocation - Blood Oath
35 Goes Cube - Another Day Has Passed
34 Culted - Below The Thunders Of The Upper Deep
33 Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough
32 Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution
31 The Red Chord - Fed Through The Teeth Machine
30 Keelhaul - Keelhaul's Triumphannt Return To Obscurity
29 Katatonia - Night Is The New Day
28 Gaza - He Is Never Coming Back
27 Goatwhore - Carving Out The Eyes Of God
26 City Of Ships - Look What God Did To Us
25 Burnt By The Sun - Heart Of Darkness
24 The Gates Of Slumber - Hymns Of Blood And Thunder
23 Funeral Mist - Maranatha
22 Mournful Congregation - The June Frost
21 Altar Of Plauges - White Tomb
20 Asphyx - Death...The Brutal Way
19 The Atlas Moth - A Glorified Piece Of Blue Sky
18 Paradise Lost - Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us
17 Mastodon - Crack The Skye
16 YOB - The Great Cessation
15 Nile - Those Whom The Gods Detest
14 Magrudergrind - Magrudergrind
13 Obscura - Cosmogenesis
12 Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
11 Immortal - All Shall Fall
10 Isis - Wavering Radiant
09 Marduk - Wormwood
08 Tombs - Winter Hours
07 Slayer - World Painted Blood
06 Kylesa - Static Tensions
05 Cobalt - Gin
04 Napalm Death - Time Waits No Slave
03 Coalesce - Ox
02 Converge - Axe To Fall
01 Baroness -The Blue Record

starting off, i like the nods to suffocation, magrudergrind, municipal waste, and brutal truth. these are all very hard working bands that have been around for a long time. of these i heard the municipal waste record and loved it, so i don't understand how it's so low on the list. the new burnt by the sun record is not only the BEST they've done to date, but also boasted as the LAST record they'll ever release. BBTS is calling it quits and going out on an incredibly intellectual note with heart of darkness. so not just for the ridiculous guitar work and wise lyrics, nostalgic value should have propelled this record into the top 10 easy. i never cared much for goatwhore, but i did hear two tracks from carving out the eyes of god which was enough to say they are definitely on to something, which leads me to believe they were equally as cheated as burnt by the sun. i'm about even with the placement of agoraphobic nosebleed's latest record too, although maybe could have been bumped slightly higher. it's the first record they've put together that has some sort of structure and isn't just grindcore vomit. i've actually acquired and listened to this record MULTIPLE times because it's that good. i've listened to the rest of their discography and it's safe to say this is the only album they have worth buying.

now some things that baffled me. coalesce's record ox being number 3 tells me that someone that is IN the band/is related to someone in the band/the band sent decibel magazine money. every coalesce record sounds exactly the same to me. sort of a snapcase meets botch feel, which is the comparisons i hear all the time. snapcase and botch may have cracked top 20, but i disagree with them being so high. a lot of people jock them because they've been around a long time but they've never done anything groundbreaking in my opinion. like i said, all their songs sound the same to me, it's generic and gets old fast for me. the new napalm death was the biggest disappointment of the year, this record shouldn't even be on the list. slayer will never top reign in blood, this record shouldn't that high on the count, maybe 30-40 just because it's slayer. isis deserves to be there in some way, but not as high because wavering radiant will never be panopticon or even oceanic. they can do much better. was not into wormwood by marduk at all. but again, i'm not that into black metal so this record didn't do much for me. texturally it's good, there's real creative musicianship at work, but again it's just not really my thing. i never liked nile and i never liked mastodon. mastodon just doesn't make sense to me, it seems that their fanbase spends most of their time chugging beer and growing their hair, so maybe if i dropped the straight edge lifestyle and grew my hair i'd like mastodon. needless to say i wouldn't even listen to the new record let alone put it on a personal favorites list.

so my top 10 is like this:

10. Black Dahlia Murder - Deflorate (which isn't even mentioned in decibel. don't expect miasma, but it's still a really well put together record)

9. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse (like i said, they originally were just a scattered mess of grindcore with a 600 bpm drum machine, but with the addition of a female vocalist and some sort of song structure, this release by them is very mature and tasteful from what it was. comes highly recommended)

8. The Red Chord - Fed Through The Teeth Machine (their best release to date. after fused together in revolving doors, they sort of fell off between a plethora of side projects like dim mak and ladder up the ass, and two non-memorable albums in clients and prey for eyes, but red chord comes back REAL HARD with this one. if you liked all their material to date, you'll like this one the most)

7. Portal - Swarth (perhaps a little shorter in length that a good record should be, but i had never heard this band and don't really know anything about them except that they definitely put out one of the best records of 2009. take a listen, it's pretty bad ass, albeit short)

6. Architects - Hollow Crown (i wasn't familiar with this band either until a few weeks ago when i downloaded this shit. it's really really catchy and in your face. it reminds me of dead and buried or nourish the flame [now known as choose your weapon]. i'm very skeptical of discovering a new band and tend not to give them as much credibility as i should, but this one blew me away.)

5. Burnt By The Sun - Heart Of Darkness (if this isn't in your tops of the year, you're looney. it's an amazing record by an amazing group of guys, and like i previously stated, it's slated as their last release ever so even if you don't like it as much as say, soundtrack to the personal revolution, you should still pick this up)

4. Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder (it's only 5 songs averaging 7 and a half minutes a piece, but this shit is incredible. i'm not really sure how decibel magazine looked past this. how coalesce and napalm death's horrid records cracked the top 10 and this isn't even in the top 40 blows my mind. i'm not sure who works at that place but their credibility is really starting to slip with this one. AMAZING record. anyone who likes metal, old or new, will love this. it reminds me a lot of black sabbath or even ronnie james dio's solo stuff, but a lot heavier. epic miss there, decibel.)

3. Obscura - Cosmogenesis (this was mentioned and is pretty high on their list so at least we agree on some things. very progressive death metal here. i'm usually not into concept albums, i usually feel they're kinda self righteous and gimmicky, but this is a very lucid, intelligent release and i think any fan of the heavier side of music would really dig this.)

2. Lewd Acts - Black Eye Blues (i doubt many at decibel are into hardcore "punk", they have a tendency to lean to more metal influenced hardcore bands. but this is an awesome upbeat, and rather surprising release from deathwish inc. i really wasn't expecting much from this but i love this record. there's only one album i loved more this year than this one which means it's pretty fucking good. go get it.)

1. Converge - Axe To Fall (everyone has been talking about this. considering this is one of my all time favorite bands, this is extremely biased, but axe to fall is not only the best release of 2009, but the best of converge's legendary career. they've had plenty of other LP's, splits, and demos since their inception into boston's hardcore scene in 1994, but they've come full circle and made a truely career-defining album with this one. it's changed everything and has set the bar for any up and coming band remotely influenced by converge. this record is like jacob bannon waving his middle finger to the music making masses saying "here you go...beat THAT.")

one more time. this is just my opinion. i'm not a musical expert and haven't heard every album released this year to say i know everything. fact is no one has. you can't listen to every single cd released in an entire year, it's impossible. lastly the only reason baroness wasn't mentioned is because i have yet to hear the blue album, but if anyone has it send a copy/download link my way. i've heard nothing but good things.

spinach.

Davey Bx

WHERE HAS ALL THE STRAIGHT EDGE GONE?

Straight edge – an idealistic movement instituted by pioneers of the American hardcore punk scene which promotes a clean lifestyle (i.e. abstaining from drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and unsafe promiscuous sex) and a strong camaraderie among fellow members of the scene.

So what the fuck happened? Sure it still exists, but straight edge is a dying breed for sure. I suppose I can start by giving a non-cited, abridged version of the overall history of straight edge in hardcore. Please comment with corrections where needed as this is all from the confines of my brain and not encyclopedias or the internet. So if I was misinformed, not my problem.

The Beginning

When Minor Threat lead singer Ian Mckaye penned the lyrics to his anthem “Straight Edge,” he was reciting his own philosophy of a clean lifestyle and why he felt the need to rebel against the societal norms of intoxication and addiction happening all around him. I doubt he ever imagined that the message in his music would ultimately put a lot of things in perspective for fellow hardcore youth, who would model their own lives around his philosophy.

Although Minor Threat called it quits in 1983, the ideals in their songs lived on, even today. The idolatry that is their discography was full of a simple way of life that could potentially change society and keep American teens of the 80’s from turning into sex-addicted, recreational drug abusing, alcoholic, dead beats. The three main tenants practiced by Mckaye and other straight edgers included:
- no drinking
- no smoking
- no promiscuous sex
Within a small span of time, other hardcore punks got the snowball rolling and actively identified themselves as straight edge bands. Bands like SS Decontrol, Uniform Choice, and DYS (Department of Youth Services), all embraced this same clean way of living. They preached about straight edge in their lyrics and between songs and sets at their shows. Though this was the first push for what would be considered one of the most influential movements in American music in the early to mid 80’s, it was the scenes in New York and New England that would make straight edge living the most prevalent.

Initiated by bands like Youth Of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Side By Side, Judge, Bold, and a plethora of others, a hardcore scene of predominantly young and organized teenagers molded itself and spread like herpes. The sound and scene to which these bands and others like them resided was coined “youth crew,” after a Youth Of Today song by the same title.

Straight Edge In The 90’s

With the Youth Crew movement lasting between the mid 80’s and early 90’s, bands broke up and the people involved “grew up” (for lack of a better term) and moved on. Though these founding bands drifted apart, a new wave of musicians and hardcore youth was proliferating. With a heavier, more metallic sound and more steadfast, ardent and militant beliefs construed in their lyrics, bands like Earth Crisis, Strife, Unbroken, Snapcase, and Path Of Resistance paved the road for a new wave of straight edge hardcore. This second wave flourished and the bands responsible for it grew in popularity, not only gathering a new following of straightedge/hardcore converts, but also attracted national media attention:



The mid 90’s also saw a “Youth Crew Revival” of sorts. This was perpetrated by proclaimed straight edge bands that did not conform to the more popular metallic influence as heard with other 90’s hardcore bands. Bands like Ten Yard Fight, In My Eyes, Floorpunch, and Rancor all portrayed this revisited youth crew style.

Straight Edge In The New Millenium

At the end of the decade and the start of a new century, a wide number of the biggest names in straight edge hardcore called it quits. Such bands included Ten Yard Fight, arguably the most popular act from the Youth Crew Revival of the mid 90’s. They played their last show on October 17th of 1999 at a festival labeled National Straightedge Day or “Edge Day,” which became an unofficial annual holiday celebrated by straight edge people worldwide. Earth Crisis, the biggest vegan straight edge band of the 90’s also played (which was at the time) their last show at Hellfest in the summer of 2001. It goes without saying that the early part of this century has had a lot of ups and downs in both the number of straight edge kids and bands alike. With no real rhyme or reason aside from media “exposing” straight edge as some type of street gang, mostly due to followers of the hardline subculture, militant animal rights activism, and the foundation of FSU, there simply are not an overwhelming number of straight edge bands as there once were. However, the ones that are around are still doing it with just as much heart and conviction as those before them. Apart from now disbanded “super groups” of the straight edge movement like A18 and Over My Dead Body, some bands that still carry the message are xAFBx (Armed For Battle), Down To Nothing, Embrace Today, and Suffocate Faster.

I suppose now I will take the time to say that despite everything you read above, and any statement I’ve made or will make in the future about straight edge, personally I feel that straight edge is a CHOICE. I would never push or preach my views, beliefs, or philosophies on/to anyone. Anything I’ve written about straightedge from a first-person perspective is purely my opinion, my choice, and my conscious right as a human to be a healthy individual. It is by no means a pompous ideology or juvenile dick measuring contest. I’m not trying to profess that I’m in any way better than anybody simply because I believe in a movement that is (what I feel) the right fit for me. It’s the lifestyle I chose for myself. On behalf of the straight edge hardcore scene, I welcome anyone that wishes to be a part of it; perhaps reading this has inspired someone to look at what they’re doing and decide it’s time for a change. If you’re not straight edge, in that you drink alcohol, you use drugs, you smoke cigarettes, or you’ve had sex with everyone that would have you, that doesn’t mean I automatically think you’re a bad person or I’m any better than you. When it comes down to it, we’re all one race, the human race, and since the dawn of the hardcore scene, unity has been the major proponent amongst its fans, and something I believe in just as much as straight edge and no one should ever feel like they don’t belong.

There are a few things I feel I should define for those not familiar with certain other aspects of the hardcore scene that I have mentioned in this article, to further extend your understanding.

Veganism And Straight Edge: With bands like Earth Crisis, Birthright, and others singing about veganism and animal rights as well as straight edge, many people outside and even some within the hardcore community perceive veganism as part of the straight edge ethic. While it is certainly compatible with the straight edge ideal of clean living, veganism is NOT part of straight edge, although many bands in the 90’s and present day are vegan or vegetarian.

“X” Marks The Spot: The letter X has been commonly associated with straight edge since it’s inception in the hardcore community. According to Dischord Records, the prevalent “X on the back of the hand” can be traced back to a west coast swing by band Teen Idles (another Ian Mckaye band, prior to Minor Threat). They were to play a 21+ club in San Francisco, but because the band members were not of legal drinking age, they were denied access to the club. In compromise, management marked the backs of each band member’s hand with an “X” to signify to staff that they were under age and should not be served alcohol. Upon their return to DC, the band suggested to other clubs to adopt the same system to allow younger fans access to venues that served alcohol, without risk of serving minors.

Straight edge is also regularly represented with an array of three X’s. This XXX variation originated in artwork done by Jeff Nelson, drummer for Minor Threat, where he replaced the three stars of Washington DC’s flag (the band’s hometown) with X’s.

The term straight edge can also be denoted with the abbreviation sXe. By way of analogy, straight edge hardcore can also be abbreviated as hXc. Lastly, a person’s name or band can be signified as being straight edge by the addition of X’s to the front and back, for example, the bands Xlooking forwardX and xDEATHSTARx.

The Hardline Subculture: Hardline straight edge rooted in the early 90’s of the straight edge movement, with it’s name taken from band Vegan Reich’s EP titled “Hardline”. The philosophy of its followers was a more radically strict version of already established straight edge doctrines. Aside from tobacco, illicit drugs, and alcohol consumption being frowned upon, hardliners, as they were called, also did not use prescription medications, did not consume caffeine, resisted all sexual activities except those for procreation, and followed a very strict dietary regimen. The subculture’s food politics were very conservative and showed an affinity for respecting innocent life and the natural order. Hardliners ate only vegan and natural foods, shunned third-world crops such as coffee, sugar cane, and cocoa, and chose brown over white rice, natural vegetable oils over hydrogenated, etc. Their sexual politics kept with an Abrahamic respect of the natural order in that sex was not allowed aside from the purpose of procreation. Homosexuality was considered an abomination, pornography was renounced, artificial contraception was abjured, and abortion was militantly opposed.

FSU: Formed by Elgin James out of the Boston hardcore scene, in response to racist, skinhead gangs attending shows and using intimidation tactics to scare others. Standing for Friends Stand United, FSU is widely viewed by media outlets and federal and local law enforcement as a violent street gang, with many chapters established in the US and Canada. Some members follow the straight edge lifestyle.

So in closing, I’d like to say that I am not vegan or vegetarian. I love animals like the next guy, but have you ever seen a HEALTHY looking vegan? Mostly they’re very pale and deathly skinny and their poop smells horrific (speaking from experience). I like my turkey on thanksgiving, my ham on easter, and my burgers and dogs on the Fourth. I don’t draw X’s on the backs of my hands when attending hardcore shows. I’m there for the music because it’s what I love and I think being a walking billboard for straight edge may skew some impressions of me and I’d rather not come across as a pompous asshole. I’m not hardline nor have I ever agreed with hardline views. Their political philosophies go deeper than anyone should be willing to commit to. They’re like militant utopian hippies without the drug use and free love. Lastly, I support my local FSU. Some chapters in some places may be into illegal activities, but that’s their business and none of my concern. Kids in Philly have been keeping idiot skinheads out of shows before Friends Stand United was even organized, and that’s the way it should be. So in my opinion, FSU in southeastern PA is doing nothing wrong but looking out for everybody. Neo-fascism and racial violence has no place in the hardcore scene.

Davey Bx

(Yeah I sign my name with an X at the end. Now you know what it implies.)

Let's Break Down That Breakdown

I have two things in mind for my next two posts, both of which may either be controversial, informative (at the very least), or just wrong, as you may see it. I want to apologize ahead of time, if you find my views disagreeable. A few months ago, I would have definitely found a bit of it very disagreeable. All of this will be clarified, I promise.

My first idea will be handled presently. And to some extent, if you're a long-time hardcore-show-attendee, what I am about to say will seem arbitrary or obvious, but to people like (most) of my friends, this will be surprising, and hard to accept. But this is about hardcore dancing, and how not only is it acceptable (in it's proper context), but also it makes just as much if not more sense to dance to hardcore as it does to mosh to metal. Again, it's all about context; just to prologue this argument, any time I mention hardcore dancing, as appropriate, I mean as appropriate to hardcore, hardcore punk, metalcore, whatever the fuck you want to fucking label it. If you're not informed about what contexts I'm talking about, read the next few paragraphs; if you are, you can skip down a bit.

Contexts for Dancing:

Mainly, the music appropriate for hardcore dancing must be hardcore punk, and it's more modern derivatives. What qualifies as a derivative is way to complicated nowadays. But let me try and break it down (pun intended).

Hardcore is now more predominately metal-influenced; take a band like anything on Deathwish, Hatebreed, Throwdown, Madball, and the (rather good, in my opinion) newbies like some of the stuff on Bridge Nine. So that, along with the more traditionally punkier sounding roots (Minor Threat being in mind of course), is all called "hardcore", for better or worse. Today, and perhaps since Shai Hulud, we've had some oddity called "metalcore". This name also applies to two things: one of them is a metal-breakdown infusion which became popular as of the beginning of the 2000s, including bands like As I Lay Dying, Parkway Drive, August Burns Red, and you can include Underoath or The Devil Wears Prada if you like, though I tend to find them a bit too "light" for that label. I'd say those sorts of bands are more "post-hardcore" (to be explained in a second), but whatever. What makes them "-core" at all, is simply the amount of breakdowns included. But then why is As I Lay Dying called metalcore? They use little to no breakdowns. It's just metal, but the amount of melodicism involved identifies it with a "scene" which a more melodic, expressive sort of music. (This is the subject of my upcoming post, so you'll just have to stay in the dark for now, though most of you know what I mean, I guess.) The other side of "metalcore" would be a true hardcore + metal = metalcore mixture. Shai Hulud seems the most appropriate example, though under these rules, almost any modern hardcore band could be called metalcore, and they are not. So I need to amend this ever so slightly: it's more so hardcore + metal = metalcore if and only if the mixture is predominately metal. If it's not predominately metal, and has come out in the last few years, it should be called hardcore, because that's sort of what hardcore is nowadays. For instance, Hatebreed, although I'd call them hardcore, as a fan base more metal-inclined. Go to iTunes, see what most people buy with Hatebreed albums: Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, and the like. So that's hardcore and metalcore; lastly, we have "post-hardcore". This is sort of the beginnings of what people sillily today call "emo". Emo (in the punk-sense) started with Fugazi (or arguably with a band called Rites of Spring in '85), because they had emotional on stage performances. No other reason. And post-hardcore is more or less the mixture of hardcore and 90s rock that pooped out of...well, the 90s. Quicksand comes to mind (Walter Schreifels's project after Gorilla Biscuits) immediately as (perhaps) one its pioneers. But today, the name "post-hardcore" really ends up applied to bands like Circa Survive, Saosin, Boysetsfire (when they were around), Escape the Fate, Vanna, and tons more newer groups signed to Epitaph and Equal Vision and Victory in the last few years. For better or worse, these bands are more a mix of modern indie rock and screamo, with perhaps some hardcore roots. I mean, Circa Survive, the only band I listed I truly love, is made up of dudes from This Day Forward, which was a post-hardcore band in Philly from '97-'03. But listening to them, you really hear the hardcore influence: why it still gets called post-hardcore is because it actually was a mix of hardcore and 90s rock/emo. (Keep in mind, "emo" also applies to a bunch of bands like Texas Is the Reason, Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral, American Football, and Jimmy Eat World which became popular in the 90s; that is what I meant by "90s rock/emo" there.)

Now, what makes these groups appropriate for hardcore dancing? Well, hardcore nowadays normally comprises three main rhythmic motifs: a back-beated chug, punk rhythm, and breakdowns. Go listen to Reign Supreme's "And Come What May": here's the rhythms you hear in that tune (in the order they come up) in the first minute alone: 1. Punk; 2. Breakdown; 3. Chug. You hear those there main rhythmic ideas right in the first minute of that tune (by the way, it's just on their myspace, go check it out both because RS is pretty good, and because if you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll have a nice sample). I purposely used Reign Supreme because they are a quite modern version of hardcore, and the more "modern" you get, the more the prevalence of rhythms 2 and 3 pop up, as opposed to 1. In order words, it's gotten less "punk", at least rhythmically. But regardless, that was just in case you weren't familiar with that sort of stuff. Obviously those are not the only three, but those are the most typical. And it's these beats that induce hardcore dancing mostly: and more so with chugs and breakdowns than anything. It's "rhythmic" in such a way that warrants it literally danceable. And in general, it's back-beats that make that possible: for breakdowns, it's just the shear intensity of the moment that (I feel) ends up producing hardcore dancing. But we'll get to that.

This was all very confusing. But making my exposition any clearer would mean taking more time out of doing my homework, and I just can't spare it. Plus, sleeping is fun. Gonna wanna do that later, maybe are 5 in the morning. College is fun.

Psht.

Anyway, so yeah. Where and when is dancing appropriate, and why? I used to be, as most of my friends still are, ardent haters of hardcore dancing. It just seemed so pointless, and moreover, just ended up hurting people, badly. And to some extent, the fact that it ends up being so unsafe pisses me off, but that's sort of how pits work. They are going to be slightly unsafe somehow. But mainly people only get seriously hurt when some stupid motherfucker is not contributing fruitfully to the pit, and, as I will call it, is pitting selfishly. He's dancing as if he's the only dude there, and is completely and utterly careless of the people in the pit with him. Does he need to avoid everyone? Of course, not; actually, if he did, he'd be pitting a bit overcautiously. The whole idea is it can involve physical contact. That's okay. It's when you are swinging you fists around aimlessly knowingly about to slam into the side of the pit, when kids are just trying to enjoy the show (i.e. not pitting), then I have a problem with you. The pit is a communal experience, and when someone doesn't help someone else up, or gets in a fight, or hits people not actually in the pit, then you need to relax and start contributing to the experience for the people actually in the pit, without hurting them seriously.

But that point applies to all forms of moshing: what about hardcore dancing itself? What makes that ever excusable? I suppose I used to just find it stupid. It just looked stupid. But that was foolish, the main reason being that I had no good reason to find it stupid. I definitely didn't understand it, and if you read this blog regularly, you may have found: I am a strict believer in don't-say-anything-without-good-reason (unless you think you have a good reason to suggest why something isn't music). Hardcore dancing is simply a form of expression: it's literally dancing, you take the obvious back-beat that occurs in a lot of hardcore riffs and simply express it in motion, like you would to any dance tune with (an even more obvious) back-beat. And for the breakdowns: it's a moment where all of the intensity of the song builds up, so much so it feels about to boil over into a sea of boiling dead sea creatures that happened to be passing by. Sucks. Anyway, dancing to the breakdowns are notoriously more intense: that's why you see more flailing about, more spin kicks and shit, whatever. I'm not too interested in the technicalities. All I know to argue is that it's not only permissible, it's appropriate. Moshing in the usual sense is merely an expression of the intensity of the musical experience: it's so intense in fact that it's expression takes the form of some sort of odd, communal wave of people, all simply loving what they are hearing. And the physical togetherness is a bit lost in a hardcore pit: a lot of the time, it's possible to have just a bunch of kids dancing with no interaction. But that doesn't make it any less communal. What do you when someone falls? You help them the fuck up. If you don't, or you intentionally cause a fight, you're are ruining the experience for everyone, and you know you are. No one is actually supposed to risk their life and limb in a pit. You'll get hurt, yes, but if you break a bone, it's probably because some fuck was being too rough, or in general no one was looking out for each other. That is not what a pit is, and it's clear I think, that both hardcore and metal pits share that quality which makes them selfish or ill-formed: people not looking out for each other. If you finish moshing/dancing/parading/circling and feel like you've just climbed a mountain, you, and probably everyone else, did something right. Now that's a pit.

Thanks for listening, bitches. Go listen to Tombs, Baroness, Gaza, Coalesce, Brutal Truth, Doomriders, Lewd Acts, Ion Dissonance, Pulling Teeth, and Polar Bear Club. Just a few of the bands I've slobbered over recently.

I Smell Something Lovely

So I hit you few lovely people who actually read this hard last post. Almost went too far. But it didn't. I'm just saying I pulled out some philosophy guns on you all. And I wasn't even trying. I was still trying to make it poetic and spiritually meaningful, more so than rationalistically. Making music the subject of purely philosophical debate sounds fun, but honestly I can't help but feel I'd be disrespecting it somehow. Whatever musicians are trying to say, I'm not positive whether formal metaphysical enunciation will help decipher it. But of course, saying such a thing is philosophy, so I'm already breaking my own rules. Son of a bitch.

So I think I'll just review some stuff. Maybe the new Red Chord, or the new Between the Buried and Me. Haven't gotten around to the Blue Record yet (though I promise I will) and honestly, reviewing the new Converge would be analogous to be giving them a 19 paragraph-long blowjob. It's amazing just fucking buy it. Then we'll do some new stuff that's been sounding cool.

The Red Chord - Fed Through the Teeth Machine

I suppose if you don't even a wee little bit enjoy grindcore it's hard to like this band. If you're not sure whether or not you like grindcore (or even know what it is), go look up Nasum, or Pig Destroyer. Those are my favorites (the latter even more so). It's an unusual mixture of death metal and hardcore which isn't at all like what you heard from modern "deathcore". It has hardcore speeds and vitality, with the noisiness and chaos of brutal/technical death. And then the songs are a minute long each. Agoraphobic Nosebleed would be fun to check out, just realize something: they really suck. But it would still be fun. Their new record is actually impressive. The 4 second songs they used to release just don't do it for me. The electronic drumming is also a bit much. But Scott Hull (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed) can do no wrong with his guitar work.

But The Red Chord are odd: they exemplify grind well, but they know, and are obviously trying as far as I'm concerned, to bridge the gap between the modern progressive influx into metal on one end, and traditional hardcore intensity on the other. Bands like The Faceless are really bringing metal into a new era of raw technicality, that refreshingly doesn't devolve into pure notey-ness and blind riffage. It seems like The Red Chord has either been listening in, or at least wants to join the club. Sweet.

Needless to say, this record pushes the limits of everything they've ever done. It is more technical, but not to a fault. It's fucking brutal. The occasion breakdown, or chugged riff in general, is not only tasteful, but absolutely inspiring. The groove is palpable, and it should easily please both the musicians like myself trying to write solid groovy yet technical riffs, and the moshers/hardcore dancers trying to sweat their nuts off to some silky sonic transportation. (By the way, I'm definitely going to need to write a post about my newly found acceptance of hardcore dancing, and why. Stay tuned.) It's the only grind album I could ever label as even slightly melodic: "Hour of Rats" and "Mouthful of Precious Stones" in particular. If you like modern death metal, and the more technical direction it's tending towards, not only will you enjoy this record, but it will make you want to write the slickest, most brutal, funkiest death metal ever, and it's an awesome fucking feeling. I hope I'm not the only one who loves this LP. That would be sad. (9/10. Favorite track: Embarrassment Legacy.)

Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect

I'm a huge fan of this band. So I should not be reviewing it, for the same reasons I won't and shouldn't be review the new Converge. Nothing I say will actually be informative: it'll just be me slobbering. See, even though The Red Chord review was purely complimentary, it still told you something I hope. Actually, here I'll show you: before going into BTBAM, I will presently review Converge's new album, Axe to Fall.

Converge - Axe to Fall

Fuck. (9/10. Favorite Track: Axe to Fall/Losing Battle)

There, hope that helped.

So yeah, Between the Buried and Me. First of all, it is appropriate to prologue this review with my conclusion, so that I don't scare people: this LP is not a disappointment at all, but it is not as good as even Alaska, let alone Colors. Now, that criticism will only make sense to fans of those records, or at least the knowledgeable reader of their older material. If you are not one of these people, I shall explain myself better.

BTBAM is an extremely unique outfit. Even if you don't like it, you have to pay attention to it. I understand not everyone can get into the almost overly-progressiveness of it, and at times, especially on The Great Misdirect, I hear that. Almost every track is like cosine in a single period: up, then down, then up, then you hit 2pi and it starts all over again with the next tune. By "up" and "down" I mean up in intensity, then down to a groovy soft eloquence. Do I like both extremes? Yes. Will everyone? No. Even fans of the previous stuff? Yes. Why? Because they do it way more than is perhaps welcome on The Great Misdirect, and it could get a bit tiresome. Does it for me? Not really. Although I must say, I hate what they did on "Disease, Injury, Madness". The 4 minute quiet classical-guitar-strewn groove after just two minutes seemed artificial to me, and even worse, like a gimmick to prolong the length of the tune unnecessarily. I hate that. Maybe I need more time with it, and I just don't see the point of that section yet. On Colors, what was so inspiring was that everything was so beautifully deliberate, and not only that, but purposefully deliberate. If I could just sit them down and ask them about it, and they said, "oh yeah, we were trying to do X and/or Y with that part" I'd believe them, and I'd take back this part of this criticism. Wouldn't change the feeling of arbitrariness I feel during it personally, but it would satisfy me intellectually.

This being said however, the album pushes the experimental envelope they opened on Colors. There is more weird, avant gardeism on this record, and I love it, to be honest. The riffs lose some of the brutality/technicality they had on Colors, but they're whole musical horizons have seemed to broaden on this LP. There is 1930s big band jazz, Bach, country, indie rock, and more going on here, all beneath a thick metal shell. I can't help but admit I miss their more death metal leanings on Colors and previous records. But the diversity is awe-inspiring, and definitely not overdone. Although it comes damn close. When it comes down to it, not calling this a death metal record is an insult to these guys. But calling it brutal might be an insult to more brutal death metal outfits. Of course, brutality is not everything to me, nor should it be all that important most of the time; I'm just warning those readers to whom it may mean quite a lot.

If you were to come up to me on the street and ask me about it, I'd tell you to go pick it up immediately: it's amazing. They never cease to push themselves, and that in itself is worth going to see them live, and supporting their shit. They continue to be such a blessing to a genre where people are definitely afraid to experiment and declassify themselves from the usual labeling-system and downright bullshit that is "the scene". Vishnu bless their fingers. (7/10. Favorite track: Swim to the Moon.)

Wow long post so far. But I'm not fucking done. So thank you for reading so far, I love you all. If you quit on me, and you're not reading this, I feel okay saying the following: "You're are...very...impolite."

God I suck at being mean.

So anyway, here's some stuff to look into if you're bored:

Ceremony - really impressive hardcore band who is about to tour with AFI. I recently went to see AFI with Gallows (another impressive hardcore band), and although the new record is disappointing, the show was fun. Go see them both when they come around.

Mammoth Grinder - I don't know what to call it yet, but it's sludgey and delicious, and built out the dead burning carcasses of prehistoric elephant. Brutal.

Slayer - hey that new Slayer is out. It's good I guess. I'm not impressed as I was with Christ Illusion. Worth mentioning nonetheless.

After the Burial - just rereleased their record "Rareform" since for clarity of recording and to introduce their new vocalist. He has a more hardcore tinge then that other fucker, which I like, but overall the remastering was much needed and well done. For whatever reason, the first release of Rareform sounded like they recorded it through an asshole. That's right, an asshole. Good job guys. Now you need to fucking release the tabs. Learning this shit would be an amazing way to learn technical riffing better. I'm not their biggest fan, but they are amazing technical songwriters. Once they mature just a little bit more, they will release a groundbreaker, and it will change the fucking game. So far, it's just been pretty cool stuff, though enjoyable.

Before I leave you to your turkey (Happy Thanksgiving by the way, dear readers), I have to comment on Spin magazine's listing of the 16 Rock Myths Debunked. Their top myth was not only astounding, but the epitome of what is totally and absolutely wrong with music criticism and journalism. Not that Spin is at all a exemplary music news source. Seems more like a magazine for 40-year-old washed-up, boring, Midwestern motherfuckers who feel Pearl Jam's Ten changed their life (with all do respect to that record and Pearl Jam, who I like). But that's an unfounded claim for sure. Another thing Spin seems to be good for.

But the number one myth was this: "Radiohead can do no wrong". The article basically made the following "arguments": Radiohead uses a formula: spacey, transcendental, "two-chord", electronic jams; their "progression" as a band is due only to a misplaced sense of experimentation stemming from their own sort of self-righeousness as rock musicians trying to push the limits, ultimately showing their own shallowness in the end; and they don't know how to play to a crowd, or even move an audience properly.

Let's start from the last point, and move back (since the last point was indeed a minor one). They started an encore with one of Thom Yorke's solo tunes, which was, to say the least, quiet. How can a band actually do such a despicable thing? Actually not only are (true) Radiohead fans smart enough to understand a move like that, but I'm sure they fucking loved it, as I definitely would have. How that is a criticism only shows how unfortunately misguided rock critics have become (at least at Spin), and how necessary bands like Radiohead are. Most rock radio stations, as well as critics, are stuck in the 90s.

Radiohead has certainly evolved over the years. For fans of the very old Radiohead, something like Hail to the Thief must seem forced, or maybe even a sin. That amount of change may seem a bit much. But why? That is indeed an artificial gauge; change results from a sort of uneasiness with where you presently are musically. A lot of the electronic shift in their sound was the result of Thom Yorke taking the reigns, yes. Is that good? No, it should always be a band decision. But no one quit, no one gave up on his vision, and as far as I know, they have all embraced it. Embracement of your change is all you need to understand it, and to realize it as more than just "moving on" for the sake of an artistic facade with which you wish to impress people. It objectively seems like the change Radiohead has gone through has been a struggle, and not only that, a productive struggle. It has resulted in music that is actually moving, just as much so as any tune on The Bends, which is undoubtably a beautiful record. Any knowledge of how this band changed, and also how long it actually took, clarifies any ambiguity about how they came about deciding to become what they have become. Plus, In Rainbows is literally a step back: they wanted to go back ever so slightly to their less electronic roots, and it resulted in (again) a brilliant LP. And insisting that they are posers for initially electronically releasing In Rainbows, then moving to CD release, is utter bullshit. They wanted people to hear it as easily as possible. People said, "hey I love you guys, but I either can't easily acquire it electronically, or I really just want the physical CD." They said, "yeah good point, let's release it on CD." They did. Why they are then putting up a facade of progressivism and only half-heartedly producing music is beyond my understanding.

Lastly, they are only as formulaic as the musically feeble, uninformed listener wants them to be. Moreover, they are only as formulaic as rocks bands tend to be at all. Their songs can be two-chord electronic "jams" if you like, but they are chords (or better yet, chordal transitions/changes) no other rock band has the balls to use, and they are "jams" only if you misuse the term: they motif the same few chords, but the lyrical content is constantly pushing the music along, to someplace new. A jam is stationary, and only really good for the self-pleasure the musicians involved. And if that is how you feel is the best way to understand Radiohead, then you are simply wrong, and need to listen closer.

But of course, no one actually gives music a try any longer: once a band releases something odd or different it is immediately trashed, especially in rock circles, which has turned the entire genre of modern rock into a frivolous parade of overly-produced, pandering, meaningless nonsense which won't get played unless it is fully purposeless and devoid of all emotional ingenuity. I dislike general rock music, if you haven't gotten that idea yet. Rock music in the 70s was inspiring and exciting, and now it seems to simply being playing on a fan base's unfortunate tolerance for hearing the same shit over and over again (I have a similar complaint against modern jazz). Radiohead is doing exactly not that. And it should be embraced, not criticized. Again, it's okay to just not like how something sounds. It's not okay to say it's terrible because they do this, this, and the other thing, when they don't even do those things. Don't try to understand it in that case. Become more informed first, more musically knowledgeable. Then try. And really try. And if that doesn't work, then okay, that's alright. At least afterward you'll understand you don't like it for actually well-founded reasons. But trying is a beautiful thing in musical appreciation. Be open. Stop living through the the accomplishments of a previous era of music, where people were listening, and were pushing it. But it's already been pushed. So push further, or sit down and shut the fuck up, and let someone better than you do it.

I smell something lovely.

The Giant Entropy-Monster

In a sense, what I've hoped for this blog to perhaps, in a more or less poetic fashion, reveal my own (if I can really call it my own and not simply what great musicians and friends have bequeathed to me) philosophy of music. I've never actually read any philosophy of music, even though I major in philosophy, and love music. Indeed, I already am too predisposed to view music the way I do now to understand how a rigorous philosophy of music could make sense. It's a certain subset of aesthetics, or philosophy of art. But I don't do aesthetics either. Or not yet. Either way, I find it way too fun in my little (perhaps ill-formed and hypocritically-conceived) bubble of self-truths and self-compromises: the kinds I've had to make with myself to fully come to grips with what it is I play, I listen to, and in some sense, I live. I literally breath in D minor. More like D harmonic minor nowadays, but whatever (only metal musicians would get that one I think). My point is just this: I'm trying to slowly make you all my minions. I want to start a righteous band of defenders of this understanding of music: 1. music is emotional; 2. music is (almost always) anything you say it can't be; 3. musical statements have truth-value (or meaning) only insofar as we want them to have meaning (John Cage's ideas). But of course my important addendum is this: not only should we want to conceive of meaning therein; we need to.

"We need to" should require some sort of psychological/anthropological argument on the face of it. We need to? How? Which ancient ancestor so faithfully engraved this idea into humanity that we need it? Well that's not how I meant it.

Asshole.

I meant it like this: to fully "get it", to completely feel embraced by it, we need music to transfer meaning. And even if the meaning is arbitrarily (notes and sounds simply do not equal linguistic assertions) inserted, it is not done so by the logical mind, but by our emotional faculties. Or whatever you call the part of the brain that enjoys art/beauty/music. But if this is not done by the logical mind, our standard idea of arbitrariness is dead: it is arbitrary from the perspective of the logical analysis of the situation at hand, but there really is something deep within the arrangement of sound and silence that strikes a chord with something else within us (I love puns).

So that was me doing a little philosophy. Think about it. Don't simply judge. Think. We have a duty as the unique keepers of rationality (as Aristotle would say) to discern our world, because we can, and the answers are out there, and if we don't they'll remain out there, where nothing can reach them, and even after we have all died off at least we've struggled to grip something beautifully insignificant to the giant entropy-monster, but may not be so insignificant compared to the love we have of another human being, or the joy we get from familiar people, laughter, catharsis, unrelenting misery, death, birth, an orgasm.

In a sense, what I mean is: we should be asking these questions simply because we can. Knowledge is not something to which we can ascribe value: it just is. And similarly, we just are. We just are, and knowledge just is, and we are are together. Sounds like something from Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds.

Recently, I got into something of an argument with someone I didn't even know over Facebook (of course) about metal, and in general, music "with screaming". He made the claim that whatever it is, it's definitely not music. This made me angry because I really love such music, but it would have made me angry regardless: if you want to come tell me you think something isn't music, I promise you're wrong (unless you claim that frogs are music, or something; I mean serious claims). You can't logically maintain it, unless you're willing to admit that we people who obviously do experience it as music do not. Then good luck living with 1=2.

Of course I should've known better. This kid was not only wrong, but simply immature. I think we was much younger than me (being a friend of one of my cousins, who is also younger than me). But he wouldn't give up: if there is screaming in it, it can't be music. This idea hurts my soul. Honestly, I wanted to drive to his house and fucking punt his ass through his own living room. But for now, let's just say we had a friendly disagreement, and now it's all forgotten.

The goal of music is to find a place in each of us that is nothing at all most of the time, but only then becomes this sort of metaphysical inner-radio. Music is the hand trying to tune us in to something people have yet to fully understand. Since this analogy could seem a bit sexual, I'm going to say that's awesome. I like when music reaches inside of me and turns my knobs and shit. Aw yeah.

Perhaps it would be better for us all if we just listened to each other. What is so terrible about a band that screams? I mean, really. I won't accept "it sounds bad" or "it's too dissonant" or "I'm a pussy" as answers. They all may be true, but they don't answer anything. I mean: what is objectively wrong with it? What about it's essence (what makes it it) is so abrasive to the very fabric of our being? What about Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand makes people hate on it so much? I mean, what the fuck. It's definitely fucking good. I cried when I first heard it. Son of a bitch.

Anyway, I just hope you can understand one thing: if we need somehow to ascribe meaning to music, and we restrict which things we are allowing into the special club "Things-which-can-be-called-"music"", then we are taking opportunities away from ourselves to experience a fuller, more beautiful life. Full of the worst and best of everything. Experiencing what is already there, waiting for you to take witness to its claims to such power, is truly living.

Live.

October, October, October!!!

There are so many retarded-awesome things happening to music this fall that it’s making my head spin. New releases out the whazoo. Let’s get started:

Converge – Axe To Fall

I love Converge. Converge is in my top 5 favorite bands, if they haven’t cracked the top 3. Between Jake Bannon’s complete disregard for everything normal, safe and sensical, to the fact that most things Kurt Baillou touches turn into gold, rainbows, and chocolate unicorns. Their new record, Axe To Fall is set for release on October 20th. It has been over a year since being smashed in the face with the last album, No Heroes, helping to make the new album one of the most anticipated Converge releases to date. This fact has also come to fruition based on the fact they released the first single off the record, Darkhorse which has been creating some incredibly intense internet buzz. Granted I’m a very firm advocate of not believing everything you read on the internet (like this piece of shit haha). If you’re like me and the internet doesn’t tell you what to do or believe, then check it out for yourself. The track is available on Converge’s myspace page. If the song is proof positive of what is about to come, then we may very well be waiting for not only Converge’s best album yet, but also a true career-defining “masterpiece”. Linkage:

www. myspace.com/converge

The Red Chord – Fed Through The Teeth Machine

If October didn’t already knock your teeth out from the anticipation of Converge’s latest release, coupled with the fact that you’ve probably already spun the new Black Dahlia Murder and Burnt By The Sun records in the ole’ Sony about 200 times (and still aren’t bored), then you should probably call the dentist. Another fellow Boston Mass heavyweight, The Red Chord, is set to release their new album, Fed Through The Teeth Machine, on October 27th. While still trying to comprehend Bannon’s shrieks and rantings from last week, you have a whole other homework assignment on top of that. The Red Chord has released the first single from the new record on their myspace (I am seeing a pattern developing). The song is called Demoralizer, and unlike previous tracks, this one is a little less messy, with a better overall structure and the guitars sound much improved over anything they’ve done to date. If the rest of Fed Through The Teeth Machine is anything like the first single, then you can certainly expect The Red Chord to sell A LOT of copies of this new album. On a personal agenda, I can say (here comes the hate mail) that Prey For Eyes simply didn’t do much for me and seemed very hastily put together and Clients was kind of hit or miss for me as well, so I’m very excited for this new release to deliver what the last two albums did not. Linkage:

www.myspace.com/theredchord

Well tap-dancing-gumdrop-teddy bears October seems like a brutal month and there can’t possibly be anymore good upcoming new releases can there? There can actually:

Between The Buried And Me – The Great Misdirect

This past week, North Carolina natives, Between The Buried And Me released an aural cock tease from their upcoming new album, The Great Misdirect set to hit stores on October 27th (you read that right, bring extra cash, you have TWO cds to buy that day). This “teaser track” is comprised of bits and pieces from different songs off the new record, rolled into one big pile of shit…a big fat metal medley. If this is any evidence of what is to be expected from BTBAM this time around, you can anticipate a great record. This track can be found via their myspace, or even victory records’ webpage. Mo’ linkage:

www.myspace.com/betweentheburiedandme

That’s about all I have for now. All three of the aforementioned bands have upcoming tour dates with some groovy other bands, so look for them at a show near you! On an ending note, I think it’s safe to say there’s something in the water in Massachusetts.

Einhorn is Finkle. Finkle is Einhorn. Einhorn is a man.

Davey Bx

Even In the Future, Nothing Works

It's late.

But I'm not as tired as a normal person should be at this hour. Probably this fucking Mountain Dew, also known as Cancercola, that I recently imbibed. I don't know, it tastes so lovely, has the most caffeine of any mass marketed (non-energy drink) soda in stores (which is always a plus), but what the fuck is glycerol ester of rosin? Well it's in it. I just put whatever that is in my body.

Anyway, I figured I'd write a strictly review-style post, wherein I shall discuss some of the recent things I've been spinning on the Victrola (no, not really). Since I refuse to review anything I don't know I'll have a palate for (to some extent), I refuse to comment on the new Emmure LP that just farted into stores. I haven't heard it (besides the myspace releases), but I'm sure it's a soulless, odoriferous mess of retarded diarrhea.

Well, I guess that counts as a comment. Sorry, I couldn't resist but let you know how much I wish they all decided to be polka musicians instead. Now that might be brutal.

Behemoth - Evangelion

Those of you not familiar with Behemoth, start becoming so. Honestly, if you listen to metal at all, and have not heard anything by these Polish wizards of Satan and make-up you're really missing out. On Evangelion, they seem to have (to some extent) embraced a more American vision of the direction and progression of death metal, and more specifically, the Metal Blade vision of said direction. Some could hate this, in theory, but they don't really matter. Instead, let's focus on how awesome this album is for people. Using sometimes 3 vocalists chanting at once, blisteringly fast guitar work, and the skills and hands one of my favorite bassists in death metal, they mold a dark portrait of reality out of Satanic Playdough, right in your fucking inner ear. Please listen to this, it is utterly perfect, likely going to be the death metal release of 2009, thanks to Cannibal Corpse failing at Evisercation Plague. Favorite Track: Transmigrating Beyond Realms ov Amenti. 9/10.

As Tall As Lions - You Can't Take It With You

This is not metal, hardcore, or anything most you probably would like. But you never know, and I can't help but talk about it. So sit the fuck down, stop jerking it for four seconds, and understand: this is the best indie band out right now, hands down. Actually The Dear Hunter is. Shit. Well, whatever. Their first big release, a self-titled LP from 2006, really turned heads, harking back to bands like The Police, krautrock (Can!), 80's alternative/shoegaze, with the modern Empiric sound with which Thom Yorke and Radiohead has blessed us. Overall, it was heart-wrenching, bittersweet, brilliant modern music LP, and best of all, it all felt like a coherent whole without flailing into silly conceptuality. This album really turns the Can up, and the pop-rock down, which is a neutral move for me, though I know people will be missing that first album, because they just don't think hard enough. This release is not as good, for different reasons however. The songs on the self-titled are simply to memorable, too perfect, especially together, as they are. But this album has some incredible gems, like Circles, Sixes and Sevens, and Duermete. I hear a little Unforgettable Fire sort of ambience too? Ah, that's so refreshing. Favorite Track: Duermete. 8/10.

Thrice - Beggars

I'm not going to ramble on this one. Simply amazing, can't wait to actually buy the CD itself. But until then, I'll hold off on a review. Just know: it's basically beautiful, hopefully will go down as their best record ever. Thank God they said goodbye to pop punk.

Success Will Write Apocalypse Across the Sky - The Grand Partition and the Abrogation of Idolatry (*breathe*)

This mouthful is actually pretty good. Surprisingly from the name, they are not a crappy deathcore band, they are grindy till the cows slam dance home. (Kind of a funny site, and much funnier with this band being playing in the back ground). But honestly, all genre-names and that bullshit aside, this band is worth a listen, and stop fucking judging bands on their stupid names.

There's also the new Oh, Sleeper, but I'm too tired. Goodnight lovers, keep deciding to rejoice in internetish splendor.

Degothify Yourself!!! (A 4-Step Program)

Sooner or later, the day will come when you wake up and Xwaiting_for_you_to_bleedX doesn’t seem like such a gem of an online tag on the message boards of vampirefreaks.com. Within the following 24 to 48 hours you’ll likely notice that you’re no longer really that interested in vampires or the living dead; simultaneously, you’ll come to the conclusion that it’s a little skeevy to describe yourself as “polyamorous” if you haven’t actually gotten laid since last summer. When that day comes you’ll turn to your music collection for comfort. It’s the natural progression of things. You’ll have a lot of questions: “Isn’t detox painful? Will I be institutionalized for cutting myself, sitting in the basement with no lights on and eating all my eyeliner? Is David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust overstaying his/her/its welcome as my personal messiah? Should having an identical iPod playlist to Bam Margera’s jukebox define me as a person? Do I have to stop shopping at Hot Topic?” Rest easy, o’ child of the night! We here at Instead Of Clothes have put together an emergency degothification kit that will make your exit from the subculture quick, simple, and – for the first time in your lugubrious life – painless.

Step One: Otep – Smash The Control Machine

Some of you are wondering, “Can I believe in vampires and still make the team?” The answer is no, you can’t. Sorry. But you can listen to Otep, a crusty, political, metal outfit from the over hyped and overwhelming city of Los Angeles. I personally don’t like this band, but you face painting, androgynous saps can probably appreciate the female vocals, and sweeping violin and piano chops featured on the new record. Despite lead songstress Otep Shamaya’s lacking of testicles, she beams with social angst and displays a dedication and willingness to wear her ovaries on the outside as she shrieks and sings through tunes desperate for societal change; thus, proving she can certainly hang with the guys. Although not one of my personal favorites, this is a good place to start for you. The musical ability is there, and shines through in the catchy, fist-pumping anthems with plenty of things to say on Smash The Control Machine. Death metal guys will still call you “fag” when they see you, but that’s just their way of being friendly. Meanwhile, you’ll rest secure in the knowledge that your female vocalist of choice has a message with substance, instead of yammering on about Wicca all the fucking time.

Step Two: Disturbed – Indestructible

You probably already own this one. See how EASY this is? What I want you to notice here is tempo, even on the song about how you should commit suicide and go to hell to be with that girl named Devon again (whoever the hell she is…thanks to the vague lyrics of David Draiman). Can you feel that beat? Well can you? Ok then, good work my little undead minions.

Step Three: Six Feet Under – Commandment

This is largely a cosmetic choice, but then again, you like cosmetics, don’t you? Let’s break it down, shall we? Reference to death in the band name? Check. Torture, serial killer, apocalyptic and horror-themed song material? Check. Fractured skull and rotten human remains album art? Check. A band full of guys so good at what they do, they may potentially practice what they preach (gulp)…check, check and check. Wash your face, cook your steak extra rare, put this in the good ole’ Sony, and rock the fuck out.

Step Four: A Life Once Lost – Hunter

Now wasn’t that easy? You had some semi-gothy crust metal, some tolerable nu-metal, some very proper death metal, and now check you out. You’re digging some of my favorite hometown heroes who tear up ESP’s like Judd Nelson tears up his pink slips in The Breakfast Club. You are making moves my friend. What’s that we hear beyond the gnarled, craggy vocals, eardrum bursting blast beats, and teeth-grinding breakdowns? Those, my pale friend, are called shredding leads. You will learn to love them.

You’ve laid a solid foundation to get you outta that funk you’ve been in, apparently left over from the Middle Ages. And let’s be frank, The Crow really wasn’t THAT great of a movie. My work is done. Now it is up to you to take your life back from the underworld. Over the course of the following days/weeks, you’ll need to let go of your makeup collection, stop wearing fishnet arm warmers (which is the biggest oxymoron ever, I needn’t point out the irony here), replace your welding goggles with regular sunglasses, decide on a non-fluorescent hair color (preferably the one you were born with), grow a beard, and consider smiling a little more. That I can’t make you do, you need to do it for yourself. Life is all about change. Time for you to embrace life instead of cutting yourself, pumping your body full of basement-made narcotics, and wondering what your best friend’s blood tastes like.

Your homework is to study your lyrics well, buy clothes that aren’t black, find a show, get your butt to the moshpit, kick someone’s ass, let someone else kick your ass, make friends with those people, climb on stage and throw yourself off, allowing your new found scene to catch and embrace you and have fun.

Welcome home.

Davey Bx

The Waterfall of What-If's

I'd like to welcome my new cowriter, Dave. I hope he can write a whole lot more for me, seeing as how he's hilarious, incredibly insightful, and full of cheez-its and candy and stuff. Just poke him...just do it. And no I don't fucking mean Facebook poke. You fucking asshole. Not that I have anything against Facebook poke, I'm just saying, you know what I meant the first time.

By the way, I definitely second the Agoraphobic review, astounding stuff. If you like being aurally sexed. Hard.

I was thinking I'd make this short and sweet, and a bit more Satanic, and review the new Behemoth release. But instead I want to be confusing and philosophical.

Sometime life hates us. Like a cloudy day. I don't mind rain. Sometimes, it can be quite exquisite. But I desperately hate cloudy days. They literally alter my mood completely for the worse, without relief. For instance, right now, outside my window is a cloudy day, staring me right in the fucking face, telling me repeatedly in a great, booming wave-of-a-voice, "Let me destroy you with my thunderous pillows." Letmedestroyyouwithmythunderouspillows. The next big scene grind band.

But anyway, my point is sometimes it's hard to feel good. You feel guilty about something, you are having a fight with a close friend/family member, work sucks, it's motherfucking cloudy, whatever.

Life is all too precious to spend deep within our own regret, sunken, fragile, but we can't help it. If you can help it, I feel sorry for you. Living a life without sorrow, loss, nothingness, the lowest lows supplemented by the highest highs, is not a life I would care for. It what makes us essentially human, alive. Every breath another waterfall of what-if's.

This is stuff of which good art is begotten. And in fact, art is nothing but the waterfall hitting the page, the ear, the eyes. It's the love making of personal tragedy with sensory input. That's hot.

The music I don't have a palate for is basically music from complacent, boring, privileged, uninspired, underwhelmed people. Of course, it has to sound good. Let's face it, I just don't like how country music sounds. It has nothing to do with how inspired they are. They could be as inspired as I feel all of my favorite bands are, and I still won't enjoy it. Oh well.

But generally speaking, the music has to have some water under the bridge, some history beneath all the notes and rests, something that proves it wasn't created with robots. Take Behold... The Arctopus. I dislike them, more or less, because they are all cyborgs, and write tons of meaningless notes that go absolutely nowhere. They can tell me they wrote the song "You Will be Reincarnated As an Imperial Attack Spaceturtle" with a particular sense of humanity of emotional drive in mind, but the music they ended up writing because of that feeling didn't succeed as a catalyst of that same feeling in the unknowing listener, like myself. And moreover, this is exactly my general problem with prog rock (though I like plenty of prog bands that I feel are exceptions).

This was basically (to me) a much better worded version of my last post, about how emo music isn't emo and most good music actually is "emo" to say the least.

But this needed to be said once and for all. The problem with expression is that everyone thinks they're right. But being right is exactly the wrong way to approach one's own artistic creation. Being right is not essentially human. We are very often wrong, about everything. I might be wrong about all of this bullshit. But why be frightened of what you are. Make music, and do it from the heart, and shut the fuck up when someone calls it stupid, because let's face it, that guy is probably not nearly as talented or interesting as you. Flourish, be wrong, fuck up, learn, fuck up again, really learn that time, understand a year is a long time, and a life is a large collection of years, and things are going to change, but never too much. The clouds are going away outside. Be merry, friends.

Make love.

iTunes Last Played:

As Tall As Lions, All Else Failed, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, The Meters, Mew, Weather Report, Have Heart, The Half of It, Behemoth, Ruiner, Pig Destroyer, Hot Water Music, Gorilla Biscuits, The Sword, Freddie Hubbard, Defeater, Dead Swans, Bold, Sigur Ros, Shai Hulud, Saosin, Radiohead, At the Gates, Thrice, United Nations

In Review - Agoraphobic Nosebleed

First, I suppose an introduction is in order…

I’m Cousin Dave. Most people refer to me as Davey B. I will be a contributing writer to this blog from here on out. Nothing really qualifies me for reviews, opinion articles, or any piece of freelance writing. I have zero literary background, I don’t read for pleasure, and certainly cannot be expected to write ANYTHING with any kind of journalistic integrity. That said, I like aggressive things, including my music. The heavier, the faster, the most in your face, the more I enjoy it. I am not a typical trust-fund-fan-boy scenester either. As much as my music needs to have some massive cahones swinging between two muscular, Viking-esque legs, it needs to be original, unique, and truly speak to me with ambition and heart; none of that soulless emo-metalcore crap that all the kids love nowadays. I like lyrical content, the songs really need to mean something. I like things that are raw, witty, emotional. If your record has nothing to say except “I want people to buy this and our merch and maybe get played on K-ROQ”, then I can’t be bothered with your record. The band as a unit needs to be multi-talented, with plenty of raunchy chops from guitars, bass, and drums alike. A band is one, singular entity; no single instrument should be outdone or outshined (anyone who listens to metal knows that the bass gets mixed out of 80% of songs or is completely inaudible and I think it should be heard just as much as the 115mph fret board-fingering assaults and blast beats adorning most songs). If you have a really amazing guitar player, but mixing your bass player out completely on the sound board and your drummer is rubbish, then what do you REALLY have? You have a fucking PR nightmare, that’s what; your guitar wizard emits his own heavenly rainbow out from betwangst his buttcheeks and signs autographs at Ozzfest while the rest of the band spoons and cries on the tour bus. Music should be like a pot of stew; lots of ingredients that taste alright by themselves, but mix it up together and it’s like a giant flavor party in your mouth. Heavy music should be like a party in my ears, but quite frankly, most newer bands don’t deliver. They also certainly do not stay true to their roots. I’m a firm believer in paying credit where it’s due. Exhibit A…I hear plenty of bands on Stillborn, Thorp, and Facedown trying to revitalize an almost completely dead straight edge hardcore scene that sing about their tattoos and how drugs and cigarettes piss them off, but probably never heard a Judge song or bought a Minor Threat record in their lives.

Yes I am straight edge…but that’s beside the point.

Favorite bands: Dark Day Dawning, All Else Failed, Blacklisted, (yes, I see a Philadelphia theme too), Converge, Blood For Blood, Iron Maiden, Boysetsfire, The Red Chord, Agnostic Front, Minor Threat, Only Living Witness, Dropkick Murphys, Pig Destroyer, blah blah blah

I love: white pizza, hockey, pickup trucks, hippos, ping pong, oriental art, seafood, Frisbee, piercings and bulldogs.

I hate: Atreyu and other bands that wear makeup, sing about nothing but breakups and romance and have girl haircuts, loose socks, spiders, stepping in gum, little kids that don’t cover their mouths when they cough or sneeze, and pubic hair.

Now that most of you are on board with me the person, how I feel about the state of things and what I generally look for in records, time for my first review ever.

Drum roll.

I was able to get a hold of a friend’s spanking new copy of the latest Agoraphobic Nosebleed record titled, Agorapocalypse. I feel I should start off by saying that aside from the Poacher Diaries split with Converge, I never much cared for this band. It was very generic grind with drum machines and programming set at 2000bpm that I’m less than unenthusiastic about. They also seemed very gimmicky with violent and catchy song titles that seemed to take more time and effort writing than the actual songs themselves, with records containing 40 or 50 noisy, frenetic, messy tracks lasting no less than one minute. Honestly it all just made my head hurt and I never really “got it”. Let’s face it, the first billion or so songs they wrote (at least to me) sounded like one big joke and nothing to take too seriously. Everything sounded relatively the same and bored me to death. Therefore, I’ve listened to, but never actually bought any of their records.

However, on the newly released Agorapocalypse, we see something that’s never seen the light of day on any ANb record to date: song structure! Upon listening I couldn’t believe it. What happened to the spastic drum machines? I mean they’re still there, but the tempos on most songs have been slowed to make it potentially plausible that the drumming was done by ACTUAL human arms and not computer-generated. The songs actually last more than 37 seconds and Scott Hull certainly shines on this release. Also, I was surprised at the addition of a 3rd vocalist…I’m by no means a proclaimed expert on ANb, but I swore there was never a girl in the band. Despite seeming like another gimmick, the three vocalists actually ebb and flow together quite nicely. As much as I figured I’d probably want to rip this record when listening through, I honestly cannot think of any harsh criticism. This is by far the most structured, lucid, intelligent, and most mature and well thought out Agoraphobic Nosebleed record to date. Again, they are by no means my favorite band, but aside from their other releases that run-on and sound similar, I feel this record will be played multiple times in my CD player. Overall, I would grant an 8 outta 10 with stand out tracks being Question of Integrity and Dick to Mouth Resuscitation. Well played ANb…well played.

Hookers and blow.

Davey Bx

Oh Lord, No More Swastikas

Welcome back.

I'm not sure about strings...the invisible ones that bind people. You know. Those. Things we all have in common, and yet those things are the most transient and mutable. Things change so quickly that it's almost a blur. Since I've been involved in listen to music my tastes have taken two drastic changes. One when I was 14, and heard Charles Mingus' Fables of Faubus, and knew I'd never stop loving jazz. And again when I was 17, and heard Mastodon's Blood and Thunder, and probably thought, "why the fuck does this vocalist sound like a dying orangutan reciting the Declaration of Independence?" But eventually I saw the beauty of it and that was all I needed. I was hooked. The strings had been strung, and punches thrown, the anchors away.

I find that if I don't take some time out of my day to listen to something musical, something with melody, something with no foreseeable melodic qualities at all (so basically all grind and The Acacia Strain), something that dies, something that breathes and yet is still dead, something alive but barely breathing (but nothing alive in the fullest sense), I might go mad. I need it. Hard.

People are quick to call a lot of different sorts of music "emo." Nobody even knows what that means. I'm emo. I am. And if you're not, I don't know why the fuck you listen to music at all, or you at least listen to JUST Lil Wayne or something equally soulless.

Let's reveal what the fuck it is I'm rambling about this time.

Emo stands for emotional. This much I want to make clear.

The first "emo" bands were basically hardcore bands from around the mid to late 80s early 90s (when rock was starting to merge with hardcore with bands like Fugazi and Quicksand). Why these bands were emo is simply because of the intensity of their live shows. It had more or less nothing to do with the music. There were and are emotional hardcore bands (the first one arguably being Rites of Spring), which was a genre name given based on lyrics, though (early on at least) I doubt most of them considered themselves more than just a hardcore band.

Emo today is different. Emo today means bands like Cute Is What We Aim For, or something whatever the fuck it is. Four Letter Lie, A Skylit Drive, or something. Fuck. It's just all very bad music, but I don't hate it for the singers, like most. Although A Skylit Drive is pretty gay singer-wise. I mean, c'mon dude. But mostly it's the LACK of emotion in these bands that strikes me. What the fuck is it their even singing about most of the time? Why name a song with a sentence? Moreover, a sentence that has absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics. Or the music, if that makes sense. And just generally, the music isn't very pleasing.

Why it's called emo anyway is because people don't think hard enough about music. Genres and what to appropriately call something is so vitally important. It just is. You need to know what to call something. And calling most of that poo poo emo is a shame really. But at this point, the word "emo" has been so slaughtered due to it's usual reference that applying correctly to anything non-"emo" would cause an uproar from everybody.

Ever listen to Coltrane's Meditations? Ravel's Pavane? ANYTHING EVER from Converge? These is emotional, beautiful, haunting, necessary music. No one would call this stuff emo, due to the obvious confusion with Cute Is What We Aim For (of course, wouldn't want that).

But using my (correct) definition of emo, I'm certainly the biggest emo-bitch ever.

But that's what this new sort of music is about to me. I've only discovered metal and hardcore music a few years ago but it's literally all I listen to nowadays. I just, I just can't get enough. I don't know, it's scary. Fuck. I just crave the emotionality, as it were. If I go more than 3 or 4 hours with hearing someone scream about something I go nuts. And for so long, I had no idea I would like this sort of music, although there were plenty of cues. Before I liked jazz my favorite bands were 311, Deftones, Tool, Thursday and the like. At least the latter three have inspired TONS of amazing metal and hardcore today (Thursday more something called "post-hardcore", but I won't go into that...wiki it). 311 inspires surfers and bros to smoke weed. As much as I still have a soft spot for it, I can't identify with it like I used to.

So maybe I was destined to love it, but whatever the reason, it makes my blood warm. It makes my skin yearn. My tongue taste. My thirst quench.

If you don't have a palate for the heaviness, the screaming (a common complaint), the dissonance, whatever, I understand all that. It takes time to like some of this stuff, even for me, being the biggest whore for it ever. But know that it is some of the most powerful stuff you'll ever hear. Even if it's about necrophagia or something. Necrophagist...brutal.

I'll end this with something I plan to do every few posts or so, give a short list of some new stuff that I'm finding particularly lovely lately.

And Hell Followed With - A deathcore/grind band that released a whole LP on their own wallets pushing themselves and their music at local shows for the longest time, and now finally got themselves onto Earache. Can't wait to hear more of this band. It's brutal, not breakdown-raping, and even has some of that hardcore punk/grind influence (instead of just having loads of stupid breakdowns). It's ear bruising to say the least. Their first LP Domain is online, and I think nowhere else unless you know them personally. Seed it!

Dead Swans - their new (first?) LP Sleepwalkers is what I listened to as I wrote this, and it's absolutely amazing. A hardcore band from the UK (which is a bit odd), they combine the standard straight edgey sound of bands like Death Before Dishonor, but (like Have Heart, another AMAZING band) introduce the melodic qualities seen in modern post-hardcore/indie. This combination is one of favorites, and I hope to see more bands explore it, because these guys and Have Heart just kill me every time they massage my eardrums.

Reign Supreme - not much to say here, a good standard hardcore release with Testing the Limits of Infinite. Check this, and everything else from Deathwish Inc, out. Deathwish hardcore is almost always a clear indication of quality.

Goatwhore - METAL. This (probably Satanic) blackened death metal band released Carving Out the Eyes of God at some point earlier this year, and sadly I missed it, because it's brilliant. It's got a thrash/hardcore (dare I say) infusion going on that I just can't resist, and still manages to be so ridiculously heavy and overpowering.

That is all lovers. Make me proud. Grow. Don't undo, don't go blindly, just grow. Bye now.

Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Symphony

I want to start by reviewing the new Winds of Plague album. If you aren't already familiar with this group, check out Decimate the Weak (2008, Century Media), which was their first major metal label debut. It's good, though definitely a tad corny, especially for someone like me who hates most "deathcore", which as I will explain, is the worst name ever for anything. Ever.

The new album came out today, called The Great Stone War (2009, Century Media). And let's just say they turned the creativity way down, the corniness way up, and the vocalist from Terror way...present...on the record. I guess I kind of fucked the parallelism up there.

Dammit...

Overall it's a nice record, particularly if you already like them, and particularly particularly on the fifth track "Battle Scars", which is really really good. I mean, it made me sweat. I must have lost a few pounds. Plus it's the only track on the LP which is remotely brutal. Sadly.

The album is a concept about some sort of global war which basically causes some sort of cataclysmic armageddon. And two things become clear: 1. really, really listen to the first LP I mentioned, and if it were to have a concept, it would be a similar one. End of the world, war, death, comeback, redemption, blah blah blah blah blah toast blah blah; 2. they came up with the concept before writing MOST of the music (I can't say for sure about all of it), because a lot of it is arbitrary keyboard orchestral samples through breakdowns, arbitrary intros to tunes where Johnny Plague is just talking; each song seems to fit its lyrical purpose, without creating anything interesting on its own, like Decimate the Weak did.

But more simply, where are the technical guitar parts, the solos, the brutality, the stuff that puts the "death" in "deathcore." Sorry guys, still love you though, but don't ever do a track with Scott from Terror again. It just doesn't fit. Plus, he usually writes music that means something, as opposed to hackneyed overused concepts with even more hackneyed overused breakdowns. 5/10. Favorite track: Battle Scars.

But let me explain something. It seems I've let my guard down, and actually expressed an opinion, as opposed to my first, purposefully confusing, post. That's right, you've been had, I actually don't love you.

Oh, fuck who am I kidding.

I promise, no more lying. Although I still insist I'm a nudist.

God I love the internet.

Anyway, listen.

Metal is full of little subgenres and stupid people. It's sad that people can't just settle down and like what they like and let that be that. But no, some fucking bitch has to hardcore dance to Black Dahlia Murder in the middle of a crowd of people and almost hit me in the nuts. By the way, if you're reading this, said bitch, please know that...that I really don't like you.

I find it hard to be mean.

Why did that chick hardcore dance to an American black/melodic death metal band? Because the media, stupid people she probably also almost hit in the nuts at the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza concert, and Burt and Ernie told her that makes sense. They're metalcore. Go ahead, almost hit some guy in the nuts. It's okay, he understands.

Sigh.

My point is:

Don't do what I tell you to do. I'm dumb. You're dumb. The only thing that we both know for sure is that music is sad, precious, usurping, relentless, punishing, spanglish, and altogether necessary. It's necessary to have your ears open, you're mind equally as open, you're heart even more open, and you're brain stem working properly. I could keep going to hypothalamus, but I forget what that does. I think long term memory? Maybe it has to do with the anus. I mean, what part of the brain makes me so obsessed with asses? It's gotta be that fucking hypothalamus. God. Motherfucker.

I'm done, I'm just tired now. And the new Thrice record is too amazingly distracting for me to keep going. I'm too tired of the bullshit, even Thrice gets bullshit for making amazing records.

Let's all get together. Peace to the world, and become one.

A man and a woman

Are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird

Are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird and Dave Lombardo

Are one.

Fuck yeah.

Goodnight beautiful.