METAL for ART-metallers

I'm going to grossly over simplify and ignore the actual music completely and say a lot of the distinctions between art-metal and real-metal is down to fashion and trends.

There are people who like the basic sound of metal (which is common to both) but are too hung up on being cool and clever to let themselves enjoy real-metal because of some of its coincidentals like leather studded jackets and concept albums about angels being raped.

Then there are real-metal fans who don't care about looking cool, but tend to fall for metal cliches themselves.

...and they dont like anything thats "arty-farty"

herman, have you heard the new hey colossus album yet? just playing their last one and remembered that they had a new album coming out.

i find metal politics and debate and poseur/hipster talk entertaining. or about as entertaining as i used to find punk politics and debate and poseur/hipster talk entertaining way back when.

i find it entertaining cuz i feel so removed from it all. i've been a metal fan for decades and almost all my metal listening has been completely solitary in nature. meaning: 95% of the metal i have listened to in my life i've listened to ALONE. and i rarely ever talk about metal in real life. it's completely personal to me. as is most of the music i listen to. which is why i always have to remember not to make blanket statements about WHY anyone listens to anything. unless they tell me why, i have no idea. i can guess why people who haven't listened to a lot of metal are drawn to certain things within the genre, but they are just guesses. i also don't think that people who are seen as dabblers have to somehow show respect for the genre in some way that pleases the "true" fans. like, they have to leave an offering of good will and faith before they are allowed to partake in the black bounty of heavy metal. fuck that. fuck the faithful. you want to know about all the cool, weird, and avant garde metal out there that is all fucked up and psychedelic and filled with non-metal elements? i'll tell you all about them. be glad to. my pleasure. also, you should really subscribe to Decibel.

You're on the "cranky old man" kick this week, aren't you, John?

LOL Jeff OTM, pretty much when shit gets busy around here I get cranky

Scott, I haven't yet. I think it comes out in August. Will be buying it though. I think pre-orders opened for the cd a few weeks ago. Great band.

...i also don't think that people who are seen as dabblers have to somehow show respect for the genre in some way that pleases the "true" fans. like, they have to leave an offering of good will and faith before they are allowed to partake in the black bounty of heavy metal. fuck that. fuck the faithful. you want to know about all the cool, weird, and avant garde metal out there that is all fucked up and psychedelic and filled with non-metal elements? i'll tell you all about them. be glad to. my pleasure.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

FO' REAL.

yeah you guys should still listen to some goddamn cannibal corpse and that's the truth and even my less-cranky friend scott knows that's the truth. people who listen to fusion but never listen to straight-no-chaser jazz are missing the fuck out.

but it doesn't sound like deerhoof or anything so be ready for that.

this is the stuff that was seriously blowing my mind last week. i'm way old school:

Dance Music of the Renaissance for Recorder, Dulcian, Crumhorn, Viola da Braccio, Viola da Gamba and Lute (moderne, susato, gervaise, phalese, franck, hassler, attaignant, demantius)

Francois Couperin - Lecons De Tenebres (early 1700s churchy stuff for countertenor, tenor, viola da gamba, and organ and it is AWESOME. completely hypnotic.)

Mozart - Flute Concerti (in G major K.313 & D major K.314)

Monteverdi - Madrigals (love this too!)

Claude Lejeune - Chants de la Renaissance

Music from the Chapel of Charles V (gombert, crecquillon, schlick)

French Harpsichord Masterpieces (Louis Couperin, Jean-Henri D'Anglebert. another stunner!)

William Byrd - Music for Viols and Virginals (freak folk! byrd was the bomb.)

Antiphonal Music For Four Brass Choirs (gabrieli, purcell, des prez)

Varajase Muusika Ansambel - Hortus Musicus (ancient kickass Croatian church music)

Voices of the Middle Ages - Music From The Gothic Cathedral (Capella Antiqua from Munich. I heartily recommend this album. It's on Nonesuch. Or at least the vinyl is. Just unbelievably brilliant. And still waaaaaay ahead of its time.)

John Taverner - Tudor Church Music (another beauty. and my 1962 stereo copy on Argo sounds amazing.)

Stravinsky - Pulcinella/Apollon Musagete (love this. and another great recording on Argo. academy of st.martin in the fields.)

er, that would be me again.

I listened to a couple of cannibal corpse songs last week via my brother's shared iTunes network, they were actually pretty super! "Sanded Faceless" especially.

i find it entertaining cuz i feel so removed from it all. i've been a metal fan for decades and almost all my metal listening has been completely solitary in nature. meaning: 95% of the metal i have listened to in my life i've listened to ALONE. and i rarely ever talk about metal in real life. it's completely personal to me. as is most of the music i listen to. which is why i always have to remember not to make blanket statements about WHY anyone listens to anything. unless they tell me why, i have no idea. i can guess why people who haven't listened to a lot of metal are drawn to certain things within the genre, but they are just guesses. i also don't think that people who are seen as dabblers have to somehow show respect for the genre in some way that pleases the "true" fans. like, they have to leave an offering of good will and faith before they are allowed to partake in the black bounty of heavy metal. fuck that. fuck the faithful. you want to know about all the cool, weird, and avant garde metal out there that is all fucked up and psychedelic and filled with non-metal elements? i'll tell you all about them. be glad to. my pleasure. also, you should really subscribe to Decibel.

Started c+p'ing bits of this to put in italics and write DING DING DING under, but it kept getting longer and then it was just the whole post

I'm another one who doesn't mind dabbling. I dig particular artists, maybe even record labels, but I don't see why one has to go all-in when it comes to particular genres.

To give an example, I dig Cannibal Corpse too, but only 'The Bleeding' - the rest I've heard, but could take or leave. I don't see anything wrong with that.

I do it with all genres. Some I listen to more than others but I've never been culturally attached to them. Never self-identified as a punk or metal kid or raver or whatever. It would feel ridiculous and would defeat what I assume is the object of doing so by being entirely untrue to myself

xpost: Hmm . . so maybe I'm not the only one who's been alternating Monteverdi and Xasthur!

I'm still a punk though.

I'm just a square, going nowhere

I'm "nu-prog" apparently. Whatever the hell that is. Xasthur is a genius and a genuinely singular artist in the metal scene fwiw.

"Genuinely singular"? see now you're just baiting me. I like Xasthur fine, and I get that he's sort of marketing himself a little different & aware of who's buttering his bread, but there's a baker's dozen one-man black metal bands working the same angle - you won't get the exact same vibe from them, of course, he's got his own personality, but this notion that he's somehow A One-Man Black Metal Band Apart is the sort of coronation-by-indiedom stuff that turns me into Cranky Old Manasaurus.

Which isn't purism - I listen to as wide a variety of shit as anybody, I'd guess - it's if anything an attempt to argue for a much wider net, one which doesn't demand artiness first & foremost.

i loved Manasaurus. their later stuff wasn't as good as their early demos though.

now playing:

http://static.metal-archives.com/images/1/9/9/2/199211.jpg

this notion that he's somehow A One-Man Black Metal Band Apart is the sort of coronation-by-indiedom stuff that turns me into Cranky Old Manasaurus.

Maybe that's just because he's on Hydra Head, which may be less intimidating to some than some obscure kvlt imprint (aside from certainly having a greater profile).

which is why i always have to remember not to make blanket statements about WHY anyone listens to anything.

exactly. but imagine what a desert this place would be if everyone followed your example.

Scott Seward is my hero.

mine too, now.

I'm aspiring to be more Scottlike in this thread while wanting to continue encouraging people to seek out from metal both the things that are different from what they already know they like as well as the things they already know they like (indie self-consciousness, big telegraphed "this is art!" punches as has there ever been a more artful metal album than Transilvanian Hunger? A: not according to me, etc)

Anyhow LJ you might seek out: Arkenstone, Drastus, Velvet Cacoon (v. controversial! many purists think they don't "mean it"! I think they're quite cool), Striborg (now on Southern Lord I think), Haemoth & especially if you haven't already Abruptum.

and I wanna plug Cirith Gorgor though they're not in the this-looks-like-art camp but their guitar work (and tone) are fucking artful as anything.

now playing:

http://img1.nnm.ru/imagez/gallery/4/6/1/7/6/46176253245b7619e6c9222d90a40079.jpg

original pressing or you are posing

KIDDING

i'm trying to think of something new and "arty" that i really dig, but i can't think of much. i like the new Velnias album, but it's not really that out there. it's good though.

http://www.myspace.com/velniascult

i have the season of mist reissue of the beherit album. i helped the record store here set up a metal section - they didn't have one - and they got it in and i felt like i should buy it in case nobody else did.

would racebannon qualify for the 'arty' ephithet? or 'metal', for that matter? either way, the new album is pretty stunning.

am i really the only person on here who loves the septic flesh album that came out this year??????

it's so cool. and best use of metal band + full orchestra that i think i've ever heard. the arrangements are so great. the orchestral parts aren't just tacked on. they are an integral and crucial part of the sound.

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/img/d15/15064.jpg

http://www.myspace.com/septicfleshband

racebannon are spazzcore and pretty great. and they've held up better than the locust. i never understood why they were on an indiepop label for so long though. was it secretly canadian?

(only cuz people who would like what they do might never hear stuff on a label like secretly canadian. if that was the label. i know it was one of those indie rock labels. although their offshoot rapider than horsepower was a good fit for an indie rock label. i loved that first album by them.)

no scott I share your enthusiasm for septicflesh, wrote about it here

it was definitely secretly canadian.

although it was their second and third albums on that label...

SC and Racebannon are both from Bloomington yeah? So I gess they go back a bit. I heard that they left the label as a result of someone from one end fucking the girlfriend of someone from the other end. </Spazzcore Enquirer>

<3 that Beherit album. Might be the 1st black metal I ever bought actually

racebannon are heavier, more feral and more diverse than the locust, imo. there's something about them that I find genuinely disturbing. in a good way.

Thanks, J0hn! There's nothing I'd like more than for this thread (bad title and all) to turn into a "stuff y'all might like" eye-opening-recommendation forum. I'll stay tuned! My Xasthur comment was probably born out of ignorance; I've never heard anything like it, but then I haven't heard very much metal.

Totally endorse J0hn's Velvet Cacoon recommendation upthread. Been listening to their stuff a lot over the last few months, and I reckon a lot of noise heads here would like them. (Apart from the ones who hate them already!)

. and with Velvet Cacoon, you have this whole debate in one band!

There's a new Racebannon??? I gotta hear it!!! I love all their other albums I have. What label are they on now?

people who would like what they do might never hear stuff on a label like secretly canadian

Isn't that kinda like when Saint Vitus were on SST? Although maybe that was the reverse, as in punkers doing a double-take when their fave label signs a gang of longhairs with kickass riffs.

Tried real hard w/ the Vlevet Cacoons, but couldn't get into em. Sound great as background music, like having a thousand amplified cats purring at you, but there's no there there. It's just a pleasant tone, carried out for forty-some minutes. I have way too many "pleasant tone" records.

Love Xasthur, but was likewise a bit 0_o at the "genius and a genuinely singular artist in the metal", when, you know, Leviathan, Striborg, Drastus, BURZUM (BM Godwin's Law).

Sound great as background music, like having a thousand amplified cats purring at you, but there's no there there.

kind of why I like them

OTM

If anyone can be bothered putting together an annotated "If you like Xasthur . ." list of one-man BM outfits, I'd like to see it. Even if I have the first half-dozen already.