I Am Listening To Progressive House Music And I Am Writing About Metal. The Walls Are Shaking. The Coffee Is Strong. I Think I Have A Candidate For Song-Title Of The Year.

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i might have to take the house cd off though. it's kinda bugging me. i didn't like the version of song to the siren that i just heard. i put it on cuz i wanted to hear the remix of sinead's troy that is on this thing.i found it in a box. i might actually put on the Go soundtrack! because i forget what lionrock, goldo, dj rap, bt, esthero, and jimmy luxury sound like. or i might put on that nobody album that i like and that i am also riting about (and that doomie and gareth would like cuz nobody builds a groove around that phat drum and harpsichord instrumental track by The Millennium. i kinda like the new populous album on morr music too. who is populous? who is matilde davoli? it iz stoner rock.)

Anyway, Song-title of the year, from the new NILE album:

"Chapter Of Obeisance Before Giving Breath To The Inert One In The Presence Of The Crescent Shaped Horns" Beat that!

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I always shudder when I see the word *progressive*. Maybe the music is too ahead for a retard like me. ;-)

― nathalie doing a soft foot shuffle (stevie nixed), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i think that's what they called the stuff i was listening to.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

That nearly beats "The Splendour Of A Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath The Blazon Of The Hyperborean Empire (Part III)" by Bal Sagoth - sadly that was a few years ago.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 15:36 (twenty-one years ago)

That sounds like it could be by Keiji Haino. My favorite title (not my favorite track) of his is "I have decided to tear you to pieces/Whether you become darkness or light depends on you/I wonder, which shall you choose?"

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Meh -- metal is still interesting because Nile has a song title that's even longer than the titles on their last album?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

did i say that?

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I just find the schtick stoopid and predictable and taking their aesthetic to new extremes (wow, it's a long) doesn't make it interesting.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"it's a long title"

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

i like that title!

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 16:40 (twenty-one years ago)

The blindered insistence on sticking resolutely to their stupid ass subject matter and aesthetic is what bugs me about this stuff, though. That and their airs of self-importance (contradicted by the obvious mega-silliness in continuing to take their schticks to new extremes like in that song title). I mean, what do I do with this music? Laugh at it? For how long? How many albums?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:05 (twenty-one years ago)

it depends on how much you like Nile's brand of death metal, i guess. i just like the title.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

The blindered insistence on sticking resolutely to their stupid ass subject matter and aesthetic is what bugs me about this stuff, though.

I covered this a week or so ago. You have glommed on a good point. Nile are one of the silliest bands in metal. It's not really necessary to listen to much of their music beyond the first two records to get the idea. The "art" in the rest of it comes in they're trying to build on the Egyptology shtick in more pulled out and tortured ways. Since they obviously don't know anything more about the subject than you or me, they exhausted most of the options by the second record, what "Black Seeds of Vengeance."

The best enjoyment would be had from not buying the records, but digging the weird song titles. It's win - win. You didn't pay anything, steal their music or even have to listen to it. So they should just do the next logical step, which is to disappear from the physical world and become a fictitious band.

Even the guitarist released a solo record on his archaeology fetish. It blew, too.

That and their airs of self-importance (contradicted by the obvious mega-silliness in continuing to take their schticks to new extremes like in that song title). I mean, what do I do with this music?

Nothing.

How many albums.

The sky's the limit, if they follow my advice and do the Satan's Penguins thing. Practically speaking, they'll hit a wall when their core fans age out of taking them seriously and the remainder, who enjoy the shtick for the sake of the theatre of the absurd, and probably don't pay for the records, are the only ones left.

― George Smith, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:22 (twenty-one years ago)

And, Scott! Your tapes came in the mail yesterday. Thanks! They look great and I'll prob'ly get a chance to listen to them this weekend. I've been hankering to hear the Phil Keaggy stuff.

― George Smith, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

nile did "masturbating the war god", right? never heard it, but what a title.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I think so. I liked "Chapter for Transforming Into a Snake" but Scott's choice definitely reveals a new plateau.

― George Smith, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

scott, shouldn't the prepositions in your song title not be capitalized? just asking

― aubrey, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

you are right, aubrey. i enjoy capitalizing things.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

capitalising prepositions in titles is a good thing.

hang on. i'm not at work. fuck it. i don't care. hellfire, i don't even post in caps.

sorry. carry on.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I like all the words in song titles to be capitalized. I have to fix that a lot when I'm loading stuff into iTunes.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

me too. i share your pain.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Scott:

You are quickly developing a very indiosyncratic, funny way of titling threads. I knew you started this before I even clicked on it. I like yr steez.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

like i said, i just like to capitalize things. i think i've always done that on ILM. when i am feeling low-key i don't capitalize anything! but mostly it is due to too much coffee in the morning. (or too much beer at nite.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

>That and their airs of self-importance (contradicted by the obvious mega-silliness in continuing to take their schticks to new extremes like in that song title). I mean, what do I do with this music?<

Use it (when it's good enough, which Nile never quite are, though their guitar guy's solo album sort of was) as unobtrusive and devoid-of- personality (but defintely still big enough so you know it's THERE) pretty wraparound new age background Muzak to wash dishes and read the paper and do your taxes and fall asleep to and otherwise get you through the day. Ignore the words, which you won't be able to decipher anyway, so for all intents and purposes they're not there. Get surprised by little variations here and there--beauty and rhythm poking unofficially out of the noise. Don't worry about what the band seems to be trying to do; worry about what they *do* do, maybe even by accident. Don't think of it as music that's supposed to rock you; if you do, 99 percent of the time, you'll be shit out of luck. Don't expect any individual songs to jump out at you. Don't expect the CD to be worth paying more than a couple dollars for a used copy of. If you do buy it, realize that it will be more or less interchangeable with a couple hundred other new age thrash-metal CDs out there. Go that route, and you'll be good to go; you might even enjoy yourself.

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

ps, Scott: That Go! soundtrack is very good!

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 20:39 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, i was gonna say, if you just play the thing you aren't gonna know what the hell they are singing about. they could be swappin' cookie recipes or something. their stuff is pretty brutal death metal though, chuck. unless you mean the ancient deathfolk inbetween songs (which i end up liking MORE than the actual songs. which i mention in the review i'm writing about Nile. i prefer their earlier stuff, actually. the last couple of records have bored me. and i really like death metal. even the ugly brutal stuff with no hint of melody or ancient flutes.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Nah, Scott, I mean they don't cut it in any way I can fathom *because* they tend too much toward dumbass trumped-up so-called "brutality." As do most of the bands who tend in said direction and away from death-folk flutes. They're too merely ugly for Muzak, and they don't have enough rock groove to justify it. (And yeah, I agree, my experience with Nile albums is that the interludes in between are much more listenable than the boring actual songs.)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

(which aren't "actual songs" anyway, as far as I can tell)

― xhuxk, Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Chuck just summed up the way I feel about most extreme metal these days. You could try just sitting and listen to it intently like prog or try to rock out to it like it was Aerosmith but you'll find this doesn't work.
I now listen to metal when I need to get something done in a hurry. It's perfect music for writing to as there's not a whole lot to jump out and distract you yet it's fast enough to stop you falling asleep.
Bands like Isis and Neurosis seem to have latched on to this with their gloomy tidal style of metal. Others like Sigh manage to add a few more interesting bits to it.
It's also true that metal ought to be taken with a big pinch of salt. It's like watching a conjuering trick - you either play along and be awed by the performance or you start looking for holes in the bottom of the hat. There's no point laughing at metal (though far too many people do) because you should be laughing WITH the metal. And besides it's not as if any of the other genres on this good planet not use escapism and hyperbole to attract a certain type of listener. Even the kitchen-sink lyrics in Britpop manage to make suburban dwelling sound romantic.
Another thing is finding the RIGHT kind of metal. Nile are a good band but a bad place to start. Check out "The Sham Mirrors" by Arcturus or something by Sigh, Enslaved or the recent Primordial album if you find Nile too silly and impenetrable.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Nile are on the front cover of the new issue of Terrorizer.

http://www.terrorizer.com/thisissue.html

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

i love that primordial album. i reviewed it for decibel. i reviewed that arcturus album for america's premier metal newspaper, the village voice. along with an ulver disc. yeah, i think nile are good at what they do, but i don't find the newer stuff very compelling. as far as death metal goes, i really liked the new immolation. and even the new blood red throne. but i've been listening to the new aborted album all day and now my head feels funny.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the idea of listening to this stuff as pleasant head music (and I have no problem falling asleep to the stuff, by the way), but I couldn't get over the feeling when I used to listen to this stuff that I had bought something that was creepy. Every black metal album I bought -- there was always something objectionable about it. And the Nile album I had, I think, had some song about rape or something on it. I just figure that there's enough pleasant head music that I can listen to that doesn't creep me out. And I guess this is why I'm more interested in ridiculous fantasy metal stuff like Rhapsody.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Wednesday, 30 March 2005 22:23 (twenty-one years ago)

There's no point laughing at metal (though far too many people do) because you should be laughing WITH the metal.

Get out of town. Of course, there's a point to laughing at metal. It's not immunized from the humor, derision or contempt that can be leveled at any other genre of entertainment. Whether or not more people or less take it seriously now than did thirty years ago depends on where you stand. Lots of metal begs to be disrespected, just as much as, say, the Kings of Leon.

On the other hand there are metal bands who ask you to laugh along and good at it (Dream Evil, 3 Inches of Blood) and many also who are really bad at it, even though they try hard. And there are many which are serious as heart attack and make it work, anyway, too.

― George Smith, Thursday, 31 March 2005 00:25 (twenty-one years ago)

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