Tough as it is to admit, I'm pretty damn bored with metal these days. My first clue was when I compiled my Best Of 2011 album list and realized all the bands' logos were easily decipherable. Then I noticed that I only recognized about two thirds of the acts friends and colleagues were name-checking on Twitter, and worse still, I didn't give a shit enough to look up the remaining ones. This is my crisis of faith.
I deeply respect the passion held by folks like Grim Kim and Fred Pessaro for the darker, more dissonant facets of black and death metal, but I've rarely enjoyed the genres. Too much treble, those interchangeable shrill vocals, the typical shock-for-shock's-sake imagery. Not my steez at all, but it feels like they're metal's most vibrant sects these days. Never liked Lamb of God either (no hooks at all), Ghost sounds like Blue Oyster Cult and don't even get me started on the whole embarrassing pirate/symphonic/folk metal circle jerk scene and their fucking Utilikilts. The last really great new metal record I thoroughly enjoyed was Mournful Congregation's The Book of Kings. (More 2011 metal records I liked listed here.)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not chilling at home with a buttery chardonnay and the Adele record. But truth be told, the music events I'm most excited for so far in 2012 are Monster Magnet's show on Friday (Dopes to Infinity in its entirety, y'all), the new Cursive record—and catching the Afghan Whigs reunion wherever I can.
The last time something like this happened, I was in college and totally over Pantera when I started listening to tons of hardcore and punk rock. Then At the Gates' Slaughter of the Soul blew my mind and pulled me back into the scene. Maybe that's what I need right now: that one unfamiliar act or at least one ridiculously good album to excite me again. Any suggestions?
This is not a purely metal list, just records that really stuck out for me in 2011.
1. The Kills - Blood Pressures - Ridiculously sensual, bluesy, diva-esque. This record is exquisite. 2. Pentagram - Last Rites - Groovy doom goodness. Metal in its most classic form. 3. Foo Fighters - Wasting Light - The first Foo album I've ever enjoyed. Undeniable hooks. 4. Mastodon - The Hunter - Far more loose than its predecessor, love hearing their Southern roots come to the forefront. 5. Red Fang - Murder the Mountains - Red Fang's refinement and hook-laden compositions continue to impress. 6. Cave In - White Silence - A perfect balance of their primal and prog sounds. Can't wait for more. 7. Hail!Hornet - Disperse the Curse - This supergroup of Southern-fried crustcore vets is better than your average vanity side project. 8. Revocation - Chaos of Forms - Blistering; riff-tastic with refined production. 9. YOB - Atma - Earthy, rapturous, rumbling doom metal. 10. The Duke Spirit - Bruiser - Clearly I have a thing for sultry sounding female-fronted bands from the UK. 11. Tombs - Path of Totality - Believe the hype.
Pretty Damn Good (in no particular order): 400 Blows - Sickness and Health Deafheaven - Roads to Judah This is Hell - Black Mass Trapped Under Ice - Big Kiss Goodnight Hank III - Ghost to a Ghost Evile - Five Serpent's Teeth Black Tusk - Set the Dial Skeletonwitch - Forever Abomination Fuck the Facts - Die Miserable Brutal Truth - End Time Touche Amore - Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me Krallice - Diotima Trap Them - Darker Handcraft Black Dahlia Murder - Ritual Beth Ditto - EP
Who Knew? Bitch is awesome. The Be My Slave & Damnation Alley reissues that Metal Blade put out kicked my ass. Raw & rotten, just the way I like it.
Ridiculous Guilty Pleasures: Britney Spears - Femme Fatale Vampires Everywhere! - Kiss the Sun Goodbye Pitbull - Planet Pit
Lackluster: Landmine Marathon - Gallows Young Widows - In and Out of Youth and Lightness
Not Into It: Hammers of Misfortune - 17th Street- Not my steez at all. It sounds like RenFaire music. Opeth - Heritage - Not into jazz fusion. Ghost - Opus Eponymous - Not really into Blue Oyster Cult.
Didn't Bother Listening To: Metallica & Lou Reed - Lulu - Not a single note. Not a single preview. Anthrax - Worship Music
Haven't Had a Chance to Listen To Yet: Negative Plane - Stained Glass Revelations Mournful Congregation - The Book of Kings Black Keys - El Camino The Atlas Moth - An Ache for a Distance* TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light Okkervil River - Your Past Life as a Blast
My bros at MetalSucks.net are throwing their inaugural full-scale music festival, The Metal Suckfest.
Set to go down this weekend at New York City's Gramercy Theatre, the two-night affair will feature headliners Municipal Waste and Cynic, plus heavyweights like God Forbid, Today is the Day, Obscura, The Red Chord, Black Tusk, Fight Amp and a ton of others.
And unlike most music festivals, this one won't leave you without weed money. Get tickets now, or pick them up at the door. I expect to see y'all there for the cred alone. #mosh
For more on the Metal Suckfest, check out their site.
At this point, it's fair to say I've been to a lot of concerts. After recently watching the Wetlands Preserved documentary and finding it difficult to recall a specific highlight from the blur of shows I attended at the eponymous club, I challenged myself to come up with the top five favorite concerts of my youth without reference or research, completely biased by the transcendent experiences I had. (In fairness, too, the hazy Wetlands memories could've have had something to the club's liberal smoking policy.)
Nine Inch Nails@ Webster Hall, 5/13/94
My initial impression of this show was seeing the generator they used to power it parked in the middle of E11th Street. How loud was this going to get? Once perched in the balcony, the intense experience played out more like movie scene about a concert than a real gig. Violently running through material from Pretty Hate Machine, Broken and the freshly released Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails was in its raw prime. Dancers writhed on poles, a barrage of strobe lights created trippy illusions, and the balcony shook so hard that I feared it would give out. On Friday the 13th. Trent Reznor was never quite so fuckable ever again.
Jane's Addiction@ Madison Square Garden, 4/24/91
To this day, I don't think any band has ever made a room as big as MSG seem so warm and intimate. Still at the height of their Ritual de lo Habitual popularity, the forefathers of alternative rock recreated the theme of the album—including a huge mural depicting the cover—through a red-hued stage set resplendent with stringed lights and carpets. That freed up the band to dive head-first into a set comprised of "Stop!" "Jane Says" and "Ocean Size" while connecting with the audience in a wholly organic way. Singing along with the majority of the crowd for the entirety of "Three Days" was epic, as was their steel tub drum circle interlude (really!). Good practice for the inaugural Lollapalooza festival a few months later.
Testament & White Zombie@ The Ritz, 8/1/92
Still very much a teenager, this was the first show at which I rode the crowd—during "Alone in the Dark," no less. Surfing through the pit produced an unforgettable sensation of momentary weightlessness, almost as if I was being guided by the song's sinuous Egyptian guitar scales. Coddled during the pre-Limp Bizkit era, male concertgoers hadn't yet started taking it as an opportunity to molest women en masse. And White Zombie were still a local band.
The Ramones@ Roseland Ballroom, 11/10/92
I'd never experienced a concert by a band with such universal appeal before this. Though it was incredible to see the Ramones play a rapid fire greatest-hits set (and if I recall correctly, "Spider-Man"), the people watching was nearly as stunning. The local stalwarts had an innate ability to pull a wide cross-section of NYC's populace out of the woodwork to see them play. Alongside me were skinheads, punk rockers, metalheads in Manowar back patches, pals from junior high school, various freaks, a former camp counselor, supermodels, and 60+ year old women with fur coats over their shoulders. If you wanted to bump into anyone from your past, a Ramones show would have been your best bet. Nowadays, it's Motorhead.
Slayer @ Anytime, Any town, Anyplace
Slayer is up there with sex and pizza—even when things are a little bit off, they're still pretty good. But if I had to choose, I'd say their most momentous shows were on their Undisputed Attitude run. Slayer had a two-night stint at Irving Plaza in early August 1996 and because they were pimping their superb covers record, they padded several cuts into their sets, including Verbal Abuse's "I Hate You," T.S.O.L's "Abolish Government" and Minor Threat's "Guilty of Being White." Leaving the show, sweaty and bruised, my friend and devoted punk rocker Louhawk turned to me and reveled, "Dude, we just saw Slayer play Minor Threat." The bewildered and consummate look on his face said it all.
Too sweet not to share. I'm sure all parents who had the misfortune of burying their child would want their memories to live on, internationally revered, immortal in their convictions and talent.
This one's for you, Cliff. Can't believe it's been a quarter of a century since your passing.
On Monday, I had no plans to see Opeth and Katatonia over their two-night stint at Webster Hall. But the latter's publicist made me an offer I couldn't refuse... so there I was, interviewing Katatonia for HighTimes.com backstage during the headliner's set when one of my most beloved songs, "Face of Melinda," began.
In my head, I kept thinking, 'It's OK, you've seen them do it live before.' But in reality, it wasn't. So I thank Brian Rocha for trying to hook me up with the second show so I could hear it. Below is our text message exchange. And thanks to Opeth and Katatonia for both putting on such compelling performances. Someone needs to make a best-of reel of Mikael Akerfeldt's hilarious between-song banter.
