The Execution Kollective: I automatically think of Sadistik Exekution when I read that name, and by association, grimy satanic metal in general. Yet one of this young label’s two new releases is epic metalcore, with clean breakdowns and clean-cut Ohioan band members in regular dude costume. The other release is, in fact, chaotic Australian black/death, played by mean lookin’ hessians with Venom shirts and interesting belts.
To collate more points: TEK’s website places a manifesto of “utterly violent-sounding katharsis” and “community replaced by blood” atop an airy white layout, most notable features of which are prominent social networking and online merchandising banners. Their PR is handled by Metal Maniacs’ former in-house advocate for everything borderline, from Dawnbringer to Watchmaker to Fields of the Nephilim. Now, we could dismiss the label’s eclecticism as an example of the same bottom line that shaped scattershot Century Media and Metal Blade rosters during the ’90s. But I’d rather follow the cues and entertain the possibility that there’s something substantive to The Execution Kollective’s community-annulling manifesto. Let’s see how far we can go…
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Mhorgl – Antinomian
Ruled by Reason – The Dawning of Dystopia
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Mhorgl: Interesting belts
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Mhorgl – “Kiss of Midnight”
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Mhorgl play a turbocharged hybrid of black, death, and thrash metal. It’s brainy like StarGazer but more geared towards violence and disharmony. It gets doomedly wretched like Misery’s Omen, and resembles Grenade when galloping. At times, the band veers into fluttery mellow parts that recall Dissection’s “Where Dead Angels Lie” scrambled with a head injury. They cover “Mr. Crowley” and perform a coked-up Darkthrone medley with the riff from “The Claws of Time” in it, causing me to punch the kitchen counter with joy. I am extremely predisposed to like Mhorgl.
On the other hand, the first thing I heard upon visiting Ruled by Reason’s MySpace was a bass drop and a metalcore “whoaaarggh!” I had to laugh at the inappropriateness of a guy with my taste in belts diligently listening to a band like this, but their sophistication quickly caught my ear. On one level, there’s the way their acrobatic riffs impose order-via-melody over big swaths of the fretboard. And on a longer timeframe, there’s the feeling of continuous movement linking the disparate pieces of their songs. Whereas a band like All Shall Perish play ornate melodies but rarely change key or mode, Ruled by Reason will walk a pattern through a series of surprising changes until arriving at the next big riff. Their use of complex harmony and modulation reminds me of The Fucking Champs with more emotional investment, their mosh almost gallantly knuckle-dragging.
Ruled by Reason’s bio describes their songs as “through-composed”, meaning non-repetitive. It is a relative term, and most of the songs on The Dawning of Dystopia feature at least one or two repeating sections. What’s interesting is the band’s pointed use of this vocabulary, with its dry yet vigorously musical connotations. Mhorgl’s bio refers more generally to “unusual song structure”. They use recurring themes, but some of their music could also be discussed in terms of through-composition. Bottom line, both bands derive their creative values from ensemble playing. They conflate chops and songwriting in the group effort to animate metal: collective exekution.
On the downside, this M.O. is only a few degrees removed from the “million riffs glued together” approach. Sometimes it’s like the musicians are having a conversation that doesn’t include the listener, resulting in songs that fail to make melodic/emotional sense. It doesn’t help that both vocalists are skilled but uncommunicative; the only words sung with presence on either album were written by Ozzy 30 years ago.
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Ruled by Reason: Uninteresting belts
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Ruled by Reason – “Dr. Jekyll Sleeps Alone Tonight”
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Uncommunicativeness is an issue I have with these bands. They’re easy to pigeonhole because they seem comfortable not standing out for any reason other than their instrumental music. Genre-based identity for them is a convenient vehicle, not something to be bucked, embraced, or troubled about. Unfortunately, identity and what’s unheard is at least half the fun in metal, which has always been more about cool imagery and sublime/ridiculous catchphrases than music school terms like “through-composed”. So both bands deliver half-ass band names, forgettable album covers (Mhorgl, Ruled by Reason), and song titles like “Essence of Evil” and “Within These Memories” (OK, “Subterranean Assault Beast” and “Dr. Jekyll Sleeps Alone Tonight” are kinda zesty). It’s ironic that a sincere focus on unconventional-yet-disciplined music can result in a superficial presentation practically designed for immediate dismissal.
However, the fusion of composition and instrumentation into one full-band activity is exciting enough with this much skill and creative energy behind it, and it carries over into Antinomian and The Dawn of Dystopia’s similar production values. These are idealized “band in a room” scenarios, with clearly defined spaces for each instrument, plausible amounts of reverb, and best of all, realistic portrayals of the kick-ass dueling guitars that have kept both albums on my playlist for weeks. Each axeman is assigned a speaker, alternately diverging from and joining his partner on thrashy riffs, high-register Voivodian textures, sustained power chords, and blazing lead melodies. Other than solos, there are barely any overdubs to speak of. Sometimes these guys even take a solo right in the rhythm track. Shades of Live Undead! The distance between the guitars creates air flow, loosening things up while drawing attention to remarkable individual performances. It’s a refreshing contrast to the unreality of many modern productions, where a claustrophobic buildup of layers is the default method for representing dynamic guitar techniques.
Well, I guess there’s some multitracking. A cinematic keyboard intro, too, in Ruled by Reason’s case. And the kick drums on both albums, while highly effective, sound digitally enhanced. But hey, these guys aren’t purists! Purity’s for wimps.
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BUY MHORGL
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BUY RULED BY REASON
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Matt Altieri plays guitar in Ferrous Oxide and live guitar in Deceased. Recently he played in Dawnbringer’s first show in 13 years.
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I’m guessing this is a first stab at the future of IO…
It wasn’t clear what the point of the article was until I clicked through my RSS reader and saw the tag line on the main IO page. I gather we’re getting a label profile that has two bands of divergent styles, yet neither looks incredibly interesting. It feels a bit like “here’s this interesting thing I found, let me tell you about it” but in this case, “the thing that was found” wasn’t especially interesting. The fact that the label sounds somewhat confused doesn’t necessarily a compelling story make.
The article as a whole felt kinda long… and a lot more time was spent on the band that I’m guessing hardly any of us want to read about. The fact that I found myself studying the structure and composition of the article more than the actual content is probably telling. Apologies if that sounds harsh, hopefully this can be viewed constructively.
Mhorgl sound like no matter how many times they’ve listened to “Altars of Madness” (and I’m betting it’s several hundred times), they have completely missed the point. Rule of Reason sound like every other cruddy new-school metalcore band out there. I’m not impressed.
I’m with ishouldbeking on all points … this is light years from the kind of crisp, insightful and thought-provoking posts IO readers are accustomed to from Cosmo. Fully understand Cosmo’s need to move on, but would be great if the spirit of the site could continue.
That Mhorgi track is too “skibbity bobbity doo” for my tastes, but you got me super excited because I thought they were going to sound like Bestial Warlust/Katharsis/Proclamation. THANKS ASSHOLE.
I agree with the above comments. Not one of these bands are worth IO’s time.
I really liked this article. It was nice to see different sub-genres compared on such similar levels. Sometimes I forget I listen to Heavy Metal – metal journalists seen to make it a point to describe the differences in the metal community and forget the similarities. It becomes a contest (“Oh, you’re into traditionalist black metal? I prefer Austrailan war black/death).
Disassembling microgenres seems to be an acceptable form of intellectualizing metal, which is odd considering how much the process is generally disliked by metalheads. I have no problem with intellectualization myself, but most metal writers do it by pulling everything apart and looking at the pieces. This article felt more constructive, like the author was patching up formerly broken ideas. It was very refreshing.
I love Cosmo as much as the next guy, and I’m probably just as elitist as any one of you bros. But, wow…you guys are hard to fucking please. Goddamn, at least some chose to write. I liked this post, and I like both bands. Thanks!
I wish I could edit that post, I shouldn’t type while trying to look pants…
Hell, my post was just a gut reaction. Sure, I read the whole thing because I enjoy this site, and most anything I find here is worth reading. But if my constant instinct is to skip to the bottom or stop reading altogether, something went awry.
None of my bitching is meant to denigrate the work put into this post. I know blogging is deceptively hard — picking something worth writing about (read: worth READING about), then pulling it together, choosing an angle of approach, finding a structure, then trimming the fat while keeping it clear enough that it won’t be misconstrued by an asshole like me… it’s fucking hard, I know.
I hope we haven’t scared anyone away from trying their hand, or continuing to post, cuz I’m all for more voices in the mix. The fact that anyone comments on these things shows that we all want it to succeed, I think.
This was a load of bore. Bring Mike Scalzi back!!!!!!!!
I was skeptical about these bands until I actually heard their albums. They aren’t my thing, but they are interesting. Matt is spot-on about what makes them unique yet related. His tastes lean towards the quirky, so I can see how he’d be into them.
While the subject matter didn’t interest me much, neither does a lot of the subject matter on this site. I still read most every post. This is thoughtful and well-written. I like it.
I wouldn’t normally have posted about this post, but seeing that the comments were overwhelmingly negative, I’d just like to say that I thought it was a pretty decent post and saw no glaring errors other than I don’t particularly love either of the bands. Mhorgl were pretty neat though, if not great.
Also, fucking no. Do not bring back Mike Scalzi.
Thanks for the great descriptions here, but I think some of the other posters are right. This went on a bit long, and the descriptions are a bit too dense–clearly written and re-written and re-written.
I know most writers and writing instructors tell you to write and re-write and re-write, edit edit edit, but personally I feel you lose the blood in your writing if you do that. I can’t remember which famous writer said he never edited or re-wrote anything, but I agree with it for the most part. At most, I edit my writing once. Or this could happen, and it just gets to be hard to read. And I’m an attorney. I know “hard to read”.
Watt Par nailed it. Every point there exactly. Fuckin’ whiners up in this bitch.
Unintended, but not surprising consequence of Cosmo’s departure and the accompanying writing articles… writing, not metal, becomes the focus.
Full Metal Attorney – Yes, you’re one of the more readable attorneys I’ve encountered.
GoingDeaf? – I have one more involuntary writing class, and then it will be less talk, more rock.
Ruled by Reason’s bio describes their songs as “through-composed”, meaning non-repetitive.
See, in my day, we called that “progressive”.
Mhorgl’s new CD is freakin awesome!!!!!!! arrrrrrrggggghhhhhh