. . .
Two recent events placed the word “museum” at the forefront of my consciousness.
The first was a meeting at work where a project manager made fun of ColdFusion, a programming language popular in the ’90s. He called it “a museum language”.
The second was our interview with Melvin Gibbs. He said:
But I always ask myself, “OK, it’s 2011. What is jazz now? What does jazz have to offer? What is the idea of jazz?” And you can’t say in 2011 that the idea of jazz is some music from 1950 or 1930. I mean, that’s nice that you want to go hear museum music, but to me, it’s a question of what ideas the guy would be using and how can you apply that now.
and
[T]he whole point of heavy metal is you’re trying to get a certain emotional energy across, and you need to explore a certain set of sounds to get that emotional energy across.
In Gibbs’ first quote, you could easily substitute “heavy metal” for “jazz”, and “1990″ and “1980″ for “1950″ and “1930″. In his second quote, he sets out what heavy metal is: a language. Languages are sets of tools. In spoken languages, the tools are words. Musical languages are called genres, and their tool sets are sounds. These sets are limited. Grindcore will not include gothic singing, and gothic metal will not include fast-moving punk chords.
So the resulting inquiry surrounds that of metal as a museum language. The implication is not a museum of modern art, but of antiquities. In one wing, we have fossils preserved in amber: ’80s metal. In another, we have stuffed woolly mammoths: ’90s metal. And, finally, Duchamp’s toilet: ’00s metal. (Half kidding about that one.)
This implication isn’t necessarily bad. People will go to museums as long as they have weekends. Maybe they seek education; maybe they seek recreation. Always, they seek a bench to sit on.
But if you transpose across disciplines, the implication is sobering. Are today’s “retro” metal bands – whether they rehash ’70s doom, or ’80s traditional or thrash metal, or ’90s black or death metal – the equivalent of modern-day painters copying Donatello or Vermeer? Looks/sounds nice, but is ultimately redundant?
This is not a question of preserving dying artforms. The Internet ensures that practically nothing will ever die. Recordings ensure that music remains audible for generations to come. We are not in an emergency state where knowledge dies out if not handed down. Autopsy albums will be around so long as Blogspot is around.
. . .
But not all fires burn with equal brightness. In the case of Portrait, In Solitude, and Satan’s Host, they carry on a torch I thought was previously held by one person (and his bands): King Diamond. No King Diamond, no anything that sounds like King Diamond. That’s what I thought until these bands came along.
In the same way that “blackened thrash” bands (Absu, Aura Noir, Audiopain, et al.) helped keep alive a cosmic energy that Slayer lost at the turn of the century, Portrait, In Solitude, and Satan’s Host keep the spirit of King Diamond alive at a time when, due to health problems, he has lain low.
What’s this spirit like? To put it ungracefully, it’s traditional metal with occultic and progressive tendencies, and with a theatrical singer. It’s not the usual Iron Maiden rehash or ironic posturing (bandanas, rising-sun graphics, etc.). It’s something darker.
. . .
King Diamond’s shadow looms heavily over Portrait and In Solitude. Functionally, they’re the same: dark but ultimately genteel trad metal with decent singers and occasionally transcendent guitars. I get the same feeling from both bands. Both do their thing – guitars riff, singers sing – but I don’t sit up and notice until they overachieve with guitar licks sent from heaven/hell. These hark back to Mercyful Fate’s progressive tendencies, and give hope for these bands’ futures. I don’t want to hear music that sounds like ’80s metal; I have ’80s metal for that. But I want to hear music that applies the lessons of ’80s metal (songwriting, melody, harmony, and, yes, fantasy) towards new paths. I think this is possible.
Satan’s Host have taken a big step towards this. They’re an unlikely candidate to do so. Before By the Hands of the Devil (Moribund, 2011), they were one of black metal’s most mediocre bands. But after original singer Harry Conklin (of Jag Panzer) rejoined the band, Satan’s Host became an unholy union of dark atmosphere and over-the-top vocal power – what earned Mercyful Fate the moniker of “black metal” back in the day. Since then, I’ve heard this combination only once, in Judas Priest’s Painkiller. “Painkiller”, “Hell Patrol”, and “A Touch of Evil” featured a maniacal singer hitting blood-curdling heights over dramatic, expressionist arrangements.
By the Hands of the Devil does just that. Why people aren’t losing their shit over it escapes me; then again, people are still discovering Dawnbringer’s album from last year, and both records are masterpieces. In a year that’s been good for metal with singers – see Twisted Tower Dire, While Heaven Wept, and Argus – Satan’s Host stand out. Headbanging, invisible oranges clutching, and deployment as aural caffeine have all resulted from this record. I don’t know how this previously crappy band got all this electric energy, but the lord of darkness works in mysterious ways.
. . .
HEAR THESE BANDS
Portrait – “Beast of Fire”
. . .
In Solitude – “Poisoned, Blessed and Burned”
. . .
Satan’s Host – “Revival”
. . .
HAIL TO THE KING, BABY
Portrait (Amazon CD)
Portrait (Amazon MP3)
Portrait (Metal Blade US, EU stores)
In Solitude (Amazon CD)
In Solitude (Amazon MP3)
In Solitude (Metal Blade US, EU stores)
Satan’s Host (Amazon CD)
Satan’s Host (Amazon MP3)
Satan’s Host (Moribund Records CD)
. . .
Where’s No Remorse? come on, man!
I definitely dug Portrait and In Solitude more than Satan’s Host–it was just too too much. Not everyone can go full fucking tilt like the Priest can and get away with it.
ANYWAY I find it kind of funny that I was thinking about this phenomenon in relationship to politics the other day. I mean, think about this:
2008, Obama’s just been elected, Liberalism reigns, we get Crack the Skye, Traced in Air and ObZen — hyper liberal records, very expansive, very unrelated to metal’s roots.
2011, the Tea Party has taken the house, Deathcore bands want to be Suffocation, Re-Thrash is a morbidly obese genre, Ghost is big business, and everyone wants to be Exodus or Mercyful Fate. The in trend is adhering to the genre’s past.
It’s a half-baked, crackpot, amero-centric idea, but it’s fun to think about!
I think Portrait and In Solitude are both doing interesting things right now, but they will have work harder than non-”museum” bands if they want to avoid quick stagnation. I hold them above bands like Wolf and Cauldron, etc… yet all this meticulously retro business is starting to wear me out. Why not mess with the formulas a little bit? The pervasive retro phase has made me seek refuge in bands like Blut aus Nord, Abigor… stuff I didnt pay much attention to previously.
Most of the people who make fun of coldfusion aren’t old enough to remember when it was actually pretty cool.
Things change. Everything went the mobility route. Old ideas are not necessarily bad ideas nor are they necessarily meant for the museam.
Take the ol’ college “standing on the shoulders of giants” theory: everything we do, all the successes and mistakes, contributes to bigger and better ideas, the furthing of progressive and cultural evolution.
That said, I read a fairly strong argument today that audio fidelity has declined steadily since the 70s due to the production of solid state and the move away from valves/tubes; the argument being tubes faithfully recreate the low distortion and more even decay spectrum heard in nature, whereas transistors and digital can produce distortions and harmonics not heard in nature at all.
We live in a world bursting with ideas (even in tough economic times). While we may collectively agree that some ideas are dead, done or obsolete, for the most part it’s a highly subjective stance to take.
>Most of the people who make fun of coldfusion aren’t old enough to remember when it was actually pretty cool.
Wasn’t it Myspace’s main language/application/whatever? That didn’t go so well for them.
As long as the band can put some soul and personality into their music, I don’t care if the genre is 30 years old. When it comes to this retro theatrical thing though, I don’t even care for the originals so I’m not going to bother with the clones.
i dont think Satans Host should be hosting blastbeats though
>Looks/sounds nice, but is ultimately redundant?
It doesn’t even look or sound nice.
JASTA is doing a solo album! Hear what he’s go to say about it! http://bit.ly/jqBjZ8
fuck Jasta…
To me, it’s less an issue with being retro than with being derivative. It’s just more obvious that you’re being derivative when you’re emulating a band that people have been ripping off for 30 years than a band that’s only been around for two or three years.
I don’t mind hearing a band’s influences in their music as long as that’s not all I’m hearing. I’ve noticed in interviews that standout songwriters often seem to have broad tastes in music, whereas clone bands seem to listen mostly to the style of music they play. Creativity is a process of recombining ideas in new ways, so if all your ideas are coming from the same gene pool, your creative output is going to be inbred.
It’s funny. I agree 100% with your statement about applying the lessons of traditional metal to new avenues of expression, but I have pretty much the opposite take on Satan’s Host. It just sounds like lowest-common-denominator-metal with a “satan” gimmick. Pro-fucking-ficient, constricted by the regularity of its meter. Meanwhile, Harry sounds like a fussy showtunes wimp. His singing is probably technically better than it was on Ample Destruction, but I just don’t connect with the persona or sense of melody at all.
most of Painkiller and solo King Diamond leave me cold and kinda grossed out though, so maybe I have no business talking about this subset of traditional metal. It’s just that the Satan’s Host promo created hopes of hearing something like Jag Panzer’s Ample Destruction, then instantly crushed them, like a practical joke. The spirit of Ample Destruction is sorely missed around here, so I’ve been bent about this for months. That album rages like British Steel with Raw Power’s overkill ethic!
the way I curate things, the best thing about Painkiller and Death’s entire career is Death’s cover of “Painkiller”
Love love love that Satan’s Host album, think Portrait and In Solitude are occasionally fantastic flashy moments suspended in albums that are bloated to approximately 40% longer than they ought to be (Portrait especially), and still pretty much hate the Dawnbringer record. Go figure.
This is the best article I’ve ever read from you, Cosmo.
Of the three mentioned I’ve only heard Portrait so far… not bad, not that awesome. I like the art better than the album, honestly.
Someone mentioned the ’soul’ factor above, I’d agree with that. It’s hard to quantify the things we like and why we like them, but I know it when I see it. Judging too far beyond the gut reaction is counterintuitive if music is being consumed for enjoyment sake.
Speaking of retro bands, in a different vein: the Thorr-Axe debut had me ‘bangin yesterday. (I had a fever of 103, for what that’s worth.) The riffs are ultra-repetitive semi-retarded caveman doom, the vox are weird/harsh teenager screams, but it hit the right nerves and got me pretty pumped up. If nothing else that’s the feeling I’d want out of Portrait, In Solitude, etc, and this shit did the trick.
This post made me check out Thorr-Axe. Very cool riffing indeed, not sure about the vocals though, I think this is one of the cases where classic retro doom vocals would work better IMO. But I’ll check out the album for sure.
Agreed, the vocals are strange. I find it moves my interest squarely to the riffing. I found these dudes on youtube while searching for reviews of cheap guitars and amps. He’s playing a $200 guitar through an amp setup that was so absurdly overkill I just had to check out the band. Here’s their “Peavey Butcher amp test”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE8uozL9Xiw
If the future of metal is jazz-fushion wankery then I’ll jump ship (or invent a time machine to go live in the 80’s).
Here’s the problem with that Satan’s Host album though. The instruments sound like they were programmed in a computer. Horrible drum sound as well. If I want something that lives up to Painkiller, I’ll throw on Nevermore’s This Godless Endeavor. I welcome someone meeting the challenge, but Satan’s Host fails.
One of the most thought provoking pieces I’ve ever seen on metal. Thank you kindly, I’ll be bringing this up to my friends for weeks on end
all three of these bands have fun moments, but all fall woefully short of the bar set by king diamond and mercyful fate. however, that is to be expected. there is only one King, and no one will ever equal his greatest achievements, much less surpass them
I dont think Satans Host was EVER a SHITTY band, but yes their earlier material was a bit mediocre. They were slowly making their way up the latter with the last 3 albums, however. The new one suffers no ills, but perhaps it being just a tad too long… One of the best albums of the year for sure.
After reading this piece, I went back and listened to that Dawnbringer album again to see if I could get into it. The main problem I have is that the riffs are way more memorable than the vocal melodies. The arrangements are a lot of fun, but the songs themselves are kind of two dimensional. Not bad, just nothing special.
The other issue for me as an old school Iron Maiden fan is that the harmonized guitar riffs are both using the same tone. With my favorite Maiden albums, I always knew which guitar was Smith and which was Murray. Here it feels like one player dubbing over himself instead of a chorus of two distinct voices.
all great bands, but I think generalizing Satans Host as a “previously crappy band” is a bit unfair as they released one of the best melodic satanic metal albums ever almost 30 years ago. Anyone who hasn’t heard Power From Hell – it’s absolutely essential chaotic satanic speed metal – very ahead of its time. Their reemergence as a cheesy modern black metal band sucked pretty bad, but they deserve a mention amongst all the other great first wave BM groups I think
oh and Hell definitely deserves a mention as well! They were doing a similar thing to Fate simultaneously in the UK but only just managed to release their first full length this year, and great though they both are, it demolishes those youngsters in Portrait and In Solitude as far as I’m concerned!