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Why do we love extreme metal?
For me, the answer can be summed up by one experience: the first time I listened to Morbid Angel’s Altars of Madness. It’s not like it was the first metal album I had ever listened to – it wasn’t even my first death metal album. But no matter how many times I’d listened to Sabbath, or Sleep, or even Amon Amarth, there was nothing that could have prepared me for what I heard when the CD kicked in.
I can’t say I enjoyed it at first – or, more specifically, I couldn’t comprehend it. While the bands I had been listening to use riffs as giant hooks (not that there’s anything wrong with that), Morbid Angel throw them around like shrapnel. And that’s their approach to everything on Altars of Madness. It attacks the idea that music should be pleasurable, and doesn’t relent for 13 tracks. I knew that I had fallen for metal at the moment when it finished, and I, still uncomprehending, couldn’t wait to put it back on.
Many of you have probably had an experience like this, with a metal album that blew away all of your assumptions about what metal (or music in general) could be. To me, those moments of utter confusion when our assumptions are destroyed are the most powerful, and the most real. So it seems only fitting to kick things off here with a mix (loosely) themed on confusion.
To those who didn’t catch Cosmo’s first go-around with this column, here at Strange In Stereo, we’re going to be looking at non-metal music that might appeal to metal-heads. I’m going to be taking a slightly different approach, however; instead of only looking into the non-metal spheres that heshers typically find themselves in – the ones that are tied to metal culturally – we’ll also be looking for tracks that are tied thematically. So that might mean lyrical or aesthetic similarities, or a mutual love of dissonance and distortion, or anything, really.
Now that we have all of that out of the way, enjoy the tape below. To varying degrees, all of the tracks I’ve posted defy instant comprehension, and I hope, somehow, they make you remember why you started listening to metal in the first place. And do stick around with us, too; I think this’ll be fun.
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DOWNLOAD: STRANGE IN STEREO #2 – STATE OF CONFUSION [69.26 MB .zip]
1. Hella – “Netgear”
from Tripper (Sargent House, 2011)
A lot of different people have placed Hella into a lot of different genres, but by my measure, calling them math or noise rock isn’t the whole picture. The problem lies in the fact that there just aren’t many (non-metal, of course) bands out there these days that are as technically minded or idiosyncratic as these guys.
2. Bohren and Der Club of Gore – “Zombies Never Die (Blues)”
from Beileid (Ipecac, 2011)
This track off of Bohren’s latest EP (which features Mike Patton, of all people, as a guest vocalist on one song) starts off along the same doom-soaked path as their last full-length, Dolores, but abruptly rambles off course partway through, bringing in pieces of the sultry noir jazz that characterized their earlier albums
3. Current 93 – “Cuckoo”
from Honeysuckle Æons (Coptic Cat, 2011)
To be honest, this one landed on here because I would feel remiss if I neglected to post a new track by Current 93–probably the first band I think of when I hear “non-metal music for metal-heads”. But disorientation and hard contrasts between lyrical imagery and instrumentation has always been a huge part of their approach.
4. Enemite – The Head-Stream–River of Death
from Wuyuan (Dying Art, 2004)
What’s most confusing about this one is just how well it works, mostly thanks to a beautifully manic vocal performance. At certain points, it almost seems like he is playing different characters with each different voice, giving the track an almost narrative feel. But it also manages to evoke metal without plucking a guitar, which is a feat by itself.
5. Murmuüre – Reincarnate
from Murmuüre (Cold Void Emanations, 2010)
This is the sound of black metal melting.
6. Crooked Necks – Taste the Sounds
from Alright Is Exactly What It Isn’t (Handmade Birds, 2011)
Crooked Neck’s first EP Brilliant Darkness (released under the name “Frail”) was unsettling for unusual reasons; it took Alcest’s black metal formula well past its logical endpoint. On their debut full-length, Alright Is Exactly What It Isn’t, they take it even further. What’s remarkable about Crooked Necks is that they take their non-metal influences–Slowdive, the Cure, et al–just as seriously (if not more so) than their black metal ones. That, along with an obsessive attention to detail, makes it their best release yet.
Interesting idea for a mix.
“Many of you have probably had an experience like this, with a metal album that blew away all of your assumptions about what metal (or music in general) could be.”
Suffocation’s Souls to Deny did that for me. I had already gotten into some melo-death and the prog-death of Death and early Cynic, but when I first listened to it my motivation was some kind of morbid curiosity. Halfway through my second listen everything just clicked, and I’ve been a death metal freak ever since.
I had several watershed moments at different stages in life, the first ad most significant happening in 1998 with Converge — When Forever Comes Crashing. It was just so alien and brutal, lightyears beyond the pedestrian hardcore I was listening to. Coalesce — Functioning on Impatience came shortly after and added intrigue to the confusion. A couple years later Emperor — Prometheus had a similar effect and introduced me to black metal in what might be the most bizarre entrypoint imaginable. And then a few years later, Nile — In Their Darkened Shrines did the same thing for me with death metal.
Interesting that each of those is compositionally complex, initially extremely abrasive, and fall towards the extremes of their respective genres. Seems like I’m drawn to those things I can’t fully comprehend.
“Seems like I’m drawn to those things I can’t fully comprehend.”
The sign of a true metalhead.
Another band worth checking out that’s somewhat like Hella (Weird math rock) is Giraffes? Giraffes!. I know the band name sounds kind of pretentious but it’s really quite excellent.
i dont enjoy the band as much as their name. they are named so after a book. i highly recommend it for any fan of satire or just plain goofy shit.
Idiot Flesh – Drowning – off the album Fancy
I always appreciate the Current 93 love.
Sadly, I’ve found them pretty hit-and-miss since Of Ruine.
Somehow, I managed to miss the very existence of the two most recent albums, since Black Ships… which was emblematically hit-and-miss.
More of this would be welcome–I’m sure I’m not alone in saying that a diet of all metal leads to burnout, boredom and insanity. Got to mix it up. A couple things: I’m familiar with Tibet’s work, and I’m often left unsettled by the sheer lyrical imagery he can convey with that voice, even if the music itself often leaves me cold. Hella’s ADHD rock never fails in raising a ruckus, best enjoyed live. And the guy who mentioned the Giraffes? I second that emotion. Thanks.