. . .
This idea for this series was spawned during a casual conversation I had with IO’s editor, Mike Nelson. As I chiseled away at my first draft for this piece, we agreed that, for all its annoying tendencies and sloppy usage, the über-specific subgenre is a pretty handy device. So, keeping the inherent absurdity of the concept of a ‘microgenre’ firmly in mind, allow me to draw your attention to one of the most Lilliputian semi-genres of all, both so ultra-specific in sound and with borders so hazily blurred that its very definition is a battleground. A sound so ruthlessly copied that its true purveyors can be counted upon one hand (two, if you’re missing a few fingers). A sound so hard to pin down that even in the discussion of this very piece, our dear editor was at a loss for words once I told him that no, Bolt Thrower don’t count, and neither does that Cobalt album.
Of course, we’re talking about war metal.
The term is bandied about almost carelessly, used as a blanket descriptor for everything from Teitanblood to Turisas (“battle metal”? Really, dudes?), and, according to some, “war metal” as a concept was born and died with Conqueror. “Bestial black/death metal” is its closest relative (if not its alter ego). Depending on the definition you like best, bands like Diocletian, Bestial Warlust, and Proclamation are either solid examples – or terrible ones. Bestiality’s in the eye of the beholder. But what is it, exactly?
In the most basic terms, war metal is a blasphemous, violent black/death metal hybrid so extremely fast, raw, and chaotic that it often borders upon grind – “black/grind”, even. Beyond that, it’s mostly a matter of perspective. As Bestial Warlust terrorized Australia and Brazil’s GoatPenis hellbanged away in atavistic slaughter, 1992 saw the creation of the granddaddies of it all, western Canada’s Conqueror, who later on morphed into Revenge, with the addition of Order From Chaos helmsman Pete Helmkamp. The infamous Ross Bay Cult, Blasphemy, were already on the scene, belching out ultra-primal Satanic black filth from 1984 onwards. Though more purely black metal than anything else, Blasphemy’s image, intensity, and imitators warrant them a mention.
From there, other Canadian bands like Axis of Advance and Rites of Thy Degringolade pushed the boundaries of black/death even further. A (slightly) more recent wave of hateful metal maniacs has emerged – Embrace of Thorns, Morbosidad, Black Witchery. In even more recent times, Adversarial and Antediluvian have been flying the Canadian banner, joined by far-flung comrades Manticore, Diocletian, Proclamation, Bestial Raids, Sadomator, Blasphemophagher, Grave Desecrator… the list continues. Are all these bands “war metal”? Yes, no, maybe. Labels like Nuclear War Now! Productions, Invictus Productions, Hell’s Headbangers, Osmose, and Iron Bonehead are stalwart carriers of the plague, alongside countless distros/labels, and a steady stream of reissues (the newest edition of Conqueror’s immortal War Cult Supremacy is a gem) and sporadic live shows keep the old guard’s influence alive and well.
As always, the devil’s in the detail. In some ways, war metal’s aesthetic is almost as crucial as the music. Visions of apocalypse and conflict, gas masks and bullet belts, nuclear Baphomets and goats laden with bandoliers – war metal’s schtick revolves around the blasphemous, the irradiated, the anti-life and war-hungry. Refer to Blasphemy’s black hoods and shaved heads, Revenge’s acres of ammunition, Blasphemophagher’s nuclear fixation, Conqueror’s menacing barbed wire and skulls, or GoatPenis being “GoatPenis”: all extreme metal staples, but, when combined, a cohesive image: Hate.Intolerance.Intimidation.
Whether one takes that image seriously or snickers at the sight of musclebound billygoats… well, that’s on you. Ultimately, so is the definition of this ephemeral microgenre (that is, if you even accept its existence in the first place). The only true definition is hatred, manifested in sound on steel and string.
Domitor invictus.
. . .
Essential listening…
. . .
Goatpenis – “Jesus Coward”
. . .
Bestial Warlust – “Hammering Down the Law of the New Gods/Holocaust Wolves of the Apocalypse”
. . .
Conqueror – “Hammer of Antichrist”
. . .
Revenge – “Genocide Conquest”
. . .
Axis of Advance – “New World Ruin”
. . .
Proclamation – “Baptism in Fire”
. . .
Sadomator – “Chainsaw Goatsfuck”
. . .
Really, really excited for this series. This also clears up why I could never figure out what the hell this genre was either.
I understand why Grim Kim would write this article on IO rather than Metalsucks, commenters there would just have a big WTF on their faces lol. I noticed on the write up there are no mention of deathblackthrash Brazilian hordes of early Sarcofago, Holocausto, Vulcano and Singapore’s Abhorer and Impiety. These bands have a lot of influence to today’s War Metal bands.
Anyway the whole Bestial/War Metal trend is getting so saturated, I noticed lot of new “Goat” bands sprouting up like mushrooms.
My original draft did make more mention of those bands (especially Abhorer, so much love for that band) but upon reflection, I decided to focus more on the bands most commonly thrown under the war metal umbrella. The Brazilian hordes were undoubtedly an influence, as they have been on almost any black, black/death, or blackthrash band worth its salt, and Impiety/Abhorer are a bit too straight-ahead black metal to fit neatly.
This was a headache to write, as you can see!
@phishcage
On a side note, Impiety actually appeared on IO not too long ago.
http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2011/11/live-report-impiety-nachtmystium-treasure-town/
Of course Bolt Thrower doesn’t count; that’s like calling Amon Amarth viking/pagan metal. Sabaton doesn’t count either. People are silly.
From my very own The Metal Dictionary (link): “War metal is more of a musical scene and approach than a distinct genre. War metal bands generally play some combination of black, death, and/or thrash metal, in a simple, raw, and highly aggressive style. Lyrical and image content tends to be ultra-blasphemous and ultra-violent, with just a hint that they are intended as tongue-in-cheek. The scene is typically associated with Australia.”
I’m surprised you didn’t even mention Australia, Destroyer 666, Denouncement Pyre, etc.
I’d say D666 and D-Pyre are black thrash, not nearly chaotic enough to war metal.
Great write-up, though I think the various “fago” bands (Sarcofago, Deiphago, etc) warrant a mention here… or are they also a microgenre unto themselves?
Faygo-core…wait that’s different
I didn’t see your comment until I had already written mine, but those bands are immediately what I thought when I saw the words “bullet belt.”
I guess this just proves how tough/contentious it is to define, or how unsettled the definition is, and hence why Metal Archives doesn’t use it in their genre field. I enjoyed Black Witchery when I heard them, so maybe I’ll check out some of the others mentioned here to see if I can find a unifying principle.
See my above comment.
Also: Diocletian are from New Zealand (yes, I know that that is an entirely different country/scene, but the geographical proximity stands, and there aren’t really any Aussie war metal bands of note that I can think of. D666 and D Pyre aren’t war metal).
Vomitor maybe?
Bestial Warlust and Abominator would be the two most relevant to cite.
This is a good article. Before I could not have told you what “war metal” is, but now I know exactly what it is. I was expecting to read about more formal connotations like a certain drum beat or guitar style, but the fact that it is more of an aesthetic is a good call. I agree with phishcage that Sarcofago is a good choice for war metal; they are also worth mentioning because they are one of the coolest looking bands ever:
http://www.metal-archives.com/release/view/id/5852
I also lol’d at “Chainsaw Goatsfuck”
You REALLY left off Bolt Thrower and Lair of the Minotaur. Lost respect.
Expected from a Kazzaa metalhead. Too “old school.”
+1
lol
As opposed to Vreid or Hail of Bullets, who are metal about war.
Some of my very favorite metal mentioned here. Any article that takes time to give a nod towards Axis of Advance deserves kudos.
Great article, and what with Revenge’s new album just released, great timing too! I must admit at the moment I prefer the new crop of bands (Blasphemophagher and Embrace of Thorns in particular) as opposed to the classics, but I am sure I shall come to appreciate them in time. Revenge are also great, I’ll make an effort to check out Conqueror ASAP.
If you can find it, definitely pick up the Black Witchery/Conqueror split.
“Of course, we’re talking about _____.
The term is bandied about almost carelessly, used as a blanket descriptor for everything from ____ to ____. Depending on the definition you like best, bands like ____, ____, and ____ are either solid examples – or terrible ones. Bestiality’s in the eye of the beholder. But what is it, exactly?”
Fill in the blanks accordingly and let’s please move on. This series has already become about as beneficial as jerking off a eunuch.
Umad, bro?
Not mad but discussions like these take the fun out of music for me. Yes, various descriptive words/phrases are useful when describing a band to someone unfamiliar with said band(as mentioned in the initial micro-genre piece). I just don’t understand why everything is so black and white here. These bands could easily be death, black, thrash, black-thrash, black-death-thrash, etc… thus nullifying any discussion of these labels. Where does it end? As metal evolves with more and more genre bending and blending, is each new band going to receive a new micro-genre tag eventually? And are we really dividing bands by aesthetics and lyrical content?
Plus…from my experience, the sort of people that these genre tags are that important to are generally fucking twats.
“Where does it end? As metal evolves with more and more genre bending and blending, is each new band going to receive a new micro-genre tag eventually?”
If that helps describe a band’s sound, and thus sell the want to listen to said band to a potential listener who is yet to have heard them then sure, why not? As far as I’m concerned these kinds of things are useful as descriptive tools useful to the community when discussing band’s in order to make those discussions easier and work more smoothly. Instead of describing each an every aspect of a band’s sound, citing how “they’re kinda like black metal but a little bit like death metal too and kinda thrash as well but then they’re a little different and they all wear like, bullets and spikes and gas masks and shit”… We can instead say “they’re pretty much war metal”.
It’s not important, just useful.
Having said that, I kind of figured that the purpose of these articles was to discuss the merits and worth of such complicated micro-genres.
The simple response is not to read these articles.
Some people don’t enjoy the microgenres stuff. Some do.
Personally, I love sub-divisions and microgenres, but in my ordering of music, classify everything as good. The point being that the classifications serve different purposes to different people. I like talking and thinking about microgenres, but as these are conceptual distinctions built from linguistic practices and necessarily involving higher order vagueness problems, I find that microgenres are of limited use in ordering bands.
As you may know, there is vast body of work in philosophy of language about natural kinds, family resemblances and vagueness problems.
i dunno, i bet the eunuch would appreciate the human contact regardless.
Yeah, why do we suddenly have to throw eunuchs under the bus? WTF?
Music reminds me of some oooold school stuff, eg, The oldest three tracks of Deicide’s AMON tapes.
Clean the production up (make it sound nicey) and it would sound a lot like Skinless’ Trample the Weak; which interestingly, is about war/apocalypse, while not being overtly satanic, yet is not war metal?
The songs I’ve played here are great.
And seriously, goatpenis? +666.
I have to throw Angel Corpse into the mix.
Every successive attempt to legitimize metal through punditry and “criticism” further exposes how truly obnoxious and laughable the whole phenomenon is.
Metal is music made by overgrown children, for overgrown children. That is it. Knowing this, you should simply listen to it, not try to cerebralize it.
Then why post on here? This whole website is about “talking” about Metal.
You sound like you have put a lot of thought into this matter.
Ah, a perfect example of my favourite genre of blog comment: this whole thing is stupid, you’re all just wasting your time, you shouldn’t even write about this!
Well, it would help if you would leave your email address or phone number, so the editors here can check in with you before publishing each piece to make sure that you approve!
But seriously, the obvious response is, why did you waste your time reading it? Or this blog at all?
IMO War Metal is pretty easy to define. War metal bands sound like Blasphemy, Bestial Warlust and Beherit. If your band has that same downtuned black metal + punk sound then it is probably war metal. If it isnt, then its not.
i think i mostly agree. that new blasphemophager has some pretty punk riffs to the point it reminds me of old ImpNaz. that type of riffage is probably why the lines between war metal and (older) grind are pretty blurry.
from my limited experience with this genre, it seems like every recent practitioner hails the same three bands: Blasphemey, Sarcafago, and Beherit. some dude in Proclamation listens to Fallen Angel of Doom EVERY DAY, wtf.
Sick, blazing fast solos coming out of nowhere, too! That and insane drumming that often follows primitive/tribal beats..
Great writeup and great musical genre – in fact, bestial black/death is what got me back into metal in ‘07 and I have been playing catch up ever since, collecting/listening/reading about it as much as I can. Yes, I also believe labeling music is important for informational purposes but not indicative of the quality of songwriting. That is, not every “war metal” is worth listening to. By the way, Bolt Thrower, LOTM, D666 and DPyre definitely don’t belong in this category. And as much as I love Impiety and AngelCorpse, they don’t belong here as well – not chaotic enough IMO. Big up to Kim Kelly for shouting out GoatPenis – those guys do not get enough respect…
Walker pretty much sum up what is the sound of war metal is: Blasphemy, Bestial Warlust, Beherit and early Impaled Nazarene
I do understand many here don’t think Impiety is not much part or have little influence war metal bands but do check Kaos Kommand 696 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWbbQBK7b08 and forget the recent albums.
Lastly I got to namedropped some bands since I’m pretty much into this microgenre : Deiphago(this band need to mentioned again) Amputator, Damaar, Nyoghtaeblisz, Impious Baptism, Embalmed(Mexico),Zygoatsis, Exterminate, Warbutcher, Nuclearhammer
HELLKONTROLL, HELLKONTROLL, HELLKONTROLL . . . !!! Listen, learn and puke! Your picks are excellent. Soopa Orange Bugs concurs.
Can you guys explain to me the need to dissect genres and micro genres – what is the end point? Is it to bring light to new trends in metal or is the point to validate some semi-arbitrarily definition coined by band/reviewer?
God I love this shit! I hope you write 1000 of these.
I always wondered why Antaeus was never lumped in with this micro-genre. I know they are more associated with “Orthodox Black Metal” (another micro-genre that ought to be explored here), but at least their first two albums have all or most of the requisite musical qualities: “blasphemous, violent black/death metal hybrid so extremely fast, raw, and chaotic that it often borders upon grind – “black/grind”, even.” In fact the drum work is definitely faster than most of the examples posted here.
Could Warhate be lumped into this genre?
no mention of MORBOSIDAD? for shame.
or i am blind…