Campaign for Death Metal Purity: Tour 2010

. . .

Well, the name is certainly eye-catching. The Campaign for Death Metal Purity will tour the US from July 2 to July 16. (See dates below – there are some cool opening bands.) The lineup consists of three Ibex Moon bands: Gravehill, HOD, and Cardiac Arrest. Matt Harvey of Exhumed/Dekapitator fame will join Gravehill as a touring guitarist. I am particularly excited about seeing Cardiac Arrest, as their Haven for the Insane album, which comes out June 8, is indeed insane. It’s raw, ripping death metal with that feeling. I’ve posted tracks by all three bands above.

The tour’s name is interesting, as it indicates underdog status. If “pure” death metal reigned, there would be no need to keep it pure. But it doesn’t. Daily my inbox is flooded with new deathcore band after new deathcore band. (There is also a seemingly infinite amount of new technical death metal, which sometimes overlaps with deathcore.) Despite the so-called New Wave of Old School Death Metal (NWOOSDM), deathcore is what brings in the bucks for labels nowadays.

Personally, I see no need to keep death metal “pure”. With roots in thrash and hardcore, it was hardly “pure” to begin with. (Was there ever a “campaign for thrash metal purity”?) Death metal has also melded successfully with other subgenres (black, thrash, doom) without much complaint from purists. It’s the introduction of hardcore into the equation that gets people riled up. (What flat-brimmed caps and all-over prints have to do with hardcore escapes me, however.) This conflict has raged since metalcore’s peak last decade. Same shit, different day.

Something did turn inside me when I saw this video below of Earache deathcore act And Hell Followed With. They are as if one literally rammed together a death metal band and a hardcore band. There are two longhairs and three shorthairs – and they all do the same synchronized dance. (See 2:27, for example). It’s, well, funny.

. . .

. . .

I do see a need to keep death metal “good”. But for 35 year-olds, 25 year-olds, and 15 year-olds, “good death metal” has different definitions now. The market has stratified along age lines. These divisions compete insofar as someone listening to deathcore could be listening to something “better”. Maybe that’s the angst behind the “Campaign for Death Metal Purity”. Will the tour convert any kids, or will it attract only geezers? We’ll see.

. . .

CAMPAIGN FOR DEATH METAL PURITY TOUR – JULY 2010
Gravehill, HOD, Cardiac Arrest

2 Portland, OR – Plan B (w/Fatalist, Ritual Necromancy)
3 San Francisco, CA – Thee Parkside
4 Los Angeles, CA – The BLVD (w/Fatalist, Pathology, Disfigured, Imminent Death)
5 Prescott, AZ – The Drunken Lass
7 Austin, TX – Beerland (w/Birth A.D.)
8 Kansas City, MO – The Riot Room
9 Chicago, IL – The Nite Cap (w/Lord Blasphemer)
10 Columbus, OH – TBA (w/Acheron)
11 Allentown, PA – Jimmy’s Place
12 Clifton, NJ – Ding Batz
13 New York City, NY – Fontana’s (w/Goreaphobia)
14 Indianapolis, IN – Melody Inn (w/Maax, Christ Beheaded)
15 Memphis, TN – TBA
16 Little Rock, AR – Downtown Music (w/Vore)
17 Houston, TX – Walter’s (w/Warmaster, Birth A.D., P.L.F.)
18 San Antonio, TX – The Ten Eleven (w/Doom Siren, Birth A.D., Engaged in Mutilating)

. . .