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Tag Archives: Metal

Inner Peace Through Metal [Revisited]

I quickly realized I had struck gold; “Tonight Tonight” was just a warmup, quite an epic one at that, but still—very much still a warmup for the main event: the buzz-sawing Zero; the crushingly distorted Bodies; Bullet With Butterfly Wings, with its hilarious chorus, “Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage”.

…>While it is not clear to me if the motivating power of death metal is generating a vanguard of energetic youth or drawing artistic and creative young people into a trap of naive individualism, I believe that the political significance of musical sound is rooted in the meanings that the participants constitute and the consequences of those meanings for the participants’ lives and the larger society.

Posted 25 April 2008 † Yuletide § Braided § Creative Nonfiction ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: ,

REVIEW: “Vale” by Orden Ogan

Given the 12 years it took Orden Ogan to release two full-length albums (their first, “Tesimonium A.D.” landed in 2004), the maturity of their sophomoric release, “Vale” is only slightly less surprising than it otherwise would be. Appearing (for me) from seemingly out of no-where, Orden Ogan have rekindled a sense of excitement not often [...]

Posted 13 April 2008 † Yuletide § Reviews ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged:

100 Words towards a definition of Metal

Attributes: Molten, Brutal, Intense, Epic, Uncompromising, Fucking awesome, Distorted, Pummeling, Eternal, Loud, Grating, Polyrhythmic, Not lame, Absurd, Hilarious, Fun, Resonant, Primal, Destructive, Cathartic, Therapeutic, Wrathful, Emotional, HEAVY. Components: Guitar, Strings, Pickup, Amplifier, Electricity (lots), Bass Drum x2, Snare Drum, Hi-Hat, Crash, Drum Sticks, Metronome, Bass Guitar, Strings, Pickup, Amplifier, Ear, Brain.

Posted 14 February 2008 † Yuletide § Shorts ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: ,

Inner Peace Through METAL

While it is not clear to me if the motivating power of death metal is generating a vanguard of energetic youth or drawing artistic and creative youngpeople into a trap of naive individualism, I believe that the political significance of musical sound is rooted in the meanings that the participantsconstitute and the consequences of those meanings for the participants’ lives and the larger society.[^motpower] [^motpower]:Harris M Berger, “Death Metal Tonality and the Act of Listening,” Popular Music 18, no.

…>It’s not the music, but the feelings of the people we hear playing that are important to us… it is not the music as a physical stimulus that manipulates our moods, but it is using the music as a communicative offering to influence our feelings in a re-creative process.[^recreat] [^recreat]:Oliver Grewe et al., “Listening to Music as a Re-Creative Process: Physiological, Psychological, and Psychoacoustical Correlates of Chills and Strong Emotions,” Music Perception 24, no.

Posted 30 January 2008 † Yuletide § Creative Nonfiction § Finished § Music ‡ Comments (4) ° Also tagged: , , , ,

Inner Fire (Thread 4 of Metal Manifesto)

By 8th grade, I found myself with one real friend, and more than one enemy whose favorite pastime was to remind me of just how many friends I didn’t have.

…I saw in it the intense introspection and honesty that I’d been forced to learn through years of social self-discipline, trying to learn the unwritten rules of society for which my brian found itself less than ideally suited.

Posted 29 January 2008 † Yuletide § Creative Nonfiction § Work in Progress ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged: , ,

Braided Metal v2

On Death Metal: >But unlike the garbled sound emanating from the lovable and occasionally frenetic Cookie Monster, death-metal vocals seem to come from a dark spot in a troubled soul, as if they were the narrator’s voice on a tour of Dante’s seventh circle of hell… Early death-metal bands such as Death and Morbid Angel that emerged from Florida in the mid-’80s helped create the musical template that characterized the blasting sound as well as that of its Satan- and occult-obsessed sibling, black metal: fast, relentless drumming often featuring two bass drums; grinding, rapid-fire chording on guitars; squealing guitar solos; muted electric bass; unexpected sudden tempo changes; and a sense of theatricality that’s inevitably threatening—“a horror film put to music” is how Monte Conner, a vice president at Roadrunner Records, sees it… To be a true Cookie Monster vocal, said Mr. Conner, who signed some of the subgenre’s biggest bands, including Sepultura and Fear Factory, “it’s got to be really, really guttural.

…>While it is not clear to me if the motivating power of death metal is generating a vanguard of energetic youth or drawing artistic and creative young people into a trap of naive individualism, I believe that the political significance of musical sound is rooted in the meanings that the participants constitute and the consequences of those meanings for the participants’ lives and the larger society.[^motpower] [^motpower]:Harris M Berger, “Death Metal Tonality and the Act of Listening,” Popular Music 18, no.

Posted 28 January 2008 † Yuletide § Creative Nonfiction § Work in Progress ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged: ,

Spheres of Madness

The halo of possibilities that constantly lurk before us in the future are referred to as protentions, and experiences that have just passed through the now-point are referred to as retentions. Within this living present, experiences exist for us as numerous facets synthesised together, dynamic gestalts moving from protention to retention.[^168] [^168]: Harris M Berger, “Death Metal Tonality and the Act of Listening,” Popular Music 18, no.

Posted 28 January 2008 † Yuletide § Work in Progress ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged:

Metal Lyrics: Fragments

Shattered hope became my guide and grief and pain my friends a brother pact in blood-ink penned declared my silent end Naked and dying under worlds of silent stone reaching for the moonshield that once upon us shone. In Flames, Moonshield (The Jester Race) Liner notes introduction: As a servant of light and defender of life, I’m proud to invite you all to the furthest horizons to fight united against astral chaos, the primordial enemy of the planetary wisdom.

Posted 28 January 2008 † Yuletide § Reading ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged:

The Search For I

Alexi Laiho, possibly the most gifted songwriter in the metal world today, is a clown with a guitar as he admits during their epic live DVD in Stockholm, “So you see, basically we’re a bunch of fucking idiots… [proceeds to launch into a passionate rendition of a typically brilliant, pummeling, yet melodic song].” melt everyone’s faces with flowing, glorious metal]”

…The important part of the story is that, devastated, I returned solemnly to my bunk, crawled in bed shoes clothes ‘n all, and fetched my disc-man and Marilyn Manson (c’mon, it was the closest to metal that I had).

Posted 28 January 2008 † Yuletide § Creative Nonfiction § Work in Progress ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged: ,

Research Notes

a la Edmund Husserl, The Phenomenology of Internal Time-consciousness (1964) >Not merely a continuous stream, our experiences of the possibilities of the near future and the certainties of the immediate past exist simultaneously with the experienced events of the hair’s present…. The halo of possibilities that constantly lurk before us in the future are referred to as protentions, and experiences that have just passed through the now-point are referred to as retentions.

Posted 27 January 2008 † Yuletide § Reading ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged: ,