1349- corona,ca #3

1349- corona, ca #2

1349

winter of discontent

all hail, winter is finally here... lots of shows coming up, dark funeral, goatwhore, cradle of filth, & immortal. \m/

the state of death metal- wall street journal style

an interesting look at how people from outside & inside the scene view certain aspects of death metal, in this case, the singing style of death metal. in making his comments about the singing read what monte conner says about the death metal scene in general. this a reprint(hope they dont sue me, all i have are a bunch of skulls & inverted crosses), & link to original w.s. journal post.


That's Good Enough for Me
Cookie Monsters of death-metal music.

BY JIM FUSILLI
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
While the extreme branch of heavy-metal music known as death metal is defined in part by often-vile lyrics about violence, catastrophic destruction, nihilism, anarchy and paranoia, its singing style is associated with a beloved goggle-eyed, fuzzy blue puppet.
Death-metal vocalizing is also known as Cookie Monster singing, if not in tribute to, at least in acknowledgment of, the "Sesame Street" puppet that blurts in a guttural growl, his words discharged so rapidly that they tend to collide with each other.
All this was news to people at Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind "Sesame Street." "We have nothing to do with it," said Ellen Lewis, vice president of corporate communications. "What is it?"
"It's a whole new thing to me," said Frank Oz, who originated the voice of the Cookie Monster. "I've never heard of it."
Most death-metal vocalists don't seem to mind the term. "We think it's funny," said Angela Gussow, lead singer for the Swedish band Arch Enemy and one of the few female death-metal vocalists. "We take ourselves too seriously."
The term is considered derogatory by some metal fans, but it's an apt description. Issued like machine-gun fire, death-metal vocals are low, guttural and aggressive, with no subtlety, no melody and very little modulation. 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. Cute and funny they ain't.

It's not easy to determine where and how Cookie Monster singing actually began. 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.
But while the vocals in early death metal are low, raspy and aggressive, not unlike the vocals by, say, Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, that extreme degree of Cookieness is missing.
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. It should sound like they're gargling glass."
Nic Bullen of Napalm Death can sound remarkably like the Cookie Monster; his performance on the band's 1987 debut "Scum" (Earache)--which contains 28 songs, 11 of which are under one minute in length, including "You Suffer," which clocks in at less than two seconds--is a virtual Cookie Monster tribute. Frank Mullen of Suffocation, whose 1991 album "Effigy of the Forgotten" (Roadrunner) is considered a model of death-metal music, sounds like an especially malevolent Cookie Monster.
The term also signifies a level of incomprehensibility of the lyrics, which in most cases is absolute. Given the subject matter, that's probably for the best. Carcass, a band featuring vocalist Jeff Walker, sings in graphic detail of disembowelment and the mechanics of the autopsy. Bloody annihilation is another popular theme among the groups. For most death-metal bands, the gorier the better, and few gruesome details are spared.
"If you want to make music that's terrifying, you have to sing about ripping people's heads off," Mr. Conner of Roadrunner Records told me. "Singing about puppies and kittens isn't too cool."
Death-metal singing takes a toll on vocalists, according to Ms. Gussow, who joined Arch Enemy in 2001. She says that despite the characteristic rock-salt-and-razors growl, the sound doesn't originate in the throat. It gets pushed up from the abdomen.
"If you use the right abdomen muscles, you get a lot of power," she says. "It's a primal form of vocalizing, but it's also a very controlled style of singing. You can get weak if you don't have muscle power."
She does vocal exercises to keep fit, some of which she learned from Melissa Cross, a New York-based voice teacher whose instructional DVD "The Zen of Screaming" is a favorite of extreme vocalists.
"We're on tour, sometimes, for 2 1/2 months," the German-born Ms. Gussow said. "I can't miss even a day."
Mr. Oz agrees that making Cookie Monster sounds is an arduous occupation. "I never trained for it and I blew my pipes out," he told me. "It's completely unnatural, an explosion of force that comes from the belly through the throat. I would do a day of it and my normal voice would be a half an octave lower." (During our conversation, Mr. Oz demonstrated the Cookie Monster voice. The sudden force was startling and the volume so loud, I had to pull the phone from my ear.)

Alas, the Cookie Monster school of death metal is dying, says Mr. Conner. In the late '80s, popular death-metal bands like Sepultura, Obituary and Deicide sold about 100,000 CDs, not a bad total for bands on the musical fringe. Today's bands that play only old-school death metal are lucky to sell 15% to 20% of that figure. "I stopped signing death-metal bands in '93 or '94," Mr. Conner told me. "The glory days have long ago passed."
Part of the reason is a reaction to a natural instinct among pop musicians: a desire to expand the audience. Death-metal pioneers Entombed now leapfrog between the sound of their classic '89 album "Left Hand Path" (Earache) and more traditional heavy metal. Fear Factory's singer Burton C. Bell modified his Cookie Monster vocals that were prominent on the band's early work in time for its '99 release "Obsolete" (Roadrunner), which incorporates melodic or "clean" vocals, rap and metal singing without the Cookie Monster edge. The lyrics, clearly decipherable, tell the story of the war between man and machines. "Obsolete" sold more than 500,000 copies, significantly more than any of the band's previous albums.
Led by 20-year-old vocalist Matthew K. Heafy, who counts Metallica and Pantera as major influences, Trivium also blends almost-Cookie Monster guttural singing with melodic vocals. The music of the Orlando, Fla.-based group echoes classic death metal, but has elements of other heavy-metal schools. Mr. Heafy says: "I can't even do Cookie Monster vocals. It's kind of a limited style. You can convey much more emotion with other types of singing."
Mr. Fusilli, a novelist and critic, covers rock and pop music for the Journal.

enter the store!

emperor- key club los angeles

emperor, goatwhore, & crematorium @ the key club. crematorium opened the late starting show, wound-up metal freaks taunted the grindcore style band, but they raged on, playing a very tight set, although the singer lacks any kind of stage persona what so ever, they were not bad & i have seen far worse. louisianas goatwhore were on next. old school black metal, no keyboards, & heavy on the satan. these guys rocked with lots of rabid goatwhore fans going nuts. while america is not known for black metal, bands like this will soon change peoples minds. after a stage change & scenes from "the legend of ricky o", norways black metal gods emperor explode on stage, for the first 30 seconds ihsahn had no vocals, once that was fixed, it was pure black metal. tryms drumming is simply amazing, he is by far one of the best black metal drummers going. samoth had visa issues & was not granted entry to the states, so ihsahn did all the guitar work, & after the vocal mix was fixed, his singing was perfect. i would have to say "inno a satana", "in the wordless chamber", & "the loss and curse of reverence" were my favorite songs of the evening. every song was tight, and ihsahns vocals were awesome, & trym was simply amazing, emperor truly lived up to the legend status they so rightly deserve. all hail!

06-l-06-l-06-l-

emperor add shows in ny & la

thursday, july 13 @ bb kings, new york
friday, july 14 @ bb kings, new york
sunday, july 16 @ key club, los angeles
monday, july 17 @ house of blues, los angeles

new york gets a thursday show, los angeles gets a monday gig. hail!

marduk invades mexico

25.05 MEXICO Puebla - La Ciricua Bar 26.05 MEXICO Monterrey - IBEX Rock Bar 27.05 MEXICO San Luis Potosi - Huerta Del STIC 28.05 MEXICO Mexico City - Circo Volador 29.05 MEXICO Guadalajara - Hard Rock Cafe
it seems marduk is not able to secure work visas for the states, possibly a u.s. tour sometime next year.

dark funeral- attera totus sanctus cd review

dark funerals latest, attera totus sanctus, is extreme black metal at its best. blazing speed, the dark funeral way, this is solid black, caligulas vocals are straight from hell, he screams like no one else, and the production is excellent. opening track king antichrist is hellish fire exploding from the bowels of hell, this song sets the pace, and 666 voices inside rips on from there. the emperors singing on this is gut wrenching, like the voices are actually talking through him. lord ahriman & chaq mol blister the fret boards here, & matte modin pounds as if his life depends on it. the tempo never lets up. attera totus sanctus, rides the crimson wave of flames, while the tempo is unrelenting, its more than the title track, its a testament to one who has truly gone to the dark side. godhate is a horn fest, anti-christian lyrics, & insane speed takes through ancient israel, walk with jesus & you can almost feel the nails. atrum regina is a midpaced love song, satanic love is no different than other love, except its real nasty, fucking hail! angel flesh impaled says it all, grab a bloody feather for me. feed on the mortals is grave exploding energy, tales of terror the vampire way. this might be my least favorite song, but it still rips, & is a good lead in to the final ritual. which in my opinion is the best song, it starts out like the first song, & builds to a genuine black metal climax. truly dynamic, if you arent headbanging to this, your a pantera fan. their best yet, this is a solid 6 cross cd here, extreme black metal from sweden. hail! -l- -l- -l- -l- -l- -l-