GUEST POST: Venom - Sons Of Satan

Today's post is written by Jeff, because spices are the spice of life, and there are a wide variety of spices, and variety is important. But enough of that, let's talk about today's band: Venom

Venom formed in 1979 in Newcastle, England. They released their first album, titled "Welcome To Hell" in '81, and their second in '82, these two albums were very influential in 1980s thrash metal, and death metal as well.

The second album, "Black Metal", became the namesake of an entire subgenre of metal, the sound of which was innovated largely by bands such as Venom and Bathory.

This particular song, Sons of Satan, is my favorite track from "Welcome To Hell".

Carach Angren - The Funerary Dirge of a Violinist

Carach Angren is a special thing in the black metal world, they have an orchestral backing.

This is not totally uncommon in the metal world, Dimmu Borgir, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Septic Flesh, Behemoth, and many others use orchestral sounds to enhance their music.  None of these bands are black metal though, and that's what makes Carach Angren special.

Black metal as a whole tends to be a very harsh sound in general, so hearing it with pretty melodies in the background can be disconcerting.

This band also tends to make themed albums, and the album that this song is on is based in WWII.  Just as a heads up.

ALBUM REVIEW: Cannibal Corpse - A Skeletal Domain 2014

So I got the new Cannibal Corpse album a couple days ago and only just realized that it has been out for less than 2 weeks.  Review time!

We're gonna do this track by track, but my initial reaction to the album as a whole is that it's another great addition to the lineup of now 13 albums.  While I'm not as well versed in their older material as I probably should be, I know at least 2 songs from each album.

Released on September 16th, the album had a lot of hype in the Death Metal community.  Even if you aren't a particularly huge fan of CC, you should at least respect what they have added to the scene as a whole.  

Known for their questionably lyrics, heavy sound, a the singers massive thigh of a neck, they have been around since 1988 with only 3 members having changed over the course of that time.  These guys are solid members of the Metal world.  

Some might find their content appalling (a religious group in Russia is currently trying to get them banned for blasphemy) but their personal views on their material "We don't sing about politics. We don't sing about religion...All our songs are short stories that, if anyone would so choose they could convert it into a horror movie. Really, that's all it is. We like gruesome, scary movies, and we want the lyrics to be like that. Yeah, it's about killing people, but it's not promoting it at all. Basically these are fictional stories, and that's it. And anyone who gets upset about it is ridiculous."  (source http://www.markprindle.com/fisher-i.htm) certainly show that they don't give a crap.

Now without further ado, a track by track review.

1.  High Velocity Impact Spatter

Like I said before, I can't claim much knowledge about this compared to a lot of the older stuff.  That being said, I like a lot of things about this song.  As a whole, this stuff feels a lot tighter than a lot of the older stuff but I don't think that takes away from it at all.  The guitar work is very good and I love the what Fisher does toward the end of the choruses.

2.  Sadistic Embodiment

Starting out kinda weird with borderline conflicting rhythms in the verses, this song has a cool and unique sound from a lot of the rest of the album.  However, it does feel a little Tech-y, which isn't really CC's thing usually.  Not a bad song at all, and lyrically it feels right, but not the best on the album in my opinion.

3.  Kill Or Become

Now this one is probably my favorite track.  As a bassist, I really freaking love Alex Webster's bass work, and while this song doesn't have super complicated stuff you can hear some killer tone in it that isn't as obvious in a lot of the other tracks.

Also for some reason I have a strange attraction to the line, "Fire up the chainsaw, Hack all their heads off."  Don't ask me why, I just do.

4.  A Skeletal Domain

This song starts out with tones of Death/Doom, and I really like it.  As it unfolds you can almost hear the horror welling up in the music which is a really cool effect that you rarely feel in a style like Death Metal.  The feelings this song brings up really do fit with what the art on the album would begin to conjure to your mind.

5.  Headlong Into Carnage

I don't have as many strong feelings about this song right away to be honest.  It's a good song, but I don't feel strongly one way or another about it, ya know?  The more I listen to it, the more it seems to grow on me though, which in my book makes it a good song.

6.  The Murderer's Pact

Ah, the single I've been hearing for a while now.  On one hand, singles are chosen because they are the best on the album.  On the other hand, that can make them feel old far too quickly.  That is not the case with "The Murderer's Pact" thankfully, because it really feels like a solid CC song.  I'm serious, lyrically and musically it feels right.  I wouldn't call it classic, but I would say that it's a killer track.

7.  Funeral Cremation

This song feels a little great to me.  It has a wonderful doom and gloom feel to the intro followed by the tormented travels of a murderer.  Really, what more could you want, right?  Then it turns out that all the killings were his own family, which makes the whole package fit together nicely.

8.  Icepick Lobotomy

Dat bass tho, listen to it ring out.  Then there's the alternately horrifying and hilarious picture of Corpsegrinder operating on some poor soul.  On the other hand, this song definitely feels different and maybe not quite right.  Musically it is just that small step different from the rest of the album.  Also reading up on legit icepick lobotomys has freaked me out a little, and these lyrics do a good job at summoning that old "creeped out" feeling I had.

9.  Vector Of Cruelty

I'm not sure what it is about this song, but it is a very close second to "Kill Or Become" in my favorite list.  There's some good bass work in this one too, and it also has (I almost hesitate to say it) a bouncy feel to it.  It flows really well and is pretty fun to listen to.

10.  Bloodstained Cement

Not to stereotype, but I feel like this song sums up what a good number of guys feel like when we think about what would happen if we got jumped somewhere.  Don't lie, you've thought of it.

Musically it almost feels repetitive though, so there is that as a downside.

11.  Asphyxiate To Resuscitate

One of the best things about this song is that the managed to take a Wah solo and make it not suck.  This has been a problem in the metal world since Kirk Hammett ruined it for everybody back in the 90s.  This is a pretty good song though, with a good beat that borderline reminds me of some of the stuff from the 90s era CC.

12.  Hollowed Bodies

As I finish the album, I feel like I have very little to say about this track.  Is it good?  Yes.  It it Brutal?  Yes.  I simply have this issue with the last track of an album, where I really struggle with having an opinion or any major sort about it.  Musically it's killer, and Fisher takes us through a wonderful little tale, but be that as it may, I hold no major feelings about it.

That unfortunately, brings us to the end of the album.  Hope you all liked it and remember, if you really enjoy music, support the band by actually buying the music and going to shows.  That's my 2 cents.

Motörhead - We Are The Road Crew

Honestly, every time I listen to Motörhead I really try to like them.  Really, I do.  And I can't.

Now that's not to say I don' like some of their material, I really enjoy about 3 or 4 of their songs I've heard thus far.

Problem is, they have a very limited format.  Lemmy can only hit about a 5 note range it seems, and the music is really recycled feeling.  From that though you can pull some seriously good metal bass work, and some of the songs are really catchy.  Even though all their songs are Ace Of Spades.

Not quite Ace Of Spades, but still pretty good.

ZZ Top - Waitin' For The Bus/Jesus Just Left Chicago

ZZ Top is a band that has been around forever, they are quite literally legends.

While you're probably familiar with a couple of their usual singles, this one is mildly less popular.  Actually it's 2 songs, but they need to be played together, otherwise you're cheating.

I'm not gonna waste all my ZZ Top facts, cause I know they'll turn up here again.  Hey, a man needs to keep some stories for later, right?

Blues/rock masters, ZZ top.  Enjoy!

Triptykon - Shatter

One thing about black metal bands that is alternately interesting and really stupid, is that they all have to pick weird stage names.  Some of these are interesting, such as Hellhammer and Necrobutcher (Mayhem), but them some are just stupid like Satanic Slaughter (a.k.a. Tom G. Warrior a.k.a. Thomas Gabriel Fischer)

Mister Warrior is who we're visiting today with his current band, Triptykon.  I literally know nothing about these guys, other than their singer has weird taste in stage names and that he's from Switzerland.

They have a pretty cool video though, so you might want to watch it rather than just listen.

Death/ Doom/ Black metal.  Gotta love it.

Umphreys McGee - Cemetery Walk

Umphrey's McGee is the essence of a jam-y prog band.  They have a lot of really cool songs but this one happens to be one that has stood out to me over the years.

What I mean by standing out though, is more that this was the song I heard my brother play the most when he was in his Umphrey's kick.

From the mellow piano start to the high power ending, this song travels all over the music spectrum.

There's a lot of cool stuff that goes on in their music, so check out more of it.

The Ink Spots: I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire

I'll be totally honest here, I had never heard this song before playing Fallout 3.  In fact, most of us probably heard it there and probably nowhere else.

One day though, I got a pile of record albums from a friend of mine and I decided to just play some of them.  This was one of the records that I put on and you can imagine my surprise when I found this song!  I had the vinyl album that was home to  Fallout 3's theme song and I was happy.

I know nothing about this band, so I hope you enjoy my personal connection to the song!

2Chainz - Birthday Song

So really there's no reason that I should like this song.  It's a style I didn't used to like, but now I do seem to.

The first time I heard of 2Chainz I thought it was a joke because if you listen to some of the lyrics in this song, it's pretty dumb.  He however, is not a joke and well worth checking out as something to amuse yourself for a brief time.

Also this song has Kanye West in it.  Kanye West is Kanye Best.

The Killers: Bones

This here is a song by a band called The Killers.  You've probably heard them singing about a boyfriend who looks like a girlfriend from last February?   Ya.  Those guys.

This song is called "Bones" and is, in my opinion, a lot better than the song "Somebody Told Me" that I referenced earlier.  (ha, earlier.  Like it was more than a sentence ago or something.)

It has a reasonably interesting music video too, so that's good, right?

See you on Monday.

Alice In Chains - Angry Chair

EDIT 3.25.18:  Changed the name back to Alice In Chains, cause labeling Allison Chains just made me angry.

I'll admit, this was what I thought Alice In Chains was called for a good 4 years.  I wasn't too familiar with their stuff at the time though, so I'd say that it's ok.  (as it turns out this is actually the name of an all girl cover band for Alice In Chain.)

AiC was a big name in the late 80s and 90s grunge scene, right up there with Nirvana and the like.

Layne Staley is one of the more unique vocalists I've ever heard, but I'm not gonna get into that right now since this is supposed to be a short read.  Suffice it to say that in my book, there are very few vocalists who compare to Layne in the realm of rock vocals.

The track I've selected is called Angry Chair.  One of the special things about this song is that it was written entirely by vocalist Layne Staley, rather than Jerry Cantrell as most of the songs were.   I don't know how perceptive you are to feelings in music, but I personally can feel a lot of anger and frustration in the song and I think it improves the song.

Hope you like it, see you tomorrow.

A change of pace, Knife Party.

So Knife Party is an EDM/ dubstep band.  I actually don't know almost anything about them, cause the way I found out about them is a little weird.  I was stalking a friend's facebook page and in their recent likes was Knife Party.

Still though, the way I found out about them isn't important really.  These guys are one of my favorite Electronic bands so I figured I'd share this track with you today.

I hope you enjoy this song as much as I do.

Motograter. The band that invented an instrument.

Motograter is a band you probably haven't heard of, and if you have you probably didn't have a large attachment to them.

Sliding in during the whole Nu-Metal scene in 95, these guys have a couple of interesting things you should know about.

1. They invented a freaking instrument called a Motograter, which is a couple industrial cables strung up with a pickup and smacked with sticks.  Look up a video, it's interesting.
2. Their singer (for a time) was Ivan Moody, currently of Five Finger Death Punch.

So the thing I like about these guys is they have a really unique sound.  I really don't care much for a lot of Nu-Metal bands, but these guys were one of the bands that made it through my filter.  Their sound is really special cause of that instrument I mentioned.  It helped them to stand out from all the rest of the generic angry bands.

Now without further ado, "Suffocate".

It would really be nice if I could pick the picture that shows up...

Let's get used to this.

So I've never blogged before in my life.  It seems like a fun thing though, so I will start in the hopes that it will spur some great conversations about my all time favorite thing; Music.

Today we're gonna talk about a musical style you may not be familiar with, know an Symphonic Death Metal.

Symphonic Death Metal is, in my opinion, one of the better types of music out there.  Don't be scared away by the name, it's truly a beautifully intricate sound if you are willing to sit and listen.

The track I have chosen today is "Prometheus" by Septic Flesh.

Once again, don't disregard the music solely based on the name.

The combination of full choir and classical instruments with harsh vocals and distorted guitars is a mix that most people would look past without a thought, (other than perhaps that it would never work.)

This is one of my favorite tracks off of this album, but not the best, so be sure to check it out if you enjoyed it.

This has been the first is a (hopefully) long series of songs I love.  Catch ya later.