I don't suppose I can do a Nu-Metal feature without mentioning one of the biggest comebacks in the genre till Korn took that spot this year.
Coal Chamber was never really a big deal. The existed on the stage of Ozzfest and some other stuff like that, but aside from covering a Peter Gabriel song they never really rose to very high levels of fame in the same way that bands like Korn, and Slipknot did. I discovered them via a joke made in a YouTube video and I really wasn't impressed at first. They had a really psycho vibe that it took me a little bit to get into but once I did I kinda liked what I was hearing.
They broke up in 2003 and honestly I wouldn't have been surprised if that was the end of them but lo and behold one day I was looking at their music and there was a new album at the top of the queue. Turns out this new album is actually rather fantastic and was a really strong return for them musically. I look forward to hearing what they end up doing in the future.
So yeah, this is probably the worst time I could pick to share this song considering the massive uproar in the wake of the election that refuses to die down or resolve, but I'm posting it anyway cause I like it.
This is a catchy tune at the end of one of my favored Green Day albums and it's been stuck in my head for the last few days, hence I'm posting it. Sometimes I plan things, sometimes things plan me.
So if you follow Metal news in the half assed way I do then you probably are wondering what ever happened to Joey Jordison of Slipknot.
Well if you're like that then let me fill you in.
So it turns out Joey suffers from Transverse Myelitis which, long story short, means he can't really feel his legs too much. This obviously hurt his playing with Slipknot since his double kick playing is kinda a staple, so he got kicked from the group.
I'm not too sure how he plays in this group because his recovery chance from this disease is very low, but apparently he's one of either the 33% that fully recovers or the 33% that partially recovers. Good for him either way.
Music wise this is a pretty catchy tune that makes me want to hear more. It's not often you get a Death Metal supergroup together so this is a bit of a special thing. You've got people from all over the place on here, but I feel the most important to note would be Attila Csihar, vocalist of Mayhem and guest vocalist for Sunn O))). He's a rather big deal in the Black Metal community so landing him to be one of the vocalists is a big deal. He's the one with corpse paint in the right of the picture above.
I'm not sure what's with the heavy Nazi undertone in the video, but my suspicion is that considering some of the people they brought in it's one of two things. 1. They give support to the NSBM movement. 2. They're just going for the shock value.
Either way the song is actually rather good, so if you're down with Blackened Death Metal then check it out.
So I've rather enjoyed Nu-Vember so far. It's been a pile of songs I've in general just enjoyed, I just wish I had planned it a little better in advance so I could have spread it out a little more and included different artists. Ah well, maybe next year. I don't mean to imply that this year's Nu-Vember is over, I just am lamenting my lack of proper post spacing. Got next year's days scoped out though, so we should be good.
Static-X though. Man, these guys just seem to steal half their sound from other bands sometimes. You can usually pick out elements in their music that sound very similar to other artists which I feel is truly the essence of what the genre was. It was loud, aggressive, and followed a generally similar theme. I'm a huge fan honestly because of the raw untamed energy behind the work of Static-X, but I an see why it could bug people.
This one has some pretty cool shifts in it though, right along with the classic Wayne Static high vocal fast paced aggressive rapping. Hope you enjoy it!
Artist: Kanye West
Genre: Rap, Hip Hop
Language: Strong
So Kanye has fallen under some more fire recently because he canceled a show early after ranting about politics and stuff after only singing 3 or 4 songs. I'm gonna weigh in on this one cause it's started to really annoy me.
So first. No, it's not ok that he stopped the performance so early and wasted his fan's money. Tickets to his shows are crazy expensive and people expect a certain quality from him that was not delivered on. I understand that he has a mountain of stuff going on and it's really stressing him out, but if that's the case it's clearly him biting off more than he can chew. What with writing music and designing for both his own clothing line as well as some work with Adidas he just needs to slow down.
Second. Popular icons always come under fire for things like this much more than their Rock and Metal counterparts. I recently saw somebody share this picture.
One of the things I really hate about this is there's two totally different stories going on here. There's Lemmy who has a huge history with major drug problems that just happened to not die. No really, he's mentioned that he was amazed he didn't die from drug use. His drugs of choice were primarily uppers so if you want a reason that he was able to keep going then you could argue that that's probably one of the reasons he was able to keep going as long as he did. It's simply not fair to compare a Rock Star who lived a pretty care free life dedicated pretty much exclusively to music to an artists that has committed himself to music, fashion, and raising a family.
Speaking of the family thing that'd be our third point. Other than saying that he was exhausted Kanye mention he wanted to spend more time with his family. One thing you can't say about the dude is that he doesn't care about his family. Sure he named his first kid North, but it's been pretty consistently shown that he legitimately cares about them.
You know what people focus on though? The fact that he said he would have voted for Trump (not that he did, but that if he had voted he would have), and that he trashed Beyonce. You know what though? That rolls right into point the fourth.
It's been shown on many occasions that Mr. West is a little unstable, but here's why I think that is. He's said in interviews that he's a pretty shy guy, and listening to most of his earlier music does show that he's a pretty shy and borderline depressed individual.
I honestly think that he's created the whole "Kanye Persona" that everybody knows as a way to avoid feeling awkward. He acts just like a guy that decided he would act a certain way for the press to hide what he's really feeling. At some point though he clearly went a little too far with whatever attitude he's trying to convey; since that's the persona he's decided to adopt however, he got stuck trying to hold on to an opinion that he may or may not fully support. He has to though with whatever he happensto say because the hole is too deep for him to just straight up stop at any point.
Not that this is an excuse to act the way he does, but it would shed some light on why he may act like he does.
I dunno, I'm just sick of seeing uninformed hate on people. If you're going to be all negative toward somebody at least make sure that you know what you're talking about.
There's good covers and there bad covers, but them you get weird ones like this that are somehow both.
I love the music on this album, it's all really solid. And the vocals? Yo, Chris Barnes is an amazing vocalist. Lyrically he's kinda trash, but vocally he's a beast. Apparently he will smoke all your weed too, so look out.
But the combination of vocal work to the music in these covers can leave something to be desired. It could be good, but the Death Metal vocals don't quite fit throughout the whole song. I love the initiative in making a full album like this, it just could have been better.
Don't let that stop you from checking out the song though, it's still rather amusing.
So I went to see an MMA match last night. I know that this song may not seem to have anything to do with anything, but bear with me.
I went to support a friend of mine who made his debut in the realm of Mixed Martial Arts competitions and in my mind it was a really freaking cool thing. He decided to try and throw his opponent by walking out to Katy Perry rather than an intimidating song.
Totally fell asleep last night before I could finish this, so here the Thanksgiving live update, haha
My friend won his match, that's the good news, have a good Thanksgiving!
Last year sometimes there was this dude we hired. He doesn't listen to music like this anymore, but when he found out the type of music I liked he recommended a whole mountain of stuff to me, Otep included.
Until yesterday I really had only listen to Blood Pigs, but I have since found that not only does Otep have a lot of songs I rather enjoy, but they also have a really solid cover of the song Royals by Lorde.
This is a rather fun strain of Nu-Metal since it doesn't have the classic rap element. It's still got the chugging guitars and such, but vocally it's a slightly different take. It's something that I haven't really gotten into excessively much yet, but now that I've made the effort to show you Otep I'll have to listen to them more.
The Showdown was probably my favorite band for a little while back in 2010. They had just released the album Blood In The Gears and it was at the time the best thing I had heard. Turns out when they recorded the album they borrowed a couple of people from Demon Hunter. Go figure, Demon Hunter was one of my favorites before I even knew it.
But yo, the vocalist for The Showdown is possibly one of my favorites for the Southern Metal style. He's pretty smooth with his transitions between singing and screaming and his screaming is just good. It's really perfectly suited for the style of music they play. Sure, they have a bit of a Pantera fetish, but that works out reasonably well for the band. It's a solid, crazy, southern style that you don't always find executed in a polished way.
Band: Insane Clown Posse (ICP)
Genre: Horrorcore Rap
Language: Strong
I always feel like I need to defend the fact that I occasionally listen to ICP. Look, I like them along a similar stain to the way I like Weird Al, they make me laugh.
Like this song. It's about a dude that finds a bazooka and decides to kill everybody in town. Like, it's freaking stupid, but it's got a stupidly catchy tuba line that devolves into catchy garbage rhymes.
Oh my gosh, this is one of the funniest videos I've seen in a long time. I've loved this song for quite a while, but I haven't ever seen the wonderful joke that is this video, haha.
This is probably my favorite song about Tele-Preachers honestly, not only because it raises some genuine things, but the way it opens with "Believe in me and send your money". That makes me chuckle every time.
Iron Maiden has long been one of my favorite bands, I just haven't listened to them much recently since switching away from CDs. It's rough to navigate some of the older bands on Spotify when they have a pile of live albums. Still though, I managed to remember this song exists and if I can do that then I can get more Iron Maiden into my everyday life.
Side note, while the album this song was one is a little rough it did have a couple good songs on it, so check out the rest of them.
Honestly I was pretty sold on this song like as soon as I heard that sitar intro. Basically any Metal song that brings in different instruments are an automatic win in my book. That's one of the reasons I like Symphonic Metal so much honestly.
These guys aren't Symphonic Metal by any means, but they did have a bangin' intro.
Jeff told be about this band almost 2 years ago now back when he told me about Dark Sermon for the first time; it took me going to one of their shows about a year later before I actually managed to listen to them either, so there ya go.
I'm rather awful at listening to Metal bands that get recommended to me because if it doesn't grab me somehow right away I don't always remember to listen to it again. Rap music is literally designed to grab me like that so it's easy to get me to listen to them, but seeing as this is a more complex style that makes me actually take the time to listen I don't always check things out as quickly as I should.
But yo, Black Crown Initiate has a cool sound that you don't find many places. The guitar work reminds me of some of Septicflesh's work, but more refined.
I was originally going to write about a different band today, but I ended up getting in a car accident and ran out of time to actually listen to them enough to justify posting them today. Here's Soulfly instead.
Soulfly is Brazilian Nu-Metal with an intense political twist to it. Max Cavalera is kinda like that honestly.
The music is reasonably solid though and has elements of a latin thing going on kinda like Ill Nino. I really enjoy when people mix styles that "don't belong together" because that's where Rap Metal and Symphonic Metal came from. It's always a good time.
So long and goodnight. That's the last line of this song.
This was also the last song that MCR ever played live, so it was also the last line they ever sang. This is one of many things that twisted the band's fans in knots forever and ever. Because the community was incredibly emotional, get it?
But seriously, I can't hate on these guys even if (like many bands) they have a weird fan bass. The music they created managed to hit a chord with a lot of people that not too many people replicate quite the same.
Heck, look at the fanbase reaction to the whole MCRX thing. With 11 rough cuts and live mixes of songs they managed to make hundreds of thousands of people freak out. Granted that's cause most people thought it was going to be a reunion, but that's not important.
Also Gerard Way fit the look much better when he had black hair, I'm not as huge a fan of the white hair being short and the red hair was just kinda scary.
Band: Twenty-One Pilots (TØP, |-/)
Genre: Alternative Hip Hop
I don't excessively care for hyper popular groups because I like to think of myself as something musically special. I'm a gigantic hipster at heart, so when stuff like these guys come up I try to avoid them and continue listening to my Metal from Norway that you probably haven't heard of.
That's a hella sucky attitude to have though so I decided to once again post the band I wrote off back when Car Radio was their big single. My friend showed me that video back when the song had less that 500,000 views and I really didn't excessively care for it. He called it though, he tried to tell me that they were gonna be huge, I just didn't listen. Well Eliot, looks like you were right and I was a moron. I could have been a hipster fan but I messed that up. Ah well.
Here's my favorite song off of the Blurryface album.
Band: Bring Me The Horizon
Genre: Hardcore, Metalcore
Language: Brief, Strong
I remember this album coming out a few years ago because one of my coworkers loved it to death. Back in the days when I didn't run the kitchen music with a first of Metal this was the heaviest stuff we ever played. I didn't really mind it, but it was also right at the height of my stupid Metal Elitist stage so I had issues with these guys music because the general Metal Community (a bunch of d-bags generally) had issues with them.
Luckily for me I'm finally opening up my mind to the fact that bands don't automatically suck just because they're Metalcore or anything like that. #ProudOfMe
Check out that pre-breakdown line at about 1:30 though, classy as hell. Not familiar with what a pre-breakdown line is? Just check out this video.
Oh heck yeah, listen to that Nu-Metal bass tone. That really trashy junk noise thing, it's great. Like for real, I actually love it a lot.
But this is one of the other strains of Nu-Metal that are out there. sure you can have your Korn strain or the Ill Nino strain as your classic tone, but Papa Roach represents the Spineshank variety. Not so much of the rapping angle, but still the aggressive guitar work that Nu-Metal is known for. A lot of these styled bands ended up changing their sound around to a more straightforward hard rock deal or just passing on. Nothing really makes these guys sound super unique, they just have the songs you know. Slipknot, Korn, Limp Bizkit, the all have a sound that makes them sound really individual. Papa Roach? You have Last Resort and that's about all the most people will pick out of their song lineup.
I unfortunately have only managed to listen to this album by Periphery. They're an amazing band, but for some reason I can't manage to find the time, they're a little too smart for me.
Not like lyrically though, they're just rather involved musically. Their use of time signatures and tempos are rather intimidating to listen to when all you want is some simple music to pass time with. I tend to not want that in my leisure time, but once I find the songs I like they are added to the list of familiar enough to enjoy.
I feel like this is a very disjointed post and for that I apologize, it's been an off day at the point of writing this.
Band: Apocalyptica feat. Till Lindemann
Genre: Symphonic Metal
Apocalyptica is a group you may have heard of in the past. They started out as a Metallica tribute act that played all the songs on cello, but they have since evolved to the point that they got a pile of their own tunes that are fantastic.
From time to time they invite vocalists from other groups to sing over a song. They've released a lot of really solid tunes this way, but this is one of my favorites because it features the amazingly talented vocalist Till Lindemann of Rammstein.
Till is possibly my favorite vocalist in Metal. The fact that a guy with a voice like his is singing in an industrial metal group instead of something that would gain more mainstream recognition is amazing to me. He probably wouldn't want to considering his opinions that have been displayed to date, but still.
Band: KoЯn
Genre: Nu-Metal
Album: The Serenity Of Suffering
Rank: 9 out of 10
Yo yo yo, album review!
So Korn dropped their new album on October 21st. I was stupid busy at the time and was teasing the idea of Nu-Vember so I thought I'd wait till now. Well here we go, Album time.
Let's kick it in the style of the 2015 A to Z Challenge and pick strengths and weaknesses.
Strong songs? Yo, we can't ignore Rotting In Vain if we're talking strong. It was the first single they released and it was basically everything that Korn fans wanted to see. There was a mountain of the old sound to it and then right as you didn't think it could get any better you get slapped in the face with the crazed beatboxing segment a la Twist but like, way better. None of my friends knew what to do when this song hit, it was the old school Korn sound with modern mixing making it sound good.
I feel like there's only one song on the album that I just don't care for as much is the song with Corey Taylor of Slipknot. It's not bad, but I feel like it was hands down the weakest single that was released and just didn't life up to what I had assumed Corey would deliver on. It wasn't a bad song, I just thought it could be better.
Some other songs to make a point to check out though would be The Hating (very classic Issues vibe to it almost), Next In Line (got some good old DJ noises here), When You're Not There (just generally solid), and Black Is The Soul. All of these are probably my favorites on the album, but it's all crazy solid.
The best thing? They delivered on their promise, no Dubstep sounds. I loved The Path Of Totality, but it wasn't as good a Korn album as it was a remix album for songs didn't have original versions if that makes sense.
This album is exactly what Korn needed to get back up there. Paradigm Shift was good, but it had a lot of flops on it like Hater, Never Never, Paranoid & Aroused, and some others. This album has their old edge while getting a modern twist to it of actually having well mixed music behind the vocals.
If we can get a resurgence of classic Nu-Metal sounds like this I will be one happy camper.
Since Rotting In Vain is my favorite track on the album I'm gonna have it be the one that get's featured as a placeholder on the playlist.
A friend of mine turned me onto this song a couple weeks ago. He was telling me about a song where the guitarist played a fiberglass bodied guitar through 3 fuzz boxes and it sounded terribly wonderful. Well there's no way to resist crappy things that sound good, right? It's definitely something that I enjoy.
It's that little guitar lick during the chorus, it's really not that bad sounding at all. I would probably hate it in another song, but it really does fit in perfectly here. I've got another example of atrocious tone that sounds good in situation as well, but that'll probably wait till Saturday or Sunday cause I already have plans for tomorrow.
Apologies if none of the guitar talk means anything to you. Honestly I'm not even 100% sure what I'm talking about with it, I just have a vague enough idea as to what I needed to understand. You can appreciate the music though, it's a really solid song.
Band: System Of A Down (SoaD)
Genre: Avant-Garde Metal
Language: Strong Language
I'm sure a great many of you feel this way today. Trump wins? It's the end of the world. Clinton wins? It's a rigged system. Very few people are going to be happy for the rest of the week.
I'm sure though that a lot of you can laugh at the way Serj sings this song's beginning. It's kinda giberish and may take your mind off of you loss/win for a bit. I like it though, it keeps that crazy vibe that a lot of System songs seem to have.
Band: Panic! At The Disco feat. LOLO
Genre: Alternative Rock
Language: Some
Hey hey, happy election day! Vote vote vote and all that cause it's it's an American right and all that.
As per my personal policy in life, this blog takes no political stance in the same way I take no public stance. You wanna know what I believe? Catch me in person, cause there's no way I'm having that conversation over text when I can be misinterpreted.
Cool.
Song though! I rather enjoy most all of Panic!'s songs at this point, and as I listen I'm finding more and more songs that the group wrote that I didn't know before. This one was a big one actually cause I don't really know where I heard it before, I just know I have. I have a heck of a time trying to remember to look songs up too, Never been good at that either. I actually started a spreadsheet of songs to look up and songs to post. That's me, hella organized about important to me but unimportant to other people things.
Band: Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, Imagine Dragons, Logic, X Ambassadors, & Ty Dolla $ign
Genre: Rap, Hip Hop
Language: Strong
Ok, I think we can all agree that Suicide Squad was a little disappointing as a movie, but the music from it was pretty good, right?
I mean this song is straight up loaded with mountains of artists on it. It would make more sense if this was an Imagine Dragons song featuring everybody else, but it's classified as Wayne's song everywhere I'm finding it so there's that. The dude only has the one verse but for whatever reason they decided to credit him the song.
Heck, if memory serves this may have been one of his first releases since the whole Birdman fiasco.
It's a rather catchy tune though and is my attempt to manage to keep up with the times, ya know?
So I know I just trashed on fad music yesterday, but let's kick into my personal favorite era of Fad music, Nu-Metal.
Yeah yeah, I don't have much room to talk since I said Nirvana needs to step back from it's high pedestal of god tier music, but I have reason here. Nu-Metal was the fad everybody hated. Heck, even some of the people in the scene hated it. That being said I love it, and here's why.
Firstly you've got the rapid-fire lyrics. I love fast paced intense music as a general rule and Nu-Metal delivers on that a decent amount of the time.
Secondly there's the simplicity of it. I could play this music and I really love that. Heck, I could write this music which makes it even more basic. It's easy and accessible.
Thirdly it's got the endless hammer of guitar and drums while maintaining the narrative that Rap music is known for. Maybe not a great narrative, but the vocals are the main driving force in this music.
Honestly it's like Pop music in that regard. Hyper angry/violent Pop music, but Pop nonetheless. The simplicity and such just makes it really fun to listen to.
Well this is a little rambley cause it's 3 AM, but who cares. I hereby dub this month Nu-Vember and it's gonna be a blase.
