Cryptopsy - Once Was Not - 2005

So I remember the day that I was sitting there thinking about metal subgenres and I realized that I didn't know a single fucking back I could say was just straight up death metal.  It gets so goddamn crazy with all these genre-specific variations.  I thought, what about Beneath the Massacre?  Nope, technical death metal.  Decapitated?  The same.  Nile?  Tech death (although I've come to revise my opinion and say just straight death).  Opeth?  Prog death.  Gojira?  The same.  Every goddamn band is technical psychadelic progressive melodic blackened pornogride sludge trancecore.  What.  The.  Fuck.  This is my favorite genre of music, right?

Sure, you can say bands like Death and Deicide are the original death metal bands, and I agree, they are; but the problem with that is that the sound has changed so much since then, a lot of listeners consider them "old school" death metal.  So I was at a loss.  If someone asked me what death metal sounded like, I'd say I have no fucking clue.

The Revolutionary War if the redcoats had nukes?

Then, on a whim in San Luis Obispo, visiting a friend, we went to a record store and I swiped some plastic money I didn't have for Cryptopsy's Once Was Not.  I listened to it and I thought, this is it.  This is death metal.

What's great about Once Was Not isn't overwhelming level of technicality, even though that's part of it.  It's not the traditional violent lyricism, because honestly, this album is tame compared to bands like Cannibal Corpse.  It's the sheer chaos of the album.  It's that the drummer is just beating the shit out of his fucking drums.  It's Lord Worm's glorious, hyperventilating dog-bark vocals.  It's the constant dissonance of the tremolo-picking guitars.  It's that the whole album just screams "fuck you" at everyone.

Once Was Not doesn't carry that overproduced, mechanically perfected and produced sound that identifies tech death like Beneath the Massacre.  Nah, they have that old school Death and Morbid Angel sound, unrefined but immensely talented, combined with the development of death metal over the years.

Before people start bitching (yeah, I know, nobody's gonna bitch cause nobody reads this blog - fuck off), yeah, I know that Cryptopsy's earlier albums are pretty fucking good too.  I love None So Vile too, but due to lyrical content, that albums a lot less accessible.  I don't mind listening to violence, but usually gleeful disembowelment done slowly as to torture is towards the bottom of my musical content desires.  Once Was Not was a different direction for Lord Worm, focusing a bit more on politics and human nature instead of rape and murder.  A step in the right direction, if you ask me.

The album offers a lot of variety, too, for a chaotic death metal album.  There are relatively melodic break downs, like the random acoustic sweep picking in "In the Kingdom Where Everything Dies, the Sky is Mortal," and there are some blisteringly clever guitar lines, like in my favorite track "Carrionshine."  There's a lovely, corny "string" intro to "Angelskingarden" (AWESOME track name, Nathan Explosion would be jealous), and there's even a terrible jazz intro.  Seriously.  "Keeping the Cadaver Dogs Busy."

Lets be honest here.  This album would be nothing without Lord Worm.  The musicians in Cryptopsy are some brutal musicians, but I've heard their newer album.  It's straight up metalcore.  I mean, whatever; if that's your genre, I don't care - I've been known to rock the fuck out to some Chimaira - but jesus christ knows that's not death metal.  Lord Worm adds that old school edge with the chaotic, unrelenting energy that you can't avoid if you're barking like a dog on stage.

And...well, Lord Worm also left metal to teach english to second language learners in Canada.  Helping others if fucking metal, and if you don't think so, you can go play in Angels and Airwaves.

So yeah, I fucking love this album.  Listen if you feel like listening to something unpolished, where you can tell every track was laid out with the musicians downing beers and breaking shit in the soundroom. Don't listen if you want something produced, perfectly mixed, or if you don't like Lord Worm's vocals. Also, if you don't like Lord Worm's vocals...well, I heard Travis Barker is looking for a bitch to carry his cymbal stands around...

Gojira - Terra Incognita (2001)

I'm making a habit of reviewing old albums, apparently.  So the review is 11 years late - well this album has been fucking brilliant for eleven years then.

If you haven't heard of Gojira, then let me let you in on a bit about them: Gojira is a French progressive death metal band whose themes center around environmentalism and saving the goddamn whales.  They're very heavily involved with Sea Shepherd, an organization founded to save the whales, and formerly had a ship named after them.  Now, I know what you're probably thinking - that doesn't sound br00tal at all.  Well you're wrong.  Very wrong.

Is that Vin Diesel?

Terra Incognita is HEAVY.  There's really no other word to describe it.  They don't have that chaotic, thrash-derived fury you hear in standard, run of the mill death metal, but they aren't slowing down too much to be considered a doom metal band either.  The group is distinctively death metal...but definitely progressive.  The guitars chug with the weight of a thousand bricks slamming incessantly into your face, and their screams vary from a guttural growl to that ripping, almost black metal scream.  They even throw some "clean" (albeit distressed) vocals in there for good measure.

But, honestly, the heaviness isn't what makes Gojira one of those bands that causes metalheads within a 10 mile radius to spontaneously start headbanging.  No, it's the cleanliness of the album and the song structure.  Case and point, take my favorite track from the album, and my favorite Gojira track of all time: "Lizard Skin."  Hear those guitar gallops at 1:20?  The kick isn't echoing those.  The drummer is running 16ths beneath the sixtuplet gallop rhythm of the lead and rhythm, which means in order for that rhythm not to get lost entirely, it needs to be clean as FUCK.  This is a testament to the guitarists' skill and sound choice, as their distortion is scooped enough to keep the chug and rip of the highs without sounding like a bad pop metalcore band.  But seriously.  Listen to any song, and what you'll hear is notes, all in the right fucking place.  Things aren't out of time, and if they are, like the tremolo line from "Blow Me Away (Niverse)," it's still not out of time - it's like that on purpose.

Woah, my bad Venetian Snares...just
put the baseball bat down...

The song structure of Terra Incognita is something to be amazed at as well.  They use pretty damn simple riffs.  If you're a competent guitarist with some decent tremolo chops, you can play every song on the album, but as you play each part by itself, you realize that every instrument needs the others to sound amazing.  Alone?  Annoying, simple, boring lines.  Together?  Masterpiece.  That's musicianship and songwriting, not some guy in his basement with a drum machine.

To top it off, Terra Incognita has something else going for it that us metalheads aren't used to: a terrifying, eerie message.  I'm not an environmentalist, but I can't help but wonder what Gojira is all worked up about when I listen to tracks like "1990 Quatrillions De Tonnes;" it's like something out of a nightmare, pretty, dark, clean electric lines with screams of dozens of people, apparently in pain as vocals.  Seriously, it's more terrifying than the most brutal Dying Fetus album I've heard.  If this is what dying whales sound like, I'm never eating another delicious, juicy whale steak ever again.

Farewell, my juicy, delicious
whale steak

Overall?  Check it out if you like prog.  Check it out if you like heavy shit.  But don't check it out if you're looking for the next Cryptopsy, cause you'll be disappointed - Terra Incognita is a patient album of tracks that take time to develop and carry something more than the instant gratification of blast beats and sweep-picked diminished chords.


And in case you want to know what I'm talking about, "1990 Quatrillions De Tonnes" will fuck you up here.

\m/ first

First post of \m/ blog.  You can call the it Horns since \m/ is kind of hard to pronounce.

\m/ is going to be primarily be a review site.  There's a shit ton of metal review sites, I know.  Fortunately, I don't care.  I'll also post links to articles I find interesting or talk about bands in general.  Occasionally, I might go into some of the philosophy of metal too.  You just never know.

The inspiration for this blog came from two things: 1) A desire to subject you, the reader, to my opinions, and more importantly, 2) A general lack of Nile reviews on every other metal blog.  Therefore, I bring to you: Those Whom the Gods Detest.

Gaze upon its beauty

Have you listened to Nile before?  If you haven't, you should.  In fact, you really shouldn't consider yourself a Death Metal fan until you have listened to Nile.

Nile's sixth studio alum, Those Whom the Gods Detest takes the over-the-top excess paramount to death metal to its ideal culmination.  Seriously.  George Kollias returns for his third album with Nile running doublekicks so fast that Travis Barker's balls retracted back into his vagina.  Sanders' guitar solos don't drop panties, they incinerate them.  And he plays on a goddamn double neck guitar.

In all seriousness, Those Whom the Gods Detest may be the finest piece of work Nile has ever put out.  "Kafir" slams you with an eerie Middle Eastern vocal line to compliment Kollias' unrelenting blasts and a catchy riff that leaves all listeners chanting "there is no God."  "Those Whom the Gods Detest" fuses haunting Middle Eastern folk elements with speed and brutality reminiscent of "Cast Down the Heretic."  The terrifying, plodding "4th Arra of Dagon" sounds just like what I imagine the soundtrack to human sacrifices would be.  And the solos...oh my god, the solos!

Take an opportunity and listen.  If you like Death Metal, then you'll like Nile.  And if you like Nile, you'll love this album.  Sanders and Kollias really take their craft to the next level, smelting musicality and taste without losing the tasteless, brutal wave of sound that is death metal.