Metal RAAAAOOORRR!!!!

Went to see Mastodon, Dethklock, High on Fire, and Converge a couple of weeks ago in De Moines.

That's a pretty badass lineup. About as good as any I can think of. Until that Slayer/Meshuggah/Emporer/Gorgoroth/Dillinger Escape Plan tour gets off the ground I'll have to consider this a pretty ideal metal show. 'Bout as good as it gets in fact. For real ya'll.

Converge is a respected extreme hardcore/deathgrind (although people who are really into grindcore don't think so)/metalcore band who are on a hot streak right now. There new recored is the best reviewed album on metacritic right now. A great band. Basically a metal band playing hardcore punk and screaming through a distortion pedal. Takes skill to keep that interesting for an hour. They kept it interesting. Lots of neat texture, lots of gut level force, lots of energy.

They did THIS for an hour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utT0lLC6d5Q



High on Fire sounds like Motorhead wearing battle armor. Awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89h-X-tZa_w


Mastodon sounds like force of nature. It's so knarled and intricate, but the loud metal sludginess of it keeps you from being able to hear everything. And Braun Daillor makes the drums sound like they are exploding. A great, great band. You can certainly play "spot the influence" when their records (there's a dash of Iron Maiden there. . . a little Neorsis there. . . ) but nobody sounds like Mastodon. They really do sound like some kind of organic monster metal.

They played their new record (a concept album about Braun's sister's suicide, Bill's head injury, and Rasputin) straight through while they projected pictures of stars and monsters on a giant screen behind them. It was totally awe inspiring and oddly poigniant. I've been in the tank for those guys for a while now, but I'm pretty much a fanboy geek now. Godalmightydamn. They are something special.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKCnHLJDInE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKfDDzVgiXY


Dethklock was awesome and silly. We laughed, we yelled, we threw up Devil horns. They were sort of the headliners, but they were really more like dessert after the more substantial (if less accessable) band that came before them. They really are very good though. You want to see a really funny show from a really good death metal band, go see 'em.

Then we staggered outside and went and ate eggs. A great evening.




P.S. One of the funny things about metal is that it's all subgenre-ed up to the point where the vast majority of people who like extreme music are weirdly narrow minded.

Which lead me to my metal triangle theory. . . . . .

There's sort of three groups. There are the METAL genres (black metal, death metal, thrash, Doom Metal), the punk genres (grindcore, metalcore, extreme noise music, whatever Converge is, math metal), and the mainstream extreme metal (alternative metal, metalcore, power metal, melodic death metal).

People tend to gravitate toward one or two of those groups. Not all three. Most bands fit somewhere between two of those categories. A few bands do actually manage to be all three. Sepultura was an alt metal band with strong death metal roots and they played a lot of hardcore punk inspired music. But most metal fits them categories. Slayer is METAL. Mastodon is METAL with some punk sprinkles. High on Fire is METAL. Metalica is METAL with mainstream sprinkles. Naplam death is punk metal with METAL sprinkles. Pig Destoryer is punk metal, as are all of Scott Hull's bands. Trivium is mainstream extreme Metal. Underoath is mainstream extreme metal.

I'm METAL/punk guy. I like old school death metal, black metal, and extreme noise music. For the most part, I think metal that has mainstreamness is shitty. That doesn't mean metal can't have melody, but I like songs about Satan, Vikings, or sex criminals. I don't care about your problems with your parents or your girlfriend and I don't care about how tough you are. I really really don't. Some bands are good enough to transcend the category they fit in. Panera is pretty much mainstream extreme music with METAL sprinkles (alt-metal with thrashy guitar playing and more aggressive than usual singing), but they were very, very good. Not GREAT in my book, but they certainly were orinical, and nobody can begrudge Dimebag's guitar playing.

My preference for the more extreme end of the stick means that I don't really need a big metal collection to be happy. I've got a smattering of the classic Norweigian Black Metal records, so I don't need much more from that genre in my record collection. Although do I have completely unreasonable enthusiasm for the genre, so I'll pick up one every now and then when I'm in a decent record store. (re: when I'm in Atlanta or Lexington). I LOVE old school death metal, but really, how much does anybody need? I've got some Entombed records, some Celtic Frost, and a few complilations. That's about as much as any sane person needs.

And I LOVE that genre.

We won't even get into grindcore. If you've got "Scum" and an agraphobic Nosebleed record you've got the general idea.

And I really like grindcore.


The reason I'm on about this is that Mastodon and Dethklock attract a contingent of really hardcore METAL people who hated Converge and have managed to post lots of nasty comments all over the converge videos on youtube, which is mostly funny, actually, but it's odd. These people come to see a BAND THAT WAS CREATED TO PLAY THE SOUNDTRACK FOR A CARTOON and get all indignant about the "mainstream emo shit" that Converge (who are way over on the punk side of metal) played.

People I ask you, does this sound wimpy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIB9Cai5kZ4&feature=related

Now, for some poeple it'll sound annoying, but for the love of God, they're doing it AS HARD AS THEY CAN!!!!!!!!!

They can do it pretty hard by the way.

Of course, I would be writing bitchy comments all over the place if I had to sit through Trivium to see Slayer or somebody.