In decades past, musicians and bands lay shrouded behind a curtain of secrecy; music videos brought fans a little closer to their idols, but for the most part band members were still completely mysterious individuals whose mystique was part of their appeal. Even the music videos often added to a band’s mystique. All this changed, of course, with the Internet; all of a sudden fans had instant access to every aspect of their favorite band’s lives through constant updates about studio progress, tour blogs, Tweets, Facebook posts from band members’ personal profiles and instant access to music at any time (the latter of which we really take for granted already).

For younger metalheads who were in their teens during the MySpace era, it must be hard to imagine that once upon a time we did not know what the members of our favorites bands were doing at any given moment, and oftentimes didn’t even know what they looked like. We had to wait for a live show to come around to our area once every two or three years, or at best hope that MTV would decide to play their music video when we happened to be watching. If we were lucky our favorite magazine that we punked down hard-earned bucks for would have a feature where we could learn precious information about a band.

To me nothing is more emblematic of this shift, the transparency of the modern musician, than the current trend of “playthrough” videos.

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A producers’ role in the overall sound of an album is often under-appreciated. Sure, most people know roughly what it is that producers do, but until you’ve been in a recording session and seen first-hand how producers work with bands you can’t possibly understand the entirety of the impact they have on the final product. I’ve always been fascinated by producers (and mixers); when the Internet first started to be a place you could easily find a lot of organized, useful information (at some point in the late ’90s / early ’00s) I’d spend hours upon hours looking through album credits at AllMusic.com to see who produced and mixed my favorite albums, then I’d follow those links to look at said producer or mixer’s entire discographies, then I’d follow those links to look at other albums… and so on and so forth. I totally ate it up, and it’s still something I find an incredible amount of interest in.

That’s why I’m excited that Crustcake posted this awesome video interview with metal producer Sanford Parker, certainly one of the “it” producers of the moment, who’s worked with Nachtmystium, Pelican, Rwake, Batillus and many, many more. Check it out after the jump.

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Guitar Hero, age six, passed away yesterday, February 9, 2011.

The cause of death was “continued declines in the music genre,” according to a statement by its publisher, Activision.

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If you consider yourself a geek (as I do) and you’re not reading Topless Robot, you’re really missing out. Proprietor Rob Bricken covers all things nerd on a daily basis, ranging from comics to movies and television to video games to toys, and he is one funny motherfucker; even when I don’t agree with his opinions (he’s pro-Tron but anti-Nolan… fuck that jazz), I love reading his stuff ’cause it’s just so damn funny.

His latest master work is a list of the “10 Nerdiest Literary Inspirations for Concept Albums.” And it will shock no fan of the genre to learn that multiple metal bands made the list.

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I always enjoy hearing interpretations of metal songs done in other styles of music. When you take away all the distortion, the abrasive drums and the vocals, what’s left? Especially with classical renditions, the emphasis shifts from the overall feeling the song gives you to what’s actually happening in the song compositionally and harmonically. You’re left with a stripped-down shell that’s a much truer representation of what the song is really all about.

U.K. violinist Oliver Lewis’ rendition of Faith No More’s “Woodpecker from Mars” isn’t really a whole new take on the song, per se — he’s simply improvising over the recorded version of the track — but it’s interesting to hear how his chosen violin melodies weave in and out of what the band is doing and create a unique texture of their own. With a little bit of imagination you can almost envision what a full-on orchestra rendition of this song would sound like… and I think it’d sound pretty rad.

Lewis, by the way, is the Guinness World Record holder for “fastest violinist;” he performed “Flight of the Bumblebee” live on BBC1’s Blue Peter in 1 minute 3.356 seconds. Interesting that he choses not to show off those skills in this video, instead choosing to play what fits best with the song.

-VN

I made the grave error of listening to Intronaut’s “The Literal Black Cloud“ yesterday afternoon. It wasn’t a great error because it’s a bad song or anything — on the contrary, it was a grave error because I’ve had it stuck in my head ever since.

This happens to me on a pretty consistent basis, and has since we saw Intronaut with Cynic and Dysrhythmia this past summer. The entire night was lost to us and the Metal Injectioners sitting around going “Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh…” like stoned idiots.

Which we were. But this is also a seriously fucking dangerous riff. It’s like it was designed to get stuck in your head. Do not fucking listen to it unless you are prepared to do nothing but think about this riff. ‘Cause your day is gonna be shot, dude. Maybe that’s why it’s really called “The Literal Black Cloud” — because it will follow you around wherever you go.

Download “The Literal Black Cloud” here.

-AR

This is the kind of stuff I really get a kick out of because it illustrates just how closely certain kinds of metal are related to classical music. Check out this “dueling guitar” performance of the “Summer” theme of Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons suite, as sent in by MS reader Kyle:

Now compare that composition to The Human Abstract’s new song “Faust.” Pay particular attention to the way the guitars are split up; instead of having one guitar play chords and the other play leads like most bands do — or just having both guitars do the same thing — the guitar structure underneath the chorus is much more similar to the way the left hand and right hand of a piano piece are divided (with the vocals providing an additional dimension… the equivalent of lead violin, or a brass instrument, or what have you) or the way the instruments in an orchestra are divided. A similar thing is happening in the pre-chorus and middle/bridge part.

The Human Abstract’s very talented guitarist and composer A.J. Minette has been writing a regularly recurring column for us about precisely this sort of thing, only in way more detail and with way more finesse than I can. It’s called Abstract Theory; check it out! Your inner music dork will thank you.

-VN

Admit it: this picture makes you SO FUCKING HAPPY.

Recently, my friend sent me a YouTube link to a Bee Gees cover group. Excuse me, tribute band. That is the proper way of addressing them, as Mark Wahlberg taught us in Rock Star. I don’t like the Bee Gees. I don’t like disco. Disco is kind of terrible. Disco blows dogs for quarters. Disco is never amazing, especially not when KISS attempt it. To say I was a little confused would be an understatement. But my friends aren’t totally clueless to what I listen to, so I gave it a shot. It turned out it was a heavy metal Bee Gees tribute band. Okay, it was a little bit awesome. Weirdly enough, it worked. I only like thin-voiced men screeching when accompanied by equally high-pitched guitars, and that’s basically what heavy metal “Stayin’ Alive,” was. I turned it off about halfway through because, well, I still have my limits, but it kind of makes you stop and go, “Huh!” Metal just makes everything sound better.

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Well this is pretty much the best video ever of the week; Paul “Chimp Spanner” Ortiz trading licks with his dad Joe.

Joe Ortiz was in the guitar duo Heaven on Earth (MySpace, Wiki), signed to Atlantic Records in 1987… so the guitar is in Chimp Spanner’s blood. But Heaven on Earth has nothing to do with metal, shred or anything remotely related, yet here’s Papa Joe positively tearing shit up. I imagine Joe Ortiz as some kind of incredible musical genius who’s all like, “OH, you think THAT’S fast? Watch THIS!” and then proceeds to shred his little son’s face off despite having never tried before, the same way uber-talented jazz dudes make metal virtuosos look like complete pussies.

But the best things about this video have nothing to do with what’s actually played:

1. Joe Ortiz plays left-handed but plays a righty guitar upside down… even though he himself is actually right-handed. AND HE PICKS WITH HIS FINGERS!
2. The backing track. Oh, yes, the backing track!
3. The ’80s production quality and video effects, despite having been filmed in 2004.

Paul, I got mad respect for Chimp Spanner but you’ve got some pretty huge shoes to fill!

-VN

I just learned that “El Guapo” from The Three Amigos has the same birthday as me, and that he also directed Like Water for Chocolate. My mind is blown.

Also mind-blowing: Cracked‘s revelation that if you play three songs from Tool’s 10,000 Days simultaneously in a certain order, you get a whole new song –

“By themselves, the songs seem completely different: ‘10,000 Days‘ (11:13) is a long prog-rock number, ‘Wings for Marie‘ (6:11) is a quiet song that builds up into a crescendo, and ‘Viginti Tres‘ (5:02) is just a bunch of weird noises. 6:11 plus 5:02 adds up to 11:13 — that’s because you’re supposed to put “Viginti Tres” and “Wings for Marie” together (in that order) and play them at the same time as ’10,000 Days.’”

And once you actually listen to the three tracks this way, it becomes readily apparent that this is no mere coincidence, but, rather, that Tool are pretty much the most brilliant band ever to rock the earth. Check it out:

Cracked even notes that this new song features completely different lyrics from the three tunes from which it is amalgamated. FUCKING AMAZING, right?

This comes from Cracked’s list of “10 Mind-Blowing Easter Eggs Hidden in Famous Albums,” by the way. If your brain is still functioning well enough to type, check out the rest of the list here.

-AR

Two readers sent this in. I can’t find the e-mail from the first, and the second did not include his or her name with the message. So, thanks to both of you, whomever you are.

Yesterday I attempted to clarify the meaning of the phrase “elephants marching riff” by pointing out some reader suggestions that, even if they were cool riffs, did not meet the definition for this particular trope. Today, I am going to highlight some of the reader-suggested riffs that I actually think do meet that definition.

Now, these aren’t ALL the riffs that you guys suggested… I’ve cherry picked some in the interest of time. (For example, a lot of you suggested various riffs by Chimaira and Gojira. Since I already pointed out that both of those bands are really good at writing elephants marching riffs, I’m not going to include any additional examples from those bands here.) So don’t have a conniption if your riff didn’t make the list.

And so…

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Axl was hangin’ out in the Vince Division of the Mansion yesterday afternoon, working alongside me like the butt buddies that we are. The soundtrack included Dawnbringer, which I was definitely late to the game on but Axl named as his #5 favorite album of 2011, and the new Keith Merrow joint Awaken the Stone King. Axl was suitably impressed by Merrow’s latest offering which should bode well for those of you who take any praise I heap upon talented instrumentalists with a grain of salt.

In any case, reader Neil Nalley sent us this version of an older Merrow track called “The Arrival” with vocals by the singer of Nancial, a band from Moscow. This guy is a pretty ok vocalist and this version’s aight, but why the need to ruin a perfectly good instrumental song by dumbing it down with lame metal vox?? Vocals in metal are the equivalent of putting heaps of sugar in a quality cup of coffee, there for the sole enjoyment of the lowest common denominator. Who the fuck needs them anymore? Haven’t we outgrown this crap? To hell with vocals, I say.

Whoops! Wrong video. Try this:

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Colin Marston of Behold… The Arctopus, Krallice, Gorguts and Dysrhythmia is one of those incredibly talented dudes who does it all and makes my jealousy bones fill with tension. Aside from being an incredibly accomplished guitarist and bassist and a member of FOUR (!) sweet bands that are all active, he runs his own studio in Queens, NY where he and his Newsted have recorded, produced and mixed countless metal albums. Whatever assclown is on the cover of your favorite guitar magazine this month, he probably isn’t half as talented and versatile as Marston.

The Deciblog has premiered a video of Marston taking Scion A/V on a tour through his studio, and since we delight in this kind of nerdery and know you will too we figure it’s highly worthy of a re-post. Colin talks about his guitars (look at that Warr!), his amp setup, how his studio is set up and his thoughts on the digital vs. analog recording debate. I recommend full-screening this video for maximum dorkery.

-VN

I was elated to see all the recommendations for good elephants marching riffs following my love letter to that conceit earlier this week. I was a little less elated to discover that there’s almost as much confusion over what qualifies as an elephants marching riff as is there over what qualifies as a taco riff.

For example, here are some excellent riffs by some excellent bands that some of you excellently suggested but which are, rather unexcellently, not elephants marching riffs:

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I think I’ve used the phrase “elephants marching riff” on MetalSucks before, but during a hang sesh with Vince just before the holidays, I realized we don’t use it enough — especially considering how often we actually talk about elephants marching riffs. I don’t remember when Vince and I started using the phrase to describe these lumbering, brutally heavy riffs, but they are absolutely one of my favorite metallic tropes. I fucking LOVE a good elephants marching riff.

Like the taco riff, the elephants marching riff is a little hard to define verbally — but you know it the second you hear it. The easiest explanation is that it sounds MASSIVE and moves at the pace at which you suspect a giant beast of war — say, an elephant — might move. But it can’t just be slow — doom bands and, alas, deathcore bands write slow riffs all the time, but I’d rarely define them as “elephants marching riffs.”

For example, the section of Murder the Frail’s “Disturbia” which begins at roughly the 1:45 mark is leaden — but an elephants marching riff it is not:

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If, like me, you’ve been listening to Kvelertak’s Kvelertak all these many months since its release with abso-fuckin’-lutely no clue what vocalist Erlend Hjelvik was screaming, you may find this interesting: a YouTube (l)user has translated the Norwegian lyrics for the single “Mjød” into English. I double checked the translation with Google Translate, and, at least according to that site, the translation is more or less correct.

So what, pray tell, does Hjelvik have on his mind? Apparently partying and Norse mythology. Which is more or less what you’d expect, I guess.

Here’s the translation, according to whomever the hell this guy is… I’m leaving all the typos and shitty formatting in tact because I’m not about to make editing the writing of YouTubers my job:

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I went to a really nerdy high school that was geared toward math, science and technology. It was (and is still) a huge high school to which the dorkiest kids from all over the city travel, and the kind of place where it’d be no thang if the dude next to you in math class could recite the first 100 digits of Pi by memory or some dude in your homeroom was already a millionaire because he had a thriving .com business (I just dated myself a little there… do the math). It was also the kind of place where kids figured out new and inventive ways to sneak booze into school (we actually had Senior Drunk Day in which my chosen method of delivery was a thermos) and the drug dealers had every dimebag weighed out perfectly by the hundredth of a gram. We knew exactly how fucked up we could/should get and handled ourselves responsibly, damnit! But I digress.

We also had mandatory shop classes in which you had to build things, although really we all just got high during our lunch break then drank 40s in the Photography dark room (shh… don’t tell Mr. Gordon!). This kid would’ve fit in perfectly at my high school and would’ve been adored by a few hundred Asians and Jews for his deft skills on the PVC pipes. He definitely would’ve gotten laid in your sister’s bedroom while your parents and sister were away for the weekend on a skiing trip in Vermont and you decided to have a party at your hot Upper West Side “free crib.” Long live this dude. He’s my hero.

-VN

Thanks: uber-maniac and fellow New Yorker Hetal Bhatt

Keith Merrow is one of those super-talented dudes who writes and records full-fledged, pro-sounding instrumental metal records all by his lonesome in his home studio. After I featured him in Readers Choice exactly a year ago he reached out to me and sent me two of his records, The Arrival and Lonestar Transcend (in 320kbps no less! what a mensch), both of which quite literally knocked my socks off. Literally… my socks were promptly jettisoned from my feet upon pressing “play.”

But you know who’s better than Keith Merrow? Jeff Fucking Loomis. No disrespect meant to Mr. Merrow of course, but Loomis is pretty much a God amongst men when it comes to technique. I know what you beardo crusties are thinking… all chops, no soul… but you couldn’t be more wrong. Loomis has it all, motherfuckers!

So you know what’s even better than Keith Merrow and even better than Jeff Loomis? I think you know where I’m going with this… Keith Merrow and Jeff Loomis together on the same recording!! Holy fuckticles. Watch these outtakes Keith sent us of Loomis tracking a solo on Merrow’s forthcoming solo album.

A curious update posted on Keith Merrow’s website in October notes that he’s doing songwriting work for an undisclosed Century Media artist in the “pretty straight-forward metal” vein. I hope it’s not Vampires Everywhere or someone equally shitty. I mean, what metal bands needs songs written for them in 2010? Take that money and run, Keith!

-VN

That’s how our friend Jeremy put it when he e-mailed us the link for the Map of Metal, and I’m inclined to agree with his assessment. It isn’t a map in any traditional sense, which is to say, there’s nothing geographic about. Instead, it just breaks metal down into all its respective genres and sub-genres (they’re classified here as “primary genre,” “metal genre,” “fusion genre,” and “related genre,” which each category getting its legend for easy use) and allows you to explore. And, oh yeah, includes an explanation of each of those genres, as well as prime examples that you can listen to as you move around. And as if all that weren’t enough, it just happens to look gorgeous.

I don’t know who made this thing, but whomever it is, he (or she — but let’s be serious for a moment, it was a dude) deserves a wristie. Check out the Map of Metal here. You will lose hours of your life playing with this thing.

-AR

The University of Michigan has made the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach available for free download. The works were recorded by Dr. James Kibbie on original baroque organs in Germany. So, while it’s not quite the full discography this article’s headline advertises it’s certainly a significant portion of it.

What, you were expecting a post about Black Sabbath or Blue Cheer? Pshhhhhh. Mere child’s play when compared to the masterful works of Bach.

I’ve said it many, many times on this blog before: the roots of many elements of modern-day heavy metal, especially the more technical varieties, can be traced back to classical music. Just listen to that new Human Abstract song Axl was [rightly] raving about last week; the way those rhythm guitars move underneath the leads and the way the whole song is put together, it’s basically a fucking classical piece as arranged for a metal band’s instrumentation.

I find the organ to be a particularly dark and haunting making this post even more pertinent to a metal blog. But by now you’re either sold or ya ain’t; go and download Bach’s entire organ discography for free in 256kbps AAC format. I just download the entire Preludes and Fugues collection… can’t wait to dig in. Big thanks to longtime MS supporter Hibernum for the link.

-VN