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As some of you guys may or may not know, I am currently working with Philip H. Anselmo on his autobiography. In fact, the questions I get asked most often these days are, “How’s that book with Phil coming along?” or “When’s Phil’s book coming out?” or “What’s it like working with Phil?”
I can happily inform you that, though it is a slow process, Philip’s book is going to kick major fuckin’ ass!
Trying to keep up with the changes at a music festival is like trying to herd a pack of rabid cats. The South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival is the biggest musical kitty corral of them all. That’s why you have me here to help you make heads or tails of all your SXSW metallic/hard rock/punk rock/experimental/etc. needs.
There have been plenty of line-up changes since my last SXSW music post over a week ago. First on the list is the welcome news that NOLA-sludgekings eyehategod will team up with doom metal pioneers Pentagram to close out the conference on Saturday, March 19 (both bands will be going on after midnight, so, technically, they are playing on March 20) at the Scoot Inn. They’ll be joined by a stellar group of bands including Cough and Naam.
Other notable additions include YOB, Slough Feg, and Zoroaster.
I have been to practically every South by Southwest Music Festival (SXSW) since the second one way back in the ’80s. I love the atmosphere of the conference, from its much smaller and humbler days back then, to its over-blown monstrous corporate whoredom current-filled state. But as I have noted here in the past, SXSW has almost always been severely lacking in official heavy metal-friendly sanctioned showcases. If you ever wanted to get your real metal fix at SXSW, you usually had to depend on the non-sanctioned day parties that are thrown around town concurrently with the festival.
Not this year!
I can honestly say that the organizers of SXSW have finally woken up to the beast that is heavy metal and have gone out of their way to cater to our needs. Kudos! Huzzahs! and Hurrahs! to them.
I don’t think anybody ever really reads these little intros Vince or myself write every week, so I’m gonna dispense with one today, and if that makes you sad, uh, you’re weird.
Here’s how we got our pull this week:
Next week we’re gonna, like, totally talk about metal n’ stuff. You should come back and read it, it will be fun.
-AR
The metal-as-catharsis philosophy has been around since the genre’s beginning, and is probably the most viable explanation when trying to communicate with non-metalheads as to why you like the music you do. The righteous throat-shredding screaming of Anaal Nathrakh’s V.I.T.R.I.O.L., the floor-clearing slams of Devourment and Suffocation, The Abominable Iron Sloth’s mean-spirited doomcore grooves, the face-eviscerating relentlessness of Hate Eternal… all conducive of aiding and/or alleviating a bad mood. But even though there are other reasons we all like metal — generally raising one’s heart rate, it’s great drinking and/or smoking music (well, depending on the band), technical prowess, finding gems in what most people think is unintelligible noise — I think catharsis is the strongest one, especially now in the more-extremer-than-you era. When venom and bad blood are practically palatable, through either stroking your own foul mood or offering solace in the fact that others out there feel as vicious as you, metal, to put it as flowery as possible, makes you feel better.
FEATURING MEMBERS OF FIREWIND, THROUGH THE EYES OF THE DEAD, TESSERACT, BISON B.C., BONDED BY BLOOD, HAARP, THE UNGUIDED, AND ANNEX THEORY
For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.
After the jump, check out the second group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!
(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)
When I interviewed Phil Anselmo about his Housecore Records label back in March, one of the bands he was most excited about signing was Nawlins outfit haarp. Here’s what Mr. Anselmo had to say about the band… try to picture it in his drawl to get the full effect:
“…they’re definitely classified as ‘metal.’ But they transcend the genre. They come up with such different concepts and whatnot. They’re a very different, different band – kind of in their own category, I would say. They play slow, but to call them ‘a slow band’ is absolutely unfair. They’re crushing. They are resolute. It’s a beating. They’re fucking onto something.”
A few weeks later, Vince sang their praises in an edition of “Reader’s Choice,” too, calling haarp “a less technical and more straight-up American metal sounding version of SiKth.”
So by now, you surely wanna check these dudes out, right?
Here’s your chance: haarp are streaming a new song, “All, Alone,” right here. It comes off the band’s new album, The Filth, which was produced by — you guessed it! — Anselmo himself. And it certainly sounds like something he would dig/make.
So give it a listen, then let us know what you think. Housecore will release The Filth on November 23.
-AR
Do you like your metal with an extra dose of chops? Check out these excellent unsigned bands recommended by our own readers.
-VN
I know I’ve written this phrase a few times in the past, but rarely is it so true: Phil Anselmo needs no introduction. You know who he is. You wanna read this interview. Period.
I will give you a little taste of the topics Mr. Anselmo and myself recently discussed via phone: his label, Housecore Records, and his upcoming autobiography, which will be co-authored by MetalSucks’ own Corey Mitchell. I did not utter the words “Pantera”or “Dimebag” even once, even after Phil did, because, well, what’s the point? The guy gets asked about Pantera literally all the time. It’s not like I was gonna be the interview where he suddenly slipped-up and revealed some new piece of information.
Luckily for you guys, Anselmo still has a lot to say even when he’s not talking about one of the most famous metal bands of ever. And so without any further bullshit…
