-->
Even in my youth I hated those intercut-performance-footage-with-movie-footage soundtrack tie-in videos, and Suicide Silence’s clip for “Genocide” shows that these types of videos haven’t gotten any better since then. I like the song and I like the band, I just think this is a lame video. But, hey, if it gets a few Saw fans into Suicide Silence…
-AR
A tweet from Suicide Silence has just alerted me to the fact that the band recorded a cover of Alice in Chains’ classic “Them Bones” as an iTunes-only bonus track for their latest offering, No Time to Bleed.
Let me tell you what I like about this:
Now let me tell what I don’t like about this:
Sorry. Maybe I’m just being a cranky old man, but holy crap, did this song not need deathcore vocals. And I say that as someone who actually likes Suicide Silence.
Anyways, here’s the song. I look forward to the bitchfest that will inevitably take place in our comments section.
-AR
The first press release into the MS Mansion inbox this morning bore a bit of bad news, at least for Canadian Slayer and Megadeth fans; Slayer have pulled out of the “Canadian Carnage Tour” with Megadeth, which was due to begin November 8th. The press release cites health concerns about bassist/vocalist Tom Araya as the reason for cancellation:
Slayer’s Tom Araya is currently under the care of a specialist for a back injury, thought to be related to his on-stage activity, and the physician has ordered an immediate surgical procedure to take place in Texas tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.
The press release doesn’t specifically say whether the tour — which also includes Machine Head and Suicide Silence — will continue on without Slayer, but it’s implied, saying more information regarding rescheduled dates will be release soon.
It’d be awfully easy to make a Dave Mustaine vs. Kerry King jab here, but instead I’ll take the high road and simply offer this: get well, Tom.
-VN
Thanks to everyone who downloaded the package of Graphic Novel [GN] songs last week. I’m happy most of you enjoyed the tracks. It’s cool to know people will take the time to check out the music with an open mind. I never said I was the best composer or song writer out there, but I feel I do have a style. I’m always doing my best to refine it. The older you get means the more experiences you have which means your music should evolve into something you can control, as opposed to letting it control you. These particular songs were all composed in a day. Through experimentation, trial and error, and plain passion, you got that download.
I’m working on getting a more professional studio going at some point. Let’s be clear: my recording skills are not my strong side. I’m no Misha Mansoor from Periphery, so I apologize for the (lack of) recording quality.
The songs for the [GN] project are just a color of the ‘voice’ I’ve been spending my whole career trying to perfect. Don’t worry metal heads, I still play metal, just now right now. Which brings me to the subject I’ve wanted to discuss here for a while.
The Evolution Of Deathcore And Why it’s Sweet As Hell
I know the response here for deathcore is a love it or hate it sort of thing. I don’t want to get into that. I’d like to talk about my feelings towards the genre. To say it simply: I fucking LOVE deathcore. I can’t get enough of it.
Seriously.
Meet Senor Bivins. I read about him this morning on Sergeant D’s Stuff You Will Hate. Bivins posts lots and lots and lots of videos of himself on YouTube doing those vocal covers of deathcore songs that we find so amusing here at the Mansion. And the Sarge is pissed because apparently Bivins gets a lot of pussy from doing it – or, at least, he gets to take photos of himself standing next to semi-cute scene girls making obscene gestures:
It’s not clear to me whether or not he’s actually fucking these chicks or what. If he is getting groupies without even being in a band, then, well, I guess that’s a whole new scam and maybe someday Neil Strauss will write a book about him or something.
ANYWAY, even more interesting is this video of him defending deathcore as “not scene.” Check it out:
Philosopher and academic Paul Hegarty began his 2007 tome Noise/Music: A History with the following description: “Noise is not an objective fact. It occurs in relation to perception–both direct (sensory) and according to presumptions made by an individual… Whether noise is happening or not will depend on the source of what is being called noise–who the producer is, when and where, and how it impinges on the perceiver of noise.” Such a definition is necessary in order to reasonably assess Chicago-based deathcore act Oceano.
While heavy metal has previously been appropriated–and, arguably, misappropriated–by artistic outsiders with agendas and ideologies, alongside nostalgic or even fetishistic sentiments, deathcore is a rare internal and naturally occurring movement that adopts the typically academic precepts of noise music inadvertently and almost entirely by chance. Indeed, as a subgenre, it is intolerable to most self-described heavy metal fans. It is safe to posit, given the lineup’s youth (at least one member is apparently still below the legal drinking age), that Oceano (and their deathcore ilk) are wholly unaware of and uninitiated in the legacy of noise that came before them, beginning with the Futurists and Dadaists of the early 20th century, continuing with the Fluxus artists of the 1960s and the avant-jazz musicians of the 1970s, and ultimately exploding worldwide in the latter fifth of the 1900s with performers like Merzbow and Lustmord paving the way for today’s stars like Christian Fennesz and Stephen O’Malley. It is a testament to Oceano that a manifestation of their talent for noise emerges even as they genuinely attempted to write an album’s worth of listenable heavy metal songs.
Frontman Adam Warren honors the vocal tradition of Yoko Ono (a participant in Fluxus even prior to her marriage and music with John Lennon) as much as he does Chuck Schuldiner. On “Slaughtered Like Swine,” Warren reproduces a stunning approximation of a porcine squeal. “Empathy For Leviathan” ostensibly mines the pelagic and oceanographic themes suggested by the band’s name and album title, though its lyrics are so inscrutably delivered that they could have very well been recorded underwater. Tracks like “With Legions” and “Samael The Destroyer” involuntarily lampoon heavy metal conventions with gratuitous noodling and tempo shifts, the latter of these permitting Jason Jones a three second bass solo. Oceano sound their best on “District Of Misery,” where the cacophony rarely lets up over its three minute duration. Here, bestial braying, irritatingly ticking drums, and insufferable low-end dominate, ending with the sound of an exploding septic system.
My sole, albeit minor criticism of the otherwise irreproachable Depths pertains to its six-and-a-half minute long title track. This melodiously repetitive, comparably exoteric diversion–perhaps an unconscious nod to the early looping experiments of Pierre Henry or Karlheinz Stockhausen– both well meaning though ill-advised and should be chalked up to the occasionally misguided ambitions of youth. I won’t posture as a seasoned deathcore aficionado, and I’d postulate that some of the more experienced fans of the subgenre may be disinclined to agree with my ebullient assessment of Oceano, perhaps favoring antecedants such as Suicide Silence and Whitechapel. Even still, Oceano’s Depths delivers on the promise of its title and offers an immersing aural experience for fans of La Monte Young and Job For A Cowboy alike.
In his aforementioned book, Professor Hegarty not only chronicled the role of noise in 20th and 21st century sound but also adumbrated a “future culture” based in some measure upon it. Going forward, I cannot possibly any credibly anthropological survey of such a culture without reference to Oceano, the undoubtedly reluctant new aesthetic leaders of noise.
(5 out of 5 horns)
-GS
[Gary Suarez is serious. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]
This morning, I received the following e-mail from reader Parker Werley:
“How does a band get to earn the proud badge of having -core in their genre?”
That’s a pretty simple question, but it’s also kind of thought provoking. So I thought maybe we could explore it here a little bit. Because, honestly, I’m not sure that I know what the answer is.
So Vince and I were talking the other day about this question that both of us have wondered about from time to time, and since then I haven’t stopped thinking about it. So here it is: DO ANY OF YOU GIVE A FUCK ABOUT LYRICS IN METAL?
Is it just the sound of the voice and how it works with the sound of the music, or is it also what the vocalist is saying that matters to you? I’m going to take a guess and say that fans of hardcore and straight edge bands really do care about the lyrics because the bands are representing the ideals and beliefs of their respective communities. But what about in death metal, black metal, or any other genre of metal? When you listen to Necrophagist or Cannibal Corpse or Suicide Silence, can you comprehend what they’re singing about, and do you even care? Is it what they’re singing about, or is it more what it sounds like with the music, or both?
Last week was somewhat of a slow one for metal record sales. There weren’t a whole lot of new releases, but a few records that have been out for a while hung onto their spots in the Top 200 and Hank III’s Assjack project had a solid debut. Click through for chart positions and sales numbers.
Shockhound.com, which is owned by Hot Topic, captured the below footage of Suicide Silence doing a recent four song in-store show. And while I’m fully aware that Hot Topic is no one’s favorite clothing store, the footage is killer, and the band sounds pretty sweet. Enjoy…
-AR
[via Metal Injection]
One of my favorite videos of the year thus far is the trippy, creepy, effects laden clip that David Brodsky directed for Suicide Silence’s “Wake Up.”
I was invited to the shoot and couldn’t make it, but luckily, our friends at Metal Injection did make it, and just posted this behind-the-scenes report. Check it out below.
-AR
I’m seriously hard-pressed to think of a cooler looking video that’s been released this year than Suicide Silence’s new clip for “Wake Up,” off No Time to Bleed – maybe the new Alice in Chains video, but that’s it. It’s awesome sober and even better high. I mean, it’s basically just a bunch of cool imagery, but that’s more than I can say for most metal videos these days.
Check it out below. It was directed by David Brodsky, in what seems to be a particularly inspired moment of maniacal glee.
Our friends at Metal Injection were on-set for the shoot and should have some behind the scenes video later this week. Stay tuned for more details.
-AR
Haven’t done one of these posts in a while because, well, there hasn’t been a Tuesday this important in quite some time. The following albums are available for legal, legit purchasing today:
Oh hey look, rock’s resident asshole Ted Nugent also has a CD/DVD out today! Killer! Psych.
If you’ve already heard these albums tells us what you think of them in the comments. We’ll report the sales figures for all of these albums as soon as we get them in next Wednesday. In the meantime, go n’ buy some music so some broke-ass dudes can eat! Except Ted Nugent, unless you want your money to go straight to the NRA.
-VN
Some miscellaneous news regarding metal’s most divisive sub-genre…
A whole butt load of you have e-mailed us in the past twenty-four hours to alert us to the fact that Suicide Silence’s new album, No Time to Bleed, has leaked.
Now, normally, we don’t acknowledge leaks. In fact, we usually remove any links to leaks you folks post in our comments section. We’re not dumb; we know shit leaks all the time, and we know that if you’re motivated enough and not a complete ree-ree, you will find the leak you’re looking for fairly quickly. You really don’t need our help to steal music.
That being said, we’re gonna make an exception this one time, ’cause, uhhh… well, we found this amongst the various links y’all sent us to download the record, and it’s pretty fucking funny. Download the leak from this link to hear what we’re talking about (You can also give a listen above). You gotta wonder why more bands don’t do shit like this.
For those of you who will do the menschy thing and actually purchase No Time to Bleed the old-fashioned way (and I happen to think the record is worth the coin), the album drops June 30. You can pre-order it (with a t-shirt!) here.
-AR
What the fuck is happening in the world of deathcore? Job for a Cowboy’s Genesis didn’t really sound like Doom, All Shall Perish’s Awaken the Dreamers didn’t really sound like The Price of Existence, Suicide Silence’s No Time to Bleed doesn’t really sound like The Cleansing, and all evidence suggests that Born of Osiris’ A Higher Place will not really sound like The New Reign. Whether you love or hate these bands, there’s no denying that they’re evolving at a rapid pace.
And it looks like we can add Arsonists Get All the Girls to the list. The band has a new song, “Saturnine,” currently streaming on their MySpace page, and while it retains a lot of the Sumeriancore elements we love about the group, it’s a pretty far cry from anything off of The Game of Life. And although all the line-up changes since that album’s release probably have something to do with that, I don’t think there can be any doubt that the band has a creative desire to stretch their wings, too.
The official studio recording of the new Suicide Silence track “Wake Up” (which we’d previously heard only as a live bootleg) is now available for streaming – but not through one of the usual webernet outlets you’d expect. Nope, the track can be heard only on the band’s merch site, which is run by the company Third Degree.
I certainly understand the thinking behind that – might as well try to sell some t-shirts while you have everyone’s attention – and I’m not annoyed or angered by the decision, because the listener is under no obligation to buy anything. It’s more like the way you have go through the entire mall to get to the movie theater (I’m speaking from my limited experience in the suburbs, by the way). I do wonder if the band’s merch sales will increase at all as a result.
It’s a big day for free shit: Revolver is currently giving away an mp3 of a new Suicide Silence song, “Lifted.” The track was already streaming on the band’s MySpace page, but, hey, now you can own a copy. For free. Neat-o.
-AR
It’s Friday, and it’s nice out. I’ma go have a whiskey. Booze and drugs make you look cool and get lots of pussy… it’s true.
Here’s what happened this week that made us batty enough to turn to the dark side:
See you next week. Don’t get too stoned tomorrow with yer Uncle Kip.
-VN
Heavy Metal Source has posted live footage of two new Suicide Silence songs, which the band performed on a recent Music as a Weapon date. The first one, “Creation,” is brand brand new; the second one, “Wake Up,” we’ve actually heard before, if in a fan-captured bootleg that wasn’t nearly so high quality. Both songs will appear on the band’s new album, No Time to Bleed, which Century Media will release on June 30.
I feel like I don’t even have to really write anything. You guys are gonna argue about this band until the end of time, so I’m just gonna stand back and watch.
“Creation”
Advertisements:
