MetalSucks

So as I was perusing a downtown HMV last week, I rolled to the end of the aisle labeled “metal” with my nose held high in complete conviction of my superior taste over all this mainstream piss. While asking a bored wage-jockey for an impossible request (“Oh you don’t have any Ecstatic Flagocephalation? Figures, this place is a dump.”) my snobbery was brought to a sudden halt as my slack jaw knocked over a whole pile of records under the label XASTHUR (black/ambient – USA). Wide distribution is totally not tr00.

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Alt-country superstar Ryan Adams revealed his love of metal in a recent NY Times piece published this past weekend, in which he shared with writer Winter Miller what’s been making the rounds on his playlist lately. “Metal gets a bad rap, that it’s just satanic or screaming, but sometimes it’s really just pop songs that are more forceful. Metal is not to be feared, it’s still storytelling.” True ‘dat. On the new Metallica record:

I’m still absorbing it all. It’s a 100 percent return to form. I have been a lifelong Metallica fan, and I’ll admit, I have been disappointed in some albums. “Death Magnetic” (Warner) is lyrically astounding; the musicianship is incredible.

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