Hello, and welcome to the second entry in my new series of Blog articles, Get (Into) What You Paid For. This series is designed as a little project, sort of mixing parts of my and posts, (and inspired by the excellent Blog), in which I describe the music that I listen to in order to distract myself from the burning desire to buy new music.
I listen to albums that I feel I haven't ever given enough spins or "gotten my money's worth" out of. I've owned some of these records for a few weeks, some for a few months and some for over a decade.
I tend to always mentally "lose" albums in a crowd, when I buy an influx of multiple albums at once (especially some of those that come in boxsetsfor example; no matter how often I listen to it, I never feel like I've properly listened to Faith No More's Album Of The Year) or receive multiple ones at Birthdays and Christmas.
So, rather than throw all my money away on new music almost every day, and feed the screaming goblins in my head that scratch the walls of my brain until new purchases have been made, I've decided to revisit albums that I never really cared for, never really appreciated or just haven't fully absorbed yet.
Its been eighteen days since my last purchase. My current challenge is to make it to the end of the month without buying anything new. Five days to go so far. (I started writing this four days ago, but work and working out and medical appointments interrupted my free time). To be fair this first challenge has been easy because my Birthday is coming up, so I know I'm getting new music soon, so the itching isn't quite as pronounced as it usually would be.
But its still there; So, am I likely to make it to the end of the challenge?
Actually now I'm starting to feel pretty damn itchy to buy something. I'm starting to have a bit of a low mood and my traditional way of alleviating that feeling is to go and buy something. The lucky thing is that I have to keep going to work and that distracts me for the time that I am there, but I always feel like buying something at night afterwards. So. Win some, lose some.
I've been distracting myself from it all (both the low mood and the itching for buying things) by listening to a lot of Fatman On Batman podcasts, but that's kind of making me want to spend money on Batman products, so its not overly helpful.
But excluding Batman, what else is tempting me now?
I've just noticed that DevilDriver's new album, Winter Kills, is actually out this month. That's kind of put a spanner in the works. You know what's worse? There's a special edition with a Live DVD. That's a temptation minefield. I've always wanted a DevilDriver Live DVD. I remember being pretty disappointed last year when DevilDriver were playing in my city but I couldn't get tickets because Tickmaster's Website doesn't seem to understand that people move house or that my building existed. That also screwed me out of seeing Trivium, Cannibal Corpse and CoheedI don't know if this new DevilDriver album will be all that good though. I like all of DevilDriver's albums, especially their third and fourth, but over time I kind of fell out of love with Beast. I like Beast a lot, especially the 2nd half, but I don't listen to it much anymore. I don't like the idea of it. I never think "oooh, I'll put on Beast." I'm kind of worried that I won't find Winter Kills as fun or memorable. I think that maybe Beast sacrificed grooves and interesting non-extreme sections for sheer intensity and brutality. Beast was a savage attack for almost half-an-hour, then it got funbut when I was in the mood for grooves and just got pummeled around the face, I kind of found it hard to keep going back. I think Beast is a five star album in a lot of ways, but its probably the least memorable of theirs. I really got excited however, by Pray For Villains' more varied tracks like 'I've Been Sober' 'Forgiveness Is A Six-Gun' 'Another Night In London' and most of all, 'Back With A Vengeance.'
I remember Beez on the Metal Hammer Podcast saying that 'Back With A Vengeance' reminded him of White Zombie. I don't think very positively of White Zombie myself, but I'd love an album of White Zombie through the DevilDriver filter.
If Winter Kills is more like Pray For Villains or at least the 2nd-half of Beast I'll be happy. However, if its an even more intense, direct and savage battering of an album I think I might run out of enthusiasm. I ran out of enthusiasm for Cradle Of Filth in this way. I just can't listen to anything from Nymphetamine onwards.
As if that wasn't enough temptation, tomorrow Annihilator release a new album. Their last album was pretty damn enjoyable and the band have been so consistent and on an upward trend ever since Dave Paden stuck around as the longest serving non-Jeff member of the band (with a Revolving Door Line-up that would make even Cradle Of Filth dizzy) and this album is sure to be even better than the last. Plus I'm a sucker for guitar solos, and Annihilator are pretty much the Guitar Solo Capital of the Metal World. (Or I guess they were until DragonForce came out.) I remember their greatest hits album had a quote on the back of it that called Jeff Waters "The Eddie Van Halen of Thrash Metal." I think that should tell you there's gonna be some lead guitar to look forward to.
Another thing that's been niggling at me has been Amplifier's Echo Street album. Its not about to come out in August thoughits been out for months. I really enjoyed their The Octopus album and I've been meaning to get more Amplifier ever since. When this new album was coming out I was really excited and the only reason I didn't get it on release day was because there was a lot of other albums released on the same day and I was worried about the money.
I've read mixed reviews about it since though and the first single 'Mamtos' didn't really hook me the way the amazing Kyuss-in-space single 'Interstellar' did, which also slightly knocked the album down my priorities list. However, whenever I increasingly got into Porcupine Tree more and more this year they've started to climb back up.
If I ever went and saw another K-Scope band live, I'd hope that they'd be supporting.
On that same sort of a tip. I only noticed last night that Dead Letter Circus (who sound like a sort of commercial sheen mixture of the common ground between Rishloo, Coheed & Cambria and Fair To Midland) have a put new record out. I didn't even know they were making one, their last one was so recent. To be fair you could add their first album to that list too. I've been planning to buy their first album for about a full year now. Its on my list in the same way that God Of War Ascension and Uncharted 3 areI'm saving it both until I have the time and space to enjoy them completely but also until I see them for a cheaper price.
And while we're on the subject of Aussie Modern Alterna-Prog, Karnivool have a new album out and I want it. I was really excited for this in the pre-release period, only getting sick and stressed and a super intense period of busy, busy work schedules, as well as moving house and having all these medical appointments all the time distracted me from getting the record. It's a definite temptation.
That, and my order of the double pack of Vision Of Disorder's first two albums got cancelled today. I'm super tempted to replace the order straight away, but I guess I 'll wait to the end of the challenge. Its probably the biggest threat to my challenge since I could sort of get away with saying I already bought it and this is just correcting a mistake, and I do want it for a First Impressions article too so its making me particularly itchcy.
Hell, I'm also a bit tempted to try out Soils new album. I always liked Scars and Redefine a medium amount. I think Redefine in particular was very underrated and forgotten. Maybe now that they're back with McCombs people will notice how decent and surprisingly deep that Redfine was. There's tonnes more actually. Riverside's debut is absent from my collection. I could do with three more Twisted Sister records. And more Savatage, and maybe a few Cog records and oh, now look what you've gone and made me do!
Now. To distract myself from the urge to buy new albums:
I was writing earlier about how Silverchair's double-platinum debut Frogstomp was a good album, but I don't really ever listen to it anymore. That was sort of one of the main inspirations for this new blog series, so I don't know why I left it to the third entry, but here it is anyway
I read online that their singer doesn't like their debut album. That's a bit of a shame really. I think its easily much better than anything else I've ever heard the band do.
It opens up with the one-two punch of the famous singles 'Israel's Son' and 'Tomorrow.' I remember that when I was a teenager you could always count on seeing the video to either one of those songs on either Kerrang TV or MTV2. I mean, they weren't as absolutely universal as the singles from Nirvana's Nevermind or 'Black Hole Sun' by Soundgarden or 'Jeremy' by Pearl Jam were, which seemed to be on every hour, every day for about six or seven years in a row, but I do recall a period where it was a sure fire bet that if you spent the afternoon watching music channels (which I used to love doing in m teens) then you'd see one or both of those videos at least once, and usually more than once.
The opening of the album is a quiet bass groove that opens like something by Pearl Jam then sounds like something off of Black Sabbath's debut. I remember people describing Grunge as a sort of return to the original "heavy metal" style of bands like Zeppelin and Sabbath after the excesses of the "Hair Metal goes pop" late 80s, only infused with a bit of the American Hardcore Punk spirit and sound.
Up until the vocals come in, you could mistake this for Sleep or Sabbath. I can also totally hear twinges of Queensryche's Hear In The Now Frontier direction. Well obviously. That was Queensryche's "hey lets play Grunge" album and this was Silverchair's "Hey, lets start a Grunge band" debut. Of course they'd sound a bit alike.
Its really interesting listening to this song in a Sabbathy context. I remember thinking as a teenager that Grunge was a million billion miles away from Metal, but as I always say, the more you listen to, the more you can understand how it all fits together.
I love the heavier, more energetic, Rage Against The Machine-sounding bit that comes in at the middle, and I really love the fast bit at the end. Very good song. I almost forgot about it.
'Tommorow' opens like a Ballad from one of Pearl Jam's first three albums. I can hear a tiny bit of Nirvana. I like how they lean in on the chugs in the heavy riff. Then there's a floaty, Yes style riff that reminds me of 'Yours Is No Disgrace' as a segue into the Chorus. The Chorus is very typical of the Grunge sound to me.
When the quiet bit comes back it really reminds me of My So Called Life. I don't think that this song was in it, but it totally could've been, if you follow. The bit where he sings 'fat boy, fat boooy' is really reminiscent of Eddie Vedder on 'Jeremy.' Oh hey, a little guitar solo. I used to turn this song off when I'd see it on music TV, but listening to it now, its really enjoyable: Clean and pleasant and with only the slightest whiff of the bad points of Grunge.
'Faultline' opens up in a similar sort of semi-ballad way, its notably faster though. When the heavy bit comes in, the vocals remind me more of Layne Stayley this time. There's a good "oooh yeah" in there. I like how not-depressed they sound. At about 2.53 they kick into a chunky sort of Anthrax-sounding riff and it's a really nice change of pace. That then drops out and they build up with a tom based section with a low-in-the-mix-guitar that also sounds like Bush era Anthrax, and has a nice payoff before the song ends.
'Pure Massacre' reminds me of No Code era Pearl Jam when it opens. When the main riff kicks in its heavier than Pearl Jam would ever play though. It reminds me a bit of Undertow era Tool in terms of the production, but its much brighter in tone. Its got a simple aggression vibe rather than a depressed, sad aggression. It's a bit more 'The Bleeding' by Five Finger Death Punch than 'Sober' by Tool. It would actually be a good song to play to a Silverchair skeptic though, its definitely got a bit of an x-factor about it. Its not just some bland forgettable mush.
That's followed by 'Shade' which starts with a slightly sad sounding clean intro, and a very 90s vocal pattern. The drums remind me of Pearl Jam. There's a very nice, simple, tasteful guitar solo that reminds me of Dave Gilmour's unplugged DVD. The whole song is a bit simple, one dimensional but its fairly enjoyable. They do this a whole lot better than Puddle Of Mud or InMe or Stained ever did.
'Leave Me Out' starts out with a riff that seems to be an intentional rip off of Black Sabbath's 'Sweet Leaf.' I mean, ridiculously similar. Well that lends more credence to what I said earlier about Grunge and the origin-Metal stuff crossing over. There's the slightest hint of Nirvana's in Bloom in there at one point. And this great surprisingly heavy bit in the middle that sounds more like Chaos AD/Roots era Sepultura for the briefest of moments.
'Suicidal Dream' come on next. I notice its already got three stars on my iTunes. I don't remember when that happened. Maybe back when I worked as a Tram Conductor and listened to my iPod on shuffle on the way to work, or during lunch. I have a vague memory of the Tram Company's canteen when listening to this.
'Madman' opens up next. Its got a fast almost Thrashy feel. It reminds me of the less famous early Megadeth songs and Anthrax's Joey period. When it slows down into that slow groove it sounds like Sepultura again. Perhaps that's stretching the whole Metal thing a bit too far. These are just hints, you understand? This is a great song though, no matter who or what it sounds like, its just good in and of itself.
'Undecided' opens up sounding very like Rage Against The Machine and then when the vocals come in it reminds me of Audioslave. Its definitely got a grungey vibe but at the same time it reminds me more of Nu Metal. I could see any number of Soils or Godsmacks playing that. It actually reminds me a bit of Black Label Society and Velvet Revolver in places too. The very last riff is surprisingly heavy again. It's the closest thing on the album to the heavier moments on Neon Ballroom. Its kind of got me tempted to try out Freakshow.
'Cicada' is a pleasant and enjoyable track, it's a bit faster than most of the album. It feels like a single. I like his vocals on this one. There's also a cheeky guitar solo that sneaks in quietly. There's a slight AC/DC quality to the middle of the track that I never heard from a Grunge band. After that bit it gets more energetic and even more AC/DC sounding.
'Findaway' starts off with a quick pop-punk vibe. It sounds more like early The Offspring than Pearl Jam. I guess it reminds me of Nirvana's faster stuff too. It's not a million billion miles away from 'Lounge Act' 'Breed' or 'Sliver' but at the same time it reminds me a lot of Pennywise and other bands with Skateboarding in their videos.
Well. That was an enjoyable little trip down memory lane. I always feel like I bought that album by accident, or like I'm not worthy of it, or like its not worthy of my collection. Lots of mixed thoughts. Either way, I always feel a bit weird about Silverchair. I feel a bit weird about all Grunge really. I think it has a bit to do with some friend's liking it too much, some friends absolutely despising it, and seeing too many Grunge videos on TV at a young age. Its always nice to listen to that album and actually remind myself that it wasn't a waste o money, as every time Iactually hear it I enjoy it, even if the sight of it in my collection causes some weird semi-shame if I haven't heard it in a while.
Yes I am sane.
I remember buying Cannibal Corpse's Kill record right at the end of my time at college. I think I was taking my driving lessons at the time. I remember loving the first track, but pretty much the rest of it washes over me and I never really paid enough attention to it after the initial month or two. I mean, I think of it positively, but I have sort of forgotten it recently. My favourite Cannibal Corpse album is The Wretched Spawn and tracks like 'Decency Defied' 'Rotten Body Landslide' 'Nothing Left To Mutilate' 'The Wretched Spawn' and 'Festering In The Crypt' in particular. I love Cannibal Corpse when they write songs, I love them when they are catchy. I love songs like 'Compelled To Lacerate' and 'When Death Replaces Life.' I especially love the Live Cannibalism version of 'Stripped Raped And Strangled.'
What I don't like is when they just go for pure brutality, and the songs just mush together in a repetitive paste of blast beats and pure speed with no grooves or hooks. Pretty much my story with all extreme music. I like it when its extreme enough to sound exciting and energetic and crushingly heavy, but not when it stops sounding like distinct, individual, fun songs. Not when its just minutes upon minutes of blast beats with swirling riffs you cant even make out and vocals that just go on without any fun pattern.
Its not even just an Anti-Blast Beat thing. I hate listening to a Doom Metal song where they just play one slow boring Sabbath-Clone riff over and over again, and never really add any variety, never assert their own identity or never have any "umph." There's nothing in me for dull, dull repetition. Which is funny, because there's a hell of a lot I like about winning formulae. When I find something I like, I seek out as much similar stuff as I can find until I'm absolutely and completely sick of it. It's a weird distinction. I guess I just don't like the core sound of Doom, Black Metal and Death Metal, but I do love any song with a unique power, identity, energetic performance and catchy lead vocal. If you can throw in guitar solos and a bit where the singer carries on after all the music has stopped, all the better.
The opener 'Kill' explodes out of the speakers instantly with a scream, a riff that sounds more like a Napalm Death song, and then it changes into a fun low Cannibal Coprse style riff, and then instantly a noisy solo. The song has just energy and driving force. It feels like its trying to overwhelm you. I like the bit with the harmonics and the whole ending in general.
'Make Them Suffer' has an intro in the style of Chimaira, then turns into the usual trio of Cannibal Corpse staplesthe technical bit, the blast bit, and the swirling bees riff with a Dave Lombardo beat. There's a great groove bit where he actually says 'Make Them Suffer' and then and even groovier groove that follows it. It really elevates the song beyond just a bog standard rolling out of the same usual three bits.
'Murder Worship' follows. Its not the most memorable song, but it has a few really cool parts, especially this groove towards the end.
Next comes 'Necrosadistic Warning.' I always liked this song. Its intro also sounds like Napalm Death. The song changes on a dime so many times it could almost make you seasick. The chorus is particularly enjoyable, in a getting mental-whiplash sort of a way. I think the song kind of goes on too long and while I always enjoy solos, this solo sounds like its from a different song and just extends this one longer than it needs to exist, but since it's the very end that's ok.
'Five Nails Through The Neck' carries on. It's a bit more straight forward and instant than the technicality-fest that the previous song was. Or at least it is for the first minute until he starts singing 'Five Nails' and they continue down the path of whiplashing your brain. Its really enjoyable all the way through with all that being said however, and the lack of constant blasting makes it easier to digest and more normal on the brain than most Death Metal. It just sounds about as heavy as a good Lamb Of God or Chimaira song, but doesn't have that unpleasant brain-fatiguing effect that Scum does.
'Purification By Fire.' The opening riff is the closest thing Cannibal Corpse ever wrote to Zyklon. It then goes straight into a quick noisy solo. Then some blasts that are fine because they don't go on too long. When the vocals come in it all gets a bit generic though. I like the slower parts that periodically interrupt the intense-almost-to-the-point-of-meaningless main bits. If you count all the bits I like, they outweigh the other bits (which I do not dislike but more just stop paying attention to) and so I think of the song positively, but I wouldn't put it on a greatest hits playlist either.
The single 'Death Walking Terror' follows that. It's the opposite. I'd definitely put it on a greatest hits playlist. Its just flat out a great song in every way. I can see why they'd put it out as a single. If I saw that on music TV then I'd probably want to go investigate the band.
Then 'Barbaric Bludgeonings.' It sounds pretty much business as usual. In fact so does the rest of the album. I'm not going to go into more detail. I don't plan on getting rid of Kill any time soon, or saying its anything less than a masterfully executed and enjoyable album, but its not the kind of thing you can really discuss in too great a detail.
*** I took a break here to listen to Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 2 because I just became massively unhappy in real life due to some outside circumstances and some happy happy Helloween takes the edge off a bit. Side note - if anyone can hook me up with a link to buy Helloween's live DVDs, from a retailer in the UK (or you know, a copy of the DVDs that would work in a UK DVD player) for a reasonable price, let me know in the comments section baby ***
After Kill I need something a little bit different. I kind of wanted to stick on Napalm Death's Smear Campaign, which I got around the same time as Kill, but I fear that at the minute I'm all Blasted out. Y'know what I've never ever sat down and listened to though? Prong's Rude Awakening. I got three Prong albums together in a little boxset. After writing my First Impression's about Cleansing I kind of stopped exploring Prong. I'd left their albums on my phone, and one or two times I'd try and listen to Prove You Wrong (mostly when I was going to sleep though) but I never really sat down and gave Rude Awakening a fair chance. I guess its just because they didn't end up being like what I imagined they'd be like. I had imagined something more like Vulgar Display era Pantera. They don't.
But I've bought this record so I may as well see if I can enjoy it.
'Controller' opens the album with a typically Nu Metal intro that could equally be Powerman 5000, Spineshank, Korn, Soulfly, Limp Bizkit. It's a really "here is a link between all those bands" type of song. It'd be helpful actually in hearing how all those bands can all be called Nu Metal despite all being so different on the surface (I know Soulfly aren't anything like that anymore, but this sounds like their first two records, specifically 'Pain.')
Nu Metal aside; Something about the drums also reminds me of God Says No era Monster Magnet.
The song is fairly short, repetitive and unremarkable.
'Caprice' follows. It's a bit more restrained. A bit quieter and a little more subtle. Its very like a song towards the back end of a Nu Metal album that the band never play live and no one really talks about.
When you think about its interesting the impact that Hardcore Punk played on the development of Nu Metal. I mean, Biohazrd and Downset are a bit obvious in their link, by having Rapping over NYHC music. Then you've got your Machine Head and their Thrash, influenced by Hadcore, and then their third and fourth albums being really Nu Metal sounding. Prong started off as Crossover Thrash and slowly got more and more like Nu Metal. Rage Against The Machine who were one of the biggest influences, always talked about Punk and Punk Ethics etc. There's also the whole Grungey side of Nu Metal. Like how loads of Nu Metal bands borrow song structures and vocal styles from Grunge bands. All the Grunge musicians in documentaries always bang on about Hardcore and how they loved Punk and were smarter than Metal. Without Hardcore, a lot of the influences of Nu Metal bands wouldn't sound how they sound.
'Rude Awakening' and 'Unfortunately' bleed into one as I get distracted thinking about Nu Metal's debt to Hardcore. They are both almost cool, but they lack that killer bit. 'Unfortunately' in particulalrly has a bit of a Pantera or Black Label Society tinge to it, but doesn't really deliver on it. I think Tommy Victor never gives 100%, his style is a more repressed 40% and the biggest parts are about 45%.
'Face Value' is the first thing on the album that sounds like it could be a single. It reminds me a bit of Fear Factory (in the vaguest way.) It also reminds me a bit of Nine Inch Nails on the most basic surface level. Its actually a decent song. The first one so far to have anything close to "umph."
'Avenue Of The Finest' reminds me a bit of Downset actually, but with a Korn song structure. The rhythm guitar is kind of fun (especially in the middle of the song when its like a thrashier version of "My Own Summer"), but the rest is a bit muddy. If the best part of this song was the worst part of a song, that song would be decent.
'Slicing' has an intro that's both the closest to Korn and the closest to Nine Inch Nails that they've sounded yet. I like the fast bit which follows, it starts to sound like Marilyn Manson's 'Misery Machine' and Rob Zombie's 'Dragula' on a weird surface level. Its got a bit of "umph" for sure.
'Without Hope' is a bit forgettable, but has a good second half.
'Mansruin' makes up for that by being brilliant. Check it out.
'Innocence Gone' is not my cup of tea but has a good drum beat. Then there's 'Dark Signs,' 'Close The Door,' 'Proud Division' which are a mixture of what's come before, not the best and not the worst. If they took all the best parts from all these songs, they'd have enough parts for one or two good songs all the way through in the spirit of Vulgar Display, Burn My Eyes and Chaos AD. I'm beginning to come to terms with the fact that the only Prong song I like is 'Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck.' Yup. I'm one of those types of fans now.
I don't feel particularly distracted. I don't feel particularly like I've gotten my money's worth this time around. Still; at least Silverchair's album was great (and the 'Sweet Leaf' rip off was a new thing to notice). I reckon I'll listen a bit more to Kill too, the best songs on it are great, even if it's a bit samey overall. Prong, um, not my cup of tea. I think they will just be a shuffle only band from now on unfortunately. Hey, I can't love everything.
I'm going to just post this article and be done with it. I've been adding bits and pieces to it for days now and getting distracted and I'm going to learn from the mistakes of Guns N Roses and 3D Realms, and just put out this turkey so I can start afresh with something new.
Ok. That's me done for the day. I'll write more updates between now and the end of the challenge. Stay tuned for content that's actually interesting.
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