Technical Tuesday – “Hi, yes, I was interested in Cattle Decapitation?”

Posted by Witness to the Void on May 15, 2012 in Now Playing | 0 comments

“Cattle Decapitation? I think this probably isn’t the right department… ”

Actually, this is exactly the right department, especially for some feedback about the decapitation of cattle. Or Cattle Decapitation, more precisely. These guys have been the buzzword around the TDM laboratories and on this particular Technical Tuesday I would like to look into the albums a bit…in the order that I heard them myself.

Review: Cattle Decapitation – The Harvest Floor

Posted by Witness to the Void on May 13, 2012 in CD Reviews | 0 comments

CATTLE DECAPITATION
The Harvest Floor (2009)

USA, Metal Blade Records, Technical Deathgrind

This is an article I wrote a few years past for the then-current release of The Harvest Floor. I thought it seemed particularly relevant with the recent release of the new Cattle Decapitation album Monolith of Inhumanity, which TDM will be doing a staff review on shortly.  This was printed in a publication with approximately five readers that considered themselves fans of metal – one of them being me – hence, the intended audience is not the normal TDM clientele. Aside from the very last sentence, the article remains as it was originally printed. 

Review: Hour of Penance – Sedition

Posted by Witness to the Void on May 3, 2012 in CD Reviews | 1 comment

HOUR OF PENANCE
Sedition (2012)

Italy, Prosthetic Records, Technical Brutal Death Metal

Hour of Penance is one of those bands that I don’t give nearly the attention they deserve. However, after hearing 2012′s Sedition, I realized that I have been making a serious, grievous, and all around appalling error. Hour of Penance maintain their place among the upper echelon of technical death metal with the storm of enlightened savagery that is Sedition.

Italy’s Hour of Penance play a similar galloping death to Oracles era Fleshgod Apocalypse, with emphasis on the savage heft. The drums, noticeably (and appropriately) high in the mix, remind me of the whirlwind skinbashing of Hate Eternal. The guitars hit the soaring highs of Behemoth, but maintain a strong balance of jackhammer riffing and buzzsaw cycling. The bass carries the crypt-dwelling ghastliness of bands on the brutal spectrum, like Odious Mortem. And the vocals, the bite of the beast, froth with monstrous yet intelligent malevolence, spitting caustic sedition.

Technical Tuesday – Which did not start very technical at all

Posted by Witness to the Void on May 1, 2012 in Now Playing | 1 comment

Today began dreary and overcast, the perfect weather for seriously misanthropic music. Not one to miss out on this, I spun some Anaal Nathrakh and Mistress, who, although not very technical, definitely know how to bring the metal. Anaal Nathrakh play an absolutely virulent blend of black/grind/industrial/death with some falsetto power metal vocals thrown in for good measure, while Mistress (with 4 of 5 members also being in Anaal Nathrakh) deliver some of the most disgusting music I have ever heard. Its sludge/grind for waking up facedown in the gutter.

Technical Tuesday Five – something old, something new, something told, and two somethings in two

Posted by Witness to the Void on Apr 24, 2012 in Now Playing | 0 comments

This week’s list comes delayed as a result of a downpour. No, we didn’t have any flash floods…well, not in real life anyway. The Technical Tuesday columns are typically typed timely like, on Tuesday evening. However, this week’s was obstructed by videogaming, specifically, in the form of Downpour. That is, the new Silent Hill videogame. Typically I take turns playing with my friend, switching the control whenever someone dies, but this gaming sessions had remarkably short innings as our protagonist met his untimely demise over, and over, and over….  Anyway, this week’s column features a bit of new discoveries, a bit of old favorites, and a bit of those records you buy, don’t listen to for a long time, and then realize are really awesome, but not until months later. Hence, I used the old wedding superstition, “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue…” but added a little beat of deathening up. That being said, here are the competitors:

New album by Allegaeon?! You have my attention…

Posted by Witness to the Void on Apr 22, 2012 in Newsflash | 0 comments

I will begin this news briefing that I am not often the one to introduce new bands to people. In general, I feel like I am always the last one to show up for the party when it comes to exciting new bands and releases. Example: Allegaeon. The band’s full length, Fragments of Form and Function, was released in July of 2010, and I did not hear the album until late 2011. Even worse, I even read a review of the album before it was released, and thought “Hmmmm, this sounds like something I would like.” And yet I did nothing.

TDM Staff review: Meshuggah – Koloss

Posted by Witness to the Void on Apr 20, 2012 in TDM Staff Review | 0 comments

MESHUGGAH
Koloss (2012)

Sweden, Nuclear Blast Records, Progressive Metal

 “March to the core…”

I love Meshuggah for one specific attribute. They always bend the guitar neck for some crazy, non-proportional rhythm exhausts. This time is no exception. “Koloss” is one big rhythm battle cruiser. Breaker of worlds pulled 2000 meters underwater and exploding as huge tsunami. Guitar work here is a different dimension, different story or different pair of boots… call It what You want. Those parts are like consuming fire. It can last for very long time or can swallow all neighborhood in just seconds – depending on the surface. The important thing – it’s pretty easy to get intoxicated by the smoke! Easy if You “Meshuggist” or at last You’re into dysfunctional, technical music hehe. It’s even hard to tell they’re strictly technical. They’re in some sick way, progressive but none of this terms describes the music.

The probability that You didn’t heard a single track from their discography is lesser than eagle poking You in the eye. In case You actually DIDN’T heard them, You must be warned. It’s either love or hate… some say it’s music for musicians and those less familiar with such abnormal sounds may get epilepsy so be careful. Let’s summarize… exceptional but motoric  guitar work is controversial but that’s the beauty in it. Tomas Haake holds to a specific schema. Something like tribal drumming or something. Minimalistic but well done. Eerie – thickening atmosphere – keys are also present and I love them. Vocals are nothing more than we heard before from Jens. The conclusion is too simple for me… I liked “ObZen” more but I still love “Koloss”.

8/10 – Rimmon

“Kneel before Meshuggah, mortals!”

It should come as absolutely no surprise that I consider Meshuggah the greatest band in the entire universe. I’ve long considered ‘Nothing’ my favorite album. As such, I had extremely high expectations for ‘Koloss’ when it was described as slower and groovier.

When ‘Break Those Bones(…)’ and ‘Do Not Look Down’ were leaked, they were beset by a legion of ignoramuses and contrarians; some were bandwagon hopping ‘Bleeders’ who only care about Meshuggah in relation to ObZen and would honestly take Periphery over ‘Destroy Erase Improve’ while others could only muster the tired refrain of ‘Why isn’t this like their old stuff’? Now that ‘Koloss’ has been out for almost two weeks, I invite both groups of detractors to stick their heads in buckets of piranha fish. ‘Koloss’ is the best album of 2012 and the band’s best work since ‘Nothing’. The best way to describe Koloss is in fact as ‘Nothing’s organic counterpart. ‘Koloss’ has made me even prouder to be a Meshuggah fan. Fredrik Thordendal, Mårten Hagström,,Dick Lövgren, Tomas Haake and Jens Kidman are unstoppable. This album utterly annihilates ‘ObZen’. I now have a new key article of worship for my Thordendalist faith. Hail Meshuggah! Hail The Koloss!

11/10 (OK, OK, 10/10. If only 11/10 was mathematically sound.) -  Goshuggist

“I am the great leviathan, I am LIFE AND DEATH”

In recent years, Meshuggah has hit what can be called “the curse of the great.” As an undeniable innovator to the genre of metal, the purveyors of deviant Swedish audio have become absolute canon. See “djent,” an entire sub-subgenre (microgenre?) of bands trying to sound like Meshuggah. I thought that Nothing was undeniably in the top 5 most influential metal albums of the last decade. With all the hype ( Meshuggah had the most hyped song in the US, according to Last.fm) the question then is, “Is Koloss as good as [insert favorite Meshuggah album title here]?” Hence, the curse of the great.

Koloss is exactly what the name suggests: a blunt, discordant juggernaut bulldozing its way through buildings.  It starts with a lumbering swing, picks up into an odd-stepped sprint on track two, and continues in a variety of oddly time signatured paces.   Slow, fast, and everywhere inbetween, all in the alien robot metal that has made Meshuggah so essential. Long forgotten are silly nonsense things like breakdowns…. or everyone playing in the same time signatures. However, the album lacks some of the general creepiness seen in previous songs such as “Spasm.” Which is my complaint with the album – it sounds just a bit simple. Straightforward.

I once heard a local metal show where the dj commented that he tried to like Meshuggah, but he just couldn’t get into it. Later, someone said to me “You have to understand Mesghuggah albums,” which didn’t make sense until I finally, really, understood the album.  Koloss lacks that feeling of “I don’t even understand how this song works, this is absolutely mind-blowing.” That being said, its still great material, just not the absolute puzzle I had hoped for.

9/10 – Witness to the Void

“Meshuggah: still not faltering since 1987″

This album is pretty unique, it has to be said. Not many other bands out there are writing music like this; it’s gloriously dissonant, off-time, and hard-hitting. The whole thing has a quality unlike any other band around. It sure provides hope for future metal. It’s practically perfect.

Songs like “I Am Colossus”, “Swarm” and “Marrow” provide some inane chugs and riffs; a great deal of it even has a funky feel to it. In fact, the entire album has a chunky groove rushing through it. All the members know how to work together to keep a sweet groove interesting.

Now while we’re talking members, I’ve always respected Thomas Haake’s skill. As a drummer myself I realize just how challenging these polyrhythms are. I was shocked and amazed to find out that he wrote all the lyrics for this album, bar “The Hurt That Finds You First” and “Demiurge”, which were written by Mårten Hagström. However Jens puts in more than enough talent with his vocals, wherein I’m noticing an increasing amount of Strapping Young Lad influence. Given, my favourites are still ObZen and Chaosphere, but this is still an above average release, and a shining example for experimental metal.

8.5/10 – InexorableRotting

AVERAGE RATING: 8,9/10

Technical Tuesday Four – The Origin Chronicles

Posted by Witness to the Void on Apr 17, 2012 in Now Playing | 1 comment

This marks the fourth edition of Technical Tuesday, and also the first that I had to really search my brain for a clever title.

One band pretty much dominated the entire listening selection, making this week somewhat unfair on which band would be the victor, but the question of the album remains. For me, Origin is one of those bands I can listen to all day and never get tired of.