As most of you may know, this past Saturday was Record Store Day, an industry holiday created to boost sales for independent record stores by releasing limited exclusive records to physical shops across the world. I took part in Record Store Day, and here’s what I was able to come up with.
Grisly Amputation must be a fairly hyped-about band judging by how often I’ve seen the pastel-colored artwork for their new album Cannibalistic Tendencies across different sites and social networks. I’ve slept on the band for some time because the artwork and name brought to mind that weird deathcore/goregrind scene on MySpace bands from 2006 or so. That whole bright and colorful aesthetic seemingly ironically juxtaposed against gore and brutality just sort of raises red flags for me.
But hey, apparently it gets the job done. I finally caved after I had decided that I’ve seen the album art one too many times, and as it turns out the band are pretty much your archetypal brutal gore-obsessed deathgrind band. The music is created in good fun and all, but every track from Cannibalistic Tendencies starts out with a sample from some cheesy horror film — a few of them being overly long — before ripping into some decent deathgrind plagued by hit-or-miss vocals and terrible production. Perhaps it’s just not my genre and it’s a niche formula that I don’t quite get. I want to enjoy them, and I think I’m right on the cusp of seeing Cannibalistic Tendencies grow on me.
The album is available on the band’s Bandcamp page. Go give it a listen and get back to me with your thoughts. We’ve told you enough times what we think, so return the favor!
I was talking to a fellow contributor and we were talking about the relationship we have with our audience and that got me thinking about you guys! So let this be grounds for introduction! Tell us about yourself and if you come here daily/often! What are your favourite bands and who is your favourite contributor? Any particular posts or features you like?
Also, I want this to be a formal introduction to some of our contributors that have joined our ranks in the past couple of months. So in an effort to give us all more in common, we participated in picking 50 albums that we would take to the grave with us. So check them out! Also feel free to make one for yourself and post them in the comments!
Remember, this post is about you and we want as much input as we can get! So if you’ve been visiting for years in silence, or just stop by once in a while, now is your chance to come out of the shadows and learn about us!
Alkahest – JR
Juular – EC
Nayon – NT
DamienTheOmen – DL
Tentaclesworth – CD
DeusExMachina – GR
Inhumed – SS
Denisovich - GS
Riptide – DA
Red Bruschetta – GK
Momento Mori – CK
Dia Artio – SM
Dethcaek – MW
Alucard – AD
Dr. Killjoy – AJ
Gaia – ST
Deadite – RB
Gein – MK
False_Nate – NS
- CD
There’s a template to starting a metal band. It’s not set in stone, but when it comes down it, that core combination of guitar, bass, drums and vocals have given some of the greatest metal even known so it’s no wonder that 90% of bands fall back that format. It’s tried and tested, it ain’t broke and it doesn’t really need fixing and it’s probably even fair to assume that many future classics will continue to revolve around those same basic ingredients.
Thankfully though, there’s also a considerable number of bands more interested in blurring the lines and adding their own twist to the standard line-up. It’s not a new idea, hell even Black Sabbath‘s debut contained a harmonica solo — not really a huge leap from their blues background but looking back on it today it definitely seems out of the ordinary. Worth nothing as well that with the advent of cheaper and cheaper electrical equipment, the keyboard was embraced quite quickly, no surprise really when a lot of those original ‘proto-metal’ bands made similar use of the organ but it still hasn’t quite made the leap from ‘optional’ to ‘necessary’ yet.
Relevant section occurs at 3:05.
We’ve grown and been through a lot the past three years since Heavy Blog started back in 2009. We’ve got over 3k likes on Facebook (which you should definitely give a Like!) and we snatch a respectable 5-6k page views per day and rising, so we’d like to say thank you to those who come, read what we have to say, and discuss with us in the comments. Obviously, we’re not done growing yet, and we’d like to know what you would like to see out of us!
Tired of the white text on black background and want us to make a change? Want more news and less blog-esque editorialization? More formal tone? More informal tone? A wider spectrum of musical interest? A new feature or function you’d like to see? Let us know what you want or what you’d change about the site and we’ll seriously consider your opinions! After all, you dudes are the readers, so your thoughts are highly regarded. It can even be negative criticism, so long as it’s constructive. We can’t fix issues unless we know about them, so here’s your chance!
Also, feel free to ask us anything. Curious about the goings on behind the scenes? Hell, just ask and we’ll be open and honest with you!
Unfortunately, no amount of griping is going to stop us from bumming Devin Townsend and BTBAM every week. You’re just gonna have to live with it. And yes, This Week Is Heavy is coming back next week.
- JR
We here at HBIH pride ourselves on being up to date and in the know about most things progressive in the scene of rock and metal; it’s kind of our go to thing, if you hadn’t noticed. Sure, we spend time on other genres and things of a metal nature, but our main niche is progressive metal/rock.
Recently, Rolling Stone magazine conducted an online poll, asking their readership what they thought was the greatest prog rock album of all time.And after tallying the results — people still ‘tally’ right?? — the undisputed winner was Dream Theater’s 1999 album, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. Here are the full results:
1. Dream Theater: Metropolos Part 2: Scenes From a Memory (1999)
2. Rush: 2112 (1976)
3. Yes: Close to the Edge (1972)
4. Pink Floyd: The Dark Side of the Moon (1973)
5. Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974)
6. King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King (1969)
7. Genesis: Selling England by the Pound (1973)
8. Rush: Hemispheres (1978)
9. King Crimson: Red (1974)
10. Rush: Moving Pictures (1981)
Alright, well sure the album is gooood, but is it really the pinnacle of progressive rock? And what about metal? Don’t you think bands like Mastodon, Between The Buried and Me, and Cynic deserve to be on a list like this? Sure it’s all opinions, and it basically boils down to a popularity contest, but I’m still curious, what do our readers believe are the best prog rock/metal albums of all time? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments. And let’s keep it clean, alright?
- EC
Recently, it’s become more and more apparent to me that the label Progressive Metal is turning into something increasingly convoluted and vague. Maybe this stems from stumbling upon one too many bands labeled as “progressive,” only to listen to their music and find that I would consider them nothing of the sort, or maybe it’s just that the classification in of itself seems too broad in the first place. Admittedly, progressive metal houses smaller sub genres within itself that are more distinct and clear-cut, but this article will hopefully lend more clarity to modern progressive metal as a whole.
This post is not meant to be a list of reasons why this sub genre is “superior” to others, nor is it meant to be a part of any other sub genre arguments (i.e. the argument about if djent is or isn’t a genre, or if genres even matter at all). The purpose of this article is to simply, with your help via comments, further define and classify what progressive metal is (and isn’t), in order to provide clarity to myself and anyone else who finds themselves confused.
After some thought, I’ve found 7 attributes that come to my mind when trying to define progressive metal. Most progressive groups won’t possess all of these characteristics, and many will only display 2 or 3 of them, but all 7 of these points are reasons why I consider this to be my favorite genre of music. If you disagree with these points, or you think I’ve left an important aspect out, please give some feedback using the comments section! With that said, here’s what I’ve come up with: View Full Article »
The heavy metal scene is one that is blessed with a diverse catalog of passionate fans that will — in a lot of cases — do whatever necessary to spread a wealth of knowledge about the music that we all know and love. I’m assuming that passion, or at the very least growing interest, is the reason you’re here reading HBIH in the first place. Or you just have a really odd sense of ironic humor. However, there’s also a lot of misinformation and negative connotations about metal that is spread outside of the metal community, and there’s very little being done about this. No one seems to want to do any research about heavy metal unless it can be directly linked to psychosis in teenagers, or a growing love for Satan in children (both of which can be fully explained when one watches the soul crushing GOP Presidential primary campaign).
So with that in mind I would like to direct your attention to the efforts of my friend Max. Max is a senior at Pennsylvania State University who, like all of us, enjoys heavy metal music. He enjoys it so much so that he has decided to have it be the main subject in an anthropological study for his senior English class. The exact assignment is to either research an issue in depth or look at a sub-culture or cultural phenomenon and research it. He has decided to do the latter and research the sub-culture that surrounds heavy metal music. In his research he is looking for insight on why people enjoy heavy metal music, what brings them to the genre, whether or not there are implications or stereotypes that are associated with being a metal head, whether or not there are genre-based barriers within the community itself (e.g black metal fans hating on power metal fans), and ultimately how we in the community benefit from the music. The man is trying to give a voice to all of us who happen to be fans of heavy metal music, and help dismiss any preconceived notions others might have about us.
I think it’s a fascinating idea and honestly, you should too. So that’s why I’m making this post; I want to reach out to our readership and ask for you to help this man out. He’s one of us and he deserves some support. If you feel like it please take a few minutes out of your day and answer the brief questionnaire below. Once you’re finished, you can shoot those answers over to Max in an email at wms5043[at]gmail[dot]com. Preliminary data is due on Friday March 23 — that’s tomorrow folks — so please take the five minutes out of your day to do this. You’re going to be helping out a great guy in such an easy way. You can read Max’s full statement below.
I’m studying metal from an anthropological viewpoint. What makes us who we are, why we like it, and what we benefit from it. I have a few short questions for preliminary research, and I would love for any input at all. You can message them to me, or email at wms5043@gmail.com
Questions:
1.) What is it about metal that attracts you to the genre?2.) Do you think there are any implications to being a metal head? Like are there any social traits you would expect a metal listener to have?
3.) What is it about metal that you believe brings us all together as a community?
4.) Do you think that people outside of the community have wrong stereotypes about metal heads? If you do, what do you think they are? Do you imagine yourself being in any of those categories?
5.) have you ever seen Sam Dunn’s “Metal a Headbanger’s Journey?” Do you think we’re a culture of people that deserves some research. For instance, do you think that the community would benefit from telling others who we are?
6.) Metal has a ton of different sub-genres. LCTR is progressive, Darkthrone is black metal so on and so forth… Do you think these genres present a barrier within the community? Does it separate us at all?
7.) When you go to a metal show or see one of your favorite bands, what do you like to do at a venue? Are you able to experience life in a way that is unlike anything else? Do you get aggression out or relieve stress or anything like that?
8.) And lastly … if there was one thing you wanted the world to know about you, and how you feel about music what would it be?
- EC
So it seems my post about getting White Arms of Athena more recognition for Summer Slaughter alongside Fallujah didn’t do much despite the buzz I noticed around the page thanks to you dudes. It just wasn’t enough, I’d imagine. We gave it the ol’ college try though, so that’s something! But this time, we really need to go all-out on this.
Vildhjarta are in the running to open up Summer Slaughter this year, and they need your votes. As of writing this post, Vildhjarta are behind Fallujah, 19 to 22 % respectively. Assuming Summer Slaughter are actually considering having two of the top winners on board like they said they would, this is great news if Vildhjarta and Fallujah are top dogs. Both bands would be absolutely amazing opening acts. I feel that both of these young and talented bands deserve it, but I’d like to extend my support for Vildhjarta and I strongly urge and plead for everyone to vote for them and get them into first place to the best of our ability as insurance to get them on this bill.
Vildhjarta have never toured the US before and this would be a killer start for them and open them up to a new audience. I hope with everything in me that both Fallujah and Vildhjarta can make it, but my vote’s going to my Swedish brethren.
- JR
