The discovery of a new band is always exciting. Will it be something you’ve heard countless times? An experience that leaves a bad taste in your mouth? Or is it a treat from which you cannot stop consuming? I wanted to take a trip back in time to reminisce about bands/albums that not only introduced me to heavy music, but kept me coming back for more…
From The Archive: Immortal – Sons of Northern Darkness
Hands down, one my absolute favorite black metal bands has gotta be Immortal. From the moment I first heard their music, I was hooked, the speed, the rawness, the out of control gauntlets and corpse paint, it was all ridiculous, but oh so awesome. Now while I happen to enjoy their entire discography, the album that gets most of my attention has to be their 2002 release, Sons of Northern Darkness. One listen to this album and it’s easy to see why Immortal are one of the true kings of black metal.
Of all the bands in the world to announce that their next album would be one long 40 minute track, I never suspected Impiety. For those who are unaware of Impiety, they are a Singaporean band who play blackened thrash in the same sort of vein as Blasphemy, Morbosidad and Infernal War, sometimes falling in the realm of all those bestial NEKRO NUKLEAR KVLT TERROR bands but siding more with early Celtic Frost. It’s probably the best reference point, vocalist and sole original member Shyaithan invokes the gruff snarl of To Mega Therion era Tom G. Warrior and the whole song reeks of a very ambitious Hellhammer.
The idea of one continuous track is not a new one but it is one I feel that hasn’t been properly explored yet, take for example Pig Destroyer‘s Natasha. It’s an amazing exercise in stretching what is acceptable for a grind band and while it’s not uncommon for grind bands to flirt with doom, it felt new and exciting at the time. Worshippers Of The Seventh Tyranny takes on the idea in a new way, while there are lulls in the intensity of the record, it’s all relative and the record maintains a steady pace throughout. There is little of the throw away ‘funeral doom riffing’ that seems to plague other attempts at crafting longer songs, but what doom there is sounds more like a huge tribute to a sleazy Black Sabbath rather than the note-a-minute world of Ahab.
01. What Is Life If Not Now!
02. Crippling
03. The Evil of All Roots
04. Ultimate Reality
05. We Own You
06. Scalping
07. Eliminate
08. Dead and Left
09. With Transparent Blood
10. Veadtuck
[Relapse Records | 9/28/10]
My first introduction to Black Anvil was seeing them live when they performed on one of Immortal’s rare US shows. I was aware of who they were, but never got around to actually listening to them (which is very unlike me). At first, I was a bit hesitant of how they would sound, upon finding out the band consisted of former members of legendary NYHC band Kill Your Idols (not that I dislike hardcore, I just never got into KYI). But my hesitance was quickly dismissed as they hit the stage and unleashed a storm of blackened/thrash metal with a touch of hardcore undertones.
Sorry if you guys have missed me for the past three weeks. I’m a busy man with busy plans. But school has finally finished for me so that means this summer is finally free for me. I have a little planned but not so much. I will be gone on the second to last week of June and then the first week of August but otherwise I am pretty much free. I’m not planning on going to many shows if any, which sucks. That was my summer’s resolution originally because I usually go to two or three a summer so I was planning on going to four or five this summer but with neither the Scream the Prayer tour or the Summer Slaughter tour coming within a five hour drive, I’m not going to many shows if any. I might go see Every Time I Die (who was the first band I ever saw live so it would awesome to have some nostalgia), Norma Jean (who I love all of their material and don’t get why people hate the newer stuff even though it’s different from the old stuff), and Cancer Bats(who are just a fun time). Otherwise, maybe see some indie music by seeing Thao with The Get Down Stay Down at a restaurant that’s about 45 minutes away but otherwise I probably won’t be going to that many concerts.
I find that one of the greatest things about being a music blogger is that it sort of pushes me into being more open minded and observant when it comes to discovering new bands. It has also given me the opportunity to exchange a few words with musicians in bands that I admire.
A reader sent in music suggestions to me at one point, and on his list were Painted in Exile, which were described as being kind of like Between the Buried and Me with more jazz influence. I knew I had to hit that up. Since then, I featured PIE in my first Sumeriancore Sunday post for The Number of the Blog. This captured the attention of their vocalist Robert Richards, with whom I exchanged a few emails.
Painted In Exile – Revitalized
First off, introduce yourself!
My name is Robert Richards. I’m 23 Years old, I’m from Seaford, NY and I’m the vocalist of Painted In Exile.
Painted In Exile’s first EP showed signs of progressive metal, but on Revitalized you guys really went all out, incorporating more clean singing, extended jazz sections, and songs that come close to hitting ten minutes in length. Was this a conscious thing with the band to want to be more progressive or did it just sort of work out in a happy accident?
Well Jimmy, When we got together we were looking to add more clean sections onto ideas that we already had. We had a fairly new member line up so we had a lot of new ideas that we wanted to get out. Everyone wanted to put their two cents in, so it was a semi-conscious effort to make the songs more clean sounding, and at the same time kinda letting the pieces fall where they may.
I understand there’s a full length album in the works?! How’s that coming along? Any cool details you can divulge at this point?
Yes, we are working on a full length as we speak! I’m very excited to be honest with you. Every Sunday we practice and every week James [Murphy--guitar], Eddie [Decesare--drums] & Mr. Lambert [Marc--guitar] show me stuff they have been collaborating on and they keep blowing my fucking mind, pardon the French.
It’s coming along great, I just wish we could pick up the pace a little bit–but we all have jobs and shit, and school, so we are trying our hardest to not let our fans down and drop this album as soon as possible. It’s going to be heavier, faster, slower, jazzier, more poppy and more evil… if that makes sense.
I also saw that you guys filmed your first music video, and in the process you managed to get the police called on you?! Care to spin us a manly yarn about what happened at the beach that day, and how that situation played out?
HA! Yes, we did film our first music video with Andrew Pulaski with Abstrakt Pictures. The day we went to the beach, we thought that we could drive on the sand, cause there were tire tracks all over the sand and no signs saying “no off-roading,” so we drove on the sand and unloaded the equipment and started filming. Then some fucking JERK-OFF, instead of coming to talk to us and say, you know, “What’s going on here?” so we could have explained that we were filming a music video, calls the cops and told them to tell us to leave. So they came down, told us to get the car off the sand, handed out summonses, then tried saying we had to leave. Eddie asked if it was illegal to film there, and they said it wasn’t, so we finished up and left… To be honest, the guy who called the cops is smart, cause if he tried coming over to us like he owned the beach and told us to leave, I probably would have put him in his place.
Impiety
Black Anvil
