151 – New Year, Old Memes

Noyan
Podcast
Heavy Pod Is Heavy Cast! We're back! And we're bringing you new old content! The Haarp Machine crowdfunder, the Arch Enemy debacle, Blood Music disbanding, Baard leaving Borknagar (but new album!) and The Most Feared Song in Jazz, by Vox (but sub to Adam Neely instead!), then cool people time with You (the show), Kingdom: Two Crowns, Atomic Blonde, Sundered, and Donut County. Enjoy!

Djent Was A Genre Full Of Great Debuts And Little Else

Joshua Bulleid
Deep Dive, Features
Djent had an explosive entrance into the world of heavy music, around the start of the decade. It was a truly exciting occurrence, with first-wave acts like Periphery, Animals As Leaders and Cloudkicker filtering the technically-driven progressive sound of acts like Meshuggah, Sikth, and those of the budding “Sumeriancore” movement, into something  altogether more accessible, while still retaining much of their forebears’ technical and progressive edge. Yet, like most new sub-genres, djent quickly devolved into pastiche and gave way to over saturation—perhaps a little bit quicker than most. Djent, it seems, has had a propperly ballistic trajectory, and—in 2017—as its momentum trails off, it's hard to get excited about this once-promising phenomenon.

Endless Sacrifice – Suffering, Metal, and Identity Politics, Part 2

Ahmed Hasan
Deep Dive
Welcome back to Endless Sacrifice, our ongoing look at the role which the ideal of suffering plays within metal. Our opening article focused on content analysis, taking a look at the ideal of suffering as it comes across from the content which metal is concerned with. Lyrics provided a fertile ground for exploration because they are the standard which music raises in order to convey its meaning (although we saw that a grain of salt is indeed needed when considering them). Today we discuss the instrumental side of things. Approaching this topic was not the easiest thing to do at first; after all, how does one relate strictly musical content to the concept of suffering within metal? Where to even begin, when what one gleans from a certain musical moment is nowhere near objective? What this apparent divide necessitates instead is a re-framing of the question itself.

What Heavy Blog Is Really Listening To – 8/12/16

Scott Murphy
What We're Really Listening To
For those who missed our last installment, We post biweekly updates covering what the staff at Heavy Blog have been spinning. Given the amount of time we spend on the site telling you about music that does not fall neatly into the confines of conventional “metal,” it should come as no surprise that many of us on staff have pretty eclectic tastes that range far outside of metal and heavy things. We can’t post about all of them at length here, but we can at least let you know what we’re actually listening to. For those that would like to participate as well (and please do) can drop a 3X3 in the comments, which can be made withtapmusic.netthrough your last.fm account, or create it manually with topsters.net. Also, consider these posts open threads to talk about pretty much anything music-related. We love hearing all of your thoughts on this stuff and love being able to nerd out along with all of you.

42 – Philosopher’s Guide To The Galaxy

Noyan
Podcast
Yeah, this week's dank number fact is pretty obvious. Also, finally we introduce "Bullshit Philosophy Corner" as an official segment! Oh, we also talk about metal. Stuff like Morbid Angel, The HAARP Machine, From First To Last (and Skrillex), Oddland, Opeth, Jinjer, Defeated Sanity, Carnifex, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Equipoise, Alcest and Cortexiphan. Also some dumb top 50 list. Then we do two topics, namely bands that "you had to be there/then to get", and how fans fixate on members of bands who have passed away. Enjoy!

Fake It Until You Make It? Musical Authenticity and the Metal Musician

Noyan
Editorials, Features
When in the studio, musicians always use some "tricks" to get a sound that isn't necessarily as achievable in a live setting. This is a pretty commonly known fact. It's not even a new thing. Since the 60s, bands have made music in the studio that doesn't reflect the process of how they actually play in person. As technology develops, more methods become available to the artists to achieve a more "perfect" sound, if they choose to use them. In the 50s and before, bands recorded performances together, in a single run through. Then they started recording each instrument separately, then split up songs into parts, then replaced some instruments with digital substitutes, used corrective techniques (both for pitch and timing) and recently, started performing at a slower tempo then speeding it up. These are the realities of recording. Whether they're acceptable or not is a hotly debated topic, and a recent even in the metal spheres brought the question to the forefront yet again. The 2016 Guitar Solo Contest, where guitarists were asked to perform over a track by John Browne of Monuments and submit a video of their recording, recently announced their winners. The prizes ranged from a Mayones guitar, Mesa amps, Bare Knuckle Pickups and more. Here's where it gets complicated. One of the winners was a performance that was clearly heavily edited.

Rest Among Ruins – Fugue

Kyle Gaddo
Reviews
Mike Semesky is an obvious favorite around these parts; cool guy, workhorse of a musician, a general font of talent. Nobody can seem to get enough of him. From his time with The HAARP Machine and a one-album st... Read More...