Social Anxiety Forums

aramoor · Posted: Sun December 31, 2006 Post subject: Why I love Death Metal.

Some music reveals itself to you as quickly as England’s cricketers seem to crack in a pressure situation down under. Some music demands time and effort be invested in repeated listens before it “clicks”. It’s a shame so few people are willing to give a record a repeated listen after they don’t initially find what they where looking for. Some of the best albums are the ones that reveal themselves to you slowly, layers of emotion and ideas unveiling themselves gradually and subtly upon each new listen. Some death-metal albums certainly fit this category.

Death metal is often sneered at as being a one-dimensional and badly clichéd genre solely the realm of sweaty, long haired men who growl about the pain of living and how life isn’t all that its cracked up to be. But the emotions and feelings a decent death metal record can invoke are awesome in their intensity and fury. Take Hypocrisy’s Virus. The darkness evident on that record is fascinating - the gloomy, brooding, oppressive atmosphere achieved is stunning in places. Guitars meld perfectly with one another to create an aggressive yet melodic and melancholy record. Equally as ferocious, but infinitely more uplifting is Amon Amarth’s “With Oden On Our Side” – An album with a battle-ready aggression whipped to boiling point by lyrics and imagery of ancient Norse and Viking mythology.

Some people might say they have no inclination to listen to music with such blatantly dark and depressing themes, and that’s fine, but it’s the folk who totally dismiss the music as shit within the first 30 seconds who rile me. Who likes happy endings anyway? I certainly don’t (apart from the one in Homeward Bound!) I like my music to be dark, gritty, bleak, aggressive and intense. I like being kicked in the face by the brutality of an album, but aggression and darkness, are no substitute for creativity. It’s these creative bands that offer more than simply following a formula who own the genre, something deeper to search for in the music, weather that is themes explored lyrically, emotionally or atmospherically.

Beautiful pain?

In a genre so soaked with dark and depressing imagery, beauty is not something one would expect to find. However there are bands (mainly hailing from Scandinavia) practicing a brand of Death Metal so awesome and epic in proportion that they manage the seemingly impossible task of blending sorrow, raw anger, pain and despair and any other negative emotion you care to mention, and twisting this into something gut-wrenchingly beautiful. Listen to Opeth’s “Bleak” and at 3 minutes 25 seconds you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you liked that, and you’ve got 20 minutes to spare then try Opeth’s epic masterpiece “Black Rose Immortal” It’s this massive juxtaposition of emotions that fascinates me most about this style of music.

As I’m sat here writing, listening to Porcupine Tree, I’m wondering what bands I can reference here; Opeth is certainly one to check out. Amorphis another. Both these bands have that hard to pin down beautiful approach to making dark, heavy music. Though more Black than Death, Agalloch certainly possesses this gift as well. If you don’t know any of the bands I’ve mentioned here, but you listen to rock or metal of any kind, do you’re self a favour and check them out. Rock **** on all.

This article isnt really finished yet, but it kinda gets accross what I think I'm trying to say..
_________________
I embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm, to feel connected
enough to step aside and weep like a widow
to feel inspired, to fathom the power,
to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain,
to swing on the spiral
of our divinity and still be a human.

Anonymous · Posted: Thu January 04, 2007 Post subject:

Anonymous · Posted: Thu January 04, 2007 Post subject:

-Dies.- That makes me want to listen to Opeth.

I didn't read all of your article (laziness) but what I read I thought was good Wink

Anonymous · Posted: Sun January 07, 2007 Post subject:

Some of the bands, atleast one of them, is way too soft. Razz

Opeth is very good tho. And your article is way nice. It's sad to see people that just turn away after the first few tunes. They have already decided that it's shit by looking at the genre.

aramoor · Posted: Sun January 07, 2007 Post subject:

Porcupine Tree being the soft one? Yeah, they arnt death metal at all I just happened to be listening to them at the time. Having said that their singer (Steven Wilson) produced Opeth's Blackwater Park album and sung a few vocals on it as well. You are right about Opeth though. One of the most creative, talented and innovative bands working in any genre today without question.

Hobo · Posted: Sun January 07, 2007 Post subject:

Death Metal is a genre I can't really get into no matter how many different songs or bands I listen to. Although, I'd take it over Rap, Dance, Country, Polka and other crap genres anyday.