Extreme Metal

The Music Cricket says, “Let’s go extreme!” You know you’ll love it! For all you heavy metal maniacs I have a few suggestions, in case you haven’t been keeping up. In terms of extreme, technical metal, Nile is perhaps unsurpassable. I doubt they’ll ever be able improve on their pummeling classic Annihilation of the Wicked (2005), but after the disappointing Ithyphallic (2007), their latest effort, Those Whom the Gods Detest (2009), is a welcome return to form. Much of the lyrical inspiration comes from Egyptian mythology and to a lesser extent H. P. Lovecraft. For some misguided reason they often incorporate North African and Arabic musical instruments, per chance imagining the exotic sounds should evoke Egyptian antiquity, but who am I? Nevertheless, musically I continue to be pleasantly impressed by Nile’s sheer brutal velocity which is interspersed with more atmospheric passages.

What Nile is for Egyptian-themed technical death metal, Melechesh is for Mesopotamian-themed melodic black/death metal. The two albums I am familiar with, Sphynx (2004) and Emissaries (2006), are sure worth repeated listening. Like Nile, they incorporate Middle Eastern instruments, as well as harmonic scales and rhythmic patterns. Again, historically that makes little sense (the musical and lyrical inspiration derives from entirely different geographic, cultural and chronological backgrounds) ... but it makes for an interesting musical experience. On their own MySpace page they refer to their music as “Sumerian Thrashing Black Metal” (and parenthetically mention they are presently located in The Netherlands). Apart from the exotic elements, I can recognize some Kreator in their sound, and maybe Emperor, as far as thrash and black metal influences are concerned respectively. But I also hear some melodic metal in the vein of At the Gates, and there are progressive time changes and whirlwind riffs much like Nile.

If you appreciate your aural assault like an aerial atomic attack, you’ll absolutely adore Anaal Nathrakh (Old Irish: a'na:l naθ'raχ, “Serpent’s Breath” ... at least that’s what they say...), an industrial cyber-grindcore black metal band, replete with violent misanthropic nihilist eschatological doomsday prophecies, delivered in harsh shouts, screams, growls and grunts mixed with victorious clean singing. This is some of the best and most ominously aggressive noise I’ve ever heard! I’ve all their albums and find it difficult to pick a favorite, although Eschaton (2006) comes to mind, but their most recent In the Constellation of the Black Widow (2009) is amazing, too. Their songs have titles like “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen (The Rage of Hell Boils in My Heart),” “Blood Eagles Carved on the Backs of Innocents,” and “I Am the Wrath of Gods and the Desolation of the Earth”. Perfect music, too, for a one-night stand!

I’ve been a fan of Arsis since I first heard their earliest work. Now they’ve released their fourth full-length album, and I’m unsure what to make of it. Apart from the band’s name (it refers to the stressed syllable in poetic meter, but obviously sounds like something else), I find it difficult to take it seriously when the album is called Starve for the Devil (2010), and has song titles such as “Forced to Rock” and “Half Past Corpse O’ Clock”... C’mon, dude, you’re not Mötley Crüe! Their lyrics used to deal with loss, guilt, regret, resentment, and broken relations. Now this? I also miss the technically complex compositions. This new album is mostly lightning-fast shredding over unrelenting drum blasts, with a few melodic moments that are reminiscent of At the Gates or Arch Enemy... I’ll just go back to A Diamond for Disease (2005)...

A true favorite band of mine is called Nachtmystium (please pardon the barbaric neologism). Their latest effort, Assassins (2008), is what it would sound like if Pink Floyd went black metal. (I remember Glenn got a good laugh when I mentioned I was going to see Arsis at B.B. King’s. To which I replied that “Assassin” was a favorite word of mine.) Assassins runs the gamut from ambient to black metal, with psychedelic rock and progressive metal in between. It’s what Nachtmystium calls “black meddle” (referring to the Pink Floyd album Meddle). So, they offer rasping vocals over brutal drum blasts, shredding riffs like ritualistic troll dances on Walpurgis Night, heavy mid-tempo tunes, indulgently melodic guitar solos, atmospheric passages, and a three-part closing track that’s only metal because of the distorted guitars, but is otherwise an excellent exercise of bringing together all the various aforementioned elements! Get your hands on this one, please!

Black Metal

The genre “Black Metal” derives its name from Venom’s sophomore album (1982) and its title track. While they functioned as an inspiration in terms of imagery (leather and spikes) and lyrics (mock-Satanic themes), Venom was a New Wave of British Heavy Metal band, and never as extreme as trve kvlt black metal. Other early influences include Mercyful Fate (who added the corpse-paint make-up to the Satanic themes) and Hellhamer/Celtic Frost (who added grim atmospheric soundscapes). The extremely fast distorted riffs, blast drum beats, and shrieking vocals we now recognize as black metal began with Bathory (who also pioneered the Viking metal genre by adding another source of non-Christian/pagan inspiration). By the early 90s, trve kvlt (grïm nekrø) black metal emerged predominantly in Norway and to a lesser extent Sweden. We’re talking about bands such as Immortal, Marduk, Darkthrone, Satyricon, Emperor, Carpathian Forest, Dark Funeral, and the even more extreme bands (I’ve stayed away from) such as Mayhem, Burzum, and Gorgoroth. On the fringes we find Ammon Amarth (melodic death, Viking/power metal), Dimmu Borgir (more commercial, melodic, symphonic black metal), and Cradle of Filth (also more commercial, symphonic, gothic metal). Then there’s the American black metal scene, including acts such as Krieg, Twilight, Nachtmystium, Leviathan, Xasthur, and so on and so forth.

Unfortunately, some members of this “cult” (also referred to as the “inner circle”) take their anti-Christian misanthropy overly serious... Some are known to display slaughtered goats or crucify naked women on stage, others have committed suicide or murder, and several were involved in a series of church burnings... It’s those kinds of disturbing excesses from which I wish to distance myself. I certainly don’t subscribe to their ideology, even if I think it’s healthy to be critical of organized religion, and to promote a strong non-conformist individualism. Another regrettable aspects of this scene is that several bands or their members have outspoken homophobic and neo-nazist sentiments. Perhaps you’d argue that such anti-Christian, sexist and racist ideas are the logical outcome of heavy metal, but I’d counter that singing about death and destruction, devils and damnation, dungeons and dragons, demons and wizards, is something entirely different than actually believing in them. One is a form of entertainment, the other a symptom of insanity! No matter what, I adore the sheer aggression of black metal.