Brack Meturr

So when Alex was here a while back he asked me about sending him the deets on all this black metal crap I've been listening to, so I figured, why not embarrass myself in front of all of the rest of you too.

Most of this is not black metal in the most traditional sense - iow, Varg Vikernes probably wants to kill all these people. I think of it more like dudes who really like Darkthrone but also really like Sonic Youth.

First, this record by the Castevet from New York is pretty awesome in my humble opinion. (There's another Castevet from Indiana that I think are giant vaginas playing pop-punk covers or something.)

These guys are kind of loosely related to this group of black metal bands from NY that I think a lot of butthurt metalheads pining for "the good old days" refer to as "hipster metal". Probably the best example band of that group is Krallice - one of the dudes from that band has been producing a ton of shit in a Kurt Ballou sorta way.

Speaking of Ballou, this record is nothing compositionally revolutionary or anything, but it's like one 35-minute-long assfuck of fire in your eardrum when you need that sort of thing. Italian band he produced last year. Apparently they have a new one coming out pretty soon.

And, speaking of Europe, here's a cut from the French band Deathspell Omega's album "Paracletus". yes their band name is only two words short of a black metal cliché. But this is probably the best of all 4 of these.

Rage on in the eternal darkness enveloping your soul with a castoff dusty hooded cape while you masturbate onto rotting bear carcasses,
J

Ironiception

James Ferraro. Let's talk about it.

I could go on and on about the post title meaning that I can't tell where the irony stops and starts with this thing, or how that linked article intimates that there shouldn't be any irony in it at all (which I have a hard time believing). I've had a hard time getting into the Rustie record for the same reason. With both of those artists, I have moments in the record where I'm like, "this is good... I'm liking it". Then some fucking Yamaha keyboard horn preset or some other such thing that sounds like a scratch track from a Huey Lewis record happens and I'm like, "nope. still annoying."

Maybe this means I just can't look past timbre and appreciate things that sound like fucking garbage but are compositionally inventive. Or I'm just old, and get off my lawn.

The whole reason I even listened past the first track of that Ferraro record is Mike P put it on his year-end list.

Songs that make you realize your reality

I know this is one of the few areas that Gray and I see eye to eye on. Ken doll.