Angry Metal Guy

It’s hard to make this kind of broad list, I just want to say that from the get-go. How do you do this? Do you choose your favorites, or do you choose the genre defining records? Because saying, for example, that some of the following records are really genre defining wouldn’t be true. On the other hand, these are the records that when I go back and look at the 2000s I think of pretty immediately as some of the best stuff and the things that I keep coming back to.

But the 2000s have been an interesting time for metal in a lot of ways. One of the things that happened was that death metal and death metal-influenced music really hit the mainstream in a lot of ways. For the first time since the 1980s there were larger groups of young people who really started getting into metal and there is an entire generation of musicians who have been influenced by the heavy metal of the 80s and the underground of the 1990s (particularly black and death metal). While I believe that metal is on the ebb again (in a popular music sense) and will once again retreat underground to lick its wounds and come up with something fascinating, interesting and new, the 2000s have been a great time to be a fan of the genre.

This list is going to take a lot of hits. I can already hear some of them, and some of them will come out of left field. But, as usual, I refuse to apologize for my taste. The focus on “magazine metal” bands will probably irritate some, and others will argue that my choices from one genre or another aren’t representative of the best of that genre during the period (specifically death metal in this case). But when I look back on the last 9 years, these are the ones that stand out. And trust me, there’s some stuff that I wish I could get on there, but I didn’t include an honorable mentions section since I expanded the list to 15. But there are some amazing records (Moonsorrow‘s Hävitetty, Anata‘s Under a Stone with No Inscription and The Conductor’s Departure, Agalloch‘s The Mantle, Turisas‘ The Varangian Way, Necrophagist‘s Epitaph, Ásmegin‘s Hin Vordende Sod & Sø, Absu‘s Tara, Rhapsody‘s Power of the Dragonflame, Anathema‘s A Fine Day to Exit, Nile‘s Black Seeds of Vengeance, Otyg‘s Sagovindars Boning, Obscura‘s Cosmogenesis, Watain‘s Sworn to the Dark, Akercocke‘s Antichrist, Enslaved‘s Below the Lights are just a few of my major oversights) that came out during this period that haven’t ended up on this list and I’m aware of that.

Anyway, I hope you find this list enjoyable, shocking, provocative and maybe even dead on. Backwards this time…

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Luca Turilli – The Infinite Wonders of Creation
Rating: 2.0/5.0
Band Website: http://www.lturilli.com
Label: Magic Circle

One thing I don’t think Joey Demaio was counting on when he signed Rhapsody [of Fire] to Magic Circle Records was the whole lot of them pussing out and making records about dolphins, love, and other totally un-metal things. While he got the worst record Rhapsody ever wrote, he didn’t get that. However, with Luca Turilli he got the sissiest record ever recorded—including dolphins and love, among other things (the majestic call of whales!). I, of course, was excited about the new LT because the Demonheart EP was fantastic. It basically got me my Rhapsody [of Fire] fix between Rhapsody [of Fire] records! Unfortunately, Luca has started to take himself seriously, and when this happens with power metal musicians, only bad things can come of it. That, of course, is the result of his newest release The Infinite Wonders of Creation; bad things.

See, the problem here is not that he’s stopped writing super over-the-top epic pieces of music; every single song on this record sounds like it was taken from a badly written opera (just like the fans want). But this record has no testicles. It lacks those critical elements that actually make Luca a respectable… OK, amusing and/or interesting writer that the power metal niche fan-base has heretofore worshipped. Some examples that will make a grown metal-guy weep: there are only 2 or 3 guitar solos on the whole record; he uses female vocals more than male vocals (don’t think Lacuna Coil or The Ottoman Empire  [Luna Mortis now] where the vocals are good heavy metal vocals); and I don’t recall having heard a single double-kick drum on this entirely too-long and self-gratifying record. The The Infinite Wonders of Creation is far too slow and serious, but on top of it he wrote some of his worst lyrics ever about the “beloved majestic dolphins,” and even extends the torture to the absolutely fantastic movie Stargate. It’s lyrically ridiculous—but not in a good “dark Lord Akron” kind of way. That, compounded with it being slow and plodding makes it seriously boring—bordering on torturous—at times.

The band is actually very good. Sascha Paeth (who produced all of the old Rhapsody [of Fire] stuff) appears on this again playing bass. However, since the infamous situation with an un-named South American power metal band who claimed that Mr. Paeth wrote the majority of Rhapsody’s music, Mr. Paeth seems to have been relegated a much smaller role in production and arrangement. LT utilizes 2 vocalists on this album to good use. Both of them are fairly talented, although some of the woman’s high stuff would make any vocally-trained person cringe when she swoops into notes and sings straight from her nose. However, the two vocalists have a very good blend and when they’re singing together they do a very good job of creating the sound that LT was probably going for. The harmonies are great, and they both (for the most part) have good, solid tone. To fit in with my complaints that the record lacks any real metal “spice,” the drums are slow rock-beat kind of stuff and don’t really exude the kind of energy one has come to expect from LT’s stuff.

In his defense, Luca has backed off of the guitar god thing a bit, which I think has helped him move away from overly-long self-gratifying guitar solos that plagued some of his earlier stuff and has contributed to the writing style on both the last Rhapsody [of Fire] record and on The Infinite Wonders of Creation. The melodies are good and the composition is passable (and excellent for a metal band, really), but it doesn’t pass my attention-span test; I find it terribly boring. All-in-all, if you’re a die-hard Rhapsody [of Fire]/Luca Turilli fan, you’ll probably dig this record (you’ll also probably call me names for panning your favorite group for changing their sound). The song-writing is very much LT, but it’s just not energetic or silly enough for me to really enjoy it. Without the cheesy voice-overs, the Dungeons & Dragons™ lyrics, the neo-baroque guitar solos and the never-ceasing power metal beat… what’s the point?

Unexpect – In A Flesh Aquarium
Rating: 4.5/5
Band website: http://www.unexpect.com
Label: The End Records

In ages past super-grindy sporadic insanity was really the territory (should I say.. TERRORtory!! *cough*) of grind bands and then, more recently, it became part of the ‘metalcore’ scene as bands like Into the Moat and Between the Buried and Me began co-opting the sporadic nature of super tech bands into their sound. Apparently, however, Unexpect missed the memo that you need to either be grindcore or have a sentence for a name to sound like they do. And how do they sound? Aside from sounding totally awesome, they sound like “sporadicore meets how-Arcturus-wanted-to-sound-but-never-had-the-production-for meets Mr. Bungle/Primus.”

But really, In A Flesh Aquarium is probably one of the freshest things I’ve heard in the metal scene in a long time. These silly canucks have really managed to piece something together that is both creative and progressive while being terribly heavy and managing to avoid ubiquitous metal cliché. They blend a fine variety of creative instrumentation with a vocal approach that involves about 3 vocalists (from the sounds of it), including death growls, black metal screams and female vocals–but they don’t just rely on instrumentation and differentiated vocals define their sound; they write truly interesting and innovative music. They combine in jazz elements as well as sporadic grind stuff and they occasional nod towards good old-fashioned Norsky black metal and older goth stuff like Moonspell or Theatre of Tragedy. This dark, near goth, feel that they create is often offset by a grind aspect and then re-built with subtle violin melodies and female vocals or keyboards. Somehow all of this is seemlessly built into a sound–probably the most impressive part of the whole project–somehow they manage to make all of these sporadic influences part of a cohesive whole.

The album flows very well, though because of my admittedly poor (read: no) experience with French a lot of the lyrics are pretty much gibberish to me. There is a sense of insanity that permeates the whole record and doesn’t need lyrics (a conveniant blend of English and French) to get across. Each song is individual, but the whole album is definitely a cohesive point of excellent heavy metal writing. However, this is definitely an earphone album, if one ever existed. Because of how much differential instrumentation there is, the number of changes in voicing, etc., it sometimes is very hard to follow unless you’re listening to it very closely. The intricacies will be totally lost on you if you don’t really give it a serious, close listen. Those who have the patience to do so will be greatly rewarded by one of the best albums to have been released in the scene in a very, very long time.