“It is incredible how a couple spawn can transform a lackadaisical lifestyle into one of routine and worry. Everyday apprehension is fueled by medical bills, daycare, diapers, clothing, public school, and Thomas-the-fucking-Tank-Engine. Just ask Al Kikuras; he’ll tell ya.” Maybe we shouldn’t have given Dr. A.N. Grier such a child-unfriendly album.
“Wikipedia has an interesting list of artists that have taken their monikers from other bands’ song titles. I used to think this signaled a lack of creativity (Funeral for a Friend, Gamma Ray, Godsmack), but when you see that the likes of Overkill, Radiohead and The Sisters of Mercy also took this approach, you realize it’s not a reliable indicator. What to expect, then, from a sludge/doom band that names itself after an Ufomammut record? Snailking is certainly a good choice – you can probably guess the band’s genre even without knowing the name’s etymology – but do they manage to channel their nominal inspiration’s flair for creating heavy, psychedelic masterpieces that don’t require you to be stoned off your tits to enjoy?” Haha…he said “tits.”
“One of my dearest friends is also my musical antithesis. As much as I can’t understand his love of power metal and Devin Townsend’s Ziltoid record, he cannot fathom how I can unironically enjoy something like Sunn O))) or Revenge. To him, a lot of the wonkier stuff I listen to comes off as noisy hackery, or glorified refrigerator hum. I’ll admit, making pure dissonance your primary compositional tool is a slippery slope in extreme metal. But, when done right, it leads the likes of Portal, Deathspell Omega, Ulcerate and Gorguts (among many others, obviously) into creating some truly moving stuff in spite of their opaqueness. How, exactly, someone could not be immediately enthralled by the first five seconds of Obscura or Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice is a place I don’t want to go mentally. That being said, it’s times when I listen to an album like Neige Morte’s sophomore release Bicephaale that I find myself siding right with my naysaying buddy.” JF Williams dons his naysayer hat for his review of these French black metal warrior’s latest.
“Extreme metal is a brutish, ugly and wholly negative style of musical expression almost by default, but Dyodyo Asema – a collaboration piece between Gnaw Their Tongues and Alkerdeel – resides squarely in the filthiest fringes of the genre.” Brutish, ugly and wholly negative is our stock-in-trade, but even we think this stuff is way out there. JF Williams got dirty on this one so we could stay (relatively) clean.
