Monthly Archives: December 2014

Encoffination – III – Hear Me, O’ Death (Sing Thou Wretched Choirs) (2014)

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Old Disgruntled Bastard

How slow can one play before interconnections between melody begin to show signs of disintegration? For what duration can a musical phrase be stretched of itself and still maintain general coherence and kinship with the overall structure of the song … Continue reading →

Posted in Death Metal, Doom Metal | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Is heavy metal scared of Islam?

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Old Disgruntled Bastard

A rhetorical question. Of course it is, because it prefers its head conjoined to the remainder of its torso. But can it continue to look itself in the mirror and call itself brave and noble and an outsider music that … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Post-Symphonies Of Sickness Carcass is redundant

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Old Disgruntled Bastard

On Reek Of Putrefaction, British band Carcass made a statement that has resonated through extreme music for almost two decades. Every goregrind band – and by direct correlation, underground metal-related music in general – owes a debt of gratitude to … Continue reading →

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Retrospective: Xenomorph – Empyreal Regimes (1995)

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Old Disgruntled Bastard

Xenomorph played churning, grinding death metal with a martial aspect. Made of many peaks and troughs, and not without a rich knowledge of mood, Empyreal Regimes is a supremely confident album in pacing and execution. It is also a progressive … Continue reading →

Posted in Death Metal | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Commodification of heavy metal: Demonic Re$urrection

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Old Disgruntled Bastard

The artist has the right to sell his art but can his art remain pure when his every waking thought is consumed with generating revenue out of it? More pertinently, does such a remuneration-obsessed philosophy fit within the iconoclastic worldview of heavy … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Reclaiming death metal: Drawn And Quartered/Centurian

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Old Disgruntled Bastard

It is an indictment of the metal climate today that albums of the caliber of Feeding Hell’s Furnace and Contra Rationem have gone mostly unnoticed amidst the never-ending flux of Incantation copycats, pretentious occultists that mistake C-grade horror movie atmosphere for … Continue reading →

Posted in Death Metal | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Is every metalhead an island unto himself?

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Old Disgruntled Bastard

“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities What does your fellow metalhead think about when you’re both … Continue reading →

Posted in Black Metal, Death Metal, Heavy Metal, Retrospective | Leave a comment

Heavy metal and conventional song-writing sensibilities

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Old Disgruntled Bastard

Only a fool would try what you have done Stood eye to eye while under the gun On and on you run for your life All of your fears are they only in your mind -Omen ‘Don’t Fear The Night’ … Continue reading →

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Why Manilla Road matter

Posted on December 5, 2014 by Old Disgruntled Bastard

We praise the blood that metal brings The essence of creative quality Is life so pure we cannot seek Our hopes, our dreams to make our fantasies reality – Manilla Road ‘Metal’ For the songs, the world-building, and the mythology … Continue reading →

Posted in Heavy Metal | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment