Monday, September 26, 2005

Was listening to Meshuggah the other day. I was completely immersed in their music and suddenely this question came up in my head. Something that made me think for quite some time. Me and my loser buddy Sridhar discussed abt this topic over beer at Aura's , which by the way is a nice place. And the question, which i think wouldve come to every music fanatic , is " Where will all the Technical Brilliance of the musicians and music eventually end up" . How wud metal be in the Future? .
Lets analyse the evolution of metal or music chronologically. It started off with soft stuff , then violins and pianos and jazz and blues. And after that came the wave of gospel RnB , and then came Rock n Roll. Then came Rock , which evolved into metal, which again had its subgenres.I really cant talk abt how each genre evolved over time. I wud briefly, mind u briefly talk abt how Metal has evolved. Well metal came in the form of Black Sabbath, considered till date as the Grandfathers of Metal. They were the pioneers in the down tuned guitars, screechy vocals and evil lyrics.Metal was heavier than rock. Black Sabbath is a band that one can never forget, cuz its cuz of them we have metal today. Sabbath had got in faster drum fills, harder beats, and more usage of cymbals.
Next came in the NWOBHM. Iron Maiden , Judas Priest, Manowar and many other bands. They took metal to one level higher , by making guitars faster, and drums louder and rolls and fills even faster. The consequence was that , the world had heavier music. And day by day the no. of fans for this heavy, heart thumping music increased. Then came in another breed of musicians, who took the heaviness and the technical abilities of musicians one more notch up. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax - the big four as called by the metal historians , which brought in speed , and a lot of it infact along with double bass which made it the heaviest music. This made ppl go even madder. This music gave birth to terms like Headbanging and Moshing. Heaviness was defined by these bands. Running parallel to the Bay Area Thrash scene was the Florida Death metal scene and Norwegian(Scandinavian) Black Metal. Leading the way were bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Possessed in Death Metal and Mayhem, Emporer in Black Metal. All these bands were writing songs that were at the pinnacle of the music thoery. The speed was there , the artisian finis was there , and the heaviness was never ignored or compromised. Later came many other genres which are children of these Thrash and Death , but all had the heaviness and the quality intact.This was wat ppl thought was the end of metal. Then in 92 came out pantera, with their album Cowboys from Hell and blew the whole world away. They sounded diff, nothing similar to the death or thrash metal. They had their own sound and formed their own army of fans in the latter years. Dimebag Darrel was doing awesome stuff on the guitar which ppl never saw and expected. And in mid 90s started the Guttenberg Scene in Sweden. A new Breed of metal started there. Keepign the Heaviness and speed intact, they added melody and made a distinctive sound of their own. InFlames, Dark Tranquility are some notable bands.
After this came another band which brought heaviness a new meaning. MESHUGGAH. The band is better known for their odd time signatures. Leaving out the technical aspects these guys sound brilliantly heavy.This is where we are. We know how the music has grown over the ages.Technically and also decibel wise. Another 30 yrs down the lane, how wud it be ? Would we still be playing music like Meshuggah or Maiden or Sabbath. Or would it be heavier than wat we are listening to right now. Will it be more advanced technically. New music thoeries evolving? So many questions in head. But in the end , all i can say is , IT DOESNT MATTER. But I can tell u guys for sure is that , jus listen to music , keep listening to Metal and the spirit of Metal shall show us the way in the times to come. For now , forget all the bull shit, and headbang and mosh day in and day out.

METAL RULES \m/

mvikred

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Hmmm .... Once again , I am successful in posting here pretty late. But Hey i've got reasons u see . I was sooo busy that i cud hardly have time to write a post on this dumb ass blog. jus kiddin .. this aint dumb-ass. But part of the reason why I was busy is cuz we conducted a Workshop. Which we called as RAW. Rock Appreciation Workshop. Pretty jazzy name eh ? . So wat did we exactly do in this workshop. We kinda gave an insight to the uninitiated abt how wonderful this world of rock and metal is. KP and Dos , talked untill Sabbath and thn Sridhar and me spoke . The idea was to chronologically introduce the noobs to metal and heavy rock. With some good visual slides and some amazingly rare videos , we made a terrific impact on the 'interested' crowd. I from the stage cud hear the oohs and aahs of amusement wen we showed them few rare concert videos. With Sumit doing the compgiri and also the publicity and other management stuff for this Workshop we ended up putting on one HELLUVA show. Way to go guys. And the next one in line is the Jazz workshop.
Recently I've been introduced to this band called Chimaira . A metalcore band from USA. In their album Impossibility of Reasons there exists this amazing track called Cleansation. Its amazing , musically and every other aspect . This song is so amazing that every time i listen to it , i wanna listen to it more. Their other songs are kick ass too. Salvation , Lazarus , Comatose. All are great songs. Holy Moses. I guess most of them wudve never heard of that band. Thats a crazy , motherfucking , kick ass thrash band , from ....... I dont give a shit. Their album Qualm of Siam , is a sexy album . Necropolice the openign track has an awesome pace and feel. All the other songs that follow are awesome too.
Untill today i only heard napalm death on vids , and tht too bad quality. Never heard their albums. But today i happened to listen to their album called Enemy of the Music Business. Its ana amazing album. And i believe now that Napalm Death is an amazing band. The drummer is like amazingly fast. The fastest one i've heard. Sometimes i feel he is faster than Gene Hoglan. Well listne to them sometime. Thats all I guess. Jus completed Listening to In Flames - Jester Race. A Classic Metal Album. Will never get bored listening to it.

Thats it for now . Will write more next time .

Adios

mvikred

Thursday, September 08, 2005

My crazy ride with Slayer started with Show No Mercy. If you haven't yet heard it, then please listen to it, come back and read the rest of this post! The next Slayer album I heard was Reign in Blood, which by many is considered to be the loudest and the heaviest album to be ever recorded. And believe me, it IS, no second thoughts. Its a hellride that lasts just under 30 mins. Raining Blood has to be one of the best closing tracks ever written. And my most recent Slayer discovery is "Seasons in the abyss". Containing classics like War Ensemble, Dead Skin Mask, Hallowed Point and not to mention the legendary title track. Even though there are a lot of albums on the Slayer catalogue that I haven't yet heard, I'm in no hurry. I want to savor each track of the feast!

Monday, September 05, 2005



Over Kill - Relix IV



One more album to add to the collection. This album sounds really good. I am listening to it right now. Will give a more detailed review and info abt this album later.

Well , sridhar is a big sucker , so he aint writing much here or anywhere else. Well Life's really busy these days with lotsa assignments and labs, but there is always time for music. Cuz music is the one which calms my nerves down. I've heard a few new bands recently , just briefly. Theory in Practice , Sodom and Possessed. All are absolutely awesome. I in particular liked TOP. Sodom is a typical thrash band from Germany, quick , fast , tight and awesome. They are in the same league as Slayer . They have also been in the Thrash Metal Scene along with Slayer from the early 80's . Ive jus got hold of Darkness Descends by Dark Angel . I am waiting to listening to that album . Mainly cuz of Hoglan's drumming. Cant get hold of Control Denied's albums. Jus curious how Chuck wud be like doing Power Metal.

Well , i'll write more later.

And yeah , pretty soon there will be a new contributor . U'll know his name soon :)

Adios

Sunday, September 04, 2005

I'm just linking a posting on my blog here..Its about Independence Rock 2005 getting cancelled.
The saddest thing to have happened to Indian Rock. To add to the already sad state of affairs..

http://esridhar.blogspot.com/2005/09/wake-up.html#comments