Sunday, October 23, 2005

Long time .... but it was only because i was swamped with too much of academic work. Though i was stuffed to the brim with work , i did have time to listen to decent amount of music. And i did find one new band, lucky me that i was able to get hands on it. Its an awesome band named, Atheist. I heard their album , 'Unquestionable Presence'. The music is actually very unconventional, with odd song structures. But technically very high quality of music was made for this album. They fall under technical death metal, the genre's forefathers being Death. I found few elements in Atheist's music matching to Death's music . No wonder I like both of them . Though i have heard only 2 bands in the Technical Death metal, i have taken a special liking towards this genre. Another band that Sridhar gave me was Pestilence fron New Zealand. I havent had the time to listen to them, but they fall under Technical Death Metal too. Will listen to them in the near future. Today I was listening to Individual Thought Patterns by Death. I should tell u , it is by all means one of Death's top masterpieces(all albums by Death are Masterpieces of Death Metal) . Gene Hoglan is relentless on the skins. He is simply amazing. His double bass patterns are totally mind blowing. I, being a drummer myself , was paying special attention to the drumming part and it was top notch drumming. It was awesome , super awesome. I first heard hoglan on Symbolic, and from the moment i heard Crystal Mountain , Gene Hoglan was right up there , at the very top, he became my drumming god at that very moment. I wanted to listen to more of Hoglan, go crazy head banging every time i heard one of his songs. Then I started listening to Strapping Young Lad's Alien. And then i heard another song that blew me off my feet the very first time. My all time fav song called 'Love ?' . This song is not only highly energetic drumming wise , but also has an energy a level higher cuz of Devin Townsend. His voice and Hoglan's insane double bass , made me go crazy every single time i heard that song. And even till this day , 5 months after i first heard "Love?", i go crazy wen i play that song. If you are a worshipper , then u gotta know the origins of ur god. So I went on to find out about Hoglan's very first band which was a thrash metal outfit called Dark Angel. Heard their album , Darkness Descends , which was a sensation back in the 80s wen it was released. Still considered as the best thrash metal album along the lines of Reign in Blood(Slayer) and Master Of Puppets(Metallica). Dark Angel was an oldschool thrash metal band , but listening to them you can listen to a young Hoglan drumming religiously at high tempos. Through Dark Angel he changed from a simple fast, thrash metal drummer to a terrific , insane drummer that he is now. He is 3(jus a figure i came up with:P , he might be faster than that) times faster on double bass now , compared to wat he was on Darkness Descends. Jus a piece of info, Hoglan is known for practicing double bass with weights on his legs, and thats the reason , he is the one of the fastest drummer around. For a guy who started out being a rodie with Dave Lombardo , he has reached hieghts that any amatuer drummer(like me) would always dream of. I only wish i wud someday be half of wat he is right now.

Albums to listen to , to admire Gene Hoglans Insane Drumming :

  • Symbolic by Death
  • ITP by Death
  • All albums by SYL(full time member of the band)
  • All albums by Dark Angel(full time member untill they disbanded)
  • The Devin Townsend Band(Side project of Dein Townsend)
I have to get back to my busy life tomorrow morning. I jus wish this night was as long as it can ever be :)

Anyways , cya soon and I hope that the other contributors post something atleast once for a change

mvikred

No comments: