Finally the Dam Breaks Open
Lots of good metal to discuss this week
Strong week this week from the metal side. A welcome change from the inverse which had been happening for what feels like a decade. There’s also a lot to anticipate for the coming week too.
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ALBUM OF THE WEEK
The Armed - ULTRAPOP
The Armed do some truly fascinating stuff on ULTRAPOP. They deliver on the promise of the album’s title by dropping some huge melodies and the production trickery is on par with that of a pop album. But instead of letting the production strip away the emotional heft of the record, it picks up its own weight and even carries some of what the band themselves couldn’t pick up. It’s honestly the pinnacle of pop metal that I’ve heard.
More Great Metal from The Past Week
Oh man we really hit the jackpot this week! Gonna try a slightly different format to make it easier to dissect the mini-descriptions of these records. Let’s see how it goes.
As always, albums in bold got an 8/10 or higher, which puts them in the “essential” category. Give them all a listen but those should catch your eye in particular.
Hail the Sun - New Age Filth- I’m playing a bit fast and loose with the definition of metal but it has fast guitars and screaming so it counts. Great post-hardcore. Go get on it.
Suffocate for Fuck Sake - Fyra - Big, loud, panic-stricken metal that you need to listen to immediately. Great band name, great album cover.
Spectral Wound - A Diabolic Thirst - As someone who isn’t always impressed with black metal, this was everything you could want from an across the plate black metal record. Harsh, atmospheric, and brutal. Good times abound.
Superlynx - Electric Temple - Gimme that good sweet doom metal. A bit rock heavy and a bit more jovial than most stoner doom. Just a lot of fun.
Witchrot - Hollow - More women in doom metal please. The way the lead singer’s voice just reinforces the heft of the music is so good.
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Aww Go Home and Scream About It
Content (Different types of harsh vocalizations/discuss pre-metal harsh vocalizations, esp those from blues singers and other black musicians who were key influences on rockers that used harsh vocals)
Harsh vocals. Shouts, screams, growls, coughs, and all other manners of nasty noises that the human mouth is capable of making, it’s all a part of what makes metal stand out in a sea of musical overload. As much as metal fans love these brutal vocals, they’re routinely cited as the main reason some people can’t get into metal. But whenever I hear someone say that, all I can think of is how ridiculous that sounds. It’s like saying “I don’t like singing.” Because as any metalhead can tell you, not all screams were created equal. The variance between the different types of harsh vocals can be as drastic as the difference between an opera star and a folk singer. All that to say, it’s time for a crash course on the history of harsh vocals.
“Go back, back to the beginning.” Wendigomon - Digimon: The Movie
If you ask someone where screaming came from, chances are they’ll say The Who or The Beatles. Of course, that’s not the case, and would be akin to saying that Elvis invented rock ‘n’ roll. There’s a pretty significant chance that screaming in music has been taking place since before recorded history, but for the purposes of our discussion, we’ll start in the 1900s.
The first example of someone screaming on a recorded piece of music that I could identify was “I Put a Spell on You” by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. The story behind the screaming says that as the blues became more popular, venues got fuller and louder. This led blues musicians in Kansas City to shout over the audience, and this shouting eventually made its way to recorded music. The screaming on “I Put a Spell on You” is particularly notable for its gritty, raspy sound. Prior to this, pretty much all of the screaming in music was more akin to a troubled bellowing, as seen in this example of a “scream” from Alban Berg’s 1922 opera, Wozzeck. When compared to the scream from “I Put a Spell on You” it’s clear which vocalization would become pivotal to the musical movements that were on the horizon.
But even before rock ‘n’ roll succeeded the blues, other musicians implemented this sort of harsh vocalization into their music. Perhaps the best known example, and the best utilization, of this scream comes from James Brown on the opening of his 1965 hit “I Got You (I Feel Good).” Vocals like this quickly inspired imitators, and it wasn’t long before it made its way into rock music.
We could go through each time someone screamed in rock, even the Beatles notably screamed on “Helter Skelter” but no one screamed quite the same way as Roger Daltrey of The Who, so we’ll be focusing on him. Whether or not you’ve listened to The Who, you’ve heard Daltrey’s signature scream, most likely from a CSI show like this, or more notably, this meme.
This type of scream was positively revolutionary for rock ‘n’ roll. It would serve as one of the two sparks that kicked off hard rock, the other being Led Zeppelin’s instrumentation. Calculated, infrequent harsh vocals remain a cornerstone of the hard rock sound even today, and are heavily used by bands like Chevelle. Given that The Who released their first record in 1965, it’s doubtless that this combination of raspy, drawn out screams and heavy instruments was noticed and replicated by early metal bands.
Despite the pervasive presence of harsh vocals in metal today, it wasn’t until the ‘80s that it re-emerged. Sure, there were shouts, wails, and Daltrey-esque screams here and there, but it was thrash metal that showed you could make a whole song with only harsh vocals (side note: Thrash got this idea from hardcore punk, which had used shouted harsh vocals for years, but I’m more interested in how metal bands used this tool.)
In my view, the most notable step forward in harsh vocals from the thrash era comes at the hands of Slayer. It’s still the same shouted harsh vocal that you’d hear in hardcore punk, but there’s certainly some more grit added onto it. “Raining Blood” is a pretty solid example of this vocal style.
As one might expect, the modern understanding of a death metal scream comes from death metal. Just compare what you heard from Slayer on “Raining Blood,” a song that was pivotal in the development of death metal, to the vocals on “Infernal Death” by Death. The difference between the intensity of these two vocal styles is night and day.
So that’s pretty much how we got to screaming. The evolution of this vocal style continues forward to the present day, and is constantly evolving with new applications and techniques. In the future I want to dig into some of the different types of harsh vocals and how bands in different genres make use of this tool. For the time being, this is getting really long, so we’ll leave the further evolution to a future newsletter.
Non-Metal AOTW
Cory Hanson - Pale Horse Rider
I described this album to someone as “The War on Drugs” but a little more country. That is to say that this album is incredible. It’s atmospheric without being dull, compelling without being invasive or distracting. Pale Horse Rider is one of those records that you can’t talk about at length without sounding crazy. It’s better just to give it a listen.
Runners-up
Not too many things going on here but if you just need something pleasant to vibe out to then Andy Stott’s new record is well worth your time. If folk punk is still something you like even though it’s not the early 2010’s anymore, then Amigo the Devil is working near the pinnacle of the style.
A Bountiful Harvest Approaches
This week features some of my most highly anticipated records of the year. The release calendar is actually so stuffed that I had to leave off some things that looked interesting, usually I’m scrambling to get more than five albums on this list.
I’ll also be digging into why each of these releases seems exciting, since you’d have no reason to check these bands out if you knew nothing about them. Let’s kick it off with the metal releases.
The metal calendar is absolutely stacked this week, Paysage d’Hiver, the artist behind one of last year’s best black metal records has a new project dropping. He’s never disappointed before and I don’t get the sense that he’ll start now. Neptunian Maximalism is sure to drop something interesting considering last year’s Éons was one of the most challenging and exciting pieces of music released in 2021. BIG|BRAVE also returns with their follow up to 2019’s Earth-rending A Gaze Among Them. Given how excellent and apocalyptic that record was, I have every expectation that Vital will be a high watermark for metal this year. Spectral Lore returns to drop their first solo album since their mind-altering 2020 collab with Mare Cognitum, Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine. Expect huge riffs, cosmic exploration and long songs. I don’t know a lot about Body Void but this tweet and their self-reply is enough to sell me on the band, and the early praise for Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth certainly didn’t hurt. Finally, we have Victory Over the Sun, who sold me on Nowherer with a super sick album cover and endorsements from Liturgy. Turns out that if you want me to listen to your new album, getting an endorsement from the artist behind 2019’s best metal album and 2020’s second best metal album is a good way to do that.
Outside of the metal world things are still pretty exciting. Noise-pop chaos gremlins Kero Kero Bonito are dropping a new EP that could prove pretty interesting. Dinosaur Jr. looks to see if they can retain possession of the “best post-reunion effort” trophy with Sweep It into Space. Porter Robinson is dropping his first full length since 2014’s remarkable Worlds, I’m eager to see if his new project matches the diversity and impact of that record. Finally, we’re getting a second posthumous record from Alan Vega and Liz Lamere (his widow and the primary force behind the posthumous releases, Lamere was also involved in the original recording of these songs as Vega’s songwriting partner and collaborator). I wouldn’t say that Vega or his project Suicide were ever artists that I loved, but I’m fascinated with the ways that his projects push music to its limit and I expect this release will do the same.
Going forward we’ll also be adding links to the Bandcamp (or Spotify for bands that are not on BC) in the bulleted list of releases in the hopes that it will make it easier for you all to listen to these records.
Metal Albums
Non-Metal Albums
If there’s an album that you’re excited to hear that didn’t make the list, sound off in the comments. I had previously had comments turned off (oops) so now you can comment to your heart’s content.
Shrinekeeping
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