Take Me Down to the Tech Death City
Where the riffs are mean and the guys ain't pretty
Ah Sunday. It’s good to be back and removing any good gospels you may have received this morning then replacing it with the gospel of heavy metal. On the real though, I’m stoked to be back on our regular schedule and sharing music with y’all. Enough
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Abiotic - Ikigai
If my long standing endorsement of last year’s Xenobiotic album were not already indicator enough, a good melodic tech-death metal will always win an endorsement from me. Well Abiotic went straight for my heart with Ikigai. As rhythmically interesting and groove focused as the best albums by groups like Lamb of God and Xenobiotic, and as thematically rich as my childhood favorites, Trivium, Abiotic has landed on something special here. If brutally paced metal with almost no respite sounds like your idea of a good time then you’re sure to love Ikigai.
Great Metal from this Week
[album cover of one album from this list]
Tons of great metal for all of us this week. While only our AOTW and In Spite Of broke the 8/10 barrier, everything here is very worth checking out, and most of it just barely missed breaking into our hallowed hall of album ratings that I almost entirely stole from other music journalism sites.
Catch tracks from all these albums and more on our running Fresh Kills playlist.
Subgenre Guide
New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM)
Despite our most recent genre exploration being about original heavy metal, we must immediately turn to the new wave of British Heavy Metal, which is often referred to as simply NWOBHM. Functionally, this subgenre is separated from the original wave of heavy metal by its association with punk. It mostly came into vogue as a response to, and occasionally a blend with, punk music. The seminal band of this genre is Iron Maiden, and it’s not particularly close in terms of competitors, even though Maiden didn’t invent the genre themselves.
Stylistically the trademarks of the genre are all the things you’d hear in an Iron Maiden album. Put into more musical terms, this means galloping rhythms, soaring vocals and flashy, exciting riffs. Put into more cultural terms, it means big hair and a punky, outsider vibe rather than the leather clad biker club angle that Judas Priest established.
From an influence standpoint, this is where everything starts to break apart. Bands after OG Heavy Metal and NWOBHM (though sometimes during NWOBHM) are all reacting to or building upon the things that came before them. Thrash (our next genre) is a response to the flashier, poppier hair and heavy metal bands of the mid-late seventies. Power metal is a response to thrash and an embrace of heavy metal, etc, etc.
To throw in my own two cents, I’m not the biggest fan of NWOBHM or even Original Heavy Metal. I grew up on Nu-Metal (not proud of it, but just have to be honest) and eventually “graduated” into extreme metal. While there is certainly narrative and a general vibe that both of those genres have, neither are especially theatrical in terms of the instrumental or vocal presentations. As a consequence of both that and my parents general disinterest in this style of music (grunge was about as heavy as my parents liked to get) I never really associated some dude shrieking at the top of his lungs and past the top of his register with something fun or cool. In my opinion, the best thing to come out of NWOBHM was the movie Spinal Tap.
But of course, the classics are the classics for a reason, and just because I’ve never been a big Iron Maiden fan doesn’t mean that they aren’t one of the most influential bands in metal, perhaps one of the most influential bands of all time. As you probably expected our highlighted album is going to be from Iron Maiden. Their 1982 record, The Number of the Beast more or less codified what NWOBHM would be understood as for the rest of time, and while others have claimed that Powerslave or Seventh Son of a Seventh Son are better, neither is quite so essential as this seminal work.
What Defines Cutting Edge Metal?
I was speaking with a friend when they asked me an interesting question. “What is it that makes music cutting edge?” they asked me. I had to pause and gather my thoughts for a moment, because I really didn’t know. There were some basic canned answers that came to mind. Answers like “music is a conversation that is forever ongoing” or “something that uses sound in a new way” sprang to mind, but neither grabbed onto what I felt makes music, in this case metal music, feel cutting edge, feel essential. But after a short silence, it came to me. Cutting edge metal is music that has something to say, and says it in the most fitting language.
It should come as no surprise that the best music is music that says something. Sometimes, that something is a sonic component. A band might just want to push the limits of what their genre is or what music can be. Other times it’s lyrical. Great examples of this include Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down, groups who saw injustice in the world and chose to expose it to their audience.
But what many overlook is that making music in a certain genre or style is a choice. The heuristic for the choice could be something as simple as “I like metal, so I play metal” but the best artists choose a mode of music that fits their message, not the other way around. Think of the messages of the aforementioned bands. Would their anguish, rage and frustration be nearly as palpable if they played in a different style like folk or ska? Maybe. But even if it was, the emotions you’d associate with those issues would be entirely shifted.
Often, extreme genres fall short when attempting to say something. So much of metal music exists for the sole purpose of propagating a sonic tradition. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it’s a whole lot less interesting than a group like Zeal & Ardor, who blend racially charged lyrics with metal and black spirituals. That genre combination tells a story. To a critic or media consumption freak like myself, it provides ample context and content upon which to chew. But it provides the more casual listener with a vast sonic template that few other groups have explored, leaving it ripe for discovery and further population.
Listening to music like this, you can see the intent behind the selection of the sound. Zeal & Ardor didn’t pick the genre because it was cool. They picked it because the themes and content demanded something aggressive. So many bands start at metal and then fill the gaps with gooey imagery of bloated corpses and severed heads, others, primarily those in the alternative metal and nu-metal spaces, gather that anger or extreme emotion is the intent, but then fill the content with more aimless rage.
Metal, much like… well, metal, is a tool to be wielded and molded and shaped. Everything must coalesce around the center message. If you want to sing a happy song, maybe metal isn’t the genre for you, and if it is you better get buck wild with the construction of your songs.But if there’s something going on in the world that turns your stomach, something that causes your blood to boil, something that needs to be rectified, then you’d be hard pressed to find a style more suited to convey your displeasure. But for the love of god, start with the message then pick the style please. I can’t take too many more albums with nothing to say.
Non-Metal AOTW
Virginia Wing - private LIFE
Admittedly this past week didn’t throw much at us outside of the world of metal. Slowthai was decent enough, but of all the things released, private LIFE most readily caught my ear. Blending light techno with a sort of witchy indie art-pop, like if Lorde and Patti Smith went through a techno phase together. Worth a look if you’ve felt like the modern versions of techno and pop have been rather dull.
Runners-up
Things to Look Forward to
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Lots of stuff to be excited for this week. I got my hands on the Mogwai album a bit early and can say that it's definitely their best since Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will and maybe even since Happy Songs for Happy People. But don’t fixate on them too hard or you might miss some great stuff from Harakiri For The Sky and The Amenta.
Harakiri For The Sky - Maere
Lake of Tears - Ominous
The Amenta - Revelator
Non-Metal Albums
Mogwai - As The Love Continues
Teen Daze - Breathing Tides
A Winged Victory for the Sullen - Invisible Cities
Psymon Spine - Charismatic Megafauna
Shrinekeeping
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That’s it for this week, I’ll see y’all next week with more metal and worse hearing.