Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Otep Concert Review/Kathaarsys Album Review

I would have posted Monday, but I only spent sporadically intermittent moments online, as I was preparing for and then heading to a concert! The concert was for Otep, an artist I'm not sure many die-hard Black Metal fans enjoy. For this reason, this post will be in two parts: a review of the concert, and then a review of the newest Kathaarsys release.

One reason I love Metal: so few others in America do. So it's quite common to get a three hour show for 15 bucks a ticket (except for Tool... they're playing two shows at Redrocks, Colorado in a couple weeks, for $60-80. Every ticket was sold out in a half an hour! Guess I'm not going to that show.) So yesterday evening, we made our way to Grand Junction. The concert was at Mesa Theater, which is in a relatively "well-to-do" part of town: statues from local artists adorning the street, small ice cream and toy shops, lots of diners and fine restaurants. They frequently hold seasonal festivals in this district. Anyway, upon our arrival, we saw a few kids already in line. Stereotypical Metalheads: lots of black, some "Goth" clothes, bands shirts. Good crowd. But we hadn't eaten in hours, so we decided to stop in the cheapest diner we could find and grab a bite to eat. While waiting for our food, we stared at the passersby and speculated whether or not they were going to the concert. We decided anybody wearing black or with cool facial hair MUST be going. Which was, more or less, everyone, and basically true.

But I digress. Skip ahead a few minutes, getting indoors, walking around. My friends and I had found a place toward the back of the line. Somehow, by the time we got in, we were so far ahead of everyone else that we found a base up at the front, just before the moshing area. Two local bands were up before Otep: Sworn Us Under and Intertwined, both from Grand Junction.Sworn Us Under was up first, and they were actually pretty good. Their vocalist had an epic harsh vocals range, judging by what they played, and could also sing in tune. He held out some screams for upwards of 20, 30 seconds, which greatly impressed me, considering it was live! He also had better stage presence than the rest of the band, though they had great instrumentals, some emulating older Thrash, some more recent Death Metal. More or less a modern band emulating the "underground" styles. It sort of reminds me of Orphanage. They had a female bassist (I'm starting to get suspicious as to the number of female bassists I'm seeing nowadays, is the only reason that's really noteworthy. Otherwise I'm all for chicks in Metal!), and their lead guitarist was the only guy in the room with hair longer than mine, which I felt especially proud of, considering he's likely ten years my elder. I can see this band really maturing and becoming great in a few years.

The other supporting band was all right. Intertwined. They had some good riffs and drum fills, but I didn't like the vocalist too much. Just not my favorite style. One of their guitarists was absent for some unmentioned reason, so the vocalist's dad filled in. I was mixed with feelings of disgust: who invites their dad into their band? and feelings of respect: that old guy is pretty hardcore! But, then again, their music was quite normal, so he couldn't be terribly hardcore. Their other six-string player was fairly incredible. My not being a guitarist means I dunno much about the difficulty of what he played, but he had great stage presence, dancing around, playing extremely wide, jumping up and down, and without missing a beat.

Sworn Us Under's MySpace

Intertwined's MySpace




Finally, the time for Otep arrived. I don't remember them coming out on stage, only their sudden appearance amidst flashing lights and this small, skinny, blond woman maniacally skipping out onto the stage.


Next thing I knew, I was one of hundreds with my fist in the air, screaming along to "Battle Ready". At various points in the show, Otep would disappear and come back out with a new mask. Otep is an incredibly intellectual person, abused when she was a child, and she's faced personal demons more than most - it leads to intense songs on crazy albums, and a darkly themed show. They played "Blood Pigs" and Otep danced around the stage with a (fake - she's not Ohlin and his crow, after all) pig's head, which I assumed was an allusion to Lord of the Flies (I can definitely see Miss Shamaya being big on allegories about man's savage nature).

I was amused by the amount of people being kicked out - one of which I later found out was the vocalist for Intertwined; otherwise, I would find people getting kicked out at a Metal concert quite insignificant ;)

I was overjoyed when the band members all adorned Guy Fawkes masks - an obvious and appropriate reference to the movie "V for Vendetta," one of my all-time favorites. Screaming "RISE, REBEL, RESIIST! Rise, Rebel, Make a fist, RESIST!" with your fist in the air, and at band members wearing Guy Fawkes masks, was deliciously appropriate and extremely gratifying.

The night wore on, more people got kicked out, some beer was spill'd on my friend, and Otep put out song after song. It was truly epic!
One of the best moments of the concert (in my humble opinion) was when they played Ghostflowers. This has always been my favorite Otep song - indeed, it was the song that showed me this wondrous band - and this show's version was no exception to its twisted beauty.
About two hours after they started, Otep announced homage to Kurt Cobain, and they played "Breed" to finish the show. And what a finish! "We could plant a house, we could build a tree!" is still stuck in my head - which is all right, 'cause it's a bloody great song! They finished as boomingly as they started (is boomingly a word? If not, I'm exercising my right as a philologist and inventing it!). All in all, definitely a fucking spectacular show.
A shoutout and thank you to Dio Musquiz Jr. for the fantastic pictures, more of which can be found on his Facebook.

_______________________________________________
Whew, this is a long one! Thanks for sticking with it if you've come this far ;)

I'm terribly in love with Kathaarsys. Every album they've done is extremely solid, well-written, a veritable masterpiece! For this reason, I will be reviewing them all in coming days. But for now, I needs must talk about their newest album "Intuition".

Jose Luis Montáns - Guitar/Vocals
Marta Barcia - Bass Guitar
Adrián Hernández - Drums

"Intuition" is a strange digression from their previous works. Sure, it's still got elements of Black Metal - but it also has strong elements of Death Metal, Power Metal, and Jazz. The cover, above, is absolutely beautiful! This album, though, is something else. Genre-crossing at its best, and it was something of a surprise to me on first listen.

The opening track, "Preconsciencia, Ciclo Iniciatico Vital," starts with an extremely fast guitar riff around a Blues Scale, then moves to something just a bit slower, but still with occasional fast picks up the scale, and with Marta's bass line moving quickly underneath. When the vocals come in, the guitar starts playing smooth chords. It all feels like real easy Jazz, and so far with not one hint at being a Metal record. Then BAM! You're onto the second track, "Consciencia, Duda-Apatia-Duda-Depresion," and the album is instantly Black Metal - pounding beats on the snare, hard, dark riffs, and screeching vocals. Then, not long in, it shifts again, where Jose starts in with high, clean singing, and the riffage becomes very epic. As quickly as it become Power Metally, it goes, once again, back to Black Metal, though with Jose growling sickly out at you - of course, it all gets brought back down to light Jazz again before the third song.

The entire album is like this! It weaves out of powerful blast beats and Death Metal stylings into easy Jazz that makes me feel as one in a well-to-do nightclub, through epic guitars all over the Blues Scales, some that sound Double Harmonic Minor, and tremolo picking. The bass sometimes plays the standard roots of each chord, and sometimes it plays a counter-melody with the guitar. Either that or the chords change so fast and so often and so sporadically that they sound as a melody.

After a couple songs with a ton of Metal, the middle part of the album seem to give way to feelings of Progressive Jazz. It takes it back to Metal generally very briefly, but very smartly, after a gradual and complex build-up, before breaking it back down (again and again!) to Jazz.
The 7th track recovers the Jazz straight into an epic Metal ballad-y sounding song, with heavy distortion, fast blast beats from Hernández, and fast bass aplenty. The 8th song, "Fugaz Esperanza" feels very folky at first, but then moves in a powerful direction to transition into "Recapitulacion da Dubida, Incomodidade, Incomunicacion e Confusión," a truly amazing song and the second longest song for this release. It's phenomenally chaotic - to say the least! Stylistically, it contains everything previously emulated on the CD, and moves around every few seconds or so.

The next to last song is slow and pretty at first - the vocals are mostly spoken word and the atmosphere is solemn. One almost thinks they're going to let the album fade out beautifully with this song and the next, but then these suspenseful clean chords start playing. They continue, and one wonders where they're going with it. They've done so much already on the album that they could let this new suspense go nowhere - I wouldn't blame them! Or go literally everywhere. But as they go on, I get this feeling that they're moving to something climactic and grand - so they do not disappoint! It builds and builds to this huge riff that comes with no almost no conventional transition - I think it's one of the most headbangable moments of the CD. Then it stops. The last track is an eerie outro.

Every track on this beautiful record is *eargasm* but the ones that particularly stand out (get ready, these are long titles and I feel it inappropriate to shorten them) "Consciencia, Duda-Apatia-Duda-Depresion," "Paralise, Fases Esquizoides, Locura Psicotropica Autoinducida," "Estraño e Contradictorio Intervalo de Lucidez," "Caos, Colision coa Realidade," "Recapitulacion da Dubida, Incomodidade, Incomunicacion e Confusión," and "Tristeza, Fracaso, Doce Tolemia e Final".

I could not pick a single favorite right now - maybe in time. For now, however, the whole thing blends wonderfully in my mind as a single musical entity. Indeed, the only way, sometimes, to know where one track ends and another begins is to simply watch the time - but I don't suggest this, at least on the first listen. Its being so chaotic, though, makes me slightly uneasy occasionally. It's unpredictable, always - and no one likes it when things don't go according to plan. Still, whether you're looking at it as a Jazz or a Metal fan, it's fucking genius. A tip 'o the hat to this Black Metal (?) trio from Spain!

Monday, May 31, 2010

ABM Kitchen New Management/Summoning

Atmospheric Black Metal Kitchen is under new management! I wanna go straight to what we all care about (delicious, delicious metal) but you can see a brief blurb about me over to the side.

I'm going to admit something: I love J.R.R. Tolkien. Picture a once-green field ta'en over by ten-thousand fully-armed orcs, spanning ranks of ten by ten, all snarling, reeling for a conflict. On the opposite side (because everything has a side. It's a universal theme of good and evil, people!) a few thousand well-clad warriors await the start to a terrible battle. What they lack in numbers, they make up for in talent, and spirit - they fight for life, land, and honor.

Summoning is a band that fantastically depicts this scene in their music - especially the album Oath Bound. *drools absentmindedly*


Oh, sorry, I, uh, was lost in the music.
Because it's amazing!

Oath Bound is arguably more atmospheric than anything Summoning has released to date.
Listening to the first song, I am instantly on the field of battle, but less as an actual participant and more as a sort of ethereal spectator to thousands of screaming orcs, "Lord and master, lord and master!" in reference to Sauron, I believe.
Of course, in response to this war-call, the second track is an intensely visual, ten-minute piece about nature! But nature isn't exactly a deep topic for review, so I'll skip to the third song: "Mirdautas Vras". The song lyrics are actually written in "the black language of Mordor" which sends nerdy tingles up my spine left and right. That, and it has a slightly amusing brass line underneath all of Sauron's shrieking and screaming.

The album continues, every song hereafter averaging about 8 minutes in pure phantasmagoria; it makes me happy! No... that's a blatant understatement. If this CD was a woman, I would hold her hand and buy her flowers and take her to romantic dinners at the Italian Underground Restaurant. But just listening to the CD is a bit less creepy, so I think I'll stick with that.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Book Review: J. Daniel Gunther - Initiation in the Aeon of the Child

Throughout history, some individuals have profoundly influenced metal music and culture without playing a single note. Dante Alighieri. John Milton. Friedrich Nietzsche. Snorri Sturluson and Brynjolfr Sveinsson, who preserved the manuscripts that are now known as Norse mythology. Richard Wagner, whose dramatic music paved the way for today's epic metal. And, of course, the Beast 666 himself, Aleister Crowley.

Modern Satanism and a lot of today's occultism and Paganism wouldn't exist without Crowley's philosophy of Thelema - a self-empowering, martial blend of spirituality and ritual that draws upon Egyptian, Kabbalistic, Nietzschean and Tantric influences. Conceived in 1904, the Law of Thelema - do what thou wilt - was a potent antidote to Victorian attitudes. Metal serves much of the same purpose today.

More importantly, I'm not sure what Behemoth would sing about if it weren't for Uncle Al. Even if lighting a bunch of candles and chanting at midnight is not your horn of mead, you've got to thank Crowley for contributing to Behemoth's existence.

Spiritual initiation is, roughly speaking, the process of becoming more aware of yourself, becoming more efficient and in control of your life through meditation and ritual. Whether you believe this works through religious or psychological means, it's a big part of many people's lives. Initiation in the Aeon of the Child discusses this in the context of Thelema, which posits that now that we're in the individual age (in Crowley's historical theory: Aeon of the Child, the previous ones were the Aeons of the Mother (matriarchal) and the Father (patriarchal)), we have a different formula of initiation. No longer must the spiritual seeker symbolically 'die' and then be reborn, like Christ or in some respects Buddha, to reach 'enlightenment'. And the 'enlightenment' reached by seekers in this new era is (according to Gunther), psychologically speaking, different from the old conception, since it recognizes both the darkness and the light. Gunther explains it much better than I can: if you are interested, go read the book!

Gunther explains a lot of Crowley's difficult technical writings in language that's clear to the new seeker. He draws upon the psychological theories of Jung to relate these Kabbalistic or alchemical ideas to modern thinking, and he discusses the lifelong process of initiation in a topic by topic manner.

While I do disagree with Gunther on some points, for example, his suggestion that the resurrection formula - which is also the shamanic formula, mind you- is completely obsolete for every seeker, spiritual books qua spiritual books are intensely personal with respect to their authors. They cannot reveal absolute, scientifically proven truth, but only one person's perspective on something that's difficult to quantify. Gunther certainly understands Crowley's often obscure writing style, and while he does infuse it with his own strain of thought, this book will no doubt help many a newbie.

For what it is, Initiation is infinitely better than a lot of spiritual texts you will find floating on the 'New Age' shelf, such as "Teen Witch".

Darkestrah - Epos

Today I'm presenting two reviews: an album and a book. Book reviews are a new idea that I'm playing with for this site: please tell me what you think! I'll be covering books (that I like!) that I feel black metal fans would like, ranging from alternative spirituality to dark fiction, science fiction, epic historical material, and modern nonfiction.

Darkestrah - Epos (2007)



Darkestrah are most commonly known as 'the female-fronted band from Kyrgyzstan' (who now live in Germany), but aside from representing their cultural heritage on albums such as Sary Oy (2003) and The Great Silk Road (2008), they specialize in our favorite sort of music, atmospheric black metal. Darkestrah are very Drudkh-esque in their expansive yet indigenous sound, though they lean slightly more proggy/epic than raw like Drudkh.

On this album, Kriegtalith and co. certainly seem to be channeling the same current as Wolves in the Throne Room did in Two Hunters, complete with long stretches of nature sounds, tribalesque drumming and a strong feeling of genius loci. I feel that their usage of indigenous influences - from the traditional singing in the last 6 minutes to the temir komuz (jaw harp) - was very well placed. I felt that the eerie, didgeridoo-like sound of the komuz was especially effective when juxtaposed with acoustic guitar and rain sounds.

The WiTTR comparison is especially appropriate in light of Epos' text, which exhorts the destruction of civilization in order to return to a tribal state and shamanic faith. I especially liked this couplet discussing Kriegtalith's view of post-modernity:

"It forgot the past, it will not disclose the future,
it will bury the great secrets within itself."

Epos is certainly an album that keeps us from forgetting the past or neglecting to disclose the future.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Wolves in the Throne Room: Keeping Black Metal Trve (and American!)














Beginning on May 16th in Chicago, Wolves in the Throne Room have been on tour with Krallice and A Storm of Light, revitalizing the black metal scene and burning churches (OK, maybe not so much) in a country that has needed it the most: America. Wolves in the Throne Room have even had the opportunity to play one of the biggest festivals in the states, Maryland Death Fest, alongside Mayhem, Marduk, Atheist and Pestilence.

Outside of Webster Hall in New York, a long line of people (yes, a line!) were waiting anxiously to enter, as tickets and ID's were checked obnoxiously slow. After waiting almost half an hour to enter (even though doors had opened over 45 minutes prior), I finally reached the packed basement. A Storm of Light set the mood for the night with their sludgy doom metal presence. Their live show is















powerful and just as atmospheric as their LP. As for Krallice, well, any band with Colin Marston (Behold... the Arctopus, Byla) needs no introduction. Their style of progressve black metal is crowd friendly in the sense that the hooks will cause any onlooker to nod their head, even for just a bit (of course until they change the time signature). Lastly, Wolves in the Throne Room took the stage with their intense fog machines and candles spread over the stage, which made it even sweeter to watch them. Their intense set was almost non-stop, with little to no crowd discussion. Their style is definitely a matured and revivised form of black metal, comparing this to black metal in its purest sense. Going as far as deeming them a "post-black metal" act, as controversial as it may seem, could most certainly be argued. Even though most of the tour is complete, if one has the opportunity to see this tour, I would approve.

Photos Courtesy of Bill Shouldis via MetalInsider.Net

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Ramblings on metal culture and geekdom

(x-posted fom Live Journal)
An 'Op-Ed'

I was listening to some Dissection today. Storm of the Light's Bane. This got me thinking. Modern metal is contradictory and liminal. It is an 'outsider' music/culture that is mainstream - metalheads like to cultivate this badass, elite, oppressed attitude but everyone's listened to a Maiden or Sabbath song at least once in their lives. Metal is coarse, grotesque and transcendental. But this article isn't about the music itself, which you can go hear on lastfm or the back pages of this site (download, people!)

Modern metal culture (thenceforth referred to as 'metal') is a safe space for kids labeled 'geeks' and 'freaks' to assert themselves with a set of 'given' rules - the foremost of which is not giving a shit what people think. It is also an answer to the postmodern while questioning the modern- and the premodern. It's also become a space for immigrant men, particularly from Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, to assert a space for themselves.

While hip hop, punk and goth negotiate the dominant paradigm by being explicitly racialized, gendered, exoticized and classed, non-NSBM metal seeks to move away from this. Black metal doesn't mean God Forbid (who are thrash). Female-fronted bands are only noted as such if they're in a certain florid genre (Nightwish, Sirenia). It also embraces neurodiversity. ADHD? Try speed metal. Depressed? Doom metal's for you. Bipolar? How about melodic death? Metal defines itself as a brotherhood by being individualistic within an tacit collectivism, instead of pussyfooting around and singing Kumbayah.

The most empowering thing about metal is its rage against the 'geek' idea. Intelligence is strength. Knowledge is power. Dreams are strength and power. Depression can be strength. You become stronger than the jocks - you are stronger than the brute-force jocks. Because you can see change- you are change, and you can assert yourself. Revenge of the nerds, but as the nerds take their revenge they become more than nerds.

While there is a 'metal way of dress' it is not enforced the way 'goth' is. Again - as contradictory - it is 'more metal' to wear a suit and tie than wear a metal shirt and be unemployed. Within metal's defined liminality, charged with power, we make manifest our internal power. Playing Dungeons and Dragons isn't just accepted here, dragons and swords become symbols of strength and virility. Verbal intelligence is respected, like mathematical is in the engineering world. There is a different social order, almost tribal. It is deeply emotional, yet controlled. Unrestrained, Romantic-era emotion is 'emo', but the deep melancholy expressed in black-doom metal, the fury in death metal, the romance in gothic metal is the essence of what it is because it is brought together with strength, purpose and art. Experiencing this together in a concert is what creates the metal brotherhood.

There is in metal society a refreshing honesty and an attitude of continual, Nietzschean self-improvement - of change and vitality - rather than mindless acceptance. Metalheads regularly challenge each other as 'posers'. But does that matter, in the end? Does being fat, gay or straight matter? Metal is about perhaps the illusory core of humanity. Hip hop and punk rock are postmodern, but metal's attitude is pre-modern. In that way, hip hop espouses an agnostic humanism, while metal espouses a heathen humanism.

Metal culture also accepts what others call 'escapism'. It's accepted to read science fiction and comic books. Metal is comic book music, look at the song 'Iron Man'. At the same time, metal doesn't promote escapism for escapism's sake, or intellectualism for intellectualism's sake. It is deeply Teutonic in its practicality, roundly deriding pure escapists as 'losers'. Metal is not for the body, but for the mind, and the spirit lost to the body, yet reasserted in moshing and crowd-surfing. It is rock and roll stripped of its germinal mating-dance. Not sex in the back of a car, but harnessing that force Tantrically and using it to reassert the renewed self.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Black Metal Cookie Recipe

... And here's how I make black metal cookies....

Black Metal Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs or 2 tbsp. flax seed egg replacer
1 tbsp baking powder (not soda) - I recommend 'Calumet'
2 cups chocolate chips
Pinch salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder

You know the drill - mix liquids and sugar, mix solids and chocolate chips, make flattened balls and bake at 375 F / 190 C for ~ 10 minutes.