Fuck Your Scene

Now I appreciate that I am not known for tolerance, particularly of things I don't like. The older I get (and just having celebrated a birthday I am another year more cantankerous and single minded I guess) the less time I have for things that fall outside of my sphere of interest.
Maybe this is because the world gets smaller with more and more commitments from real life - work, home, partners, needy pets, what have you and as such I find myself digging in my heels and resisting things more and more.
As the good lady frequently says, I'm stubborn and if I don't want to do something, I wouldn't.
So anyway tonight I find myself back on the radio with Mr Glew.
The Midweek Alternative is covering for another show and as such we have a mammoth four hours to cover so this week I get 8 tracks as well as battling words with Grifter who are guesting.
After my initial foray into co-hosting/hanging around the studio and it's follow up were incredibly metal for an alternative show I wanted to go back on and just prove to the airwaves of Exeter that I am more than 'The Metal Guy'.
Why?
Well, despite it being my primary source of earache for 23 years and counting I have wider tastes - I was at school when the rave scene was well under way in the early nineties and whilst I can't say that I ever stood in a warehouse with a glowstick some of this rubbed off and personally I think that The Prodigy's early works like Experience and Music For The Jilted Generation stand head and shoulders above their transformation into Dance/Rock hybrid; I listen to Tom Waits and Johnny Cash; I have an album of Industrial Gabba, I love the early works of The Pet Shop Boys, I think one of the best bands I have seen at a festival has been Chemical Brothers... there are skeletons in my metal closet for sure.



The reason I feel for this is because the world was a more open minded place when I was discovering music and I feel that the decline of this largely lies with the popular media/press.
Over the past decade and a bit everything has been pigeonholed into genres - I mean let's stick with what the blog is about: Metal/Rock.
Today we have:
Metal
Thrash
Death
Black
Metalcore
Hardcore
Post Hardcore
Progressive (Prog)
Industrial
Nu Metal
Mathcore
Djent
Stoner
Doom
Sludge
Punk
Post Punk
New Wave
Indie
Shoegaze
Drone
Ambient
Goth
Nu Goth
Rap Metal
Grunge
Post Grunge
Ska

Fuck it there are probably a lot more, but after a while it ceases to be of interest and in reality, despite how much bile I spit into the ether there is no such thing as good or bad music, it comes down to personal taste. Yes, I think some of my friends have dreadful tastes in music, but as long as they can tell me why they like it you have to respect that.

However music journalists seem so desperate to succinctly sum everything up in a soundbite you can Tweet or whatever that it has become lazy and full of bullshit classifications that encapsulate a 'genre'. This is crap.
Machine Head, deftones, Fear Factory, Korn and Slipknot are all bands that sound very, very different yet foudn themselves lumped as 'Nu Metal' in the late nineties, despite two of those bands existing before the genre was invented.
Christ I remember Kerrap! Magazine trying to call deftones 'Power Metal' back in 96/97 - this didn't catch on and now that tag is given to widdly eurotrash bands whose singers can only be heard by dogs.

What does is it artificially creates a scene where people associate and identify with a look and an attitude first and the music second. My friends growing up were a mix of Goths, Punks, Chavs, Public School kids, Townies what have you. We had our connecting points, we had our drop off point.
We all went to Reading Festival (back when it was good) and you had a great and eclectic mix of music. One year we saw deftones, Monster Magnet, The Prodigy, The Beastie Boys, The Dwarves etc some people went and saw The Specials, it was great.
Nowadays we have specialist tours like Defending The Faith, Share The Welt and so on and it's full of individual clones, everyone rebelling by wearing Hot Topic clothing, sporting bad tattoos and a face full of shit.
Of course I sound old and 'it's my thing' but I couldn't care less if the music was any good - Bring Me The Horizon, Bleeding Through, Avenged Sevenfold for example, all these bands have huge followings but I fail to find any redeeming features - identikit bands, identikit looks and promoters fill a tour of four bands with nothing different. I was bemoaning last time I went to a gig that I rarely bother with support bands these days as they have such shit support. I am actively missing Machine Head this December because two of the above bands are in support along with the execrable Devildriver.
And all of these kids don't like stuff that's not Metalz...
It's sad and it permeates through society - bands getting booed off or being pelted with stuff because they 'don't belong a bill'. Sure some of them deserve it.
Festivals have also started mimicking the same stance.
The moaning about bands not belonging on Download - even about Linkin Park for fucks sake, yes they aren't good but they fit the classification - I will tell you hands down now that one of the best bands I have seen at the Hallowed Ground of Donington has been Pendulum.


A prime example of this negativity produced by Genrification is well timed as Grifter are coming in tonight. For years they laboured under the Stoner rock tag and as such they were constantly compared to the masters of the genres Kyuss. Well newsflash Grifter sound nothing like Kyuss, don't really listen or like them particularly and their connection lies with Black Sabbath so for years reviewers got it wrong and passed on the wrong impression to potential fans.

My point tonight is that the world was a much more fun place when it was less narrowly defined and I shall be using the pioneering touring festival founded by Jane's Addiction frontman Perry 'Drug Dustbin' Farrell back in the early nineties where the idea was peace and open mindedness an as such show cased some of the finest and most vibrant alternative acts I have heard in my life time.
And as such I shall be playing:

1. Jane's Addiction 'Just Because'
2. L7 'Pretend We're Dead'
3. Beastie Boys 'Intergalatic'
4. Stone Temple Pilots 'Interstate Love Song'
5. Moby 'Comon Baby'
6. Living Colour 'Cult Of Personality'
7. Nine Inch Nails 'Head Like A Hole'
8. Cypress Hill '(Rock) Superstar '

All very different bands and still falling under the Alt. Rock tag, I could have pushed it further to make my point but the likelihood I would either be preaching to the converted or the attention span of those I'm targeting would have gone.
In a world of instant gratification it is easy to flick to the section that says Metal (Or Wiggaslam, Cuntrock, Whatever) but sometimes in order to appreciate what you have you have to take a look around at other things too.

So what am I saying?
If you love The Metal let it go?
Maybe...
Or maybe my own narrow mindedness is saying my way is better, or that it's just that the metal scene has failed to throw up anything new that appeals in the last few years, but I don't want to go to a gig and see four clone bands and have to care about the fact that I'm not wearing the right shirt or name checking some douchebag band who are the in thing.
I'm sorry but I'm too old and too stuck in my ways to give a shit about what is troo or kvelt, whether it's Britney Spears or Bathory, if I like it, I like it and there's not a thing you can do to convince me otherwise.

Gods Among Insects

Well, it's probably taken me this long to get through/get over my humble pie experience so with the dust settled and everyone a bit more calm about the whole thing I thought I would offer my thoughts on the new Machine Head album in a blow by blow review.

So most people have viewed the juggernaut that was 2007 album The Blackening as a benchmark in modern metal or 'the sound of modern metal' as claimed by one pock marked, future Lou Reed collaborator at the time and no matter how much hyperbole surrounds that release, it remains one of , if not, the best album Machine Head have made, not least for the incredible 'Halo'.

In the four years since it's release the band have toured it into the ground through necessity; there came a time when they should have gone home but the opportunities could not have been turned down for a band on the comeback trail as they were. To be honest by the end I heard less than stellar reports of their usually impeccable live show and was only mildly disappointed that traffic in London made us miss their support slot to Metallica at the O2 because let's face it I've seen them so fucking many times (and three previous shows on that tour alone) that without fresh material it felt like groundhog day.

Earlier in the year I ran my mouth about the new single, the early release, rough mix... and how it was a bit 'Meh', for all the bold statements of experimentation, the talk of surprises and the unveiling of this track was a little flat for me.

Why in truth because it was a familiar touchstone - too straight forward and nothing particularly ground breaking, still like the proverbial child at Christmas I was all over the album like a cheap suit when it leaked onto the web (fear not my expensive Metal Hammer fan pack was already ordered, just waiting to turn up late not early and minus the special things I should have had for ordering before the deadline), and this is what I found...

Machine Head 'Unto The Locust'

I Am Hell (Sonata in C)

The album starts with a chorus of Flynn's singing a chanting acapella in Latin which is almost sanguine if not a little unsettling. As this draws to a close it gives birth to a monstrous down tuned chug as Flynn crashes back in, gone are the soothing vocals, now he is growling 'I am death...' in your ear.

As an intro it is block levellingly heavy, but by no means the end of Machine Head cranking the tension as about three and a half minutes in it changes to a furious thrash assault with a soaring chorus.

The musicianship has kicked on vastly from it's predecessor; no slouch on the drums in previous outings, here Dave McClain puts in the second best performance of his life...

It's easy to wax lyrical about music - I do it all the time for The Sleeping Shaman - but I did sit and listen to this track unfold in utter disbelief at how fucking nutty, how good and how downright life affirming it felt to be proved a paranoid Doubting Thomas as the tender classical strings usher this song to it's false ending.

Maybe not a Sonata in the strictest sense, clocking in at nearly nine minutes it is easy to see how Machine Head racked up 50 minutes with only seven songs...

Be Still & Know

Picking up from the fading notes of the opener the second track kicks off with some Maiden/Priest esque lead work that folds into one of those rolling, mid paced groove riffs that the band have done so well in the past, but instead of going head first for the bludgeon Machine Head open this up into a huge chorus that, having headlined Wacken (and will, if rumours prove true, do Download) and have booked an arena tour of the UK, has one eye on getting large crowds of drunken metalheads to raise their horns and bellow along like pirates belting out a rum soaked shanty whilst Flynn and Demmel engage in some of their finest fret pyrotechnics yet and Adam Duce keeps it contained with his predictably tight basslines.

One thing that is noticeable over the first two tracks is how much improved Flynn's clean vocals are as well - Never far from his trademark growl he also has increased his singing range and delivery.

Locust

And so to THAT song...

Having endured a complete sonic kicking and had style and expectations exceeded over the course of the first two tracks Locust makes sense now. Better production and sat where it is, the sinister guitar tone of the intro is perfect, the song itself fine. It fits, it doesn't sound out of place and suddenly it clicks.

It is a little Machine Head by numbers and will never be a favour of mine, but it is catchy as hell and as it says 'These hooks sink in...'.

This Is The End

Apparently the first song written for the album and one of the craziest pieces of drumming on a Machine Head record. The classical intro does little to prepare you for Flynn's 'Fuck You' song as it is heads down and charge from start to finish.

I have to say I love this song.

It shouldn't really work... the drumming is a lightning blur of shuffling beats - sychopated and blast - the chorus has a melodic, almost falsetto part that should make you wonder what drugs they were on, but the whole is simply fantastic, especially the biting sting of 'This is the end of our respect denied, Stand with us or stand aside'

Darkness Within

And so to the major talking point of the album. In the press build up the band were hesitant to spoil the surprise or try and explain this song and it was truly with deep curiosity that I listened to it.

It starts off starkly with an acoustic guitar and Flynn mournfully croaking like a man old beyond his years as he sings some of the finest lyrics he has ever written:

I see the damage that I've done,
And search for redemption.
But I am just a broken man,
Whose soul cries out to understand,
How the madness shatters me,
Upon the stage on bended knee,
I scream aloud at skies above,
That answer mute bereft in love,
I struggle not to fall from grace,
I sing the hyms of my disgrace.

The personal depth that is thrust up in the six plus minutes the track runs for is incredible; thinking back to those mid nineties interviews where it was all hard man talk about drugs, gang violence, now he honestly quite unashamedly sings this pean to music setting him free and it sends shivers up and down my spine.

Mysteries forgotten chords,
I strum in vain to please the lord,
But he has never answered me,
And faith has waned eternaly.
In empty men who pass along,
The woes of all religions wrong,
Now the shadowed veil it falls,
Heed the Clarion call.
So pray to music,
Build a shrine,
Worship in these desperate times
Fill your heart with every note,
Cherish it and cast afloat.
Cause God is in these clef and tone,
Salvation is found alone,
Haunted by it's melody,
Music, it will set you free.

Musically it is almost a power ballad, it is another song that clearly has one eye on audience participation in big venues, but fuck it. You do not hear that kind of honesty often enough in music, sure we get the 'poor woe is me' white middle class shit still - Christ listen to Limp Bizkit or Staind's new albums, but this is from the heart. And it's excellent.

Pearls Before Swine

The penultimate track is the closest thing to a straight forward Machine Head track of old. Compared with Locust et al. it is short and furious in the old school The More Things Change Way. It is another above par track in an album full of potentially great ones, but strangely because of it's straight forward nature falls short in the description... if you liked Spine, Frontlines etc then this is a track for you.

This Is Who We Are

And so to the final epic...

Starting disconcertingly weird with a choir of the bands kids singing the chorus to be before McClain launches the last march-like tempo... I have said this all throughout about headlining, but I can see this being the set closer before the encore type track.

It is mammoth; Flynn commanding his orchestra proclaiming 'This is who we are, this is what I am, we have no where else to go, divided we shall stand!'. This track is full of bombast, a statement of 'Fuck you, we are home' that brings a tear to even the most cynical (Hello!) and we can even forgive the slightly cheesy 'Into Glory We Shall Ride' part.

Why? Simply because it is the most joyful fucking celebration of acceptance, that's why.
This band has taken an absolute kicking in their time and if the North American reviews are to be taken on face value are still getting kicked by their home country, despite releasing Burn My Eyes, The More Things Change, Through The Ashes Of Empires and The Blackening, but are here they are strong and on top of their game defiantly telling you if you don't like it, then shove it up your ass, and I for one love them for that.

I'm not going to make the judgement over whether it is better than The Blackening here, I loved that album, the band loved that album and it is certainly special. They were keen not to make Part 2 and that they have achieved. To my ears they have made a fucking great piece of music that should help establish them at the top of the current metal bands pushing for the future of metal. After 20 years (yesterday) of paying their dues Machine Head are special, are brilliant at what they do and this album deserves to sell by the truckload.

It is different; it is not as furious; however it is sublime.

Next time I will be exhaling the vile though I am afraid as I take on Lou and The Reeders 'interesting project' Lulu.

Hey Joel/Caught Jasta?

I have been thinking of writing a positive article for a while now (shock horror) and as I am sitting on 'Unto The Locust' until I have lived with it for just a little more, it seemed the apt time to sing the praises of something else, but then I read the last issue of Metal Hammer and BANG! it gave me the perfect excuse to write my positive article with an angry slant.
As I was recently told that a blog is for ranting on the internet then I figured why fight the bile?

What got my goat was Joel McIver's interview in last months Metal Hammer (UK) with Hatebreed/Kingdom Of Sorrow frontman Jamie Jasta, but I'll get to that in due course.

At the tail end of the nineties I spent a fair bit of time with a guy who was into his hardcore music.
An awful lot.
Now don't get me wrong the hardcore scene has thrown up some great bands, but somehow it's never quite been for me; maybe it's because I am not that relentlessly angry - I don't go to the gym and work out until my neck is thicker than my head, I don't have enough tattoos or wifebeater vests and would fair prefer smoking a relaxing rock and roll cigarette and watching a band with a beer than axe kicking someone in the face in the pit or maybe it's simply that I just prefer metal music.
Still at some point in our friendship my shouty music loving friend handed me a copy of Hatebreed's Victory Records debut 'Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire' (great title by the way). Now this solid album and kick started a career that is still going strong some 6 albums later and has survived a swap to the home of North American Metal trends, Roadrunner.
I quite liked it then and still spin it now.
It's about forty-five minutes of 3 minute anthems about being angry, yet with a message of positive empowerment running through. Again maybe this is another reason I can only have a passing interest as I like to, ahem 'cherish the darkness within' (thank you Machine Head) and sometimes I don't want to put on music and have self help therapy.
Still it sums up Hatebreed to me even now.
They have the same fairly one note path which they admittedly tread very well, but when they split up then I'll buy The Best Of... so I can get the stand out tracks like 'I Will Be Heard', 'Live Through This' and 'Before Dishonour' without having to sit through that albums batch of sound-a-likes.


As for Jasta himself well the narrow confines of his musical day job means that he is to me just the potato headed guy who shouts a lot. He has also been a VJ on MTV's Headbangers Ball, runs his own label (Stillborn records) and has his own clothing range (couldn't be bothered to look up the name).
To be fair he was one of thse people I universally thought nothing of until he teamed up with Kirk Windstein of Crowbar for the excellent Kingdom Of Sorrow debut.
That album really made me sit up and take notice - this was an excellent collaboration full of light and shade, Jasta's hardcore roar trading off against Kirk's more melodic whiskey soaked rasp.
On reading the liner notes I realised that this is actually more Jasta's baby than it is Windstein's and he actually contributes more to the writing and the melodies than my slanted view of him would recognise and this was something that increased on the second album, which is in my opinion the stronger of the two.
So this year I read that Jasta was releasing a solo album, now given my interest in the last Hatebreed album lasted approximately one and a half spins I thought I'd download it and see what the fuss was about.


In truth it is both surprising and great.
It sounds like neither KOS or Hatebreed - Jasta displays a deft song writing skill, a decent melodic voice and it isn't hindered by having two of my favourite contemporary metal vocalists - Rhandy Blythe of Lamb Of God and Phil LaBonte of All That Remains, - guesting as well as Wack Myldde (You know former Ozzy guitarist, Shuaron worshipping, Egg throwing, fake biker mong), Mark Morton (vocalist punching drummer for Lamb Of God) and Phil Vallely – Skateboarder, solo artist, and one time singer of Black Flag.
I liked it so much I ordered it after a week of listening to it non-stop, sent back the first one that arrived because the postman had mangled it and got another, I was that determined to have it as a nice looking piece of shelf furniture and I have to say it's one of the releases this year I have been most satisfied by thus far.
It got good reviews, fuck knows how much it will sell being on Century Media and the fact that people's opinion of it will very much be coloured by their views on Jasta's day job.

And here's the rub.
McIver's interview with him, to me, seemed obsessed by the concept that this was a solo album, why was it a solo?
Well as the man behind it clearly explains; the music on the disc doesn't sit well with either his day job or his side project. It would seem that for someone who I didn't have pegged as a song writer particularly Jasta produces tons of music - at home, on tour - he lives and breathes the life he has chossen and 'Jasta' the album is made up of songs that were on his hard drive begging for release but would never find the light of day in his two most famous incarnations.
He joked that by releasing it as a solo album he would lose less money in the long run.
This seemed to offend Mr McIver's principles somewhat and he branded Jasta a business man, whose very actions were lessening the spirit and purity of the music he was producing.
I have to say the tone of the interview got my goat frankly..
Jasta, in my opinion, has got this right.
Hatebreed aren't exactly the most forward pushing bands and their fans appear to want more of the same - they have their path and they tread it regularly. It's exactly the reason that puts me off them that keeps their fans loyal, because they give them want they want. Besides Hatebreed are a BAND, it is a collective decision and if the songs don't fit, they don't fit - their are five guys with families who make a living from this, why mess with it?
Artistically just because you or I or Joel McIver don't find it challenging enough does it matter?


Having heard the songs I would hands down say that they don't belong on Kingdom Of Sorrow either - that band does push themselves, but rather than melodic hardcore sludge are they suddenly expected to jam in 'Something You Should Know' a hard rock stadium type anthem?
Are they fuck. Kirk Windstien would have probably walked out at that point laughing.
And anyway, Jasta wrote these songs on his own to please himself, recorded them and helped mix them so why should he turn them over and potentially damage two bands with a decent legacy?
I'm sure in Joel's world the idea that a musician trying to earn a living seems a little soulless, but honestly for someone who writes for a magazine who are owned by the Future Publishing group it's a little churlish to berate or question the integrity of someone who the dedication and passion for music that Jasta shows - whether you like him or not.
Having witnessed the backlash against Morbid Angel messing with their sound, I think Jasta was well within his rights to release this collection without the scrutiny of the music press destroying Hatebreed's reputation.
The universal comment on the reviews?
Not as good as Hatebreed or Kingdom of Sorrow.
Case closed - There is a difference between selling out (like Hatebreed suddenly releasing a pop album) and trying to make a living...
It's hard to make any money from album sales in this business this day and age; for the man to fund it out of his own pocket and front up to the industry machine without the armour, prebuilt fanbase and backing of his previous incarnations is actually profoundly brave and remarkably unbusiness-like and maybe Joel should stick to writing about Avenged fucking Sevefold, or The Black Veil Brides or whatever current, trendy, major label, guy liner wearing, Hot Topic sporting, flash in the pan fuckwits are all over Scuzz or Kerrang! TV in between the endless repeats of Green day and Blink 182 that the editorial slant of Metal Hammer feels required to push this week.

Make mine a large one...

Good to my word I am here to fess up.

Back in June I worte the following article:
Flynn In The Face Of Adversity

In the above article I made the statement:
Still this bold move is because I am hoping to be proved wrong this time; in jumping the gun and laying my cards on the table too early I am seeing if I can be surprised again and get the cutlery to eat a large slice of humble pie.

Well fols here it is:


I asked Messers Flynn, Demmel, Duce and McClain to prove me wrong and am here to say I now have pie to eat for the forseeable future... I will come back to this in due course but for now I have to say Unto The Locust is fucking fantastic, different and genuinely surprising.

It's out 27th September, I urge anyone who loves metal to hear it.
Machine.
Fuckin.
Head.

Road Rage

Annnnnd I’m back; that’s right after being sidetracked by that tedious thing called work I have finally gotten round to the next instalment of what my good friend the Voice Of Doom likes call ‘Why I hate the stuff I love’, yes it is time to brush off the fatigue, viciously stab at the keyboard with between two and four fingers and say ‘I love metal, but it’s proper shit sometimes’.
Again.

No, seriously having guested again on c’s radio show I was initially going to just play five kick ass songs and say ‘This is good because…’ but following a request for one of my favourite songs ‘Paper Tiger’ by Dry Kill Logic I thought I’d have a bit of fun and spout some stuff that makes c put his head in his hands on the other side of the desk.
I’m talking about metal powerhouse label Roadrunner Records.
I kicked off my intro by asking two questions:
Should modern metal fans be grateful for Nickelback? And:
Is Roadrunner bad for metal?

Well before we get into all the stuff I couldn’t talk about let’s give a bit of background shall we?
Formed in 1980 as Roadracer Records in Sweden, the label was essentially designed as a distribution network for exporting North American Heavy Metal music into Europe, some of their early successes included bringing a fledgling Metallica to the continent.
Such a success they became (and following a name change to the little less wank Roadrunner) that by the end of the 80’s they were able to fund and release two genuine records rather than merely flogging foreign imports.
These records were the seminal ‘Beneath The Remains’ and ‘Slowly We Rot’ by Sepultura and Obituary respectively and they helped establish Roadrunner as a name that Metal fans could come to rely on as a sign of quality releases as they released album after album of great metal going into the nineties with bands like Type O Negative, Machine Head, Fear Factory, Life Of Agony, Sepultura - honestly if I kept up the list of names would be massive… these days they are known for Slipknot, Stone Sour, Megadeth, Trivium, Down, Soulfly, Within Temptation, Killswitch Engage, Korn, The Murderdolls… they absolutely dominate the scene from a commercial level.
Equally impressive is the list of bands they have dropped or had depart with ill feelings.
Machine Head, Fear Factory, Type O Negative, Cradle Of Filth, Morbid Angel, Face Down and so on.

A constant accusation levelled at the label time and time again is that they attempt to drive the direction of mainstream metal and often do not invest enough time and effort into supporting their artists, or do not allow them the creative freedom to express themselves properly.

Make no mistake I appreciate that Roadrunner are a business and the music industry is in a moribund state right now, in need of learning to adapt and survive rather than enjoying the fat halcyon days of say the eighties… BUT and once again I run to the safety of falling back to Iron Maiden as an example, when Rod Smallwood was hawking the young Iron Maiden around he knew that metal bands are expensive to run. They are not some massive one hit wonder; it takes an extreme amount of effort, money, time and investment to break a band of Maiden’s type - yet alone something more extreme like the stuff on Roadrunner, so he had EMI commit to a 3 album deal and even though the first albums sold well, when your third release is number one album ‘The Number Of The Beast’ frankly you are going to get a contract extension.
History will tell you Queen’s first album was a flop, Judas Priest’s first album was massively shit and so on; bands don’t always come into it straight out the gate and with the disposable approach that some labels had we would not have had Bohemian Rhapsody or Breaking The Law (delete as appropriate - personally having been subjected to Mercury & co relentlessly as a kid I would rather smash myself in the face with a bottle than listen to Queen these days).

So my point on the show was to highlight some of the great music spurned by Roadrunner and try pitch why they are damaging for metal.

My first of five tracks was as I have said ‘Paper Tiger’.



Paper Tiger Video

Dry Kill Logic signed to RR back in 2000 as the crest of the Nu Metal wave began to stumble and saw bands rediscovering life as an honest Metal band. Previously known as the not at all inspiring Hinge they were forced to change their name due to a recording studio owning the rights…
Which fact allows me to make some jibe about them being an open and shut case, or swinging back and forth or golden with six screws… or something.
Influenced by the late nineties sound they released ’The Darker Side of Nonsense’ in 2001. I have to say I really wasn’t that keen. It was a bit generic if truth is told. Weird, off kilter sounds and a slightly heard it before ‘of the time’ sound, like they wanted to be Slipknot without the million extra members or gimmicks.
Despite initial success and reasonable sales they found themselves without a record deal as when returning to make their sophomore effort for the label they were told they had to adopt a more commercial sound. They refused and it was curtains, or the door slammed shut on it’s er hinges… yeah I’m not really working the furniture angle well today.

Still they found themselves penning an artist driven deal and released the excellent ‘The Dead & The Dreaming’ in 2004 on SPV Records which is probably (in my opinion ) their best album to date. This was followed by 2006’s of Vengeance & Violence’ but sadly without the heavy weight clout of a major label they faded from view and have officially been on hiatus ever since. The metal world robbed of a potentially great band through the labels insistence they soften up their sound.
Thank God Killswitch took their advice hey? They have in no way becoming boring or shit or repative since massively Emo laced The Heart Of Heartache and subsequent duller and duller releases. No wonder metal core studio genius Adam D now wears a cape on stage and acts like a complete prick. At least http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifpeople walking away from their gigs have something to talk about rather than ‘Do you remember when they released ‘Alive Or Just Breathing’ and were a metal band?’.

But this isn’t really a new phenomena.
Back in 1995 Down released the jam tape style happy accident that was ‘NOLA’. This album won over the hearts and ears of metal fans everywhere, because let’s face it, it’s fucking great. End of discussion.
As a result RR signed Floodgate another New Orleans Sludge/Doom style band in the hope they would be the next big southern metal thing.



Floodgate Til My Soil track

Floodgate it should be noted featured one Kyle Thomas previously of eighties thrashers Exhorder who released the controversial ‘Slaughter In The Vatican’. Ironically for a band that seemingly based it’s creative output on a Phil Anselmo (you know mogadon sounding, You Tube crying, running mouth and sometimes singer… oh and he was in Pantera) side project Exhorder fans spent much of the early nineties crying how Mouthpiece and The Cowboys From Hell ripped off their beloved Kyle and stole their thunder (Google Exhorder vs. Pantera for more on this). This argument is kind of silly as Anselmo confessed a healthy respect for Thomas and he himself has said Pantera deserved their success, worked a lot harder and probably did themselves a favour by not titling their albums after Papal murder.
Still in 1996 Floodgate released the classic ‘Penalty’ album. I say classic; it is in my house. Everyone I have introduced to it has loved the band, but they had a brief stint supporting Sepultura on their ‘Roots’ tour and that was all the favours they got from their label who judged that not selling much or being as instantly popular as Down meant they were shit.
Goodbye Floodgate, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out… since then the band have been on hiatus having never officially split up. They resurfaced briefly in 2007 to play a Hurricane Katrina benefit show for their home town, but since then Thomas has bee handling vocal and guitar duties for Alabama Thunderpussy and so we are unlikely to hear much more of them.

As I have previously mentioned, the nineties were bad for metal. The backlash effecting major labels played as hard on RR and their was a massive cull of many bands, particularly in their Hardcore roster as they concentrated on their more mainstream or Death genres.
One such band to fall fowl of this through their interference was Vision Of Disorder.



Vision Of Disorder featuring Phil Anselmo 'By The River'

Having previous built a cult independent following they were signed in 1996 and released their self titled debut which had a massive underground impact, particularly the hardcore tinged, leftfield edge to their music.
Despite this RR decided they wanted a more mainstream metal sound from the band and generously gave them two weeks in the studio to craft what fans of RR bands had come to expect, that lavish multi layered Colin Richardson sound, and what Vision fans wanted - a hardcore classic.
Well neither happened.
1998‘s ‘Imprint’ is a fantastic album in my book but suffers from appalling rushed and muddy production. It’s mere sound enough to alienate fans of the slick metal produced at the time by their label mates and the change in direction enough to alienate their own fans.
Not even the guest appearance of Phil ‘How far can I shove my foot down my mouth today?’ Anselmo on the monstrously heavy ‘By The River’ could save them from a commercial.
They were swiftly shown the exit door and despite tours supporting Pantera and the TVT released ‘From Bliss To Devastation’ in 2001 the band disbanded and vocalist Tim Williams went on to create the kind of like an average, light weight version of VOD, Bloodsimple who release two ‘Meh’ albums.
The good news for anyone still interested it that Vision are now back and have recorded an album set (hopefully) for release this year…
They were not alone in this as Roadrunner axed most, if not all their Hardcore bands during this period. The irony being in 2011 is that one of their biggest sellers now is the hardcore act Hatebreed, who they poached off Victory Records…

So dropping bands… a common theme.
Not too mention the oft cited lack of support. It would be fair enough to defend RR and say well History boy, the bands you have mentioned aren’t exactly massive or household names…
And I agree, they aren’t and why?
Because they were never really given the chance to be.
Dave Mustaine’s Megadeth are now sat on the labels roster having released their last two critically acclaimed (not by me I should add) albums through RR. He recently took time out from reminding everyone he used to be in Metallica, used to be a drug addict, used to argue with Dave Junior (Ellefson) but now loves him and would love to work with that band he used to be in again, to moan about Roadrunners lack of support. He has claimed they do not promote their releases, do not support the band on tour and have a distinct lack of interest in helping their artists full stop.
Lightning to strike twice?
Cradle Of Filth decided to give the mainstream a go despite (inexplicably) a healthy career built largely at independent niche metal label supreme Century Media. This lasted approximately one album before the diminutive Danni Manno.. Filth ran off crying that the horrid people at RR didn’t shower him with praise and rose petals every single day and tell him how special he was… okay maybe I am maligning the made-in-Essex poison dwarf but the accusations again cut true, echo Fear Factory, Sepultura, etc…
If you aren’t going to push a major artist, one who has a pedigree of success like Megadeth, how in the hell are a new band going to survive?

So where do Nickelback come in?



As I mentioned, the label jettisoned a lot of artists in the late nineties/early noughties to clear space and cut costs. However it also saw a shift in signing policy and to open up a more commercial arm of their roster they signed an up and coming Canadian band.
With songs about spousal abuse, being rockstars and how people remind him that he is an ugly as sin, not even a mother could love the gravel voiced, soft rock pedalling cunt, wannabe Jesus-look-a-like Chad Kroeger’s crew thrust ‘Silverside Up’ on the world in 2001 and has sold over 10 million copies. They has since sold a staggering amount of their follow up albums proving once and for all that someone out there is happy to buy, yes BUY, complete shit again and again.
This release was the singular most important fiscal turning point for RR as it (along with successes like Slipknot and Kilswitch) given them the clout to walk tall with their agenda and sign whoever they want - their acquisitions in recent years have seen just about every successful band end up under their wing - Korn and Dimmu Borigir being recent ones - and their balance books were obviously looking so hot right then that Warner Music Group assimilated them into their fold in 2007.
An extremely negative move in my opinion as the whole foundation of the label was to be fiercely independent, but surely as the primary vehicle for metal these days you have to argue if not for the success of that ear cancer there would be less successful metal bands around in the mainstream… mind you having heard Black Veil Brides I’m not so sure I’m drinking the Kool Aid…

What has also caused me many a fit of rage is their reissues policy.
As a loyal supporter of bands there are countless times that I have bought a CD in the first week, you know the standard 10 track, jewel case, average CD… only for it to be reissued 8 months later in an expanded dig pack with improved artwork, extra tracks and the whole thing a little bit more sexy…
What this does is create a market where people get screwed.
I as a loyal fan get penalised because by purchasing the first CD I end up with an inferior product compared to someone who sees them on tour or buys the album hype generated after it’s release, either that or I have to shell out again.
This leads to a culture of thinking, ‘Well fuck it. I’ll download the album and wait for the decent version’.
What happens then is that the initial release doesn’t sell well enough and the band get dropped.
Fucking genius.
You either rip people off or sacrifice a bands career…

Is there a silver lining?
Probably not, but there is a case to be argued that RR occasionally get egg on their faces and get shown up to be twats.


Machine Head were dropped after the below par ‘Supercharger’ and were told to write more commercial music. They even went so far as to record a demo of an appalling song called ‘Pins & Needles’ which was rejected by every single record label who heard it. It is on the Elegies DVD where an embarrassed Flynn admits thathttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif they had to take a long hard look at themselves after that.
‘Through The Ashes Of Empires’ was released via Roadrunner Europe in 2005. In the States Machine Head were labeless and shunned, even trendy pop for greebo magazine Kerrcap! gave it a paltry 2/5...

A Frankly Bizarre video accompanying Machine Head's 'Elergy'

The album smashed through the consciousness of metal heads like Godzilla through down town Tokyo and was named Metal Hammers album of the year. The album was so good and so popular that RR US had to come crawling back to their former signing and beg them to put pen to paper so they could release the album in North America.
Their next release was the juggernaut that was The Blackening in 2007 and the metal world in my household is currently holding it’s breath and preying that the leeches (or locusts) haven’t gotten to Flynn and swayed them too badly. The advantage to being begged to come back by the label is that Machine Head managed to negotiate a deal which gives them control.
So no doubt any fuck ups will be entirely down to them… but they should be grateful that metal core came back into fashion just when they decided to be a thrash band again.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

So they got one wrong?
Nope. My favourite Alaskan Screamo boy band 36 Crazyfists were unceremoniously booted off the roster back in 2006 after their third album Rest Inside The Flames sold a frankly pathetic 1,858 records due to a cited lack of promotion, support and you guess it airplay.



36 Crazyfists 'Reviver' video

This is despite the bright start they had on their debut ‘Bitterness The Star’ in 2002 and it’s follow up ‘A Snow Capped Romance’ the band found themselves playing to packed crowds in Europe and the proverbial one man and his dog in the US.
Following their continued success with ‘The Tide & It’s Takers’ in 2007 and released on Ferret Records the band were resigned by Roadrunner Europe for the release of their 2010 album ‘Collisions and Castaways’ proving that the European branch seem to have their fingers on the pulse of what goes on outside of North America.

And here is the point I have been building to on this mammoth and not actually blind or vaguely amusing ranting… Roadrunner was originally founded in Europe to bring North America metal over the pond. Now as a part of soul sucking WMG it seems that they want to try and dictate the direction and trends of mainstream metal to the world. The irony is that outside of America their exists a whole legion of metal fans who do not necessarily buy into their direction and it is often the case that just because it is good for America, doesn’t mean the rest of the world want it.
Like their shit cars really.
Their attempts to buy into trends like Black Metal (Cradle and the recently acquired Dimmu Borgir) either fail to keep the artist happy or alienate the fan based, or Hardcore where they singularly fail to understand the genre or even their failure to serve established artists proves that whilst their distribution network holds a lot of sway they are as much a blessing as they are a curse.

Children Of The Korn

Last time out I wrote about the idea of selling out and transferring this concept to the radio; well as ever in the slack time since the last I have bothered to angrily hammer on a keyboard about music, my good friend c has taken the opportunity on the radio to secure himself a fortnightly gig on Phonic.fm running the Mid Week Alternative.
I have to say the boy done good - the more practise the easier it will be for him, but he is playing some cool tunes and I'm pleased for him.
This week I quested on the show to try and pitch an idea he has an issue with.
Due to time and language restraints on the radio I thought as a rehearsal I'd get the full version off my chest in the comfort of the 'Towers.
Being occasionally technologically stunted I have not yet linked up any music to the site - I hope to remedy this later, but I thought I'd get the text down first and you can pick up the tracks from Spotify if you haven't downloaded them illegally already or shock horror actually bought them.

So I would like you to pull up your baggy jeans and sit down, raise the sun visor/baseball cap/beanie from over your face as I tell you how Korn's 1994 anonymous debut album is one of the most influential albums on mainstream metal in the 90's.

It goes to say that I have covered the impact of Grunge and Pop Punk on the decline in popularity of metal in the early part of the nineties, but modern popular culture also played it's part.
Beavis & Butthead portrayed metalheads as retarded; The Word (crap late night TV magazine show) had Sepultura fans in a cage for their appearance and Wayne's World and the Bill & Ted franchise, for all the positives to come about for the titular heroes, still had us a knuckle dragging, badly dressed infants… somethings never change I guess.


But the bigger fact is that outside of our scene something ugly was awakening, thanks in large part to the new rising genre of 'RnB', Soul/Rap music started to out sell Rock music in the States by a considerable margin with artists like Boyz II Men, Mariah Carey, TLC, Michael & Janet Jackson, Sean Combs, R Kelly and so on. I'm not going to get drawn into a debate about white youth assimilating black culture because frankly I don't care and it's one minefield I would shy away from, but long hair, tight jeans, leather and heading were no longer cool by approximately 1993.

Despite this back drop in Bakersfield, California a band called L.A.P.D consisting of 'Sausage Fingers' Reggy Arvizu, James 'Munky' Shaffer and David 'Surprisingly Good' Silveria were beginning to hone their craft releasing two albums of little note and broke up having relocated to Los Angeles.
Here they would meet 'Future Mexican Pimp' Jonathan Davis and Brian 'Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam' Welch and formed a band which they christen Corn in a hurry. Eventually screwing with the name, so as to not appear extremely massive douchebags, Korn recorded a demo album called Neidermeyer's Mind in 1993 and distributed it at gigs they played with House Of Pain and Biohazard.
Korn gained a reputation on the local scene and were eventually spotted by Paul Pontius of Epic/Immortal Records who claimed they were a new genre of metal.

They were packed off to Indigo Ranch in Malibu with a young producer called Ross Robinson to record their debut.

Here enters a curious fact.
Korn and Fear Factory were both rival bands at the time with residencies at various clubs and there was already bad blood between them. Robinson had a few years earlier recorded what would have been Fear Factory's debut and is now available as the album Concrete which was scrapped in favour of a few rerecords and a couple of new songs for the Colin Richardson produced Soul Of A New Machine.


Upon hearing Korn Dino Cazares, multi string plucking, as wide as he is high pornstar wannabe and FF guitarist, claimed Korn were ripping off their sound.
Interestingly enough Brian 'Head' Welch was already using a 7 string guitar which Cazares would switch to on their follow up and stone cold Classic 'Demanufacture' and further more change his tuning on 'Obsolete' the next follow up to match Korn's.
It is probably churlish to start talking about who ripped off who, but Ibanez themselves credit it firstly Welch, then Cazares with the resurgence in sales of seven string axes…

Regardless 1994 saw the release of Korn and toured fairly extensively on the back of first single 'Blind' - the opening salvo of a new genre of metal for sure and then the 1995 Grammy award winning 'Shoots & Ladders' before going on to record the follow up Life Is Peachy in 1995.
The eponymous album featured lyrics that read as a shocking insight into a troubled mind as Davis pours his heart and soul into tracks about bullying, alienation and sexual abuse. Whilst some of it is down right pathetic, the closing track Daddy saw Davis actually break down and cry in the mic booth. To this day it is still harrowing,
And there I will stop - I'm not doing the history of Korn, I'm not trying to persuade you to like them, this is about acknowledging the impact of their debut.


It would be easy to list the bands that followed in Korn's wake as the 'Nu Metal' genre burgeoned. Korn themselves claimed not to like Metal and so the new moniker was born and lets face it the bands from America that owe a debt to their support, friendship or just sound is huge - Deftones, Coal Chamber (their debut featured a song called Loco that is essentially Blind), Limp Bizkit (name checks Korn and Fwed goes mental at the end of a song and sings a lot about how no one loves him), (Hed) PE, Orgy, Incubus, System Of A Down, Slipknot, Snot, Human Waste Project, Adema, Sevendust and so on.
All the new bands taking a piece of the sound for themselves and a large proportion of that list was recorded at Indigo Ranch by one R.Robinson - the 'Godfather Of Nu Metal', not too mention the shift in lyrics to poor woe is me type psychiatry.
The surprising part comes when you look what happened to established metal acts…

Sepultura had struck big with Arise and Chaos AD. Both were huge albums and allowed them to compete for the first time on the same level as bands like Slayer. Chaos AD in particular saw them all over MTV with 'Nomad' and upsetting the slim, haristute and in no way shit tattooed Kerry King who claimed that by using Andy Wallace to mix their album the Seps had stolen their sound… but we'll come back to Kerry….


Clearly sensing a sea change in the way the genre was going the Sepultribe/nation/whaddafuckever decamped to, yes you guessed it; Indigo Ranch and pieced together their new album under the watchful eye of…. right again, a certain flavour of the month Robinson.
In fact so deep was the connection between Sepultura's new found muse that Davis and Silveria both guest on the 1996 National Geographic's Metal album of the year 'Roots'.
As can be heard on 'Roots Bloody Roots' there are the downtuned crunch riffs rather than notes, the high hat breakdown, stop-start dynamics...
Incorporating world music and Nu Metal, Cavelera took huge leaps away from the sound that had previously defined them and took them to greater heights commercially whilst also alienating a lot of older fans.
Sadly we'll never know which direction they intended to go after that as Max left the band and formed Soulfly, proving that neither side won.

Still one established act had clearly been drinking the Kool Aid…

As traditional metal faltered and spluttered acts like SOAD became the new big thing and I remember everyone going batshit crazy over their debut album back in 1998, not too mention on the back of their second album Korn embarked on their first Family Values Tour with acts like Rammstien, Incubus, Limp and Orgy all owing a debt to them for the boost.
Somewhere in a darker part of California Slayer were scratching their heads.
Having not produced a good album since 1990's Seasons In The Abyss and reeling from the (deserved) kicking they got over shit punk cover album 'Undisputed Attitude' the unthinkable happened.


I have to break off here for a moment and say that in 2011 we hear how Slayer stayed true, Christ at the time Kerry King has bleated how Megadeth and Metallica made pop music, Anthrax lost it, Machine Head sold out blah, blah, blah… well not strictly true Mr King....

In 1998 Slayer changed their tuning to the 'Diabolus In Musica' chord, tuning down and adopting characteristics of Nu Metal. I remember being massively psyched to get a new Slayer song on a Kerrang! sampler before the album came out. To this day the Korn style riffing on 'Stain Of Mind' still grips my shit as does the rubbish production and the lack of lead work (even if all Slayer solos sound like a stallion on point of ejaculation).
The album was, and still is, poorly received and all suggestions of Slayer ever having felt the need to pander to the mainstream seems to have been Men In Blacked from King's mind.


Next up for a crisis of confidence were former Slayer favourites Machine Head who despite releasing the excellent 'The More Things Change' sophomore fell victim to the crime of not pleasing King. With the winds of change definitely a blowin Roadrunner packed our heroes off to… do I really need to tell you where and with whom at this point?
Yes 1999's 'The Burning Red saw Machine Head abandon the crisp production of Colin Richardson in favour of the muddy sounds of Ross Robinson, staccato up their riffing and incorporate rap elements into their songs.
Just listen to the song 'From This Day' and you'll see what I mean.
Not to mention Flynn's previous hard man, hard talking attitude and lyrical content had been jettisoned in favour of a more confessional, personal nature.
The song 'Five' talks of his sexual abuse as a child and featured an uncanny and uncharacteristic freak out at the end, not too mention adopting the breathy whispered stylings of 'Blind' throughout the album and subsequent releases.
Naturally it gave them their biggest sales to date, but would cut so deep with their fan base that by the time 2001's dreadful Supercharger had landed Robb Flynn had lost credibility with more than just Kerry King.

In fairness to Machine Head they also fell victim of the growing backlash against the scene, admittedly it would take a few more years to land, but with the world enthralled to Korn, Limp Bizkit, Staind and all kinds of other shit the first counter Nu Metal blow to be struck was by Robinson himself, rounding on Machine Head for the concessions they made (at his behest) and attacking the Korn's and Bizkit's of the world (although co-incidentally this was after Korn decided to utilise Steve Thompson and Toby Wright to produce their mainstream breakthrough Follow The Leader).


So Fear Factory, Sepultura, Slayer and Machine Head all felt the pressure to change their sound over the late nineties.
By 2000 the second generation of Nu Metal bands had landed in the form of ultra saccharine Linkin Park, Papa Roach and Disturbed - the genre was waning - Korn's third album had landed in the form of Follow The Leader in 1998 and spawned hit singles, fantastic videos, but was the first sign of their decline as the album is below par and the follow up 'Issues' was universally panned.
By 2003 the world was ready for the next genre which would prove to be the Killswitch Engage led Metalcore.
Nu Metal was dead, right?

Sadly there are two asides to this.
Firstly have you listened to Chinese Democracy by Axehole's Roses by any chance?
Did it strike you as someone trying to recreate late nineties Industrial Music - like he'd heard The Downward Spiral or Filter and thought 'That's the cool new sound for me!' and then taken long enough to record it that it became an anachronism?
This next point is controversial even by my standards but in 2003, enter St Anger by Metallica.


Now it has been well documented about the troubles surrounding 'Tallica; James not allowing gunning metal fan Jason Newkid the chance to play with Sepultura, whilst himself guesting on Corrosion Of Conformity's Wiseblood, recording for the South Park movie, Newkid's departure and Echobrain; Some Kind Of Monster, the rehab, 10k a week therapists etc… so it is no secret that the band who went into the recording studio were fractured, all out of confidence and suffering an identity crisis, but after years of rubbing shoulders with the new guard of metal St Anger was stll a surprise, not least for featuring Lars playing on kitchen pots and pans instead of a drumkit.
Metallica's 8th studio album featured a distinct lack of solos, a trademark of the Nu Metal era and dreadful production as a perceived choice rather than just because Bob 'I'm A PinkToothbrush' Rock spent most of his time believing he was in the band as bassist.
The songs are stodgy, simplestic, repetitive and more importantly Hetfield's lyrics that had actually flourished in the Load/Reload era regressed to whining therapy style bleating.
Don't believe me?
Listen to rubbish like Invisible Kid, the screaming at the end of All Within My Hands, Shoot Me Again, God most of it is wincingly painful from all angles.
That's right, the biggest rock/metal band in the world, Metallica updated their sound to include elements of Nu Metal in an attempt to win back their 'metal' audience.

Proof alone to me that the resonance of Korn's debut had gone deeper into the psyche of metal than most during this time, yet alone there is a band at the moment from Exeter who pedal what can only be described as Nu Metal and are somehow making their way as a success.

The second aside comes in the fact that we have now reached a point where we have come full circle. Last year saw Korn release an album that people are proclaiming is them back to their best and gives them license to continue to bore audiences around the world. This year has seen the release of a new Limp Bizkit album and the world not even bat an eye or call it for the shit it is, no doubt Stinkin Park have some thing to wow us with soon and Staind are about to drop a new album… it's like the zombie at the end of a movie that rises again needing that double tap to the brain.


Let me say this - I don't hate Nu Metal.
The nineties were my school years, a time of discovery, forging my own way, university, dating, gigs and I listened to all the bands listed here and had to play more than was listed when DJing. Sure not all of them were to my taste, but you go with what's about at the time.
I believe that there was a crisis amongst record companies over the longevity of the genre and they signed fewer bands - Roadrunner jettisoned all their hardcore bands and yet now one of their biggest acts is the (former Victory records signing) Hatebreed.
Amongst this period of doubt there was a vacuum - like there is now - and this was filled by Nu Metal. I realise that makes it sound like it was the Third Reich of music, but I reserve that for Emo…
Nu Metal attempted to marry rap, rock and all kinds of cultures together into something edgy and mass appealing, of course that is precisely what I rail against, but the end result of the bland and universal appeal of Linkin Park is the dilution of something rawer and more singular.
Whilst they have become a fat, bloated joke of a band long past their sell by date, I believe Korn's debut was used as the fulcrum of that idea.

Selling out for the sucker

I have been building a new kitchen now for what seems like forever. I have been doing it so long it seems to have permeated every aspect of my life (as evidenced here) - granted a lot of this is down to my insistence on largely doing it solo and an anally retentive attention to detail; but last night whilst I was engaged in my latest task my phone rang.
I must have answered in a pretty testy manner as my friend on the other end remarked that it was the sound of a bad day.
In truth it was merely the fact that with DIY there is a process:
Identify job.
Buy materials
Allocate time.
Start task.
At this point something will go wrong due to the seemingly inconsistent nature of walls, doors, floors, materials, instructions, human error etc and that time allocated slips away and suddenly you've spent the whole day producing the sum total of fuck all but a headache and a bad mood. I went from being super smug and ahead of schedule the day before to cursing injustice and screaming at now being behind schedule over something simple.
So in this mood I answered the phone (Sorry c.).

Anyway the point of my good friend phoning was to float the idea of possibly taking  the idea of educating pork, sorry The Masses, onto a radio platform due to the local radio crying out for a midweek late night rock slot. 
Rather than the 'play this contemporary shit' stance of say a Friday nigh slot (apologies if one exists, that was merely an example) it would be a chance to put my shelf furniture, sorry CDs and my mine of useless information to good use.

I loved it - the idea of putting a more palatable version of A Brief History Of Metal across to the world, maybe less of the narrow minded ranting and swearing that I have claimed as the corner stone of this blog (a teacher friend of mine lamented recently that he thought it was interesting, some times well written and informative, but sadly a little too racy to use with his students), but maybe enough to provoke debate and still give a decent account of rock music.
Topics swirled around my head for a fair while after that - things I have written here, things I have yet to write, all with a slightly more presentable version and less calling Fred Durst a cunt (gratuitously jamming that one in there to emphasise the point!).

The it occurred to me, if I did this would I in turn be doing something I have viciously attacked some bands for? In seeking a larger platform for my voice would I effectively be compromising what I set out to achieve here? Would I, guardian of the 'Towers, be selling out?

So it got me thinking, what is selling out and why is it such a crime?



Rock and roll and in particular it's uglier younger offspring has always been about rebellion and catharsis; Johnny Cash sang about kicking against the pricks and punk was about smashing a brick in their face.

Punk is a good place to begin really as the sell out accusation probably cuts deepest in this genre.
Punk was formed with the notion of not conforming; your dress, your attitude was about not fitting in, not wanting to fit. The scene became the great exponent of the Do It Yourself ethos - don't like our music enough to produce it on your big shiny corporation?
Well fuck you, we'll record it in a dank rehearsal room on a shitty 8 track and release it on our own label on a blank tape with a photocopied handmade cover.
Of course the irony is the more popular something gets, the more people buy into it the further away from it's core aesthetic. 
This was apparent by the time the Sex Pistols exploded back in 1977. 
The were everything that punk represented, but in a marketable version.
Both simultaneously a genius act of scene affirmation and exploitation - Rotten and co were basically encouraged to go out and be as obnoxious and anti establishment as they could be (and boy could they), yet at the same time they were creating a look and defining the commercial sound of punk.
Cue a million bands trying to bring about Anarchy in the UK.
This of course is the tip of the iceberg really and the whole evolution of punk would cause myself and the aforementioned friend to grow heated over much red wine. He of course knows far more than I do about the true gritty nature of crust punk that would come to spit in the face of 'pretty boys' like the 'Pistols, the Damned etc - the DRI's, Discharges and Black Flags of this world who came harder and later and I in turn could bore the tits off you about the light, poppy Southern Californian punk that was pioneered by Bad Religion.
My case in point example for this scene is that before Blink 182 were a huge pop chart bothering behemoth they were a NOFX/Bad Religion style band and I liked them. Genuinely.
Then they released that album with 'All The Small Things' on and were massively played to death on the radio. Now not only was this a softening in style but on tour when I saw them, it was like they hadn't existed before that album and weren't playing to please the people that had, until that point given them a career, but to those fair weather fans who would buy their stuff because of the new single.

Metal and rock was a dinosaur by the time punk spat in it's face at the end of the seventies and as a result it mutated, often adopting the DIY approach, Iron Maiden and the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (from here on out NWOBHM) would record their own records (Maiden's first EP is the much sought after Soundhouse Tapes) until they were signed and this approach is almost de rigour in todays digital age with platforms like Myspace helping to break acts far beyond the confines of their towns and cities.
The problem is that this creates a mentality where people in a scene identify with the musicians; they share backgrounds and tastes, they sing about the same issues that effect the people who turn up at shows - there is a connection and an underdog mentality to metal.
When a band expands beyond this and gets famous there is a thin line between staying 'true' to their roots but maintaining success and whoring themselves for the almighty dollar.

Take the biggest sell outs in metal: Metallica.
Now I still love them, but you have to admit that they are a pale shadow of their former selves.
They started out as a hungry young band with a hardcore sound, didn't make videos, dressed like everyone else and were very much in touch with their fan base.
This year they released Metallica Monopoly...
RRP $42.99



I appreciate that in the age of digital piracy bands don't make any money from CD sales anymore; the irony of an artist being in the position where they have more control over every aspect of their careers than ever before, is now there is no money to be had. Therefore bands that would have survived are now forced to tour the globe hawking ugly black t-shirts, wrist bands, thongs, bottle openers, belts, shoes etc to earn a living, but honestly... Monopoly?
How do you win? - Do you sell out?

It is long documented and debated about when Metallica sold out - most people will say The Black album and at 20 million sales and still climbing you could argue why. They took their honed thrash metal and dulled it, made it more accessible, shorter, more hit based (they released six, yes six singles from it).
However I would argue they sold out as a result of this album - it gave them everything they could have ever dreamed of, including the idea that they were 'done with metal'. They created an incredibly heavy album, kicked in the door of the mainstream and decided they had beaten metal itself.
The next two albums saw country, blues, self indulgence and more importantly entropy.
Sure the fire of youth is replaced by the consideration of age and if anything Hetfield's lyrics benefited from moving from the musings of sixth form poetry to the wisdom of the bar stool, but anyone who has seen Some Kind Of Monster saw the selfish, spoilt whiny posers they had become.
How can you identify with a man who sells a painting (pissed on a sofa) for more than most of us will ever see?
This is a band who came from tape trading and shut down Napster with Lars threatening to come round peoples houses and confiscate their hard drives - I had never downloaded their stuff, but at this point I queued up the whole catalogue in the hope the tubby tub thumper would come round so I could smash him in his gurning little face for the hypocrisy.
But downloading is not an issue I want to get into (again) here today.

The fact is that Metallica's last truly good album was probably The Black album. Since then they have become a marketing, merchandising vehicle - the first time I saw them was at Donington 95 and they were arrogant, self indulgent, took the piss out of the other bands, declared metal was dead and fucked around with their own songs. They may have gotten back some of that fire live and made a heavy record again but the fact is they just aren't as good as they were or the myth that what they are now is as good as people say it is just because they are not churning out shit like that fucking song with the Hurdy Gurdy... Low Man's Lyrics that the one, you know the mock Irish crap from Reload?
Ultimately Metallica don't care anymore - 'Sold out? We sell out most nights' - James Hetfield. 
To me this is the equivalent of hearing about Ashley Cole (alleged beard needing, philandering pisspot and English left back) recalling how he trembled with rage because Arsenal 'only offered him £55k a week'.
Only! Oh, Poor fucking you - I'd like to make that in two years fuckface.
See some of us hated Cashley way before he cheated on warbling Geordie rascist and new national sweetheart Cheryl Tweedie.
But honestly as I said a while back Metallica could release a turd in a box with their logo on it and someone out there would buy it. Given that I buy anything with an Iron Maiden logo on what's the difference?
Maiden still care, Maiden still make challenging music, Maiden never sneered at everything that put them where they are or pretended to be something they weren't.




Music is art in the end and people will argue that in order to bring it to an audience you have to compromise a little - be it with band mates, yourself, the club owner, the record label etc - as fruit loop, wine making, stalling tactician Maynard James Keenan of Tool said on Hooker With A Penis
Dumb shit I sold out long before you ever knew my name,
I sold my soul to make a record and dipshit you bought one.

But the idea that your art panders to a commercialisation first before serving it's purpose is wrong, it creates a banal version of what has gone before - going back to the mad baldy from Tool at least he said this about the music industry:

I write these songs to move through some pain or work out some issues. and if I'm successful in my art and my expression I shouldn't feel the same way I did when I wrote those songs anymore and there should be a logical progression. But if as an artist I can express myself in someway that ends up helping someone else get through some hard time I guess that's great for everybody, that helps other people. The problem with the music industry in general is that artists get into it be use they have a desire to be desired and they have a desire to scream their heads off for whatever issue happened to them in the past, they weren't armed with the proper tools to move through any trauma or their childhood divorce or loss of parents and what  they do is end up screaming their heads off and at some point they get popular now they are part of an industry that is run by people who are uneducated emotional people, in a way it's kind of a dead end and in this society we expect those artists to continue screaming to the end of their days..

Spot on in my book - look at suicide inducing, three chord wonders Nirvana. Cobain actually admitted to selling out to make money with Nevermind, of course once on that train he couldn't take it, like it or live with himself.
If we wanted to listen to jangling three chord repetitive bollocks, we would listen to the radio.

Talking of which:
Metal is an expression, sure it varies in degrees, Linkin Park's Hybrid theory was so universally transcendent that I know three different people who reckoned 'it was about their life' - Crap. It was just so non committal that the themes could be applied, but it was still good. Fast forward and they started making the same by the numbers bullshit again and again because it was on the Transformers movie soundtrack.

You can change so violently you alienate people, you can assume that people want to hear the same ideas again and again, you can stop trying to push yourself, stop trying to challenge your audience; instead of strengthening a genre by pushing boundaries you weaken it by settling for mediocrity, labels sign bands who were medicare to start with and the whole thing circles the drain.
A beautiful failure is far more attractive than an emotional flatline in my book, especially as you don't have to buy a CD to hear a band these days.

Of course this is all subjective and I should pull the plug soon on this epic rant.
The rules for selling out are complex, hypocritical and convoluted and in essence:
1. Any band that is popular/profitable
2. Any band that appears to be popular/profitable
3. Any band that you dont like
4. Any band that someone you dont like likes
5. Any band that makes a follow-up CD that isn't identical to the previous
6. Any band that changes their musical style
7. Any band that doesn't represent your style

But you can spot the pretenders a mile away, for every thousand bands barely 5% will have a career and even less than that be any good so it a shame that we are presented with a watered down marketable version of these things by people whose emotional barometer is completely fucked with regard to the 'product' they are putting out.

Now I'm rambling, but I have finished the kitchen and am off for a beer and to listen to c's debut rock show, I may join him next time.

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