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I Wanna Forget: DISTURBED
Help! I was all set to write something about how embarrassingly bad the band DISTURBED is.
But they’re not. They fucking rock.
(2000) Disturbed - The Game
Okay, let’s just hit Play on “The Sickness”. These guys are professional. I hesitate to call this nu-metal, because it’s industrial metal at its roots. The drumming is mechanical and precise; there are synths all over the place; the guitars are heavy but clean. That guitar riff in “The Game” sounds a whole lot like early-90s KMFDM, yeah?! These guys are pretty comfortable with their songs and can transition from pounding industrial beats, to balls-to-the-wall heaviness, to jazzy bridges, to breakdowns.
(2000) Disturbed - Numb
“Numb” is a Tool song, btw. Skip to around 2:53 and you’ll notice the ending is exactly like, idunno, Opiate-era riffs combined with the verbs of “Pushit”. Maybe it’s unfair to pretend like Tool is the only band that ends a song by doubling their picking speed over the same riffs, and playing fuller, more intense drums. Maybe it’s unfair to act like Tool is the only band that can start a heavy song out with ominous darkness, building to a climax at the end. But seriously, the Tool influence is undeniable.
Yeah, I don’t really think “Stupify” or “Down with the Sickness” hold up over time. Also, “Droppin’ Plates” was pretty embarrassing even back then. I mean, “a little something for your earhole! / Disturbed in the house we’re droppin…PLATES!” Kitchen destruction, y’all. I mean, personally, I don’t like the “mosh pit cheerleading” style of metal, and this album is full of it. Get psycho with me! Bring the violence! Get down with the sickness! Put em up, mothafucka!
Leave me the fuck aloooone!
DISTURBED loves playing bad covers, btw. Here’s a short list, just of the cover songs that have been on their studio albums:
- “Shout2000″ (Tears for Fears cover)
- “Land of Confusion” (Genesis cover)
- “ISHFWILF” (U2 cover)
Perhaps due to my predilection for their industrial tracks, I didn’t find anything valuable in their future albums. They turned into a generic ‘hard rock’ or ‘alt-metal’ band, losing their experimental edge. They become pretty supportive of the military down the road, which I think is lame for all sorts of liberal reasons*, but mostly because it seems like an exercise in marketing more than anything. Sometimes it’s just so goddamn obvious when a record label pushes a band in a certain direction. I shed a single tear of mercury each time I tell the tale of labels ruining bands. (I don’t blame the bands, as they are victims of this, of pursuing their dream of making music for a living.)
* namely that metal, to me, is about giving power to those oppressed by society. The army is about enforcing the will of those in power. Also, they toured with System Of A Down, one of the most vehemently anti-war bands out there. Explain that, Clarissa!
I Wanna Forget: STAIND
Put yourself in my shoes for a minute. You awaken with incredible taste in metal. You can tell if a band will be any good after only 10 seconds. With this magical ability, you could listen to only the best of the best, for the rest of your life.
So, do you?
Hell no.
Listening to ‘bad’ music is an important part of your musical diet. With that intro, I offer you a little history lesson.
STAIND come from now-embarrassing roots, having been discovered and promoted by none other than Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame. So they’ve been written off with a zillion other nu-metal bands, that “true” metal fans “always hated”*. Hell, I could easily forget about them and pretend they were never a part of my musical upbringing. But I can only pass by the name STAIND in my mp3 collection so many times, without clicking out of morbid curiosity. So yeah, here’s a retrospective on their first three albums.**
(1999) Staind - Raw (heaviest track)
STAIND’s first album was pretty gritty. The riffs are not spectacular – in fact, I remember practicing guitar in my bedroom, switching to drop-D tuning, and seeing what I could figure out. (The track “A Flat” has hints in the track name.) (Oh, and I figured the shit out of that hidden track “Excess Baggage”, since it’s only like 4 chords, and half of them are the same as “Sanitarium” by Metallica.) That kinda nu-metal didn’t require any spectacular talent, really. The production has a bit of a Korn feel to it, especially with the crunchier chords on tracks like “Raw”. Speaking of Korn, this guy’s also got some serious daddy issues.
I hear you talk about your family life
I wish I knew just what that means
I guess my mother never loved my dad
And now I wear it on my sleeve…
- “Me”
Dig deeper for themes of addiction, loneliness, girl problems.
Two more albums below the fold!…
Best of 2012
Look, I won’t waste your time with a lot of commentary on these. This list is compiled from me searching my collection for ’2012′ and figuring out which albums I was still excited about. I included direct links to download all of these albums. (I do this in the interest of promoting bands I love. If you’re a copyright owner who wants me to take a link down, contact me at dmca@mylifeismetal.com.) There’s also a Spotify playlist that has my favorite tracks from all these albums, although it’s missing some essentials, like “Take The Mirror” from White Lung.
I could really talk your ear off about all these releases, but how about you just hit Play instead? If you download things, be polite and say “thanks”, but also be sure to bitch me out about how you can’t believe Pig Destroyer didn’t make the cut, or whatever.
BEST OF 2012
‘INDIE’
Bear In Heaven – I Love You, It’s Cool (catchy psych-rock)
Death Grips – The Money Store (aggressive hip-hop with crazy beats, courtesy of Zach Hill)
Grizzly Bear – Shields
Metz – Metz (post-punk from Canada, catchy as fuck)
* White Lung – Sorry (punk from Vancouver, this girl is MEAN)
CHILL
Chromatics – Kill For Love
Clams Casino – Instrumental Mixtape 2
Flying Lotus – Until the Quiet Comes
Holy Other – Held
How To Dress Well – Total Loss
* Lorn – Ask The Dust
Simian Mobile Disco – Unpatterns
XXYYXX – XXYYXX
POST-ROCK
* Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! (unexpected, and amazing.)
Caspian – Waking Season (another solid, heavy post-rock album from these guys. “Gone in Bloom and Baugh” instantly became one of my favorite tracks of theirs)
METAL
* Converge – All We Love We Leave Behind (these guys get better and better. this album has a lot of ‘thrash’ elements to it, which are added in a unique way that few bands could pull off)
Elder – Spires Burn (not a full album, but some of the catchiest stoner metal tracks I’ve heard. check out if you want something bright and fun with sweet Sabbath-y riffs)
Enslaved – RIITIIR (I haven’t enjoyed a progressive metal album this much for many, many years)
Eryn Non Dae – Meliora (intense from start to finish and just excellent all-around, check out if you like technical death metal)
Glass Cloud – The Royal Thousand (surprisingly good, catchy, non-lame metalcore band, feat. the guitarist from The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza)
Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage (one of the best melodic death bands around. I call them ‘green metal’ because they sing about saving the whales and being a good steward of this planet)
Kehlvin – The Orchard of Forking Paths (doom/sludge with excellent riffs)
Krallice – Years Past Matter
Loma Prieta – I.V. (meanest screamo)
Old Man Gloom – NO (supergroup: ex-Isis, Converge, Cave In)
Sunn O))) @ The Neptune, 12/16/2012
Sunn O))) is not so much a musical performance as it is a sonic experiment. Sound is just compressed air, and you stand there, helpless as wave after wave rushes through your bones. Any melodies are stretched out too far to comprehend; the only rhythms are those of oscillating waves of horrific intervals.
Not to be obscene, but: Sunn O))) is the sound of your ears getting fucked in positions you’ve never tried before.
I always think people taking cell phone pictures are kind of annoying, but they felt extremely out-of-place at this show. I mean, these guys come out in cloaks, inviting us to join them in their ritual…I think “no cell phones” should be implied, eh? One of my favorite moments of the show was standing near the front, being enveloped in smoke; the only light I could see was the power light from a single amp. I couldn’t even see people directly behind me. As the smoke clears, my first vision is the shadow of three reapers on stage.
The relative darkness of the stage fits the theme of the music. As your eyes adjust to the lack of light, your ears become comfortable with the noise, and after awhile, you start to notice things you wouldn’t otherwise. There’s really nothing for you to do but concentrate on what the sound waves are doing to you.