Crossposts: Strange in Stereo #3

Oh, comment section, how did you know I was hoping to hear weed jokes?

- S W

Message From the Lowlands

Preach, Jason. Make me feel alright.

- S W

One Part Man/Four Parts Beast

So fucking great it deserves its own posts. So much packed into these five minutes.

- S W

Ulcerate Signs to Relapse Records

I’ve got mixed feeling about this, to be honest. Of course I’m ecstatic that Ulcerate‘s finding success because they absolutely deserve it, and anything that means that they’re gonna tour the states, even more so. But the band seems to be insular in their process that I worry about what’ll happen now that they’re on a big (by the metal underground’s standards) label.

As I type this though, I can’t help but feel like a petulant kid. Maybe I just feel for Willowtip, cause I have a large chunk of my heart dedicated to them, seeing as they were one of the first metal labels I got into. But fuck that noise, this is a good thing!

One thing that signing to Relapse does do is poise Ulcerate to take over 2013. The Destroyers Of All is seeing its fair share of acclaim, and I’m confident that newcomers¹ to Ulcerate will be liking it more after a year of steady absorption. If Ulcerate’s able to top themselves with their next one, I feel like they’re gonna make a real impact on the death metal world.

And for good measure:

¹This probably reeks of “I was here first!” fandom, especially given the sentiment that I opened with, but what I mean is that Ulcerate’s a tough listen. Everything Is Fire was completely (no hyperbole) incomprehensible to me when I first listened to it, and I think any virgin listener to the band is going to have trouble orienting themselves. The Destroyers Of All probably doesn’t have that problem quite as much, but having the foundations of their sound already set it my mind helped it make a lot more sense from the get-go. And when I say that it was incomprehensible to me when I first listened to it, I mean for like half a year.

- S W

A Smattering

These past few weeks have been very good to me as a listener – consequentially, haven’t been great ones as a writer. It’s funny the way that works, because it almost seems like a betrayal to the relationship that I build with albums to be writing about them as they’re still being absorbed. Plus work, moving, blah blah etc etc hectic schedule, whatever. And even though I am emerging from this rabid consumption phase just long enough to make a post up here, I still don’t feel like writing a traditional review for most of this stuff; not that I feel like doing a traditional review ever, but especially not now. So let’s do this bullet point style, shall we:

• Juicy J‘s Blue Dream & Lean is currently dominating my ear-space right now, as the man is want to do. What I’m loving about this one – which, at the moment at least, is more than both Rubba Band Business records – is how much it builds on the sounds (and words) of those two mixes; lines are not only referenced, but recut as hooks or catchphrases. I don’t know enough about Juicy J’s discography to say for sure that a lot of this stuff originated on the Rubba Band Business tapes, but re-appropriated hooks like the ones on “Gotta New One” and “Stoner’s Night 2″ definitely work for me. And, although the Lugar production remains, I think the most successful style on the tape is the kind featured on tracks in “Gotta New One”  - that is, soulful samples transposed with hard trap drums, kinda similar (but not really) to what made “International Players Anthem” awesome. And I’m sure as fuck you liked that one.

• Also on the agenda: a genealogical study of Kerasphorous. I was crazy about Order From Chaos since I first heard Stillbirth Machine, and dig Axis of Advance (although I still haven’t gotten to their latest) but I hardly went deep into either bands discography – maybe due to the fact that Angelcorpse and Conquerer left me cold. Kerasphorous’s (sadly) final EP, Necronaut, is making me regret that. In a year that featured quite a few “avant-garde” approaches to death metal (in a desert of retro-fetishism), it’s encouraging to hear some music from traditional metal dudes that is as engaging and exciting as any experimental metal album. If it wasn’t just two tracks, no doubt that this one would have been one of my favorites from this year. Anyway: I have albums from Vulpecula and Cremation on the way as I type this and am beyond psyched.

• I’m a little late on this one, but Circle Of Ouroborus’ Eleven Fingers is spectacular. Like Alright Is Exactly What It Isn’t, it’s pushing metallic sounds far from their typical context and, also like Alright, it’s well past the point where you can call it metal. Eleven Fingers  hews a lot closer to metal than Alright, and features some rather traditional metal moments – although the melodies, played on the maybe-guitar-maybe-a-keyboard, with that wonderful ambience swirling around are anything but traditionally played. Nothing Circle of Ouroborus has moved me before but, frankly, I’m stunned by the sound they created for this album. And another beautiful pressing courtesy of Handmade Birds.

- S W

More Crossposting

I find it much more rewarding to experience a band which forces you to decipher their style in your own terms, rather than basing that experience on a nice, neat, predetermined description.

- Shane, Crooked Necks

- S W

Crossposts

One of the reasons I haven’t been posting here lately is that I’ve been given the opportunity to write over at Invisible Oranges which, if you don’t follow it, is probably one of the best metal sites on the web today.

I’m writing a monthly column called Strange In Stereo, which is really just a mix, that is about non-metal music for metalheads. Check out my first attempt here.

Actually got an interview with Shane of Crooked Necks going up there too. We had a good conversation and he proved most of my theories about the band wrong, but that’s why we gotta do stuff like this!

Also, a new face will be appearing on Strange World in the near future.

See you then.

- S W