Fuck you, Chris Brown.

Actual metal news sites have obviously picked up on this already (Metal Sucks, Blabbermouth) but talentless hiphop artist Chris Brown made a stir among us basement dwelling trolls by appearing in public wearing this.

 

Apparently there's a website that "custom makes" this kind of faux punk attire for people who want to co-opt metal, punk, and related subculture imagery for the sake of "fashion".  This is the worst thing that can happen to metal. Seriously.  Metal is a genre of music that by definition is so rebellious, so raw, and so ugly sounding that it shouldn't be allowed to be a fashion statement by a dude who's only famous because he got arrested for beating the shit out of his slightly more talented and frequently more naked girlfriend.  By wearing a PREMADE jacket with band patches of artists he probably hasn't even heard (I mean, nobody listens to Excel....NOBODY...), he turns what is a lifestyle or at least a passionate interest of so many of us dorks who deal with the daily awkwardness of "so what do you listen to?" into a fucking costume that we put on to portray an image, not a part of our identity that remains regardless of how we're dressed or how long our hair is.  It's not even "posing", because I don't think he even gives a crap about the metal and hardcore subcultures.  Perhaps he has a copy of Metallica's black album collecting dust on his shelf somewhere.  Chances are, Chris Brown would tell you he's into all kinds of music, and then would name off an embarrassing list consisting of Ozzy, Van Halen, and Aerosmith.  If I'm wrong, I'm fully prepared to retract my statements (though the jacket is still stupid...)

There's hiphop and rap artists who are legit into metal.  I'm not just talking about Necro either.  Kool Keith is a known fan of Slayer and Pantera.  Ice-T started his own damn (mediocre) band!  You know what else?  Because dudes like Kool Keith are actual fucking fans, they don't make a joke or fashion out of it either.  In fact, they don't violate one of metal's core rules:

Don't wear the shirt unless you actually listen to the band.

I suppose there really isn't anything that can be done about it, so I hope that at least bands who have their logos and likenesses used (such as those horrible pink Misfits girlie shirts at Hot Topic) are getting paid and that this fashion trend dies quickly.

(/end rant)

When One Of Your Favorite Bands Grows Old.

I had the opportunity to bullshit with Suffocation’s Terrence Hobbs for about 5 minutes at the 2012 Maryland Deathfest; among the things I learned were that Mike Smith’s departure was just a conflict of personalities (Hobbes expressed no apparent animosity), that they can pull 30,000 fans in Jakarta, Indonesia despite a substitute vocalist filling in for Frank Mullen, and that a new album would be released in this coming winter.

Fast forward to fall of 2012, we learn that the new albumwill be titled “Pinnacle of Bedlam”, and the band basically promises that it will not be “The Unspoken King”. Unfortunately, we also learn that real life circumstances managed to creep into the band; having just gotten a stable, well paying “real” job, FrankMullen, the voice of Suffocation, is no longer going to tour with the band fulltime in the future.

From the perspective of a metal fan, that sucks ass.  It effectively means that seeing Suffocation live will be much like seeing Vital Remains; Glenn Benton performs the vocals their most recent albums, but for live performances the band tours with a fill-in.  Despite those who would argue that vocalists don’t matter in death metal, charismatic front-men can elevate ordinary death metal bands to top tier acts.  Be it Glenn Benton’s assholish persona, George “Corpsegrinder“ Fischer’s intimidating stature,  Barney Greenway’s gorilla dancing, or Lord Worm feeding dirt-caked invertebrates to the audience, being an effective death metal frontman is more than being able to bree-bree and grunt.  Frank Mullen is more than merely a capable growler with inhuman pronunciation; he also is the face of Suffocation with his confident, no nonsense demeanor and dry humor.  So I think as a fan it’s a loss to fans to see Suffocation perform and not hear the vocalist on the recordings.

That said, as a man, I have nothing but respect for Frank Mullen, and I admire him even more for having his priorities straight.  Death metal isn’t something bands do to make a living, and Frank’s in his 40’s with a teenage daughter.  There’s no health insurance or 401k in playing in a metal band, and at some point as a responsible adult you have to examine your life and make grown up decisions.  He obviously loves death metal as much as ever, as someone who wants to continue performing when possible; 6 months of worldwide touring where at best, a musician doesn’t lose any money just isn’t a way to live beyond your 20’s.

As a fan, I’d point to a band like Pig Destroyer, comprised of dudes with real jobs (Scott Hull even has a government gig, supposedly.)  As a result, they don’t tour.  They play occasional shows at festivals, perhaps two dates here and there on weekends, and that’s it.  Yet they’re one of metal’s most renown bands.  For a band of 40 somethings that have a tremendous amount to still offer the metal scene, perhaps this is the manner Suffocation should perform going forward.  My Dying Bride is another example; they don’t tour in 2012 at all, except for a handful of European Festival dates and one-off appearances such as last year’s 40 Tons of Metal or whatever that cruise ship thing was.  Yet they remain a relevant band in today’s scene as well, despite the fact their album output as fallen in quality beyond 2001’s “The Dreadful Hours”.

At the same time, each of the other members of Suffocation have a rightful claim to building the band’s legacy (even drummer Dave Culross, who appeared on the “Despise The Sun” EP) and I don’t think that Terrence Hobbs and co. should have to give up performing together because Frank is unable to sing.  But perhaps they should write, record, and tour under a different name, and just perform one or two Suffocation songs in their set when Frank isn’t able to tour.  Or perhaps Frank’s decision should be a time for the rest of the band to also realize that while they aren’t old men, they’re not teenagers anymore either and perhaps getting 9-5’s might make keeping the band going a less stressful enterprise.  Certainly that would be preferable to touring the same towns 3 or 4 times a year to dwindling crowds who already saw them perform previously the month before in an attempt to carve out a living.

I’ve seen Suffocation 5 or 6 times by my estimation, and I do hope I have an opportunity to see them again with Frank on their touring cycle for “The Pinnacle of Bedlam”.  I just don't want Suffocation to become "just another band" or a band that hung around too long.

P.S. Y'all homies need to go record your albums at Morrissound Studios again, ASAP; your last 3 records suffer from having Mike Smith's kick drum drown out the riffs.

Interesting Interview with Phil Anselmo

I was just fucking around online the other day on youtube (hoping to not suffer though one of those unskippable 2 minute Republican Party ads) and I stumbled upon this interview with Phil Anselmo that I would guess is from 2010 or so?  It's interesting mostly because 1.) the guy is a natural storyteller, and 2.) he spends the entire hour discussing his drug history in considerable detail.

Please Don't Sue Me, Century Media.

It is with great disappointment that I recently discovered that Century Media Records has taken the step of pursuing litigation against individuals who have “distributed” releases by Iced Earth and Lacuna Coil via BitTorrent.  By “distributed”, I largely mean “pointed and clicked on a hyperlink” so that they could listen to an advance, early digital copy of the music contained on the aforemention artists most recent albums.

I’m not a lawyer (maybe someday, heh), and I’m not an expert on intellectual property laws or patents, but I do know enough about where technology is to know that downloading is here to stay, whether anyone likes it or not.  I for one have embraced it as a way to sample new works by artists that I may not otherwise ever get to hear.  I don’t consider it a replacement over physical media; I would much prefer to hear the most recent Insomnium album (one of CM’s current artists) though the CD player of my car stereo over the washy-sounding 96bit mp3 download I have on my Zune of the same album.  In fact, the most recent Insomnium album is but one of 139 Century Media albums that I (inexactly) counted on my shelves.  Physical CDs, not mp3s on a hard drive.  Artists ranging from Arch Enemy and Arcturus to Venemous Concept and Vallenfyre.  That’s not to even consider albums that I bought under their affiliated imprints such as Nuclear Blast or Olympic Recordings.  If we estimate that on average I paid $12 dollars for each of those Century Media imprinted recordings, I’ve handed the label approximately $1668 dollars out of my own pocket over the years just for physical CDs.  Again, that doesn’t include CMR’s affiliated label releases (which may possibly even exceed my CM albums), or even merch and distro items that I bought via CMR’s website.  That’s a lot of money from just one fan; now consider how many old fucks like me there are out there who have spent large sums of money over the years supporting the label.

Now if one of those old fans, who was buying the albums and going to the tours since “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, is suddenly sued for being curious about the most recent Iced Earth album, do you really believe this promotes good will for your label?  Century Media is NOT Roadrunner, with signed artists like Nickelback and Slipknot and financial support of conglomerates such as Warner Music to keep them afloat if a small, vocal, and passionate sub-sect of fans swears off buying Roadrunner albums.  In fact, Century Media, much like Relapse, Metalblade, Earache, Willowtip, Unique Leader, and other smaller metal oriented labels, DEPENDS on good will and fan support.  As a fan, there’s an expectation that when an artist emerges from the obscure depths of the metal scene to be signed to Century Media (or Relapse, etc), that this reasonably suggests that the band is of a certain expected quality.  That the recording is going to sound professional and not like a Darkthrone practice space recording. 

I understand that there’s a business side of operating a music label, and paying for those professional sounding recordings isn’t cheap (though it is becoming increasingly more affordable…) and whoever owns the intellectual property rights to the albums Century Media releases should have a voice regarding how that intellectual property (albums in this case) are distributed.  However, I see, and would hope that the record label comes to their senses and understand that suing fans over downloaded material will result in a pyrrhic victory; sure fans will settle for a few thousand dollars rather than go to trial, and Century Media, after legal fees, will temporarily refill their modest coffers.  But the long term damage will be done; artists who disagree with your business practices will not resign or extend their contracts, especially if there’s fan pressure against it.  Fans themselves in this small metal subculture will increasingly avoid buying albums or supporting artists on Century Media.  Century Media may be looking at the case of Metallica, and assume that since it didn’t hurt Metallica’s career long term to sue Napster, that metal fans will just look the other way, or complain a lot while still buying their favorite band’s next album that happens to be released by CMR.  That is not the case here.  Lacuna Coil and Shadow’s Fall may have sold some albums, but even including that if you add up all of the album sales for every album ever released on a Century Media imprint, it still wouldn’t come close to what Metallica has done for one album (okay, maybe “Lulu”.)  Metallica is a dinosaur from a bygone era; Century Media caters to a smaller, more dedicated, but also more demanding audience. 

In short, operating a label in this era is tough, and I’m not sure what steps Century Media or other independent labels should take to remain viable, but suing fans isn’t it.  Engaging the fans, satisfy them by releasing good albums by quality artists, offering extras when fans buy physical CDs (“making of” DVDs work well!) and fans like myself will keep spending $12 bucks at a time to support Century Media artists.  Then again, I don’t give a fuck about Iced Earth or Lacuna Coil so if you wanna sue downloaders of those bands, it doesn’t mean shit to me.  But you won’t have to worry about me downloading, paying for, other otherwise supporting the rest of the Century Media roster, either.