Death 2 False Credibility
It seems this whole blog thingy could just be bypassed if I went ahead and gave you the link to my youtube favorites. Am I right? Reading blogs; iz like buying vinyl or CD when you can already download the album illegally somewhere on the interwebz. But whatever, I like the formality. Ain’t no tumblr just like there ain’t no smartphones up in here.
So — false metal: Back in the ’80s and early ’90s, false metal referred to glam bands, who were basically boy bands in poor disguise, cashing in on the popularity of the metal trend. The whole shit has come full-circle again today, so now you have all these metalcore/deathcore bands, which are essentially boy-bands, mistakenly giving normal people the impression of playing heavy metal, while marketing their merch and music to teenage kids. I’d think only girls would listen to it for the cute boys, but I’ve met plenty of young guys playing this stuff seriously. So weird, bro. All ya gotta remember is: deathcore = false metal; don’t tolerate people describing Bring Me the Horizon as a metal band. So obv I know, but hey I gotta water it down for the massive volume of readers I get on a daily basis.
There is also some weird hipster stuff making the rounds in the (adult?) metal scene, but in no large enough capacity to really make a lot of money. It’s just weird when mediocre stuff gets so popular. Or that is, mediocre stuff that has no real gimmicks. I mean, there are plenty of bands now just aping early Ulver, doing a half-assed job of recreating it in their Brooklyn studio space, and then marketing their avant-garde angle of being eco-green black metal or something similar.
It’s weird anyone lets them get away with this; black metal happened already, and less than 20 years ago. It was a pivotal extreme metal movement, and it brought a lot of anti-Christian/religious sentiment into the mainstream — not too mention a lot of those artists from the original black metal movement are only now reaping the meagerly lucrative benefits of being able to play live to large crowds (Immortal, Ulver, etc.). It just blows my mind when people want to plug these granola/urban/fixie-black metal bands like they’re something fresh or new. Dudes! Black metal was perfected in Ulver and Emperor and Enslaved back in 1994! Not being a jerk here, but people who release Bergtatt rehashes at this stage in the metal scene, with an eco-green twist, really seem like hipsters (Agalloch being the obvious exception lolz).
BTW: In addition to ordering the latest Ulver album on vinyl, I also snagged a CD copy of the latest Star of Ash album, Lakhesis. The press for Star of Ash has been kinda quiet since her first solo release in 2001, Iter.Viator. It’s all too artsy (as in, substantial) for the extreme metal scene these days, but top-notch stuff. Maybe you can describe it as nouveau-classical noir/darkwave? The previous album, The Thread was a fantastic minimalist, artistic concept album with some of the most gorgeous vox Kris G. Rygg has ever laid down!
Fretbored CRM 