Monday, September 26, 2011

Non-metal is the new Metal?

It's not secret music outside the bounds of metal is a huge influence on what we band our heads to. It trickles down from musicians pulling from a broader range of influences to listeners , who in the age of mix cd's to Ipods have wider taste buds , even back on the days of myspace the dude with corpse paint on in the music section, would have the random vnv nation or skinny puppy listed. so listening to other forms of music has been acceptable to some extent, though not as widely embraced in the troll circles of sites like metal sucks or blabbermouth.
Recent headlines show Metallica, teaming up with lou reed and Mastodon's latest album full of Thin Lizzy inspired phrasing, but even the more brutal purveyors of real metal ...not what Lars and co try to pass off, such Erik Danielson of Watain who claims he wouldn't be making music if it wasn't for Feilds of Nephilim, who Behemoth also claims as an influence. Varg has said in interview aside from classical music the only band he listens to is the Cure, and Carpathian Forest have covered them. Goth is of an only once removed cousin to metal, the two are more closely intertwined than you average fan might care to admit.
So today we are going to look at ten non metal " bands" the term use more loosely in some instances , if you are going to listen to stuff that's not metal i think tonally it should be a comfortable shift in the ipod , some of it is music that is heavy and dark in mood rather than in chugging guitar.
first off my most recent obsession
1-Zola -Jesus, ... why a metal head would dig it well it's dark and has a subtle abrasive quality to , the siouxsie influences front and center , the vocals both beautiful and almost ominous , un happy electronica , noise under tones, if you don't like female singers or keyboards , this isn't for you but if the yeah yeah yeahs are too upbeat then here you go
2-Rasputina... i had dated more girls who liked this band than any other, so had a prejudice against them until last fm wised me up, mainly cellos and drums, smatterings of piano and other instruments are present like scattered parts of a porcelain doll hit with a hammer, sure the singer sounds like a spoiled child from the Victorian era but the song writing and bizarre lyrical content makes up for it
3-Murder By Death... by their name you prolly though these guys were metal any way, if you checked them out you found it was former members of Cursive making dark western music whose closest relative is maybe Morphine, while they do rock out in their own way it is never through blunt force, the occasional screamed vocal comes into the back ground normally low in the mix ,
4-Slow Dive... highly regarded in the shoe gaze circles, for fans of Alcest who are ready to take the plunge into the real thing, i think most fans of dsbm could appreciate them as well, the guitar sound drowns you as it add as flood to your rainy day
5- Tiger-Army... if you listen to punk rock or dated a chick who has you might have already heard these guys, the pattern with all my picks so far is they are dark, these guys could fall into psycho-billy, the punk edge is still there, like a fusion of A.f.i and chris isaak at times , no not the really duran duran ish A.F.I, though he doesn't ever shred per se, i think guitarists can appreciate their chops, they have balls to them and sing about death as well.
6- Blonde Redhead... ok you can listen to them with out becoming a total hipster now, very experimental while maintaining, drugged out pop hooks..that's popin the carpenters manner of speaking not Katy Perry , their guitar swirls around you like methadone cotton candy, they can be intense at times with out pouring on the loud
7-Aesop Rock...yes this is rap, but it doesn't make you feel like a your are pretty fly for a white guy for listening to it as he is very intelligent and subversive, spits out some pretty grim images and isn't laying on the bass to rattle your car but more challenging sonic landscapes , a very unique rap voice as well
8-the decemberists ... like rush if you judge them by the radio songs you aren't getting a very clear picture of what they actually do this is the only prog band i am putting on here because , most of you i expect already are familiar with yes and king crimson, sure there are acoustic guitar's and Colin's bright vocal tone , but he sings about murder normally grisly murder like macabre would write about , so if you aren't into prog , you still might like these guys , his placement of melody is catchy and unique, while their radio exposure has the wrong people listening to them they are still one of my favorite bands selling out and all
9-Skinny Puppy...i have already praised the Swans, so this is the next most metal non metal band after them, they have every thing you need from a metal band with out being metal... harsh toned vocals , slicing guitar samples, they match Carcass in the lyrical department, don't let the drum machines scare you away
10-Diamanda Galas - she's the only one on this list not already in my ipod, i'm not sure why she isn't , i think i tried to find the album she did with john paul jones online and couldn't and tapes don't convert over so well, any way more satanic than 90 percent of your black metal , she 's fucked up and not fucking around , check out her black mass, she makes gospel music evil and is on a Rotting christ album...so what more do you need

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