Author:voila_la_scorieSubject: Extreme Metal
Posted: 23 Jun 2017 at 10:01pm
I just want to share what's on my mind these days. No questions exactly. Just this:
My extreme metal enjoyment ended sometime in the late eighties or early nineties. I went out of the loop and missed out on the rise of death metal, death doom, black metal (second wave) and so on. When I heard these deep, growling, roaring vocals I was dismayed. Whatever happened to singing like Dio, Dickenson, Halford and so on? This is what they call heavy metal these days?
I took a big leap getting into Opeth. That was a few years ago. I accpeted the so-called death vocals and even recognized and admired the talent and skill required to execute them. Then this year I suddenly really got into death metal. I said initially that I liked only melodic death metal but this turned out to not be true. These days I really want to hear technical death metal, but also death doom and black metal.
Now here's the thing. First of all, there are just so many bands out there. Where does one begin? And many of those bands already have a dozen albums or so. It's overwhelming! I watch YouTube videos like Top Ten Death Metal Bands, Top 50 Old School Death Metal Albums, Top 100 Death Metal Songs, and of course similar compilations of black metal and even grindcore and the likes just to educate myself. I watch videos of people discussing albums and sub genres (the Banger TV Lock Horns series has been very helpful) and all these help me to find important bands and albums. But the journey into this new territory has more challenges.
I buy CDs. It's the best way for me to really give my attention to an album not only because I spent money on it but because I have made it "mine". A CD is "mine" once I have decided that I want it. But buying means I am limited to how much new music I can acquire at once. When I check out a band like Darkthrone, Enslaved, Obituary, Cryptopsy and so on, I am faced with the decision of what album or albums to get. Do I buy the debut to see how it all started? Do I buy the "genre-defining album" that makes all the video compilations and lists? Do I buy the highest rated on MMA? Do I buy the latest releases? What I have been doing recently is checking out all of the above by listening on YouTube and then choosing which albums sound good to me first. If I love the album, I want one or two more. If I don't think it's that awesome, I want to know which albums are better.
Ultimately, I hope to own two or three albums by a few dozen bands, so this is a long-term project to be sure. It is like a kind of disease, don't you think? An addiction.
That's all I wanted to express. Feel free to comment. Thanks to everybody who has been readng my reviews and especially to those who have left comments. I feel I have friends here! Cheers!