Lost are all who traverse these ominously twisting paths …
Waking this morning, I peered through the windows and spied yet another surprise overnight snowfall, after having gone to bed with my yard clear of the stuff. Though I knew that it would (thankfully) melt before the day was through, the back-and-forth battle of Spring and Winter directed my thoughts to the colliding worlds of demos, Doom Metal, and tapes, and two releases fit that bill for review this week. First up we have the heavy doom/death of, well, Heavydeath, Swedemasters who provide all that you’ll recognize and just enough ‘more’ to tantalize, and the more hemp-appropriate doom of Sadhak, a one-man show that has more in common sonically with the Second Wave than might be obvious at first.
Marty remains sleep-deprived and bleary-eyed as he continues trying to catch up on shipping out pre-orders for Panopticon/Falls of Rauros LP, so I’m flying solo once again on the offerings. Let me know I’m not totally alone (wah) by commenting on this week’s topic:
extreme music fans are typically forgiving of “evil” musicians’ behavior, but what about when a musician turns ‘holy’
(thinking of Dave Mustaine here). Should metal fans, specifically, view such musicians as having de-legitimized any new music released afterward in some way, or should the taking of the right-hand path have nothing to do with the perception of an artist’s future output?
Comment/post playlists/yadda-yadda-yadda …
Jim Clifton Playlist
Sarcofago – Rotting
Thantifaxath – Sacred White Noise
Velnias – Sovereign Nocturnal
Panopticon/Falls of Rauros split LP
Cormorant – Earth Diver
Skogen – I Döden
Blood and Sun – White Storms Fall
Ifing – Against this Weald
Necros Christos – Triume Impurity Rites
Thergothon – Streams from the Heavens
Marty Rytkonen Playlis
Manilla Road – Gates of Fire
Manilla Road – Voyager
Crowned – Vacuous Spectral Silence
Rush – Moving Pictures
Lost Horizon – Awakening the World
Lost Horizon – A Flame to the Ground Beneath
Slough Feg – Atavism
Metal Church – Metal Church
Nargaroth – Semper Fidelis
Paul Stanley – Solo Album
Worm Gear 
Playlist:
Van Halen – S/T
Van Halen – II
Grifteskymfning – Djävulens Boning
Vspolokh – Sorrow of the Past
Judas Priest – Unleashed in the East
Judas Priest – Turbo
Judas Priest – Ram it Down
Judas Priesy – Defenders of the Faith
Thou Art Lord – Apollyon
Entombed – Left Hand Path
Burial Hordes – War, Revenge and Total Annihilation
Ares Kingdom – Return to Dust
Throneum – Bestial Antihuman Evil
John Coltrane – Crescent
The Jazztet – Meet the Jazztet (thanks Zahler)
Can’t think of an example other than Dave Mustaine, who seems to be even more of a (homophobic, paranoid) dick now than before he went christian and hasn’t made a decent record since ’92. But the main point is: by turning a christian he totally de-legitimized his own pre-christian records and lyrics (while still playing some of them live?!). I can’t take Dave serious anymore while Dave seems to take himself more serious the older he gets (check out his various onstage rants on youtube). Any other examples?
As I said before; in general my tolerance for people supporting organised religion is very poor.
I think Blackie Lawless is ‘born-again’ and he always seemed like a despicable character, also Pete Sandoval is now a holy crusader but his drumming seems as vicious as ever based on that last Terrorizer album.
Root – The Book
Fates Warning – Parallels
Masters Hammer/Blackosh split
Limbonic Art – Ad Noctum
Scorpions – Savage Amusement
Bruce Dickinson – The Chemical Wedding
Wolf Spider – Kingdom of Paranoia
Wolf Spider – Drifting In the Sullen Sea
Vader – Litany
Babylon Sad – Kyrie
Altered Moves Two – Shifter of Minds
Cauldron Black Ram – Stalagmire
Vicious Rumours – Soldiers of the Night
Pete Sandoval?? Oh ancient ones how could you let this happen?
As long as they aren’t loud mouthed dicks (Mustaine) about it, I don’t really have a problem with it. Though I have problems with any religion, if you just keep it to yourself I don’t see an issue with it.
Inquisition – Obscure Verses for the Multiverse
Bathory – Nordland I
The White Buffalo – Once Upon a Time in the West
Emperyium – A Wintersunset…
The White Buffalo – Shadows, Greys and Evil Ways
Candlemass – Nightfall
Witchcraft – Legend
Electric Wizard – Dopethrone
Pilgrim – II: Void Worship
T.S.O.L. – Change Today?
Mournful Congregation – The Monad of Creation
Thantifaxath – Sacred White Noise
Anathema – The Silent Enigma
Cathedral – Forest of Equilibrium
The Oath – The Oath
Falls of Rauros/Panopticon – Split
Woman is the Earth – Depths
Sleep – Sleep’s Holy Mountain
Russian Red – Agent Cooper
Forgotten Tomb – Springtime Depression
The new Triptykon is ruling my world.
Triptykon – Melana Chasmata
Possession – Anneliese
Thantifaxath – Sacred White Noise
Impetuous Ritual – Unholy Congregation of Hypocritical Ambivalence
Gamma Ray – Empire of the Undead
Manowar – Sign of the Hammer
Manowar – Triumph of Steel
Manowar – Louder Than Hell
Death – Spiritual Healing
I have evolved a little bit on my opinion as far as tolerating metal musicians with religious beliefs. I am not as opposed to Christianity in metal music as I used to be. I do think organized religion is dumb, but if a person can practice it and keep their mouth shut about it when talking to other people I don’t mind. Whatever helps people get through life, as long as they are not trying to create public policy on some wacko fundamentalist beliefs. I could care less if Dave Mustaine turned Christian if he could make a killer Megadeth album again. However he has become more strange now that he has turned Christian, while turning out weak Megadeth albums at the same time. I think it is stupid that he will no longer play The Conjuring (killer song) live because it is about black magic and he thinks evil things will happen if he plays that song. Bands like Believer, Feast Eternal, old Trouble are all pretty killer even though they are Christian. In some sort of way I almost like a little bit of Christian metal as some sort of “fuck you” to the pentagrams, inverted crosses, and hail satans, that are mindlessly ubiquitous in the metal scene. Don’t get me wrong, I like my songs about Satan but it has almost become too establishment in a way. So if someone can convert to Christianity and make a killer album I have no problem with it. However, the conversion Christianity usually coincides with weaker musical output in bands that were not already Christian.
Oh yeah, I forgot to put Marty Friedman’s Dragon’s Kiss on my playlist.
When I was younger, christian ideologies in metal were a definite offense, though I could look past this to enjoy bands like Believer, Trouble, etc. The older I have gotten, I could honestly care less as long as the music appeals to me. Jesus or satan? It’s all from the same oppressive seed. It all makes for a spiffy tale, but it holds little more interest to my life than that.
Honestly, as time passes quickly onward and the world falls deeper into chaos, I realize people need something spiritual to hang onto to give them some sort of a shield from all the uncertainty, but with modern technology and science answering more and more of lifes once unanswerable questions, how so many people can continue to bury their heads in the sand and continue to cling to something so beyond belief and reason is frightening.
And Dave Mustaine… such a pure talent. I’m more pissed off that he continues to release shitty music than soapboxing about your typical right wing/religious prejudices. He has a right to say what he believes like we all do. I don’t agree with it and that’s ok. Where I’m furious…. compare Rust in Peace with turd salads like Thirteen and his latest release. Go back on drugs for fucks sakes!
Unfortunately there are no record stores in my area anymore to celebrate record store day with and more importantly to visit on a regular basis. Man I miss spending hours sifting through albums and simply loitering at the record store. However as a consolation the Falls/Panopticon split was sitting in my mailbox today \m/