Locust Years - "The Sound of War" news article

[JayKeeley]

...and then there were 6.

Kinda cool -> San Francisco Bay Guardian article

Some really good writing to be found and interesting tid-bits.

"The Locust Years" -- The album's title — borrowed from Winston Churchill, who coined the phrase in reference to the declines and compromises of the 1930s and their resolution in the gas chambers and killing fields of World War II — is an embittered indictment of the flag-waving, churchgoing citizen-consumer. Good Germans all, dutifully following their leader as the abyss yawns ever wider.

Gotta love the quote from Andee at Aquarius Records / tUMULt. Talk about hitting the nail on the head:

What kind of metal was this anyway? True? Black? Epic? These fine points of genre fidelity may seem irrelevant to a die-hard music fan, but for labels the difference is a record they can sell or not. "I loved Hammers the first time I heard them, and it never occurred to me to question or examine their sound, which was this gloriously confusional, amazing, and intricate chunk of mind-blowing music, metal or otherwise," says Andee Connors, who put out The Bastard on his tUMULt imprint. "It might be confusing for folks who are very strict with their genre divisions."

Seriously, how fucken true is that when it came to people trying to review this stuff?

"I CAN'T LABEL THIS SO I SUPPOSE I MUST COMPARE IT TO SLOUGH FEG??"

Gonna put on this album right now....

 

[NAD]

Hammers = Metal

I saw this article on their MySpork bulletin. I didn't even know Scalzi had left the band. Honestly to me that makes a huge impact, his voice may be Slough Feg, but it was equally Hammers as well, even if I do know Cobbett writes most of the stuff.

The Locust Years still lagged for me in a lot of ways, but man, that closing track... fuck.

 

[JayKeeley]

So this is quite poignant:

What kind of metal was this anyway? True? Black? Epic? These fine points of genre fidelity may seem irrelevant to a die-hard music fan, but for labels the difference is a record they can sell or not.

So obviously songwriting is of the utmost importance here, right? It's not like we're dealing with a band that's decided to be a melodic death band and therefore corners itself into writing melodic death metal songs. So if a band like this wants to write music, before necessarily writing metal music, then why not market yourself to non-metal labels?

I mean, I'm sure they do try, but god, this is the sort of music that would NEVER end up on Metal Blade or Nuclear Blast.

 

[JayKeeley]

Hammers = Metal

I think it's more like Hammers = Music

I didn't even know Scalzi had left the band. Honestly to me that makes a huge impact

We should wait for the next studio release. It'll probably be 3 years in the making and another new line up before they tour it.

That said, Scalzi leaving Slough Feg would be an impact, whereas for Hammers he was a hired gun. We basically don't know any different because we're just used to him fronting the band I suppose.

 

[Lies and Perfidy]

The new guy nailed the Locust stuff live, but was kinda iffy on the earlier material–he's got a style that tends more towards their new direction. But then, it's a mistake to talk about "direction" for Hammers cause they're pretty much always changing. I just hope we get more Corbett vox.

Great article, better than the Guardian's usual attempts at covering metal.

 

[Demonspell]

So this is quite poignant:

So obviously songwriting is of the utmost importance here, right? It's not like we're dealing with a band that's decided to be a melodic death band and therefore corners itself into writing melodic death metal songs. So if a band like this wants to write music, before necessarily writing metal music, then why not market yourself to non-metal labels?

I agree completely, taking that kind of consideration into songwriting is the easiest path to uninspired genericism, and HOM is the perfect example of someone who can look outside the parameters of metal and still be metal as fuck.

 

[Jim LotFP]

According to this article, Lamentations of the Flame Princess delivers subcultural acclaim!