- May 4, 2019
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I wanna hear some more of the obscure avant-garde side of metal music, especially my beloved avant-garde thrash metal. I'm also going to drop some examples of what I'm talking about in this thread, along with descriptions in case you're not familiar with the bands talked about.
First we have Thought Industry's sophomore effort, the masterful Mods Carve the Pig: Assassins, Toads and God's Flesh. Hear that punkish attitude, funky slap bass, technicality on the level of progressive metal? That fucking bonkers harmonica solo two and a half minutes in? The variety in riffs and seemingly dadaist lyrics? Hell yes.
Another example from Mods Carve the Pig. Check that shit out! Those acoustic guitar textures in the verses, the return of that slight funky sound I was talking about, and just the overall catchy yet incredibly weird melodies throughout. But it also doesn't forget to be heavy, check the hard hitting riffs four minutes in. By the way, this came out in 1993.
This is a song from Doom's album Complicated Mind, the track title is Fall, Rise And...yeah, it doesn't make any sense, because English wasn't their first language. Doom is an avant-garde/progressive thrash metal band from Japan, you see, and they were just nuts. I said thrash but the main riff in this song is more a hard rock / "traditional" heavy metal deal, it seems...until you start hearing some dissonant Voivodian riffs in the verses. But that bridge section is fucking NUTS. It's like an even darker, trippier version of what Voivod were doing on Dimension Hatross. Coincidentally, this came out the same year as Dimension Hatross, 1988. They have even freakier shit than this I'd love to show you all, but it's not on YouTube because their record company are corporate sticklers who don't want us silly Westerners listening to it. Oh well, search for the tracks Killing Time (from Incompetent...) and Ghosts of Princess (from the amazing Killing Field EP) on your own. By the way, my username comes from Doom's album Illegal Soul, which has a cool opening track.
Ah, Disharmonization, the insane second album from Carbonized and a highly experimental work of progressive/technical death metal. Well, there aren't really any growls in this track, but it's one of my absolute favs from this album so it's getting posted. The interaction between the bass and guitars is really something, but my favorite thing is the daunting, surreally scary atmosphere that this evokes, with its fucked up riffs and echoey vocals.
Another example of what this album has to offer, this gets closer to the core of the thing with a mix of very death-y growls and blast-beats with some very jazzy clean guitar parts. Again, amazing bass work and atmospheric echoed clean vox, but also pretty heavy in ways. It's interesting how they take the darkness and heaviness inherent to old school death metal and translate that darkness into a kind of surreal horror.
And lastly, an example from Coroner's darkly atmospheric Grin, and I know Coroner aren't really obscure to hardcore metal fans but it's worth posting. This is the most atmospheric song on the whole album, with the poetry in the verses, those haunting lady vocals throughout, the electric sitar usage in the choruses, and the synths which build up to that awesomely eerie closing section. And that bug outro...especially creeps me out, as I'm not really one for insects.
I'd post an example from my favorite (also weird metal) album of all time, Hypnosis of Birds, but there's a whole thread dedicated to that, so I won't. System of a Down (laugh at me for mentioning them, I don't give a fuck, they rock) also scratches this itch for eclecticity well for me, but everyone's heard them by now, and I got most of my fair share of them jamming Mezmerize back in high school. Anyhow, let's post some more trippy, weird, inventive metal, especially the more obscure stuff! And I don't just mean real technical shit, though I do like myself some Atheist and Watchtower.
First we have Thought Industry's sophomore effort, the masterful Mods Carve the Pig: Assassins, Toads and God's Flesh. Hear that punkish attitude, funky slap bass, technicality on the level of progressive metal? That fucking bonkers harmonica solo two and a half minutes in? The variety in riffs and seemingly dadaist lyrics? Hell yes.
Another example from Mods Carve the Pig. Check that shit out! Those acoustic guitar textures in the verses, the return of that slight funky sound I was talking about, and just the overall catchy yet incredibly weird melodies throughout. But it also doesn't forget to be heavy, check the hard hitting riffs four minutes in. By the way, this came out in 1993.
This is a song from Doom's album Complicated Mind, the track title is Fall, Rise And...yeah, it doesn't make any sense, because English wasn't their first language. Doom is an avant-garde/progressive thrash metal band from Japan, you see, and they were just nuts. I said thrash but the main riff in this song is more a hard rock / "traditional" heavy metal deal, it seems...until you start hearing some dissonant Voivodian riffs in the verses. But that bridge section is fucking NUTS. It's like an even darker, trippier version of what Voivod were doing on Dimension Hatross. Coincidentally, this came out the same year as Dimension Hatross, 1988. They have even freakier shit than this I'd love to show you all, but it's not on YouTube because their record company are corporate sticklers who don't want us silly Westerners listening to it. Oh well, search for the tracks Killing Time (from Incompetent...) and Ghosts of Princess (from the amazing Killing Field EP) on your own. By the way, my username comes from Doom's album Illegal Soul, which has a cool opening track.
Ah, Disharmonization, the insane second album from Carbonized and a highly experimental work of progressive/technical death metal. Well, there aren't really any growls in this track, but it's one of my absolute favs from this album so it's getting posted. The interaction between the bass and guitars is really something, but my favorite thing is the daunting, surreally scary atmosphere that this evokes, with its fucked up riffs and echoey vocals.
Another example of what this album has to offer, this gets closer to the core of the thing with a mix of very death-y growls and blast-beats with some very jazzy clean guitar parts. Again, amazing bass work and atmospheric echoed clean vox, but also pretty heavy in ways. It's interesting how they take the darkness and heaviness inherent to old school death metal and translate that darkness into a kind of surreal horror.
And lastly, an example from Coroner's darkly atmospheric Grin, and I know Coroner aren't really obscure to hardcore metal fans but it's worth posting. This is the most atmospheric song on the whole album, with the poetry in the verses, those haunting lady vocals throughout, the electric sitar usage in the choruses, and the synths which build up to that awesomely eerie closing section. And that bug outro...especially creeps me out, as I'm not really one for insects.
I'd post an example from my favorite (also weird metal) album of all time, Hypnosis of Birds, but there's a whole thread dedicated to that, so I won't. System of a Down (laugh at me for mentioning them, I don't give a fuck, they rock) also scratches this itch for eclecticity well for me, but everyone's heard them by now, and I got most of my fair share of them jamming Mezmerize back in high school. Anyhow, let's post some more trippy, weird, inventive metal, especially the more obscure stuff! And I don't just mean real technical shit, though I do like myself some Atheist and Watchtower.
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