Intermission

I like football a lot. My parents never forced me into it (or any sports for that matter), so there's always been a steep learning curve between me and the full comprehension of the game but I work on that pretty constantly. Usually wikipedia. Here's an important thing.



Vince Willfork is a total pro. When you see a lineman catch an interception, usually they curl up and ground the ball. Not this time, for his first career interception, he didn't skip a beat and just took off and maintained excellent control of the ball. Go fucking Patriots.




And finally, I received this cleverly disguised gravity bong of a coffee maker for my birthday. Still perfecting the technique but I've been knocking out really delicious coffee already. Finally, a reason to wake up in the morning.

Real posts forthcoming

-W.F.

Ugh

Well, I meant to write about that Wolves in the Throne Room show from about eleven days ago but I didn't get around to that before I left for North Carolina. That's good, though. Right now that idea seems neither personally enriching to write about nor interesting. Here's a bullet point list regarding shows in from the tenth onwards...

PTL

Thou is (/art) heavy as fuck in person. Also, I experienced that thing first hand where the front-person is completely normal looking guy until the music starts and he gets this feral look in his eyes. Awesome.

Falls of Rauros is great. I wasn't aware of them before I went to college in the South but they're actually directly from my hometown. They're, to me, distinctly "American" sounding, sort of like Agalloch --especially their use of real riffs, huge, triumphant leads and folk influence. Sweet. I wish they didn't play first.

I came up with this analogy. Maybe this will resonate with you, if you like beer. The band that ended up playing before Thou is a Coors Light Band. For a second they are refreshing but once you stop to dissect their qualities, you find a band (or beer) totally devoid of character, and you're loath to drink more beer at all.

Wolves In the Throne Room has super nice gear. Oh shit, also this show was outside, behind a building, in case I failed to mention. They played a really amazing set. It would have been perfect if there weren't these two idiots who evidently payed $12 to come to the show to piss me off and try to talk over the quieter song parts right near me. I got out of the show and talked major shit.

GSO

Thou played "Smoke Pigs" and I caught them in a basement, with Bay of Pigs, who were fucking KILLER. (Hmm, recurring pig motif.) I greatly prefer that to when I saw them days earlier, to the tune of the backs of dozens of heads.

Wolves in the Throne Room played the same setlist. Crap, oh well. They sounded enormous in a club.

The openers (Megaton Leviathan) were totally tedious even before they lit herbs, which outraged my allergies and banished me outside to blow my nose.

I'd never listened to Mount Eerie, but they were really excellent.

Anywho...

Back to reality, back to Portland. Here's what I've been listening to lately. Try to deny the power of the chorus here.





Listen to this older Falls of Rauros album, if you know what's good for you.

"Ahhhhhh Ahhhh Ahhhh Ahhh Ahhhhhhhhh....AHHHHHHH AHHHHH AHHHH, AHHHHH AHHHH AHHHHH! OHHHHHHHHHHH"

Also, cough up some dough for some starving artists and buy a shiny new copy of their newest full-length. It will grout your tiles, if you know what I mean.

Fall of Big Cartel

Suck it, world!

-W.F.

Fired

Nearly a week ago, in the middle of my shift I got fired. I can rationalize this to myself perfectly well that this is a small setback, which it really is. It's still kind of upsetting, though. There's part of me that thinks only dicks fire someone out of the blue like that but then there's the part of me wondering what I could have done to avoid this. Part of their corporate policy is not divulging the exact causes for termination, depending on the case, I guess, and, frankly, that's more frustrating than any other part of this. So, I've been sort of down but this is also a chance for something better, because that old place drove me crazy, anyway. Fuck it, whatever.

While I still thought I had money forthcoming, I bought a cab.and then I moved it to my basement by MYSELF!

Anywho, part of my plan to cheer myself up involved forcing myself to go out and see the Wolves in the Throne Room, Thou, and Falls of Rauros show.

To be continued...

-W.F.

I Take Back What I Said About Ulver post-Nattens Madrigal

This song is pretty good. Otherwise, I hate everything on William Blake...



It's been a long week. Real post forthcoming.

-W.F.

I'm seeing Thou and WITTR twice in the next 11 days

The above is factual. Things are working out that way. Stoked.

On the subject of Wolves in the Throne Room, they seem to draw (1) vapid adoration from shitty, hipster types who've discovered black metal within the last lunar cycle, who want to build their cred and (2) directionless, ad hominem criticism from dipshits who actually listen to metal, but also want to build their cred -- oh man, the best is regarding WITTR's thematic content as being gimmicky, which is pretty dubious on two counts: (1) considering the near ubiquity of nature in black metal as a source of inspiration, and (2) the very idea that their deviation into specifically (yet vague) ecological inclinations would somehow get them undue "crossover" appeal with non-metalheads -- because those hated urbanite hipsters we've got in mind are clearly very conscientious are suckered into shit like that. I presume those two groups are outliers.

Generally speaking, a lot of people harp on this (North) American brand of atmospheric black metal that WITTR is the most visible representative of and how similar bands are coming out the wood works. I get it, yeah. I don't like second-rate anything. This isn't some kind of isolated phenomenon -- major musical trends like this have an extremely long shelf life, if you stop to consider how many bands ripping off the Bay Area sound AGAIN, for example. Or, how fucking inescapable the Gothenburg sound became well after the heydays of At the Gates, In Flames, and Dark Tranquility, respectively. I'm less aware of trendy metalcore crap these days, I don't know if Melo-Death riffs are still popular or if that's been superseded by the cripplingly-poor-songwriting-in-favor-of-pointlessly-technical-riffs thing. Also, if you're in roughly the same age group as me and can remember Myspace's long moment in the sun as the purveyor of all those stupid mid-2000s bands, let's share in enjoying how much better life is now without all that bullshit. High school, right?

(I did some hunting. Re: the current state of doo doo metalcore, watch from about 1:26 to maybe twenty seconds later.
Stupid video [Link] ))

Maybe the overarching theme here is that all of us have come a long way.

I'm dead tired, I went in early today. Mullets and big gauges for everyone and to all a good night.

-W.F.

Insane To NOT Repost

I found this on Skull Fucked. It originally went up in 2009. Scapegoat is a Boston PV band who I learned about by virtue of sharing the Brutal Supremacy split with Iron Lung, Hatred Surge, and Mind Eraser. They good!

That can be found in vinyl form via Painkiller. Get it while it lasts.

Here is some madness





You know what to do.

Real posts coming soon! Starting in a new position at work tomorrow! Minimal customer interaction!

-W.F.

Not Usually My Thing

Oh God.

Even since I've heard them, I've always appreciated Harm's Way. Starting in Chicago, playing vaguely Infest-esque powerviolence, they've moved into more metallic territory, incorporating some thrashy riffs while keeping the blastbeats, breaksdowns, and what have you. Also they're fronted by a terrifyingly huge dude. Just fucking look at that guy.


That's going to give me nightmares. Also, watch this. Really though, they could all be extremely approachable and friendly for all I know. Appearances are deceiving like that.

So, while ultra-masculine, tough guy hardcore hasn't really been my thing for a few years, I nevertheless find myself having to give it up for Harm's Way. The songs are raw aggression, if I've ever heard it, and heavier and more hateful than....anything, maybe. I definitely wont pass up a chance to see them live but I'm going to stand safely back like I usually do when I start to see people swinging their limbs out the corner of my eye.

If you're into it, definitely support them. Giant torso tattoos aren't cheap.

Demo

Imprisoned EP