Wednesday, September 7, 2011

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less aware of trendy metalcore crap these days, I don't know if Melo-Death riffs are still popular or if that's been superseded by the cripplingly-poor-songwriting-in-favor-of-pointlessly-technical-riffs thing.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.




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