The Fuckless

Jesus. Work was a disaster today. And I got my paycheck and I'm still not making enough money. I've only been able to work about 30 hours a week. I think I need an additional job. Hmm.

Well, at this particular time I feel moved to write about an album I liked.

I don't care for this album art. This is Akeldama from the The Faceless. Like Fallujah, who I covered not too long ago, the Faceless hail from California, as do a multitude of technical/brutal/progressive/noodle bands. I don't care for the bulk of those bands, nor am I exactly gaga over their followup, Planetary Duality, but Akeldama is pretty good.

So, to clarify my position on a few things: I don't really have that much against deathcore itself, rather most deathcore bands I've heard are completely disposable/interchangeable, as far as I'm concerned. With that out of the way, though, Akeldama has less to do with deathcore at all. Some have painted it as though around 2006, the Faceless were a precocious deathcore band trying to make a "real death metal" album. If anything, in 2006 the Faceless were a "real" death metal band which retained some vestigial deathcore tendencies because, to their credit, they know how to write songs that aren't built around enormous breakdowns and instead rely on dynamic, technical riffs as a means to bring about highly satisfying movements in their songs. Also, if two to three devastating breakdowns are enough to ruin a whole album for you, maybe you should lighten up a little. The highlight of this album clearly is the riffs, which are extremely catchy and bounce nicely between consonance and dissonance, as well as constantly maintaining a high level of activity without falling into the trap of being aimlessly technical sounding, like Necrophagist or, arguably, newer Decrepit Birth.

Akeldama has a sort of spontaneous creative flair to it. This manifests itself in a number of ways such as in the memorable keyboard lines or the clean vocals section on "Pestilence" or the quirky riffs. On this album it feels a lot more honest than their followup, which to me feels a little too telegraphed and conscious in its inclusion of "odd" parts. I still listen to it every now and then, which is more than I can say for Planetary Duality.



I'm le sleepy. I think I would have written more content or better content otherwise but fuck it. I think by virtue of me taking the time to write this, you will know I'm sincere in my recommendation of this album.


Buy their shi(r)t. Are the rest of the bands on Sumerian Records doodie? Possibly.

Akeldama

-W.F.

Hired

So, as I may have mentioned, I'm back to work at a grocery store I part-timed at for three years, and it is just uncanny how nothing has changed since I left (like how I'm the only person willing to clerk the bottle room and accept returnables) and quickly I'm picking everything back up. The pay isn't great and I'm not getting a lot of hours right now but the feeling of knowing that a paycheck is in my future is a relief, frankly.

Since I'm still drafting that 2011 Retrospective (yeah yeah, I know) and since I actually ended up working later than I was scheduled, I'm less interested in publishing that right yet. Here's something else.


Fallujah are an interesting band. A few years back, I liked Leper Colony (2009) enough to feature one or two tracks semi regularly on my radio show for a few months. Fuck if I remember what deathcore clearinghouse blog I found it on at the time. This was self-released. Basically, in addition to bringing a brutish, yet highly technical skill set to the table, Fallujah also managed to weave in a cold and strange sense of moroseness (hence where the "blackened" description of their music comes in). It's still a neat little EP that I listen to every now and then, even if some songs are a little bloated with dull single-note chug-fests. I'd still ultimately recommend it, that's for sure.

Anywho, in November they released a full length on Unique Leader (!!) called The Harvest Wombs. I've only listened to it maybe twice since then and I'm still on the fence about it (leaning positively). If you're into this current crop of technical, progressive West Coast death metal/deathcore, (Burning the Masses, The Faceless, et al), or Decrepit Birth (to whom many of these young bands would seem indebted to some degree) you'll definitely like it. If you're not crazy about that, the qualities that I found most interesting about them initial still ring true, for the most part. There is a certain knack for atmosphere this band has that a lot of their peers lack. The new album definitely cranks up the progressive riffometer up a few notches, which can be a little bit of a distraction for some. This is a noodle fest, like everyone showed up to the potluck with noodles.



Either way, it's cool to see this band getting more recognition and success. Give them your money.




Buy [Unique Leader]
Leper Colony
Here is an animated gif

Go fucking Patriots
-W.F.

Holy Goddamn

This just crossed my path. Systems is a NC band from Chapel Hill. I remember the first time I saw them maybe two or three years ago, I arrived late at the show space, came in through the pouring rain and was just floored. Ol' Systems, who were previously known as Chiaroscuro, started by sounding a lot like Circle Takes the Square and subsequently got wayy more metal. I'm not sure where this new release fits in or how many they've had up to this point but a few songs in and I can already tell that Ghost Medicine is definitely a winner.

At first glance, it would seem to be nestled into that vague quote unquote "Post Metal" (or atmospheric sludge/post-hardcore, maybe?) sound of the mid-oughties popularized by Mouth of the Architect et al but but but after the emphasis on atmosphere and the oppressive heaviness, that's where the similarities end. Systems brings a huge repertoire to the table with hypnotic riffs, more tempos than "slow", constant changes, while introducing inventive, unpredictable movements in each individual song .

I can probably reduce a big part of my acute appreciation of this record down to two points. First, is that this band doesn't halfheartedly embrace that they are a metal band. So many adherents to this, errr, crossover style seem to almost contemptuously eschew, for example, real riffs, double bass parts, etc and strike a fairly minimalist tone because it's not "punk" to actually play heavy metal, or some bullshit like that -- I know I'm speaking rather generally but this is a phenomenon I've seen firsthand. To say this is just heavy, atmospheric hardcore would totally miss the point. Secondly, bands like this usually end up with this hodgepodge sound where you'll be listening to them and think "Okay, here comes the black metal part....here comes the Stoner part..." and on and on (like how The Atlas Moth sounded to me last time I heard them) but honestly, this is the first time in recent memory that I've heard a band that is definitely metal that doesn't neatly fit into any of the major subgenres. The seams don't show. Systems convincingly utilizes an enormous pallet of textures and styles and never once did I find myself thinking "Oh man, they totally stuck a death metal part right there."

This ruled. Please check out their bandcamp.

Systems - Ghost Medicine

This Is Happening Right Now

I have a few days off and I've been avoiding sunlight. The above album has received strangely little attention as far as I can see, besides a blurb in Decibel. Sometimes, I read Decibel. Well...

This is The Konsortium. All of the members are masked and they go by numbers, but unlike Slipknot, listening to them wont permanently damage your metal cred........or your credibility in general. The only known member is Teloch, who's done live stints in Gorgoroth, Mayhem, and 1349. While the project of this Norwegian scene veteran has a lot of similar trappings to the aforementioned groups, this may be closer to later-Enslaved, but less meandering and annoying (but hey! You may like newer Enslaved and maybe I'm totally missing the point on this matter).

The Konsortium, though...



...right, the Konsortium, on the one hand is both, at times, blisteringly harsh and bottom-heavy (not unlike Gorgoroth or 1349) while also managing to seamlessly drift into weirdo progressive moments and integrate all kinds of vocal styles, harsh and clean, which is damn impressive. It's often the weird proggy moments that have the most sticking power when I listen to this band.

Often times, "progressive" bands fall into what I refer to in my mind as "jigsaw song syndrome," where disparate pieces or styles of music are haphazardly thrown the fuck into each other for the sake of mixing things up. I don't like it. As an example, while I have a cozy, warm place in my heart for Between the Buried and Me*, who were a crucial crossover band that led me to listen to more extreme metal back in high school, on Colors, which is an album I'd still ultimately recommend, there are a lot of moments where disparate song pieces are jarringly matched together, such as a (I wish I was joking) country-style porch jam in the middle of a triumphant song bridge. Fuck.

None of that shit, here. I encourage you to konsort.


Weirdo Prog Shit


-W.F.



*Okay, speaking of: I don't know what kind of self-delusion the admins at the Metal Archives have to muster up to to say "Nah, that band isn't as "metal" as S.O.D. or the Cro-Mags" Yeah fuckin' right.