More Music On YouTube

I finally decidied it was time to add some new music to my YouTube channel. Check it out below, make sure to like and subscribe, and of course, thank you very much for listening. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRsQnG723_g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhE13KmPWIM&t=285s

Nocturnal Poisoning

Black metal, Dark Ambient 

Nocturnal Poisoning is the debut release by the American black metal one-man band Xasthur, released in 2002. The CD version of the album was limited to only 2,000 copies, making it a novelty. In my last post, which can be read here, I talked about how I got into black metal and a review for the first black metal record I listened to, Leviathan's debut release. It's ironic how I got into black metal on Holy Week and the week Notre Dame Cathedral got burned. I'll remember this week in 2019 for sure. 

Xasthur's first record Nocturnal Poisoning is a nightmarish beast. I first heard of Scott "Malefic" Conners when I saw the Noisey documentary on one-man black metal bands. Scott seemed like quite the troubled guy, much more messed up, and depressed than Wrest from Leviathan, who was also featured in the documentary. He seemed autistic, although I'm not quite sure if he is or not. One thing for sure is that he's an excellent musician. That's what got me interested in listening to Xasthur, Leviathan, and Striborg, all three one-man black metal projects. 

The guitars on this record are extremely distorted, fuzzed out walls of sound. Its as if he had two or more guitar tracks at all times, like a hurricane of guitar noise. The whole atmospheric walls of guitar distortion is a black metal staple, something I learned about from listening to Darkthrone, a 90's secondwave black metal group from Norway. Its that stereotypical high pitched, distorted tremolo guitar riffing that is so characteristic of black metal. It sounds great, especially with aggresive, fast blast beats on the drums. 

The drums used here are nothing all that impressive. In fact, I believe it to be a drum machine based on reviews I've read but they work. They aren't exceptional, and if Conners got a real drummer, or played real drums himself, the sound of the drums would've been much heavier. With drum machines, you always have a sense of something missing. The beats could sound great technically and fit all the songs but it's missing that human soul, to beat the living shit outta drum heads. You need real drums for metal, especially black metal, a genre that thrives off the raw visceral feel of rock and roll. The bass sound on this record is almost nonexistent, not good! 

The vocals are okay. They weren't exceptional. The lyrics are your typical post-1990's black metal fanfare-hate,  souls, hateful souls, yeah we get the idea. The vocals have a lot of fuzz and distortion attached, something that sounds quite good on King Crimson's first album, on the tune 21st Century Schizoid Man. However, the way fuzz is used on these black metal vocals are extreme, like the fuzz is at eleven and the vocals are at seven. The vocals are used sparingly and you can't understand any of them without a print off. Go figure.

The best thing musically about this record other than guitar [I love black metal guitar] is the keyboards. I would say Conners is best at guitars and keyboards, that's where he shines. The keyboards add a sense of dark ambiance that I haven't heard in most metal. Most metal uses keyboards as a cringe operatic and classical thing, not so here. The keyboards add more layers and layers of sound walls, adding to the guitars and overall atmosphere. 

The music is crushingly depressing. You could call this genre depressive suicidal black metal [DSBM for short], and after listening to the whole record you get a sense of uneasiness. "What am I listening to? Is this any good? Who would enjoy this?" That being said, this music is one hell of an acquired taste, as is black metal in general. This album doesn't really have riffs I can remember, its just drones and endless drum loops. I believe the album would get better after multiple listenings but the first one left me puzzled. The production on this record is better than your typical lo-fi black metal, that's one of the record's redeeming qualities. In fact, the production is so good that it sounds like a movie. 

All that being said, this record shows you how dark black metal gets. It's depressing. The vocals are painful to hear, painful in the sense that they are like cries of agony, screams of agony actually. I was inspired to listen to Xasthur because I found Conners to be the non-stereotypical black metal musician. He wasn't over the top, he doesn't write satanic lyrics or wear corpsepaint, and when he was interviewed in the Noisey documentary, he seemed like a genuine person-not fake. I realized from that interview that he was a troubled person and that shows in his music. I think I'd be down to check out more of his album releases and/or demo tapes. I've come to find that a lot of the really great black metal music comes from demos and EP's, as well as album releases. I'd be interested to see where Conners would go musically from here. I would definitely put him on my list of third wave American black metal, and one man black metal projects. It's impressive that he recorded all this on his own. Although I find the music arrangements to be not totally awe-inspiring, he is doing something unique, of his own here, that stands apart from his peers, other black metal musicians.

The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide

Black metal, dark ambient genre 


Here's an album review for the heavy metal music fans. I got into black metal the other day. I was at my friends' house watching a rockumentary about the glam/hair metal band Motley Crue. I saw a documentary about black metal and we watched it. I had already known about the 1st wave of black metal, even some second wave but I didn't know much about the third wave black metal bands of today. Then we watched a music documentary that was specifically about one man black metal bands. That's how I found out about Leviathan. 

Leviathan is a one-man black metal project under the direction of Wrest. He plays all the instruments and does the vocals as well. His main instrument is drums and it definitely shows, as the drums on this record are brutal. Levithan's debut release was this record I'm discussing, The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide, released in 2003. 

1.	"Introit"	1:14
2.	"Fucking Your Ghost in Chains of Ice"	5:40
3.	"Sardoniscorn"	9:54
4.	"The Bitter Emblem of Dissolve"	5:55
5.	"Scenic Solitude and Leprosy"	6:45
6.	"He Whom Shadows Move Towards"	6:38
7.	"Submersed"	3:15
8.	"Mine Molten Armor"	7:03
9.	"The Idiot Sun"	9:33
10.	"At the Door to the Tenth Sub Level of Suicide"	15:02
Total length:		71:05

As you can see from the song titles above this is could be described as depressive suicidal black metal. It sounds like a joke until you hear the music. Then you realize it makes perfect sense. All the songs except for one deal with suicide. Art is supposed to represent something. This album is true horror. The music screams at you, takes you by force, shouting fire in the dark pits. Images from Dante's Inferno comes to mind, although that is to cliche and trite to truly describe this record. This record is more.

The guitar riffs are fast, loud, and heavily distorted. The drum tempos vary from slow to batshit crazy blast beats. There's ambient use of keyboards that appears throughout the album. The bass has euphoric moments where it's very loud in the mix.

The vocals are what makes this album so heavy, heady, horrific, and euphoric. The vocals at first sound like your typical high pitched black metal screams, something like Mayhem or Burzum. However, at some point, you realize that Wrest is doing his own style, but he knows the black metal tradition so well that he still screams along with the black metal ballpark. Some of the screams here are haunting. Wrest sounds inhuman, like humans trapped in hell, impaled on stakes. That sounds so terribly brutal but its also very metal. These kind of vocals are very hard to get used to at first. In fact, the main reason why I didn't get into black metal for such a long time is that I couldn't stand the vocals. The vocals in black metal take some time getting used to. But once you're accustomed to these raw, primal screams, you get into it. It doesn't stay jokey. Sometimes I used to laugh at black metal vocals. Now I find something emotional in it.

I can only sometimes catch what the lyrics are within the screams but I would be down to read the lyrics sometimes online on my next listen to this record. Knowing that I can't understand most of the lyrics makes the vocals that much more intense and surprisingly, more important. The fact that this is a record about suicide shows you a little bit about what Wrest had to struggle and deal with in his life. 

Wrest grew up with abusive parents. He was in and out of group homes in California, sometimes going homeless when not sleeping on friends' couches. Unsurprisingly, he tried to take his own life sometime after the making of this record. He also has controversy surrounding his personal life, as his ex-girlfriend accused him of assault. He's a troubled guy that doesn't own a computer, makes records, but works a regular job in California to support himself.  

What attracted me to Leviathan in the documentary I saw on YouTube about one man black metal bands is the fact that he's a good musician, he wasn't an edgelord black metal musician [not stereotypical, not wearing corpsepaint and hoods] and there are few great American black metal bands out there, let alone one man band American black metal. He's a fucking unicorn. I liked his personality in the interview for the documentary. I realized things about myself from that. I saw that I don't need validation from others for my music or art. That was huge. 

Wrest's guitar riffs are very good. Sometimes he reminds me of Black Sabbath but then he gets into more typical black metal riffs, not unlike Dark Throne. Some of the best moments on TTSLOS are the slow tempos, filled with doom metal guitar riffs and keyboards. This is something that an American black metal band would do a lot better than say Norweigian or Scandinavian black metal bands simply because Americans groove more.

Lastly, I can't state enough how nihilistic and brutal this record is. However, there is beauty in the darkness. The power of choice in our actions, whether to or not do, to be or not to be. This might be the darkest black metal album I'll hear for a long time. There's tons of chaotic ugliness here but the little bit of beauty goes a long way, I can feel that my own darker emotions have value, but I don't have to wallow in it. As one of the first black metal albums that I actually sat through the entire way, I'd say this is some damn good black metal. It isn't for everyone, but there is a release of feelings and emotions after listening to something like this. You're free when you're done. Free in the sense that this music will bring out different emotions in you, and its a release. In short, it makes me feel good.

I used to work with Martin Arevalo, a Mexican black metal drummer I met through open jams. After hearing this I'm ready to get back into playing metal music, focusing on a more doom and black metal sound, slow, and fast tempos. I plan on recording the guitar, bass, and vocal parts at my house, and having Martin record drums at his place. We're going to continue our metal project, called Mass, check us out on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Z7vL-Ccr8. That's the sound we're going for. I plan on writing more songs and putting together a super lo-fi recording. Maybe we could put it out for sale on Bandcamp when we're done. I've learned from black metal to keep my metal riffs simple and to play more rhythm. I've been able to come up with more catchy, doomy riffs that way. I've been playing straight-ahead jazz with a saxophone player but after listening to Levithan I realized I shouldn't give up on metal. I'll still be listening to tons of classical and jazz music but I still got heavy rock and roll in the mix too.

New Jam tracks (9/5/18)

So I happened to be off work last week so my drummer and I went out and played an open jam, our only real performance space other than practicing at the studio with occasional friends spectating, sometimes even performing too. 

We start the jam off with an instrumental tune, Buckethead's Soothsayer. Then we play Electric Funeral by Black Sabbath, and end the mini-gig with my original death metal tune called Spirits of the Dead. 

Enjoy! 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/soothsayer918
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/electric-funeral-95
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/spirits-of-the-dead-95


Good news is that although my singing and death metal screams aren't "good" they are at least decent enough to pass, and I have improved a lot in my general singing and screams. Back to the shed for practice! 

Mass plays Spirits of the Dead

My band recorded an original tune of mine recently called Spirits of the Dead, a tune I wrote on Halloween morning in 2017. Features my friend Martin Arevalo on drums and myself on guitar and vocals with Dmitri on bass. Dmitri also recorded it. Rock and roll!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfdbEKI_y7g

John Zorn's Simualcrum

Simulacrum is an album with music written and directed by composer, saxophonist John Zorn that features John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin, and Wood fame), Matt Hollenberg and Kenny Grohowski which was released on the Tzadik label in March 2015. John Zorn is a magpie of sorts. Sure he's respected in the improvised music industry but there's always been one problem about his music. Its all over the place. Sometimes he plays straight ahead jazz, sometimes free-jazz, sometimes rock and roll, sometimes pop, and here we have ourselves an instrumental heavy metal album, running at forty three minutes by an organist, guitarist, and drummer. I ain't complaining though. I dig this album very much. But why, you might ask? 

Sure this album treads no new ground and doesn't do anything groundbreaking. But I find a certain amount of fun to the way these guys play on this record. The tunes sound heavily improvised to the untrained ear, but I bet a lot of it was written out by Zorn, after all he's a 'composer', right? 

I first heard the album a year or so ago on YouTube, and about three days ago I bought the actual CD. I like it so much that I threw down thirteen bucks for it. The reason I like it is that the musicians here bring a sense of heightened adventure to progressive rock infused heavy metal jazz. Say what?

The music here encompasses mostly a jamming instrumental sensibility. Oftentimes the guitar takes the lead with distorted metal tropes. And then the organ takes over, leading the charge. The drummer stays away from stereotypical metal blast beat marathons, opting instead for jazzy fills on the snare, toms, and cymbals. The result is oddball jazz and blues sound, oddly enough. Not real blues or jazz, but a kind of white blues, jazz, more about experimental science than emotive sensibility. What the album succeeds at is creating a live open jam sort of environment. Like you're at the studio, watching them record it. 

But this is a heavy metal kid's record. This isn't a jazz aficionado's album. If you're into Miles and Trane, this isn't your bag. However if you're into Slayer or Opeth then this is right up your alley. The guitar playing is very heavy, played with a good but oftentimes stereotypical metal guitar tone. There's not many single note solos from the guitarist, instead he performs as chordal accompaniment to the organ and drums. The organ takes up most of the single note melodies, and does a beautiful job doing so. The drums holds it all together with compelling rhythms, technically brilliant but not showing off and taking over the show entirely. 

The album cover is one that reminds me of King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King, their first album from 1969. With song titles like Alterities, Snakes and Ladders, Paradigm Shift, and the Divine Comedy, there's a sense of intellectual curiosity and stimulation. The name simulacrum reminds me of Phillip K Dick, who had a novel called the Simulacra, check that out if you're into science fiction. 

Its a musical curiosity really. And the music portrays this in its style and grace. There's so many musical changes, everything from time signature changes, to many different riffs, to what seems like spontaneous free improvisation. Its quite exciting to hear. 

You can listen to the album on YouTube if you're curious enough to take the plunge into jazz influenced heavy metal.

Metal Band Recordings

Hello everybody, 

Thought I'd share the studio recordings I made with my short lived metal band, Wolves to the Slaughter. They're pretty much recorded live, I'm just glad that some recordings exist of the three tunes we played a lot. 

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/heroine-vs-the-band-introduction 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/dethroned 
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/serpent-king 

Personnel included 
Alex Martin Vocals, Songwriter
Dmitri Bass/Recording Engineer
Martin Ruffalo Drums
Orlando Figueroa Guitar/Arranger

Last Week's Jam Tracks II

Here's last week's jam tracks from Peties Places' open jam that I go to every week. Peties is this really cool bar that I've been jamming at for a while, one drink minimum, a pool table, and free popcorn, wow! Its a cool place and this is where I've met the drummer I'm working with right now, my friend Martin.

The first song we started off the set with (three song set) was Black Sabbath's Paranoid. This one we started off like a bat out of hell and it sounded great. I was pretty happy with the performance as it was the first time we've ever played the song live. I think I did a great job on the solo sounding like Tony Iommi, that pentatonic box shape man! 

Next, we played Smoke on the Water, which we've done in the past but not nearly as well as this rendition. My vocals were a little spotty in certain sections but overall I would say I pulled it off. I really enjoy the hand percussion on this piece, I think I notice Ken's sound a lot more in this particular recording. I liked what I was doing with the vocals on the chorus, giving it that more British pronunciation. This song is a long time coming with Martin, it took him a while to get the drumming down, he does a good job. The improvised guitar solo has some sections where it sounds like things Blackmore would play, but is also unique.

Lastly, we ended with Spirits of the Dead, which has been a 'cult classic hit' for our 'band' (just me and Martin). I've been enjoying posting many versions of the same song because I really like the song a lot. I wrote and recorded it on the first day of October and I was heavily inspired by black metal when I was recording it. Think about coarse singing into a microphone on the first morning of October, bad ass.

You can find the tracks below.
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/spirits-of-the-dead-most-recent-version
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/smoke-on-the-water
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/paranoid

Check out my Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17
And my other Soundcloud at https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763

Long live rock and roll.

Last week's jam

Here's some music I played last week at the open jam I go to all the time. We played Sunshine of Your Love (a staple for us, my drummer and I) and Spirits of the Dead, an original metal tune I wrote on the first day of October this year. Upon listening to Sunshine I've realized I gotta get my vocals better. The first lines of the song are tuneless but later in the song I start to sing with more authority and tone. On Spirits of the Dead I was going to sing the whole song but my lyrics fell off the music stand! Oh well. I sang it again last night and it sounded amazing. I'll post that when I get the tracks from the percussionist, there's a guy who plays tambourines and hand drums that records everything and sends it to me. Whatta guy! You can find the tracks below.

https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/sunshine-of-your-love-1
https://soundcloud.com/orlando-figueroa-17/spirits-of-the-dead

Band Practice Going Good

So I had a rehearsal last night with my band that I haven't played with for the last two weeks because I was in Chicago. It turned out really well. It actually turned out to be our best rehearsal we've ever had. I'm starting to understand the capabilities of the guys in the band.

Me and Martin, the drummer usually play together every week at local bar's jam night so we're constantly improving and evolving our rhythmic dynamics. At first we were having a super hard time locking in with each other but now I'm listening a lot more and using his timing as an anchor. Sometimes he still makes mistakes, especially after trying a technical fill but I know how to anchor the chords down to speed up or slow down accordingly perfectly now and even making it sound musical in the process. Sure he needs work but right now keeping time and locking in with the chords is the most important thing. I gave him some advice last night after practice. I told him he should practice all the rudiments and learn to read drum music. If he does this his "rolls" as he calls them (I call them fills) will start to sound much better and he'll always get back to the music in time as opposed to falling behind the beat and stuff. Important stuff to know. I hope he takes the advice to heart and starts shedding more. As of right now me and him are probably the most important pieces to the band. We now know five songs together that we can play pretty well and because our timing is locking in so well it sounds really good. Rock and roll, metal, with hints of jazz in my harmonies.

Our friend Dmitri actually started off playing bass for the first couple rehearsals. The first rehearsal he played guitar but it was so out of tune (both him and myself, we've since resorted to using the famous Snark tuner) that it was mostly a progressive art rock kind of improvisation. Our timing was so off but the improv was unique. After that first initial jam he started bringing his bass along to our practices and we thought he was going to play bass. The problem is that he isn't a disciplined bass player meaning he lacks the focus to play the same things twice for the song. We aren't playing jazz so its important for the bass to stick to the same harmonies all the time. So before practice I texted him to leave the bass and bring his guitar just to see how it sounds. It ended up sounding really great and its the way we're going to move forward as a band. We'll play without bass. The timing with my guitar and the drums is so good I feel like we don't need bass. Plus the extra harmonies and doubling of the guitar gives the music a stronger and more melodic sound, even if its just Sunshine of Your Love. The way I see Dmitri's purpose in the band is that he's adding colour around what me and Martin are playing. As long as me and Martin sound good anything Dmitri plays sounds good. He's not the best musician either but his guitar playing is much better than his bass playing. Bass takes a lot of timing and not all guitarists can do it very well. However, his guitar playing is quite evolved compared to his bass playing. I noticed he understands harmonies and hears the sounds I'm going for although he's usually always using more of a distorted guitar tone. At first we were practicing with him doing vocals and I would do some too but now I've come to the realization that it sounds better if we go on with myself on vocals. It's just a more rounder voice and tone, even if its rock and metal. More musical. 

And of course I see my role in the band as a songwriter, time keeper, singer, and soloist. If I keep all these things in check it will sound good. I'm really happy that the band is evolving and becoming better. If we really need bass I could always record bass and we could play with a bass track live or something. That actually sounds like a great idea because right now I really love the idea of a three piece with two guitars and drums. I stole the idea from Animals As Leaders but of course because our music isn't as technical or complex we can really steer the music in various directions without getting lost too easily. It's nice.

Pretty soon we'll be ready to gig. Sounds exciting.
Picture is Animals as Leaders, really inspiring band

New original track, Spirits of the Dead

This is a new track I recently made for my recently formed band. The lyrics are really cheesy but I tried to do like a black metal style vocal with some doom/Sabbath undertones with my 7-string. I think it ended up sounding pretty heavy. The main riff is a riff I played at the bar last week when we were just jamming. Its cool to see it used in a song. The bass line in the chorus sounds like a Black Sabbath song can't remember which one though. Enjoy!
https://soundcloud.com/user-294063763/spirits-of-the-dead

What's in your earbuds? 12/2 Edition

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of new music. For a while I was really into black metal, particularly from Sweden. Sweden is one of my favorite countries because of their black metal scene in general but also because I really dig Abba. Bands like Opeth (not black metal but still great band), Tribulation, and Ghost were played nonstop for a long time while I played Heroes of the Storm.

But with the exception of one techno album I listened to yesterday (which was ultimately forgettable because I can't even remember the name of the album or band) I've been listening to classical music. Mostly baroque stuff. I've been turning on YouTube playlists of Vivaldi, Chopin, Mozart, Liszt, Bach, and Beethoven. It really calms me down after long tiring days and I love the harmonic complexity. Although I can't explain what the composers are doing I understand the sound, the intervals, the scales, the harmony, and rhythm. It comes with being a musician for a long time and listening to music a lot. You expect certain cadences and resolves within the harmonies and it happens. The music is beautiful too.

One thing to realize is that classical music can be really heavy and brutal like metal too. There's a lot of shredding in classical music. There's a lot to it other than just pretty violins, timpani, and horns. The more I listen to it the more I get drawn in to listen more and learn more about music theory in the future so I can understand how these brilliant composers came up with this stuff.

As Frank Zappa said,"All the good music has already been written by dudes with wigs and stuff." I couldn't agree more. Even John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy studied classical etudes and classical music and harmony. They studied all the old dudes with wigs and stuff and expanded upon the musical foundation. It's quite a tradition, this thing we call music.

My friends listen to a lot of metalcore, rap, and rave music but honestly I get tired of that stuff. I've heard it all before and the new stuff all sounds like the old. I wish jazz could develop and do more interesting things but you'll only find the innovative jazz musicians in the free jazz scene. Until then I'll be kickin' it old school in the Baroque era with my homies Beethoven and Vivaldi.

Ah, you kids today with your techno music. You should enjoy the classics like Hasselhoff. 

Music I've been listening to lately 11/10/16

Lately, I've been listening to a ton of music. A lot of metal, black metal. It all started when I got really into the band Ghost. I've heard all their songs a couple times over now and I'm a little tired of them but I still think they're a great band. I can't wait to see what kind of material they put out for their next album.

Since Ghost I've picked up the newest Opeth album, Sorceress. It's a really great progressive rock album with a very heavy feel. It's so heavy in a progressive way but it sounds metal in some aspects. Interesting how they do that without it sounding death metal like their old records.

I've been getting back into actual albums. Usually I'm a big live rock concert guy. I know rock bands aren't the best when it comes to live performances but I prefer to experience the music live as opposed to studio albums. I like to hear mistakes live. In the studio everything can be touched up with computers and nowadays music can sound very fake and processed. But sometimes you gotta listen to both studio and live performances to really understand the bands. And that's what I've been doing.

A great album I heard today was Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Tragedy. Freaking fantastic metal record. Probably in the top ten best metal records of all time. Recorded in 1976, it gives you a feel of the proto-metal sound and what was to come during the 80s. It's cool to think about all this stuff now and look back in time not only as a listener and fan but also as a seasoned musician with plenty of chops.

I've also been getting really into this band my co-worker told me about. They're also from Sweden, just like Ghost and Opeth. Have you noticed all my favorite metal bands are from Sweden? Something about Sweden is just dark, heavy, and slightly satanic. Probably the fact that they spend most of their winters in darkness.

Anyways, Tribulation is from Sweden too. They have a strong black metal vibe but I also get a very punk feeling from them as well. They have no guitar solos and no intricate or progressive parts (similar to Ghost in that aspect) but their music still intrigues me. They have this metal hooks that are so catchy that its almost like pop music, except in a black metal way. Almost like Ghost but totally not like Ghost at the same time. They're similar in the sense that they're both catchy bands with a black metal influence. The vocals are a little harsh but not like those extreme black metal bands. I can still understand what they're singing. I also like how one of their guitar players uses a semi-hollow body guitar. In a black metal band it sounds really heavy and distorted. Bad ass! Really good band.

Then there's all the classical music. I've been listening to a lot of Lizst, Chopin, Vivaldi, and Bach. That music connects to me in a different way than the rock stuff does. In some ways I can compare metal with classical music in the sense that they both convey a lot of emotions through sound. Classical music has given me a different form of musical entertainment than my usual jazz stuff does.

I can't remember the last time I listened to any new or interesting free jazz stuff. A friend from Poland (all these Europeans!) told me about all these great European free jazz musicians but I haven't gone through and listened yet, mostly due to a lack of time and the fact that I'm going through a big black metal phase. Most of the famous black metal bands I actually don't like because the vocals are too harsh, like they've smoked ten packs of cigarettes and recorded their vocals right after.

It's pretty inspiring stuff. I don't take the lyrics seriously and I don't think these bands believe in the lyrics they sing. It's just a gimmick like how Slayer's been singing about satan since the 80s. A lot of this stuff is European and I gotta say that they do a great job with music there. They take music very seriously. Even their pop music is great.

My dad's told me that a lot of Taylor Swift's most popular tunes are written by two European guys. They take metal, jazz, and classical music seriously. It would be cool to become a big musician and play there one day. Or even play with these bands I like.

One can dream right? 

That's a band picture of Tribulation, the guy with the stash seems to be the funniest

Black metal meets Pop and Psychedelia

I've developed a fascination with a newish heavy metal band from Sweden called Ghost. Their lyrics are totally satanic and black metal but their music is more psychedelic and pop rather than a black metal style. They wear robes and stuff. The singer wears a pope-like outfit and he's called Papa Emeritus. The rest of the band wears masks and go under the names Nameless Ghouls. Pretty cool gimmick, eh?

This might seem silly and I assure you it is. But something about this band is amazing. Their lyrics are totally silly but their music is so catchy and infectious. Its almost like if the Beatles were a black metal band in 2016. They've made me realize that not every song or band has to be progressive or technical. All you need is some catchy riffs and lyrics and you've got yourself a song.

It took me a long time to realize that and this band has shown me that. That's why I think they're the best metal band I've heard in a long time. I bought their 2016 ep entitled Popestar. It features one original tune called Square Hammer and four cover songs originally by Echo and the Bunnymen, Simian Mobile Disco, Eurythmics, and Imperiet. Those are all fairly pop so you get the idea of where this band is going. Right to the top in terms of musical popularity. It seems like they've just been getting bigger and bigger in America. I could see them playing big ass festivals and stadiums like Metallica and Slayer sometime soon.

Popestar is a good ep and shows how great their covers are. On their first album they did a brilliant rendition of the Beatles' Here comes the sun. Their cover is pretty darn good. That entire first album is great. It's everything a good rock album should be. Even if this band has a strong black metal vibe in terms of their lyrics, the music is classic rock and roll. That's what I like about them.

Its cool that I got into them just in time for Halloween. They're definitely a Halloween sorta band with their elaborate stage shows and costumes. You should check them out on YouTube. Listen to the first album Opus Eponymous and Popestar if you wanna hear what got them their Grammy this year.

Classic stuff. The Nameless Ghouls play a mean guitar too. I also love how they have keyboards. Reminds me of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown and my young progressive rock days.

Killer.