Metal Reviews

What if any qualities do you seek when listening to a band, that causes the first initial thought of: "Hey, this is some pretty sick stuff"! If "Extremity" is on a subjective matter of interpretation; what are some of the bands and albums that have struck you as truly "extreme". Do you see these bands as merely a product of their time/genre? Or do you see that album/band as far transcendent of the genre?

For that qualifier, I would say it rests on the band taking a chance or alienating a would-be-fan because they chose to go with their own sense of what they wanted to do.

For example, If a band used vocals that were more much more raw and distorted sound than the genre usually has, I think that would be taking a bold chance because people wouldn't like it. Same for excessively noisy, thin or treble heavy guitar tones.

Generally, music that I would find pretty hard to listen to if I wasn't already into it, if that makes sense. Napalm Death are an obvious example, but Sunn O)) fit too.

brutality and h8

I feel as though general unease helps quite a bit when determining what I find extreme. Examples of this would be something like Pig Destroyer, where the vocals and atmosphere generally creep me out, where I question the sanity of the people making the music. This happens in wacky prog folk music like Comus as well. I would deem at least First Utterance extreme, because I am un-nerved by the vocals. Their lead singer might be insane. Haha, and I find that extreme. Generic gory lyrics don't strike me as extreme as music made by people who I think may be actually mentally unsound. Also, production value. I have friends who listen to heavy music, but they still get all whiny about bad production value. This doesn't exactly make sense to me, because I feel as though part of the point of metal is to be abrasive and bad or lackluster production value can help with this immensely. Seven Churches wouldn't be Seven Churches if its production job was all shiny and shit. Same thing goes for punk albums as mainstream as something like Damaged. Damaged is hardly fucking produced, but that's what gives it its fucking charm, its edge, the fact that it sounds like it was made by a bunch of fucking teenagers living in a bombed-out old church.

In summation, extremity comes from atmosphere, and the belief that the makers of the music may be crazy. For me, at least.

It really depends for me, because different different genres on the extreme metal spectrum can be extreme in different ways. I think for me a big part of it is at the root of the progression of extreme metal and the desire to play something faster, with increasingly abrasive vocals, more distortion, deviation from standard tuning whether down-tuning or tuning higher, and an overall rawer, more primitive atmosphere.

I think another of the most important elements in it for me is the chaotic sound, which may or may not actually include an element like speed and even the rawness might be replaced with pure sonic abrasion, though I find it difficult to find anything with crystal clear/flawless production "extreme." Marduk is faster than black metal era Bathory, for example, but I will always think early Bathory fits the extremity bill more than Marduk because of that raw, heavy and chaotic sound. It really depends on the "type" of extremity. Some bands may play slower, yet their riffs and overall tone are far more foreboding and crushing than a band that plays at blistering speeds without totally mind-slaying riffs yet to my ears may sound like a bunch of pre-schoolers trying to sound "extreme" not knowing how to do it. Then again, you have a band like Vader or the Berzerker who are both very fast, great riffs (yes, even the Berzerker lol), very abrasive, down-tuned to hell, who may lack the "rawness" of other bands yet are still extreme. I guess for me as well there is a difference between a band consisting of talented guitarists and drummer who play their instruments well and technically proficient, and those bands who claim to be "technical this" and "technical that." If the focus is alone on being "technical" for the sake of it, it loses part of its extremity for me. It becomes too superficial, hence I'll often prefer bands that might sound somewhat "sloppier" despite executing great riffs and solos, to bands who do it with machine-like precision.

I guess all in all a band that is extreme and makes me go "holy fuck, the apocalypse is here and I'm fucking stoked" are bands that sound like the four horsemen are here, the sky is fucking cracking, the earth has just been fractured and the hordes of hell are spilling forth to join you in destroying civilisation, plagues and locusts are rampaging the earth, which can take the form of Morbid Tales, Under the Sign of the Black Mark, Crossing the Fiery Path, Pleasure to Kill, Illusions, INRI, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, A Blaze In the Northern Sky, Worship Him, In the Nightside Eclipse, Like An Everflowing Stream, Consuming Impulse, Mindloss, Realm of Chaos, Litany, Servants of Darkness, The Berzerker, Gore Metal, Scum, it doesn't fuckin really matter.

That said, there are other breeds of extreme metal that may not sound like hell is on its way, but still invoke a feeling of extremity. I'll take the most classic example of that: Take En Ring Til Aa Herske as an example. Ever since I first heard the song I got this Gollum-like vibe from the spoken vocals on it. I could imagine some madman or creature in a dark cave rambling to himself, voice echoing through the cave. No place for him among humans or anywhere else and so took refuge underground, but he doesn't remain there a pathetic shadow of a being like the real Gollum. He rises up, sheds his chains and declares that he will not serve neither mankind, nor any deity only himself. In essence extreme metal secretes this: rises above everything and exists for itself alone. That sounds like it's being emitted from a torture chamber yet it's a kind of rise to glory, and screams of torment become battlecries. I really do think vocals are huge part of what makes a band extreme, but not always. For example, melodeath often exhibits deep growls, yet I don't perceive most melodeath as extreme metal. Same with deathcore and metalcore, no matter their vocals these bands will never be "extreme" for me. They're a mimicry of extremity. In that sense, the spirit/ideals of the band is important as well. Extreme metal initially came from some form of disguntlement with mainstream music, often alongside western values and the need to rebel and to play something faster and/or more "evil" and extreme than the next guy, and to maintain certain founding ideals. Both music and ideals do not run parallel with what is expected in mainstream music. There is no attempt to appeal to those who don't "get" extreme music in it's rawest form.

To answer the second half of the OP about bands that have really struck me, a lot of them are the well-known or lesser-known classics of extreme metal as well as some more obscure bands like Morbid Scream and Nocturn. Of course there are modern albums that do this for me; the opening of Vader's Litany continues to blow my mind. Probably one of the most brain-rattling albums in modern death metal for me. I actually only ended up checking out Gorefest this summer when I came across The Eindhoven Insanity for 7 euros in a second hand shop in Germany and decided to finally check them out since I'd always heard their name mentioned but never got around to them. At first I found the vocals monotonous, but since then I've really come to adore early Gorefest and have come to think that next to van Drunen, De Koeijer may be the best vocalist to come out of Holland. When it comes to extreme metal Holland has a lot to be proud of. Extremity has made an impression on me no matter if coming from the Swedish death metal scene, Norwegian black metal scene, American thrash and death metal scenes or so on. Beyond the above I don't know what to say, and well, most of this has just been rambling on attempting to explain what I love and have always loved about extreme metal so it's time for me to shut up before it becomes more nonsensical and chaotic.

Edit: I thought I'd add, I think the old school extreme bands will always be the epitome of extremity in metal as far as the chaotic, high energy and raw elements of extreme metal are concerned. And to add to that, comparing old Hypocrisy to what they became, I think it's really that heavy, grinding guitar tone, bass and the heaviness even of the growls themselves that really start to lack after Osculum and get diminished as they went on, and I think that highlights really strikes me as great about extreme metal. Taking what is great about metal already and turning it up tenfold.

And as I finish this post Hypocrisy's cover of Black Metal has come on and I feel it's totally fucking fitting to end this long ramble. So on that note, I end this post with "Lay down your soul to the gods of rock n' roll! Metal ten fold through that deadly black hole! Riding hell's stallions bareback and free, taking our chances with raw energy!" and a final "uuuugggh uuuuugghhh black fucking...METAL!"

Your second paragraph fairly surmises my own views on metal, with nods to your respective views on black metal. With lesser known bands at least on a personal level, I often find it harder for them to leave an impression. In listening to albums like "Effigy of the forgotten" and "Pleasure to kill", what separates them from their peers even is the sheer speed of the tempo. It can also be argued that songwriting can make an album extreme, bands like Watchtower, Atheist, Gorguts, and early Cryptopsy exemplify this.

To a lesser extent Goat made a good point,in saying some bands just challenge you. I find that sort of album in bands like Neurosis and Ulcerate, who challenge conventional thinking on what defines a certain genre.

Yeah. Also screaming and growling.

I'm not sure speed alone is what distinguished PtK since there were faster bands around in '86. I think the level of aggression in the music went beyond just the speed, and that's where I agree songwriting does play a big role. A huge part, too, was Mille's vocals. Some of the most venomous of all time, which helped launch them ahead of most. There are bands that have since played faster than Kreator does on PtK, but it's still not many have beaten the sheer savage aggression on PtK.

There are underground bands that stand out to me as much as some of the more well-known bands. It depends on the band and which bands are being considered "lesser known" or not. I do think it's great that the demos and live material of bands like Nirvana 2002 and Morbid Scream have been dug up, compiled and issued on cd. Some bands that served as influences for bigger bands never made it past the demo stage themselves, like Morbid Scream. You have bands like Nocturnus that didn't get very much recognition until the 00s, and now many see The Key as ahead of its time and one of the best death metal albums ever. Look at Morbid Saint and the attention they're getting now and rightfully so. I'd say they were more extreme than some of the big name thrash acts in their day.

I'm not sure I feel the same way as others who see something as extreme if it's something they would find hard to listen to if they weren't into it or something that causes unease or challenges genre boundaries. Jazz is a genre I find difficult to listen to even though I understand it and have played it, but I wouldn't consider jazz to be an extreme genre of music. On the second note, the only music that has ever made me feel uneasy were Celtic Frost's Danse Macabre (which isn't really a song anyway) and Axis of Perdition's Deleted Scenes. I'm not really sure I see Axis of Perdition as particularly extreme because of that, though. As for your comment on Goat's post, steve, does that mean that all experimental music is extreme, then?

Burping vocals, and lyrics about raping dogs and killing mothers.

And recording in the wash room in your mothers basement to achieve that " kvlt " sound. That's extreme.

Having listened to metal for 20 odd years, I have no idea what makes music extreme.

Genres generally seemed extreme when I first heard them (e.g. first time hearing Death or Black Metal) but then I got used to them and just found them to be normal.

Yet I know people for whom Linkin Park is extreme because their musical tastes are completely different. This includes a wide variety of ages - from people who were teenagers in the 1960's to younger more mainstream orientated people.

Everything is in the sound, the way of playing and the arrangements. All of those are factors that influence the "extreme" impression that emanates* from a band or a song.
*Correct me if I made any mistake

Yeah but as stated, it's really a matter of perspective.

For example Carcass's first album Reek of Putrefaction is extreme to my ears but their second, Symphonies of Sickness, is a nice pleasant Death/Grind experience with lots of catchy moments.

Yet as stated to someone else Linkin Park is an ear torturing uber extreme full metal racket.

If done properly, Linkin park is always ear torturing.