Sunday, January 31, 2010

Raider Sketch


By now, I have presented the original of this sketch to my dad for his birthday, which was a couple weeks ago. It's based on this picture taken in 2007, one of my favorites. Making it was extremely therapeutic for me. I still miss you, Raider. I know by now you've caught a few rabbits up in heaven.

Friday, January 29, 2010

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2004

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

And on to the list for 2004.

The Haunted: rEVOLVEr

Not since the 1980's has thrash metal been this good, and it's rarely been in such capable hands. Brutal all the way through, but with maturity and innovative songwriting, great guitars, and harsh metalcore-esque vocals, the record is a violent treat from start to finish. "Fire Alive" is perhaps the highlight of the album, but other tracks such as "99" and "Burnt to a Shell" (along with all the rest) are also excellent.

Necrophagist: Epitaph

Ah, the single most definitive statement of technical death metal. "Technical" is the order of the day: the band play with such precision on this track it's hard to believe it wasn't played by a computer, except for the fact they also play with a conviction a computer could never reproduce. While Turkish-German vocalist/guitarist Muhammed Suiçmez gets most of the attention for his shredding (and he deserves every ounce of attention he gets), bassist Stephan Fimmers deserves as much attention. This album not only crushes with its surgical assault, it is also a thinking-man's album, with pieces derived by composers Sergei Prokofiev and good old Ludwig van. The only problem with this one is it's over far too soon, at only about 33 minutes.

Suffocation: Souls To Deny

Yes, more death metal, but it was a great year for the genre. This is another album which introduced me to the splendors of the same, along with the works of Meshuggah. The album comes after a long hiatus by the band, time which was well spent, because they come back refreshed and ready to split eardrums. William York of Allmusic says it better than I can:
There seems to be a sort of hidden logic at work in it, since it's hard for even an astute listener to figure out what's going on in terms of the song structure, yet it obviously all makes perfect sense to the band, who deliver this perplexing material with a natural, freely flowing sense of brutality. Many bands have attempted to copy Suffocation's sound, and most of them are extremely boring because they either don't grasp the subtleties or don't have the intuition that these guys obviously possess as songwriters and musicians. "Souls to Deny" is a reminder of what makes good death metal good, and a refreshing break from the uninspired landfill fodder that constitutes so much of the genre's output circa the early- to mid-'00s.
Remember to comment and add your picks for the other two albums to round out the list for 2004, and then come back next Friday for the 2005 list. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

Monday, January 25, 2010

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J.R.R. Tolkien (2009)

The other day I finished reading The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, by an author who truly needs no introduction, and of course edited by his son.

The idea which spurred Tolkien to write these poems was that he wanted to write poems in the traditional Norse eddic style in the English language, so he picked the most well-known Norse legend in which to write the poems. He is believed to have written it during the 1930s.

I'm not normally one for poetry. However, this particular style of poetry is very immediate, and focuses on alliteration rather than rhyme, something which makes it actually quite readable. (In other words, rhyme should be left to music or children's books. The story is also quite compelling, so it is understandable it had so much meaning to the Norse and other Germanic peoples who told the story.

The actual poems could be read in just a few hours. But Christopher Tolkien added extensive explanation and commentary to help the reader understand; the book could be read with or without the commentary.

In all, as far as the poetry goes, I'm no expert but I'll give that 5 out of 5 stars. I recommend it to anyone interested in Germanic mythology or heroic poetry, or to anyone who (like me) is a die-hard Tolkien fan.

Friday, January 22, 2010

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2003

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

Now for the list for 2003.

Dimmu Borgir: Death Cult Armageddon

This album is easily the best symphonic black metal album of all time. The band is assisted by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, who provide a melodic counterpoint to the band's crushing assault. As often, John Serba of Allmusic explains quite well:
The orchestra lends overwhelming and full-bodied sonic bombast to "Vredsbyrd," "Eradication Instincts Defined," and "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse," the latter two so vast and epic in scope they seem to spot weld John Williams/Star Wars compositional soundtrack drama to blastbeating black metal nastiness -- and while naysayers claim strings make metal wimpy, here they're seamlessly integrated and lend power and profundity to the arrangements.
Personally, I believe "Progenies of the Great Apocalypse" to be one of the greatest metal tracks of all time, but everything on this record destroys.

Dream Theater: Train of Thought

The kings of progressive metal released their heaviest album to date with Train of Thought, a nearly-70 minute opus which puts the considerable chops of these Berklee College of Music alumni to full use. The best tracks on here are the 11-plus minute epics "This Dying Soul" and "Endless Sacrifice," and the album also includes Dream Theater's longest instrumental-only studio track, "Stream of Consciousness," which clocks in at 11:16, and while it's more difficult to manage an instrumental which goes into epic lengths, they managed it beautifully.

Swallow the Sun: The Morning Never Came

The Finnish quartet's debut album was seen by many as breathing life into the stale doom metal genre. Of course, it would take a new group to do that, and there is no better country than Finland to do so, with their wide variety of experimental and against-the-grain metal bands. Technically, it is death/doom, the best kind of doom. And it's absolutely brilliant, without any low points. High points include "Deadly Nightshade" and "Hold This Woe."

Please be sure to add your picks for the other two top metal albums for 2003 in the comments, and be sure to come back next Friday to check out the picks for 2004. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Raider, 1993-2010







Goodbye. I miss you.



(Read a kind of stream-of-consciousness post I wrote about him several years ago by clicking here.)

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2002

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

So, on to the list for 2002.

Isis: Oceanic

Probably the first great album in the post-metal genre, it inspired many imitators, and with good reason. The slowly-developing songs completely eschew conventional song structure, and demand your full attention in order to truly appreciate them. It would be folly to try to pick out the best tracks, because it can't be fully understood without listening to the recording all the way through, an experience which feels, well, oceanic, as if you are drifting along on a ship in the high seas.

Meshuggah: Nothing

This is the band that opened the door to death metal for me, and they practically invented my favorite subgenre, technical death metal. And this is one of the experimental quintet's finest hours (or at least 53 minutes). This is despite having mixed it in two days and mastering it in one. The polyrhythmic beats the band is known for are definitely present, as well as their odd, counter-intuitive solos and harsh vocals, and as always it is relentless throughout the recording. Top picks include "Rational Gaze," "Closed Eye Visuals," and "Spasm."

Nile: In Their Darkened Shrines

Yes, 2002 was a great year for technical death metal, and these Egyptian mythology-obsessed guys delivered one of the defining statements of the genre with this album. "Unas Slayer of the Gods" is probably the best track on the album, but the four-part title song is really the core of the album. I don't think I can say it any better than Allmusic's John Serba:
Shrines is an utterly convincing realization of Nile's passion and intelligence, incorporating jarring tempo changes -- from downtuned doom/sludge metal to concise hyper-blasts -- laser-precise riffing and guttural grindcore vocals into the bowel-twisting, and occasionally startlingly melodic, structures of "Sarcophagus," "Unas Slayer of Gods," and "Wind of Horus." But the album's crowning achievement is a four-part suite "In Their Darkened Shrines," a truly epic masterpiece in both concept and execution, seamlessly incorporating majestic, sweeping keyboards, chanting choirs, tribal drumming, and battle horns into the mix, with recurring melodic themes marking what is easily the band's most ambitious and effective composition to date -- a pseudo-symphonic death metal soundtrack that conjures up visions of tyranny, slavery, rebellion, and sacrifice to cruel gods. While other acts in the genre are content to create the musical equivalent of slasher flicks, Nile aspires to Lawrence of Arabia heights, essentially beating old tyrants Morbid Angel at their own game.
Be sure to add your own picks for the remaining two albums for 2002 in the comments, and check back next Friday for the list for 2003. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

Monday, January 11, 2010

The Godmakers by Frank Herbert (1972)

I recently read The Godmakers, by legendary Dune author Frank Herbert.

The novel explores a distant-future society which had been devastated by a galactic war, resulting in many planets becoming isolated. The protagonist begins the novel as a member of an organization charged with teaching and observing the people of re-discovered planets. If any sign of a war-like history is uncovered, the planet is "occupied," rendering the population harmless but damaging its culture and people permanently in the process. The protagonist is quickly identified as a very gifted individual, and is promoted and then given successively more difficult tasks. Eventually, the book degenerates into one of Herbert's ideological-religious-philosophical digressions, which are almost invariably indulgent, a trend which is true here as well.

I was shocked at how disjointed the whole book was. It didn't feel like a novel at all. Then I looked it up on Wikipedia and found out why: It was expanded from four short stories which had previously been unpublished. Hey, it worked for Asimov's Foundation, right? Well, in that novel it worked because the stories were only loosely connected, separated by decades or centuries of time in between. With The Godmakers, it all seems more or less sequential, and centers on two main characters, so it feels like it should hang together, but doesn't. Also, the theme from one story arc, which explores a non-human civilization, doesn't seem to fit the themes of the book. And the last story arc is the dreadful, pretentious, and faux intellectual digression into religion.

As short stories, I would have liked the first three--including the one about the aliens. I would have hated the last one. As a novel, it's barely worth the small investment of time. [The following edited to conform to my new rating scale:] I don't hate the book, which would result in a 0 star rating, but I don't like it, so I give it 1 out of 5 stars.

Friday, January 08, 2010

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2001

Once again, the ground rules: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year, because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

So, on to the list for 2001, a year when three important bands really figured out who they were and what they wanted to do.

Opeth: Blackwater Park

I had a hell of a time with the rule I set up that each band could only be on the list once, because Opeth could have made the list in 2008, 2005, and even 2002 on top of this one. But this is where I decided to put them, with a phenomenal progressive death metal album which combines the brutality of death metal with melodic passages and even--gasp!--major chords as emphasis. This album marks Opeth's finding their real voice, and is certainly the first album to pick up if you're unfamiliar with these metal geniuses. The best track is likely "The Drapery Falls," but other top picks include "Bleak," "The Funeral Portrait," and the title track (though all the tracks are great).

Slipknot: Iowa

Again, an album I will probably catch flak for including. However, this is a masterpiece any way you look at it. I'm not sure what it is about nu metal that makes "true" metalheads hate it, but whatever that is, surely it should not apply to this band and certainly not this album. The whole thing is as brutal as the most brutal thrash metal albums out there. As this professional review notes, this is a serious metal band, and I quote:
Every genre needs its defining record, its high watermark, and this 66-minute tantrum is nu-metal's gift to history. A classic, terrifyingly.
Another source has this to say:
[I]f Slipknot act as a gateway drug for a few thousand future death metallers, well, all the better. Slipknot might be the biggest band in metal that no metalhead should actually feel ashamed for enjoying.
I agree completely. The best track is "Left Behind," but the whole thing is great (except, perhaps, for the title track).

Therion: Secret of the Runes

This album is where Therion perfected their brand of symphonic metal, on this nearly hour-long exploration of Norse cosmology. Combining pure heavy metal (and the traditional metal vocals) with a complete symphony and operatic vocals (in several languages), this disc delivers on the promise many saw in the combination of the two most dramatic forms of music. Standouts include "Ginnungagap," "Asgård," "Schwarzalbenheim," "Vanaheim," and the title track.

As before, I encourage you to leave a comment and let me know what other two metal albums deserve to be on this list, and be sure to check back next Friday for the list from 2002. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Monday, January 04, 2010

District 9 (2009)

I recently watched the movie District 9, and I thought it would be worthwhile to share my thoughts about it. The movie explores themes of racism, apartheid (hence the setting in South Africa), and corporate greed/corruption, among other things. The film provides an interesting take on the racially-based themes, because it has never before been attempted (to my knowledge) with the premise of racism-against-aliens.

A few of the central characters are explored fairly well, particularly the main character; however, I didn't like him at first, so investing myself emotionally in his plight didn't come naturally at first. Yet, his situation is so compelling that it draws you in nonetheless. I especially like the exploration of some of the alien personalities and their interaction with humans.

There were some downsides to the movie. A few major plot points didn't make sense. From what I know of biology, I doubt an egg-laying species would have any sense of family. Strategically speaking, I don't understand why the paramilitary force kept trying to use small-caliber weapons (and dying in the process) when obviously they weren't working. And one major plot point didn't make sense to me, though I can't reveal what it is without providing spoilers. If it was just a mindless action movie, I could deal with these problems. But it invites you to start thinking, at least about the social issues, and then disappoints when you start to think about plot holes.

Overall, the movie provides a unique take on an issue I thought had been explored completely. The positives outweigh the negatives, and I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Friday, January 01, 2010

The Top 50 Albums of the Last Decade: 2000

Yes, I am aware that the decade doesn't technically end until a year from now, but with music people tend to think of decades as being, for example, 1970-1979. So, for your pleasure, I will be discussing the top 50 metal albums of the last ten years.

The 2000's were a great decade for metal. They saw the ascent of sludge metal, the maturation of black metal, the genesis of post metal, the veritable arms race toward the most technical of death metal, and (for good or ill) the decline of nu metal.

Here are the ground rules I set up: each band can only be on the list once. Each year is allotted five albums, i.e., 5 for 2000, 5 for 2001, and so on. I do not attempt to rank them from 1 to 50, or even 1 to 5 within a year, because they are all excellent. Ranking them would be a pointless endeavor.

Also, instead of filling out all 50 slots, I actually have only picked 3 for each year (for a total of 30, for you English literature types), because, as I learned with my last top X list, I don't know everything about metal (though I do know a lot more than I did then). I probably am unaware of at least two other great metal albums in each of these years, and I want to encourage you to add the rest by commenting.

So, without further ado, on to the list.

Nevermore: Dead Heart in a Dead World

This album is a true triumph of pure heavy metal. The vocals and guitar are both superb on nearly every track. Highlights include opener "Narcosynthesis" with its catchy chorus, the title track, the very interesting cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," and, well, just about every other track on the album. My personal favorite is the shredding "The River Dragon Has Come," with its numerous guitar embellishments.

Mudvayne: L.D. 50

I'm sure I will probably catch some flak for including a nu metal album on this list (it isn't the only one, either), but this album is truly brilliant. Mudvayne has never been able to match their debut in terms of rawness or heart. The bass guitar is the real star on this one, driving every track through this seamless opus which explores human nature and evolution along with madness and drug abuse. The best track is "Nothing to Gein," which explores the thought processes, sexual frustrations, and mommy issues of murderer/grave robber Ed Gein, has brutal and funk/metal passages and lyrics which somehow manage to be both sensitive and sensational at the same time. Other standouts include "Dig" and "Death Blooms."

King Diamond: House of God

A concept album which both tells a story and manages to keep the music interesting throughout, this album is everything it was intended to be. Even great bands can be hit and miss when it comes to them, but King and the rest have over two decades of experience consistently making great concept albums. The story is told in vivid detail, scene by scene, with appropriate music accompanying--but the music obviously comes first. King's vocals go from scary falsetto to scary growl, and could be the focus of the album if the guitars didn't have such a great, loping rhythm and excellent solos. The best track is the title track, but other standouts are "Follow the Wolf" and "Black Devil."

As I noted above, I've only picked three out of the five best albums for 2000. I encourage you to comment and add the other two. And be sure to drop back in next Friday for 2001. When they're all posted, you can see the whole list by clicking here.