Swim in it

We do not live in an indifferent universe that does not care whether we sink or swim in the ocean. Rather, the spirit of God compels us to swim and to swim with it's strength.

This is an idea that I find most interesting. I look around at the world, at my present state of being, the situations in which I have lived for the past 12+ months, and I often find it comforting to see it all as an indifferent, "that's just life," philosophy. I find it fleeting too. Unsatisfactory. The engine of creation, the spirit of God, the "Holy Ghost," wishes for me to draw on that power of creation, instilled by God, to "swim" in the "ocean." To "trudgen" through the deep blue of existence. Through lulls and surges.

What awaits on the other side of the expanse of the ocean though? Is it paradise? More of the same? Contentment? Is the act of getting to the other side more important than what's there? Can I care enough to give it a try? The unknown depths are frightening things.

25 Reasons why the place you live at sucks

1. Upon moving in, you find that the "new fridge" you were supposed to get contains three colors on the inside; white, green and poo brown.
2. You proceed to take 75 pictures of your one bedroom apartment, three of which are of the wasps nest hanging from your balcony.
3. The hot water faucet in your bathroom sink doesn't work (yes, there are two separate faucets in the sink).
4. The bedroom window is rotted and falling off leaking heat and letting bugs in.
5. The fix for said window is glue and a lot of it.
6. The glue is also the fix for the leaky bathtub.
7. There is a drainage ditch behind your house that people fish in. Yes, people fish in the drainage ditch.
8. People also make their dogs fetch sticks from the drainage ditch.
9. Before said drainage ditch fills with water, the city sets the ditch on fire to burn up the trash and dead leaves.
10. Your neighbors fight. A lot.
11. You can hear every word of the fights because the walls are roughly three feet thick and most likely hallow.
12. You get sick from the not cleaned carpets of your apartment and the various forms of smoke that emanate through the vents from your neighbors apartments within the first month.
13. Your house is located between a laundromat and a Mexican food restaurant.
14. There is a pack of feral cats who live behind your house.
15. Said cats don't leave because someone keeps feeding them Chinese food.
16. You notice one of your neighbors with a newly bandaged wrist after the fight you heard the following morning.
17. You wake up at 6:30 every morning to either a garbage truck, police siren, fire truck someone yelling or all four.
18. Even though your apartment is on the top story, there is still a weird slope to the floor.
19. You have more closet space than bedroom space.
20. The ceiling in the living room slopes, but no other ceilings do.
21. Your stove and oven knobs have no numbers on them causing you to either burn or undercook everything.
22. Even with all the windows open (only one of which contains a screen), your apartment still feels like you are living on the inside of oven.
23. Another pack of feral cats lives in your hallway at night.
24. There is a CO2 detector sitting on the counter in your kitchen with the battery removed that you notice upon move in.
25. People don't believe you when you tell them you live between a laundromat and mexican food restaurant and always remark, "You really do live between a restaurant and a laundromat!" because that's something you'd lie about.

God, I can't wait to move.

Changes coming

This blog is retarded. Wait, I'm sorry. That's an offensive word. Ok, let's try again. This blog is pointless. Originally started as a vehicle to let me write and speak my thoughts after a very stupid situation and I think for the most part I've been able to do that. However, three years is quite some time and my lack of enthusiasm for this blog lately has only exacerbated my feelings of pointlessness. I imagine I'll still keep it up if there is anything at all I want to talk about, but I get better responses on facebook than I do here. So, pretty soon this blog site will become another graveyard to my attempts of being legitimate on the internet.

However, with this realization of mine, I also recognized that I have written about music more than anything lately and with recent attempts at not getting any work writing about music on the interwebs, a friend and myself have decided to start a metal blog site similar in scope (if not style) to metalsucks and metalinjection. So, pretty soon I'll post a link and you all can start reading my thoughts and reviews on metal music in an appropriate venue. Until that time, keep checking, I might get fired and have to write about it.

-Dan

Your Sunday dose of wandering internet fingers

Sunday is the day of rest (except for us heathens who decide to tell our bosses that we can work on this holiest of holy days) and as such there are no new thoughts to express. Except that I found a video of Skunk Anansie performing live and it made me think of this video. So good!

Sevendust-Licking Cream (feat. Skin from Skunk Anansie)


Also, my girlfriends dog got shaved and now looks like a sheep. So here is a herd of sheep for you all to enjoy. Especially you heathens. Happy Sunday!

Go here so I don't have to resize.

Turns out I was wrong

Go to Alice in Chains website and download a brand new track from AIC. Or if you so chose, I guess you can purchase said track, "A Looking in View" from iTunes, Amazon, etc. I personally chose the free way. So what was I wrong on? Well, I thought due to the teaser trailers the band released, it would be a new video. Wrong, it's a new single. So how does it stack up? Read on.

It is, first off, really heavy. Not in that death metal, speed/trash heavy but in a ominous, minor chord, groove heavy. Just like "We Die Young" off of Facelift the track starts off as a straight up heavy handed affair. It's kind of a menacing track, but it no where doesn't sound like AIC. It stacks up remarkably well. Of course that should be expected, as except for the late Layne Staley not being present it's the same band that's been together since 1993. The big question, how does William DuVall stack up with Layne Staley?

DuVall is no replacement. He sounds remotely nothing like Staley and I think this works in the bands favor. There have been dozens of bands that have attempted to recreate Staley's vocals and be the AIC replacement, and failed miserbly (I'm looking at you Godsmack and Staind) and I think that the refromed AIC is better off finding someone who can both hold his own and harmonize with Cantrell, which they have found in DuVall. The man isn't quite as powering of a voice as Staley was, but he fits and most importantly doesn't drag the song or the band down. All AIC fans can breathe easy now, as there is no horrendous vocalist to tarnish the band's legacy.

I was half expecting some sort of solo from Cantrell in the song, but considering half the band's previous material didn't contain solos, I don't know what I was thinking. I am satisfied with the song and as someone who was literally forced by my birth and when I got into heavy music to miss out on AIC's heyday finds the song refreshing. Let's face it, modern hard rock is pretty banal and Alice In Chains releasing a straight up bruiser/mind trip of an excellent return record could be a godsend. On the other hand, it simply could be seen as another old band getting together again. I mean, let's face it, BrokenCYDE is a far cry from the days of grunge and alt-metal and Nickelback, for some unholy reason, continue to be popular. Then again, the Creed renuion is not pulling them in like they used to, so maybe there is hope.

It is a sad day

When this debuts at #83 on the Billboard charts. Wait a second, why should I be sad about that? I wrote off the radio and pop music years ago! Still, it's fun to hate.

Brokencyde- Booty call feat. E-40


On another note, the dudes in the reformed, Layne Staley-less Alice in Chains keep posting trailer videos for their new album, Black Gives Way to Blue. Here's the latest trailer.



The visuals are the same as the last video, but good God almighty does that sound heavy! Oh, and just for the record, the full video that this teaser is promoting, A Looking in View, comes out... TOMORROW!! The album drops September 29.

Now this is what a music video should be!

Here's the crazy thing, I was feeling a little underwhelmed by a lot of what's "up and coming" in metal for awhile there. Then I re-examined Gojira and found them to be even more amazing than I originally thought. Then, I began hearing things about this band called Hacride. So I did a little searching and OH MY FREAKIN' GOD!!! Not quite up to Gojira status, but still some of the more inventive and interesting and utterly crushing metal I've heard as of late. Both bands have pretty awesome music videos and, guess what, they are both French bands. Yes, French metal bands. Good French metal bands. I think I need to re-examine my former dislike for these folk. On another note, the French (and most of Europe for that matter) don't have the same problems with the human body that we do, i.e. there's boobs in these videos. Enjoy!

Hacride- Perturbed


Gojira- To Sirius


Gojira- Vacuity


Why must I be short on cash right as I'm finding music I actually deem worthy to buy>!?

In all due respect

I would like to state that I feel deeply for the families and friends of Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon. All three of these near legendary entertainers passed away within the last couple of days (McMahon on the 23rd, Fawcett and Jackson yesterday, the 25th). I have no doubt the loved ones and those who loved these three are mourning deeply. So my condolences are given. With that said, I think that there are some things to keep in mind regarding at least one of these individuals, one Mr. Michael Jackson.

I, unlike what seems to be a strange amount of people in my generation (I'm 24), did not "grow up" on Michael Jackson. My first memories of the "King of Pop" have absolutely nothing to do with his music, rather it being his voice over appearance on The Simpsons. I guess you can throw up the video premiere of "Black or White" too but outside of those instances I have no memories of MJ other than as a weird, psychologically unstable and maladjusted pedophile. He was, for most of my life a strange, scary, weird individual who at one time was aligned with some of the greatest pop songwriters out there. I have no doubt that MJ was a very kind and decent person to those he loved and early on in his life he was most likely a pretty average individual. For whatever reasons though, whether it be some genetic predisposition or the early spot light or his own father being not much of a father, Jackson went nuts. It is entirely normal for people to view only the positives of a person after they die, it is one of the coping mechanisms we humans use to deal with the absence of someone in our physical lives. Having recently lost two close family members, I understand this very well. So, please, if you have a love for the man's music and that part of his legacy, by all means celebrate it! He made a lot of people happy and no doubt inspired countless musicians. However, I don't think we can forget the fact that he did some really reprehensible things and that if he were not the "King of Pop" and just some other once black, now white, waifish child molester we'd be celebrating his death. One more perv gone.

I don't think he should be held up to the revisionist history of being blameless and I also don't think he should be seen as a total creep with no redeeming values. He was a human being like all of us and his good and bad should be taken as such. He was crazy but a fantastic entertainer who gave millions a bright spot in their lives. I know how much the music I love affects me, so I won't dare take that away from those who cherish his music. Long story short, he ain't no saint, but he ain't no demon and his good should be remembered equally with his bad.

Ladies and gentlemen... get your haterade ready!

A preface; I use wikipedia a lot in this post. Sorry. Bad English major. I also happen to use bad grammar. Bad, bad English major. I would also like to mention that while I did read everything on the websites I link to, I very well could have misread or missed something. So, if you all find something that makes me look like a complete tool, please feel free to point it out. Just try and do it nicely instead of like anonymous poster who felt it was his/her right to tell me I'm an idiot. I already knew that, so please be kind. Now...

I'm gonna piss everyone off. Yep. Everyone. I'm gonna write about religion. Not just any religion though, no sir. I'm gonna write about Christianity, but not just any old Christianity, I am gonna write about... get ready for it... SPIRIT FILLED CHRISTIANITY!!! Yep, here I go writing about the Apostolics, Charismatics, and everyone's favorite evidence of "yep, Christians are crazy, look at them babble!" For those of you who are wondering what a spirit filled Christian is (as I wanted a few more denominations to mention) here is a Wiki-Answer to the question 'What is a spirit-filled Christian?"; A spirit filled christian is a person who has accepted the Lord as their savior they then are filled with the holy spirit. Thanks for clearing that up. I'm glad I now know absolutely nothing about their theology, lifestyle, services, worldwide impact, etc. etc. Really though, I can sum up what this whole thing is for you, as good as any wiki answer can.

The term "spirit-filled Christianity" is something that I have recently had some experience with, but for most of my life I knew it as Pentecostalism or Charismatic Christianity. My first one on one experience was with a friend I had my freshman year of high school who assured me that the evidence of being filled with the holy spirit was speaking in tongues. This didn't sit well with my 15 year old mind, which more or less took him as saying, "you aren't a true Christian because you don't do x." This has been my view of the whole issue for sometime. It still is. I have always viewed this particular "manifestation" of the spirit serving one purpose in the early church, if you are going to follow the Bible as your authority on the matter. It was meant to speak the words of Christ to people in their own language, i.e. no translator. The original Greek phrases used to describe the act of speaking in tongues are the root words of glossa and dialektos which mean, respectively, "tongue" and "language." They are used synonymously and can therefore be seen as the disciples speaking in known languages to the crowd they were speaking to (check out Acts 2:7-8). It was a means to spread the word of God, not a means to communicate to God. That was the gift of no more intercessor, i.e., no more rabbi. The important element in the Pentecost was to allow the direct interaction of everyone with God through prayer, not simply so a select few "chosen ones" who have the "manifestation of the Spirit" can.

There is more though. Did you know that studies have show a heightened sense of emotion that comes with "speaking in tongues?" By the way, from here on out I will simply refer to it by the scientific term of glossolalia, which is the combination of Greek words glossa"tongue,language" and lalein"to talk" Yep, that's right, all those intense moments you see on t.v. where people are crying, babbling, and raising their arms are emotionally charged. It's very easy to follow a crowd when the emotions run high. Think about it in terms of music concerts. How charged up and emotional can you get seeing your favorite band play. Your brain is a delicate instrument and when something gets too much activity and is too focused upon one thing, like emotions, the rest of your brain functions suffer. However, this emotional element does not discount it altogether as there is evidence that glossolalia is still similar to human speech. It has rhythm, intonation and syllables. However, there is no structure, coherence, or intentional methodology associated with forming glossolalia. In essence, it appears close enough to human speech to be able to be picked up, but not close enough to be understood.

So why does this happen? That, I don't know. I'm on the fence. On the one hand, if God is as all powerful as he is supposed to be, then why not? But then why would God chose such an esoteric and foreign way to communicate with his children? If glossolalia is simply some sort of learned, emotional, trance-hypnosis babble, the why can seemingly normal people suddenly become infatuated with it? Are we all open to being "hypnotized" by incredibly emotional experiences? Or, on a far out limb, could this whole movement of "spirit-filled Christianity" be one huge ploy by the dark spiritual forces of this world to lead the faithful astray? Could the second largest movement in Christianity today be one big, misleading, emotional fraud? Hey, at least I'm seriously considering spiritual things again.

Told you I wasn't going to make any friends.

P.S. Read more Here and here.
P.S.S. This is not meant, in anyway shape or form to be the final authority on the matter. I plan to read far more and talk to more individuals about this, including ones who claim that glossolalia is for real and they participate in it. Like everything on this blog, it's something that sparked my interest and I wanted to see if anyone else's interest was sparked.

The most exciting news I've heard all day.

Here was the top story on my news feed this morning.
Woman gets most boring story nod of the month!

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I think we all should start using this device.



I promise to have something more serious up in the next week here. I'm simply waiting for time to sit down and write it. I have tomorrow off and plan on doing ab-so-freakin'-lutley nada. Except clean. Maybe.

Joy and comfort,
-D

In which Faith No More eased the pain

To whit;

This is not metal.
Attack! Attack! -"Stick Stickly"


For all requests of your 3:34 seconds of life back, give me a comment. I'll gladly give it back to you. Metal Sucks however is not so kind.

Now that the first sign of the apocalypse is done, watch something GOOD!

Faith No More -"Midlife Crisis"


Panckaes,
-D

In which we will sanction North Korea

It appears that tensions between the U.S. and North Korea will not get any better anytime soon. In a recent Reuters article we see that the U.S. is in talks with South Korea about financial sanctions against North Korea. It appears as if the Obama administration is doing exactly what it was meant to do, be a prettier version of a Bush administration. I am no political guru and I certainly don't have time to visit every news site out there, but what I have noticed appearing recently in Obama is a strong desire to make friends and be liked. His first 100 days seemed to be filled with bill after bill being signed and the start of an economic stimulus package. However, the shit stained reality is hitting and it seems that most of his promises will go unfulfilled. We might look better to the world, but we are still having the same issues. Bolstering of forces in a war (this time Afghanistan), a prison not being closed, jobless rate at it's highest, etc. And in all honesty, I'm mostly pissed that we are still sanctioning another country. Really, all this does is reaffirm that we are a self interested empire trying to keep a lesser country from gaining a destructive advantage. I don't particularly want N. Korea to have nukes, but I don't want to piss them off more and make them hate us further. All that's going to do is make them nuke the U.S. first chance they get.

I guess this means the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade is getting it's wish. Oh wait, Obama's the communist. I forget.

Fuck politics.

Coffee shops make me sleepy

Or maybe it's my lack of sleeping at night. Whatever. I've got a show on Friday (tomorrow) back in the old hometown of Colorado Springs. Good old Conservachristtown will be assaulted by the tunes of current musical endeavor, Ruins of Tomorrow, and former musical endeavor, Marriage of Convenience. In case you are wondering if playing with a band that I was ceremoniously kicked out off and quit simultaneously is weird much like this awkward sentence, the answer is no. So if you are anywhere near the 719 around 8 tomorrow night, go to Union Station, have a drink and see some metal. It's good for you.

On another note, I am recording the bass lines to a new Ruins of Tomorrow song on Saturday. So far it's sexilicious and no doubt the addition of mastering, bass and vocals will make it that much more enticing. Look for it to be up on the internets around late June-ish.

I've been spinning the recent Success Will Write Apocalypse Across The Sky album and it sounds nothing like what you would expect it to with such a stupidly long name. Think short bursts of modern Floridian style brutal death metal and you've got an idea. Good stuff indeed. Also, the new Daath. I've talked about it before, but dammit did those guys pull out a good record!

Lastly, Pres. Obama has recently been wandering around the world trying to make friends. He has called for a "new beginning between US and Muslims," and stated that "Just as Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire," in a recent Associated Press article. I can agree with half of that (not all Muslim people fit the stereotype, I'm sure) but America as a country, well, I wish I had a bullshit button. That's all the politics I'm going to do today, so until whenever, keep your nose clean.

Updte... as if anyone gives a shit.

Alright, to start things off I have a correction to make. In my blog entitled "Grrl Powered Cock Rock!" I mistakenly referred to bands such as WASP, Ratt, Poison etc. as "Power Metal." I realize that power metal is a legit, if equally cheesy, genre of metal and these hair bands have no right to be spoken in the same sentence as Stratovarius, Sonata Artica, Blind Guardian, etc. So I apologize, I need to learn how to proof read. As for the poster who remained anonymous and basically told me my view sucks and I am an idiot, well, fuck you and the birth canal that your mother spewed you from. In all seriousness, I am trying my best to see what I am mistaken on and where exactly my "politics delude reality." As human beings we have the mental capacity to break free from traditionally put upon gender roles and traits. Even if those gender roles and traits are defined by chemical reactions to incoming stimuli, it still doesn't mean we have to go back to men being men, women being women. The only thing that is truly different between myself and any woman walking the street is that I was ascribed a Y chromosome that gave me a penis and non lactating, undeveloped breasts. Everything else is societal, familial, and cultural (and yes, culture and society are different). Once again, I appreciate any and all comments, criticism and editing on these blog posts. I like new information being thrown my way. Just be prepared for a rude, snide, not to be taken seriously, colorful response. I like those.

Alright, now that that's off my chest, I'd like to take a poll. How's that economic stimulus working out for you? It should be happening right? I know that I'm definitely feeling it after only a few months of an Obama administration. It's not like these things take time or something. To be honest, I haven't kept up with the news as of late. I honestly have been wrapped up in my own world as my family has had a time of it. So I guess when I have something more important to write I will. Otherwise, go check out Success Will Write Apocalypse Across The Sky, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Tombs, and Psalters. I'm digging on all of them recently. Til next time.

The metal rain!

It's raining here in good old Greality and snowing, well, everywhere else in CO. Since the rest of the state and the great city of Cheyenne (where my show tonight was, sadly canceled) seem to be covered in the white stuff, here's some metal news. Because I have no life outside of the metals.


Slipknot, The Agonist and Bring me the Horizon all released new videos this week. None of them are that terribly impressive, but I think these three bands each reveal something different about the current state of metal. I'll let you all to make up your minds, but the phrase "twice baked" seems to fit all three.

Slipknot- Sulfur

Slipknot - New Music - More Music Videos

The Agonist- ...And Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep
The Agonist - ...and Their Eulogies Sang Me to Sleep


Bring Me The Horizon- Diamonds Aren't Forever

Bring Me The Horizon - New Music - More Music Videos

In other news, Chimaira and Daath are both releasing new albums on Tuesday. Yay! I am currently on my third spin of the new Chimaira disc and I am finding that sometimes I enjoy the piss out of it and others I am bored beyond the desire to piss. Seriously, they seem really lazy half the time and rally inspired the other. Lame. Daath on the other hand, I am so stoked about! Every song I've heard thus far has lead me to think it will be an excellent addition and far above the exciting/boring album that "The Hinderers" is. Anyway, decide for yourself!
Daath on myspace
Chimaira on myspace

Also, apparently Mike Patton wrote the score for the new Crank film. I've never seen the first one and probably wouldn't go see the second if it weren't for the fact that MIKE FUCKING PATTON WROTE THE DAMN SCORE!!! Click here for a glorified commercial for Crank: High Voltage and some insight into Mike Patton's song writing process. Cheers and beers my friends!

The State of Metal, pt. 2. Or in other words, the long awaited conclusion to a barely read and hardly recognizable blog.

To begin this blog, I was going to have a video showcasing the difference between hardcore dancing and mosh pitting (is that an appropriate term?). However, all the videos sucked so instead here's a guy getting kicked in the nuts.



Crappy videos aside, the point of this long, un-awaited follow up to my last posting (dated June 11, 2008) is to finally engage in the discussion of what the hell is happening to metal. The what was originally meant to be a trio of blogs stemmed from a class project on the sociological reasons for the development of hardcore and metal music. I got a B on the project. See kids, do your homework in advance, not the night before. Still, the project made me think about the music. Why did these styles of music gain the steam they did? I won't recount everything here, but suffice it to say you can watch American Hardcore and Metal: A Headbanger's Journey for a crash course in both styles developments. What I am mainly concerned with here is, where is metal now?

Metal has been en vogue for a number of years now. I could cite a number of reasons (the Bush administration, the War in Iraq, the blandness of late 90's music, the coming of age of youth raised on In Flames, At the Gates, etc.) but really those don't matter that much right now. Metal, in 2009, is a fractured, stale, cookie cutter industry. That's right. I'm here to say that for all the good things that have happened to metal since the turn of the century, nine years in the genre has failed to bring about what it so desperately needs. New ideas. When the metalcore boom occured between 2003-2005 the bands sounded fresh. Most of this was due to those bands having had the chance to slog through the club and unsigned scene for a number of years. Plus these were people who were genuine fans of both hardcore and metal and had found a way to combine the two. Shadow's Fall, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Unearth, Lamb of God, God Forbid, Chimaira, Shai Hulud... the list goes on. While nothing these bands were doing was inventive, it was new. It was exciting. Soon it got bogged down by imitators and trend setters. Some of those bands saw this as a chance to grow and change (Lamb of God, God Forbid, Chimaira, to name a few) and some saw this as a chance to do the same thing over again (Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, and a host of others). Some soon saw metalcore as too weak, too by the numbers, too "un-metal" I suppose. Enter Deathcore and the current trend.

Before I continue, I must admit that I play in a bonafide Deathcore band. We are called Ruins of Tomorrow and I absolutely love playing in this band. Compared with my past musical endeavors, I feel like I am playing with fully committed, articulate and creative musicians. I will make no bones about it. We have breakdowns. We have melodeath, swede heavy riffs. We've got two vocalists. We have fans who two step and hardcore dance and who spend more time on their hair than I would ever care too. I say this because I am going to be unwavering in my accusations against this current trend of deathcore, knowing full well that the "true kvlt" will label me a hypocrite, bandwagoner, or pay me no mind whatsoever because at last check, 84 people have viewed my blog.

So deathcore, we meet at last. For those who need a primer, I am not giving one. I'm simply sending you to wikipedia and horrifying all of my ex-English profs in the process. I didn't really discover this phenomenon until I joined my current band and they began talking about Whitechapel, Despised Icon, Suicide Silence, etc. What I found was an attempt at a new take on being heavy and brutal and I kind of liked it. At the same time, I didn't. I found in it a lot of trappings that made metalcore stale. Excessive use of breakdowns, unimaginative swede rip off riffing, chants, and that bane of all "true headbangers", hardcore dancing. There was little sounding longevity to the style and as second tier bands have emerged (Rose Funeral, Oceano, Emmure, ABACABB) there is less hope for longevity. It's not that these bands can't play. They all have chops. Lots of chops. But there is no, and I mean NO real creativity in them. Personally, I enjoy listening to most of these bands when I am pissed off. It's a great fucking release, but don't fool yourself into thinking that they are adding anything new to the metal gene pool. These bands come off as recessive genes, adding the brown eyes, brown hair, moderate skin tone and other plain white, European traits to an already boring looking person (how's that for Eurocentrism?). But this person is fun to hang out with. A lot of fun. I think I've put my finger on it. Metal, in it's current form is less about innovation and more about imitation. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but eventually the flattered upon says, "enough for fucks sake! Be your own person!"

As I am typing this, I realize there are a host of great albums out there. From 2008, we have Origin's Antithesis, Becoming the Archetype's Dichotomy, Meshuggah's Obzen, Gojira's The Way of All Flesh and more recently God Forbid's Earthsblood. I'm sure most of you could compile your own list of greats from 2008 and 2009, but these are the ones that come to mind. Mastodon's Crack the Skye proves to be a contender to inject a much needed shot of ingenuity into the genre, but really isn't that band kind of their own at this point? Some of you could even point out the most obscure death metal band as the contender for king of the proverbial mountain and some of you would say, "you overlooked insert my favortie band of the moment!" Here is the other problem I see as I wind up this long winded, go no where blog. There is a lot of metal out there. The internet and the ease of sharing your music has caused an influx of new bands that hasn't been seen since... well ever. Sorting out the wheat from the chaff is becoming increasingly harder. Something has to change.

But what? I don't actually have any answers aside from, be more unique and creative. But where to go from here? Become more technically proficient in hopes of becoming more creative? Start listening to other genres and add them? Get heavier? Faster? Slower? It's all been done. Where metal will go from here is anyone's guess. Hopefully someone will spice up the metal stew soon. For now, we all must be content with having ourselves spoonfed a satisfying, if an ultimately bland metal meal. Metal is more popular than it may have ever been, but is it better? The answer, like all hard questions, is yes and no. For the moment, I need to go practice, because ultimately, someone has to do something and that's my starting point. Keep the metal faith alive!