Decibel writer Christopher R Weingarten at 140 Characters Conference

Decibel writer Christopher R. Weingarten says the printed music review is dead in the internet age. In an extremely interesting speech given at the 140 Characters Conference in New York, Weingarten, a freelance music writer for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Revolver and The Village Voice, states that with Twitter and blogs the medium of printed reviews are unnecessary. He believes as people can either read reviews as soon as the record company shifts the promo CD, or better yet download the album itself, people have no need for printed reviews. He says, “You don’t need a critic to tell you if something’s good. You can listen to it.” (Watch the video above)

With online music media maturing at the rate it is, and reviews often being one reason why someone buys a magazine, print music media disappearing or shrinking to the point of evaporation could be a real scenario.

However, the music magazine – metal publications like Metal Hammer, Decibel, Terrorizer, Revolver, Kerrang and Rock Sound included – will stay alive and prosper deep into the future and there are many reasons why.

Yes it’s conceivable that printed reviews might become outdated and obsolete by the time they hit the streets and thus affect magazine sales, but the same doesn’t hold true for interviews. An interview is one thing that can be locked inside a magazine until print and is probably the leading reason for people buying a magazine. Granted bands often give very similar interviews during one single promotional cycle (whether that’s fault of journalist or artist is up for grabs) so why buy the printed rehash if you can read it online for free? Because if a magazine can get a juicy enough pull quote to splash over a cover there’s no reason why a fan wouldn’t want to read what their favourite band says in Metal Hammer or Decibel above the blog. Furthermore it’s conceivable that if online reviews and media were to eat into physical sales magazines would adapt and take a new approach to their content in order to compete. It could become the norm to lock down completely exclusive interviews by arrangement with record companies then hype their catch, probably via the internet ironically, and whip up a frenzy of interest that translates into magazine buys.

This same ‘death of print’ argument could have been used for music news when the internet arrived. During the eighties, nineties and even prior, a magazine like Kerrang was the only news outlet available to metal heads and it was a similar story across plenty of genres. Today, despite sites like Blabbermouth reporting any piece of metal news as it happens – making magazine news pointless – people still read those pages and publications still devote space to it. Why would reviews have a different effect?

Weingarten himself makes a final stand for the printed review over so-called ‘Twit-ic’ opinion. He says that people need to know the ‘why’ and reasoning behind an opinion not just the opinion itself. It’s this opinion and ability to analyse, argues Weingarten, that holds that value for the print critic. That’s exactly correct. While anyone can have an opinion, very few can actually translate that into a balanced, logical argument.

It’s very hard to see the printed music review bowing out to its electronic counterpart. Not only do people need the why, but this entire notion of destruction is supported completely by the perception that it’s the majority of music fans are those that trawl blogs, Twitter and online media looking for reviews and downloading any album of interest. That’s simply not true. It’s very much the minority that are ingrained in the practice of maniacally absorbing online music media like blogs and so forth with such vigour that they see purchasing a magazine as pointless. The threat simply doesn’t exist at the proposed level.

Music and music fans will always want real reviewers. Yes things are changing and the ‘need’ for reviews isn’t quite as universal as it was in the past, but book critics aren’t packing up because people can go into the book store or library and read what it is reviewers are declaring their opinions on. While it would be naive and short sighted to declare that print will be entirely unaffected by online media, the idea that it could trigger a collapse is equally improvident. There could indeed be a knock on effect, and Weingarten has sparked interesting conversation on something largely untouched, but the careers of critics and magazine editors seem safe for some time.

Devin Townsend

Devin Townsend is seemingly incapable of giving a bad interview and a recent conversation with website Stream of Consciousness keeps the form. Devin made an interesting suggestion, that many people use heavy music as a ‘defence mechanism’. When asked about the heavier edge for forthcoming record Deconstruction he explained some fans reacted negatively to the mellow tones in Ki, his most recent album. That they only liked Devin’s heavier output caused him to question why some people choose to like only heavy music.

Honestly, at the root of it, I think humans are really terrified and I think a lot of people who really love heavy music love it because it’s a way for them to protect themselves. If you put this thing forward and are like “I’m going to scare people with my music”, then no one’s going to get to the root of the fact that maybe it’s just you that are terrified and that’s your way of protecting yourself, that’s your defense mechanism. It’s one thing to say, “Oh I’m mad at God”, but maybe you’re really just mad at your father, you know? And I think that all these themes… that’s the thing that’s really interesting to me about heavy music now it’s like yes I love heavy music absolutely, but man to think that’s the only thing that I’m able to offer and that’s the only thing that certain people are willing to accept from me?  You know, it’s not like I’m pissed off about it, but it’s kind of like are you sure you really want to know why you really like this with the exclusion of everything else?

Devin raises a pertinent point and it’s interesting that it is being discussed. It’s worth outlining that he’s not claiming all metal fans like the music due to misplaced anger, only that the more narrow minded elitist may be using it as a barrier and unnecessarily blocking out other music. He explains further:

I just get tons of emails from people saying, “Fuck that shit man play Strapping, play crushing music” and I’m like yeah man I can do that for sure, but that’s one spoke in the emotional reel and to focus on that… it’s like waking up in the morning and having steak with steak for lunch and steak for afternoon snack and steak for dinner and then soon you say, you know what man?  For breakfast this morning I’d just love a bowl of cereal and they respond, “You’re a fag aren’t you.” [laugh] You know?  It’s like no dude I really don’t feel like steak right now, I don’t know what to tell you.  Don’t get me wrong I love a good meal, but it just seems ridiculous to me that that’s all you eat.

While it would be the wrong platform to jump in a debate on the psychology of metal right now, this sort of close minded attitude to other forms of music is rife within the metal world. For fans of metal not to embrace Devin Townsend’s work just because it’s not exactly like the heaviness of Strapping Young Lad is just counterproductive to their own enjoyment. That they’re so juiced on their own metallic machismo to not be able to appreciate other music, even that produced by an immensely talented metal musician, is ridiculous. When people can accept that it’s possible to enjoy melody and harmony for exactly what it is, without thinking it then has to almost affect who they have created themselves to be, the metal community would be an even better place to inhabit.

Devin continues to say that Deconstruction will be heavier fair and will take an examination of why people have such an undiluted thirst for brutal music:

You can say, “Oh it’s just what I like.”  Yeah sure, I appreciate that, but why do you like it?  It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just tell me why you like it.  And “I don’t know” is not a good enough answer as far as I’m concerned because apparently I have to be held accountable for everything I say. [laugh] So at this point I’m like I’ll do it for you, sure.  And it’s funny because I start writing the Deconstruction stuff and I get these people around me that are just like, “Yeah yeah yeah!  Yeah yeah yeah!  Yeah yeah yeah!”  And it’s so funny. I just think to myself I’m like, “Fuck, it’s like I’m surrounded by a bunch of kids,” you know?  And it’s like sure, I like it too, but the whole point of Deconstruction is not “right on man, fuck the world,” it’s more like tear it down man, tear it down why do you want to hear this chaos?

It will be very intriguing to see what sort of conclusions Devin picks up when Deconstruction is released. As is evident from this and many other interviews, he’s a very astute man and while this kind of dissection might not be to some people’s liking it’s certainly interesting to think about why heavy music is so appealing. For some it might be the anger metal appears to possess on the surface but for most it’s likely just to be an enjoyment of extremities, a greater sympathy to heavier sounds or more interest in the substance of ability and lyrical topic that metal has when compared to the melodic and romance-focused mainstream. There could be a multitude of reasons, good or bad, and it will be compelling to see what Devin suggests when Deconstruction is released.

The Rotted

Metal fans can be incredibly precious when it comes to their favourite bands. Whereas in the realms of pop music a performer is gazed upon with wonder when their record company forces them to “re-invent” themselves, anything greater than a slight shift from their original core values can cause metal fans to abandon their once favourite acts.

Although it might seem petty, this is acceptable to a point. It’s only fair that in the relationship between band and follower that the artists maintain the same essence that drew those people to being fans in the first place. Like it or not the first few albums are almost a contract between the band and their fans; a statement of intent declaring who they are and what they’re about. So it’s no surprise when a band moves their boundaries that fans shout their opposition. It’s fair to expect a Megadeth album from Megadeth, not a venture into radio rock.

A band like Slayer, for example, established themselves as a heavy thrash band in their early albums and that’s how it has stayed. They have developed, but not by changing their style completely. They’ve always been heavy thrash but their song writing skill has improved, creating a better more rounded version of their core style. As a result Slayer as one of the biggest metal bands in the world has remained a constant.

There is another way, however, to appease the masses while still allowing a band the ability to diversify, and The Rotted have it exactly right.

Ben McCrow - Vocals

Their new material no longer akin to the Gorerotted sound, the band only saw it fair to leave the legacy unchanged and start fresh with a new name. The Rotted, a new band containing the only remaining parts of Gorerotted, continued in its place. Although it was met with some bemusement initially, the choice should have been praised from the outset.

Choosing to maintain your band’s legacy by calling it to an end when you want to separate from a previous style ensures nothing is tainted and means the band fans loved is crystallised and untarnished. Although people can decry the new direction of The Rotted they can never take anything away from Gorerotted. It’s exactly the right way to do it.

Metal world take note.

The Rotted interview on MetalStorm.ee about the name change

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Should bands ever change their style? Is it wrong that bands are chastised for changing switching genres? Do you agree that The Rotted did the right thing by ending Gorerotted? Tell The Axe below…

Chimaira (2001-Present)

Chimaira

As you take in the positive press for their brand new album, The Infection, it slowly becomes evident that Chimaira are carving a legacy for themselves. Their fifth album in eight years has grabbed another set of high ratings and deservedly; it’s yet more improvement upon their already respected song writing skill. It seems despite potentially dangerous swerves from course they have persevered where others would fail and have always remained on the tip of metal fans’ awareness. Constantly improving musically while staying true to their post-debut sound, Chimaira have kept their fan base and relevance despite the scenes and trends they have seen pass. 

They might look unlikely heroes as they stand, after all they aren’t selling stadiums or frowning from the cover of every magazine, but a respect is slowly building. While the snobbery that is rife in the metal community caused many to push Chimaira off their radar five or six years ago due to being on the roster of the genre’s largest label, Roadrunner Records, the band still gained a solid fanbase and wrote even sturdier albums. When Roadrunner declined their option on the band after the self-titled LP, the group moved to current label, Nuclear Blast, a place where metal elitists could finally begin to drop their prejudice and the band received the respect they were due.

Chimaira currently drift in the tepid waters between complete underground acceptance and all out mainstream awareness, but it’s an all together more balanced place to be. Their story is similar to many of the older bands of today who are held in high regard by their successors. A great live band with a well-backed, popular start that gives way to a bundle of strong, lauded albums on a label with less weight. The biggest common denominator though is Chimaira’s die-hard fan base. History tells us that bands who persevere reap rewards. Iron Maiden stuck out the 90s and have now regained their place as the titans of metal. Slayer bore the storm of nu metal and are regarded as a muse for the current flock of metalheads. Both had rabid, die-hard fan bases they continue to enjoy.

While there’s no way of knowing for sure if Chimaira will take the sort of place a band like Testament or Anthrax hold today when the landscape shifts in 10-20 years or so, everything points in that direction. It’s very possible that Chimaira will be future legends of metal.

Impending Doom, Burning Human

More popular bands outsell less well known acts all the time. No surprise. What is amazing is when an inferior band outsells a superior one by more than 22 times; even more amazing when that inferior band are on a smaller label. That’s the case between average christian deathcore band, Impending Doom and brilliant death metal band, Burning Human. It’s enough to make you seriously doubt the metal-buying public.

When you hear that Burning Human, the death metal side project of Jason Bittner from Shadows Fall, sold only 190 copies of their long-delayed album Resurrection Through Fire in the first week of release, compared to the 4,300 copies christian deathcore band, Impending Doom shifted of their latest record The Serpent Servant in its first week, it seems crazy.

Impending Doom aren’t a terrible band, but they’re one of that recent troupe referred to as death metal when they’re distinctly deathcore and, just like tons of other young bands, like to have themselves a Meshuggah-moment in their songs now and then; none of which are particularly inspiring. Burning Human on the other hand feature Shadows Fall’s impressive Jason Bittner and the quality of their material far outshines that which Impending Doom have put together. Impending Doom are on Facedown Records, a small independent christian label, while Burning Human are on Koch Records, America’s #1 independent record company.

So, why did Impending Doom, an uninspiring band with the small leverage of Facedown outsell a better band with heavy weight of Koch Records?

Impending Doom

As with so much, which bands kids get into has a lot to do with if you fit their mould. Impending Doom are young, look like them and have a heavily modified MySpace. Topping it off they sing about God – something that appeals to a surprisingly large demographic. Burning Human all look like they’re 30 plus, dress like an actual death metal band and have had their MySpace abused only moderately with Photoshop (it’s something the kids care about these days apparently). If you’re 16 and your favourite bands are Carnifex and Despised Icon, a fitting description for a large proportion of metal fans today, who are you more likely to go for? While the music should be the overriding factor at all times, as we all know that’s often not the case, and when such fickle fans have a, comparably, great deal of disposable income what they choose makes a big difference.

Burning Human

The other significant factor is that while Koch Records (now also known as E1 Entertainment) do have a few well established metal acts on their distribution/recording roster (Hatebreed, In Flames, Throwdown and Satyricon) they’re probably unaccustomed to getting Burning Human’s music to the kind of people who’ll buy it; extreme metal fans that usually avoid mainstream metal media. Facedown know their audience better, they’re likely all deeply involved and interested in the scenes they’re targeting, and acutely accustomed to the methods that group use to hear about and share new bands and use it to their advantage.

I wouldn’t doubt for a second that Impending Doom have worked really hard, but it’s galling to see one band that’s been going since 1995 fail to make an impact for completely spurious reasons while another gains so greatly simply because they ‘fit the bill’.

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Do you agree? Do you think it’s wrong that Impending Doom outsold Burning Human? Or are Impending Doom deserving of the accolade? Tell us below…

Dino Cazares and Burton C. Bell have brought Fear Factory back from the semi-grave (not sure they actually split up in the first place) and grabbed Byron Stroud and Gene Hoglan for the bass and drum spots respectively. While they are excellent choices for those instruments, and should have any metal fan psyched to hear the material they’ll come up with, why have the two most obvious choices been over looked? Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera.

Granted, Dino and Burton are founding members, as they remind us in an interview with Metal Hammer, so they can place the Fear Factory banner on anything they want. And Byron has been playing in Fear Factory since Archetype dropped in 2004. But considering Herrera has been in the band from the start and Olde Wolbers has recorded every FF album except the debut you’re kind of getting into the realms of white wash by excluding them from a reformation of a band that never broke up.

When asked flat out why Christian and Raymond aren’t involved Dino and Burton say a lot without saying anything:

Metal Hammer: Christian and Raymond aren’t involved in this new line-up…how and why was that decision made?

Burton: “It’s like a business and I’m just reorganising. After time you realise what’s important and what’s not important, and after talking to Dino again it just felt good and it felt right.”

Metal Hammer: Did you know straight away that you wouldn’t include Christian and Raymond in this…people are obviously going to ask why they’re not involved…

Burton: “We won’t talk about it. Ha ha ha! It’s part of the organisation. We learned some things and we have a really good rapport with Byron, and Gene is an amazing drummer. Dino and I, as the founders of Fear Factory, we thought ‘Hey, let’s try this, a different flavour’. Because wherever me and Dino go, it’ll still be Fear Factory, I believe.”

Dino: “I’ve had many projects in the past and I’ve played with some of the best drummers in this form of music, from Ray Mayorga to Nick Barker, Tim Yeung, Joey Jordison, and now I’m playing with the king of this genre. How could I pass that up? How could anyone pass up a chance to play with Gene Hoglan?”

There’s probably more at play but it reads like Burton wanted to play with Dino again and knew Raymond and Christian wouldn’t agree. Fair enough, but calling the new venture Fear Factory is going to be seen as a bit of a low blow.

Dino and Burton reunited.

Although Burton and Dino say they’ve now forgotten what they were fighting about in the linked interview I’d have thought Dino being openly referred to as an infection that has been removed in the track ‘Archetype’ would close the case on Dino and Burton ever working together again or at least put a big elephant in the practice room.

Whether all this reforming is news to Raymond and Christian will probably come up in the next few weeks, but being busy with Arkaea (who oddly have their demo sampler streaming on the Fear Factory MySpace page as of right now) will take their minds off it no doubt.

This situation can’t help but remind you of the Down and Damageplan days with members from an iconic band split between two others. The results from that were great so there’s no reason to think the same won’t happen here.

Dino’s post-Fear Factory work from the Roadrunner United album to Divine Heresy has been enjoyable, Burton has obviously done good work with old Fear Factory since the 2002 split and Gene Hoglan and Byron Stroud were a part of the amazing, Strapping Young Lad for a long time. All of that talent converging in one group can only logically produce gold. It just feels strange to call it a Fear Factory reformation when the band never went nor the two absent members ever leave.

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What do you think about Fear Factory reuniting? Tell us below…

Those of us unfortunate/fortunate enough to encounter metal in the modern day have never had the chance to experience that particular excitement. For as great as MySpace can be there’s a certain amount of envy tied to the thought of the exhilaration tape trading produced. Although the internet allows a hugely advantageous dissemination of music, in turn it strips away all of the mystery. The shock of hearing Napalm Death’s Scum for the first time, for example, would be immensely stunted if you could browse the band’s personal profiles at the same time. It’s often the mystique surrounding a band or a recording that makes it so magnetic.

It seems modern bands feel the same also. Earlier this week the great Metal Sucks reported that Trivium’s, Matt Heafy asked fans to burn a top ten CD of the band’s music, pass it on to friends and encourage them to do the same from his Twitter page. Heafy said: “Make tons of copies, pass it to everyone. Let’s recreate the tape trade virally and all that shit.” While that’s a great and active way to promote your band’s music, sadly it’s unlikely to trigger the glory days of tape trading.

But, does that mean you’ll never have the chance to listen eagerly to a hand-picked and lovingly recorded selection of underground metal? Perhaps not.

While browsing the news page of Axe favourites Metal Injection it became evident that the same underground trade mentality which perpetuated throughout all streams of metal in the 80s and early 90s is present today. Podcasts are the new way for die hard fans to freely pass on new, often under-heard music in the modern day.

When you think about it there’s really little difference. While you might not be lucky enough to hear full albums and EPs, podcasts that cater to the active metal fan often act as a showcase for brilliant underground cuts. Track lists are often created by one person from either their own record collection or from internet streams they’ve been savvy enough to capture. All of it then recorded and condensed into one simple audio format for a fellow die hard to enjoy. All just like trading tapes.

Podcasts are a fantastic way to discover new bands you’d never think of looking up or otherwise never come across and without any postage costs and if you subscribe to the podcast through a program like iTunes each new instalment is downloaded automatically.

So, if you’re ever reading an article that fawns over the tape trading era don’t resign yourself to nostalgia. Go online and seek out a podcast.

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Do you think podcasts are the new tape trading? Or is there another way people are bringing back the tape trading ethos? Tell us below.

In complete contradiction to what you’d think, and to what the video for ‘Undead’ would have you believe, they actually seem like fairly level headed chaps. Thus leading you to think that in fact they did completely rip off ‘The Ozzman’ but relied on a number of factors in order to avoid reprimand:

1. The adolescents who are ensnared by their ‘tits-and-arse-rock-hop’ wouldn’t even recognise the lick. To their porn obsessed minds Linkin Park are vintage metal and nothing exists prior.
2. If it were discovered to be a note for note lift they could plead ignorance just like in the Coldplay/Satriani debacle.
3. It’s not a poorly hidden rip off and really is a poorly paraphrased tribute.

The real reason will no doubt surface in some interview, somewhere. In the mean time it’s worth noting that in the 2:10 shot of the previously linked interview one of the members is wearing a Converge hoodie. At least we know one of them has taste.

]]> http://theaxeblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/ozzy-is-paid-homage-in-hollywood-undead-track/feed/ 0 theaxeblog http://theaxeblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/machine-head-used-to-look-really-ridiculous/ http://theaxeblog.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/machine-head-used-to-look-really-ridiculous/#comments Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:03:19 +0000 theaxeblog http://theaxeblog.wordpress.com/?p=75 Continue reading →]]> The year was 1999, nu-metal was at its mainstream peak, and Machine Head had just released ‘The Burning Red’. Unfortunately, for said release Machine Head decided to forget their reputable past and, for a tiny portion of time, sell out. The result, as we can see with the benefit of hindsight, was quite appalling:

Robb Flynn went from looking like a 90s post-thrash legend to wearing neon orange tracksuit jackets, and the whole band took a step too far into the bizarre baggy jeans, cyber-punk-hair abyss.

The best document of this conveniently forgotten stretch of time is the ‘From This Day’ video (top). The entire look of the video is a hideous nu-metal cliché – zany hair, hip hop stances, pretending to look ‘crazy’and Adam Duce in a shiny tracksuit ensemble.

To be fair, even though this looks ridiculous compared to how they look now (below) at the time it looked amazing and even though you can see Flynn and co are pretty uncomfortable with their heresy it won genuine fans that are with them to this day. Now they’re the darlings of metal again this album cycle and its surrounding brethren (‘The More Things Change’ and ‘Supercharger’) are going to ebb away into the annals of obscurity. It’s worth remembering though that even the best of bands can be weak to changing trends that leave them looking like yesterday’s news to their once rabid fan base. It’s happened to plenty others and it’ll happen to plenty more.

‘How the Movie Ends’ sounds about as epic as Coundown to Extinction’s ‘High Speed Dirt’, the four-minute homage to…sky-diving. OK it’s not a terrible thing to write a song about if you’re maybe obsessed with sky-diving but why do you think people would want to listen to your heartfelt lyrics recounting your experiences?

There’s no disagreeing with Mustaine’s musical abilities, his huge influence on metal and his penning of some freaking stunning riffs but if we’re being honest this isn’t the first time Dave’s subjected us to choice lyrics.

‘Sweating Bullets’ features the dire line:

It gives me a migraine headache
Thinking down to your level
Yeah, just keep on thinking it’s my fault
And stay an inch or two out of kicking distance

Very formidable.

The unavoidable double-entendre in ‘Rust in Peace…Polaris’:

Immense in my girth, erect I stand tall

He almost makes up for most of it with this line from ‘Hanger 18′:

The military intelligence
Two words combined that can’t make sense

But then you remember he sang the Sex Pistols line, “your future dream is a shopping scheme” as:

Your future dream is a shopping spree

In the Megadeth cover of ‘Anarchy in the UK’. We’re talking socio-politics here Dave not Bratz.

And let’s not forget the fact that ‘Gears of War’ came to be because Dave was so inspired by the video game of the same name he managed to write a song about it.

When he’s on it, Dave Mustaine is awesome, but there’s been a few too many times where he’s spoiled all his hard work. Maybe the Frodo paraphrasing in ‘This Day We Fight’ won’t be as lame as it seems but it doesn’t look promising.