rafazardly

It is an umbrella term coined in the late 1990s to refer to music that blends jazz elements with other musical styles, such as funk, electronic dance music, and free improvisation. Also written nu-jazz or NuJazz, it is sometimes called electronic jazz, electro-jazz, e-jazz, jazztronica, jazz house, phusion, electronic-lounge or future jazz.

According to critic Tony Brewer, “Nü Jazz is to (traditional) Jazz what punk or grunge was to Rock. The songs are the focus, not the individual prowess of the musicians. Nu Jazz instrumentation ranges from the traditional to the experimental, the melodies are fresh, and the rhythms new and alive. It makes Jazz fun again.”

Tristania albums are complex. Not so much in the technicality of the music, but the idea of it. There are “layers” to the music; it isn’t standard in the Gothic Metal genre. The bulk of the genre is made up of shallow, basic music that is easy to listen to. Tristania is not. It takes a few listens to understand. Rubicon is no exception to this, and although it is, upon first listen, a huge departure from their old sound, it still feels very “Tristania-esque” once the listener becomes accustomed to it.

Ashes is undoubtedly the least accessible album Tristania have released. As you can see, I went from hating it to thinking it’s perfect. I would suggest Ashes as your last Tristania album, but it’s still as perfect as “World of Glass”.

The vocals match the rest of the music in ways unfitting for most melodic death. Tägtgren’s shrieks, growls, and entranced cleans are complimented by cryptic, finely-produced, Abyss studio-certified melodic death. The amount of vociferous bass support that grumbles and adds meat to the blistering guitar tone is delicious. It’s a noticeable boost from Abducted‘s clearer mastering. [O quê? Abducted parece uma demo tirada de uma máquina de lavar dum OVINI – e não tô reclamando!] The riffs – doom-slow or primal-fast – make this one of the band’s heavier and darker albums of their melodic death era. Something like Shamateur and its blend of harmonics and ruthlessness shows a band intending a one-way trip of intense playing for the last time.

Hypocrisy never caught my complete attention, musically talking, maybe except for their masterpiece Abducted that featured a violent change of musical direction towards more melodic and weird sounds. That change anyway passed also through another album, this The Fourth Dimension that opened the gates of a more mature sound for them. The violence of the early years and albums was still present but this album featured also more mature and technical compositions.

Another change we can see is the one that happened behind the microphone. Magnus “Masse” Bromberg has been “replaced” by the real mastermind here, Peter Tägtgren that at first was playing the guitars only. This is I think the most important change ever by this band. This guy, initially heavily influenced by the american brutal death metal, had the chance to mature and fill the sound with new elements from his mind and intelligence. It was like everything had to be redone, replayed and reconstructed once again.

The cold brutality of the past efforts this time has been filtrated through another kind of obscurity and coldness. If the one at the beginning was pure satanic and violent, this time the futurism, the sci-fi themes were the most important thing. So, we begin with the strangely mid-paced “Apocalypse” that shows weird keyboards passages and good, melodic lead guitars lines under a suffered growl that sometimes turns also in screams. Peter has grown a lot technically and he could do anything in creative field for his new creature, his new Hypocrisy.

“Black Forest” is shocking for the number of tempo changes inside it and they lead also to complete changes of atmosphere. For example, check the mid-paced beginning that turns to galloping riffs in the middle and flows directly into a kind of obscure and sad black metal part by the end. Unbelievable. Sometimes, during the path to the Fourth Dimension we can meet also whispered vocals, melodic solos and melodic death metal parts. I believe that this album is the most representative for the growing melodic death metal scene, and not Heartwork like many say. [Comparações estúpidas]

This album is the classic example of unexpected, surprising, astonishing and unpredictable musical change by a band.

I once read someone saying something along the lines of ‘Widow’s Weeds was the first and last Gothic metal album ever, and miles better than all the boring rip-offs it spawned’ – I think that sums up the album’s importance to the genre pretty well. What’s surprising about this album is there was never a Gothic music period – Tristania managed to pretty much create a genre by themselves on Widow’s Weeds; an incredible achievement.

The vocals on this album are its life and soul. They consist of a frequent yet always suitable exchange between harsh vocalist Morten Veland and female vocalist Vibeke Stene; the classic beauty and the beast spectacle. Morten sticks to his signature style of somewhere between Death and Black vocals; his voice is powerful (in the chorus of ‘Evenfall’ it’s as if he’s physically attacking the listener) yet contains lots of emotion (a lot more than most harsh vocalists), really delivering the pained aspect of the album. Vibeke is of course the polar opposite. Despite recording four more albums with the band after this, her voice is at its prime on Widow’s Weeds, sounding like an angel more than ever. Each and every vocal part she has is a highlight, delivering the utmost melancholic beauty to every track. There are also a few other dimensions to the vocals. Østen Bergøy makes his debut with the band on ‘Angellore’; while sounding a little muddy his baritone adds a whole other dimension to the music and makes up for the song being fairly simple otherwise. An eight person choir is also used; while barely popping up the chorus of ‘Evenfall’, it is one of the best things I’ve ever heard, really representing the gothic feel of this record.

The guitars, despite their poor (dissonant) production, play terrific doom-influenced riffs (dark and slow) but also some faster groovier ones (see the chorus of ‘Angellore’), Black Metal-influenced tremolo picked (‘Wasteland’s Caress’) and even some warm acoustic passages. The minimalistic (for Metal) drumming is incredible – the intricate bass drum patters mean no beat is ever boring, the use of cymbals for accents and feel adds the necessary spice to each passage and the snare drum is used effectively for very satisfying fills. The bass playing, like in all Tristania is of high quality, adding the necessary background to the music with the drums. Just like the bass drum patterns, the bass lines are always fitting and interesting. Finally, the violin and cello, where used, add an aspect of beauty which can only be achieved by a classical instrument – the violin solo in the climax of the fantastic ‘December Elegy’ contains so much emotion it is difficult not be moved by it.

Harsh noise is generally considered a sub-genre of noise music with the distinguishing feature of not only being devoid of traditional music elements such as phrased melody, tonal harmony and structured rhythm; but containing textural elements (usually created through the use of electronics and/or digital signal processing) that challenge the sensibilities of the auditory system. “Harsh noise” is distinct in this regard from ambient or drone; and certainly distinct from noise rock or other “noise” genres that incorporate musical elements.

Harsh noise in its extreme may affect the listener physically by invoking adrenal responses and sometimes even pain.

Many credit Japanese noise project “Merzbow” as establishing “harsh noise”, which is distinct from the general term “noise” that may refer to European compositional works as early as the late 19th century which are stylistically dissimilar.

This is an evil album. Just look at the bad lookin’ dudes at the top of the album cover, who look eerily similar to the guys on Sodom’s Agent Orange and Persecution Mania records. What makes Crime Against Humanity unique is that it blends high speed blasting with a slow, plodding heaviness that makes for an interesting, albeit short, ride. For you culinary folk out there, mix 3 cups of Napalm Death with 2 cups of Black Sabbath and bake at 400° for about 23 minutes and you’ll produce a rough approximation of this album (OK, bad analogy, but you get the idea).

Naturally, being a lesser known project of Terrorizer frontman Oscar Garcia, this album can’t help but be compared to said band’s awesome World Downfall record. Unfortunately, such a comparison makes Crime Against Humanity seem worse than it really is. Judged on its own merit, its a solid slab of doomy grindcore. Or grindy doom metal. Or whatever the hell you want to call it.

The production instantly reminded me of Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, though with some notable differences. It’s very bass-heavy, giving it that really dark, gloomy feel. Garcia’s roaring vocals sound like they were recorded in an underground cave. The guitars are deep and super distorted. Bass guitar has a sinister pitch to it and is well-placed in the mix. I’m not 100% sure but I believe the snare drum is a large empty paint can, and if you strain hard enough you can actually hear the bass drum.

I can’t really give it more than an 85. Personally, there’s too much reverb on the vocals and they need a new drum kit (or producer). But the solid riffing and general “doomy” approach to grind are what makes this album stand out in my mind.

(etnografia +ou- profunda através dos gêneros extremos!)

A classificação é por gêneros (mais de 90% dos itens são subgêneros do metal ou a ele referenciados de maneira explícita), exceto pelos pioneiros deste estilo, que vêm logo abaixo com página própria. Quando uma banda grava em diversos gêneros, escolhi um e informei suas outras tendências quando conveniente. As bandas presentes neste espaço não são necessariamente minhas prediletas, mas as mais recentemente escutadas com alguma dedicação. Este espaço está em permanente atualização!

BLACK SABBATH (o segundo big bang)

AMBIENT

BLACK METAL

CRUST

DEATH METAL

DOOM METAL

EXPERIMENTAL

FOLK METAL

GOTHIC METAL

GRINDCORE

GROOVE METAL

GRUNGE

HARDCORE

HARD ROCK

HEAVY METAL

INDIE

INDUSTRIAL

NOISE

NÜ

NWOBHM

POP

POWER METAL

SLUDGE

SYMPHONIC METAL

THRASH METAL

Indeed, this is an album by Terrorizer. They released one brilliant album 17 YEARS ago, yet are expected to outdo it with only half of their original lineup. That sounds like a fair expectation to me. Now excuse me while I find some comeback albums from other long-defunct musicians, that I might chastise them for blessing me with new music that’s inevitably weaker than that of their heyday. Seriously people, what were you expecting? The fact that it’s decent at all is a triumph.

Hell, even the much-derided re-recording of ‘Dead Shall Rise’ puts up a fair old fight against its legendary, black-hearted father. (…) Of course, ´Dead Shall Rise´ is still a good song, but it worked much better in the context of the debut. (…) At the end of this album we can find also the great song ´Dead Shall Rise´ from ´World Downfall´: here seems even faster! (…) The attack of the ´Crematorium´ track is incredible as its main riff: pure violence and hate. The up tempos typical of the death/thrash are perfectly mixed to the blast beats. ´Fallout´ track is awesome with his slow beginning and the tempos changes from mid paced to blast beats. The refrain is very catchy and the lyrics about a future of war and genocide are a perfect mix. (…) ´Mayhem´ and ´Blind Army´ are total impact with awesome guitar riffs so inspired by the old scene (hardcore, grind, thrash). The refrain is always easy to find and very catchy to scream ‘till death. Pure headbanging.