Sludge Metal, Black Metalhead

[KONGO]

Hey, there. I felt like taking a journey through my metal history and figured that a thread was a good way to do it. If you want to follow along, and I hope you do, know that I'll seem to jump around a bit. Mostly I'll go in a vaguely chronological order, but I may go on a genre tangent, or if I just get a wild idea on a flimsy premise. Whatever. The music's what's important, yeah?

And it won't be just metal, but it will definitely be overwhelmingly guitar rock. Though, like I said, I might take a detour if the time's right and I'm feeling like a bit of a break. Anyway, onto the show!

Soundgarden, Superunknown, "4th of July"

THE BAND: Soundgarden. My first favorite band. I'd listened to music before but it was when my friend Darius first showed me Soundgarden that I was ever actually interested. I feel pretty lucky that I started out with this band because there's an incredible range, from the rawer and more aggressive early albums/EPs like Louder than Love to the more polished works for Superunknown and beyond. Incredible musicians and Chris Cornell remains one of my favorite singers, even though I don't like much that he did after Soundgarden initially broke up (includes the new album as well, unfortunately). But more than that, they wrote songs, and they weren't afraid to put real menace into their songs. I think that feeling is really what stuck with me, as you might see from the broodiness of a lot of this. Definitely the common denominator in the music I've explored since.

THE ALBUM: Superunknown. In my mind, this one is their magnum opus and their best one, which aren't the same things in my mind. I say magnum opus because it's where they really polished all of the unrestrained anger that ran through their earlier albums. Badmotorfinger had a lot of exploration with their music but it was still a very rough listen, but not in a bad way. Its production had harder edges, the songs were a bit more frontal assault. On Superunknown they're more content to build moods and lay in the cut, as it were. Not to say they don't pull ahead, they definitely do, but songs like "Mailman" and "Fell on Black Days" show they are not afraid to soften their touch without losing any of the darkness that clouded their more aggressive work. I say it's their best because, well, those reasons, but also because Soundgarden seem a lot more comfortable in this role as a developed and brooding band. Out of all theirs I'd say I enjoy listening through Superunknown most.

THE SONG: "4th of July". When I first heard this song, it blew my mind. I hadn't heard the stuff that Soundgarden had done earlier in this vein ("Gun" from Louder than Love springs to mind), but even so, the way this one breathes was and is intoxicating. It describes an order of creeping, inescapable despair, a slow trudge over a broken road with no hope ahead or behind. It's like sinking in a swamp and having enough time to contemplate what's going on. It's this song that drove me towards doom and sludge and all sorts of soul-deadening metal.

OTHER GOOD'UNS: "Fell On Black Days," "The Day I Tried to Live," "Mailman," hell, like the whole album, really.

THE NEXT'UN: Likely something else from my high school years, something else Seattle. We'll see!

[Skummy]

Superunknown is a fucking incredible album. I've gone off Soundgarden a lot over the years, but can definitely go back to that album over and over again, it just feels a lot more focused and complete than anything else they ever did. It's a lot more dark and brooding, and wearing their Sabbath influence on their sleeves without going down a more obviously "doom" direction. "The Day I Tried To Live", in particular, is superb.

I'm thinking of doing one of these sort of threads myself maybe, and this definitely would have been one of the earliest albums on mine if I had done it. They're the first band I can really remember listening to, as my older brother would play their stuff constantly when I was a kid. "Superunknown" and Streets Of Rage 2 is pretty much childhood in a nutshell.

Also, I once owned a cockatiel that whistled "Black Hole Sun".

[METALMAN]

This is quite cool. Metal is about the only major music genre I'm not into. It's not because I dislike it at all, I just don't really know what to listen to.

I will listen to some of these and see if I like them!

I don't even know much about Soundgarden! I hate Black Hole Sun because it is boring but I like Rusty Cage because it was on GTA.

[KONGO]

I beat Streets of Rage 2 with my dad once. We didn't listen to Superunknown, though. We probably would have beaten it quicker if we had.

And metalman, "Black Hole Sun" is way better with the video. Not nearly the best song on that album, though. If you liked "Rusty Cage," definitely listen to Badmotorfinger and their earlier stuff, it's more in that vein that anything after.

Mudhoney, My Brother the Cow, "Today, Is a Good Day"

THE BAND: Mudhoney. I don't really think "grunge" is a genre musically, the bands involved are so disparate. But one thing they all share is an angst and displeasure with the world. From that view, Soundgarden is like a well-traveled and world-weary observer of human nature. Mudhoney is a dozen shades more juvenile, like a Lewis Black rant: local, fierce, and sneering. Mark Arm, Mudhoney's rhythm guitar and lead vocal, understandably drives a lot of that acerbic tone, but it's all throughout the music as well: there's a sort of sardonic bounce to a lot of their songs, borrowing the punk attack for something a bit more complex. That's not to say that they're above punk, it's more that they're tired of it but still in that underdog position. Anyway. Mudhoney's another of the bands that Darius showed me and they formed the other side of my guitar rock listening, the side that appreciated humor and a more reality-based frustration. I've loved the majority of their albums and they've been recording consistently since their formation. Would recommend them from their first right up until Under a Billion Suns.

THE ALBUM: My Brother the Cow. I think this was the very first Mudhoney album that I listened to and it's still my favorite. It's probably familiarity more than anything, but that said, there is a lot of range on this album. There are the more aggressive tracks like "F.D.K" and "Execution Style," but also the doldrums of "In My Finest Suit" which, while being quite a broody song, still displays sarcastic swagger, defiant even in a hopeless situation. I don't listen to this one enough but I'd say it's still one of my favorite albums (provided you don't give me a number to stick to... but even then).

THE SONG: "Today, Is a Good Day". This bizarre little song is really what Mudhoney is all about: some strange nonsense, the roar of a teenager from inside his room, and at the core of all that hard-edged sneering there is still a beating heart. This is the theme song to a Michael Cera action movie. Trust me, that's a compliment.

OTHER GOOD'UNS: "F.D.K.", "What Moves the Heart", "In My Finest Suit", just listen to it straight through.

THE NEXT'UN: Bye bye to Seattle, headed down the West Coast.

[Sousa]

I definitely prefer Badmotorfinger on the whole ("Jesus Christ Pose" is my favorite Soundgarden song and maybe my favorite hard rock song ever), but Superunknown is a beast as well. I haven't thought about Mudhoney in years; they're a band I discovered after the time when I was listening to a lot of that sort of music, which is a shame because I'd probably have really liked them.

[gunnar hendershow]

Mudhoney are great, but they absolutely got lost in the shuffle of all those bands for me too. If I had listened to Mudhoney 12-13 years ago I would have probably adored them, instead I just listen to them go "wow this is great" and then move on to music I'm more interested in listening to.

"Badmotorfinger" is my favorite Soundgarden album, but "Superunknown" is a lot darker and more complete. Soundgarden definitely walked a line very close to Sabbath at times. If there's one thing Soundgarden gets me to do in 2013 it's to remind myself to go listen to Sabbath.

[KONGO]

People who have listened to Mudhoney but not dug deeper should just go back and listen to more and then dig deeper. Totally worth it. Few other lesser-known grunge bands that are worth checking out, I'll probably get to them sometime or another.

Kyuss, Wretch, "Love Has Passed Me By"

THE BAND: Kyuss. When I first heard Kyuss, I thought "This is what mainstream rock should have become." Instead of mainstream rock taking tendencies towards introspection, lightness, and sweetness, I would have much preferred some balls-to-the-wall muscle rock. That's a bit of a reductionist way to describe Kyuss who did express a lot of range, but at their core, they are about blasting through the desert, top down, red-eyed, coming from nowhere and going to the same. This is a band that makes you sweat. John Garcia has long been one of my favorite singers, and again, his style of singing is one I would have loved to hear more of growing up: unafraid wailing over punching riffs. These guys aren't out to crush, though, they just need enough to keep themselves stomping on down the road. Unlike Soundgarden who are a bit too out there for anyone to try aping them, and unlike Mudhoney whose subtleties are lost behind that snarky punkiness that doesn't need to be copied, an entire subgenre of stoner rock has been built off of Kyuss's work. And yet after all these years, no one's done it better.

THE ALBUM: Wretch. Kyuss's first. I've got an affinity for first albums in a lot of cases as they're just raw. They haven't found their thing yet, they're throwing everything against the wall, so you get a lot of rough edges because there's no restraining or reshaping of the energy. That's a lot of what I feel about Wretch. Blues for the Red Sun is them mastering their hurtling-forward, fuck-it-let's-go blitz, while Welcome to Sky Valley is them maturing, but Wretch is unabashed. The song themes tell the tale: lots of bike, road, and sex imagery on Wretch, but look at their later stuff and that's a lot more toned down in favor of abstraction. This one doesn't care, it's just fun straight through, not them fucking around but them reveling in the good (and, in excess, bad) things in their lives.

THE SONG: "Love Has Passed Me By". This one has always been a sleeper favorite for me: I enjoy it a ton, but my mind is always focused on the later songs in the album so sometimes I'm elsewhere when this one comes on. But it's a legit burner, insistent and determined not to be ignored, full of the fire of someone just spurned but now reborn. The title seems more fitting on a sorrowful ballad or the elegy of a romance, but this song is only half-lament, as the energy alone shows that this is a shrug-off moment, something that sucks but fuck it life goes on. No nonsense on this one, no tricks, just rock.

OTHER GOOD'UNS: "Son of a Bitch," "Deadly Kiss," "I'm Not"

THE NEXT'UN: Another band from the baseline, or should I say the spaceline?

[gunnar hendershow]

Love, love, love, love Kyuss.

If only mainstream rock became Kyuss in the mid-90s instead of what it did.

[KONGO]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXpFV9sW2bI

Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics..., "Return Trip"

THE BAND: Electric Wizard. THE WIZAAAAHD. Probably my favorite band, though more than a few contenders to the throne have stepped up over the years. The only reason that they aren't my last.fm #1 is that I've listened to a lot a lot of stuff to write and read to and EW doesn't do so good for that. But for chilling out, getting [redacted], and enjoying heaviness, these are your go-to. I discovered this band on allmusic.com, they were a related artist to Kyuss. The rest is history. I'd say Electric Wizard was my first metal band. That is to say, while I'd listened to Soundgarden and Alice in Chains and the like before, it would be a long time before I classed any of that metal. Electric Wizard was the first consciously metal band that I really really dug. Now, consider that all this (and more) I listened to religiously before I ever touched an illicit substance. In the latter part of high school these guys were my bread and butter, a love that only grew over time. As I said elsewhere, no one can mix a very direct evil vibe with a tremendous sense of fun without making the evil nudge-wink campy or disregarding the fun altogether. These guys are total B-movie horror distilled into spacey, druggy, crushing stoner/doom.

THE ALBUM: Come My Fanatics.... This cut, their second one, is probably the darkest of the EW canon. Well, perhaps second, next to We Live. This one is a stone cold classic, though, from an era before anybody was really doing this deep, steady crush. Its songs are epic dirges screaming to a black and colorless universe. I'd say this one takes a few listens to unlock, so the uninitiated may be better served with Dopethrone or Witchcult Today (both gigantic albums in their own right), but this one has the first EW song I ever heard in "Son of Nothing," the song listed above "Return Trip," and in general a much spacier theme than any of their other work. One thing that's worth noting about Electric Wizard, especially in comparison to doom bands that came after them, is that EW doesn't go straight for the gut-rumbling earthquaking tone that a lot of bands drive right to. Like the actual riffs they create, EW's tone is a little sweet, plenty tart, and they let that density lurk underneath.

THE SONG: "Return Trip". One of my favorite songs growing up, and for a long time this one was my favorite EW song ever. The way this song hits is not like a single blow of a heavy hammer. It's twenty lashes a day, every day, whipping deep so the hurt says until the next one. It's a lifetime of misery and a plea for something else to take over, but in EW's universe, there is no god of light, just the escape of death. Sit with this one a while. Soak in it.

OTHER GOOD'UNS: "Son of Nothing," "Doom-Mantra"

THE NEXT'UN: Probably gonna dig deeper into the doom, but let's cast off some of that amp-shattering fuzz for a spell.

[Liam]

Own Witchcult Today. Love it - should probably whip it out for a listen more often.

[KONGO]

The Obsessed, The Church Within, "Skybone"/"Streetside"
THE BAND: The Obsessed. This was my second favorite band. When I say that, I don't mean that they were #2 on my band list, I mean that they were the second band that I really considered a favorite, and they held that spot for several years. Listening to and loving the Obsessed is what really drove me towards the doldrum-wallowing doom that occupied much of my high school years, but the Obsessed themselves are not the same kind of crushing evil that dominates a lot of that sphere of the genre. Instead they are morose, mournful, watching themselves fall apart, blues-metal coming from a very punk sensibility. The thing I like best about the Obsessed is how their riffs somehow seem to come out of left field. There are a lot of times when I feel like their riffs (and, indeed, song structures) just don't make sense from an analytical standpoint, but there's something that joins them together. I'm not sure if it's just a mood that they manage to keep together or if it's Wino's quavering, ethereal voice, but somehow they make disparate riffs sound as if they really were meant to be together. Out of all the bands I've listened to, the Obsessed has had the greatest impact on my personal musicianship, and I'd like to think what I've written is at least 1/10th as left field. And do note, when I say left field, I don't mean consciously quirky or goofy. I mean... think of a schizophrenic band like Mastodon('s earlier stuff), and then think what if that tendency was somewhat toned down so that the breaks, which would naturally be jarring, are smoothed out and joined. Another thing I'd like to note is that, for a long time (longer than the Obsessed were my favorite band), Wino was my favorite musician as I've liked almost everything he's done. His later bands are definitely worth a listen and I'll be getting to them later on.

THE ALBUM: The Church Within. On the whole, I'd say this album is probably the band's weakest, though it is also their most mature. The main reason I list this one is that it was my first Obsessed album and, though I've somewhat faded on it since, I absolutely loved everything about this album when I first got it. It is still a solid slab of doom that displays Wino's abilities over everything else, his excellent guitarwork (which some might have heard in Probot and seen on the "Shake Your Blood" video, he's the guitarist) as well as his soul-stretching voice. The difference between this album and the previous ones are primarily the overall absence of any uptempo punky stuff here. My main problem here is that a lot of the songs are sort of tepid. Still, this is a good intro to DC doom as it's without a lot of the abrasion that characterizes doom in general.

THE SONG: "Skybone"/"Streetside". Of course, this is actually two songs, but I list them together because they come in sequence on the album and because, when I first heard them, I thought they were the greatest two-song suite in music. They are inexorably linked in my mind, so yes, I am kind of miffed that they are split and out of order on the Incarnate compilation. In any event, there is not much to say about these, they do just what you'd expect: a subterranean tremor inviting you to hate and grieve as much as it hates and grieves. The fun rocking you're feeling is just its siren song.
NOTE: Spotify only has these tracks in their Incarnate versions. They're fine but I find them vastly inferior to the The Church Within versions.

OTHER GOOD'UNS: "Touch of Everything"

THE NEXT'UN: Probably gonna keep it doomy, but I'm honestly not sure at the moment. You'll have to check in to find out!

[MalaCloudy Black]

I love Wino. I remember back when I was first getting into doom someone recommended I pick up The Church Within, and, being as this was a little before the massive popularity of downloading music (legally or not), I went to my local Hastings (erm, it's kind of like a record/entertainment store) and tried to order the CD. Out of print. I wound up with Saint Vitus' Born Too Late, and that's where I first fell in love with Wino. I remember ordering The Hidden Hand's Divine Propaganda album, listening to the Place of Skulls album that featured Wino, etc.

His track on the Probot album is one of my favorites off that album (along with Lee Dorrian's Ice Cold Man and the Lemmy song Shake Your Blood).

[KONGO]

I thought Place of Skulls was a bit naff (I watch British TV, pip pip!) but I totally sought it out just for him. I have seen the Hidden Hand (who I consider to be his best band) three times live, awesome each time. One of the only good things I've gotten out of living near DC.

No update for the moment, just wanted to talk Wino!

[KONGO]

Danzig, Danzig, "Mother"
THE BAND: Danzig. I've always really appreciated "clean" singing, and perhaps that was one reason I latched onto Danzig early on. Danzig's mournful evil Elvis style fit a lot better here than in the Misfits to me, though of course there are several Misfits cuts that I really like. Still, I felt like his eponymous band was the one where he really got to flex his musical muscles. To me they're a sort of gothicized blues: the guitars tuned lower and distorted to get thicker, the themes more bombastically evil, but the essential music and tone is the same as a lot of the blues greats. Songs of sorrow, songs of women who can eat a man alive and challenge his soul, songs of supernatural dread. Danzig never punched the heaviness ticket all the way, their darkness was always more satin, alluring and corrupting like a honeyed poison.

THE ALBUM: Danzig. Glenn Danzig has had great music up and down his catalogue, from his first stuff with the Misfits up to this band and beyond. I haven't heard too much of his most recent stuff but he's certainly following his own musical path rather than sticking to what's accepted as part of his brand. Perhaps that's one reason that this album is so good. He's not wholly complacent in this mode, he's trying something, putting everything into it, but in an effort to move forward and onward. On this one, his dark blues are really to my taste, and as much as I appreciate his personal progression I've got to say I've always been stuck on this particular record.

THE SONG: "Mother". A surprising amount of my early musical discovery was thanks to VH1. The overplayed hits I hated were songs like "Drops of Jupiter." The new discoveries I made were Living Colour and Danzig, among others. Their metal and rock countdowns usually included "Mother" somewhere in the mix, so it's no wonder that this song was the one that stuck in my head. It's his biggest hit from this album for a reason, though. When you watch the video, the near all-consuming darkness brings across just what an evil thing is being threatened here. It's a perfect complement to the music, because even just listening to it, the effect is like that of a siren sinking in tar, hoping to draw you in and drown you, its threats and warnings only encouraging you.

OTHER GOOD'UNS: "Soul on Fire," "Not of This World"

[KONGO]

A Perfect Circle, Mer de Noms, "Rose"
THE BAND: A Perfect Circle. I know Maynard James Keenan is always going to be best known for his work with Tool and, in some ways, that's a shame. I like Tool fine, definitely spun Lateralus a bunch in high school, but they never clicked totally with me. It was A Perfect Circle that I latched onto. This is the first band where I really experienced the disappointment of a sophomore slump, being so into their first one and really meh about their follow-up Thirteenth Step. Regardless, I much prefer the somewhat operatic musical sweeps and intensity shifts to the lurking, chugging, industrial under-current of Tool. Going back to this, there's a lot here that I appreciated more in my teens for sure, but they're still a very good group. Kind of a shame that Billy Howerdel didn't really amount to much after this but hey, more than most people get.

THE ALBUM: Mer de Noms. I think this was the first album that I really spun to death. It's not exactly that it was my favorite album ever, or that A Perfect Circle were my favorite band, this was just the sort of album that fit all moments. There are the really intense moments, the quieter and prettier moments, the drop back to almost quiet and the headphone filling noise. Usually, all of that comes in each song, and they've done it in such a way that the rises and falls never feel mechanical. That in and of itself is a big accomplishment. Definitely, this one ranks among the best work that Keenan has ever done.

THE SONG: "Rose". If I could remember which one of these songs was my favorite when I was a teenager I would, but I can't, so I went with this one. A great track that builds up really well. They get the most out of Keenan's voice in this one as it's really the measure of the song, it feels like it is carrying the tune along with it rather than the other way around, almost like the music is emoting for him. It's a great effect and when the song gets to the summit it definitely pays off with full force.

OTHER GOOD'UNS: "Magdalena," "The Hollow", "3 Libras," "Thinking of You"

[livid]

I always preferred APC to Tool as well but I absolutely love The Thirteenth Step.

[Eric]

I'm a huge Kyuss fan (Blues for the Red Sun... god damn), and Electric Wizard is good too.

I'm not a huge Wizard fan per se, but I listened to (felt?) their set (with the wise man's lettuce, of course) in the parking lot outside of Maryland Deathfest a few years ago. It was pretty impressive, and heavy as hell.