Andyman’s Top 9 Metal Albums of 2009

Saturday, January 2, 2010 No Comments

As I began putting together my Top Ten, coming up with an ordered list initially looked unrealistic; I was just going to regurgitate “in no particular order”. Honestly, I thought I’d have a hard time picking ten in the first place. Well…the editor in me meticulously sifted and re-ordered, the Virgo in me created a playlist with the 4 contested albums and listened to it on random taking detailed notes, and the brilliant writer in me came up with a catchy way to write the headline that would disguise my indecisiveness as a catchy play on words (er…play on numbers). So, without further adieu… (more…)

Fed Through The Teeth Machine digests just fine

Friday, December 4, 2009 No Comments

Why I’ve been sleeping on the new Red Chord album is beyond me. Fed Through The Teeth Machine is, simply put – great. The subject matter seems to be a bit random as the album plays on. From “Hymns And Crippled Anthems – “Just be forever faithful to the family that you love.” …interesting. (This is assuming I’m hearing any of the lyrics correctly, and quite honestly even if I’m not, Guy has upped the ante on his masterful vocal prowess regardless.) The musical writing, the performance, the overall intensity is all pure, good, old-fashioned Red Chord brilliance.

The sweet, dying sigh of the guitar line in “Ingest The Ash” is refreshing, while I don’t understand the use of Vari-Fi in the middle (aren’t we done with that plug-in yet?) I adore the screaming that tears out of it. “Embarrassment Legacy” is really smooth (the beginning tones somehow remind me of “11th Hour-”ish Lamb Of God.) That track is topped off by a very precisely played blast section towards the end, mostly due to the punishing assault of drums – this may be Brad Fickeisen’s best recorded-performance to date.

I like that their tracks average a little over 2 minutes, that they’re in and out, point made, no need to rehash… other than the repeated lyrical lines which have their individual impact on your soul… some of them angst-fueling.

“While I was counting hours, you were counting fists.”

“My life’s work, forgotten.”

The longest musical journey on the album is the final track, “Sleepless Nights In The Compound.” Feel free to get lost in it and let it drag you around. Once you finish, you could just kick it back to the second track “Hour of Rats” and unleash.

The new effort from The Red Chord, out on Metal Blade Records now, will sit strongly in their own album repertoire and is better than their oft-coupled tourmates’ “Deflorate.” If I had my way, I’d say next time Black Dahlia Murder and The Red Chord go out together, The Red Chord headlines.

Our sit down with Ryan Knight from Black Dahlia Murder

Monday, November 16, 2009 2 Comments

Andyman and myself were lucky enough to have out first interview with Ryan Knight from Black Dahlia Murder when they came into town.

Knuckles First: I saw you guys are headlining The Bonecrusher Fest with 3 Inches of Blood in the UK?
Ryan Knight: All of Europe, the UK is in there too.

KF: Is this your first time in the UK?
RK: This is my second time with them going to the UK. But they’ve been over there a lot of time since 2003, 2004.

KF: Do you like it?
RK: Oh Yeah, I like the UK.

KF: Crowds Different than here?
RK: Uh, you know what, the UK is a lot like the US. The UK is kind of like the US, the take everything that they think is in the US, and just glorify it. The rest of Europe is, uh they still have their own lines. But not too different.

KF: Have you been acquainted with the illadelph gift?
RK:Oh the Bong! The black bong. Yeah yeah. We don’t bring it on tour. But uh, yeah I’ve definitely seen it. I can’t say that I’ve smoked out of it yet.

KF: So obviously, Deflorate was the beginning of your interaction with the band.  After the CD release, tour, Mayhem Fest…How do you feel like your role has changed or grown?
RK: I don’t feel weird being in the band. I’ve played well over 100 shows with them so far — It’s been a pretty rigorous tour. I don’t know, I just feel like with the album out now, I definitely feel more apart of the band.

KF: What’s your position in the band? Is it similar to the shoes that you had in Arsis?
RK: In Arsis, we split the leads. Because you know James did leads. I guess in BD I’m the lead player. Just help contribution the writing. Brian is really cool. I think John didn’t contribute too much. I know they said towards the end John wasn’t even writing solos.

KF: As a band how do you guys feel being in the Billboard top 200 for 3 weeks?
RK: We are pretty stoked. I mean we’re out here doing the thing. Luckily it’s going pretty well. But yeah, good times.

KF: Black Dahlia Murder seeing amazing growth and success, do you get to play a lot of smaller shows like here at the Basement?
RK: We still do the major market shows, and, normally when we do a tour like this, we make a bunch of stops at smaller venues. I think we will always play plenty of smaller venues. The band came from playing in VFW halls, and places like that…I personally like playing the smaller venues, when it gets packed out. It’s a big part of the bands fan base.

KF: I saw a video on YouTube with you teaching how to play an Arsis song. Are you going to more stuff like that in the future?
RK: Yeah, Probably, in the future. I like doing stuff that, ya know. I mean, people seem to appreciate it. I don’t know when, but I’ll get around to it.

(photo credit: supercharger5150)

The Black Dahlia Murder continues their serial slaying with “Deflorate”

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 3 Comments

After the awesomeness that was Nocturnal, which came out in 2007, I’ve been waiting in high anticipation for the new release Deflorate by Michigans’s The Black Dahlia Murder. Although due to extenuating circumstances (seems like I’ve got a shitload of those recently) I missed BDM’s set at Mayhem this year at Nissan Pavillion (and in fact was SO late the only band I saw before the main stage started was Cannibal Corpse…which ruled. But I digress…) I did manage to find Trevor towards the end of the evening during the bands’ nightly bbq with spiked punch (which basically ruined me, wtf was IN that anyway?!?!) and it looks like we may be able to catch them for an interview when they embark on the next tour, headlining with Children of Bodom, Toxic Holocaust and Skeletonwitch. So, something for you knucklesfirst readers to get wet about…

Jason Suecof is back at the board: he covered mixing responsibilities and co-produced the effort with the Black Dahlia and Mark Lewis (who has done work with Deicide.) One of the first things I noticed (other than the superb playing and song structure) is how clean the production is. I must admit, I feel completely torn by this due to the fact that engineers (of which I am one) should ALWAYS be improving their sound and the sound of their bands so I WANT this album to sound amazing…but I think some of the brutality may be lost in the splendor of the sound – I’d love for the album to have a bit of the grit, the dirty, the raw, perhaps on the level of Unhallowed (which is ranked right up there with some of my favourite metal albums of all time.) I have no doubt that some of that grit will be experienced during their live shows. I promise not to miss them next time…

Although the title of the album Deflorate, by definition, means the point past the flowering state, post-pollen shedding, The Black Dahlia Murder is in no way past their prime bloom. Deflorate delves even deeper lyrically than Nocturnal, and with the addition of Ryan Knight of Arsis, we find BDM expanding musically as well. Shannon Lucas’s drumming is exceptionally brutal and supports the rest of the instrumentation without fail, while Trevor’s vocals, sitting nicely in the mix, scream and shriek and command our attention to his message. I know I find myself enraptured…

Standout tracks for me are “Throne of Lunacy” and “Necropolis,” which is the first single off the new record (check out Revolver.com for the video if you’d like…) “That Which Erodes The Most Tender” sounds the most like what I’d like to hear from BDM and the only truly odd spot on the record is “I Will Return.”  As though Black Dahlia Murder wanted to dip a toe into the frigid waters of Viking Metal, the song reminds me of Amon Amarth’s “Twilight of The Thunder Gods.” A-B it yourself, I’m sure you’ll hear it too…

Don’t be afraid to budget in Deflorate from your next paycheck, the album drops September 15th and should become a part of your regular Ipod playlists as the seasons change and all the living green things start to wilt and die. A perfect soundtrack.

A note from Butters: Unlike Katie, I was able to see BDM’s performance at Mayhem Fest (Blossom – Cleveland), this was my first time witnessing their brutalness live (I changed my pants after). They did play Necropolis for us, because, we are awesome. Unlike Katie and her awesome BBQ outing, I had to wait in line to see them. Enough of my jealous rants, back to Deflorate! First round of this I immediately realized that this was going to an epic ablum. The new solos from Ryan Knight has taken this band to a new level. I believe I read somewhere that Shannon mentioned that this was his “Most Technical Album”. I couldn’t agree with him more. But yet again, they still are the fun boys that we’ve all grown to love (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’d recommend watching Majesty DVD) in the new music video for Necropolis (check it out here).

My two favorite tracks are going to be, Necropolis and That Which Erodes The Most Tender. I’m going to agree with Katie, this album is amazing, go buy this. Place it on your iPod and let your Mom listen. She’ll love it. If she doesn’t have her call me. Because, Black Dahlia Murder has yet again, amazed me. The new line up, is amazing, technical, and brutal.  I’m highly looking forward to a possible interview, and face melting here in Columbus Ohio, on “Rocktober” 25th.

The Black Dahlia Murder Myspace

Buy Deflorate on 9/15 Here, and Here, and Here

Buy Majesty DVD Here!