Bangeth Thine Head

2nd Non-Blogger sent me a copy of the (now unavailable for free, unfortunately) NY Times article on the heavy metal. Two main points are discussed - how metal's both punkier and smarter than it was. Well.

The punk rock sensibility is absolutely nothing new to metal - it is what wrought thrash/speed metal in the 80s - the big four bands (Metallica/Megadeth/Anthrax/Slayer) and their childrens were completely influenced by the DIY 'n' dirty sensibility of the Sex Pistols, Black Flag, the Clash, Discharge, etc.

And, Prog-metal has always had a literary edge, albeit sometimes more toward HP Lovecraft and Anne Rice than I'd like. Ulver, whose latest has been mentioned as something noteworthy, has been doing literarily inspired stuff for years. As for high-minded, Amorphis did a concept album on Finland's national poem-cycle the Kalevala, oh, about eight years ago.

The Slate article I posted earlier still has the edge. But now I gotta hear Sunn O))) - people seem to either loathe them or worship them. Always a sign of some kind of quality.

Here's my record review on metal historians and brainiacs Opeth.