Darkest Hour's Darkest Hour?

It’s finally here! My days of anxious waiting by the mailbox have finally paid off! The first of my many pre-orders that I spoke of earlier has finally arrived. The first one in? Darkest Hour’s newest release The Eternal Return. And here’s what I have to say about it:

Hoooooly butts!

That about sums it up pretty well. However, the short story long would go a little something more like this:

Darkest Hour is one of those bands who developed a really large following in their early years. Tiny clubs in the greater Washington DC area would become sweaty meat boxes exuding testosterone and metal in one big stinky mess. As the band grew along with the scene they’d become a part of, concern grew among the truest of the true fans that they would "lose their edge" or "sell out" or what have you. In their past two CDs produced by Devin Townsend, Darkest Hour has danced the fine line between the absolute brutality that has become synonymous with the little thrash metal niche they’ve carved out for themselves and the dangerous turf of commercial success. Under Devin’s watchful eye, the song writing abilities and general compositional talents of the guys in the band flourished…although not to the extent of sounding manufactured. However, the guys decided to record The Eternal Return with Brian McTernan, who produced their record Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation. Also, for whatever reason, before the last tour cycle, the band parted ways with their lead guitar player (and one of the fastest shred-junkies I personally have ever seen) Kris Norris. Not gonna lie, when I heard this I had this pang of fear that the unprecedented talent brought by Norris and the change of producers would push the band a step or two back.

NnnnnOPE dot com! Seamlessly they picked up right where they left off and continued writing, composing, and producing super awesome one hundred percent good fun time excellent America speed thrash metal!! Oh man and I couldn’t love them any more for it!

Couple key little factoids I’ve picked up in the couple spins I’ve given the record:

-New lead guitar player goes by Lonestar. Awesome?...! And he’s pretty above average himself.

-Mike Schleibaum does a lot more soloing and the guy LOVES his wah pedal and whammy bar. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.

-The album has a very "major key" feel to it making a lot of the songs sound optomistic and upbeat. Compared to Undoing Ruin and Deliver Us (their last two CDs), this CD seems to present a more hopeful lyrical scene. Whether this is all part of a larger musical/lyrical purpose I don't know, but its an interesting little something I noticed.

-Guitar tone on the record for a lot of the rhythm work is kinda grainy sounding. It’s almost to the extent of sounding bad, but I think this was intentional. Having a grainy distortion on a mix like this adds to the raw, testosterone driven sound of the composition as a whole.

-The drums are TOTALLY roomed out. The beginning of one song has a little drum fill (track two or three I think) where you can hear how BIG and AMBIENT the room is. Totally sick…bro.

-The kick drum tone literally drives this record. With the grainy, distortion on the guitars, the HEAVILY fuzzed bass, and all the screaming, the super clean and super up-front (meaning that in the mix the kick drum, and only the kick drum, is really loud) kick tone punctuates every down beat, accent, and rhythm.

-I’d say the biggest victory on this CD is the use of the really roomy, clean sounding drum set mixed into the mess of everything else to produce a really interesting balance. It holds up the intensity while allowing the listeners attention to be directed to the interesting rhythms and picking techniques exhibited by the bass and guitars.


Epic. WIN!

Reset & Homecoming: A Dissertation...sans Homecoming post facto

One of the games I like to play when I listen to music is what I fondly call the “Whoa, what the hell was that?! Lets rewind and re-listen to that 4-second passage about 79 times so I can figure out, or try to figure out, what exactly just happened that sounded so cool/unique/different/strange” game. No, I didn’t just make that up. Yes, I play it all too often. Sometimes I play it to the extent that I never actually make it through and entire song, I just hear it as a selection of 3 to 8 second clips that are constantly rewound and repeated. By the way, I live in hyperbole.

Regardless, I do love doing this when I listen to music. It’s a different level of music enjoyment for me. It makes songs seem like puzzles and gives me the opportunity to try and figure out what the band was intending by putting together different passages or recording techniques. So with this in mind, I’ll play this game out loud for your reading enjoyment.

I’ve been fixated recently on two songs that blend together on Misery Signals’ most recent disc “Controller”. The songs ‘Reset’ and ‘Homecoming’ provide a stunning eleven plus minutes of musical composition. Through the two songs, there is an incredible display not only of technical prowess and musicianship, but also of tasteful producing and engineering on the part of Devin Townsend who produced, mixed, and engineered this record. I could sit here and wax poetic about the band and the producer, but that would viciously side track me in a post that’s already going to be WAY too long. So all nonsensery aside, let’s begin:

Reset (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDWWIkfSCJQ)
(0:00) The intro guitar part starts out as a non-reverbed, non-delayed riff. This keeps the space of the song very close to the listener, which will be immediately contrasted when the song picks up.
(0:11) The second guitar, drums, and vocals crash in, the mix fills out with reverb, delay, and an increase in volume. The second guitar’s big open chords (that ascend in scale) combined with the effects on this guitar open up the mix and ramp up the momentum of the song. This is accentuated by the snare roll that starts as having an accent in it and ends as just a straight quarter note roll.
(0:23 – 0:33) Here the first guitar stops riffing and plays big ambient chords combined with little scales, pick slides, bent notes, and other general hints at shredology that open up the mix even more. All the craziness that happens in the guitars and drums allow the song to build and introduces the main verse.
(0:39 – 0:42 and 0:49 – 0:54) The breakdown sounding bit here (“Nothing is picture perfect”) has the kick drum accenting the rhythm of the guitars. This draws attention away from the more ambient guitar before and after this section and makes this part feel heavier because all five instruments (the two guitars, drums, bass, and vocal rhythm) all sync up with each other.
(0:58) Oh man this little lick is so sweet! Everything cuts out, this delayed guitar plays this very staccato line and then we’re hit in the face with a SUPER fast, double-kicked barrage of down picked, palm muted guitar. Its like the song goes from a jog to a sprint! I love this change. Best part is that it’s reprised later.
(1:00 – 1:20) The drums in this part help emphasize the “sprinting” nature of this passage. However, what’s interesting is how the cymbals he chooses to play on change the voice of the passage. The drummer, Branden, starts on the ride, a bigger, darker (lower pitched) cymbal. Then he moves up and wails relentlessly on a crash which is a thinner, smaller, brighter (higher pitched) cymbal. To me, the higher pitch makes the voice of the song sound a bit more frantic/urgent. Then it moves back to the ride which brings it back down and back up to the crash. All this moving around doesn’t really hold some crazy significance, but it provides a bit of change that makes this part more dynamic and more interesting to listen to…even if you don’t immediately pick up what it is you’re hearing.
(1:21 – 1:37) The verse repeats.
(1:37 – 1:59) The interlude here separates the first movement of the song from the second with an alternating brutally heavy section and an equally ambient, spacey section. The heavy section is a departure from any established melody and builds on the rhythm that we’re first introduced to at 0:39 – 0:42 and 0:49 – 0:54. What’s interesting is that the way the drums play behind the repeating guitar parts changes the accent, tempo, and even timing of this rhythm. It starts with the drummer playing on the toms accenting the 3/4 timing. At 1:48 though, the drummer switches to a reaaaaally slow 4/4 count that slows everything down.
(1:59 – 3:09) BAH!! The great reprisal!! This is where Devin Townsend as a producer shines! Try to listen closely from here to the end of this segment. These are all parts of the song we’ve already heard before, but everything’s been changed in some aspect. After the re-introduction with the intro riff, we’re hit with a subtle keyboard-chorus line. Normally this would sound cheesy if it were the primary focus. However, Devin mixes it way down and uses it to compliment the open chords the rhythm guitar plays. This as well as the delay/verb used on the lead guitar opens the space of this song WAAAAY up. Also the drumming changes up the rhythm by dropping down to the china and playing weird ghost-noted passages that almost sound like a slow shuffle. This creates a compLETEly different feel in this song. Also, at 2:28 the lead breaks from the riffing style of playing that lick to playing the chord that he’s creating the little arpeggio out of…another cool change.
(2:34) All the chaos that’s created with all the space, delay, riffing, shuffling, and chorus and all gets cleared when the vocals come in. It’s like the muddiness of the song settles out and we’re left with a wide expanse of clear sonic space. The drums fall down to a simple open 4/4 beat while the guitars play matching open monster-chords.
(2:45) The transition from the chaotic openness, to the clarity when the vocals come in is used as a template to juxtapose that awesome lick from back in 0:58. Except this time they beef up the delay (which you can hear not only repeating, but panning across from left to right and back again making the notes swirl around your head) and repeat it a second time in a higher harmony.
(2:47) Aaaaand again! More reprisal! This time with that rad super fast face-blast of double kick. All the space in the song almost loses the listener. Parts start literally blending together and the definition of the song gets lost as it all kinda planes out into a huge soundscape. This all gets put in perspective by reintroducing the brutality of this (and the following) hard hitting guitar parts.
(3:09 – 3:42) This part of the song always confused me. I can’t figure out why they use SUCH a different part here. I don’t think I’m out of line saying that this passage doesn’t sound like it belongs in this song. But then again, maybe it’s the uncomfortable feeling of this segment that allows for the part that follows it to feel as good as it does. Cool note about the blast beat section (blast beat: when the drums play a rhythm that is just eighth/sixteenth/quarter/whatever notes of the kick drum, snare, and hi-hat/cymbal all at once) though: at 3:19 there’s a section where the drummer is playing three different time signatures at the same time. His right hand on the china cymbal is playing in a half-time 2/4 beat, his left hand on the snare is playing around a 3/4 rhythm, while his feet on the kick are playing all sorts of weird accented notes in 4/4…I think. I haven’t been able to bend my brain around the time-space continuum quite enough to fully understand what he’s done here, but regardless, it’s something incredible.
(3:42 – end) Ugh…this is why I love this band and this producer. Seamlessly they translate from a hard hitting, brutal metal song into a beautiful, ambient, acoustic jam…and then back. Right after the abrasive, uncomfortable bit, the guitars space back out (as Devin ups the verb/delay/panning of the guitars) and at 3:58, the guitars start fading out, holding one note and letting it slooooowly die out. By 4:22 you can hear the last of the distortion give way as the drums lighten and start dinking around on the cymbals. Everything gets so delicate that you can hear such subtleties as how loosely the guitar player is holding his pick (loosely, you can hear it hitting each string on the acoustic louder than you can hear the note of the string) to even the kind of sticks the drummer is using (a hard-wood tipped stick…if it were nylon tipped the cymbals would be pinging a lot more and if it were softer there wouldn’t be as much attack from the stick tapping the cymbal). At 4:51 we’re introduced to another, honorary, member of the band, the guitar player and drummer’s (who are brothers) dad. The guy is a member of some symphony as a trained percussionist. So there a bunch of chimes, vibraphones, and bells and stuff that accent the guitars. This all adds a depth to the ambience that you normally wouldn’t find. Other cool things happening here…in list form:

-Drummer starts alternating crash cymbals which spreads out the sound of the drum-sound-space.
-Drummer is playing with the snare chains off the snare which makes it sound like a tight tom.
-There’re really faint synthesizers playing in the background which opens up the mix even more.
-The final chime at the end of the song is met with a brutal attack of distortion and drums and screaming as the song after this begins. An interesting juxtaposition.
-The guitars layer and layer until there are literally about 5 or 6 guitars playing on top of each other.

You know what, I’ve gone on long enough on this one song that to go into the intricacies of “Homecoming” would be ridiculous. But take a listen to it. Put yourself in the mindset of listening behind the obvious melodies and figure out what is happening and why. There are some REALLY interesting things going on in the soundspace that these guys have created. Maybe you’ll pick up on them. There’s a whole world that (some) bands create behind the caustic assault of screaming and distortion. It’s your job to find it and appreciate it when it’s there.

Misery Signals play rock shows.

It's A Hard Knock Life

It’s hard being a super mega nerdo fanboy these days. This is a rough life I lead. Burdened with the responsibilities and expectations placed on me by my friends, my family, myself, and my adoring throng of loyal readers…all like, 8 of you. I struggle through each day scouring the interwebs, the airwaves, and magazine stands pulling tidbits and factoids, soaking up information and knowledge like a leathery old broad who against all better judgment STILL sits out at the beach in the sun reading grocery store rags yelling at kids who kick sand on her towel all the while leering at the lifeguard who has no choice but to watch all the idiots in the water who think that since they’ve got a boogie board they’re impervious to the powers of the ocean. What are they thinking? Do they know how big the ocean is? Do they understand the force they’re dancing the dance of fate with? A sharkbiker could totally annihilate one of these kids should it be in the area and have the taste for flesh. Not that the life guard could really do anything about it. Sharkbikers are WAY more adept in water. It’s like they’ve lived there for thousands of generations! I mean, if a shark was on land and tried to start it with me, I’d TOTALLY be able to punch it right in its sharkface and run away cuz what chance does it have on land? None. We dominate the land. But I digress…

What do I do with this information I’ve gleaned? I digest. I analyze. I blatantly make stuff up and speak with conviction and surefootedness (Holy crap that’s a word? If spell check doesn’t pick it up that means it’s a word right?) in hopes that nobody questions the ridiculous claims I make.

So with this in mind, I’ve been doing my due diligence and do a pretty above average job at keeping all the inter-pages in my recent history, perusing the music magazine aisle at the book store, and keeping my ear to the ground for any tremor yet unheard. And what ho?! What’s this I hear?! The dawn of the new season! You’re damn right! New music season!

Let’s be honest, there’s no season for this, but somehow bands seem to put music out all at the same time…I think it has something to do with the average half life of Matthewkatzium…it’s the 111th element. No need to look it up. It’s fact. Either way, plastered all over MySpace, PureVolume, ReverbNation and all the respective record label websites (victoryrecords.com, ferretstyle.com, roadrunnerrecords.com, etc etc) are album presales! Woo!

For any music idiot super fan boy/girl, this is the golden harvest. What’s this? The CD I could buy in the stores for $10? Except that now, for the added cost of $9.99 (plus shipping and handling of course) I could have the VERY same CD but with an exclusive t-shirt?! A t-shirt that no one else will have unless they too feverishly refreshed their myspace page too? I. Must. Have. This. Immediately.

We fan-people don’t deal in dollars and cents. We deal in “making-of DVDs” (in one of Killswitch Engage’s presale offer packages), “limited edition t-shirts” (Poison the Well’s presale goodie), “signed screen printed posters” (as featured in Darkest Hour’s presale), “limited edition packaging” (one of the better gimmicks…same cd…different box), “exclusive 7 inch record complete with never before heard b-side recording and alternate version of a song already on the record” (unnecessarily part of August Burns Red’s presale bundle), and the ever popular bonus tracks as featured in pretty much EVERY pre-sale come-on ever.

Do I resist? Never. Do I nerd out about every single piece of paraphernalia? Absolutely 100% yes every time. Will I ever stop? Signs point to no.

This is one of the August Burns Red pre-order packages. I hate them for making me choose between the bundle with the t-shirt + poster and the one with the 7" vinyl. Decision: pending.

Wars and Rumors of Wars

Every so often an album is dropped on the unsuspecting public that rattles the very foundation of what the masses know and don’t know about music. Genre-bending, mind-expanding, and soul-clattering, these albums go down in the annals of history as pieces of musiclature (non-political science majors can make up authoritative sounding words too) that are timeless in their own right. The album “Wars and Rumors of Wars” by the Chariot…is not one of these records.

The Chariot, formed by the original singer of Norma Jean, a mainstay of the Christian hardcore scene in the turn of the millennium, present this furious half hour (plus or minus) feedback-ridden, instrument-smashing, rhythmic train wreck to the unknowing masses in the setting of a changing scene. As the hardcore, punk, and metal scene runs its natural progression towards melody, structure, and a general broader appeal in hopes of lending itself to a larger, more mainstream fan base, The Chariot has remained true to their initial musical vision. Their latest record doesn’t try to make any huge leap across difficult genre lines or redefine their existing style.

This is by no means a bad thing.

This record viciously assaults and batters your ears like a gang of soccer hooligans. They yell, they pound, they generally raise a ruckus about things you’re not completely convinced are actually worth getting this worked up about. But your own lack of understanding about all the fuss only seems to make the rage-ridden even more red-faced. Alas, I suppose this is what happens when you give hardcore kids and art students a soap box to stand on and an instrument to wail on.

All ranting aside, here are some particularly rad things about this record:

-It doesn’t sound much like anything else I’ve heard released in the past year or so.
-It’s nice to hear what Norma Jean would sound like if they hadn’t replaced members.
-It’s fun trying to pick out the melodies and rhythms heavily masked in the distortion.
-The live tone of the guitars and drums are EPIC. They must have tracked most of this record in a gymnasium sized room, mic’d everything close up, then put room mic’s WAAAAAY back in the room and turned them WAY up. It’s like you can hear the natural reverb of the snare drum move all the way around the room. Pretty awesome!
-The guitar tones, while maintaining their brutality, have a cool Texas style twang to them. It sounds like fresh, crisp strings on a classic Fender…then put in a blender of distortion! Yowza!
-The packaging concept is cool and unique. Each CD is packaged in a heavy-gauge printing paper envelope thing with the cover art stamped on. So whoever did the cover art made it into a stamp then the band themselves hand stamped, numbered, and initialed each copy. It gave a pretty cool, unique feel to each individual album. Props for thinking outside the box boys.

The Metal Show! Part 2...

Holy sweaty sweet Jesus tap-dancing monkey balls!! Last week I had the privilege of going to another metal show! I know right!? It’s been a good couple weeks. Needless to say, right around the time my ears healed from the onslaught brought by the Canadian beard aficionados in Protest the Hero and the Milwaukee metal monsters in Misery Signals, I got my head pushed back in by the Australian group Parkway Drive (www.myspace.com/parkwaydrive).

So…given I missed the first couple bands, I was told by my very capable metal buddy that they all blew ass…it’s a technical term in the biz for “terrible.” I’m getting really sick of bands getting on their soap box and preaching at the crowd. We go to shows to see music. Not get a damn sermon about religion or politics or whatever. Play your songs damnit! Alas, I digress. The point I’m making is that the opening bands were terrible. They’re not even really worth mentioning much beyond that. It’d be wasted text…and then the terrorists would win.

Eventually Parkway Drive came on and we’ll just put it this way…I thought my days of being “that sweaty dude walking out of the metal show” were over…apparently not. Usually, when I’m at a show, I’ll hang out at the back and take in the whole scene, show, and performance. I watch the band, listen for what’s going on, take note of particular expressions of technical prowess, watch how the crowd reacts and how the band reacts to the crowd’s reactions…you know, this kinda thing. Not that night!

If you’re bored (and have a free moment where people aren’t walking by long enough for you to listen to a loud crazy metal song for a sec) you should/could check out their myspace page and listen to the song Boneyards. It’s probably one of their more brutal and fast songs. This was their opener. Well…they took the stage aaaaand pretty much turned Chain Reaction upside down, inside out, and backwards. People lost their ever loving minds. It was sweet. Bodies were flying, stage was rushed, massive pitting all over the place. It was literally all out mayhem for those first 3 minutes and 15 seconds…and it continued pretty much uninterrupted through the end of their set. What always makes this level of chaos WAY cooler is when the crowd and the band feed off each other. The dudes on stage were all smiley, bouncy, and fun to watch which in turn made the crowd that much more active as well. I love love LOVE when bands look like they’re having a good time on stage. Anyway, after Boneyards, the singer was totally floored. He was looking at the rest of the band members saying things like “Oh my GOD!…wwwwwwwwwHAT just happened?! You guys [the crowd] went NUTS. That was just the first song…! How are we going to top that?” It was like the first song of the set brought the energy that usually the last song brings…that final, last hurrah, leave it all on the floor type energy. UGH! So sickies!

By the end of the set I had gotten all wrapped up in it and had pushed myself up to the front. At hardcore/metal shows the singers like to do this thing where they’ll shove the mic down at someone’s face so they can scream a line or two or whatever…it’s kinda awesome…connects the band to the crowd. Anyway, I got to scream “dead by first light” with the singer (at the end of the song “The Sirens’ Song” that they ended their set on). That was fun. Oh ya, I also did a flipping stage dive. I think I landed on some little kids…possibly girls. My bad. Sorry. Life kinda happened for a second. Buy your ticket, take your ride. Right?

Soooo that was very atypical Matt behavior at concerts. But what can I say? It happened.

By the by, I can’t emphasize enough how awesome it is that these dudes look like they’re having a blast on stage. They’re all smiles. They look like 5 total surfer dudes with lots of tattoos going out of their way to play the most brutal music they can muster. Oh ya…and on top of the showmanship, they’re kinda stupidly solid. Other than one guitar losing signal for part of a song (which is more dumb luck than anything else) I didn’t see/hear many, if any, flaws in their playing. It was superawesomesweet.

A Photo Essay Of Sorts

Looking back at my posts here on Wolfbiker, I’ve realized I’ve been lacking something… Color! Flare! Panache! Of course I mean pictures! I talk about all this whacky, zany stuff but what does funny metal stuff really look like? Well…let me show you. I’ve scoured the internet (a little more than half-assedly) looking for photos of what I see as the goofy things that happen in metal. Given that I’m at the whim of what’s already out there, the following pictures characterize some of the more humorous aspects of a musical genre that is sometimes mislabeled as serious.

My first example is probably one of the most outlandish minds in metal, Adam Dutkiewicz (known lovingly as Adam D). Whereas he’s one of the most influential, talented, and anal retentive producer/engineer/mixers out there, on stage with his own band Killswitch Engage he is the biggest caricature of the metal genre there is. Everything he does is so outlandish and overstated that it can’t possibly be taken seriously…no matter how you spin it. Don’t be fooled though, this guy is a fantastically talented musician with a stranglehold on songwriting, music theory, and ultimate shrediness. For seriously.

Scrawny white guy wearing a cape flexing non-existent muscles? Sounds familiar… Note the neon green taped arrow pointing at his hand so you’re sure not to miss how awesome his shredology-ism is.

Viking helmet? Short shorts shorter than the boxers he’s wearing underneath? Licking the guitar he so shamelessly shreds proving not only his technical prowess but also his ability to do so while emulating the 80s hair metal that inspired him? Stupid stuff written on his guitar in tape? Check. Check. Check. Check.

Oh the denim rock god strikes. Taking the image of the “heavy metal guy who has rips in his jeans but doesn’t care because he’s so metal” image to the next level. Left the cape in the tour bus? A problem for mortals! Make do with what you have! …in this case, apparently a blow-up doll.

Metal and fire go together like koalas and cuteness. Greg Puciato from The Dillinger Escape Plan demonstrates this at some outdoor festival. Note the guitar player’s neon pink guitar…I’m pretty confident color totally effects the sound of the guitar. Probably has a bright tone. Punny.

This is Mike Schleibaum of Darkest Hour. Metal’s ultimate “dude.” The guy is a total gear head and can and will talk anyone’s ear off about tone, pedals, guitars, amps, or ANYthing really. Anyway, the guitar company Washburn made him a custom guitar named the Dude. They eventually made him a second one…called the Dude II. Note the headstock truss-rod cover.

I saw the Bled once at the House of Blues where the stage has a drop down curtain. When the first song started RIGHT as the curtain pulled open, this is what the crowd saw. Aside from having a full frontal assault of raucous hardcore to the face, there seemed to be something horribly wrong with the singer. Soon everyone caught on. You could literally hear the laughter over the music…which was saying something…cuz boy howdy it was loud.

Ken Susi plays guitar for Unearth…really well. Apparently, he also plays the air horn. I like that at a loud metal show, the air horn still makes him wince like a baby.

The Unearth guitar players are just lil’ guys…which makes them perfect for stage antics…like mid-song push-ups, mid-song beer chugging, mid-riff high-fives, and mid-song 100% fun-time acrobatics…like this! Buz McGrath rides John Maggard around like a metal totem pole. Gross. Awesome. Gross.

I’d like to finish this little photo journal with the consistently wittiest and goofiest band I’ve seen. Every Time I Die is a silly band…specifically their guitar players. Andy Williams is a massive loaf of dude with the ability to sneeze facial hair out of his face. To top it off, he’s probably one of the nicest, most genuine dudes ever. For example, he went through an entire US tour advertising the fact that he’d be outside at every show offering hugs. What a teddy bear. Last time I saw them (I think…or maybe 2 times ago?) they took the stage to play their southern rock inspired metal wielding these guitars. Andy played the pink zebra striped one and Jordan played the light blue guitar that has a painted-on caricature of Andy’s face.

Andy also went the entire length of Warped Tour one year making a shirt for each show…here’s one sporting the Queen song/lyrics “Fat bottom girls make the rocking world go ‘round”.

So that’s pretty much that...hopefully you enjoyed the visual hilarity that this music can inspire! Now imagine all this in motion. How can you not laugh?

The Handicap of Knowledge

Without getting too philosophical about things, because God knows there’s already WAY too many people being WAY too serious with their blogs, I think there could be something to the statement that (I’ve made up) knowledge can confine the mind. Of course I’m limiting my bs-thesis (thes-bs? Pronounced thees-bee-iss) to the realm of music knowledge.

We all know that there are countless trained musicians, or at least people who study music and music theory, who go on to logically make really incredible music. I mean, of course there are in turn trained musicians who boggle the mind in their ability to make really crappy music as well, but these people aren’t worth the breath, or typing-energy, to talk about. That would make for boring reading… “Hey, you know that one guy with the degree in music theory from the Berklee School of Music? Ya? Aren’t his songs good? Ya. They are aren’t they.” Booooring.

What baffles the mind, and makes for more interesting reading, are those who with NO musical training or anything defy the odds and make some pretty cool music. Crazy stuff. There are even some out there that have SOMEhow seemingly redefined the art of their instrument. The best example of this would have to be Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers who is arguably (as in I’m sure there’s an argument for it…but I don’t know what it is) one of the best alternative-rock/funk bass players ever. And the guy has taken like, zero lessons. THAT is pretty damn impressive.

Metal has its own heroes as well. The guitar players in Norma Jean, one of the founding hardcore staples, are probably one of the bigger hardcore bands to have come from absolutely nil musical background. The two founding guitar players picked up the guitar and basically tried making the instrument make sounds like those of their influences in the hardcore-punk scene of the 80s and 90s. The style of play was abrasive, heavily rhythmic, and not strong on melody. Even though I feel that over the years they’ve been a band they’ve strayed from where they started more towards the mainstream-middle ground of music, their roots lie in the discordant, off-beat, and heavily rhythmic roots of early hardcore. One band that, despite meager musical forethought, has turned my mind inside out has been August Burns Red. These Pennsylvanian kids have all but blown the doors off of conventional metal and metalcore. Picking up where bands like Norma Jean left off with their heavily rhythmic guitars and experimental time signatures and such, ABR has generated a style of their own by infusing more “metal” elements like breakdowns, a very slight movement towards song structure, and more breakdowns.

I think it’s important to point out what this lack of musical background has given these guys. Both bands I’ve mentioned approached their song writing process from a place of making their instruments make sounds and progressions that sound “neat.” Without having to operate under the confines of knowing that the notes they’re putting together don’t fall into the same scale or don’t technically belong together, they’re able to assemble a song or riff that for no explicable reason (at least until you drink a pot of coffee and stay up to tomorrow listening to the same passage over and over trying to understand what exactly just happened…not that I speak from experience in this or anything…I need a hobby…and to leave this aside behind and get back to whatever I was talking about) sounds freaking SWEET! They don’t have to worry about counting out a time signature or mapping how the tempos ebb and flow because without knowing the exact framework of how music “works” they just play what they feel. That is a powerful powerful thing that can often be hindered by the knowledge that what you’re making shouldn’t, by any good reason, work.

Obviously the number of bands that can function beyond these confines with any level of success are FAR outnumbered by those who can probably write a successful dissertation on the ability and technique of failing miserably. However, it’s worthy to mention and recognize those that beat these odds. And I salute you with this keg of coffee and pounding headache…as I try to decipher this beautiful chaos that is the music I love.