Welcome to the Machine!

Here’s an article on how they catch those naughty people who download music for free:

http://chronicle.com/free/2008/05/2821n.htm

Those naughty, naughty people, they deserve a smack on the hand for sharing music, think of the poor record companies, they might lose a little of the tight fisted grip they have on our musical consumerism. Oh the poor dears, just think, if people download music for free, then that means they’ll not make as much money. Eventually they’ll go out of business, and we couldn’t have that could we!!! I mean, if we didn’t have the record companies to tell us what to buy, then we might have to figure it out all on our little selves…We’d have nobody to tell us what’s cool and what’s not. How would we know about the next Celine Dion or P Diddy CD? We wouldn’t, and that’s scary!!!

Lucky for us we have the man, who works for the big four record companies and who can crack down on those naughty, naughty people and arrest them for sharing. Sharing is wrong, didn’t they ever teach these naughty people that in kindergarten?

Forget the fact that music was always a performance art form and that it was only since it could be recorded that record companies put an exorbitant price on it and ripped off the musicians themselves. Forget the artists themselves who get treated like cogs in the machine, told to churn out radio friendly crap for the masses at the expense of their own artistic expression. Forget Kurt Cobain, he was just a waster! And forget Pink Floyd, in particular Roger Waters and songs like ‘Have a Cigar’, and ‘Welcome to the Machine’. Forget the fact that there’s millions of artists out there, all trying to find an audience, a large majority of them with really good music that doesn’t need to be processed and refined by a record company. No no no, I just need to turn off my brain, turn on the latest
50 Cent CD and pretend to be cool. I’m pretty fly for a white guy!

Forget about expression, I just wanna know what’s cool man, somebody please tell me, I don’t know how to think for myself anymore. Oh god!

A.

www.azumuth.com

www.myspace.com/azumuthmusic

God, Aliens and pedophiles.

Could it be true…? Is the Catholic church saying that aliens exist?? And here I was thinking that the Earth was the center of the f**ken Universe!! Gee golly, I also thought that priest weren’t pedophiles, and that ET the Extraterrestrial was real.

Maybe I was wrong all along…Maybe I was just a little confused about my place in the universe. I mean if the church says Aliens exist, then they must, forget about all the thousands of sightings, and organizations like CSETI, the scientific evidence that we are not the only planet in the universe. Even Robbie Williams has started hunting em down, so they must be real, and he must be Catholic!

Anyways heres the proof we’ve all been waiting for, an article I found that probes(haha) the big questions about God and Aliens. Bet you’ll never see this headline, ‘Vatican says “sorry about the Pedophiles, we blame the aliens”!’, or ‘Church finally asks, “where is God”?’

A.

Vatican scientist says belief in God and aliens is OK

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican’s chief astronomer says there is no conflict between believing in God and in the possibility of “extraterrestrial brothers” perhaps more evolved than humans.

“In my opinion this possibility (of life on other planets) exists,” said Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, a 45-year-old Jesuit priest who is head of the Vatican Observatory and a scientific adviser to Pope Benedict.

“How can we exclude that life has developed elsewhere,” he told the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano in an interview in its Tuesday-Wednesday edition, explaining that the large number of galaxies with their own planets made this possible.

Asked if he was referring to beings similar to humans or even more evolved than humans, he said: “Certainly, in a universe this big you can’t exclude this hypothesis”.

In the interview headlined “The extraterrestrial is my brother,” he said he saw no conflict between belief in such beings and faith in God.

“Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can’t put limits on God’s creative freedom,” he said.

“Why can’t we speak of a ‘brother extraterrestrial’? It would still be part of creation,” he said.

Funes, who runs the observatory which is based south of Rome and in Arizona, held out the possibility that the human race might actually be the “lost sheep” of the universe.

“There could be (other beings) who remained in full friendship with their creator,” he said.

THE “BIG BANG”?

Christians have sometimes been at odds with scientists over whether the Bible should be read literally and issues such as creationism versus evolution have been hotly debated for decades.

The Inquisition condemned astronomer Galileo in the 17th century for insisting that the earth revolved around the sun. The Catholic Church did not rehabilitate him until 1992.

Funes said dialogue between faith and science could be improved if scientists learned more about the Bible and the Church kept more up to date with scientific progress.

Funes, an Argentine, said he believed as an astronomer that the most likely explanation for the start of the universe was “the big bang”, the theory that it sprang into existence from dense matter billions of years ago.

But he said this was not in conflict with faith in God as a creator. “God is the creator. There is a sense to creation. We are not children of an accident …,” he said.

“As an astronomer, I continue to believe that God is the creator of the universe and that we are not the product of something casual but children of a good father who has a project of love in mind for us,” he said.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella, editing by Richard Balmforth)

http://uk.reuters.com

www.myspace.com/azumuthmusic

www.azumuth.com

Rant 2: Guitar Queer-O

Hey who likes Southpark? Don’t you just love it how they completely take the piss out of anything to do with popular culture?? And even stuff that’s not pop culture, it’s so f**ken funny!!! I watched an episode the other night where they took the mickey out of that retarded game ‘Guitar Hero’, and boy did they nail it on the nose! The episode was called ‘Guitar Queer O’ and rightly so, for it parodies the Guitar Hero games by showing the the kids who play becoming rock stars just by getting a high score.

To me this is funny because I’ve never really liked any of these sorts of games. I like games like GTA 3, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill and Resident Evil. I know there’s a big market for this sort of shit but I think it’s f**ken lame, cause I find it much more fun to actually play an instrument rather than play a game which makes it seem so easy. There’s nothing more fun than actually getting up on stage and playing a show to a receptive audience. And this means learning to play an instrument(the voice is an instrument too), which takes time and patience. Playing the drums is more fun than any video game I can think of!

I had a friend who played the DJ game at the arcade a lot, and the drum game as well, and man did I get bored watching him play. There not very fun games to watch.

Hey maybe they’ll have a new game where you can put the guitar, bass, drums and someone who can’t sing together on miniature stage and call it ‘Band hero’. It’d take up the whole freakin’ arcade, and would be really f**ken lame!!!

The dumbing down of society has been happening for along f**ken time, and this is just another sign of people becoming lazy, both physically and mentally. It’s like watching one of those freakin’ reality shows where they get a bunch of people with no discernible talent or skill, and shove them on TV so people can laugh at how ridiculous they are. I mean come on people, let’s raise the bar for ourselves a little huh!!! When I hear bands like Cog, Machinehead and Megadeth writing songs about
how we’re being kept stupid and ignorant so nobody will notice our civil liberties gradually being taken away from us until we really are slaves, and that we should be doing something about it, I sometimes wander if we’re worth saving in the first place. It’s so much easier to pick up that fake guitar with the six or eight buttons instead of 24 frets and an endless array of notes and chords, and pretend to be a rockstar. Perhaps it’s a lot easier than actually being a freakin’ rockstar, which does actually take some talent and skill. I wander what Bill Hicks would make of all this, I’m sure he’d be a lot more scathing than I am, you should consider yourselves lucky!

Though in retrospect, if one of my songs got chosen to be on that game, I’d probably be pretty stoked, does that make me a hypocrite? The ‘Grim Reaper guitarist’ on Guitar Hero 2 is pretty cool too. Oh well, *sigh*!

A.

www.azumuth.com

www.myspace.com/azumuthmusic

ARIW: Animals that Cyclone survivors depend on need help

Once again the animals need our help, please read the following article taken from the WSPA website and do whatever you can to help. I know that right now there are a lot of people who are suffering because of the recent Cyclone, but aid is now at hand and the animals need our help too!

Any way please read on.

A.

An emergency veterinary team from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is on stand-by in Thailand awaiting entry authority to cyclone struck Myanmar to assess and then relieve the suffering of thousands of animals that human survivors depend on for food and their livelihoods.

WSPA is receiving daily updates from The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) while preparing its rapid assessment and response team.

Philip Russell MBE, WSPA’s Director of Disaster Management, said: “No-one else, Governments, humanitarian NGOs or owners have the resources to care for these animals, most of which are owned by poor impoverished families. If those that survived die, so too will the livelihoods of thousands of people.”

He added that, as WSPA so often finds, when operating in emergencies many families will have or be in the process of selling off their remaining livestock at severely reduced prices to ensure some monetary value for immediate subsistence, mainly because they cannot now keep them alive.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) are also planning to join WSPA’s emergency response team in assessing and responding to the needs of animals.

One way of helping to stop the spread of disease is to separate animals into temporary holding pens. Emergency feed will also be needed as it is unlikely that there is any food for surviving livestock in and around camps or spare hay of any type will be available in Myanmar. Any precious grass that is not ruined by the flood will be owned by individuals and will not be not for sale.

Wet conditions, lowered immune systems, endemic disease such as Foot and Mouth and overcrowded camps create a highly disease prone and contagious environment. WSPA will seek to advise government livestock veterinarians on the need for and how to deliver veterinary checks to enable preventative treatment in the form of antibiotics, vaccinations and de-worming.

“WSPA works to align animal welfare and humanitarian agendas to reduce poverty, hunger and disease in humans. Equally, by complimenting humanitarian efforts in this way we increase the number of animals we protect,” said Russell.

Please click here to make an urgent donation to support WSPA‘s disarster relief work for these animals and other animal victims of disarster around the world.

For phone donations please call WSPA Australia on 1300 13 9772 or WSPA New Zealand on 0800 500 9772.

www.wspa.org.au

www.myspace.com/azumuthmusic

www.azumuth.com

Rant: Aussies Against the Alcohol Tax Increase (AATATI)

Tax sux doesn’t it? I know that it pays for stuff like hospitals, roads, buses etc etc, but still…do we really need another tax hike. I’m from NZ, and that means I’m entitled to the benefit over here unless I become a resident or some such thing. So that means I’m paying tax but when or if I ever need some help from the government, I can’t get it. Thank god I can’t vote.

So now the taxes are being put up again according to last nights budget, and apparently they’re planning to put more tax on alcohol. Alcohol is expensive enough as it is, and if it’s going to cost even more to go out for a drink in a pub, bar, whatever, then I’ll just stay home and drink there thanks.

Here’s a group that is vehemantly opposed to this latest tax hike and if you are pissed off about this then you should read it, and jump on board. It’s in your own best interests, I mean surely there are other ways to stop people binge drinking. Come on people really!!!

By the way, to get access to this link you have to have a Facebook account I think, and why wouldn’t you!

A.

After all the taxes we pay on everything here in Aus the Government has come up with a cunning plan to stem binge drinking and its associated violence by taxing everyone some more for our beloved beverages. We work hard everyday to earn a pay cheque for which a fair amount is spent on tax, our morgage (costing us a fortune) and petrol. Most of which put some people to strain. Now after all this, most people want to sit down to a hard earned brew…why tax us some more on this liberty?

I got an idea for the government, stop allowing Pubs to make ridiculous amounts of cash by serving extremely intoxicated people and dont allow people to be beaten to the ground in front of their pubs, in some cases by their own bouncers.

Now if you agree with all this then join up!

Cheers

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13749896093

www.myspace.com/azumuthmusic

www.azumuth.com

ARIW: FUCK OFF JAPAN… LEAVE THE WHALES ALONE!!!!

This disgusts me, I cannot believe they still do this shit, it is wrong and I for one think we need to make more people aware of what’s going on so we can put a stop to it. Can you believe this shit? They say they are going to be increasing their quota by 50 whales a year. I’m so outraged i’m seeing red here, Whales are beautiful creatures and SHOULD be left alone to live in peace. Didn’t they ever see Star Trek 4???

Anyways here’s something I found about Whaling, please read it and please take some action, do whatever you can and/or feel capable of.

A.

This group is aimed at the ICR & Japanese Government. It is a forum for people of our world to share their concerns about Japanese whaling.

We hope it will help exert regional pressure on Japan to cease its illegal whaling activities in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Please don’t join to turn it into a racial battleground.

Japan is singled out as it is the only country to have breached the:

- United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,

- United Nations Charter on Nature,

- The Antarctic Treaty System,

- The Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) and

- The International Convention on the Regulation of
Whaling

http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=223096

Lastly, Japan is also the ONLY country doing it under the pathetic lies of “Scientific Research”.

They are also the ONLY country not doing it in their own territorial waters… infact they have Ignored repeated pleas from Australian & New Zealander’s to halt the whale slaughter within their Economic Exclusion Zones.

OUR WHALES ARE DYING….

Japan kills more than 1,000 whales a year in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary near Antarctica using a loophole in the international moratorium for a ban on whaling that allows catching whales for so called “research” purposes.

This year Japan is planning on expanding the catch to include 50 humpback whales, which are considered “endangered” in some regions of the world. The Japanese expedition also plans to kill 50 endangered fin whales - the world’s second largest animal after blue whales - as well as 935 smaller minke whales.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/whale-watch/outrage-as-whaling-fleet-heads-for-antarctic/2007/11/18/1195321608560.html

These waters are within the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone. The Australian Federal Court ruled on January 15 2008 that the Japanese whaling is illegal and should be stopped.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23056156-2,00.html

Don’t buy the argument that Japan’s motivation to continue whaling is about maintaining their culture or conducting scientific research as they claim….

Today, whale meat is hardly a popular food in Japan with roughly only 1% of the population eating it (Japan Today Newspaper). Running boats into the Southern ocean each year is costly and inefficient work for the Japanese for little financial gain.

As for the science argument, scientists globally have affirmed over and over again that any research could be, and in fact is, conducted without actually hacking these remarkable creatures to death in our oceans….

Basically every Pro-Whaling argument that has been put forward thus far has been refuted with facts, figures and scientific evidence.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=7251222651&topic=5175

The IWC, the body charged with governing whaling internationally, is a mess & needs an urgent Overhaul.

The IWC allocates equal voting power to all members, with decisions made on a three-quarters majority vote.

This ‘democratic’ nature of the Commission however has allowed Japan to buy the votes of weaker developing countries with aid packages and other financial incentives.

Even land locked developing countries such as Mongolia are joining the IWC & voting alongside Japan in favour of whaling. Japan has almost bought out enough votes in this way to overturn the Moratorium on Whaling, which would allow it to again conduct commercial whaling that once culled 90% of all whales!

http://www.iwcoffice.org/commission/iwcmain.htm

Clearly we need to think outside the IWC to put a stop to this tragic and archaic practice.

http://www.internationalwhaleprotection.org/

www.myspace.com/azumuthmusic

www.azumuth.com

Review: Ghosts - Nine Inch Nails

Trent Reznor is a genius, I think I already said that. I never said he was generous though, but now that I think about, he really is. I mean, lot’s of other rock stars are rich, but they still put out music and charge people for it. Movie stars too, I mean do they have to keep getting paid shit loads to make each new movie? Surely people like Will Smith or Cameron Diaz would have more than enough to live for the rest of their lives, so why not make movies for free? Too much of an ask, ok well charity’s always good, and I’m sure they all do, or not, whatever, rant over.

Anyways, Trent Reznor put out the spectacular ‘Ghosts’, and ‘The Slip’, both for free. What a generous man he is! He’s got enough money, he doesn’t need any more so he gives it all away. He probably sees the value in giving away your music for free anyway since a lot of people won’t pay anything for music these days, but still. Don’t ya just love em!!!

Here’s a review of ‘Ghosts’ which once again echoes my sentiments exactly about this instrumental masterpiece. What a shame I didn’t write it. Oh well, maybe next time.

A.

Ghosts I-IV - Nine Inch Nails

By CHRIS SCHULZ - Stuff.co.nz | Friday, 07 March 2008

Trent Reznor is a generous chap. The Nine Inch Nails frontman let fans listen to the band’s last album before it was released, and now he’s gone one better - he’s giving it away for free.

Ghosts I-IV, released with little fanfare on Monday through the band’s official website, is an ambitious 36-track instrumental concept album. It’s among the best things Reznor has ever done.

You can download Ghosts I for free; parts II, III and IV will cost you $US5. And for $US10 you can get a double-CD package sent to you when it’s released properly on April 14. That’s as cheap as chips.

But this is a new era, and Reznor knows many music fans won’t even pay $5 for a CD. His response? He uploaded it to popular torrent website www.thepiratebay.org himself and received a flood of positive feedback. Told you he was generous.

Like Radiohead’s In Rainbows, it’s well worth the purchase. Recorded over 10 weeks with a variety of producers, Ghosts is a sonic experiment that pays off in spades.

It’s full of haunting piano lines, spare drum loops, spooky atmospherics and dreamy soundscapes. Reznor called it a “soundtrack for daydreams”, and if your daydreams are full of tidal waves, building demolitions and lightning storms, then he’s right.

If David Lynch was to direct a Nine Inch Nails movie, this would be the soundtrack.

Split into four distinct parts, some tracks sound like they’re off last year’s impressive Year Zero. Others (Ghosts IV-34) hark back to The Fragile, some even delve into Pretty Hate Machine. If you’re looking for highlights, check out Ghosts II-19 and IV-33, but Ghosts is designed to be listened to in its entirety.

Amazingly, most tracks are so packed full of ideas, adding vocals would seem like overkill. But if someone hasn’t already mixed it with the vocals from Jay-Z’s American Gangster then it’s probably only days away. American Gangster Ghosts, anyone?

Twisted, dark and intense, Ghosts I-IV is Nine Inch Nails as they’ve always been. Reznor may be feeling more generous these days, but he’s as uncompromising as ever.

Ghosts I-IV is available for download from www.nin.com.

www.myspace.com/azumuthmusic

www.azumuth.com

Reviews: Third - Portishead

HA, I knew it, this album makes me want to kill myself, and that’s a good thing!!!

Nah not really, but it’s sounds like a soundtrack for suicide. Seriously, this album is the darknest thing I’ve heard in along time. I knew we were in for something off the wall when I first listened to leading single ‘Machinegun’ a few months ago, and I was right.
This album is excellent, dark, industrial, forbiding and intense. I read in a magazine recently that people apparently liked to have sex to the old Portishead stuff…??? Well they certainly won’t be anyone shagging to this album, that’s for freakin’ sure. It’d be like having sex with a walrus in an abandoned mineshaft that’s collapsing. Beth Orton sounds so tortured on nearly every track, it’s as if she slit her wrists and recorded the vocals while sitting in a bathtub as it fills with her own blood. Not in the least bit sexy I can tell you!
But seriously, this is a very excellent album, one that I would recommend wholly. Don’t let my review fool you, it’s dark and deep but worth listening to, if just for the sheer pleasure of hearing something that’s so dark and industrial you wander where all the light in the world has gone.

Below is another review I found of it as well which pretty much echoes my sentiments.

A.

Third - Portishead
By CHRIS SCHULZ - Stuff.co.nz | Thursday, 24 April 2008

It’s been 10 years since the last Portishead album, but if you thought the Bristol trip-hop act spent that time cheering up, you’d be wrong.

Third is brutally dark, chillingly intense and way more paranoid than anything on the trio’s first two albums. Dummy, the band’s 1994 debut, sounds like Mariah Carey in comparison.

Fortunately, the darker mood suits them.

Third is still distinctively Portishead. Plastic could be an outtake from their second, self-titled album, with its woozy breakbeats, off-kilter keyboards and Beth Gibbons’ warbled vocals fraying around the edges.

But - as opener Silence proves - it’s a sparser affair, as the frail singer is given more room to show off her ghostly lungs. Check out ballads The Rip and Deep Water for the best of that.

A strong industrial feel permeates everything, with mood-influencing samples scattered around like leaves. The synths and guitars in We Carry On sound like something from a Nine Inch Nails track, while Machine Gun could have been recorded in a small arms factory.

The only lighter moment is Nylon Smile, but even that sounds like Dido doing emo.

Previously, Portishead operated in grey areas, that time before day becomes night. Now, they’re hiding under the bed with the doors locked, the lights out and their hands over their eyes.

As long as there are no razor blades around, it’s the best place for them.

www.portishead.co.uk

www.myspace.com/azumuthmusic

www.azumuth.com

Dominion Post review: Beautiful Machine - Shihad

Here’s a review of the latest Shihad album ‘Beautiful Machine’ that I found. As you may or may not know, I wrote a review of this album a few weeks ago, and I loved it and still do. In fact I can’t wait to see them in June in Melbs. So yes, I agree with everything this guy says, and like I said, even if you’re a big of Shihad fan you might be a little weirded out by the style change on this album. But fear not, it is excellent and change is a good thing. Also it’s infectious, and I’m sure that after a few listens you’ll love it.

A.

Beautiful Machine - Shihad

By TOM CARDY - The Dominion Post | Friday, 02 May 2008

Taking their inspiration from dub, reggae, funk and soul, Hollie Smith, Fat Freddy’s Drop and The Black Seeds have been the biggest names to come out of Wellington’s diverse music scene in the 21st century.

But, as yet, none has had as big an impact overseas as rockers Shihad, especially as a live act … to think they’ve been together 20 years.

But Beautiful Machine isn’t just a testament to durability, when even other big-name 90s Wellington bands such as Fur Patrol have faded away - it’s proof that their muse has never abandoned them.

Some of Shihad’s hardcore followers will find the sound has a bit too much emphasis on the first part of the title rather than the latter.

Most of the dark, claustrophobic moments and the avalanche of sound, which Shihad are so good at, is kept to a minimum.

Instead, Shihad have produced their most accessible and best album since The General Electric. Yet it never feels like they’ve sacrificed creativity or integrity.

It also seems as if the band have brought in all their influences and celebrated them in equal doses.

The irresistible Chameleon equally balances Shihad’s metal bent, with echoes of glam and the punkier leanings of the New York Dolls. Count it Up, with its no-nonsense slash of guitars, pushes the punk, new wave component and is just as successful.

The gentle Waiting Round for God, one of their best songs, is also, almost disarmingly, their truest ballad.

And who would have believed how gifted the foursome were with pop melodies, especially on the likes of When You Coming Home?, Eliza and Vampires.

The ghosts of the much-documented problems Shihad have had to endure this decade have finally been vanquished.

Beautiful Machine is not only a beautiful - an adjective rarely associated with the band - album, but it will finally win over the small pockets of unbelievers who always thought Shihad put too much pedal to the metal.

www.shihad.com

www.azumuth.com

www.myspace.com/azumuthmusic

What is Metal?

I love Metal. I love listening to my favorite bands like Judas Priest, Tool, Deftones, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Slayer, the list goes on and on. I love to rockout!

In fact this is what I have been doing since I was 13, usually through my headphones, on a walkman, discman, minidisc player and finally an Ipod. Metal music has inspired me to be who I am, to do what I do, which is to write music and start a band, and it makes me feel better about life. I’m usually the only I see on the tram in the morning nodding his head to the likes of Iron Maiden or Cog. Everyone else looks like they wish they were somewhere else, or dead. But not me.

But I have a question that I’ve asked myself time and time again. What is Metal? What makes a band a metal band? Is it because they wear black clothes, bogan Tshirts, jeans and white sneakers? Is it because their music is loud? Is it because they play a lot of the Jin Jins (you know what I mean) on their guitar, or because their drummer uses a double kick pedal alot?

You know what, I think that none of these things constitute a metal band. I think Metal is an identity, a sub-culture of society, one that has become more and more prominet. I also think Metal music assimilates all other forms of music, even more so than rock, and that the boundaries of Metal music are so widespread that they’ve become extremely vague. Take for example a local band I know and like: Cog.

Now when they released their first album, it was hailed as a triumph by the Australian metal community . This was because it was successful, had commercial potential and would put Australian metal on the map. I just bought the second album and I can safely say that it is as far removed from ‘Metal’ as it is possible to be. It’s soft, nice, progressive and it doesn’t have any jin jins. It ’s not metal. Are they still a progressive metal band?

Another band I know and love, Shihad (local boys from my hometown of Wellington). They started off as a metal band, went industrial on their first release, heavy and angry on their second, and have managed to sound almost completely different on each successive album. Their last album ‘Love is the new hate’, was very angry and heavy. Their new album ‘Beautiful Machine’, like Cog, is far removed from ‘Love is the new hate’. It’s very melodic, mellow and has no jin jins, no anger, nothing. It’s not metal. Are they still a metal band? Or are they a rock band with metal influences?

Iron Maiden are the first band I ever listened to and loved. I remember when I first heard them, it was ‘Live after Death’ and it was awesome. Now these guys have been at it for yonks and have never changed their sound. With every album you know what you’re in for. Same with Motorhead, and especially Slayer. These are the metal purists bands; bands who don’t change their style and who always sound the same. Albeit Iron Maiden’s newer stuff does sound a lot more mature, but it’s still metal though right?

According to a film I watched recently, ‘Metal: a Headbangers Journey’, bands like Cream, AC/DC, Poison, Def Leopard and Van Halen are metal bands. I’ve listened to a fair bit of Van Halen and I’ve never thought of them as Metal, did I miss something…? This just makes it more confusing, blurring the lines between “glam rock” and “glam metal”. There weren’t many jin jins or blast beats in Jump’ by Van Halen, just a f**kin’ awesome keyboard solo ! Black Sabbath, the apparent originators of metal, by todays standards would they still be called a metal band in comparison with say, Cannibal Corpse or Cradle of Filth?

It’s true to say that Metal absorbs all other forms of music. Look at bands like Nightwish and Symphony X, mixing elements of metal with the symphony to create ‘Symphonic Metal’. Limp Bizkit , RATM and Korn, ‘fusing elements of hip hop/rap and metal to create ‘Nu metal’. Rammstein incorporated elements of Dance and techno into a hybrid called ‘Tanz metal’ or ‘dance metal’, and Trent Reznor does the same, with the effect being that at times, NIN sound quite metal and fit neatly into the genre ‘Industrial Metal’. I’m waiting for Jazz metal, though progressive metal bands like Dream Theartre incorperate elements of this. What about country Metal? Imagine Garth Brooks crossed with James Hetfield!

This all confuses me though, I mean Creed were a ‘hard rock’ band, yet they had a hell of a lot of jin jins, especially on album number two. Even my band Azumuth has a lot of Jin jins, (especially on our new album, out later this year!) but I still write nice melodic, middle of the road stuff that I incorporate into the music sometimes. Does that mean we’re hard rock band or metal?

And that leads to the next and most important question: where does hard rock end and Metal begin?

I think the best way to answer this, is by explaining what I think Metal is.

Firstly Metal is a state of mind. You can’t profess to being a metaller unless you worship and adore metal. Not all forms of metal though, I don’t particularly care for Death or black metal, does that mean I don’t still love metal? Hell know muthaf**ka!! I love it!
Secondly Metal is a subculture. Go to any metal concert and all you’ll see will be mostly guys, some girls, all in metal t-shirts. It’s like an identity bracelet. I went to both a Machinehead, and Iron Maiden shows recently and this is exactly what I saw. Hell F**ken yeah!! It’s like being in an exclusive club that your parent aren’t in, and it’s really cool cause they hate it! HAHA DAD! It always easy to start a conversation at a metal concert too, just say to someone how much you love whatever the band is and they’ll probably tell you the same thing!

Thirdly Metal is an attitude. Metal is a finger high in the air at ‘the man’ and a ‘F**K YOU’ to anyone who tries to tell you what to do and what to like. You don’t have to be an overally aggressive alpha male to get into it either. In fact I think you’ll find that most of the metallers you see at gigs are exactly the opposite (except in certain instances). Is it true that Metal listeners tend to come from the misunderstood sections of society? It certainly was in my case. I certainly wasn’t a jock that’s for f**cken sure!!

Fourthly Metal is an ideal. In an idealised world, everyone would listen to metal and people wouldn’t care what you listened too. Then again, if that happened then my freakin’ parents would be listening to Slayer, and that would just be weird man! But still, metal is an ideal because it brings together people from all walks of life with the ideal that ‘This rocks and we love it!’.

Now isn’t that cool, and so much better than world peace!

Finally, Metal is a universal form of music, one which incorporates many elements taken from many other forms of music, one which seemingly has no boundaries and no limits, only that of the imagination, and one which I think is the purest form of music because it displays raw, energy infused emotion, and unites the masses. If the prime minister were a metaller I’d probably pay more attention to him!
This is what I think metal is. Hard rock is rock that is slightly harder than normal rock, yet has none of the elements above. It has no jin jins, no twin guitar attacks or harmonising lead parts, no metal screams or death growls. And above all, hard rock has no sub culture that I am aware of, no, or not as much attitude, and no state of mind.

I mean, who wants to be ‘a hard rocker’, I’d much rather be a ‘metaller’ with my goats in the air like I just don’t care. Also, with hard rock, there’s a serious risk that your mom might like it. How would you feel if you saw your mom standing next to you at a Machinehead show, with her goats in the air, screaming the lyrics to ‘Ten Ton Hammer’?

Would that be f**ken strange or what?

A.

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