Overkill: What Thrash Metal Is Really About

Having listened over and over again to "Ironbound," the soon-to-be-released album by Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth and co., I can safely say Overkill is back with a vengeance. Before somebody else let me say it that this album may be the best of the band since the unforgettable "Years of Decay."
So what makes Ironbound their best album for the past 20 years? Brilliant riffing? You bet. Trademark bass hammering by D.D. Verni? More than ever. Vocals oozing with power and rage? It's all there.
But for me, what makes Ironbound a classic even after a few listens is the thrash attitude, something that sadly seems lacking from today's resurgent thrash, even if these new bands prove over and over again with their musicianship that they are more than capable of carrying the genre forward.
The attitude reminded by Overkill is one that smells of backstreets and alleys, one that brilliantly catches the spontaneous rage of "the man on the street," something that builds up throughout all these brilliant songs and throws your soul to the wall unexpectedly. It is only this thrash attitude that can shout a "Fuck The Limit, Fuck The Sky!" (Give A Little) to the empty and loathsome consumerist slogans that try to dominate our lives.
"Ironbound" reminds all that thrash is much more than riffing and shredding.

Ironbound
Release date: Jan 2010
01. The Green And Black
02. Ironbound
03. Bring Me The Night
04. The Goal Is Your Soul
05. Give A Little
06. Endless War
07. The Head And Heart
08. In Vain
09. Killing For A Living
10. The SRC

An evening with Ashmedi of Melechesh

Ashmedi and Taylan having a good time at Dorock Bar.

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to meet Ashmedi, the brains behind Melechesh, probably the most original metal act of the 2000s.
For those who do not know, Melechesh, a Middle Eastern band, brilliantly infuses riff-rich black metal with the pain-filled music of the Middle East, with lyrics that reflect a keen interest on Sumeria and Mesopotamian mythology in general. Some call it “Mesopotamian black metal” while some say it is “Oriental black metal.” I say it is futile to try to describe this original music, as one may grasp layers and layers of various, even conflicting aspects in this band that performs complex extreme metal.
He told me the difficulty of creating a balance between the fluctuant Mideast Oriental music and the discipline metal requires, noting that one could be ridiculed for diluting metal or trying to make a buck out of Mideast music if the balance is not correct. The balance they found is, I believe, similar to what Sepultura has achieved with 'Roots' and 'Against,' an album that I still listen and discover new layers despite all negative criticism.
A part of Ashmedi’s origins are in Turkey, as his Armenian grandfathers probably fled to Syria from Turkey. A vital part of his family is in Jerusalem and most of his life was spent there. Now, he lives in Amsterdam in a situation that he calls “voluntary exile.”
The band’s latest offering, the brilliant Emissaries, is dated 2006, but it had so great impact on metal communities that the band still performs at various festivals. Ashmedi told me the album sold 25,000 copies worldwide, an astounding success for an extreme metal band.
Melechesh is now preparing its new album, hopefully to hit the shelves this year. Ashmedi gave no clue, but what I hope to listen is a deepening of Emissaries, which stands among my all-time favorite albums.
One cannot easily separate politics from the Middle East, but what I observed was Ashmedi is trying his best to do so. That is probably because as a musician he wishes to reach beyond borders and not alienate listeners. And that is understandable. When I asked him about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, for example, he said he “only counts the dead.” But then, it was also evident that he feels the disparity of power between parties and I noticed a slight but on-the-mark sympathy toward the Palestinian suffering.
Ashmedi stayed in Istanbul for nearly a week, but I could only see him once, due to pressing journalism business. Too bad. One day after we met and talked for a couple of hours at Dorock Bar, the main spot for Istanbul’s metalheads, he was at the “Jazz Stop,” jamming on stage with Harun Kolçak, a talented Turkish pop-jazz musician with whom Ashmedi talked over the net before. You can see what I – and you - missed here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibQYQ_q8cmQ
His mother had been telling Ashmedi that he should visit Istanbul one day, and he was proud to have done this at last. Having inhaled Istanbul once, I think he will have trouble containing himself not to come back. So, Ashmedi, hopefully I will see you next time! And don’t forget to lend an ear to Fragments of Unbecoming!

A Fine Example of Doom Metal!

One gem from 2008 that I was able to notice only this year, thanks to a recommendation from a friend, is Finland's Kypck - read Kursk. One listen to their debut Cherno is all it takes to see that doom metal is alive and well, and has much more to offer than today's despicable "whining metal" - "ağlak metal," as we say in Turkish.

"Cherno" is doom at its best, with a great vocalist, a drummer that knows how to control his limbs and heavy, dark riffs. The second thing to be noticed has to be how the Russian language fits perfectly into doom metal. Yes, the band has opted for making music in Russian, and the album is a celebration of this originality. "Rozhdestvo v Murmanske," or "Christmas In Murmansk," for example, has to be one of the most powerful doom metal songs ever.
Having said that, the album is not "a gem from the past," as former Sentenced members remind all that this is a music of our age. I have no symphathy for today's "doom metal," to be frank, and Sentenced is arguably one of the bands that contributed much to that scene. So, here and there, one feels the "whining" that is absolutely absent from, say, Candlemass.
Dealing with and describing pain without complaining was - Paranoid - and is - Emperor of The Void - what gives its soul to doom metal.
Still, the "Sentenced effect," mostly observed in arpeggio parts and especially in the second half of the album, is not confusing or annoying, as it never rises above the general "doominess" of the music. It can even be seen as an original touch to doom metal, one that manages to display a fine act of balance.

On the conceptual level, Kypck is creating an atmosphere of the Soviet times and Soviet wars, which makes their music all the more interesting.

At first I thought Kypck was a Russian band whose members moved to Finland to "reach out to the West," and frankly was a bit concerned that the Finnish music scene would "soften them out." Apparently this was a misunderstanding, and there is nothing to lose for these fine musicians.
If you haven't listened to them yet, have a try at www.myspace.com/KYPCK. You won't be dissapointed.

Turkish Band Rises From The Underground

Another article of mine, published in the Turkish Daily News, Oct. 31, 2007.

An experienced underground band, consisting of Turkish musicians, with countless concerts and festivals up their sleeve, 'False In Truth,' has finally unleashed their first album, 'Denial of Facts' after 13 years.

Imagine a band that has existed for no less than 13 years, but has not had the chance to release a single album, or even a demo, all these years. Impossible? Welcome to the Turkish metal scene!
That band is Istanbul's False In Truth, which executes old school death metal imbued with thrash metal. Founded in 1994 at the Istanbul Technical University, the original line-up has changed so much that founder-vocalist Toygar Naiboğlu might have a hard time counting them all. But all of their labor is felt in the long-awaited debut. Yes, Turkey's most experienced underground band, with countless concerts and festivals up their sleeve, have finally unleashed their first album, "Denial of Facts" (2007) to an indifferent world.

As the album reflects a band which has been on the scene for more than a decade, it will sound odd to even the most experienced metal ear: Moving from song to song, one remembers the "good old days," of the ‘80s, during which bands that inspired Naiboğlu such as Death and Kreator had released their rawest and most aggressive albums. Have a go at "Never Again," or "Death Side Story," for example. Then one feels the precision and maturity of the ‘90s in tracks such as Social Lies and the socially conscious "Puppets In The Sand," a furious mourning for Iraq (Greed in your eyes / Oil in your minds / Peace in your words / The mask of all your lies). With its catchy but powerful riffing, "Lost" embodies how the metal of the 2000's affected Turkey, a top-notch piece that has as much class as a, say, Lamb of God or Dew-Scented song.

The only area False In Truth have not ventured into is the intricacies of technical death, and for good reason: As a band that bases itself on the punk-influenced thrash of the ‘80s, Naiboğlu and co. like their sound raw and simple, their message of all-round skepticism as straightforward as it gets. Their legendary concerts echo this attitude, as when they can, they invite listeners to the stage to headbang with them, only to end in stagedives. Naiboğlu stagedives with them whenever possible. Their gala concert, held in the sweaty and stuffy atmosphere of Istanbul's Dorock Bar in October, testified to that, as "comrades" from other Turkish metal acts such as Catafalque and Murder King went onstage, took over the equipment and all played Six Feet Under's "Manipulation" while those in the crowd tried walking on the ceiling.

But, as said before, this is about attitude. "False In Truth" consists of fine musicians, and that shows in the album. Stage-master Toygun Naiboğlu on lead guitars, the grindcore-influenced Orçun Sartpolat on rhythm guitars, Fatih Balcı on bass and Özgür Erdovan on drums. Now that they have made their ultimate statement to the world, they plan to promote their album, tour wherever possible, and spread the word of "False In Truth."

Wolverine Blues

An article of mine, published in the “Deli Kasap” Turkish webzine May 1, 2006.

Wolverine, the unyielding animal of the north and a symbol of freedom, was the subject of Entombed’s “Wolverine Blues” back in 1993. But as death metal became a toy of the “marketplace” and lived hell in those days, Wolverine had to suffer, too!

Do you know the wolverine? A rare animal of the northern lands, the wolverine has been a subject of intense interest for scientists, but nobody knows much, as it is hard to even spot it. “Think of a weasel,” says Ernest Thompson Seton. “Many of us know of this little devil of destruction, this small but cruel quintessence of courage. Weasel is the symbol of slaughter, restlessness and unrelentness. Think of that devilish brat of rage. Now, multiply it with 50. That is the wolverine.”

Known for its extraordinary strength and ruthlessness, Inuits describe wolverine as the trickster. Indeed, wolverine knows very well when to act, when to retreat, how to react under given circumstances and when to be “invisible.” It is a good hunter, but in essence, wolverine is a scavenger.Under the harsh conditions of the icy north, it utilizes everything it can find. To find food, it is known to travel as long as 65 kilometers in one day. An adult wolverine may have a domination area of as big as 1,500 square-kilometers. Weighing at most 30 kilograms, the wolverine is observed to kill a deer; that is how strong it is.

Wolverine is a loner and a monogamist. Due to its precious fur, it faces the threat of extinction. It mostly lives in Alaska, Northern Canada, Siberia and Scandinavia. As an expert in survival, the wolverine is the stuff of legends. In native mythology, it is a cunning hero but also the link to the spiritual world. Inuits have countless tales on the wolverine. One tale depicts it as such: “Trickster is at one and the same time creator and destroyer, giver and negator, he who dupes others and who is always duped himself. He wills nothing consciously. At all times he is constrained to behave as he does from impulses over which he has no control. He knows neither good nor evil yet he is responsible for both. He possesses no values, moral or social, is at the mercy of his passions and appetites, yet through his actions all values come into being.” (Radin, 1956)

Features attributed to wolverine, such as loneliness, independence, survival and strength, were not of interest only to Inuits. Entombed, the European vanguard of the second wave of death metal and the originator of death’n’roll, named its 1993 album after it: “Wolverine Blues.”
The album is considered as a step away from the band’s death metal roots, an effort labeled by many as commercialization.But Entombed witnessed such events with “Wolverine Blues” that the young band firmly understood the market cares about neither wolverine nor death and exists only to maximize profits in defiance of young musicians, trampling upon their creativity.

“Wolverine Blues” is the first album that Entombed released after being “discovered” at the main market, the United States. Thus, the band realized a “dream,” by signing to Columbia/Sony through Earache Records. Not only Entombed, of course, companies such as Columbia and Geffen, increasingly aware of the “storm of death in the underground,” were busy binding small firms which have “knowledge of the scene,” such as Earache, to themselves. Carcass, Deicide, Morbid Angel and even Napalm Death: Bands that would not believe if they saw themselves earning money from this music in their dreams, were signing deals considered as record for such an extreme genre, being handed over to “best” producers and sent off to make new albums at “polished” studios, with budgets of tens of thousands of dollars. It was time to be spoilt for death metal!


The spoiling came to be a disaster for Wolverine Blues. As might be guessed, the band was telling the story of the wolverine in the title song:

I'm a misanthropical breed / insatiable in my need to feed
Utterly fearless / for your luscious flesh
I've got an appetite like a war / and I always hunger for more
Vicious mammal / the blood is my call
Pound for pound / I am the most vicious of all

To put a wolverine into a cage is “to put it to an end,” the band also tells in the song, an ironic prophecy for the then-future of death metal.
Drummer Nicke Andersson says the inspiration for the song came from a novel by James Ellroy, one that tells the tale of a murderer who identifies himself with the wolverine.
But the marketing team of Columbia was oblivious to either the lyrics nor the novel. Seeing the word “wolverine,” they, with the "creativity" of a marketer, remembered the Marvel Comics character. Why not sell Entombed music to kids through Wolverine?

Without bothering to even notify the band, Columbia gets in touch with Marvel, which in turn allows the Wolverine character to be used in the cover of the first edition of the album. Using the character to the promotional video “Wolverine Blues” also gets the nod.
After learning what has happened, Andersson says it was as if “a tank had rolled over them.” (Choosing Death, Albert Mudrian, pg. 191) “We could not say anything,” he says. “None of us had even read that comic. But they had this grand marketing idea. We could only ask, ‘Are you sure it is a good idea?’ "
Thus, Wolverine Blues meets the listener with a campaign that has nothing to do with its idea and an American-style parody of a video.

“Wolverine Blues” is the first important death metal album after the genre is “discovered” by the market. Then comes “Heartwork” by Carcass. Both albums infuriate the fanbase of the bands. Though far away from the “market ear,” Wolverine Blues is a mid-tempo “death’n’roll” album closer to influences of punk.

Sony/Columbia had “bought” many bands after they sold tens of thousands of albums through a couple of days recording in shitty studios and now, it was expecting much more from Entombed. The “marketer mind” is recognizable: Here is a talented band that created its own fan base, a band whose name is circulating in the underground. Imagine the success when such a band gets the backing from a giant company!

But the result was far from that. Two years after its launch, Wolverine Blues stood at 40,000, while Columbia was expecting sales surpassing 100,000. The same was also true for Carcass and Napalm Death albums.
To tell the truth, Wolverine Blues is a damn good piece of music. But it also represents a radical departure from Entombed’s previous style.
So, was this departure a natural outcome of the band’s internal dynamics and development? Entombed members say they had more or less prepared the album before the Sony deal.
But according to the book “Choosing Death,” Columbia manager Jim Welch had pressured Entombed and Carcass to “write a song that could be played on radio.” (pg. 192)

As the company could not reach the sales target, Entombed’s contract was canceled. In 1996, the band had to sign a bad deal with East/West Records. A year later, it passed on to UK’s Music For Nations.
Gathering clouds over the band caused founding member Nicke Andersson to call it quits. In 1997, Andersson closed the Entombed book and with garage-rock band The Hellacopters, went on creating music.

Death bands that shook the world in early ‘90s had to go through similar things. As the fan base increasingly felt death was “being commercialized,” legendary bands fell from grace. Meanwhile, a new genre, claiming to be the “real underground” was gathering speed. But black metal’s commercialization less than a decade later would be with much curious antics and go much deeper.

Who is left standing? To give Entombed credit, it continues to make great music: Just lend an ear to Serpent Saints (2007). Napalm Death also comes to mind. Under intense market pressure, Napalm Death had entered the studio Oct. 1993 and left it May 1994 with its “most commercial” album, “Fear, Emptiness, Despair.”
The band retaliated six years later, with the aptly-titled “Enemy of The Music Business” and continues to make uncompromising music.
What also stand from those days are the words of Jo Bench, the Bolt Thrower bassist. “We thought going under the management of Columbia was a death kiss for Earache. We were happy of not being a part of all this. When big companies enter a genre, they generally kill it and get out. But they could not drag Bolt Thrower.” (Choosing Death, pg. 190)

Has album become a dying god?

Scene from the "A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh" video, Celtic Frost

Just had a look at today's Wall Street Journal and read a story on Apple's iTunes. To cut a long story short, Apple is changing its "song selling" strategy to one of three-tiered pricing: Instead of the current 99 cents, songs will cost 69 cents, 99 cents or $1.29.
So, who is going to decide on how much a song is worth? The answer is the "invisible hand" of the so-called "free market," of course. Quoting WSJ: "... people familiar with the matter said the most sought-after-songs, which generate most of the sales on the service, will likely cost $1.29."
Now, iTunes, though still alien to many metalheads that like to feel and touch their music, is not a joke. It has sold 6 billion songs since 2003. All in all, digital music retailers in the US sold more than 1 billion songs last year alone.

The real question here is, are users downloading albums or songs? As the "product" is presented as a song, it is a safe bet to assume that individual "songs" are being downloaded and listened, who would want to download those "fillers" instead of purchasing an extra single from whatever band?

Thus, atomization, the trademark of capitalist mass culture, has started working its way into albums themselves. (Another disturbing sign would be that cute "Shuffle" button at your WinAmp, or that ominous iPod Shuffle device.) Cultural atomization presents "standardized, formulaic and repetitive" products into the "market," destroying any traces of authenticity or originality. That is only natural, because the driving force behind this "culture" is not the creation of culture, but the creation of "marketable" culture.

Having done a small Googling on the issue, I am pleased to see there are others out there who are worried. One asks: "Does the 'concept album' (aka The Who’s Tommy and Quadrophenia; Pink Floyd’s The Wall, etc.) ever stand a chance of resurfacing? Will more artists move to 'unit marketing' where they push the smallest possible pieces of content into a marketplace that mixes, matches, and rearranges (even more so that today)?" Another one gazes to a key point: "... there is a perceived notion that music criticism is no longer necessary." And Chuck Klosterman is really, really pessimistic: "… Chinese Democracy is (pretty much) the last Old Media album we’ll ever contemplate in this context - it’s the last album that will be marketed as a collection of autonomous-but-connected songs, the last album that will be absorbed as a static manifestation of who the band supposedly is, and the last album that will matter more as a physical object than as an Internet sound file."

The moral of the story comes from a blogger at The Independent:
"Our listening habits have effectively become one long, self-created compilation album. Whereas in the past you might listen to an album and establish which are your favourite tracks, your less favourite ones might well become favourites later on, because you'd listen to the album as a unit. No longer; we can easily discard the tracks we don't want - and, indeed, with iTunes or illegal downloads, never have to buy them in the first place. So the tracks we end up liking are informed by the judgement of others."

Having said all these, metal is still far away from the threat and if any genre is to protect its integrity, that would be metal. And for two reasons: First, the "marketability" is relatively low and second, its listeners are much better armed, either by instinct or by knowledge or by both, against the "invisible hand."

Still, something has to be done against the atomization, the fragmentation of music, through dismantling the concept of album itself. I would say that first the issue and the severity of it should be discussed and assessed. I hope such a platform to debate this mass culture of bastardization will be formed, by musicians in the first place, as the threat gets more visible.

Until then, we listeners should at least "ban" that shuffle button and listen our music the way it is meant to be listened. I, for one, will start with the mighty Dreamweaver!

Long live NWOBHM!

Steel plant in Birmingham, UK.

It has been three decades, but it yet remains a task for a documentary maker to properly reflect the rise, the glory and the fall of New Wave of British Heavy Metal to the screens. Seems an improbable task, in this age of commercial music. But nevertheless, history cannot be erased: NWOBHM was there, it affected a whole generation, transformed music and gave metal the edge, the direction and the raw power that many acts today still feed from - whether they are aware or not...

NWOBHM, though heavily influenced by punk, was also a reaction against 'commercialized punk,' as much as it was a rebellion against the "soulless virtuosity" that great bands such as Deep Purple were venturing into with overly complex rhythms and "half-hour-long" solos. That episode in history, when ideas collide in musical form, should be a lesson for the future, as similar - but never the same - collisions occured, and still occur, periodically. Thrash metal, a genre which this writer is proud to be part of, was heavily influenced by NWOBHM, while also raising the "flag of hate" against commercialized pop-metal. It drew a thick line between exploiting young anger and feeding from it; by being true to its listeners, thrash became to be our answer to the world. And yes, we learned NWOBHM "through" thrash, just like many kids who are hopefully learning thrash through today's modern metal acts.

Having said all these, this writer understands the musical importance of both Deep Purple and of Mötley Crüe, but what NWOBHM, thrash and today death metal embody go far deeper. They are the essence of metal, and that essence is definitely not only about music. The essence is of empowerment, organization, coordination, action, unity, all related to being part of something much bigger than a single individual. All those are reflexes and reflections of an oppressed but creative class. Tony Iommi's and Biff Byford's lost fingers still testify to what that class is.... So, long live New Wave of British Heavy Metal!

By the way, you might want to check the article on The Guardian on the genre...

First Global Metal Conference

For those that missed it, the world's first global conference on metal was held in Nov. 3 to Nov. 5 in Salzburg, Austria... The event, named "Heavy Fundamentalisms - Music, Metal and Politics" has also a Web site in which you can find papers by various participants, including Pierre Hecker from Germany, who has done valuable research spanning years on metal music in Muslim countries...

Here is the link for the papers:

www.inter-disciplinary.net/ci/mmp/mmp1/prog.html


and here is the mighty Pierre... cheers, mate...


www.gei.de/index.php?id=405&L=1&type=123&no_cache=1

Best metal albums of 2008

Hail of Bullets - ... Of Frost and War

Happy new year to all... 2008 was not a bad year in metal music, but not a great one either. Here are my favorite albums for the year:

... Of Frost and War, Hail of Bullets: Definitely THE death metal album of the year.

The Thin Line Between, Neuraxis: Not as good as the brilliant Trilateral Progression, but a band can hardly top that kind of masterpiece anyway. Passing on to a big label has had a negative effect on the band's music, if you ask me.

Twilight of the Thunder God, Amon Amarth: What can be said? The guys have done it again!

Ob(Servant), Psycroptic: Definitely one of the best releases of 2008, Psycroptic has matured beyond imagination. May be their "second best" album, after the yet-unreleased one :)

Antithesis, Origin: Brilliant riffing throughout the album.

Vertebrae, Enslaved: Deserve to be called the "King Crimson" of extreme metal...

Praises to the War Machine, Warrel Dane: Excellent lyrics, excellent music, great vocals... More than enough until the next Nevermore album...

Dark Invitation To Armageddon, The Scourger: The best thrash album of the year.

The Formation Of Damnation, Testament: On second thought, this may be the best thrash album of 2008:)

Traced In Air, Cynic: I don't think Cynic anymore fits into the realm of metal. They just make brilliant music.

Zero Order Phase, Jeff Loomis: Probably the most underrated guitarist of metal. But also the best and the most modest one.

Iron Will, Grand Magus: Imaginative and back-to-the-basics at the same time.

Karanlık, Ran: This one is from Turkey. Excellent Turkish-language heavy metal from two seasoned masters. Listen to a few of their songs on myspace...