Bad Ideas 8 – The Primer On Good Behavior

As we continue our search for counterexamples, we learn what is, in fact, a good idea, from the common threads that the bad ones share and the good ones do not.

71. A keychain made of pencil shavings and antiacids.

72. Recursive betel nut chewing sessions.

73. Dipping Martin Heidegger in hot sauce.

74. Edible histories, but only if they’re about foods, feasts, cannibalism, etc.

75. Bombing targets with thousands of pounds of Bibles (The Gutenberg translation is acceptable).

76. Holding high school proms for unmixed populations of African and European honey bees.

77. Strangling one’s self with a checkerboard.

78. Filming a dramedy adaptation of a textbook.

79. Attempting to use Greek fire to cook steaks at a barbecue.

80. Making a reference to a previous Bad Idea involving using a song as what its title depicts, then reconsidering.

One Year Anniversary!

You know, there’s not much to say except that I’ve been operating this blog for an entire year now. To think that it  began as just a school assignment of sorts. We were to perform some sort of action relating to “new medias” and then write about it – others chose such things as geocaching, Chatroulette, Fourspring, all the websites. The ones that exist. And I chose to do this.

The blog in which I explained the details of my work here has disappeared, mainly because the class I did it in (the primary writing requirement one) took it down. This, on the other hand, has become much larger. Overall, I’ve had a fairly steady stream of five or six posts a month, generally about music, occasionally not. Traffic has increased over time, but I can’t really assume I have real viewers – they could still just be spambots and webcrawlers for all I know.

Anyways, I assume that this blog will continue to exist over time – probably, in fact, doing so as it does so. Gotta love the meaningless gibberish.

Morbid Angel – Formulas Fatal to the Flesh

People say this album is faster than the already manic “Covenant”. This is sometimes true.

However, it would be hard to ignore when Prayer of Hatred drops down into sludgy sound while Trey strums major chords to create dissonance, how Covenant of Death only retains its speed in its first half, or the how monumental closer “Invocation of the Continual One” simply isn’t a blastfest. Frankly, this varies up its tempos nearly as much as Domination did, although there are fewer midpaced moments overall.

Anyways, the shrewd listener will notice that riffwise, Morbid Angel has distanced themselves somewhat from the melodic material that shows up on earlier albums – the riffs are more angular and have freed themselves somewhat from tonal centers. This adds to the sense of willing chaos, which is strengthened by its contrast to the slower, sludgier aspects of the music.

In fact, this move away from consonance and (to a degree) riff-driven rhythms moves this away from the fairly large swathes of second wave black metal that Morbid Angel helped define. Even the new vocalist, Steve Tucker plays a role in this – his growl is more generic than Dave Vincent’s, but his phrasing is very fast and nimble. He also tends to fill up the beats, as opposed to leaving substantial amounts of space – on the other hand, the actual amount of lyrics has increased. Worth noting.

This is the last Morbid Angel album to contain substantial amounts of re-recorded material from older days – Hellspawn is the most obvious example, but Invocation of the Continual One allegedly was one of the first songs the band wrote, and close listening will reveal riffs that were later used in other songs – the ones that I notice most clearly come from Immortal Rites and Angel of Disease. It also contains the largest amount of ambient interludes so far – while Hymn to a Gas Giant is basically just the pleasant sounding intro to Invocation, the rest.. what can I say? They suck. Then again, most of the Morbid Angel interludes (with the exceptions of Doomsday Celebration and Desolate Ways on Blessed Are The Sick) suck. No offense intended – they don’t develop well, and they often sound rather haphazard and poorly put together. “Hymnos Rituales De Guerra” is kind of cool – it’s a busy sounding “tribal” drum solo, and therefore doesn’t suffer from the latter problem at least.

As with the other albums, this gets high marks in general, but skip the interludes.

Highlights – “Prayer of Hatred”, “Covenant of Death”, “Umulamahri”, “Hellspawn – The Rebirth”

Quickie: Therion – Vovin

If only they had called it “Voivod” for bizarre, inexplicable reasons.

 

Anyways, this is basically a better version of “Theli” – the production is better, the guitars are a bit riffier, the choirs sound better, and the writing has improved a bit. Compared to Symphony Masses or Beyond Sanctorum, this is VERY tame. But if you’re into the whole “symphonic metal” thing, pick this up.

Case in point: “Wine of Aluqah”. This song is not going to win any awards for having a hyper-complex structure (because it doesn’t), but it has enough diversity to justify its length, and any given part has enough going on that it doesn’t become a half-hearted drone or bore. In addition, it brings back some much-needed speed into the Therion formula, along with the more openly power-metal flavored “The Wild Hunt”. Most of the other songs are midpaced, although the album ends with the slow, sparse “Raven of Dispersion”.

What can I say? This is probably very easy listening from the aesthetic standpoint, but it’s done with enough craft and attention that it deserves recognition and listening. Besides, Therion performed most of their innovation on the two albums preceding this – there’s a lot to be said for an album that takes said ideas and refines them.

 

Highlights – “The Rise of Sodom and Gomorrah”, “Wine of Aluqah”, “The Wild Hunt”, “Raven of Dispersion”