God Bless You Gwar

Herder - Self-Titled LP

Sweet fucking fuck it's been a million years since I did one of these, but I'll be goodgoddamned if this album isn't worth it. This has been on nearly constant rotation since the beginning of April (along with The Devil's Blood recently... don't ask I'm not proud of it) and it is fucking fantastic. As far as I can tell these are a bunch of guys from the Netherlands who can't help but fucking crush it. If you're on a Weedeater/Tafkata/Eyehategod kick, dive into this shit. Click the pic for the link.

A Brief Discussion on Jackassery in Metal

Metal is a wonderful fucking thing, it brings lots of people together. It's loud, it's fast, it's nasty, and it's generally all the things music should be. Even the most ridiculous D&D loving, sword wielding, blousey medieval shirt wearing costume fantasy shit can be awesome. Paraphrasing Dio (RIP), it's basically a way to get away from it all, no matter who you are. That being said, there's a lot of lame metal and complete jackassery in the metal world. A few weeks ago I was forcefully reminded of this while at a great show in Brooklyn... minus for one band. Kommandant. Let me start by saying, that yes, I understand that metal makes a point of addressing the worst shit imaginable and beyond on the regular for whatever reasons people may have. Death, dismemberment, drug abuse, mental abuse, violence, war, blahblahfuckingblah. This is good. It gives it a place to go. However, there are some things out there that are just a shitty look. Kommandant managed to bring up most of those which is a shame because it really could have been a pretty decent set. Let's start with nazism. It's fucking lame, always. Sorry, you don't get a free pass on that one. There's no, "oh, well, you know... I mean..." Nope. Doesn't work. Don't care how good your band is or how nice you are to the sound guy or whatever else. If you cop to nazi shit, you are a dickhead. Full stop. So, when a band gets onstage in full blackshirt/boots/gasmasks/black and red draped flags, and a podium it's over before it starts. In a genre (inexfuckingsplicably in my opinion) riddled with openly racist and fascist bands, why on fucking earth a supposedly non-nazi band would adopt that iconography is beyond me, and a lot of other people at the show. For serious, and this topic came up in a bunch of different conversations that night, in a genre of music (Black Metal) subscribing to basic tenets of: - Fuck society - Fuck compliance - Fuck the herd - Be different - Chaos HOW IN THE FUCK CAN YOU ALSO BE A FASCIST? IT DOESN'T FUCKING WORK YOU JACKASSES. Not even in imagery. Not even in anything. And that goes for all of black metal. So yes, I'll fully admit their imagery worked on me. It pissed me off, it made me massively uncomfortable, and it made me walk out of the fucking room during a show with some other fantastic bands (i.e. Mutilation Rites). That being said, from a significantly less intellectual level, it looked pretty fucking cheesedick and tacky. Seriously... a podium on stage?

No Explanation Needed

MDF on NPR Part Two

Here's more from my buddies Kim and Lars. Portrait of an American Metalhead

MDF's Done but the Fun's Just Begun... at least on this site

Dear NGNV Readers, sorry about the massive lapse. Never gonna promise nothin but I have a few things to post over the next few weeks so stand by. Anyways, here's a great post by Grim Kim over on NPR's site. Click the pic for the article link.