Nerd University - Music: Geek Metal 103: Metal, Shmetal.

May 9th, 2008 by spazworrier | Posted in Music, Random Geekery |

Oooh, been a while since we’ve all attended class, hasn’t it students?

While I was scrolling through the dark, dank catacombs of my music folder each folder that contained metal seemed to look at me with disgust; “Why haven’t you written another entry? WHY?” their glares seemed to say to me. So to appease the metal gods and keep my music files from performing some odd coup de grâce where they start deleting each other I’ve decided to write an update for you guys. As you’d imagine, under such tense circumstances, this entry will be quite slap-dash, off the cuff and on the fly. The only intended plan for this post is to simply scroll through my music folder and pick out some bands which cause my nerdy fibers to tingle.

‘A’ is for Alestorm. For those who haven’t heard of these guys they’re a pirate themed folk/ power metal band hailing from Perth, Scotland. Having discovered these guys when they were still under the name of “Battleheart” I’m finding it quite hard to adjust to their latest name change, so I may end up referring to them as Battleheart. Pirates (being far superior to ninjas) are instantly geeky– geeks far and wide, even at the merest mention of pirates find themselves either acting like a pirate screaming “ARRR! YE SCURVY CURR!” or end up making a reference to “The Angry Pirate“. Either way, Pirates are cool. Period. Pirate metal? Even cooler. Relatively new, Alestorm have managed to make a name for themselves amongst the mainstream, being one of the few bands to fall into the sub-genre, recently managing to support such bands as Turisas and getting a demo on Metal Hammer’s “Battle Metal V” CD along with other such bands as Týr, Firewind, Hammerfall and Blind Guardian.

Alestorm - Captain Morgan’s Revenge

Finnish metal band Amorphis are up next. Not typically seen as being considered geeky, proving that geekyness can come in many forms, Amorphis finds itself in the list simply because of how bloody hard they are to define, genre-wise. Starting out as a Death Metal band in 1990 they soon evolved into a band which incorporates influences from many different areas of rock & metal. Combining clean & growls in a unique non-screamo style (shocking, I know) the band has managed to stand the 18 year test of time.

Amorphis - Against Widows

Many-a-metal head will wince at this choice, but they have to be noted: Brandon Small’s Dethklok.

Starting out in 2006 on Dethklok Metalocalypse the cartoon gained popularity with their Duncan Hills Coffee Jingle growling at you in a commercial, they were an international success; garnering many hits on youtube and many-a-snerk from metal-fans worldwide before the show had even aired late-night on [Adult Swim], the cartoon made many references to death and black metal (for example, a super market called “Finntrolls” and a fast-food chain called “Dimmu Burger”), as well as managing to get a hold of many well know metal celebs such as King Diamond, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Devin Townsend and ICS Vortex to record voices for various characters. After gaining such monumental popularity and having his/their song ‘Thunderhorse’ included in Guitar Hero II Small decided to team up with Ulrich Wild and produce The Dethalbum, compiling and re-recording all of the songs onto one record. Due to the sheer amount of work that Small does (voicing most of the characters, singing and playing most of the instruments) for the show is worthy of the bands mention alone, however Small’s cartoon phenomenon deserves a mention due to the fact that this virtual band holds the record for the highest chart position for a death metal album! That’s right, a cartoon band. Then again like most comedy bands it’s probably only a gimmick… think how much of an impact Spinal Tap had on rock today, now think how much anybody gives a damn about Spinal Tap. Nevertheless, I dig Dethklok, regardless of what people say, the show is entertaining and so is Small’s piss-take of typical Death/ Black Metal bands.

Dethklok - Mermaider

Although not strictly metal, I’ve decided to include a favorite band of mine in the list: Skindred. Hailing southern Wales, Skindred came to be after the members formed from the broken remnants of their old band ‘Dub War’ in 1999. After earning their wings in the underground scene the band eventually went topside, supporting some more mainstream bands such as Soulfly and Pitchshifter and gaining a lot of popularity for their unique style, mixing genres such as Reggae, Punk, Hip-Hop, Dub and Metal to create “Ragga-Metal”. Releasing two critically acclaimed albums Skindred have left their mark in the alternative scene. With their heart-pounding beat-downs, fast riffs and Benji’s ability to switch from a higher reggae tone to deep growls Skindred make for an unrelentingly entertaining band.

Skindred - Nobody

On that bombshell I’m going to wrap things up. Keep it short and sweet as they say.

Another lesson will be on it’s way next week/month/year. Hope to see you in class.

HOMEWORK - Learn the Toxic Waltz.