New Gif: Gojira - "From Mars to Gifius"

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- Mick

Dillinger, Escaped: A Fan's Remembrance of the Dillinger Escape Plan

I'll never forget the first time I listened to The Dillinger Escape Plan.  Some friends were coming into town to visit for a long weekend, and I had a couple hours to kill before their bus got in.  As I wandered around a Borders (remember those?) in the Chicago loop, I found a book to read and decided to buy a CD as well (remember THOSE?).  I had never listened to DEP, but I knew them by reputation, and so when I saw Miss Machine on the shelf, I decided "why the hell not?" and picked it up.  As soon as I got to the el, I ripped the cellophane off and threw the disc into my bright blue Sony Walkman (remember TH... ok I'll stop).  Forty minutes later, I woke up from a thorough, bruising audio beating.  Miss Machine was like nothing I had ever heard.

New GIF: "Khemmis - Gifsolution"

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- Mick

We'll Do It Live Fridays: Amon Amarth - "Twilight of the Thunder God"

It's been a hellacious couple of weeks for me work-wise; lots of long, brutal days have left me beaten to fuck, the unfortunate result of which is that my blog output has been lacking lately.  I get on the train to come home with every intent to write something, only to arrive home and collapse on my couch, barely able to turn on the tv to watch the Olympics.  Hopefully I'll get my act together sooner than later, and in that spirit, I figured this week's WDILF should feature one of the greatest, most uplifting "FUCKIN' GET IT!!!!!!!!" tracks I've ever heard, Amon Amarth's stellar "Twilight of the Thunder God."  Enjoy it, hope it gets you amped for the weekend, and feel free to share some of your favorite hype tracks in the comments!  Be good to each other; we'll see you next week.

SubRosa - For This We Fought The Battle of Ages

In my experience, metal of the doom variety has more often than not boasted thunderous walls of guitar and drum rhythms that are so excruciatingly drawn out and slowed down over the course of an album that "serene" is the last descriptor that would immediately come to mind. Cue in SubRosa, a band that I happened to stumble across three years ago with the release of their last album, More Constant Than the Gods. Through harnessing the harmonious vocals of Rebecca Vernon along with layered violin work, I was blown away by how they incorporated these elements with the aforementioned doom metal tendencies. The result is a sound that can be as morose as it is blissfully uplifting. Despite the heavier aspects of SubRosa's sound taking the heft of the experimentation on For This We Fought the Battle of Ages, the spirit of this placid sound is still very much carried on in in their latest effort.