What are you listening to?

[veris leta facies]

Muse made this for London 2012 Olympic song and by accident made one of the most pro-capitalist mainstream song ever, which is funny considering the singer Matthew Bellamy is such outspoken commie. He really must hate his sports cars and his multimillion condo in his upper class all-white neighborhood. Oh well, nice song to celebrate the spirit of competition! Long live the art of trade!

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

That's why the white allies understand the pain their minority friends go through. Their own life is just as much of a living nightmare.

[Kugelfisch]

That's why the white allies understand the pain their minority friends go through. Their own life is just as much of a living nightmare.

You'd be shocked at the lack of quality of the canapés he gets backstage. Sometimes it's not even actual beluga caviar and the champaign doesn't even cost four figures a bottle. Shocking, I tell you!

[veris leta facies]

Drinking champagne costing under 1 large? That's like having non pure Peruvian marching powder or prostitutes aged over 17 while flying on your private jet to climate change convention to preach about equality! No man should face such unjust blight!



Transylvanian Hunger in an epic masterpiece and Over Fjell og Gjennom Torner is such embodiment of true evil, lyrics are more relevant now than ever. I just love that ending, that's pure unholy mörkness. This is so black even Wesley Snipes appears as white in comparison.

[Kugelfisch]

It's pretty much to Black Metal what Reign in Blood is to Thrash Metal.

[Kugelfisch]

A great example of how some very basic riff with some staggered harmony and enough drive can be just right. As a (former) rhythm guitarist I somewhat adore Max Cavalera. The fucker plays a six stringed guitar with only four strings because he doesn't ever use the H and lower E string anyway.
I think he makes it work. Another gem of the album is the opener.



Again, simple riff but the interludes and just the uptempo driving this shit forward at a constant pace sell it. The half-time-feel at 3:30 seem that much more heavy because the song's been pretty relentless up until that point and the short groovy part at actual half time make that whole section a real head banger. It's so simple that it's genius.
Also, always simple lyrics. Thrash should be something you can just shout along at peak intoxication while standing in some muddy field while head banging.

The absolute essential song that's clearly been written by a thrash rhythm guitarist from his is this, though.


Imagine playing the rhythm guitar on that. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Look how the lyrics align with the lyrics. It's stylistically designed to be able to play it but also to shout and bang your head at the coolest parts. The effects of it can't be diminished.

Also fucking great:


What even is this? Deathcore suddenly? What's that part at 1:20? Melodic Death Metal? This shit started as Thrash Metal at some point! I love absolutely everything about this song. It's a child of it's time, it's clearly showing heavy Soulfly vibes but it's also still awesome today. It's just fitting it's theme so well of getting fucking bashed in the head and slowly petering out into some dreamy and nice stuff.

Speaking of Cavalera Conspiracy, I do have to mention the first song of the first album. The song the album is named after. God, I love this. Second best use of a Whammy pedal in the history of mankind!


Whammy abuse, hard riff....GO! 33 seconds into the album and there ought to be a circle pit going on. Absolutely fantastic! I played Ninja Gaiden 2 to this album on repeat and I wouldn't have it any other way.

But second best use of a Whammy pedal? Only because this is the best use of one:

[Kugelfisch]

>Muse

All joking aside, I actually like them. Yeah, sure, there's faggy shit going on. Commies? Imagine my shawk that the artsy, kinda faggy shits are leftist, right? But about ten years or so they were the shit and their good songs, sadly far outnumbered by the not good ones, are still good.
They are a lot like Weezer, well past their prime.


But the good stays good.
Not insulting enough? Okay, let's try the following. Matthew Bellamy is one of the most gifted guitarists I've ever heard. Yet, whenever I hear Muse, I can't ignore what is the first thing that springs to my mind when I hear synth-heavy guitar, soft singing:


Mix that with some more aggressive lyrics but also extremely melodic music:


Whaddaya get? Muse.
I unironically like both those songs, by the way. They are catchy pop shit. I fucking wish that'd be what current pop music would be. But let's not kid ourselves and pretend that those two songs mixed with this...

..which is also a pop song I like makes some über high art. It's just slightly rocky pop of the kind I like. But high art it ain't.

[Kugelfisch]

I'm not finished! Let me sperg about the very first full album I've ever bought.
The Offspring's Americana. You better Spotify that shit because YT quality is awful.


A fast start with a great song. The melodies are still great, the lyrics are relatable, it's deeply layered. A logical conclusion to punk and a very good song to start with. It's longer than one would expect, hitting with a more simplistic punk riff at the end, lightening up the mood after what was a fairly introspective song.



Perfect followup from the mood of the ending of the intro song. Fast with just the right amount of breaks. Still a favourite.
Next up is Pretty fly for a White Guy. I don't think I need to say anything about it. It aged even worse than most nu-Metal, including Coal Chamber.

Exhibit A: Coal ChamberShow

At least I could say this has historic value. A blast of cringe from the past.

Then the big one comes.

It was also big on MTV when that channel was still relevant. A serious and heavy song for kid me back then and it's still as heavy as back then, theme-wise. It's still great melodically and doesn't feel insincere like most punk stuff.

A bit of filler chases this. Feelings, She's got Issues are really best forgotten. Walla Walla is as basic bitch Oi! as it gets. The End of the Line tried to pick up the serious there again but pales so hard in comparison of what came before they may as well not have bothered to record it.
No Brakes is back to good energy and speed but doesn't cut it compared to Staring at the Sun.
Why don't you get a Job? is yet another single.

I consider this a PSA worth sharing, more than a song. It needs a place in some history museum. The video also has some BMX faggot faceplant from a roof and thus is high art by default.

Ah, Americana! Finally a truly good song again!


And that's pretty much the album. So, not a Painkiller, not a Bonded by Blood, no Reign in Blood, no Ironbound or Dark side of the Moon. But culturally it was important. It was the logical end point of punk. It evolved into something that was at it's best with very dark themes, lots of harmonies and many doubled lyrics. That was too high effort for punk so it rather died completely to "Hardcore" Punk.

The Offspring would pretty much peter out after this. Only song before worth noting is No Self Esteem and after You're gonna go far Kid. A perfect example of the Zeitgeist being a harsh mistress.

[Kugelfisch]

Oh and this is what killed Punk ultimately for dead for sure:


Metalcore was mostly ultra leftist and the more current and up with the times stuff. I can't even argue. This shit:

is about as leftist you get and still I love it because it's awesome musically. I'd congratulate the guys in person before the execution they deserve.

[Kugelfisch]

RE: German Metalcore
This is about as good as it gets. Take notice that Metalcore isn't that gay shit with clear pussy wooing lyrics that screamo made you believe it is.


Throughout awesome guitars.

The logical conclusion.


I mark this as the death of Metalcore. I haven't heard any actual after this. It's transformed into Deathcore/Death Metal.



I must have posted this a dozen times. If you haven't listened to it yet, do so now. It was a big deal in the entire German Metal scene at a time everyone hated the shit out of anything vaguely Metalcore.