Origin: Entity

This is easily the technical guitarists' preferred death metal album; the guitars here are devoid of simplicity. Every phrase presented is a complex guitar technicality, we wonder how a very angry mind managed to be very skilful throughout the songs but some people are such manifestations. The drum & bass are also equal to the task & this made Entity a balanced release considering no individual took center stage here. Unlike Antithesis, the band was reduced to a recording trio with vocal duties shared between Paul Ryan (guitars) & Mike Flores (bass) which invoked the effective partnership of Napalm Death's Barney Greenway & Mitch Harris in giving that contrasting variety. However, I don't quite fancy the guitar tones on offer, it's my personal dislike for an ampless recording, but if it works for the band, doing something else would undermine the appeal more than anything else.

StarGazer: A Great Work of Ages

AC/DC & Inxs are probably the most well-known super star exports from Australia. For us guitar-inclined dweebs, we know Frank Gambale & Brett Garsed to be the other reason why we look Down Under. StarGazer is a secret export of sorts, well-kept under the radar only to be discovered by those who bothered. In my books, this trio of death metallers rank up there with Cynic & Atheist (among others) as the proponent of intricate intensity. I was introduced to this band by my childhood friend, Zahid, in the late 1990s where we would sometimes meet to swap CDs at the neighbourhood McDonalds late at night- those were the days. I clearly remembered it was the StarGazer/ Invocation split release.

There's no simplicity in A Great Work of Ages (also the third track of Mayhem's Ordo Ad Chao release- coincidence?), lots of intricate riffing & phrasing. The bass work here is particularly outstanding, it doesn't stand in the band as a mere rhythm anchor but another prominent instrument to underscore the music in whole- the reason you hear bass solos & tapping frenzy all over. The music is also a tight composition from beginning to end. If you like your death metal simple, then this isn't one to look forward to. I only wish the guitars had more solos or licks to make the music more complete but A Great Work of Ages is not merely a continuation of the band's previous effort but the deconstruction & re-engineering of the music.

Into infinite obscurity

M: SATURDAY MORNING DOUBLE FEATURE: THE EXCEPTION THAT PROVES THE RULE - .....Quite simply, The Somberlain and Storm of the Light's Bane are two of the best fucking black metal albums ever made, packed with equal amounts of both demonic hatred and epic, Wagnerian bombast.
these 2 albums DO rule (was listening to one the other day when you came over i think) but i don't like black metal :/ i always forget that these are, they're quite melodic in bits. you know the kind of crap i like ;D

J: yeah, you were listening to them :)
i always think they're a DM band :3

M: me too! always so surprised when people say they're bm :O

J: their name isn't really BM :)

M: yeah, even that's more dm :) and they're from sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeden i think :?

J: they obviously got death threats from euronymous at some point :3

M: the dude in it is a murderer or something anyways :/

J: srsly :/
LOL, that always helps album sales, unless you're in emperor, it just makes you look like a poser fag because you only burned a church or two and the only killer in your band fagged out when arrested :D

M: ooooops :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_N%C3%B6dtveidt
ohh, he was accessory to murder, then formed the band, then killed himself :/

J: > self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a circle of lit candles
what a way to go ;O

M: :O
wow thats pretty fucking mental :/
no wonder people assocate them with bm ;D

J: wiki says they're blackened death, dunno what marchives say :)

M: >Melodic Black/Death Metal (early), Melodic Death Metal (later)
yeah not really black metal then :)))

J: it didn't sound like DM when i heard them at yours :)

M: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZZq37WRKyg
here tis. umm no, not so much death.....i guess blackened death (maybe more black than death tho?) more along the lines of....i dunno

J: i think the DM comes into the fact it sounds kinda clean. my idea of BM differs to most, but this is pretty polished BM if anything... with melodic bits :)

M: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvQMmh3BHqc
stuff like this one is 100% melodicy stuff - yeah, it's clean and singy and...yeah, doesn't fit with the death metal sound (although if you changed the vocals it would) but doesn't fit with black either

That was as far as we got in figuring out exactly where Dissection fit into the metal world. What do you guys think? Black metal? Death metal? Blackened death? Deathened black isn't a category, but should we invent it (or one to that effect but with a better name) for this? All of the above?

But the picture has a moustache

M: was trying to work out if one of the dudes from this pic is hot or not (far right) but LOL at the moustache action

J: one of them is called Kyle - Anal Cunt have a song called 'Kyle from Incantation has a moustache'

M: well, i think that moustache is kinda deserving of a song :D

J: Incantation's a decent band, proper old death metal, none of this other shit :)

M: wow, you're normally very rude about death metal

J: I like the late 80's early 90's dm bands, but the sound needs to be specific. None of this technical dm, i don't like that

M: ohh i like the technical stuff :(

J: i like a dm album to sound as though there's a pillow being held over the speakers. hard to explain, but it's how i like it

M: like?

J: bolt thrower
Poison
Benediction
Nuclear Death
!TOOH!



M: i never think of blot thrower as being death metal. i suppose they are. hahaa blot thrower :D

J: most people see them as a grind band because they're on the Earache label :) and most people really dont like em
but they're the sorta DM i really like :)

M: i like some of their stuff. wow don't think of them as grind either. maybe have to look into this when i get home, perhaps i've been thinking of the wrong band :O

J: people usually make jokes about them :(
upsets me :(

M: really? i don't think i've ever heard anyone make jokes about them. but i suppose i don't talk to people into metal that much. except you, and you like them.

J: i got into an argument with some guy, S, over them - he's the husband (now ex) of one of K's mates. he also worked for metal hammer at them time, and we duked it out over bolt thrower - the fucking fuckhead! he camped with us at download in 2003.

M: what was the argument about?

J: i can't remember now, me, him and another of their friends called MT (who i have mixed feelings about as he's a nice bloke, but likes some shit bands) we on about arch enemy, then we got onto something else and S made a sarcastic comment about bolt thrower and i pulled him up over it. i hated the guy anyway, so it gave me an excuse to cuss the tee shirt he was wearing (some gay band called mad capsule markets).
we also got into an argument about alice in chains, which i can't remember.

M: hahaha A (an ex-boyfriend) liked mad capsule markets, we saw them at download 2005

J: when i first saw them i thought they were a j-rock band, and then i heard them and almost commited suicide

M: LOL