8 July 2013 (Day 189) – Accidently Heavy

II returned to work after a weekend and a work day away from my desk and started to go through Friday’s emails.  For some reason, I’d scrolled through my iPod during the weekend and left it at a particular mini album.  As I’d always loved the opening track I started playing it thinking that, by its end, I would have gone through my emails.  However, this took much longer than anticipated and, by the time I’d finished the task, had nearly finished the album, resulting in today’s unexpected playlist.

(# 509) Deftones – Back To School (Mini Maggit) (2001)

I first heard of the Deftones in 1998 when they performed on the main stage of the Pukkulpop Festival in Belgium.  I was initially bemused more than anything else; whilst the band worked up a commendable racket it seemed ill focused and lacking in variety.  They eventually harnessed that power into proper songs and two years later released the extraordinary Block Pony album.  Full of great material, the most intriguing track was the final track Pink Maggit.  On this lead singer’s Chineo Moreno’s powerful voice is reduced to a painful whisper as the entire band gamely attempts to stop the track from exploding for most of the track.  Even when it did, it was a supressed dirge like muffled explosion that eventually give way to a single heart beat drum pattern that simply added to its power.    Despite this achievement, the band’s record company subsequently convinced it, apparently against its wishes, to re-record the track with full vocals and power.  The resultant track, Back To School (Mini Maggit), contains a suitably massive sound and powerful vocal work that works in its own way.  This mini album includes the track, a mighty live version and Pink Maggit.  Strong live versions of White Pony’s Feiticeria and earlier tracks Nosebleed and Teething as well as an acoustic version of White Pony’s first single, Change (In The House Of Flies) round out the package.

(# 510) Korn – Follow The Leader (1998)

I’m not generally a fan of nu metal, nor of most of Korn’s catalogue.  This album’s predecessor Life Is Peachy was a pretty good effort but is miles from this album, Korn’s undoubted masterwork.  The opening 5 tracks are simply awesome; the fascinating It’s On! a track that keeps threatening to break out but never does, segues into Freak On A Leash which seems to do the same thing until the release valve is hit.  The marvellous, and supremely melodic, Got The Life comes next before giving way to the very, very heavy Dead Bodies Everywhere which, it turn gives way to a rap from Ice Cube that heralds the slow/heavy Children Of The Korn.  It is metal of a very high standard that few bands could hope to succeed, let alone sustain, and it does tend to overshadow the remainder of the album.  Despite that, B.B.K does it’s best to maintain the heavyosity, All In The Family likewise and Seed provides some much needed relief.

(# 511) Slipknot – All Hope Is Gone (2008)

I made the mistake of dismissing this band as a gimmick based on nothing more than their masks and band names (each is identified only by a number).  It was only after I cut a deal with one of my cousins at a Big Day Out (I’ll watch System Of A Down and Slipknot with him, provided he watch the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The Polyphonic Spree with me) that I allowed myself to be exposed to the band.  Although this album hadn’t yet been released, I was stunned by how tight and inventive the band was live.  I eventually obtained their live album and then his which is simply one the great metal albums released to date this century. A short instrumental opener, .execute., gives way to the fearsome Gematria (The Killing Name) a 6 minute epic that marshals the bands various percussionists and guitars into an impressively suffocating aural apocalypse.  In comparison the incredibly catchy though still heavy Psychosocial and Dead Memories come across almost as pop songs.  Vendetta covers the same fallow ground as Gematria,  Gehenna and Snuff slows the pace down with impressive results and  Wherein Lies Continue and the title track show they’ve learnt a few tricks from listening to Metallica.

(# 512) Body Count – Body Count (1992)

This is the heavy metal band that was formed by rapper turned actor turned realty TV star, Ice-T.   Essentially it is a metal album constructed along the lines of a rap album.  There are numerous linking skits, including an opening one that portrays Ice-T as a cop killer, and just about all of the lyics, except for the impressive The Winner Loses, are of the type you’d expect on a gangsta rap album.  In expressing the realities of gang life, Ice is presumably trying to revamp the supposed horror fantasy themes of heavy metal with the true horror of (Californian West Coast gang) real life, but I suspect this limits the material's chances crossing over big time.  Having said that, the music on this is quite impressive; Body Count’s In The House and the Body Count Anthem are great themes, the title track smokes, Bowels Of The Devil could have easily slotted onto a Black Sabbath album and the controversial Cop Killer spoils a killer tune and a serious theme (police brutality on Afro-Americans) with trite lyrics. (The album’s chief weakness.)  The overall package was sufficient for me to see the band when they toured behind this and its follow up, Born Dead.  The tracks got even better live and Ice-T proved to be a most charismatic frontman.