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Features - Column
 Dethroned Emperor #8 The role of production value in extreme metal Column by Josh Haun | July 29th, 2008
Throughout this column's previous installments I've continually used terms like "raw," "gnarly," "filthy," and "grimy" to describe the production schemes of numerous albums I've encountered. Perhaps I am guilty of overusing these particular idioms, as they seem to keep popping up over and over again. But I have to be honest, I couldn't be happier to run them into the ground, because it means bands are coming back around to something that has, in my opinion, been overlooked in recent years.
I'm talking about the importance of production, and in some cases lack thereof. Somewhere along the way extreme metal, and especially death metal, became an oftentimes overly produced, slick-sounding affair that's worlds away from my personal conception of how this kind of music should sound. Now don't get me wrong, I've nothing against "big" bands who have chosen to up death metal's production values—I own and enjoy recent albums by the likes of Nile, Behemoth, etc, etc. In listening to records like The Apostacy or Ithyphallic they do in fact sound damn near flawless, but one can't help but feel there's something missing. At its inception, extreme metal was meant to be ugly, primitive, chaotic music, and much of that seems to have been lost to all but the furthest reaches of the metal underground until recently. Although black metal has never lost sight of the value of rawness—Darkthrone, Xasthur and Deathspell Omega still create jagged, caustic-sounding music—death metal by and large has moved past this particular stage of extreme music's evolution.
Even I am not old enough to have been a head-banger when extreme metal first appeared in its primordial stages during the 1980s, but I have enough of those crusty old records in my collection to tell you that in those days, a raw, under-produced sound was a no-brainer. The genre lines between black and death metal had yet to fully solidify, and crucial discs from the era such as Hellhammer's Apocalyptic Raids, Sarcofago's INRI, Bathory's Under the Sign of the Black Mark and Venom's Black Metal all featured productions that were as dirty and uncivilized as the music the bands were composing. Hellhammer didn't just sing about the "Triumph of Death," they made you feel death's awful presence creeping out of the speakers. The music was drenched in a thick coating of sonic sludge, with just enough reverb to make it sound like the tunes were echoing up from the ninth circle of hell. Whether by design or (more than likely) out of sheer necessity, an eerie, atmospheric production was a crucial part of these band's respective identities.
But of course, these are just a few examples of '80s metal albums that exemplify the furious, filthy and downright evil-sounding approach that was such a rude awakening for me when I went back and discovered these recordings. Getting into metal in the mid-to-late nineties, I had grown accustomed to the clean, coherent production values of the "big name" bands such as Metallica, Slayer and Pantera. When I finally heard the likes of Entombed and Morbid Angel, I realized I had an awful lot of work to do.
As I mentioned earlier, black metal, particularly the Norwegian strain is hugely responsible for keeping the lo-fi torch alive, and classic 1990s albums like Burzum's Filosofem and Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse have a cavernous, hypnotic quality to them, the guitars a swarm of buzzing, amorphous treble bolstered by a backbone of eerie, funereal keyboards. On the other side of the coin, Swedish death metal bands such as the aforementioned Entombed as well as Dismember and Grave were using the studio to create the trademark “buzzsaw” guitar-tone I've spent so much time praising relentlessly in prior installments of this column.
All this brings us to the present day, where dark, gritty, grime-soaked production just doesn't seem to be as prevalent as it once was. Sure, there a million-and-one lo-fi basement black metal bands out there, but how many of them are really using the sound effectively to create an atmosphere? There is a difference between sounding "atmospheric" and sounding "crappy." Acts like Leviathan, Xasthur, Krohm and Drudkh recognize this, and have risen to the top of the genre because they understand how to capture the raw, mesmeric feeling that has come to characterize compelling black metal.
And what of the much maligned death metal? Certainly there are some bands that still remember the ways of old, producing albums that sound like they were unearthed from a moldering grave. One such band is Germany's Necros Christos. The band's debut full length, Triune Impurity Rites, was released last year in an edition of 2000, and was re-issued earlier this year. The album easily lives up to its name, coming off like a clandestine black mass set to music, which is in no small part due to the production. Every instrument is audible, yet there is a slightly murky, echoing spaciousness to the sound that imparts a sense of mystery and foreboding upon the recording. It's as if you've stumbled upon some unholy cult performing their secret ceremonies, an idea driven home by the album art, which features a candlelit altar draped in assorted bones and priest's vestments bearing the band's name. Triune Impurity Rites takes black metal's chilling ambience and applies it to the death metal template, making for an album that never ceases to suck me into the eye of its dark, hypnotic abyss.
Another band who exemplifies the use of atmospheric production is Ride for Revenge, whose approach of minimalist bass, drums and occasional synths toes the line between black and death metal. The band's 2007 album The King of Snakes features almost tribal-sounding drum patterns slathered in sludgy, molasses-thick bass guitar-work, lending the recording a truly unearthly quality that has to be heard to be believed. It is as if someone took death metal and stripped it down to the raw building blocks, then infused it with an overwhelming sense of supernatural dread. Ride for Revenge truly represents metal at its most primitive, barbaric and otherworldly.
A couple of groups that I've made mention of in previous installments, Canada's Revenge and the "controversial" Virginia-based quartet Arghoslent, also make great use of production to help get their respective points across. The sound on Revenge's latest album Infiltration Downfall Death is beyond raw and perfectly suits the crude 'n' chaotic music the band unleashes without remorse on tracks like "Sterilization (Procreation Denied)" and "Cleansing Siege (Take them Down)". Whereas several of the bands I've mentioned here use production to create a ritualistic, enigmatic vibe, Revenge wage musical warfare with a sound that is so utterly abrasive it feels like your ears are being shelled by heavy mortar fire. Arghoslent on the other hand use a stripped down production scheme to lend a rugged, burly sound to their intricate yet melodic brand of death metal. Their most recent album, Hornets of the Pogrom, has a ragged majesty to it that is largely due to the no-frills sound, which leaves all the instruments clearly audible yet adds just enough grit and grime to keep things rough-around-the-edges.
Needless to say, I couldn't be happier to see more bands starting to realize that death metal should sound like it came out of a mausoleum and not a multi-million dollar recording studio. Of course, my rant has, as usual only touched on a few of the hordes that are re-kindling the torch of raw, evil-sounding extreme music. Some others worth checking out include Deathevokation, Dead Congregation, Blood Ritual, Axis of Advance, Dimentianon and Morbosidad, just to name a few. Although rawness can take many forms and produce many different results, the albums I've mentioned all have one thing in common. Each one creates a unique feeling or atmosphere that simply would not be possible had they been recorded within the sterile confines of some big name, multimillion dollar studio. These albums are proof that with a raw sound often comes an awful lot or raw creativity and I'd rather have one of these filthy recordings grab me violently by the ears any day than have to listen to some pristinely produced "big name" release that will leave my memory as soon as the last song has ended.
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And in the news…
As reported a few installments back, Swedish death metal veterans Grave filmed a video for the track "Bloodpath" off their latest album, the excellent Dominion VIII. After a lengthy delay, the video is finally available for viewing on YouTube HERE. The clip features blood, fire, ancient ruins and synchronized headbanging, basically everything you could ever want from a death metal music video.
The UK's Gorerotted, whom I've had a special place in my heart for ever since they released the gore-tastic Only Tools and Corpses album, have changed their name to The Rotted following a lineup overhaul. Their new album Get Dead or Die Trying is a gnarly death/grind combination that sees the band taking a more "serious" approach the genre, in spite of songtitles like "Angel of Meth" and "Kissing You With My Fists." Expect more coverage of this twisted little gem as I continue to wrap my ears around it. In the meantime, check them out for yourself HERE.
Finally, Sweden's black metal masters Watain have lined up a slew of North American tour dates that will see them teaming up with Withered and Book of Black Earth. You can view all the dates as well as check out some songs at the band's official MySpace.
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Bands or labels interested in news, interviews, or reviews for future installments of Dethroned Emperor, please get in touch: jhaun@sonicfrontiers.net.
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