The Best Of The Decade: Halloween Special!

Greetings boys and ghouls to the dark side of the year, the only night where fiendish goings on are greeted with contented cackles and frivolous ritualism... tonight of course is Halloween!

Throughout the decades the morbid and occult have played a very important part in the alternative music scene. All kinds of bands have been accused of being in league with the devil, and it has become a cliché for metal bands to use dark and occult inspired imagery in their art work and stage personas. Hey, my band does it all the time!

In the 80's rock and metal dominated the American music scene and was the perfect score for the cheap and nasty Horror films of the day, their merger the nightmare of every overly worried parent across the states. Heavy metal seemed to go underground during the 90's, twisting and contorting into various off-shoots in the darkness, writhing in metamorphosis out of public sight. This decade (despite being famed for it's grunge, indie rock and euro-dance music) actually saw the genesis of modern alternative/metal music as it is today.

Doom Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal, Extreme Metal, Viking Metal! All these sub-genres came from the underground experimentation of the 1990's and at the start of this century it was time for it to break on through to the other side. America had a key role in this with (horrendous) bands like $lipknot and Marilyn Man$on bringing alternative rock music into the 2000's with it's abrasive and over produced distorted guitars, dubbed by disgusted music fans as “Nu-Metal”.

Despite only singing about the usual whiny “boo-hoo, it's so hard being a teenager and no one understands me” tripe, these “Nu-Metal” bands often used occult and horror inspired imagery in their MTV music videos and album artwork, posters, thongs etc.... oh yeah, this music had hit the mainstream and was selling like hotcakes! The more vulgar the merchandise the more it would inevitably sell and even more inevitably get protested against by angry parents, schools and churches which in turn made a big splash in the media and finally helped the music reach an even wider audience!

Alongside this deafening musical explosion has been the world of Hollywood film soundtracks where previously metal and alternative music would only really get aired on Horror movies, nowadays you can find those distorted guitar tones and pulsing drums on all kinds of action/adventure/sci-fi and even fantasy movie scores!

You can even hear a harder edge in pop music these days, for instance Rhianna uses the same over-produced soulless distortion in the backing track of her hit “Umbrella” as the likes of Mr. Money-Bags Marilyn Man$on and co. Lady Gaga is rarely seen without her male models dressed up as a metal band, as witnessed at this years Glastonbury festival, and Katy Perry's live sound is much less electronic than on record with yet again a typical hard rock/metal sounding backing band.

With all that said, lets take a look at some of the more interesting and fittingly Halloween style bands that are either on the brim of breaking through or may still be clawing away beneath the murky underground in my “Best Of The Decade” Halloween special!

1. Arcturus – Sideshow Symphonies (2005)

This Norwegian band merges all kinds of avant-garde elements into their twisted metal sound. This album sounds like the theme tune for a demented Halloween circus! Aside from the metal aspect the band incorporates string sections, harpsichords and other more “trippy” sci-fi elements. Vocalist Simen “ICS Vortex” Hestnæs uses an array of operatic yoddling styles (and even a very random burp at one point!) to make it an even more surreal experience!

2. Satyricon – The Age Of Nero (2008)

Satyricon twisted the traditional Black Metal style into their own so called “Black n' Roll”, sort of like a REALLY angry Motorhead! The band consists of 2 members: Satyr (Vocals, guitars etc...) and Frost (drums), although they employ a band to flesh out their live performances. This album was released on Roadrunner Records, a HUGE American record label that has seen the potential of the extreme metal scene and brought it to the masses over the years (as well as Nickelback unfortunately...). The single from this album "Black Crow On A Tombstone" is incredible catchy in a terribly cheesy way!

3. Sunn0))) – White2 (2004)

This band are so underground their toes are almost dipping into Larva. They are a “Drone” band, utilising extremely low bass tones and screeching feedback for lengthy amounts of time. The band is even named after a paticular brand of amplifier which produces great bass frequencies! The Drone genre is an endurance test, legend has it that at some of their gigs audience members have passed out and vomited from the low frequencies! Many would argue it isn't even music, Sunn0)))'s songs having no particular patterns or structure... I'll leave it to you to decide whether it's artistic genius or horrible noise!

4. Cradle Of Filth – Midian (2001)

One of the most controversial British bands of the last 2 decades, Cradle Of Filth have been involved in offensive merchandising and so on, yet have broken into the mainstream with it's members appearing on BBC's Nevermind The Buzzcocks and even Big Brother's Big Mouth! They have been dubbed by some the new Iron Maiden, what with their love of horror, history and metal all rolled into one! This album has fantastic lyrics and atmosphere, it's grand tales and chilling passages proving that metal doesn't have to be poorly written and shallow and can actually be as engrossing as a film or novel.

5. My Dying Bride – For Lies I Sire (2009)

My Dying Bride helped create their Death/Doom style of metal back in the 90's, but this decade they have cemented themselves as underground legends with their utterly crushing and sorrowful music. This album is beautifully crafted, and despite the morose themes the sound of the band is full of a strange warmth. This album marks a return of the violin to the band, which had been a trademark of theirs in the 90's and was missing until now this decade. They recently covered the classic Scarborough Fair, which strangely fits their style perfectly!

That's all for now, until 2 weeks time when I'll continue the “Best Of The Decade” with some unique and hopefully entertaining underrated Pop music!

- E.S.L. Kazraine Maars -

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Playlist for Halloween 2009:
05. Spider Baby by Fantomas from the album “The Directors Cut”.
04. Halloween II by Cradle Of Filth from the album “Harder, Faster, Darker: Thornography Deluxe”.
03. Female Of The Species by Space from the album “Spiders”.
02. Halloween by Aqua remastered on their new album “Greatest Hits”.
01. Forsaker by Katatonia from the album “Night Is The New Day”.

Back To Buisness!

So I've been away for a couple weeks now but I would have to say with just cause...

There have been a lot of band related projects going on recently, which I needed to concentrate on 100(000+)% and thus everything else has taken the back seat slightly.

The most exciting thing about being in a band is the point just before recording when you know all the songs inside out, and can hear them perfectly the way you want them to sound but know it will never turn out that way once the record button is hit... and not always in a negative way!

There are so many things to be considered, as well as those pesky random things that spring on you from out of nowhere... busted cables... broken guitar strings... Windows Vista, ugh!

The experimentation and discovery of new techniques within recording is thrilling though, if slightly daunting! Once the bulk of recording has been completed, that is when I feel at home, tinkering away adding little effects and backing tracks, things that are barely audible but add so much to the general vibe of the music.

I've even re-painted the walls of the studio, fresh paint and a fresh sound... there is certainly something epic bubbling beneath the surface, and I can't wait to get it all out!! It's like an oncoming tidal wave of energy and creative force that is unshakeable, waking up at 4am to write some notes on a particular couple bars of a song that should sound like “a pagan camp-fire feast” or something, even if these scrawled notes seem meaningless when dawn approaches... well, that's not true actually since dawn is about 2pm these days isn't it?

Of course another important aspect of Vampyrouss is the “whole package” philosophy. We always try to put as much effort into the visuals as we do the music and lyrics, so I've been playing around with artwork and layouts as well as plotting schemes for a couple music video ideas (no doubt they will be shot in Bideford somewhere... forests are a usual haunting place for us it seems!).

Anyhow, I just thought I should write to say I am still here and very much in the music mindset, and on Friday 30th I will post my first “Best Of The Decade” piece, a rather Halloween themed “Dark-side of music” special!

Speaking of Halloween, lets get in the mood with some CLASSIC Misfits action!



- E.S.L. Kazraine Maars -

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Playlist for early October:
05. Forever Autumn by The Moody Blues from the album “Collected”.
04. Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer by Arcturus from the album “Sideshow Symphonies”.
03. Retrovertigo by Mr. Bungle from the album “California”.
02. Pretty Amazing Grace by Neil Diamond from the album “Home Before Dark”.
01. Avenging Angels by Space from the album “Tin Planet”.