A.D.D.

I'm gonna take this time to write about something else that's been getting on my nerves quite a bit lately. It does have something to do with music, but at the same time it affects everything in my life at least a little bit.

I'm not professionally diagnosed, but I really believe that I have A.D.D. I have a lot of trouble focusing when I'm in class and the teacher is giving a lecture (this could really hurt me in college unless I constantly take notes). Even when I'm not in school and I'm honestly listening to something that I'd want to hear in the first place, my mind always goes other places. I realize five minutes into a story that Renee is telling me that I haven't been listening the whole time. It's really hard to focus after that, but I still try to pick up the pieces and figure out what she's talking about. More often than not, I have to ask a really obvious question and she realizes I haven't been listening and gets pissed off. It's not that I don't care, it's that I really, honestly, have a lot of trouble focusing.

It's worst with music. I have to change what I'm listening to constantly. I very often listen to an album that I would find all around good if I was on Ritalin, but instead I only like the first two or three tracks and find the rest boring because my attention span is so short. This only really applies to albums that are track-based, with each song having verses and choruses and whatnot. I have absolutely no trouble listening to an album like Feedbacker, which isn't track based or 'catchy' at all. I have, on an unrelated note, realized that the new Mastodon album is really quite fantastic, but it took a while for me to really swallow the whole thing, as my attention completely wanes before the third track is over. I have to stop listening for a while and go back, starting halfway through in order to really enjoy anything past the very beginning. While this isn't a massive inconvenience, I'd really prefer to be able to listen to it from beginning to end consecutively, but if I try that, it just becomes background noise to my aimless thoughts.

It's a real bitch.

Hammers of Misfortune - The Bastard

I tackled another album today, and decided to write a blog because of how strange it was. It was nothing completely new and unheard of, which is why it was so odd to me. It was a rehash of several genres of metal -- a sort of progressive bend to folk/power/doom/black metal. But at the same time, it felt so fresh, even though nothing completely original had been explored on this release, but it didn't matter. It was really solid anyway.

It was Hammer of Misfortune's The Bastard. I suppose I was drawn to this album because the first and second tracks are both great hooks, as well as the fact that I looked it up and found that it was a concept album. After studying the lyrics, this 14-song (a lot for this type of epic metal) metal-opera had a surprisingly complex story.

Act I:
The Bastard, who seems to be half-tree half-man and hates mankind, awakens the great dragon goddess in a dream to ask her about how he was born. She tells him that his villainous father left him to die in a battle. He had to fight for his life. His father destroyed an entire village, and now sits on the throne. The Bastard must kill him to get the throne himself. The tyrant is traveling down the road when The Bastard stands in his way. The king tells him if he doesn't move, he'll be killed. Act I ends with the anthemic "You Should Have Slain Me", in which the Bastard finally threatens to exact revenge on his father. A prophecy is said by the surrounding villagers:
"When the Ax is freed from hell
A single stroke shall break the spell
When the Ax is free again
A brutal reign shall meet its end"

Act II:
The Bastard has journeyed far and wide to seek the Ax of the prophecy. The earth all of a sudden gives way and swallows him, sending him deep into Hell. The Dragon-goddess, now in person instead of in his mind, Ax in hand, asks the Bastard his business. He requests the Ax. She tells him that he must promise to do whatever she asks if she gives it to him, no matter what. He swears and takes the Ax. The track "The Blood Ax Speaks" seems to be an ominous intro for the weapon, its lust for blood has waited seven thousand years to claim another life. The Bastard immediately returns to his father, killing all of his guards and finally him with the bloodthirsty weapon. Act II: draws to a close with the children of the forest dancing and rejoicing, for the tyrant's reign has come to an end. When it seems like everything is through, we have a twist.

Act III:
The short and aptly titled track "The Prophecy Has Two Meanings" has some of the most cryptic lyrics on the album:
"This prophecy has two meanings you see
There is:
One for the Boatman, one for the stream
One for the dreamer, and one for the dream
One for the victim, and one for the blade
One for the blood, and the sacrifice made"

Meanwhile, the Bastard sits on his throne, but desires only to go back into the forest where he belongs. The people want a king, and he knows it can't be him. The Dragon-goddess returns for the favor that she was promised when she gave up the Blood-Ax. She orders the Bastard to simply cut down one tree and she will be appeased. He curses her, saying that he'll do it, but he'll take his own life when he's done. When he does it, the sacrifice (mentioned in "The Prophecy Has Two Meanings") is made, and the forest is uprooted, the spell that kept them stationery, gone. It appears that the Dragon-goddess knew all along that a sacrifice needed to be made. The trees and rocks all get up and slay all of the men in their path, for they hate the way that men desecrate the forest that's sacred to them (for lumber, for meat). In Act III's final track, it is realized that for the people of the forest, freeing the Ax wouldn't end the cursed reign of the Tyrant, but of mankind itself. The Bastard sits on his throne as the ones made of wood, wind, and stone slay his kingdom, sparing everything non-human. He wonders why, since these people are his people, he doesn't feel compelled to stop the slaughter. He is told by his new subjects that he is one of them, and in fact, is their god and always has been. He has a void to fill in heaven.

It appears as though the Dragon-goddess knew this all along, and only told him that he was the son of the Tyrant so that he would break the spell. Perhaps she created him in the first place.

It's interesting that Hammers of Misfortune only has two vocalists, but the somehow make a discernable difference in the speaking voices on each character. The Bastard is voiced with a deep and hearty voice by the male singer. The Dragon-goddess is voiced by the girl singer in an operatic tone. The Tyrant is done with harsh vocals by the male singer. The townspeople are a male and female chorus. The Blood-Ax's voice is a combination of clean female vocals and harsh male vocals. The trolls of the woodlands are a chorus of harsh vocals.

I also like the fact that a certain riff accompanies the dragon-goddess whenever she speaks.

All-in-all, great story and great music. 9/10.

Boris.

There's so much to say.

The other day I took a walk and listened to Rock Dream, which is a collaboration with Japanese drone/doom/psychedelic/rock band Boris and Japanese noise artist Merzbow. I had heard a bit of it while I slept on the bus on the way home from my competition on Saturday and decided to take a walk and give it a full uninterrupted listen. I expected it to be good, but I really had no idea. I've never been one to be all "deep" and talk about how much the music that I listen to affects me, but I was just speechless. On the album, there are, of course, several songs from Boris' cool rock phase, which Merzbow adds his trademark static harsh noises to. I thought that he more or less detracted from the real energetic songs, which were just meant to be raw guitar, bass, and drums through fuzz pedals and Orange amps.

The less friendly songs of Boris included on the album are a 35 minutes rendition of Feedbacker, which (knowing how much of a faggot I am for Feedbacker, you should see this one coming) was no less than absolutely epic. It's followed by a handful of shorter songs, and then the second disc kicks in.

The real gem of this album is on the second disc. The fourth track on disc two is the energetic fan favorite "Ibitsu", which is very fast and catchy, with that psychedelic Motorhead vibe that can be found in Pink, Heavy Rocks, and Akuma no Uta. Just when you were ready for another real headbanger, they kick off the shorter-than-expected A Bao A Qu, which, while being quite captivating, seems to serve as more of a sedative to get your mind off of the stoner grooves played earlier in the concert. Immediately when The Evil One Which Sobs kicked off, I could really feel it. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. It was so mournful and morose, but it was absolute bliss at the same time. All thirteen minutes of it were nothing like I had ever heard before. I never thought I'd hear noise doing anything but, well, being noisy, but it serenaded the beautiful repetition and slow evolution perfectly, resulting in nothing less than a masterpiece. I've never felt so strongly about a composition before. I forgot everything else, I just kept listening, and it came to its noisy-yet-subtle climax. I was no less than floored. I looked around, saw a plane in the sky, and felt sorrow for them for being so unaware of this amazing world inside my head where nothing went wrong. It was like nothing else. Then it ended, and I felt satisfied. I wouldn't have complained if it had gone on longer, but it ended right where it should have.

They went on to play a newer song, Flower Sun Rain, from the Smile album. The vocals are back now, but they sing a more nostalgic and sad tone than on the grooves like Pink and Ibitsu. The rest of the tracks on the album are tastefully and perfectly layered with Merzbow's quirky but not orderless noises, and it fades off with the appropriate "Farewell" from the Pink album.

When I first heard them say that they would rather not think of themselves as a band, I thought it was rather pretentious. After really giving albums like Absolutego, Feedbacker, and now this one, I'm kind of starting to understand where they're coming from. Band or not, they're definitely not your average psychedelic band with a greatest hits album (if they did have a greatest hits, it would probably just be a re-release of Pink). They're more like an ever-changing need for the artists to express themselves as diversely as possible. An artistic force, if you will. They're geniuses.

On another note, I think I know why I haven't reviewed Feedbacker or even thought about giving Rock Dream a full review. I'm just not sure if I really grasp it. Maybe I'm giving too much credit to an almost purely instrumental album as being 'too deep for me'. I mean, I'm only eighteen and am already a pretty seasoned fan of music. But every time I listen, I feel like I never have before. I don't know why it is. Possibly it's just that they do such an incredible job of passing on a feeling through their instruments, that it just hits me. You can't review pure emotion, can you?