Slough Feg Traveller
Since assembling a metal collection for the last post I've found a dozen more heavy metal songs I appreciate. Listening to certain metal songs really helps me concentrate and adds energy to long programming sessions. Strangely, it doesn't work for when I'm writing technical documentation or prose.
I learned the type of metal doesn't matter as much as I thought it would. I started my exploration looking for more doom metal but more frantic death metal works just as well. What's most important is the song should have a heavy bass line. Songs that revel in the lo-fi no-bass sound are just static to my ears. Intelligible lyrics are usually not as good as deep growling but it's not super important. Cattle Decapitation - We Eat Our Young works for programming and is somewhat legible, except when when Donald Duck starts singing about a minute in.
If all you're looking for is heavy instrumental music Master Boot Record fills that niche.
One thing I learned is I hate nu-metal. Bands like linkin park that have a grumbly singer and then a emo wailer drive me up the wall. That tumblr site sometimes goes into streaks of nu-metal and it's irritating having to skip through a bunch of videos.
Still, at the risk of derailing this post completely, that site has brought some hilarious music videos to my attention.
Dethklok - I Ejaculate Fire
The name of this song is hilarious and the video is similarly juvenile.
Powerwolf - Werewolves of Armenia
Be sure to stick around long enough to see the lyrics which were, I have to assume, written by a 13 year old.
For more werewolves you can watch MOONSORROW - Suden Tunti
When Disturb The Dead - Shrine of Urns landed in my feed I thought it was a joke.
This is unironically one of the worst songs I've ever heard. It was so bad I had to find out more. I was wondering if this was a stunt to make the worst metal song of all time but I only found online reviews with ridiculous praise.
This is the kind of track that can easily enchant the audience from the very start. The warmth and awesomeness presented through verses of the track are simply bliss. Each member of the group has contributed to the magnificence of the track, which is pretty evident as no fragment of the track feels incomplete. One can easily let his soul get drowned within the vast creativity of this track.
This has to be a joke but I don't get the point. I'd still rather listen to this than nu-metal.
High On Fire - The Black Plot
This a cool Kirbyesque video and the music meets my programming criteria. The same guys did High on Fire - Fertile green
BEHEMOTH - Christians to the Lions
I get it now. The silly makeup, the props, and the anti-christian imagery are necessary when you're singing about juvenilia. When similar songs are performed by middle-aged men in cargo shorts and backwards ball caps it's cringy and pathetic. The makeup is a message that everyone is in on the joke.
But back to the topic.
Slough Feg isn't music I can use as background noise when programming. The lyrics are intelligible and the melodies are tight and clean. To get a good sense of their sound start with Cauldron of Blood
Their album Traveller is based on an old RPG all about laser battles and space ships and the entire album is set up as a rock opera. I made Amanda listen to it on our drive out to Carrizo plains and we attempted to piece together the story from the lyrics. We ended up listening to the entire album three times on that trip and I've listened to it many times more. Individual songs are OK but when you listen to the whole album it's better. I appreciate songs about about alien spores and mutant hybrid canine bipeds.
A sample of the lyrics (you can read the rest here):
I am a space pirate, you know my name And rogue mining is a dangerous game Imperial navy can't keep up my pace Chasing a rock into Zhodani space
You heard about me in the frontier wars Psionic menace carrying alien spores A living legend in the asteroid mines Avoiding tariffs and imperial fines
One-thousand credits is my humble price Whether it's nickel, iron, stony, or ice Only the wayfaring patron would dare A merchant cruiser, a skyway corsair
It's not a mineral that I seek here High passage, low passage Any way I'm outta here I was born in colonies On fringe worlds of the galaxy Meanwhile in Zhodani space Imperial flagships follow me
Like most metal it's goofy and fun and I like it. Slough Feg has released a half dozen albums with good songs scattered throughout but traveller seems to be the one that's most consistently good.
Update 240611:
The Satanus aeturnus blog disappeared which made me sad and reiterated of the ephemeral quality of the web, but I recently discovered it again under an unfortunate new name: it is what it is.
I don't fully understand how tumblr 'works' - why blogs will disappear without warning and appear again under a different name with no explanation. Generally there's no way to search for people discussing what happened - though maybe my adblocking scripts are hiding critical information.
I only believe this is run by the same guys because it follows the same format; youtube links interspersed with album art and scantly clad women. I found this site by accident after a general search for tumblr death metal content.
The infrequently updated blog.