Between the Buried and Me, "Colorblind"

For Matthew.

Three Ways to Improve Your Album

Five minutes from Sylosis' Monolith. 67 more to go.

Every year, my admiration for artists who pour themselves into creating and sequencing a full-length work of art swells. In the face of YouTube, iTunes, American attention spans and singles acts, a select few still care about making a great album. Imagine if most popular books only had two good chapters, or if most movies had a couple of good scenes. That's the state of albums today. Dependably creative artists like Converge are both rare and crucial to modern music, just as someone like Jonathan Franzen is to literature.

However, if we are going to keep putting great artists on a pedestal, we still need to hold them to high standards. There are many reasons why music isn't selling as well as it did in decades past. I'll argue that one reason is that in general, most new albums and artists, metal included, aren't as great as their predecessors. With music sales bringing in less revenue than ever for record labels, artists have enough creative control to indulge their best impulses more than ever, but also their worst. Bands as varied as Rush, Gojira and Baroness released good, even great albums this year, but with minimal effort they could have been much better. Here's how.

1. Keep it short.

This seems like the biggest problem for many of today's metal bands. A CD can contain up to 80 minutes of music, but that's no reason for your band to use all 80. If you're lucky enough to find an audience, you should leave them wanting more, not less. To paraphrase Lou Reed, 30 minutes is fine, 40 is pushing it, 50 and you're into jazz.

This isn't a recent phenomenon. Some of the world's finest metal bands have run out of steam over hour-plus long players. Guns N' Roses were the best band in the world when they recorded Use Your Illusion I and II, and even they couldn't get through two-and-a-half hours without "So Fine." But let's look at the good. Slayer's Reign in Blood, one of metal's only indisputable classics, doesn't make it to the half-hour mark. At the Gates reshaped death metal in 34 minutes on Slaughter of the Soul. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, all legendary for their epic compositions, found ways to end their best albums in under 45 minutes. Don't point out that you love all 65 minutes of Metallica's ...And Justice for All until you remind yourself that your band isn't Metallica.

2. Cut the interludes.

Hip-hop is the worst at this. Intro skits, outro skits, intermission skits, phone call skits--these are among the reasons why anyone with a considerable hip-hop collection dreads the shuffle option on their preferred listening device. Metal is also culpable, but instead of skits, they use musical interludes. This year, Veil of Maya, Between the Buried and Me and the Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza littered their records with tossed-off, minute-long pieces that went from being entertaining to skipable over a few listens. Elmore Leonard once said of writing, "I try to leave out the parts that people skip." The best musicians record albums the same way.

3. Save some of the best for last.

Nearly every metal album I've heard in the past several years, even the great ones, are unarguably front-loaded. You don't play all your best songs in the first half of the show, and you also shouldn't play all your best songs in the first half of your album. Slayer ended records with "Raining Blood" and "Seasons in the Abyss." The Number of the Beast closes out with "Hallowed Be Thy Name." How many people who buy Lamb of God records can name a song on the second half of Sacrament or Ashes of the Wake? Those are both great records, but will anyone ever put either of them on a countdown near Rust in Peace? "Tornado of Souls" and "Lucretia" are on side two.

With most listeners sequencing their own playlists these days, some will contend that these gripes don't matter. But maybe listeners would be less inclined mess around with bands' intended tracklists if more artists proved that they knew how to make an album.

Five Reasons to Get Megapumped

1. Between the Buried and Me, "Telos"

Despite being titled The Parallax II: Future Sequence, Between the Buried and Me's new full-length, out October 9, confirms their status in the metal elite.



2. Converge, "Aimless Arrows"

Three years later, Axe to Fall is one of my all-time favorite albums. I can't wait to find out what happens next by October 9.



3. Deftones, "Leathers"

I didn't think the Deftones could top Diamond Eyes, but the first song from Koi No Yokan, out November 13, is metalgaze perfection.



4. Pig Destroyer, "Burning Palm"

Just in case five years was long enough for you to forget that nobody does grindcore better, Pig Destroyer is coming back with Book Burner, out October 22.



5. Revocation, "Teratogenesis"

America's best death metal band has a free new EP out this Tuesday. No excuses to miss this one.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts at Coney Island

This week, I saw the Deftones, System of a Down, Cannibal Corpse and Between the Buried and Me. Last Thursday, at Coney Island's free concert series, Joan Jett handed each of them their asses on a plate.



Decades after she's had any sort of commercial success, Jett is still one of rock's most likeable characters. She blurs the punk-pop line tighter than anyone from the Clash to Green Day, and has found enduring appeal as a headbanger, punk, feminist, pop star and gay icon, both as a legend and a cult figure. She is not a great songwriter, as seen by any of her covers-heavy records, but she is a top level showman and interpreter, best experienced in the flesh.

Taking the stage to the Beastie Boys' "No Sleep 'Till Brooklyn," Jett and her Blackhearts blazed through an 80-minute show that covered everything a casual fan would want to hear. Other than a mid-set break into some moderately lame new songs, Jett subjected us to an admirable hit list, including "Bad Reputation," "Crimson and Clover," "Do You Wanna Touch Me?" and of course "I Love Rock N' Roll." She stripped the polish off "I Hate Myself for Loving You" and shook the self-consciousness from the Runaways' "Cherry Bomb," establishing herself as a perfomer in charge of her own vision, no matter how Kim Fowley remembers in.

Jett's most underrated ability, besides being the only lead singer in rock history who looks tougher when she smiles, is her guitar playing, a raw-toned weapon with a rockabilly knack for soloing. The Blackhearts, an expendable team of younger musicians who didn't always hit their cues, gave songs like "Love is Pain" and "The French Song" garage band character that emphasized Jett's tendency to sound both DIY and commercial. The band's missteps were all part of the Joan Show, and proof that there wasn't a bum note or a pop chorus that she couldn't electrify.

Summer Slaughter at Irving Plaza

Five reasons why Summer Slaughter is the best metal festival of the summer.



1. It's not really a festival.

You're not getting baked by the sun all day, paying $6 for water or waiting 15 minutes to use the porta-loo. The bands that you want to see are all playing on the same stage, at separate times, all under a club roof for less than $40. You can see everyone you came to see and leave without heatstroke, dehydration and/or a hole in your wallet.

2. An embarrassment of riches.

Cannibal Corpse, Between the Buried and Me, The Faceless, Periphery, Veil Of Maya and Goatwhore may not be the kind of names you'd usually get at Mayhem Fest, but band-for-band this is a more consistent lineup and more bang for your buck than any tour that would impose Avenged Sevenfold or Asking Alexandria.

3. Periphery, the Faceless and Between the Buried and Me are playing new songs.

Don't pretend that you'll get a preview of Periphery II, Autotheism or The Parallax II: Future Sequence via some guy's cell phone footage on YouTube. It's the equivalent of downloading The Dark Knight Rises opening weekend and watching it on your laptop. You'll have to catch the tour or wait for the release date to tell if the new songs are better than those album titles.

4. Goatwhore.

See above.

5. You can leave any time.

Want to get back in time for dinner? Leave after Between the Buried and Me. Don't want to miss happy hour? Show up in time for Periphery. Even if you're sick of Cannibal Corpse, bored with tech-death or believe that death metal died with Chuck Schuldiner, you'll find something to enjoy here.