Dissidents

How does one make a political metal mix for someone who already has "War Pigs," "Peace Sells," "Cult of Personality" and "Bring the Noise?"



Dissidents

1. Metallica, "Blackened"
2. System of a Down, "B.Y.O.B."
3. Faith No More, "We Care a Lot"
4. Living Colour, "Pride"
5. Guns N' Roses, "Civil War"
6. Suicidal Tendencies, "Send Me Your Money"
7. Marilyn Manson, "The Love Song"
8. Saul Williams, "List of Demands (Reparations)"
9. Lamb of God, "As the Palaces Burn"
10. Revocation, "Pestilence Reigns"
11. Megadeth, "Symphony of Destruction"
12. Ministry, "Thieves"
13. Gojira, "Vacuity"
14. Motörhead, "God Save the Queen"
15. Sepultura, "Kaiowas"
16. Rage Against the Machine, "Wake Up"
17. Body Count, "Cop Killer"
18. Misery Index, "Traitors"

Answer: It's hard, but not for lack of songs. How to pick just one selection from Rage Against the Machine or System of a Down? Is Tool's "Ænima" political enough? Is Saul Williams' "List of Demands (Reparations)" metal enough? There are already enough political metal mixes, with names like Psalm 69 and As the Palaces Burn. How can anything compete with those?

I ended up pulling up a little from everything. This is for someone who probably agrees with Cattle Decapitation philosophically if not melodically, so I'm throwing down the biggest metal trump cards. I picked "Blackened" over the other ...And Justice for All contenders by virtue of the fact that it rocks the hardest, and "Symphony of Destruction" for not having a verse about the Punisher, plus being still sadly relevant in an era of Morsis and Putins. Sepultura's "Kaiowas" landed here for proving that a metal band didn't need amps, or even lyrics, to send a message about forced evictions of natives in Brazil. I also dug up "We Care a Lot" from Faith No More's pre-Mike Patton days, a gleefully incisive takedown of the Live Aid and "We Are the World" celebrities which I'd still pit against anything Bono and Bob Geldof are doing today. I'll add that "We Care a Lot" predated The Book of Mormon ("I am Africa") and Get Him to the Greek ("African Child (Trapped in Me)") by at least 20 years.

More recently, the Political Metal flag has been raised by French progressive environmetalists (sic) Gojira and relentlessly confrontational deathgrinders Misery Index, the latter of whom earn the Thomas Paine and John Brown references on "Traitors" by being one of the only metal bands to put as much care into their lyrics as their music. But my favorite is Revocation, whom match their politically-charged lyrics (they recently debuted a song called "Fracked") with the most sophisticated metal that these ears have found over the past few years. "Pestilence Reigns," a chilling depiction of air raids, solves all of my problems with neo-thrash and technical death metal, giving the former a death metal makeover and the later a sense of songwriting direction.

Finally, I couldn't put together a political metal mix without including the most controversial metal single of all time. If you haven't heard it, that's because it's been banned from CD release since 1992.

The Ten Best Metal Records of 2012

Alphabetical order.

1. Cattle Decapitation, Monolith of Inhumanity
Funnier than Meat is Murder.



2. Converge, All We Love We Leave Behind
Punk rock is a fine place and worth fighting for.


3. Deftones, Koi No Yokan
No matter how hard you try you can't stop us now.


4. Goatwhore, Blood for the Master
Decibel: 8. Pitchfork: 4.8.


5. Gojia, L'enfant Sauvage
History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men.


6. High on Fire, De Vermis Mysteriis
So do Motörhead, AC/DC, the Ramones and Little Richard.


7. Meshuggah, Koloss
Your djent is too short to box with gods.


8. Pig Destroyer, Book Burner
Sorry, pig. And book.


9. Revocation, Teratogenesis
The free, internet-only, Scion-presented EP that roared.


10. Torche, Harmonicraft
Flying outside now, too.

Pig Destroyer at Public Assembly

Five things learned from Pig Destroyer's CMJ show:



1. Hipsters can get down.

 The blend of CMJ pass holders and metalhead ticket buyers was an awkward one, unable to work up a mosh pit for the first three acts. However, smartphones and plastic cups disappeared within seconds of guitarist Scott Hull's first grindcore riff, kicking off a night of involuntary movement to some seriously undanceable music. Now you know why their latest, Book Burner, is streaming on NPR.

2. Early Graves needed Makh Daniels.

It's agonizing and unfair. Shortly after releasing the first great thrash album of this decade, Early Graves lost their lead singer to a van accident. They're carrying on with a new singer and noble perseverance, but they sound like they belong in the hardcore heap now.

3. Book Burner was worth the wait.

Five years after Phantom Limb, Pig Destroyer have gotten better at everything they do. Calling it grindcore seems like a disservice, like all those Napalm Death records that you listened to just once or Cattle Decapitation before they got into jazz. The riffs thrash, the drums threaten to kick everything out from under and the songs are addictive.

4. The lyrics still don't matter.

Early reviews of Book Burner are making much of how singer J. R. Hayes reads Henry Miller and Cormac McCarthy and brings their influence to his lyrics. Advance copies must come with lyrics sheets, because I couldn't understand a word that he screamed all night. However, like Mike Patton or Frank Zappa, the sounds that he brings together and enunciates in his lyrics are engrossing, unsettling and funny enough for you to not worry about Tropic of Cancer.

5. The show matters.

Pig Destroyer headbang in place, incite horns-flashing and bellow the names of their songs, just like hundreds of club metal bands you've seen before. But it felt like they invented every move.

High Five for 2012

By now you've either heard that Fiona Apple has the best record of the year so far, or you've heard The Idler Wheel... and know that it's true. But with Fiona already riding a 90 on Metacritic, she doesn't need my endorsement. Instead, may I suggest you support the five best metal records for the first half of the year, in alphabetical order.

Cattle Decapitation, Monolith of Inhumanity 

San Diego's favorite misanthropes reinvent jazz as grindcore.

Goatwhore, Blood for the Master

You see us coming and you all-to-geth-er-run-for-cover--we're taking over death metal.

 

 

 

 

 

Gojira, L'enfant Sauvage
Ishirō Honda, meet François Truffaut. Discuss.

High on Fire, De Vermis Mysteriis
Pike's Peak. Again.

Meshuggah, Koloss

The Black Dahlia Murder's arms are too short to box.

Happy listening! See you in December with the top ten.