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"Steeped in foreboding mythology, the dark underbelly of heavy metal ignites debate to this day. Guitars playing abrasive, discordant riffs, the thunderous double-kick of the drums acting like an accelerated heartbeat, and porcine, guttural vocals pummeling twisted lyrics. Courting controversy from inception to its modern day iteration, death metal presents a number of contradictions; driven and adventurous musicians compete to make uncomfortable noises, it is crude and lumen far beyond show more parody and yet consistently popular, and the music is pig-headedly uncommercial that made a few labels, albeit briefly, reasonably wealthy. This book explores the history and methodology of the genre, charting its aims and intentions, its crossovers to the mainstream, successes and failures, and tracks how it developed from the bedrooms of Birmingham and Florida to the near-mainstream, to the murky cult status it enjoys today."-- show lessTags
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Death Metal by T Coles is part of a 33 1/3 series that looks at musical genres, written primarily as an intro for those either unfamiliar or just becoming familiar with them. This volume does an excellent job of presenting death metal so people can at least understand its roots and intentions even if they might not want to listen to it.
I remember a passing interest when death metal was first forming, mostly as something I could listen to in certain moods but that didn't really appeal to me as something I wanted to listen to often. Over the years, I have periodically found myself, usually because of friends, sampling some and finding some I liked but a lot I didn't. So that is some idea where I came to this book from.
I did what I think show more anyone, even if they know they won't like it, should do if they want to understand a book about any genre of music, I listened to many of the tracks mentioned. Some I didn't finish listening to, many I did. This brought a lot more clarity (there is a word you won't often find coupled with death metal) to the evolution of the music that Coles presents.
I was a little unsure when I started reading and saw just how much of the book was basically Coles quoting all of the people they interviewed. Turns out it worked great, those people were able to bring insider perspectives to the questions and changes surrounding the music. It also helped a reader such as myself, with minimal actual knowledge of the genre, see and appreciate the human element, the people who make the music.
While this did not make me a fan of the genre, it did give me a few tracks I actually liked and made some, while not exactly songs I will listen to again, songs I could appreciate on their own terms.
I would recommend this to those readers who like to know something about all music regardless of how appealing it is to them. You may come away liking the music, or you may come away with simply understanding what it is (and isn't), why it is loved by many, and what aspects of society it responds to.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less
I remember a passing interest when death metal was first forming, mostly as something I could listen to in certain moods but that didn't really appeal to me as something I wanted to listen to often. Over the years, I have periodically found myself, usually because of friends, sampling some and finding some I liked but a lot I didn't. So that is some idea where I came to this book from.
I did what I think show more anyone, even if they know they won't like it, should do if they want to understand a book about any genre of music, I listened to many of the tracks mentioned. Some I didn't finish listening to, many I did. This brought a lot more clarity (there is a word you won't often find coupled with death metal) to the evolution of the music that Coles presents.
I was a little unsure when I started reading and saw just how much of the book was basically Coles quoting all of the people they interviewed. Turns out it worked great, those people were able to bring insider perspectives to the questions and changes surrounding the music. It also helped a reader such as myself, with minimal actual knowledge of the genre, see and appreciate the human element, the people who make the music.
While this did not make me a fan of the genre, it did give me a few tracks I actually liked and made some, while not exactly songs I will listen to again, songs I could appreciate on their own terms.
I would recommend this to those readers who like to know something about all music regardless of how appealing it is to them. You may come away liking the music, or you may come away with simply understanding what it is (and isn't), why it is loved by many, and what aspects of society it responds to.
Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less
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- Possessed; Necrophagia; Napalm Death; Death; Autopsy; At the Gates (show all 14); Entombed; Venom Prison; Cannibal Corpse; Nile; Morbid Angel; Blood Incantation; Gatecreeper; Cynic
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