Type O Negative - Red Water (Christmas Mourning)

Life in Peter Steele and Type O Negative's world was certainly not the happiest. Throughout their illustrious career, their songs of love, lust, death, rejection and more, mostly along other depressive lines made for some dark, uneasy but ultimately incredible listening that made Type O one of metal's most unique and interesting bands. Years of alcohol and drug abuse eventually caught up with Steele and despite getting clean, a heart attack took him in April 2010 and robbed the world of any future gloom from the enigmatic frontman.

A good proportion of Type O Negative's songs dealt with personal themes, and 'Red Water (Christmas Mourning)' was no different. It was written about Steele’s dead father at the time, but as we will explore, goes far beyond his personal loss. Songs such as 'Black No.1', 'Christian Woman' and 'Everything Dies' are unquestionably among their greatest anthems but 'Red Water' ought to be considered as great as any of those and despite its title, isn't just a song for Christmas. The album it came from, 'October Rust', yielded 'Love You to Death' and 'My Girlfriend's Girlfriend' as its main singles, as well as a cracking cover of Neil Young's 'Cinnamon Girl', so it isn't really a surprise that 'Red Water' is often overlooked as one of Type O's greatest. Type O apparently insisted they would never play it live, likely due to the subject matter of the song, But in my book, 'Red Water' is simply one of their most incredible to listen to and an absolute must-listen, whether the lyrics resonate powerful with you or not.

Gripe - Pig Servant

Gripe
Pig Servant

Right now, Europe and Asia appear to be the hot bed for up and coming bands within grind and powerviolence scenes, although that's not to say America isn't holding up its end of the bargain, which is surely in safe hands if acts the calibre of Gripe continue to break through. We reviewed Gripe earlier this year (the cracking 'The Future Doesn't Need You' EP) and saw the potential then, and that promise continues on EP number two, 'Pig Servant'. Originally a three-piece, the band now have a new vocalist and have added a bassist to expand to a quartet, but that hasn't hindered Gripe and 'Pig Servant' marks a definite improvement all around.

Key to this is the recognised ability to change pace more often - Gripe don't simply power ahead as they did on the first record and recognise when to rein it in and unleash a more controlled violence. They open with 'Ghetto Rapist' again, using Mickey Rourke's 'blood for blood' speech from Sin City - a fine way to open any extreme record, I may say - as they did with 'TFDNY'; but everything else is fresh and the sights are locked on to kill. Tracks like 'Grind Into Extinction' and 'Southern Dehumanization are clear signs of the improvements made to the Gripe machine, displaying turns of pace from fast to slow to fast again with increasing ease and devastation at once.

That they're still independent isn't much of a surprise - there seems to be very much a DIY aesthetic to this band, particularly considering there's not even any artwork for this release. But surely its not going to be much longer, especially with the current grind/powerviolence boom. Things can only get better for Gripe, even if the world around them continues its steep decline.

Peter Clegg

Download 'Pig Servant' here

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Worthy of Your Time: Low Sonic Drift

North of the border, a nation is brimming with heavy musical talent. If it carries on this way, Scotland may well become as well known for its metal bands, as it is for haggis, whiskey and battered Mars bars. I'm positively losing track of how many great bands have emerged from the Tartan nation, especially in the last year or two, and in Glasgow's Low Sonic Drift, we can add another to the list.

Post-review criticism of 'Lulu' is metal journalism at its dumbest

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll no doubt be aware that metal titans Metallica teamed up with Lou Reed to record the already infamous and controversial 'Lulu', which certainly split fans, pundits and more down the middle. Chances are, if you're an NME or Pitchfork, at least partial to the mainstream type, you might have found it bearable, hell, you might have even liked or enjoyed it. If however, you're among those who are firmly in the metal camp, liking it blacker than your coffee and considering anything mainstream to be false, sellout or over the hill, you probably hated it. And make no mistake, in regards to those last few words, I fall into the latter category, as bar a few choice riffs and a few songs ('The View' and 'Iced Honey'), it was a bit of a disaster and really something I'll think long and hard about before I go back to it. If I go back to it.

A few updates

Hey everyone. Cheers for continuing to check out We Must Obey. Seeing the increased visiting figures is a cracking sight to see, well past the 5,000 mark now, and that’s something we hope to carry into 2012.

Speaking of 2012, of course 2011 is coming to a close, and we still have a few loose ends to tie up. As you may have seen with yesterday’s post, the run-up to Christmas is indeed a shitter, at least in my world, so you will be seeing the odd alternative/anti Christmas post going up, as well as the usual content. We may as well have a laugh and maybe a discussion about it, so keep your eyes peeled. We’ve also got a mega review of the ‘Kin Hell Fest to come – we certainly didn’t end our coverage with the preview, and the full review will be worth it once it comes through.

Finally, the dreaded year-end, best of list. Yes we will be doing one. However, don’t expect it any time soon. Already there’s other metal sites putting up their best of 2011’s as of the beginning of this week. The year’s not over ‘til its over! Damn, I thought I hated the halfway-through-2011 lists that I had a rant about earlier this year. Seems some people just can’t wait. I guess at the end of the day, everyone’s got an opinion. Ours is that we will use every last second of the year to make our decision. You won’t be seeing any lists here until Friday December 30^th, at the earliest.

Now I’ve got that off my chest, we hope you continue to enjoy reading. The next post is up at 12:00pm, where I get back on my pedestal again. It’s a doozy. If you’ve got an opinion on the subject matter in question, I’m sure you’ll have something to say. Later everyone!

Peter Clegg

Christmas is coming...

And I honestly could care less. OK, yes, I'm looking forward to it for my twins as its their first one, and no doubt I'll enjoy the actual occasion.

But the run-up? Phhhhhhh. Roll on the 25th.

Until then, expect occasional antipathy. Here's CKY's 'Santa's Coming'. You'd better be nice...

Peter Clegg

Mike Patton - The Solitude of Prime Numbers

Mike Patton
The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Ipecac

The ever unpredictable Mike Patton throws yet another curveball at us with the release of 'The Solitude of Prime Numbers', a musical score to the film of the same name (2010's La Solitudine dei Numeri Primi). The film (based on the book of the same name) applied the theory of twin primes - numbers that differ from another prime number by two. Having not seen the film yet, I'm not in a position to judge how well it applies to the silver screen, but Patton makes the theory work well here in a musical sense.

Each musical track is sequenced by Patton according to prime numbers - so therefore, only 2, 3, 5, 7...all the way to 53 feature musical content, the remaining tracks between filled with four seconds of silence or a slight overrun from the previous track. Patton himself is largely absent vocally, only bookending the album with some 'la la la la's' to open and conclude. Instead, its down to the musical arrangement to carry the album's concept and the lonely listener on a distant journey. The general mood of the songs runs anywhere from ominous and unsettling ('11 - Cicatrix' being one example) to dream state ('19 - Radius of Convergence') and simply beautiful ('29 - The Snow Angel'). Ultimately though, the music shouldn't be dissected - the album must be listened to all the way through as a whole, to ensure you capture every mood and emotion going through the music.

Conventional rock or metal fans probably won't buy into this due to its abstract nature and admittedly it will appeal more to the art masses. But Patton has scored this film incredibly well, much likes his previous work on 'A Perfect Place' and on 'Crank 2: High Voltage'. It's an excellent slab of modern classical music from the man of many guises. Needless to say, I found this an excellent diversion from the daily shredding, blasting and growling of metal, and indeed of the daily grind, as I made my daily, long commute home. An excellent companion, particularly within the loneliness of nightfall.

Peter Clegg

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The trial of Conrad Murray - a musical analysis

As Dr. Conrad Murray awaits his sentencing for the involuntary manslaughter of Michael Jackson, We Must Obey implements a musical analysis at three other elements in this court case: money, the media, and those who gathered outside the courts on a daily basis. Needless to say, there's going to be some true words, and some harsh ones too - PC

Many of us will never know exactly what went down at the time of the death of Michael Jackson and the guilty verdict delivered to his doctor, Conrad Murray, with only the accounts of what was stated in the courtroom and on the newswires as word.

One thing is certain. America, don't take this the wrong way, but I hope you're happy you've got your scapegoat.

Visions: Immortal - Call of the Wintermoon

I checked out this video the other night whilst browsing other Immortal videos. After watching it, my only thought was this:

Is this shit for real?!

Seriously, watch the video and tell me this is straight up serious. 'Cos I don't think it is. Fire breathing, corpse paint, uber metal poses, pointy wizard hats and more! It is gleefully over the top in the way only Immortal could be, however cheesy or shite it may be. I just can't believe I haven't seen it before.

Peter Clegg

Revocation - Chaos of Forms

Revocation

Chaos of Forms

Relapse

Despite accumulating a cavalcade of plaudits for their previous albums, swallowing up top positions in year-end lists like Sebastien Vettel snatching pole positions, Revocation can consider themselves unlucky not to have risen to the cream of the crop unlike recent metal success stories such as Mastodon, Kylesa, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Dillinger Escape Plan, etc. Their music is certainly on a par with those bands at least, possessing a care-free swagger fuelled by main man and guitarist David Davidson's style and sheer confidence that most rock 'n' roll bands would give their right arm for, never mind heavy metal bands.