Laboratory of Mathematics and Writing

Day Nine. How about some grindcore? Assuck's Misery Index is superb grindcore. I'm actually not too big into grindcore for some reason. I ought to sit down and just listen to grindcore bands. I feel like it's going to be a lot of hit or miss with the misses out numbering the hitting (That's actually true in any genre). Grindcore seems to thrive on having one minute long songs and are often predicated on one dimensional brutal audio beat downs. It may not sound like it, but Assuck's attack on "Misery Index" is not one dimensional. The reason why is because they follow the Slayer principle of cramming in as many riffs, textures, and tempo changes into as short a time as possible. They never do this without losing a sense of flow and coherency. The riffs are unified by a relentless sense of urgency. Rage and despair pour out every song on this album, and that is what makes it so unapologetically brutal. The same friend that handed me Varuker's &

Day Eight. Let's do some hardcore punk, shall we? The Varukers' album "Murder". My first encounters with punk rock where wimpy bands like Minor Threat, the Adicts, Bad Religion (I actually like Bad Religion), and Nofx. When I first heard the term "punk rock", I thought it was music written buy tough dudes that will never like what you're wearing and beat you up for it. But alas, none of these bands even have testicles. Where's the guy spitting in my face? Where's the boot crushing my skull? Apparently, they all gathered to create this album. This is exactly what I imagined when I hear the term "punk rock". A guy yelling about how government is always bad (it is), how war is awful, politicians are always evil, society is fucked, and how much of a poser you are (indeed, you are). The lyrical content may be cliche, but it's effective because there's real power to the music. It's loud, heavy, fast, and constan

Day Seven. The term melodic death metal actual kind of displays how dumb metal heads are. A melody is really just a sequence of single notes played in succession. Even a discordant mish mash of random notes is a melody. What they mean is a sequence of single notes that actually stick to musical scales so that they can be ear-pleasing. It's hard to draw the line as what constitutes as melodic death metal, but I never quite felt that In Flames classifies as death metal. It's ju st melodic (in the ear pleasing sense). Enter Arsis. They actually carries the fury and brutality typically associated with death metal but they stick to ear pleasing musical scales. Make no mistake, this is still intense. The drummer puts on a hell of a show as he blasts, thrashes, and double-bass tramples his way through each and every song. The riffs do contain melodies you can easily hum to, but they are really there just to decorate the savage, palm muted chugging and thrashing riffs. The melodie

Day Six. It's always difficult which album to review next. I decided to get into some death metal with Morbid Angel's Blessed Are the Sick. After all, In Flames was by first bridge into it. It actually took me a bit of getting used to the cookie monster vocals. They're still kind of comical, but somehow it fits. Besides, when a mom and her kids give you a horrified look as you're blasting Deicide, it generates a feeling of satisfaction. I can't quite remember which was the f irst proper death metal band I got into, but Morbid Angel was definitely among the very first. After listening to Slayer, the next step in extreme metal was bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, and Atheist. Blessed Are the Sick is probably my first legit death metal purchase back in freshman year high school. Let's get one thing out of the way, I actually think the production is terrible. Yes, it's clear and you can hear everything. But it's so sterile and lifeless and it somehow

Day Five. This is another band I got into because of a video game. Think I was a freshmen in high school when I played some Tony Hawk. It was Underground or 4. There's so many of them that I can't tell the difference. Anyways, "Embody the Invisible" was one of the songs on there (An Entombed song was also present: "To Ride, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth"). It took me a while to get past the cookie monster vocals to get in to proper death metal, but In Flames was terrifi c bridge towards the more extreme bands. They frequently categorize In Flames as "Melodic Death Metal", but honestly, it's just traditional heavy metal with raspy vocals. Or, as some people hilariously put it, Iron Maiden with Laryngitis. Jokes aside, Colony is a great album. It doesn't try to be technical, brutal, fast, or even particularly deep and meaningful (although the lyrics are pretty good). It's just a great, catchy, and hard rocking album you can bang

Ozzy Osbourne - Randy Rhoads Tribute Day Four. It's time for a live album. I'm not big onto live albums, but it just so happens that this is one of the first albums I ever purchased. I was in middle school when the "Osbournes" TV show was on air. People kept referring to Ozzy as the Prince of Darkness. I thought that was awesome and went out to buy an Ozzy album. The reason I chose this one was just because there was a guitar guy on the cover. Little did I know that the guitarist was Randy Rhoads and he would become my favorite guitarist. All the classic Randy-era songs are represented here and they are even stronger than their studio counterparts. Some of the best Black Sabbath songs also make an appearance, and man, Randy makes them even flashier with his quirks and lead fills. The way he mimics the bass line on Paranoid adds more spice to the song. All the squeals and gentle inserts of pinch harmonics and higher pitched powe

Slayer - Reign in Blood Day Three: It's time for my favorite thrash band and my second favorite band of all time. The only thing better than Slayer is Judas Priest. And the only Slayer album better than Reign in Blood is Haunting the Chapel. I actually got into Slayer through a rather silly way. I was in middle school when Grand Theft Auto 3 came out. Raining Blood was one of the songs in there (along with You've Got Another Thing Coming). My mind exploded just like the poor victims out on the streets of Liberty City. That galloping riff with the steady double bass was heavy as hell. And that schizophrenic barrage of guitar noises at the end was crazy. I immediately went on a hunt for Slayer records. Raining in Blood and Angel of Death receive the most attention. But the bulky mass in the middle is probably more important. Those songs are frantic, fast, and furious. They crammed about 93 riffs in 28 minutes in 10 songs. That's 9.

Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith Day number two. The other band that delivered me towards Heavy Metal Salvation. And it's the mightiest band of them all: Judas Priest. They are without a doubt my favorite band of all time. Even the stuff that's "bad" is still pretty good. Tim "Ripper" Owens is pretty damned good, and the stuff with him at the helm isn't too bad.... but Rob Halford is the Metal God Incarnate. He is the greatest singer of all time. And I just think it's hilarious how his ultra-Homo-Erotic leather outfits and super gay BDSM sexual fantasies is forever associated with heavy metal machoness. Oh, the irony. Anyways, I'd rank Defenders of the Faith as either the third or fourth best Priest album. It competes against Painkiller for third regularly. It's actually difficult to rank these albums and it usually depends on my mood. I first heard Freewheel Burning at my friend's house. By t

I was nominated to post 20 music albums in 20 days that I think are great. But I going to do a little review as to why I think their great. I'll start with day one. And it will be one of the bands that got the ball rolling in my descent into heavy metal lunacy: Metallica. I remember hearing "Enter Sandman" and "Nothing Else Matters" along with the rest of the Black album and being impressed. Then my awesome friend lent me a copy of Ride the Lightning and my brain sort of collapsed in on itself from the sheer might of this album. The Black album is great, but RTL is faster, heavier, darker, more muscular, and contains way more musical finesse. Part of what makes this album so bloody intense is the obsession with, and fear, of death and dying; whether it's by nuclear annihilation in "Fight Fire with Fire", frozen to death in "Trapped Under Ice" , suicide in "Fade to Black", or fighting alongsi