Laboratory of Mathematics and Writing

The Prince of Darkness When I was a young lad, I got into nu metal. It started off with KoRn, then Slipknot, System of a Down, Kittie, Powerman 5000, Static-X, it was awesome. Then, the Osbournes reality telivision show came on. It was centered around John "Ozzy" Osbourne and his family and all the crazy antics they did. They frequently refered to Ozzy as a rock and heavy metal legend and that he was "the Prince of Darkness". I thought that was cool, so I went out and bought the first Ozzy album I could get my hands on. It just so happens that the first album is the "Randy Rhoads Tribute" live album. I was instantly hooked. I went out and listened to Black Sabbath and Ozzy albums and songs. Anybody that's into rock or metal will tell you that the genre of heavy metal was founded by Black Sabbath, with Ozzy as the singer. I don't need to say anything further on just how legendary Black Sabbath and Ozzy are. For my ...

Demlich Has a LinkedIn An obscure yet legendary Finnish death metal band has a LinkedIn. I totally did not expect that. They never posted anything. So, it's not like there's anything to see. I'm just pleasantly surprised that a Demlich LinkedIn page exists at all. Demilich has only a single album to their name: Nespithe (anagram for The Spine). It's definitely the most unique music you will listen to, even among extreme metal. Unless you're accustomed to the heavy distorted guitars, pounding drums, and guttural cave monster vocals, you'll probably be put off by it. I love it. It's one of my absolute favorites. I just purchased a cassette tape version of it. There's just simply nothing like Demilich; only imitators.

Every Single Coroner Album is Better Than R.I.P. Except for Grin . That's the only one. Now, I've expressed my opinion as to why I consider Rust in Peace by Megadeth overrated. For the record: I don't think it's a bad album. It's actually quite good. I just don't think it lives up to the enormous hype surrounding it. It is frequently listed near the top of greatest thrash albums list. I don't think it's that good. Coroner is that good You know who is that good? Coroner. Every one of their albums, except for Grin , is better than Rust In Peace. I honestly believe Coroner deserves to be mentioned alongside many other thrash titans. There's a handful of bands in the late 80s that took thrash into more technical realms. My favorites among these are Watchtower, Voivod, and of course, Coroner. The only sin Coroner committed was arriving during the second wave 80s thrash metal. R.I.P. The neoclassical th...

Heavy Metal Heresy: Rust in Peace Foreword Allow me to commit heavy metal heresy: I think Rust In Peace is an overrated album. I'm probably alone in my opinion of this. That's fine. I will make a point of clarification: I do not think this album is lousy. It's actually quite decent. I just don't think it's one of the greatest albums of all time. I don't think it's Megadeth's best. Before you start chucking stones, let me try to explain why I don't like this album all that much. Musicianship Let me start off by saying that the musicians involved in this recording are truly talented. It is obvious that the musicianship is not the weakness of RIP. Indeed, it is its greatest strength. Dave Mustaine was always the heart of Megadeth and an excellent guitarist. Marty Friedman shredded alongside one of the greatest guitarists ever, Jason Becker. The bass work is audible and far above what normal bassists do. The drummers thump in a...

Some Personal Thoughts I'm just simply not a fan of technical or progressive music. I just can't help but feel that it's all pretentious. Every type of music has it's market. And I suspect that progressive market caters towards people that want to feel smart or enlightened for listening to music that's technical or progressive. They enjoy flattering themselves for being open-minded, deep-thinking, and totally knowledgeable about stuff. Totally radical, dude. I'm not impressed by  people's musical taste. There's no reason to believe that Motorhead fans are any less intelligent than Dream Theater fans. I enjoy listening to Motorhead. I generally avoid Dream Theater. Gorgoroth, and particularly this album, is not the type of band that will flatter your sense of open-mindedness. Lyrics are not provided, but the song titles give away what the topics are about. None of them are going to make you feel more enlightened. There are no odd-timed sign...

The Best Metallica Album People will have their own opinions about which is the best Metallica album. For the most part, people gravitate towards Master of Puppets followed by Ride the Lightning. Listing ...And Justice For All, Kill 'Em All, or the Black Album as your favorite typically leaves you the odd person out. I personally believe that Ride the Lightning is better than Master of Puppets. The musical leap from Kill 'Em All to Ride the Lightning is staggering. Metallica went from a straight ahead and fun loving thrash band to quite the sophisticated progressive band. They did this without losing an ounce of power. Hell, they gained power. On the other hand, Master of Puppets is really just a refinement of everything accomplished in Ride the Lightning. There wasn't much in the way of musical innovation. There's also a thick atmosphere that permeates Ride the Lightning as the lyrics focus on the fear of death and dying. Master of Puppets focuses more o...

Celtic Frost - Monotheist When I first heard the song "A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh", I hated it. It was slow, dreary, and the riffs where simple and monotonous. On top of that, the lyrics where cliche. They sing about depression and feeling cold about it. GHEY. Over time, for some reason I learned to love it. Every weakness pointed out earlier morphed into a strength. But there was a strength that I totally missed at first: the songwriting. If there's is one thing Celtic Frost where the masters of is piecing together a powerful song from mindlessly simple components. There are no verses or choruses in this song. They don't even repeat any riffs. The song marches forward from one section to another; from one mood another. As the transitions occur, the tension slowly builds, until it is torn open by power chords that pierce your ears like an agonizing nervous breakdown. Then, just as suddenly as the attack emerged, it fades away to a period of empty ca...

I finally figured out why I like Fates Warning as much as Iron Maiden. I think it's because Fates Warning is the band that Iron Maiden should have evolved into after Di'Anno was fired. The first two Iron Maiden albums did not have Bruce Dickinson at the vocals. They had Paul Di'anno. Di'anno was a good singer, but didn't quite have that upper register that Dickinson was famous for. But that's not the most important thing here. The music of the first two Iron Maiden albums is something special. They where both raw and fiercely experimental. There was a certain punk rock attitude about them that gave songs like "Killers", "Purgatory", and "Prowler" a level of danger and menace that simply wasn't present in the Dickinson albums. There was also songs revolving around unspecific personal issues like "Another Life", "Innocent Exile", and aforementioned "Purgatory" (it's a fucking badass song, ok...

A buddy mine stated that Tool is weird and unique. I never viewed them as anything more than just another rock band. I listen to too much extreme metal to consider anything Tool does as weird or unique. This right here is Demilich. They only released one album: Nespithe. That's an anagram for "The Spine". All of their riffs sound like they where written by aliens. And they frequently have more than one going on at the same time. There's also no verses or choruses. The sectio ns of the song sort of just run into each other. Then there's the vocalist. What the fuck? A croaking demon frog? A man with a serious gas problem and has to burp it all out? Sounds kind of gross. All of this sounds like a recipe for disaster. But there's a certain jazz-like groove throughout the songs that you can rock out to. And despite the melodies and riffs sounding eerie, they're still kind of catchy. You get the sense that they work with each other to create this weird a...

I'm not big into live albums. It's a lot of hit or miss. Bands have good nights and bad nights. Hell, bands have good performances and bad performances of particular songs within one night. This particularly affects the singers. Especially if they smoke and drink. Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East is excellent. It's a wonderful summary of everything they accomplished throughout the 70's (except Rocka Rolla, but it's no big loss). But when I first heard it, something seemed off for some reason. Rob Halford seemed a bit restrained somehow. I couldn't put my finger on it. He hits all the right notes, but I felt like something was missing. Later on, I would discover that the vocal tracks where dubbed. That's right, the Metal God himself admitted that the original tapes where damaged and Halford had to record vocals in the studio and then dub them into the live recording. Hence, why some people jokingly refer to this as "Unleashed in the Studio...

Day 20. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you mankind's greatest achievement. Better than the pyramids, better that the great wall, better than fucking tacos. Judas Priest is the greatest band of all time, and this is their greatest album. The band that could be considered the first legitimate metal band is Black Sabbath. The other band is also of utmost important is Deep Purple. If you don't believe me, listen to "Highway Star", "Fireball", and "Hard Lovin Man". It's fair to say that those two bands influenced Priest the most. Judas Priest arrived at a time when both Black Sabbath and Deep Purple where past a peak and declined just a bit. Someone needed to come along and fill the void. Judas Priest did exactly that by essentially fusing the heaviness and darkness of Sabbath with the speed and melody of Purple. It was a match made in heaven. And these lads conducted this marriage in a way that transcends either of their influences. ...

Day 19: Judas Priest is the greatest band of all time and if you disagree with me, you are wrong. Personally, I would rank this as their second best record. And it comes from what I believe to be the best era of Judas Priest: the 70's Priest. At that time, Priest where a new up and coming band that exploded on to the scene. They had to prove to everyone that they weren't just another run of the mill rock band. In order to do so, they pieced together their most musically ambitious masterpieces that set the bar unattainably high. The entire band is in perfect form. The twin lead attack of Glen Tipton and KK Downing is in full force. They're constantly spitting out riffs, licks, and leads with impeccable chops that cannot be rivaled by anyone else. The title track and the album opener "Exciter" are prime examples of this. "Exciter" is pure fucking speed metal that would be copied by every metal band (there's a band that literally named themselves aft...

Day 18. I remember there was a record store close to Indian School and 51st. It was by that old Palo Verde library. A buddy of mine  and I went there with the goal of buying more Slayer records. We obtained two of them: South of Heaven and Haunting the Chapel. We where both kind of just staring at the speakers in awe at how fast, heavy, evil, and awesome it was. Best five bucks I ever spent. My favorite of the two, and my favorite of Slayer, is Haunting the Chapel. It's only t hree songs, but those are the best damned songs Slayer ever wrote. Reign in Blood works better as a whole. It's hard to listen to "Necrophobic" just by itself without the rest of the album. Each song on this EP stands strong when isolated from the rest of the album. They're raw, heavy, and unapologetically evil. Sure, the lyrics are just raw Satanic lunacy. But the riffs and the production values create this atmosphere of pure diabolical murder. I'm still impressed at how vicious the ...

Day Seventeen. At the Gates is my favorite death metal band. While everyone tends to praise Slaughter of the Soul, I personally hail The Red in the Sky is Ours as their best. I would even go as far as claiming that it's the best death metal album ever. I am quite possibly literally alone in this. There's plenty of quality death metal to choose from. Gorgut's Obscura, Demilich's Nespithe, Entombed's Left Hand Path, Suffocation's Effigy of the Forgotten, Atheist's Unquestionable Presence. Hell, not too many people prefer The Red in the Sky is Ours over Slaughter of the Soul. Why on Earth do I rank this album higher than every single one of those? For starters, At the Gates where really the first to constantly play two melodies, sometimes even three, at once throughout the entire course of every song on an album. Well above ninety percent of bands have two guitarists play the same exact riff all the time. Once in a while, they will...

Day Fifteen. Fates Warning has two albums that are equally as good, perhaps even better, than anything Iron Maiden has done. That includes monumental albums like Powerslave and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. And John Arch is equally capable as Bruce Dickinson. That's a huge claim for a band that's not nearly as beloved as Iron Maiden. But it wouldn't be anything new for a relatively unknown band to be as good as a more reknowned one. Would you seriously believe Nickelback is better than Rush? Fates Warning was one of the very first progressive metal bands, and they do everything absolutely right. They got your sweet riffs, catchy melodies, soaring vocals, and cohesive song writing to go with it. But these are all average things that make any band sound good.  Fates Warning explore the same topics of daring and adventure as Iron Maiden. In fact, the musical similarities are difficult to ignore.  Iron Maiden focused on writing tight, catchy, yet still musically ambitious s...

Day Sixteen. The "Why?" EP from Discharge is one of the best batch of songs ever. A question some folks might as is "what was the first extreme music band?" You might respond with "well death and black metal" was started by bands like Death and Mayhem. But, really, they where just an extension of what bands like Slayer and Hellhammer where doing before that. So maybe they where the first? Well, Slayer and Hellhammer are really just extensions of Venom and Discharge. So maybe  they where the first. What came before them was Motorhead and Judas Priest. I don't think anybody would consider those guys extreme music. It all depends on what you define extreme music to be and where you draw the line. I personally believe it starts here with Discharge's "Why?" EP. Both Venom and Discharge are probably the bands that influenced extreme music the most. Both had ultra lo-fi raw production. Both where louder and faster than anything that came be...

Day Fourteen. When you first get into extreme metal, you kind of want to see just how far these bands can take it. What's the most brutal, crazy, technical, and extreme thing anyone has ever committed to tape? A number of bands set out to out-offend and out-gross normies in the most predictable manner possible: just downtune the guitars, make the vocals really guttural, and play as load and as fast as you can. It's great fun and all, but it loses its luster after about five minutes. What Gorguts presented here with "Obscura" was a different way to go about it. I first heard Gorguts in the heyday of file sharing programs such as kazaa, limewire, and imesh. Searching for extreme metal, I downloaded the song "La Vie Est Prelude". The first thought that entered my head was "what in the hell?" I was already into some fairly brutal stuff like Cryptopsy, Suffocation, and Deicide at the time. But Gorguts was something else. It goes beyond just being fas...

Day Thirteen. I first started listening to The Chasm back in high school around 2004 for the album "The Spell of Retribution". It would be five long years before the would release another album. But, boy, that wait was worth it. I think this is their best album. I would constantly listen to this album as I was doing my MAT 371 homework at ASU. For those that don't know, that class is tough, man. It was nice to listen to something that motivated to continue when things got di fficult. How could anyone not feel motivated while listening to this? You can easily picture yourself as combatant facing a worthy adversary; determined to overcome all weakness in order to clinch that victory. Most bands play one riff at a time, repeat it several times, then move on to the next one. The Chasm is one of the few bands that will play two or more riffs at the same time throughout the entire song. The riffs themselves are powerful. They carry all of the familiar heavy metal tropes ...

Day Twelve. I used to skateboard back in elementary and middle school. A friend of mine gave me skateboard VHS. The only thing I remember from that tape was an awesome, groovy rock song that stayed in my head forever. There was no way for me to know the name of the band or song. The only way to listen to it was by playing the VHS tape over and over again. It wasn't until years later that I learned that the song was "Spirit of Radio" from the band called Rush. I fell in love w ithout even knowing her name. Now that I know her name, I love her even more. Rush is just one of those bands that everyone needs to listen to. And if you don't like Rush, it's because you're a bad person. The music itself puts you in a good mood. It injects confidence into your soul and the belief that you are in control of your own life. And no matter how tough things get, it will work out in the end. Feels good, man. It's impossible to discuss Rush without addressing the st...

Day Eleven. When I was in my first band, we covered Iron Maiden's "Aces High". The second band I was in covered "The Nightmare Continues". This song was no problem because every single Discharge song is literally just two riffs, a couple of chanted phrases, and one sloppy guitar solo. This is all to the back drop of an utterly simplistic rhythm called the "D-beat". The "D" is for Discharge. And there's literally a sub-genre of hardcore punk dedicated to ripping off Discharge .That's how influential these UK lads are. It's hard to explain to someone how such mindlessly simple music can be so good. Better than even your phrygian modes over 7/16 polyrythm users. Objectively, this is one of the worst albums ever made. What makes Discharge better than everyone lies in the execution of these songs. And damn. That execution is legendary. They performed with such tremendous urgency. The violence of the music would inspire literall...