WKNC's Chainsaw Metal Weekly Top Ten Albums 6/14

Here are the chainsaw top ten this week, as compiled by Chainsaw Music Director, Cory Slep.

Rank
Artist
Recording
Label



1
SEPTICFLESH
The Great Mass
Season Of Mist



2
DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT
Deconstruction
Inside Out



3
AMON AMARTH
Surtur Rising
Metal Blade



4
BELPHEGOR
Blood Magick Necromance
Nuclear Blast



5
KAMPFAR
Mare
Napalm



6
TOMBS
Path Of Totality
Relapse



7
ARCH ENEMY
Khaos Legions
Century Media



8
BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE
Celestial Completion
Solid State



9
IKILLYA
Recon
Lekberg



10
MORBID ANGEL
Illud Divinum Insanus
Seasons of Mist

 

6/7 Chainsaw Metal Weekly Top Ten Albums

Here are the chainsaw top ten this week, as compiled by Chainsaw Music Director, Cory Slep.







 

 

Rank	Artist	Recording	Label
1	ANVIL	Juggernaut Of Justice	The End
2	SEPTICFLESH	The Great Mass	Season Of Mist
3	HAEMORRHAGE	Hospital Carnage	Relapse
4	AUTOPSY	Macabre Eternal	Peaceville
5	AMON AMARTH	Surtur Rising	Metal Blade
6	TYR	The Lay Of Thrym	Napalm
7	ANAAL NATHRAKH	Passion	Candlelight
8	ABYSMAL DAWN	Leveling The Plane Of Existence	Relapse
9	HATE ETERNAL	Phoenix Amongst The Ashes	Metal Blade
10	BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE	Celestial Completion	Solid State

5/31 Chainsaw Metal Weekly Top Ten Albums

Here are the chainsaw top ten, as compiled by Chainsaw Music Director, Cory Slep.







 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rank	Artist	Recording	Label
#1	AMON AMARTH	Surtur Rising	Metal Blade
#2	BELPHEGOR	Blood Magick Necromance	Nuclear Blast
#3	SEPTICFLESH	The Great Mass	Season Of Mist
#4	TYR	The Lay Of Thrym	Napalm
#5	HAEMORRHAGE	Hospital Carnage	Relapse
#6	AUTOPSY	Macabre Eternal	Peaceville
#7	KAMPFAR	Mare	Napalm
#8	BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE	Celestial Completion	Solid State
#9	CANNIBAL CORPSE	Evisceration Plague	Metal Blade
#10	ANAAL NATHRAKH	Passion	Candlelight

5/10 Chainsaw Metal Weekly Top Ten Albums

 

	Artist	Album	Label
#1	BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME	The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues	Metal Blade
#2	SEPTICFLESH	The Great Mass	Season of Mist
#3	ANAAL NATHRAKH	Passion	Candlelight
#4	SYMFONIA	In Paradisum	Eagle Rock
#5	SCAR SYMMETRY	The Unseen Empire	Nuclear Blast
#6	HATE ETERNAL	Phoenix Amongst the Ashes	Metal Blade
#7	AMON AMARTH	Surtur Rising	Metal Blade
#8	KAMPFAR	Mare	Napalm
#9	CHILDREN OF BODOM	Relentless Reckless Forever	Metal Blade
#10	ZOMBI	Escape Velocity	Relapse

Cannibal's Corner III: Borknagar and Amon Amarth

The heavyweight band is back with their latest album, and I won't try to sweeten any of what I have to say about Borknagar's latest. There are times when it really does take a knife to the intestines and lets out that nice fine ooze, but I felt that for much of the album I had to repeatedly dive headfirst into any bricks I came across. And if you didn't know, there's a mighty ton of bricks here at N.C. State.

I'm sure my colleague and fellow metalhead-in-crime Noobhammer wouldn't object to calling this piece of work "progressive" in some way, but I'm not a man of labels. I just know that past Havoc and Reason, the guitars aren't grinding my elbows to dust. Once I even took a flier from those folks on campus gathering attention for their cause by handing out dead tree pulp just so I could papercut my tongue with a pentagram

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate how they give those cuddly-type of music people their teddy bears and skin-moisturizing lotion, and I thoroughly enjoy black metal artists, but by the end I feel like this is a softer "Aealo" from Rotting Christ. Rotting Christ delivers the rot, Borknagar does not.



Now the Amon Amarth concert this past Tuesday was quite disembowling-- or satisfying in layman's terms. The first band to play was Pandah, and they did a good job getting the crowd worked up on chewing through their own cheeks. They were a refreshing mix of deathly speed and blackened keyboard gore. Next to play was Holy Grail, remnants of 80's speed metal both in sound and the singer's tight pants. His shrill was fierce, and we all enjoyed the feeling of leeches feasting from within our ear canal.

Both bands' styles, however, stood at a contrast to Týr and Amon Amarth. Their songs, based upon Nordic mythology and Scandinavian tales of viking warriors led some in the crowd to produce hammers and bash people's skulls inside out. Many wound up with a Hammer Smashed Face.

Týr did not disappoint, playing beloveds such as By The Sword In My Hand, Hail To The Hammer, and By The Light Of The Northern Star. Their stage presence was a nice menacing beast through which many lost pints of blood, fluids, and bile. By the time Amon Amarth arrived, the concrete floor was coated with a nice slippery mix of stomach acid, disfigured severed limbs, and organs. Nothing like free food.

Amon Amarth brought quite a light show with them, causing peoples' eyes to become hyperactive and either explode or pop out and dangle by that stretchy optic nerve. They opened with Twilight Of The Thunder God, where fans immediately lost all sense of self and began destroying each other in a mosh pit of flying gore. Johan, the singer, kept repeating between songs about how rockin' the people of Raleigh were. If only he could see the floor, where half the crowd was scattered about.

They wound up playing many bloody songs such as Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags, The Fate Of Norns, Down The Slopes Of Death, Cry Of The Black Birds, Under The Northern Star, Live For The Kill, and Guardians Of Asgaard to just name a few. Their destructive power, the packed venue, and the madness-inducing lights created an environment where it was impossible to not headbang and give Johan the horns. I could keep on describing the concert, but instead have a look (that is, if you've got eyes to spare at the moment) at the concert pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words, but these blurry pictures are worth the wading through pools of excrement and gore.

Cannibalosophy

If you were one of the fortunate people that happened to tune in during my last show, you got to listen to myself and three others discussing some of the deeper points surrounding music. While we were limiting our debate to metal, I believe that the points made by myself and guests Bartek, M.L. Dark Spawn, and WD40 can be applied to any genre. For those people that were not able to listen to the show, here I present to you the discussion we had.

Before I present the discussion itself, it's important that you understand each guest's music background. This can help shed light as to why they have different opinions. For instance, Bartek does not necessarily listen to Chainsaw Rock but does enjoy "anything that sounds good." Talking to him beforehand, I got the impression that he listens to quite an eclectic range of music, from artists such as All That Remains to 3OH!3. M.L. Dark Spawn enjoys music that have raw voices, in addition to Mudvayne and a couple power metal artists such as Dream Evil and Kamelot. WD40's base is epic power metal, like Nightwish from the Tarja era, and pagan metal like Amon Amarth.

The first question that I posed was to Bartek: are music or lyrics more important to a song? He responded that the music was the foundation to any song. And since we were discussing metal specifically, he continued by stating that many songs involving unintelligible lyrics are to be appreciated through their music anyway.

M.L. Dark Spawn responded that a person needs to have listened to metal for a while in order to fully understand the lyrics. Furthermore, he says that lyrics are important for the message of the song itself. Bartek countered that one shouldn't have to sit and decipher the message and instead just enjoy the music. "Just listen to the song more than once," M.L. Dark Spawn finished.

My next question was prompted by having Rammstein's new album next in the set. Since most all their songs are in German, I asked WD40 whether he felt that song lyrics needed to be in English in order to be appreciated. He disclosed that he had quite a large foreign song collection and that while songs in English help convey the message, they were not necessary to enjoy the song itself.

Playing "B********" from Rammstein after this discussion added another layer of musical philosophy. According to Richard Z. Kruspe, the lead singer and backing vocals for Rammstein, the title is not a censored English profanity but instead stands for "Bückstabü", a made-up German word. The reason for this is to allow the listener to imagine the title to mean whatever they want it to, even nothing.

So, this song listeners of both the "melody" camp and "lyrics" camp enjoy the song. Those with beliefs similar to Bartek can imagine the words mean nothing, and listen to the song as if the vocals were another instrument. On the other hand, those in company with M.L. Dark Spawn can imagine "Bückstabü" to present a message they want to hear.

Later in the night, we had new Megadeth playing. I asked WD40 if he thought bands famous for their "classic" material can produce new albums that live up to the "classic" expectations. He acknowledged that it is a question really up to personal opinion, and answered with a firm no. "I think their new albums can be fresh and they can still be good," he said, "but if you're going to compare it to the old albums then the bands change, the music changes, thus I don't think they hold up to the old standards."

Bartek disagreed. "You can't put a date on good music," he started, "I've heard the new Megadeth album and some of the songs that we are going to be playing and it's great. It's fantastic! It even compares to the stuff they used to make." M.L. Dark Spawn agreed, but noted that it really comes down to which band is making a style change, and each person's opinion.

This concluded our quasi-philosophical discussion about music for the night. Whether you are a firm lover of older metal, melodies, newer metal, lyrics, or a mix of the above, this discussion can provide a foundation for a journey of self-discovery about our attitudes about music.