Deathraces & Their Shadows

Not to be the token where-did-the-time-go-holy-shit-I-must-be-getting-old guy, but holy shit. Where did the time go? I must be getting old.

Yep, we’re at the midpoint of 2011 already, and it’s been a wild fucking year.

Liturgy and Morbid Angel are pissing in cereal bowls across the metalverse, to hilarious effect. (My two cents on both bands: Liturgy lacks the mettle they boast, and The I Record doesn’t suck because it isn’t “pure death metal,” it sucks because the industrial interplay is sophomoric and dated. Both records had potential, but the execution was fucked.) 

Seth Putnam died, proving that nihilism will only get you so far in life. Literally. Like, to middle age. For as much as he (and the media) glorified his wanton drug use, his death (and that of Paul Baloff at a similar age years ago) only serves to prove that the fuck-it-all, metal/punk ethos of freewheeling self-destruction isn’t a noble enterprise. In an arena where the predominant philosophies are Satanism, humanism, atheism, or some cocktail thereof, there should be no room for acceptance of such reckless self-endangerment. Despite what the knuckle-dragging contingent would have you believe—again, fans and the media alike—there’s more to the metal lifestyle than violence, crudeness, and destruction. Hopefully the new generation will cast a better example than their meth-smoking, can-crushing forebears. 

But, enough of what sucked so far. Here’s what fuckin’ ruled:

• Primordial - Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand
• Blut Aus Nord - 777: Sect(s)
• Lifelover - Sjukdom
• The Devin Townsend Project - Ghost
• Sepulchre - I
• Burzum - Fallen
• Graveyard - Hisingen Blues
• 40 Watt Sun - The Inside Room
• Ravencult - Morbid Blood
• Valborg - Barbarian

Preliminary Top Ten, bitches. Still need to devote some quality time to the latest Aosoth, Loss, and Deceased offerings, ‘cause initial impressions are stunning—for wildly different reasons.

New, long-delayed edition of the Bazaar will drop next week. Stay tuned.