Thursday, November 24, 2011

"More meditative than violent."

Found this very good article from New York magazine about "doom metal," written back in 2007. The author, Joe Hagan, is a non-metal fan who writes about Boris, Sunn, and Southern Lord Records, without the insincerity or condescension that usually accompanies these kinds of articles in the mainstream media. I'm not a huge fan of Southern Lord, but props to anything that earns this kind of sincere and intelligent praise from an actual journalist. Classic quotes from the article:

"Imagine if someone put a microphone to rows of ocean waves battering a rocky shore and then ran the result through distortion pedals and a wall of eight-foot amplifiers."

"Little wonder that doom-metal bands have names that wouldn’t be out of place at the local yoga center: Om, Ocean, Earth. It’s extreme-volume therapy, a spa treatment in black Satan T-shirts."

Welcome to the dark side, Mr. Hagan. If all-encompassing doom/drone floats your boat, then someone needs to send you the Black Boned Angel discography, immediately.