Who said Techno can't be Brutal?

[obscurehaven]

I just got back from driving around LA listening to what some may call a "blasphemy to the metal scene". It's funny to think that the most dedicated "Metal Heads" will toss aside a genre that is based off of "Metal" but at the same time retaining its unique and fascinating features. This genre that I speak of has no hyphen placed along side the word "metal"; the easiest way of describing the genre is to simply spell it out each component that makes this specific genre stand out, at times even brighter than any metal genre.

It was about 6 years ago and I was still discovering my way through all the different metal styles that began presenting themselves to me. At the time, I was very much into Black Metal and finding my way through Death Metal into Grindcore and my friend sent me an mp3 of a song called "Reality" by a band called "The Berzerker". He told that it was the freshest and most chaotic thing he has ever heard and when I heard the track I couldn't believe my ears. I had to listen to the track a couple times over because I couldn't believe a drummer could snare and bass pedal that fast. I was floored when I learned that "The Berzerker" was using a drum machine and effects to create a noisy, distorted sound for the drum kit. Soon after that, I started to find his older material that consisted of a more "Dance" oriented feel but with ripping guitars and growls that could slaughter any typical Death Metal band in half.

Visit my blog site for samples of the albums


For years now, I've held The Berzerker's older albums as some of the best examples of how, with creativity, metal can be extended beyond the usual punk, industrial, and grindcore genres. About a month ago, I stumbled across a project called, "Drumcorps" which was comprised of Breakcore, Drum n' Bass, and Hardcore-Metal. It was created by a single person, Aaron Spectre. Apperently, he has a great love of electronica, death metal, funk, and jazz. But on the "Drumcorps" project, he takes his love for grindcore, hardcore, and electronica and fuses them together to make a sound that, on more than one occasion, brutalizes harder than any grindcore song I've ever heard.

I could say exactly the same thing for Bong-Ra and his "Full Metal Racket" album but when I heard that album, I heard more originality in terms of taking his own vision of metal into his own hands. The difference between the Drumcorps album "Grist" and Bong-Ra's "Full Metal Racket" might be that "Grist" is samples based and "Full Metal Racket" sounds actually played to some extent. Hearing albums like these give me a small preview to what metal might evolve into later on down the line' the days of a metal band consisting of guitars, drums, and bass might start to dwindle down to a mic, a guitar, and a sampler.

Growing up a "metal head", I would look down upon a genre that didn't have its own people actually playing their parts on the song. But, once you get a chance to see how these artists create just the sound alone, its amazing to think that most people could actually not take them serious because the amount of time in creating a minute of music is very time consuming. You also have to give these artists a lot of credit due to the level of creativity for presenting these songs in the way they created them; did you ever think you could hear a song with samples of a man talking about how he enjoys the act of necrophilia in front of a crowd? Genres like these, artists like these are the ones pushing envelopes and pushing traditionalists down and leaving them in their dust.

[SouthernTrendkill]

Sounds good to me. I'm desperately in need of some kickass techno for tripping. It' so damn hard though because I have no clue where to look. There must be a hundred styles of techno and I'm not familiar with one of them. But thess Grindno/Techcore/Brutal Electronica (just making shit up here) albums sound kick ass, I'll have to look for it.

I don't think there's anything wrong with mixing metal with any style under the sun. To me, metal is the best template and best style in all of music, so it only makes sense that it would become a part of a lot of different things. I myself make music that people would probably consider blasphemous. I consider it black metal but it's on acoustic guitar so... and it's got a lot of post-rock in it. Or post-metal at least.

[Satanstoenail]

The Drumcorps stuff sounds pretty cool, not so into the Bong-Ra though.

I still find it funny how metalheads put all electronic music under one heading labeled "techno".

But yeah, good article/post/blog thing. I agree some of the heaviest and darkest musical noises I've ever heard have been courtesy of electronic music.

[vixTRON]

Yeah, Drumcorps is really good, and Bong-ra is pretty good.

But when I try to steer someone towards really good electronic I usually recommend Venetian Snares albums Rossz Csillag Allat Született and My Downfall (Original Soundtrack). These are IMO the absolute best the genre have to offer.

Another really good one is Aphex Twins album Drukqs

[Feathers & Flames]

Can someone give me download links? I've been looking on google for this stuff and can't find anything.

[Satanstoenail]

I just typed "drumcorps torrent" into google and it came up with a bunch of stuff. Please don't post download links for whole albums.

[NinjaGeek]

I like it, and electronic music definitely has a lot of potential for really heavy, dark, brutal music.

F&F check your PMs.

[Feathers & Flames]

I got them PMed to me. Listening to the Drumcorps album. I like it, but it will take a little getting used to.

[panzerfaust666]

Electronic music is great. Ive heard so much great shit.nice post thanks.

[Satanstoenail]

Originally Posted by vixTRON

But when I try to steer someone towards really good electronic I usually recommend Venetian Snares albums Rossz Csillag Allat Született and My Downfall (Original Soundtrack). These are IMO the absolute best the genre have to offer.

Another really good one is Aphex Twins album Drukqs

Yeah the IDM/breaks stuff is great, Squarepusher, Amon Tobin, SiBegg and Tipper are also really good. I'd definitely rate it higher creatively than this metal/breakcore stuff.