Metal fans have always gotten a bad rap from the populace at large. An easy target for pretentious new-school douchebags smugly snickering their way through Heavy Metal Parking Lot, the genre maintains the same quotient of sub-literate bozos as any other, but with a refreshing lack of pretension (for the most part). The corpse-paint set are pretty silly, but talk to the average adult metal fan who’s favorite artist isn’t Pantera or isn’t Cradle Of Filth and you’ll find them to be an educated, well-mannered lot. It’s the new-school of contemporary metal vocals that may well be the main stumbling block for the average punter. The at best barked/at worst unintelligible vocals that typify the genre tend to obfuscate any intelligent commentary you’d find therein.
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When Decibel Magazine declared Torche’s Meanderthal as the #1 release of 2008, I was immediately skeptical. Having only seen them once before (foolishly stone sober) opening up for Isis, I immediately recognized that Torche is a gem to the ears of their adorers and either you get it, or you don’t. Fortunately, I have become the converted and am now incessantly addicted to the spiritual drug Meanderthal dishes out — sweepingly brooding yet catchy, with the stoner rock sensibilities that coddle die-hard Sleep fans but stokes out the Queens of the Stone Age hard-on we hold on to so dearly.
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Yesterday we received a cryptic e-mail from a friend stating that Shrinebuilder will enter the studio no later than January 10 and that we should post it immediately. Why? We asked. Because Shrinebuilder is comprised of Scott “Wino” Weinrich of Saint Vitus and Hidden Hand, Dale Crover of The Melvins, Scott Kelly of Neurosis and Al Cisneros of Om.
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