The Gothenburg Project 06.26.09: A History of Music, Part 2
Posted by Matt Shoemaker on 06.26.2009
The Gothenburg Project ends on a personal note, as, in my last column, I finish looking at the bands that shaped my life as a music lover and a musician. Come in and check it out!
Well, readers, however many of you there may be, it seems I've reached an impasse. Again, it's been a couple of weeks since I had something up for people to read, but I've been going through a lot of personal things that prevented me from writing. And in those couple of weeks, I realized this would be the last issue of The Gothenburg Project. For reasons I'm not really going to get into, I decided it would be better to put this column to rest. I want to thank everyone who's read and commented on this column. It's been an awesome experience, and it's definitely one of the highlights of my writing career. I'll still be around on 411, working on album reviews, so I hope all of you that liked this column would check those out.
So let's get on to the music this week, since that's what you're all here to read about. Like I said in my last column, Metallica, In Flames, and Slipknot are the three biggest bands in my life. So I'm gonna give a bit of a rundown on how each band affected my life, making me the music lover, and musician, that I am today.
Like I said before, things started out with Metallica. And like I said when discussing my discovery of them in seventh grade, from the first chords of that acoustic guitar on "Battery", I knew I was hooked. Metallica is, and always has been, to me, the epitome of a metal band. Their debut album, Kill Em All, is pure magic, and it showcased a talent that was only just beginning to grow. Ironically, Master of Puppets was not the first Metallica album I owned. At the time, my parents were a little bit hesitant to let me listen to stuff like that, but I didn't care. Like I said, it was something that pushed me down a new path in life, and I wasn't about to ignore it, turn around, and go home. During a trip to Cleveland, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, I bought Ride The Lightning. I was incredibly impressed by this album, by the awesome mix of power in songs like the title track, "For Whom The Bell Tolls", and the haunting, almost evil "Call of Ktulu", and awesome lyrics in "Fight Fire With Fire" and "Creeping Death".
As time went on, I found myself loving the band more and more. I would always walk into school listening to one of their albums (I had borrowed and burned copies of …Justice, Load, and ReLoad. I can't recall how many times I got yelled at by teachers to take my headphones off in the hallway, or got teased by other students for listening to stuff like that (I went to a high school were rap and techno were dominant over all else, and people didn't understand a band like Metallica). I was so impressed with the technicality, the power, the speed, and of course, the drums. Lars has always impressed me as a drummer, especially with their new album, doing things on the drums that not many people his age can probably do. To this day, Master of Puppets remains my favorite song, and album, of all time. Seeing the band in concert in February was one of the greatest moments of my life, bringing me to tears multiple times.
That's not to say the band hasn't let me down a few times. While I love the Black Album, Load and Reload were a pretty big disappointment. Gone was the thrash, the long hair, the in your face attitude. Here was a softer, more "in touch with their feelings" Metallica. There were a few good songs on both albums, but there really was nothing redeeming about either. But those albums are gold compared to the joke of a release from '03, St. Anger. There were flashes of brilliance on this album, as some parts of the songs were pretty inventive, sounded great, or could have turned into something absolutely spectacular, but those flashes were trying to shine through a wall of shit. Terrible overall song structure, horrid production values, and the lack of guitar solos, the thing that made the band legendary, absolutely killed this album for me. And apparently, the band learned from their mistakes, as they didn't even mention playing anything from those three albums on tour. At least they know what their fans want.
Since I mentioned Lars being an influence on me as a musician, it would be unfair of me to mention Slipknot, as Joey Jordison was my idol growing up as a drummer.
I got into the band around the time of the release of their self titled album, and to me, they've just gotten better, and more mature, as a band. A lot of people hate on Slipknot for selling out, or for being the cause of their children's problems. With any band that causes as much controversy in just looking like they do, there's bound to be some issues. I remember watching, on VHS, "Welcome To Our Neighborhood", the band's home video debut, and being amazed at the look, the intensity, and the sound of nine people playing in unison.
Songs like "Wait and Bleed", "Eyeless", and "Surfacing" blew me away with their speed and intensity, while songs like "Purity" and "Tattered and Torn" showed a much darker side of the band. However, all these songs together showed me that music could be whatever you wanted it to be. Never did I imagine a band so visceral, so completely uncensored, and never did I imagine myself loving them as much as I did Slipknot.
With the release of "Iowa", the band kept ripping through their critics, keeping the same intensity, and amplifying it, lyrically, thematically, and musically, producing some of the most intense, hateful music I've heard in my lifetime. "People=Shit" and "Disasterpiece" are pure vitriol, cutting down everything and everyone in the way of the band, as they continued to not give a shit who they offended. "Left Behind" and "My Plague", while still solid tracks, showed the band slipping into that more radio friendly mode that people criticize them for now. However, "Gently" takes the cake for best song on the album, as it starts off with a creepy, gut-twisting bassline, and accelerates into mayhem for the remainder of the track.
Finally, we reach the band that introduced me to what I've been writing about on here for the past 8 months, In Flames.
Like I mentioned previously, I got into In Flames a bit during high school, hearing about them through my band mates. We listened to a few songs from each album of their career, and I was always into the band, but when I hit my sophomore year of college (two years ago), I really began exploring the band's work, as well as seeing them live. My roommate at the time, Mike, was a huge fan of melodic death metal, and In Flames was his favorite band, so we listened to them quite a bit. While the band doesn't have any personal depth to me, such as Metallica or Slipknot do, they're still one of my favorite bands, and one of the most influential to me as a musician. The style I play now, and the style my band plays, come to think of it, are very similar to In Flames.
One of the coolest things about the band is how much they've influenced other bands, mine included. And that's not just limited to melodic death metal bands. Artists like As I Lay Dying, Darkest Hour, and Still Remains all name In Flames as one of their biggest influences. Crossing genres to influence music like that is very impressive to me.
One of the best things about In Flames is the fact that they manage to hide very strong death metal riffs behind incredible melodies. They make sure the forefront of their music is devoted to melody, and leave the death metal as almost a secondary aspect of their music. This becomes a lot clearer in their later work, especially their last album, A Sense Of Purpose. Even Anders Friden's screams take on a new tone in the new work, focusing more on a strained, emotional delivery than guttural screaming.
My Grand Finale
Before I leave this column, I'll leave some advice for anyone who cares enough to take it. Don't be afraid to explore new kinds of music. Take chances. Listen to bands you normally wouldn't, or ones that your friends don't listen to. Be unique. There's tons of fantastic bands, musicians, and artists out there, so take a chance and find some of them. If I didn't branch out my taste in music, I wouldn't be who I am today. So yeah, I listen to a lot of metal, but I also listen to classic rock, ska, hip hop, electronic, jazz, country, and anything else I can get my hands on. Don't let other people's opinions affect what you listen to. Who gives a shit if your friends think you're lame for listening to something they don't. It's all about your personal taste, not theirs. And if you're a musician, don't stop working towards your goal. Playing music was the best thing I ever took up, and it's all I want to do, for as long as I can. Don't let anyone dissuade you from your dream.
I thank everyone for making my time as a columnist here at 411 enjoyable, for all the readers, all the commenters, and my fellow columnists. You'll see more of me wherever I can write, so be it album reviews, Top 5's, or Roundtables, I'll be around. Thank you all once again, and for the last time, take care.
