Dream Death - Journey Into Mystery (1987)

As you should know by now, Celtic Frost is my goddamn favorite band. This is a nice slab of Celtic Frost worship, complete with extended, chromatic doom passages, and lightning fast sliding power chords over d-beats.

This is a weird record that doesn't quite sound like anything else that I'm aware of from this time. It's quite a bit slower than other emerging death metal bands, and it mostly avoids the bluesy shuffles and overt Sabbath worship of other doom bands (except for the extended shuffle solo section in "The Elder Race"). The rhythmic emphasis typically lies on the beat, giving it a very methodical, plodding feel. If you are a frown-lover, this album will give you plenty of opportunity to frown. The drum performance is also impressive, which is important for a band with so much space in their songs.

Dan Polak, you know about this record, right? Because if you don't, I think it will be your favorite thing.

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Alkaline Trio - Alkaline Trio (2000)

Just got back from a stint on the fucking Warped Tour defending pop punk with my doggs in This Time Next Year. Surreal and exhausting experience as a whole. I grew as a person a bit, and also delved into modernist fiction. As such, here is a Warped Tour related post. I made an effort to watch Alkaline Trio as many times as I could because they didn't always play the same setlist, and they were one of my favorite bands growing up in the post-Slapstick Chicago punk scene. My life was made up of teenage depression and shows at the Fireside & The Metro featuring The Lawrence Arms, The Honor System & Alkaline Trio. I don't think I ever saw Tuesday, though.

Anyway, this is a fantastic collection of raw pop punk songs where dudes obviously like The Misfits. Skiba always fakes the chorus the first time through, either by singing it an octave low or doing it instrumental or by skipping it altogether. Also, resolving a sixth up a half step to a power chord on the tonic is super common. Kind of a black metal sound, which is interesting because I had a brief conversation with Skiba about black metal and his Until the Light Takes Us shirt. I wonder if his interest in this musical subculture came before or after he wrote these songs.

Remember that I got into US Maple because of the lyrics to "Goodbye Forever." When a man says ow...

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