Growwwrrrr.

Everybody's got a secret. Some grubby little factoid hiding under their carefully outfitted veneer that just doesn't quite fit their crafted idiom. Mine is that, in addition to having very normal white guy nerd rock taste in music (Death Cab, etc.), I like metal. Not just metal of the late 80s Metallica variety (though I heard a track off of Ride the Lightning Friday night at a bar and remembered how badass those dudes used to be before they cut their hair and sold out). But really, really grueling, violent, chaotic noise metal with vocals that sound like banshee shrieks and demon growls. Like the soundtrack to the world ending by a tidal wave of fire and glass shards.

What this means, of course, is that I was really happy to see an article on Sunn O))) in the NYT Sunday Magazine (although I really don't get the appeal of Boris). They have a very decent song available for download at their record label's website (the label is named, appropriately enough, Southern Lord). I am also impressed with Becoming the Archetype (who you can hear at PureVolume). I had thought that all the enjoyably brutal Christian metal bands disbanded several years ago, but these guys thrash pretty well, and they've got some great chops. Am I scaring you yet? I'll say it again: chops. Also, like Mr. Byrom at Pitchfork, I think the new Wolves in the Throne Room album is pretty good, and I highly recommend that all fans of ferocious, grating, aural blasts of rock-band noise check it out.