Month Without Metal, Week 3: The Final Countdown
In all of my wisdom I have elected to give up metal for the month of February. What follows below is a recap of life without my preferred genre and all of the discovery and suffering that entails. Oh, and playlists! There are playlists, too. Please, won’t you come join me so I don’t have to suffer alone?
This week was, for lack of a better term, weird. It wasn’t quite the struggle that last week was, but I wasn’t exactly enjoying myself either. While I came across a handful of new acts that I enjoyed, the fact that I crossed over the halfway mark put me in total countdown mode. Every passing day was just one day closer to the finish line. Every album was just one step closer to freedom.
The man we’ve lovingly come to know as Mailmanbro made sure to make every day as difficult as possible by delivering albums from Bathory, Dismember, Emperor, Nails, and Blut Aus Nord. I’ve never been so disappointed coming home from work and seeing a Bathory LP. It feels like at this rate tomorrow I’ll be delivered some never before released Leviathan session B-Sides tomorrow just to drive the dagger a little deeper (and yes, I am blaming all of this on the mailman and not the fact that I ordered this shit while on metal sabbatical. Fuckin’ mailman.)
On the positive side, I can say that listening to Illmatic by Nas was indeed a great idea. I had no idea the album was held in such high regard, and after finally listening to it I can understand why. “NY State of Mind” was a constant repeat listen throughout the week. This week was also the firs time I’ve given some serious time to Toilet faves Death Grips. I’ll give you a moment to catch your breath from all the gasping I’m sure you’re doing. Good? Good. I’ve mainly been hooked on The Money Store with a brief listen to No Love, Deep Web thrown in. This has probably been my favorite thing to listen to all week. As far as hip hop goes (that I’m familiar with, anyway) this is so strange and so goddamn catchy. MC Ride’s lone speed setting seems to be “RAGE HARD” and it leads to quite a cathartic experience, even on the catchier cuts like “I’ve Seen Footage.”
I was also loaned a couple of albums by recommended artists Jedi Mind Tricks and Aesop Rock. I think Jedi Mind Tricks will probably find their way into my gym playlist in some form or another, while Aesop Rock was good to throw a beer back to. On top of the new discoveries I continued my on and off relationship with Kanye West. As he continues his media free fall it only felt right to look back on how good his music can be in contrast with what a crazy asshole he is. No amount of fingers in the booty will take away how good of a track “Amazing” is. Oh, there was also some Alanis, but when isn’t there?
I hope that as I enter the final stretch I’ll be re-energized. This week felt like musical lethargy. I listened to the music and I liked the music, but most of the time it felt like I was just doing it to pass the time and not because I was excited to. There’s only a week to go and I hope that the end being in sight will get me fired up, so to speak. It might even help me stay noided.
Man, that’s the weirdest playlist yet isn’t it? You probably forgot about Busdriver, didn’t you? Was anyone else rocking the shit out of Careless Whisper before Deadpool made it cool? To the comments!
