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Oct. 7th, 2007 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miko2After all that research into world metal yesterday I had to go back to check out a few bands in particular. Most of what I found falls into one of the extreme metal categories -- such as death metal or black metal -- and because bands all over the world hope to become world-famous, they usually want to write songs in English (the language of rock and roll, and especially metal). But strangely enough, a death metal band that sings in English sounds pretty much the same regardless if they come from Eastern Europe, South America, or Singapore. Even if they don't sing in English, who's to know? It's death metal. You can't possibly understand them anyway.
So when all is said and done, just because I tracked down doznes of obscure groups in obscure corners of the globe yesterday doesn't mean I'm interested in owning all of that stuff. Frankly, I like music that's different, and I'm not a huge fan of standard death or black metal. It wold be pretty cool to own a metal cd from Central Africa, for example, but if it were just standard death metal then I probably wouldn't bother, because I wouldn't listen to it.
Taiwanese Symphonic Goth Metal Of all the bands I reasearched yesterday, the one I was most interested in was Taiwan's Seraphim Most of the time metal bands give away their style/sound by what type of album cover they use -- it's a kind of code. Usually, anyway. Seraphim's cds were beautiful dreamscape images that reminded me of Yes and gothic/symphonic metal bands like Nightwish, Lunatica, Visions of Atlantis, Edenbridge. And in fact that's precisely what they are: symphonic, operatic metal with female vocals (as you can hear at the above link, their myspace page). Well, that's right up my alley!
After searching the web for places to buy their cds, I came across a few possibilities. You can find their current cd at amazon.com for expensive import prices (a used copy is selling for $14.99 though).
The same cd is available at CD Japan. I've ordered from them before, specifically anime soundtracks and cds by the Japanese metal band Feels So Bad.
Some of their stuff can be found at YesAsia.com, a kind of Asian Amazon.com catering to China, Japan and Korea specifically it seems. Another good place to get Asian cds from! I haven't ordered from there but they provide international shipping, list things in US dollar amounts, and take credit cards. Also I found this delightful Engrish review for one of their other cds:
"This band is full with high technik for playing music, especially inguitar part. the operatic female vocal is power with high piitch, andthe male death voice also sounds thrill,
very good album sounds.
Ijust wondering the band come from Taiwan, what a amazing band I neverknow, if you like speed guitar solo, madness double bass drums, youshould check out this album!"
Other places to find obscure metal cds include gemm.com and The Omega (The End). However, I can also get all three of their studio cds via Ebay, and for prices in the $15 range including s&h. Woo!
I had to order this one, they sound too cool. It's the kind of band I'd pick up even if they were just another Finnish or Dutch goth metal band.
Taiwanese Death Metal I also decided to check out another Taiwanese band -- ChthoniC. I'm glad I did, because this is not simply uber-harsh death metal, but melodic symphonic metal with death metal vocals, and also some female vocals and traditional instruments (although ultimately they're still pretty much a death metal band). They have a myspace page so you can check 'em out. They're even on iTunes and eMusic so I can download a few tracks to try them out. (And may I just add here that some of these bands I've never heard of from other places in the world have web sites that look awesome, and cd covers that look awesome. ChthoniC's web site is impressive, if a little gruesome.) Also, the band wears whiteface with black design makeup a la Kiss, but this serves a particularly Chinese purpose:
"Although the band's image might recall the black metal legends of Scandinavia, in truth ChthoniC's visual inspiration comes from Taiwanese folklore, in which corpse paint allows certain deities the power to judge good and evil. Similarly, the band's symphonic blackmetal features a decidedly Oriental twist, as the group prominently features the "hena" (also known as the "erhu"), a traditional Eastern two-stringed violin known for its weepy and melancholy sound."
This is a brand of death metal that I can listen to. I'm not a big fan of death metal overall, but I do like well-done melodic death/black metal (Wintersun for example), and the Taiwanese/Asian touches make this particular band more intriguing. ^_^ And actually their cds can be found even on Amazon.com, and used for very reasonable prices (less than $10).
Chinese Progressive Metal The Tang Dynasty is another band I was interested in, because they are the "original" Chinese metal band and are apparently quite popular. They play progressive metal which is mixed with some Chinese Opera (according to what I read). Okay, sounds fascinating, where do I sign up for it? Well as it turns out, their music is on iTunes and eMusic and available on Amazon so they're not all that obscure or hard to come by. I downloaded a couple of t racks to listen to, so I can decided if I really am interested in a full cd of theirs.
Chiliean Folk Metal I checked out Tengwar's web page, and their music is right up my alley. Their name comes from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth script, so right off you know what brand of folk metal we're dealing with here -- fantasy Tolkien elf metal. Their cd (demo really) only contains two songs, but the good news is you can download those songs from their web site, and they're well worth listening to! I like 'em, I hope they put out a full cd.
Ukranian Christian Folk/Death Metal This would be Holy Blood, a band that grabbed my attention immediately based only on their description. Well despite a very promising combination of folk metal plus Christian heavy metal and some ultra-cool fantasy album covers, what we actually have here is weighed very heavily to the extreme end of folk metal... more black metal with folk melodies added. So after giving them a listen (they're available through Amazon.com and on eMusic, plus you can download four of their tracks from their web site -- they also have a myspace page), I probably will pass on buying any of their cds. I downloaded one of their songs so we'll see, it may grow on me, but my first impression wasn't the same as with Tengwar, who play the brand of folk metal that I really like.
Moroccan Death Metal: You can download music from The Nightmare's web site. They fall into the "sounds like death metal from anywhere" category so the only reasons you would download them is if you really like death metal, or you think it's neat to own music from a death metal band in Morocco. Still, it's free, so I did it. ^_^ After all I don't own any other metal from Africa -- even South Africa doesn't have much of a metal scene, apparently.
Indian Death Metal I followed up the links on the band I listed, Demonic Resurrection, but they are a very extreme death metal band so it's not the kind of music I would ever listen to. Still, I followed some of their links to see how you could get ahold of their music. The band leader has his own music label/store, but it's a very small operation. He carries 1-10 cds of several other Indian bands, some of which he's produced, and you can buy them if you call ahead of time and then drop by to see him. Heh. ^_^ He also fills orders by mail to anywhere in India I think, but if I were interested in getting a cd from him I'd have to e-mail him personally it seems.
However in my exploring I checked out another Indian metal band called Acrid Semblance who I believe are "signed" to the Demonic Resurrection guy's label. These guys are much more melodic. They're described as "melodic death metal" but when I listen to them it sounds similar to Ensiferum or Wintersun -- bands that have death metal vocals but very melodic heavy metal underneath. That kind of stuff I like! I poked around a while trying to find out where I could download their songs or buy the cd. I found where I could download tracks from their earlier cd but that didn't sound nearly as good. I found a web site where I would be able to download one track if I subscribed first, but I didn't do that right away. Then I did a search on Ebay. Bingo! CD available for only $5.99 plus $2.00 postage! God bless Ebay! That place has done more for the distribution of music around the world than any other site I could name. I can't order this cd online anywhere but I can get it on Ebay.
Polish Death Metal Well actually I'm not that interested in this band since they're straight-up death metal, but I thought I would mention that Poland's Behemoth is not simply available on Amazon.com, but you can buy individual song downloads just like on iTunes. Of course, you can get all of their stuff at iTunes too. I just think it's cool that extreme music like this thrives in former communist states, and is available worldwide. ^_^
It's also a curious aspect of this kind of music that bands the world over will work hard to sing in English, but even die-hard black metal/death metal fans in their reviews will admit that generally you can't understand what they're singing in any case.
So when all is said and done, just because I tracked down doznes of obscure groups in obscure corners of the globe yesterday doesn't mean I'm interested in owning all of that stuff. Frankly, I like music that's different, and I'm not a huge fan of standard death or black metal. It wold be pretty cool to own a metal cd from Central Africa, for example, but if it were just standard death metal then I probably wouldn't bother, because I wouldn't listen to it.
Taiwanese Symphonic Goth Metal Of all the bands I reasearched yesterday, the one I was most interested in was Taiwan's Seraphim Most of the time metal bands give away their style/sound by what type of album cover they use -- it's a kind of code. Usually, anyway. Seraphim's cds were beautiful dreamscape images that reminded me of Yes and gothic/symphonic metal bands like Nightwish, Lunatica, Visions of Atlantis, Edenbridge. And in fact that's precisely what they are: symphonic, operatic metal with female vocals (as you can hear at the above link, their myspace page). Well, that's right up my alley!
After searching the web for places to buy their cds, I came across a few possibilities. You can find their current cd at amazon.com for expensive import prices (a used copy is selling for $14.99 though).
The same cd is available at CD Japan. I've ordered from them before, specifically anime soundtracks and cds by the Japanese metal band Feels So Bad.
Some of their stuff can be found at YesAsia.com, a kind of Asian Amazon.com catering to China, Japan and Korea specifically it seems. Another good place to get Asian cds from! I haven't ordered from there but they provide international shipping, list things in US dollar amounts, and take credit cards. Also I found this delightful Engrish review for one of their other cds:
"This band is full with high technik for playing music, especially inguitar part. the operatic female vocal is power with high piitch, andthe male death voice also sounds thrill,
very good album sounds.
Ijust wondering the band come from Taiwan, what a amazing band I neverknow, if you like speed guitar solo, madness double bass drums, youshould check out this album!"
Other places to find obscure metal cds include gemm.com and The Omega (The End). However, I can also get all three of their studio cds via Ebay, and for prices in the $15 range including s&h. Woo!
I had to order this one, they sound too cool. It's the kind of band I'd pick up even if they were just another Finnish or Dutch goth metal band.
Taiwanese Death Metal I also decided to check out another Taiwanese band -- ChthoniC. I'm glad I did, because this is not simply uber-harsh death metal, but melodic symphonic metal with death metal vocals, and also some female vocals and traditional instruments (although ultimately they're still pretty much a death metal band). They have a myspace page so you can check 'em out. They're even on iTunes and eMusic so I can download a few tracks to try them out. (And may I just add here that some of these bands I've never heard of from other places in the world have web sites that look awesome, and cd covers that look awesome. ChthoniC's web site is impressive, if a little gruesome.) Also, the band wears whiteface with black design makeup a la Kiss, but this serves a particularly Chinese purpose:
"Although the band's image might recall the black metal legends of Scandinavia, in truth ChthoniC's visual inspiration comes from Taiwanese folklore, in which corpse paint allows certain deities the power to judge good and evil. Similarly, the band's symphonic blackmetal features a decidedly Oriental twist, as the group prominently features the "hena" (also known as the "erhu"), a traditional Eastern two-stringed violin known for its weepy and melancholy sound."
This is a brand of death metal that I can listen to. I'm not a big fan of death metal overall, but I do like well-done melodic death/black metal (Wintersun for example), and the Taiwanese/Asian touches make this particular band more intriguing. ^_^ And actually their cds can be found even on Amazon.com, and used for very reasonable prices (less than $10).
Chinese Progressive Metal The Tang Dynasty is another band I was interested in, because they are the "original" Chinese metal band and are apparently quite popular. They play progressive metal which is mixed with some Chinese Opera (according to what I read). Okay, sounds fascinating, where do I sign up for it? Well as it turns out, their music is on iTunes and eMusic and available on Amazon so they're not all that obscure or hard to come by. I downloaded a couple of t racks to listen to, so I can decided if I really am interested in a full cd of theirs.
Chiliean Folk Metal I checked out Tengwar's web page, and their music is right up my alley. Their name comes from J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth script, so right off you know what brand of folk metal we're dealing with here -- fantasy Tolkien elf metal. Their cd (demo really) only contains two songs, but the good news is you can download those songs from their web site, and they're well worth listening to! I like 'em, I hope they put out a full cd.
Ukranian Christian Folk/Death Metal This would be Holy Blood, a band that grabbed my attention immediately based only on their description. Well despite a very promising combination of folk metal plus Christian heavy metal and some ultra-cool fantasy album covers, what we actually have here is weighed very heavily to the extreme end of folk metal... more black metal with folk melodies added. So after giving them a listen (they're available through Amazon.com and on eMusic, plus you can download four of their tracks from their web site -- they also have a myspace page), I probably will pass on buying any of their cds. I downloaded one of their songs so we'll see, it may grow on me, but my first impression wasn't the same as with Tengwar, who play the brand of folk metal that I really like.
Moroccan Death Metal: You can download music from The Nightmare's web site. They fall into the "sounds like death metal from anywhere" category so the only reasons you would download them is if you really like death metal, or you think it's neat to own music from a death metal band in Morocco. Still, it's free, so I did it. ^_^ After all I don't own any other metal from Africa -- even South Africa doesn't have much of a metal scene, apparently.
Indian Death Metal I followed up the links on the band I listed, Demonic Resurrection, but they are a very extreme death metal band so it's not the kind of music I would ever listen to. Still, I followed some of their links to see how you could get ahold of their music. The band leader has his own music label/store, but it's a very small operation. He carries 1-10 cds of several other Indian bands, some of which he's produced, and you can buy them if you call ahead of time and then drop by to see him. Heh. ^_^ He also fills orders by mail to anywhere in India I think, but if I were interested in getting a cd from him I'd have to e-mail him personally it seems.
However in my exploring I checked out another Indian metal band called Acrid Semblance who I believe are "signed" to the Demonic Resurrection guy's label. These guys are much more melodic. They're described as "melodic death metal" but when I listen to them it sounds similar to Ensiferum or Wintersun -- bands that have death metal vocals but very melodic heavy metal underneath. That kind of stuff I like! I poked around a while trying to find out where I could download their songs or buy the cd. I found where I could download tracks from their earlier cd but that didn't sound nearly as good. I found a web site where I would be able to download one track if I subscribed first, but I didn't do that right away. Then I did a search on Ebay. Bingo! CD available for only $5.99 plus $2.00 postage! God bless Ebay! That place has done more for the distribution of music around the world than any other site I could name. I can't order this cd online anywhere but I can get it on Ebay.
Polish Death Metal Well actually I'm not that interested in this band since they're straight-up death metal, but I thought I would mention that Poland's Behemoth is not simply available on Amazon.com, but you can buy individual song downloads just like on iTunes. Of course, you can get all of their stuff at iTunes too. I just think it's cool that extreme music like this thrives in former communist states, and is available worldwide. ^_^
It's also a curious aspect of this kind of music that bands the world over will work hard to sing in English, but even die-hard black metal/death metal fans in their reviews will admit that generally you can't understand what they're singing in any case.
