mien_mo_man

By "the end of metalheads," I meant the end of the paladins, the bastions, those who write in capital letters LONG LIVE TO METAL, or HEAVY METAL RULES, etc... The fanatics, in short. I hate any form of fanaticism, and among metalheads, the fanatics seem to be quite a few. The end of metalheads is not about listening to Evoken. Then everyone can think what they believe: for the kind of person I am (Giocoliere understood perfectly), I absorb entirely the negativity and positivity that surrounds me. I don't claim to be in a constant search for what makes me feel good, and I consider myself an "aberrant individual" (that's how Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, would define me), like almost everyone around. At the same time, I am capable of listening to music, reading literature by aberrant individuals, and talking to aberrant individuals, but it's always and nonetheless the vital part within them that engages me. Well, this vital part is absent in funeral doom. And since I absorb like a sponge, I keep myself away from absorbing the stench of this music. Tepes, can I suggest you two readings or at least a website for books to change things up a bit? What I read in Tepes's post shows what I have long suspected: from what I see, your vitality is at a minimum. Maybe Tepes or Staypower would survive this endless struggle with dignity, but if I were in their place, I wouldn't, especially if I listen to funeral. Life shouldn't be a struggle; life is a wonderful becoming. Always, and despite Evoken. And Berlusconi.

If you click on my name, you will find the photo of Marius Scalesi, a cursed Sicilian-Tunisian poet. Scalesi, son of a Tuscan and a Sicilian if I'm not mistaken, lived in almost total poverty in Tunis. At the age of 5, he fell down the stairs of his home and was left disabled. From then on, he rejected every attempt at socialization, every effort to integrate into society; when he received intellectual guests, he would hide in the shadows. Those who knew him knew that he always carried a copy of Les Fleurs Du Mal with him; there is a poem called "LAPIDATION" in which he recounts how children mocked him by throwing stones at him... He went insane and died in a Palermo asylum at thirty-something. The phrase in French that I quote is eloquent, and if you translate it, you will notice that he throws his amethysts, his precious stones, his art, dedicating his heart and talent to the people, the very same people who cursed him, who did not understand his misfortune, his poverty, his problems, who left him alone to go mad and then die. And he loves, he continues to love. He suffers, for sure, he suffers so desperately that he goes mad (the photo that depicts him, in my opinion beautiful, was taken in the Palermo asylum shortly before he died), but you can see, and you can read, that he loves life. I'm not saying that this world is a paradise, but I say there is so much love in the world and within us, and that the world, that life in general or our life in particular, whether we like it or not, we need to express our love and the world needs our love. JE VOUS JETTE MES AMETHISTES, O FRERES QUI M'AVEZ MAUDIT!

Well, of course death is depicted by countless artists and in numerous genres. As a fan of rock and pop rock, I can't pretend to ignore albums and bands that are depressed but also self-satisfied with their endless depression. But extreme metal goes well beyond self-satisfaction, and the poses of extreme metalheads are the most absurdly unacceptable. Moreover, in depressed music—be it pop, alt rock, or whatever you want—even Marco Masini, if you like, you can notice that, whiny or not, the artist is still anchored to life; they are not truly resigned. It's as if they are saying, "life sucks, YET...". Here, this YET is absent in funeral doom. In funeral doom, there's just "life sucks, and death sucks, and everything sucks, and there is no hope, and there never has been, and there never will be, and you are a self-cannibalistic zombie without knowing it, and you start to decompose before even dying, and you don't realize it," and so on... I also like Quietus's music, and it seems really well-made, but by the end of the listening, the spiral of life had turned into a long, flat, horizontal line. For my sensitivity and my attachment to life that I've developed, I couldn’t survive a week of funeral doom: I would end up “unconsciously” not wanting to move if, crossing the street, I saw a bus approaching in my direction. Here we're not talking about a desire to commit suicide; we are talking about not wanting to fend for oneself anymore, to save one’s skin, to manage oneself effectively in situations that, depending on what you choose, could lead to improvements or deteriorations. Pay attention, guys, the line between wanting to die and not wanting to live is thinner than you think.

Yes, okay, it's funny seeing the metalhead still playing the man on a mission, the defender, the paladin, the bastion. Metalheads are very convinced, and metal is a religion. And that’s why I don’t listen to metal: I’m afraid of ending up like them. However, you can’t disagree with me that when a black, funeral, or death doom album comes out, people slap it with a 1, primarily because they don’t understand the genre (I don’t understand black either) and don’t want to understand it, but above all, they contest artists (and reviewers) for all this wonderful display of the most vile things on this planet, imposing unacceptable standards of "perfection" such as the beauty of dying, the beauty of being in hell, the beauty of being the only survivors in a devastated world (quietus reviews), and so on... How can you link your life to this stuff? I understand and appreciate the self-irony of the character (even before being a reviewer) Tepes, someone who figured out that if he doesn't want to get 1s in the face (1s in the face are very brutal!), he has to use the subtle weapon of (self)-irony, but how the hell do you write stuff like "stunning album, it’ll feel like witnessing the cremation of your body, you can finally start your pre-death exercises with this album," or even "a fetid, infected place, where the air stinks of rot, where there’s no strength left to scream, where the gasp is a harmony" and expect everyone to follow you and say "yes, fantastic!" People need something that enhances their lives, not reduces them. In this, you funeral bands are vile. Life always tends to be more: the tree reaches towards the light with its branches; the seed always tends to become a plant, the animal tends to reproduce as much as possible, man creates through sex and mind to perpetuate himself; the billionaire, even at ninety, is still doing business because he wants to do more; the writer and journalist write and publish even if they no longer have the strength to get out of bed: life tends to increase itself. This is nature. Those who are not like this are against nature. Being against nature is not being gay: being against nature is wanting to silence one’s (and others’) NATURAL need to enhance life. Those who listen to funeral and black or certain doom where they make two albums and then you have to die, are against nature. Stop listening to this stuff, even if you like it like I know I would.

oh, how dare you. Do you think that before posting two flowery comments I don't read the review? Do you really believe I talk (and post) nonsense? I understand that you wouldn’t recommend Evoken even to your worst enemy, but I’m telling you (and repeating) that the stance of the alternative with the milestone that has proverbially fallen into oblivion is a less foolish pose than those who appear on the Home page with the usual metal album, with the usual brutal album featuring covers of human intestines, or worse still with a black metal album, if not even Funeral Doom, a genre that lowers the curve of life. I repeat: this style (being an extremization of doom) is perfectly in tune with me, but for my survival (and for consistency with my studies in metaphysics and new thought) I certainly can't surrender to this more than aberrant genre. Even metalheads then (on the homepage, there are 5 stars no less for Cradle Of Filth) present themselves on the homepage with the brand new album and give it 5 stars. Everything that is funeral or black always gets 5 stars. Are you sure that the alternative pose is the worst on DeBaser? I think the worst pose on DeBaser is that of the metalhead who writes reviews attacking those who take on poses of alternative great thinkers. STAY FUNERAL

I repeat: I find that the funeral doom of Evoken is too little representative of the genre of music you would like to defend in this review. Doom is one thing, it has deep roots and pioneers. Current doom is a subculture and a subgenre where the people who make these records die young, live awfully, and there’s nothing wrong with that, a sick and untenable culture. Funeral doom is even worse: although I appreciate it (I know quietus and embrace the emptyness well), these records exude too much death... Here, among other things, it’s unclear whether you want to defend all-inclusive metal, in all its subgenres, or if you just want to defend death doom, funeral, and black (a genre I don’t like at all). Plus, we contest the opposite fact, which is that every single time a review appears that ranges from death and above, it always gets 5 stars, even if it’s the most monstrous piece of trash: can it be that everything related to death has to be a masterpiece? I look these great artists in the face, and the more I look them in the face, the more they seem incapable of creating great music as well as doing anything that isn’t killing Jesus Christ.

There are juicy insights in your review, the healthy carrier, humanism, the dus of the world seen from the average Italian...

Look, no one has ever spoken badly about ambient and no one has ever spoken badly about doom: these are genres with old and noble roots. Here we are talking about Evoken, we are talking about Funeral Doom. And if you allow us, we contest the being Funeral Doom, not the being doom. Because Evoken are not doom and not black (a genre I don’t like), but Funeral Doom, a genre that I know I like and for this reason I keep it at a distance. Funeral poses are worse than those of indie, alt, prog, psychedelic, ambient, trip-hop, kraut, and truzzometal. Funeral poses are the worst. You have your own nice point of view, which I would still respect, but funeral is too much. Giving 1 to truzzo-metal, to certain thrash (which I indeed call TRASH), to certain lowbrow music fits just fine, and even to black metal I’m okay with. But funeral is a different matter. Evoken don’t suck, they harm existence, they shorten life.

Indeed, even if I say "non ottengo granché," I don't get much. But on the other hand, Berlusconi is back, and with him, censorship returns as well. Let's accept it passively.

Editors, what happened in the first period? Just say: "if you join the band I'll introduce you to my dad" and it's done.