Quiet metal

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A random question I came up with on the rolling metal thread last night and which has already produced some good responses, so let me copy and paste the relevant parts:

Shifting gears entirely, maybe.

What's the *quietest* metal act you all have heard lately? Or, if you like, the most spare in terms of arrangements or whatever?

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), January 25th, 2007. (later)

Probably Minsk, though I haven't heard the new Jesu.

-- Jeff Treppel (JTreppe...), January 25th, 2007. (later)

See, while I was thinking Jesu in part, they're still too loud. Can something current be metal without feedback?

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), January 25th, 2007. (later)

The Gathering? Although if you look upthread, it's debatable whether or not they're still metal.

-- Jeff Treppel (JTreppe...), January 25th, 2007. (later)

"What's the *quietest* metal act you all have heard lately? Or, if you like, the most spare in terms of arrangements or whatever?"

Celestiial!

-- scott seward (skotro...), January 25th, 2007. (later)

here's my celestiial review, ned:

http://decibelmagazine.com/reviews/jul2006/celestiial.aspx

i think you might dig it.

-- scott seward (skotro...), January 25th, 2007. (later)

:-)

-- Ned Raggett (ne...), January 25th, 2007. (later)

By far the qietest metal I've heard in the past 12 months has been Weltenbrand. No guitars, but nicely done goth with synths and strings. Definitely pulls off the goth ambience better than most regular young goth bands.

I'm hoping to get the new Amber Asylum any day now, that's another more understated band.

-- a. begrand (abegran...), January 25th, 2007. (later)

The last Borknagar disc was very quiet, and excellent.

-- pdf (newyorkisno...), January 26th, 2007. (later)

the quiet metal question is a good one! i did like that weltenbrand CD last year; scott, are Die Berbannten Kinder Evas in the same category? funny, i pay such close attention to ambient goth that i never even notice albums like those are guitarless until somebody like scott points it out. how quiet are summoning? (guess it depends on what volume you play them at.) would metal people like elluvium (whose third CD i never heard, but their first 2 were quiet indeed)?

-- xhuxk (fakemai...), January 26th, 2007. (later)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:18 (eighteen years ago)

Is this a mastering question in disguise?

I must admit that the main reason I've totally avoided metal in the last year despite Stylus' increasing coverage of it has been down to my sonic tastes. I just can't imagine a modern metal record, from the few bits I have heard, not offending me massively.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:24 (eighteen years ago)

Is this a mastering question in disguise?

Nope.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:27 (eighteen years ago)

Can we get a better name than "quiet metal"? (the Quiet Storm pops to mind and I don't want to imagine metal with those undertones).

How about "Manbient"?

― EZ Snappin (EZSnappin), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:36 (eighteen years ago)

The problem with QM is (as Chuck obliquely point out, above) is that it's based on what "metal people like" when they're not liking, you know, METAL.

And as great as metal people are (salt of the earth, great for chopping down trees), I'm not likely to beat down their doors for advice on the kind of pseudo-spiritual ambient gothmusik I oughtta be listening to while getting my glans pierced.

― the new sincerity (Pye Poudre), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:43 (eighteen years ago)

"from the few bits I have heard"

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:46 (eighteen years ago)

x-post -- I wouldn't want to limit it to just that scope, though it's a connection that is obvious. In part what inspired the thread was thinking of Om's "At Giza" (which in turn made me think of Black Sabbath's "Solitude"), but that's not the only scope I'd be interested in either. I'm certainly not out to create a new fixed genre on my own, yech! The question is meant to be more...well, open, for lack of a better word.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:49 (eighteen years ago)

IT WAS A GOOD QUESTION NED SEEYA BACK ON THE METAL THREAD

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:49 (eighteen years ago)

:-D

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:50 (eighteen years ago)

I smell a Wire Primer!

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:51 (eighteen years ago)

Let's create the wikipedia entry now along with fake band names and labels.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:52 (eighteen years ago)

"IT WAS A GOOD QUESTION NED SEEYA BACK ON THE METAL THREAD"

Sad to say, bit Scott's right. See, metal people KNOW METAL. They know it like the "bobbins" people know whateverthefuck it is they talk about on those threads. They know it in such terrifying scope and detail that it's kinda intimidating for us margin-dwelling trainspotters.

So, while I wanna say "Yeah, OM!" (at least they actually sound like legit metal to me, while still being kinda quiet-ish), I feel like I'm just stating the super-obvious. With folks like Scott and Chuck out there listing to 50 impossibly obscure records a day, there's nothing much for me to add.

― the new sincerity (Pye Poudre), Friday, 26 January 2007 17:59 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, I'm a margin dwelling trainspotter by default. The trick is to not be afraid.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:02 (eighteen years ago)

That's what they told me in prison.

― the new sincerity (Pye Poudre), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:03 (eighteen years ago)

If you were imprisoned for music fan crimes then you deserve everything you get, you horrible person.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:04 (eighteen years ago)

damnation: opeth. not really a metal album though.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:04 (eighteen years ago)

Maybe to unpack the idea of something being 'spare' that I muttered up above -- I also wonder about an intensity in performance so focused and restrained that it can't but *be* quiet. Which, yes, sounds weird, but I like the idea of it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:07 (eighteen years ago)

are you thinking of things like khanate, who are intermittently super-heavy and screechy, but mostly silent?

or, more likely, harvey milk? the extended quiet parts on 'courtesy and goodwill...' are so deft and gentle compared their monstrous bludgeon that they become entirely suffocating. they even do the lord's prayer, almost inaudibly, yet make it sound like it's accompanying some act of unimaginable horror.

― m the g (mister the guanoman), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:16 (eighteen years ago)

okay, look, EVERYONE listen to the Taarma sample. and also realize that there are like five million albums that sound like this:

http://www.angelfire.com/punk3/sufferingjesus/test.htm

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:21 (eighteen years ago)

Which is why it is a good thing you are here!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:23 (eighteen years ago)

well, that's five million albums I can do without.

― m the g (mister the guanoman), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:26 (eighteen years ago)

That Taarma sounds great. So, dare I ask, where should one start with this style of music? (I'm ever so slowly working my way through the doom/stoner list you shared, thank you very much)

― EZ Snappin (EZSnappin), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:27 (eighteen years ago)

i would start the easy way. set yourself up on Last FM and just gorge yourself. they have some of the most achingly beautiful funeral doom and even black metal stuff on there that isn't easy to hear about or find at all. just search for stuff.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:30 (eighteen years ago)

will do. Thanks yet again.

I'm going to just add a sig that says "thanks Scott!" - makes life easier.

― EZ Snappin (EZSnappin), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:32 (eighteen years ago)

hmm...taarma IS quiet metal. or maybe metal became goth at some point when i wasn't looking. do metal bands dig on dead can dance nowadays?

either way it's pretty cool.

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:32 (eighteen years ago)

chuck mentioned summoning. their last album was actually pretty bombastic.

DEFINITELY pick up the celestiial album. so great:

http://crionicmind.org/bindrune/pages/rel_body.html

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:34 (eighteen years ago)

do metal bands dig on dead can dance nowadays?

This much I can definitely say -- seek ye the Gathering. They've been on that tip since the mid-nineties.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:35 (eighteen years ago)

well, metal has always been pretty goth! or there was goth metal before there was goth anyway. and there is always great current goth metal. the last album by Ava Inferi was amazing. oh, tons of stuff. the last moonspell album. WHICH SOUNDS GREAT BY THE WAY NICK.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:36 (eighteen years ago)

the album that chuck mentioned: Die Berbannten Kinder Evas

MADE for dead can dance fans.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:38 (eighteen years ago)

"I also wonder about an intensity in performance so focused and restrained that it can't but *be* quiet."

That's an interesting point, though I'd follow it through differently. My old-skool idea of metal depends on a kind of coiled intensity. Metal doesn't have to lash out and pulverize you at every opportunity, but you always have to be aware that it could do that, if it wanted. You gotta have moments when the restraint at least threatens to buckle.

Taarma operate out of a totally different mindset. Can't say they aren't metal, but I don't know that I'd call 'em quiet, either. An outgrowth of the synthy Burzum stuff? Tagline is funny: "Suffocating and rueful Afghan Black Metal".

― the new sincerity (Pye Poudre), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:39 (eighteen years ago)

well, metal has always been pretty goth!

was christian death considered "metal"?

i was a young metal kid, i didn't know what was up.

also i haven't REALLY been paying attention since like So Far, So Good, So What, end days of thrash era stuff. Once death metal hit, i couldn't hang and i started listening to like faith no more and janes addiction and shit.

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:40 (eighteen years ago)

most black metal owes a debt to burzum. no matter what it sounds like.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:41 (eighteen years ago)

metal has always been pretty goth! or there was goth metal before there was goth anyway.

And it came out of psych to begin with. Which came out of Surrealism. Which came out of actual Gothic Romanticism. In part, anyway!

We got a direct lineage here.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:43 (eighteen years ago)

By far the heaviest "quiet metal" CDs I have are the last two by Bohren & der Club of Gore. Black Earth is massive doom metal disguised as a jazz trio.

This much I can definitely say -- seek ye the Gathering. They've been on that tip since the mid-nineties.

They've even covered "In Power We Entrust the Love Advocated".

― a. begrand (a begrand), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

"Silent Lucidity"

― Steve Shasta (Steve Shasta), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:47 (eighteen years ago)

the gathering covered talk talk too. they are just rad.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:52 (eighteen years ago)

anyway, digging on dead can dance is nothing new. in the metal world.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 19:00 (eighteen years ago)

this thread has reminded me that i need to watch the apocalyptica dvd i got in the mail.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 19:13 (eighteen years ago)

ooh, you know what's awesome:

http://god-is-myth.com/images/Web_Ghostvoices.jpg

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 19:24 (eighteen years ago)

that's from god is myth which is a kick-ass label:

http://god-is-myth.com/

i just bought one of the last copies of the new caina cdr, which is the first installment of their lovecraft series. i loved that last caina album.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 19:27 (eighteen years ago)

I just remembered a couple more...Antimatter's Planetary Confinement, an amazing album (with a really cool Mazzy Star-style cover of Trouble's "Mr. White"), and Green Carnation's The Acoustic Verses, which has the band going all acoustic folk on us.

― a. begrand (a begrand), Friday, 26 January 2007 19:30 (eighteen years ago)

I thought this might have been the thread where Quiet Riot get all the love.

― NickB (NickB), Friday, 26 January 2007 19:33 (eighteen years ago)

i heart antimatter. they are great.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 19:46 (eighteen years ago)

Celestial is def a great pick. Other sad-sack funeral dudes like Esoteric, Skepticism, or Nortt prob also qualify.

And I wouldn't throw Summoning into this. I'm thinkin' LotR battle jamz don't really fit the "quiet" tag, but hey, maybe its just me.

Also! Countess - The Shining Swords of Hate. Love this record. Swirly, muffled black metal. Actually very pretty, save a Bathory cover or two. Wish there were more records like this... the other Countess albums don't even sound like it!

― Alan N (Alan N), Friday, 26 January 2007 19:53 (eighteen years ago)

Dolorian has whispered vocals. The second one (conveniently the one I haven't heard) is supposedly the most whispered. And if whispers don't = quiet metal... Ocean has an agonizingly slow speed, even for doom.

Ned would probably like Velvet Cacoon too (maybe you've heard of them). The softest sounding black metal ever.

― lrsn (larssen), Friday, 26 January 2007 22:37 (eighteen years ago)

Hmm, nope, new name to me.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 26 January 2007 22:37 (eighteen years ago)

Procer Veneficus does a Velvet Cacoon cover on that album i posted up above.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 26 January 2007 22:44 (eighteen years ago)

The new Amber Asylum album is pretty darn gorgeous. Takes its time (percussion doesn't enter until 20 minutes in), but it's lovely, gloomy stuff.

― a. begrand (a begrand), Friday, 26 January 2007 22:52 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.rockdetector.com/assets/img/covers/26137.jpg

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 26 January 2007 22:55 (eighteen years ago)

velvet cacoon are awesome. get genevieve now

― rizzx (Rizz), Friday, 26 January 2007 23:07 (eighteen years ago)

x-post
i just bought one of the last copies of the new caina cdr, which is the first installment of their lovecraft series. i loved that last caina album.

...well we now know where 2 of the 100 went:)
i await your comments on the caina scott,as being in canada means mine will take weeks to arrive.

― drone/a/sore (drone/a/sore), Sunday, 28 January 2007 04:49 (eighteen years ago)

would october falls fall into this category? also,the onmly nortt i own is very quiet .

― drone/a/sore (drone/a/sore), Sunday, 28 January 2007 04:52 (eighteen years ago)

the bobbins threads are really just about getting drug connections

― friday on the porch (lfam), Sunday, 28 January 2007 05:30 (eighteen years ago)

Metallic Falcolns, just cuz of their album art.

― Valoss (valoss), Monday, 29 January 2007 17:11 (eighteen years ago)

Boris's "Flood" is really quiet.

― Pom (pom), Monday, 29 January 2007 19:23 (eighteen years ago)

Or the Boris with Merzbow album "Sun Baked Snow Cave"

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Monday, 29 January 2007 20:39 (eighteen years ago)

Y'all should call this music "heavy mellow."

Michael Haaga (ex Dead Horse, Demonseeds, Superjoint Ritual) invented that term and is the finest practitioner on Earth.

― novamax (novamax), Monday, 29 January 2007 20:52 (eighteen years ago)

Gots to love myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/michaelhaaga

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 29 January 2007 20:54 (eighteen years ago)

Of course Sunn o))) and Earth and the likes get described as Ambient Metal amongst other things.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy (Kerr), Monday, 29 January 2007 20:58 (eighteen years ago)

Would love to know what y'all think of Haaga's stuff. I really crusaded for that album here in Houston, to little or no avail.

― novamax (novamax), Monday, 29 January 2007 21:38 (eighteen years ago)

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