Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Time: The beginning and the end

I haven't found the time to do anything of note besides work. I have loads of non-work work left over and hardly any time to do any of it. I need a secretary! and a cute one at that. I am behind on many posts including my pet project on the Lemons model. All in good time, my good sirs.

Over the weekend, I did make time to go to an awesome Opeth concert. Come on, please tell me you know who Opeth are. For those of you who don't have a clue, they are a "bunch of jaded swedish c****s who are out to make money". Melodic death metal bliss - thats what it was. These guys are some of the most awesome musicians you can ever see! One does recognize class when one is hit in the face by it and Opeth comes at you with a sledgehammer!

Head over to Venus's blog for a note [here]

5 comments:

Tejaswi said...

Read your update on the Huxley' Beauty post, and the analogy with Religion - I disagree with most of it, but am not able to generate a coherent argument against it. Will try to put it all in perspective at a later date.

Yeah, we might have met at M. R. Arun's place once or twice. I remember playing cricket there once with the inimitable Dhruva, and your getting some Iron Maiden CDs for your gang. No clue about Iron Maiden then. But now, even after looking at the likes of Venus and Nandini going weak at Maiden's music, I still don't see the point.

Q) What is the point of Death Metal Grunts? and Shrieks? and famous minute long Shrieks by some of the death metal greats? This is in context with Opeth as well. I liked their more "soulful" Damnation as opposed to their progressive /death metal music in Blackwater Park and Deliverence.

Coming back to Iron Maiden, thanks to Venus now, I have heard Bruce Dickenson solo, which I like much better than the traditional Iron Maiden.

End of incoherent comment.

zee said...

I'm curious to read your reply for Woolee's question about growls!

And and the probability of finding a cute secretary is very less, even if there is one she will be scared of your wild, unruly beard, antics and your growls :p

EmperorFrost said...

@tejaswi
I am not too convinced myself with those arguments but think I am sort of on top of it. The analogy, albeit controversial by itself, may have been lacking in perspective and completeness. Treat it as a scratchpad for some of my thoughts as I was trying to convince myself of its nature. I will try to post another better thought out, more circumspect argument for Huxley's case. I still haven't got a clue of the morality issue. You should hang on to your arguments till then :-)

Who can forget Dhruva? With respect to minute long growls, shrieks and frenzied drumming - it adds to the underlying energy, aggression and dissent that usually spews forth from music of this nature. It often serves as an instrument as well. If you have never been able to bang your head, move to the beat or appreciate the artful weaving of aggression and melody, feel at one with these seemingly discordant shrieks then its hard for me to describe to you what exactly appeals to me. As a beginner, all I was interested were lengthy and super fast guitar solos that took the tempo faster and faster followed by a logical break in music flow (a fact that is very evident in the NE US phenomenon called hardcore/metal core etc). Slowly, I developed an ear for other instruments too and after a while I could, at will, tune in and out different instruments at specific parts of the song. This served to highlight the various accents of a song in different light every time you I listened to it. I really don't think there is a specific point to be made as in growls do not necessarily have to be part of song costruction but serves as an accent mark. Just think of the point of Kishore Kumar's oodles (I hope I got it right, somehow I don't think I have). They are not necessarily an integral part of the song but what does it add to it? Does it have a point? Can you not consider it to enhance the melody of the song, an instrument in its own right?

And I am a firm believer in "each unto his own" philosophy and let me embellish that with a quote from Nietzsche, "And those who were seen dancing were thought insane by those who couldn't listen to the music".

Peace.

@venus
a cute secretary, I will find and then get her to trim my beard!

@nazgul
amen to that sir! yeah I know they aren't jaded but thats how mikhael introduced the band. A sort of tongue in cheek humor, if you will.

Tejaswi said...

Very interesting. This tuning out of certain instruments, and feeling only the ones which we want, I spoke to my labmate about it right now, cuz I had heard him say the same thing in a different context. Movies also make me feel the same sometimes. Each time I see 12 Angry Men, or Pulp Fiction, there is a particular feel which I want to absorb, and the rest of it is either backgrounded, or forwarded. I can almost understand what you mean there.

As for the grunts becoming an instrument of sorts, that is one way to explain it. What started the question was how Opeth's lead singer is able to sing in grunts and in normal voice equally well. I was wondering that when he can sing so well normally, whats the point of grunting. But I can see that Kishore Kumar does it often too, and many others as well. I guess its just that I am not used to the death metal music to appreciate it. Will try more.

Thanks for taking the time out to explain some of this.

EmperorFrost said...

@tejaswi
You're right about the movies too. I feel differently about a movie that I like everytime I see it.