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BLACK
DEATH BECOMES YOU It's after midnight at local death metal band In The Name of God's CD release party at John Henry's, and the place is still chock-full of black-clothed patrons hovering around the tiny stage. They breathe hard, trying to recover from the blast of pure, furious musical energy that just beat them senseless.
The balcony is crowded with instruments as members of the black metal band Tormentium disassemble their equipment. Hanging around near the balcony is Mike Francis, the lead vocalist for death metal band Necryptic. He's carrying a mixed drink and appears to be under the weather. "Yeah, Mike's pretty sick tonight, unfortunately," says Clint Corrington, the bassist. "Is he going to be OK to perform?" I ask. Necryptic has to set up right after Tormentium gets off. "Well, of course he will," says Corrington. "It's death metal. He can still growl." Sure enough, Necryptic takes the stage, and you wouldn't know the difference. The band annihilates the crowd with the roar of Francis's snarling and horrifying vocals, playing complex, wild melodies to an endlessly-changing tempo. It's all so frantic I don't even have time to comprehend each beat. "I think many people do ignore the whole complexity in playing this kind of music," says A.J. Chordas, guitarist for In The Name of God. "Trying to tab out something Necryptic plays would take months!" Both death and black metal have existed as subgenres since the '70s, the former inspired by bands such as Death and late songwriter Chuck Schuldiner, the latter finding its roots in Scandinavia with bands such as Mayhem and the band that coined the term "black metal," Venom. Though these styles have differences in terms of song structure and lyrical content, they both represent the heaviest and nastiest sounds that metal has to offer. "We play metal for the love of metal," says Skyler Studach, lead vocalist of Tormentium, who goes by the stage name "Ghasst." "Some may call us Satanists. I won't confirm or deny any sort of these accusations. Just read our lyrics sometime and don't expect us to explain ourselves." Other bands, like In The Name of God, say they are crossing boundaries with other music popular in Eugene. "We don't see ourselves as purely death metal or some other genre," says Geoff Miller, the other guitarist. "We're doing a project with the Inkwell Rhythm Makers, who are a jug band. So we're going to be influenced a lot by jug music as they'll be influenced by metal." Heavy metal in general is experiencing a rebirth, much like the glory days of the '80s. The death and black metal subgenres haven't been quite so lucky but are finding success in smaller places, such as Eugene. "Music is getting heavier and heavier for sure," says Corrington. "I think metal songs that are played on the radio today wouldn't have been played over 20 years ago. But we're definitely an acquired taste – death metal isn't for everyone, and not everyone can see or hear the art in it." What happens if this kind of music never sees the light of day and stays buried in the darkness? Studach revels in that idea. "I love the fact that real metal is underground, misunderstood and ignored. That's what makes this music so great!" he says. "It helps keep what we do pure, and uncorrupted by mainstream ignorance. Anyone who hates metal, I really hope they hate us."
::
Intro :: Death
Metal :: CD Reviews :: Raging
Family :: Band Profiles ::
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