Well-executed

The conclusion of yesterday's post got me thinking a little more about the importance of execution in music.

I've got a fondness for the left-of-center in music. Most of my favorite artists are, or were at one time, on the musical fringe. This preference isn't quite a matter of principle, but it's at least partially ideological. I want rock to keep being interesting for me well into the future, and it has to keep attracting fresh young talent to do so. In order to draw in young people, rock music (which is far and away my favorite genre) must constantly reinvent and expand itself. That means that I like it when bands push into uncharted territory.

That being said, I listen to tons of bands who don't forge out into the unknown. In fact, some of them consciously adhere to established standards, and are all the better for it. Here are a few examples.

To understand Exhumed, you have to be familiar with Carcass. The entire notion of writing tongue-in-cheek metal songs about pathology comes from Carcass. So does death metal's familiar low growls/high screams vocal dynamic.

People frequently refer to Exhumed as "Carcass worship," which is true to an extent. Their sound is a ramped-up, more technical take on Carcass's mid-career approach. It's definitely derivative, but somehow Exhumed make it wholly their own. Their guitar/bass tone is perfect for their rotten subject matter--a huge, pungent, gristly growl that positively squelches when the guitarists palm-mute.

Exhumed's greatest strength is their sense of pacing. A lot of death metal bands play extremely fast but feel like they're grooving the whole time. Not Exhumed. This band feels like they're playing as fast as they possibly can, even when they aren't. They project a palpable sense of mania and frenzy. Exhumed sing about death, but their music absolutely bursts with life.

The Suicide File were a hardcore punk band from Boston who were around for just a couple years in the early aughties (2001-2003). Hardcore is a notoriously restrictive style, and by the time this band appeared, most of its creative possibilities had been exhausted.

The Suicide File did nothing to expand hardcore's creative palette. They plowed straight ahead into its clichés. And those clichés worked for them in a way that they have not worked for most hardcore bands of their generation.

Where Exhumed's guitar tone is loose and sludgy, the Suicide File's guitars are tight, sere, steely. The riffs speak in simple declarative sentences. So does Dave Weinberg, the vocalist. He says what he means with conviction and concision. Usually I find this type of moralizing hardcore vocalist irritating. But Weinberg has a way of attacking his targets with stark, fatalistic language that perfectly suits the minimalist tone of the band. Caustic, terse, honest, and short-lived--this is how hardcore is meant to be.