Metal Jew

Israel Unleashed - Review

View this photo

I first got to know Israeli Metal through the mid-90s 'Israheller' compilation. Long unavailable, the compilation featured tracks from Salem and Orphaned Land together with a number of other artists, some of whom never achieved anything more, while others such as Betrayer and Azazel developed modest underground reputations.  The compilation was released by Heller Productions, a short-lived forerunner of Raven , now Israel's foremost Metal label and distro.

The reason why I'm thinking about Israheller is, first that it is nearly 10 years since I did my PhD fieldwork on the Israeli Metal scene and the compilation started my journey of discovery. But the main reason is that I recently received a copy of a new Israeli Metal compilation called Israel Unleashed , featuring 15 Israeli bands, most of whom are unsigned. I posted a while back on this when the project was still at the planning stage. The odd thing is that the compilation is released by the Jewish Music Group an American label that markets its releases primarily to American Jews. Now there are probably enough American Jewish Metallers to theoretically make the CD viable, but are they plugged into the networks that JMG use to market their work? And in any case, why would they be particularly interested in buying a CD of mostly unsigned acts? Certainly I doubt whether JMG will know how to market the CD in the global Metal scene and the problem of the acts being unknown will be even greater. I guess there is a market in Israel but I don't know if it's being released there. So the question remains: who is this CD for?

The Israheller CD sugared the pill of the inclusion of unsigned bands by also including experienced and well known acts like Salem and Orphaned Land. The same is not true for Israel Unleashed. None of the big names are here, not veterans like Orphaned Land or Salem or more recent Israeli successes like Betzefer.  It's no surprise to find that the best 2 tracks here come from Desert and Vultures, both of whom have had deals with foreign labels. Vultures split up in 2004 but their industrial Metal still sounds great.  Desert's  intriguing  classic Metal with oriental touches is accomplished enough for them to have a deal with A&M.   As for the rest? Well, unlike the Israheller CD, there aren't any tracks that are too amateurish to be included. It's a mark of the maturity of the Israeli scene that all the bands on the CD know what they are doing music-wise. The problem is that there isn't enough originality or excitement. Distorted are  kind of Salem-lite, Crossfire are meat and potatoes true Metal, Manga are dead ringers for Evanescence. Other than Desert and Vultures, the only track that really caught my interest was by Xamavar whose unclassifiable alternative Metal features bagpipes!

I still have a strong emotional connection to  the Israeli scene and I wish all the bands on the compilation well, but I am really unsure what its fate will be.

Anyway, JMG sent me two copies. I'm happy to send one to anyone who wants one, in return for an interesting CD (burnt or original) of some kind.

The problem with Faust

This months's Terrorizer (#166 - Jan 2008) contains, amongst other things, a lighthearted interview in their 'Barbarian Wrath' section with Blood Tsunami's Pete Evil and Bard Faust.  They both seem perfectly amiable people, but it got me  thinking: why will no one ever  talk with Faust about the fact that he is a murderer?

For those who don't recall, Faust was the drummer of Emperor, but was convicted in the early 90s of the murder of a homosexual stranger in Lillehammer's Olympic park.  He  was  released in the early noughties and has since worked with quite a few notable bands including Blood Tsunami, Aborym, Scum and Zyklon.  I've read quite a few interviews with Faust since he came back into circulation and I even read a couple from when he was in prison.  Some of them talk about his conditions in prison and how he kept himself busy (he did a degree in the history of religions apparently). In the last couple of years, his prison experience has pretty much ceased to be mentioned.

But I have never read anything about the murder itself.  The murder, whilst it has been lumped in with all the Norwegian metal madness of the early 90s, was quite different from the church burnings and Vikernes's murder of Euronymous. The account Faust gave at his trial was that he murdered the guy because he propositioned him.  So far as I know, this account has never been questioned and Faust hasn't publicly added to it.  Perhaps insiders in the metal scene know more - I've been out of the loop for a little while now since I stopped writing for Terrorizer. Or perhaps no one has ever talked in detail with Faust about it. 

This bothers me. The murder was a hate crime and in many ways worse than Vikernes's  offence (which seemed to stem from a personal grudge).  The silence in the metal world about this is unsettling. Are we condoning what Faust did? But more than that, I wonder whether there might be more to all this than meets the eye. Sometimes, these kinds of murders stem from a very ambivalent attitude on the part of the perpetrator; one that leads them to walk through cruising areas. I have no idea what Faust's sexuality is like, but surely someone needs to ask the question?

Of course, unlike Virkernes, Faust was a model prisoner, admitted his guilt and has been a model citizen (and metal scene member) since his release. Whatever his philosop0hical or political views are, he does not proclaim them in the public way that Vikernes does and to all intents and purposes seems to be a perfectly pleasant guy. Is this rehabilitation though? He served less than 10 years, during the last few of which he had regular periods of home leave. I am a very strong critic of viciously long prison sentences like you get in the US, but less than 10 years for this kind of crime seems to me to be very short.  Faust may well be a very different person to the one who committed the crime, but he is also an active member in a scene that glorifies violent imagery. How do his victim's family feel about him playing in a band called Blood Tsunami?

As I say, I am very liberal on crime and punishment, but I am also disturbed when violence and hate crimes  are simply swept under the carpet.  I am a very strong defender of the metal scene, but here there seems to be a denial going on that needs to be addressed.

[PS: If Faust made a contrite and full statement that I am unaware of, please let me know!]

Jewish Alternative Music

There's a new Facebook group called 'Jewish Alternative Music' [couldn't work out how to link to it]. There's a few bands listed on the page, none of whom are greatly to my taste and whom prove the misuse of the term 'alternative music' since the early 90s.  Best of the bunch are The Return and Levetikus.

Still, it is exciting that a more interesting Jewish music scene is starting to develop.

Songs not sounds

The ever-excellent Invisible Oranges has a cool best of 2007 'mixtape' for download. He prefixes the tracklisting with these wise words.

As I age, I find myself gravitating towards song over sound, at least when making year-end lists and other notations for posterity. Sounds come and go, but songs stay. Anyway, sound in metal has become basically moot. It's hard to imagine sounds faster than Agoraphobic Nosebleed, slower than Khanate, or blurrier than the Crucial Blast roster. Anyone can dial up amp settings, but few have the focus and je ne sais quoi necessary for lasting songwriting.

It's interesting as I argued (in a much more pretentious way) something similar in a previous post here.

Metal on Radio 4

Rather impressively, BBC Radio 4 is producing a series of documentaries on Metal at 40:

Emily Booth tells the story of the loudest and darkest form of rock. Heavy metal began in Britain in 1968, pioneered by such exponents as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Each had their own unique sound, but shared an approach that embraced loud guitar riffs, powerful lead vocals and thunderous percussion. Since then, the music has flourished and diversified, spawning sub-genres such as grindcore, thrash and death metal, ever eager to embrace extreme subject matter.

The first one is at 11:30 am this Thursday.