Metal Jew

David Coverdale Jewish rumour

My family and I hosted the family of one of my son's friends at school for tea today. Over scones and sandwiches, the father said that he had heard David Coverdale was Jewish. I've never heard that before and google doesn't appear to confirm it. Anyone know if this is true? Seems unlikely to me...

Eliyahu Dali's Metal Prayer

I'm impossible to please, really I am. I spent much of my life yearning for Jewish metal, but when it finally comes along I find I'm just as finicky, fussy and critical as I am about any other kind of music.

So Joel alerted me a couple of days ago to a piece in the Jerusalem Post about the Israeli musician Eliyahu Dali. Dali is making metal versions of 'classic' Jewish prayers and will at some point release an album called 'Metal Prayer'.

Listening to some of it online, it's clear that Dali is a decent musician in the prog/classic metal mode (not my favourite metal genre but not in and of itself to be deplored). I don't think though that the metal arrangements add anything to the liturgy - they just make them a little mushy.

I had this conversation at a conference in Finland last year when I metal a Lutheran pastor who runs a hugekly popular 'Metal mass'. I appreciate that some worshippers feel it adds a whole new spiritual dimension, but as I explained to the pastor, I like there to be a dividing line between synagogue music and everyday music. I love sections of the Jewish liturgy, but I'd never want to listen to it on my iPhone outside of synagogue. Conversely, I've no need for metal in services.

Still, I try and remain open minded to the possibility that sometime, someone will come up with a metal liturgy that I actually like. Till then, I'll stick with metal artists who have a looser connection to spirituality, such as Orphaned Land.

Here's Eliyahu Dali doing 'Mipi El'. I love the tune when it's sung in shul, but this version just doesn't work for me:

 

http://youtu.be/icOQq65QjfU

Round up

I haven't had time to do a big post recently, but here's a round up of some interesting stuff:

Meshuggah Beach Party do surf music covers of Jewish standards. They're pretty shticky (they play dressed as Haredim) but the music sounds great. Maybe everything sounds good surf-style? Check out black metal surf-style

Meads of Asphodel are visiting Auschwitz as part of their research for a new album. They are not Nazis but it's s not going to stop the accusations. They have form in this regard - remember this?

There's a partially innacurate post on NSBM at Who Makes the Nazis that mentions the Meads amongst others. Check out the debate in the comment thread. This piece on Italian NSBM is much better.

This compilation CD of underground music from Lebanon looks way cool.

Rush's Geddy Lee goes Klezmer

If you're a Rush fan and like the idea of hearing Geddy Lee singing in Yiddish, check out this this piece from Jewcy.

Yiddish-speaking Vikings (cross-posted with Souciant webzine)

I wrote the following for Souciant magazine - cross-posted with permission:

Heavy Metal is often seen as a quintessentially white, Western, music. That is indeed the case much of the time. Metal emerged out of white, blue collar mutilations of the blues in working class heartlands such as the English West Midlands. Metal imagery is often festooned with such ur-symbols of whiteness such as Viking warriors and corpse-painted pagans amid the snowy forests of Scandinavia. In its over four decades of development, metal has largely eschewed references to its blues roots and black metal musicians and fans remain rare (the Botswanan metal scene being one of the very few exceptions to the rule.)

However, over the last two decades a counter-trend has emerged that has seen metal embrace a more complicated relationship to ethnicity and nation. Spurred on by pioneers such as Brazil’s Sepultura, it has become increasingly common for metal bands to explore local identities within a global scene. Indeed, a whole sub-genre – ‘folk metal’ has developed, mixing metal with a host of traditional musics. Although much of this has taken place in Scandinavia and northern Europe, more exotic – and much less ‘white’ – fusions have also taken place, as with Chthonic’s Taiwanese metal and Orphaned Land’s Israeli-based Middle Eastern metal.

As a scholar I’ve tracked these developments since the mid-1990s. But there is one type of folk metal that I have longed for and that has been stubbornly slow to be born – Jewish metal. In my blog Metal Jew, I’ve highlighted those isolated examples of Jewish metal, such as Jamie Saft’s Black Shabbis project. What has been striking by its absence has been a fusion of metal the most well-known form of Jewish music, klezmer.

You would think that, given klezmer’s similarity to other forms of Northern European folk musics, that a klezmer-metal fusion would not be difficult to achieve. But it is only recently that we have seen a systematic move in this direction.

Dibbukim hail from Sweden, one of the most productive metal scenes in the world, and half the band are Jewish Yiddish speakers. Their new album As a Foygl un a Goylem Tantsn (‘As a Bird and a Golem Dances’) represents a whole-hearted attempt to combine Yiddish music and metal. Some of their songs are originals and they also cover Yiddish standards such as ‘Yidl Mitn Fidl’. The instrumentation is far from traditional though – a standard metal bass/drums/guitar set up with male and female vocals.

The lack of violin, accordion or clarinet means that Dibbukim’s music lacks some of the distinctive klezmer sound – that uncanny mix of melancholy and joy. The rhythms and vocals though are are more familiarly klezmerish. That isn’t to say that Dibbukim’s music stands or falls on how ‘authentic’ it is (klezmer is itself such a hybrid genre as to make such judgements anachronistic), but it is clearly based on a serious and well-meaning attempt to combine the two genres.

Dibbukim is most reminiscent of Scandinavian folk metal acts, sharing for example its frenetic two-in-a-bar rhythms with Finnish ‘humpaa-metal’ act Finntroll.  In my opinion, Dibbukim need to work more on making the klezmer-metal fusion sound more seamless and less clunky – perhaps what is missing is a violin to leaven the power chords.  Israel’s Gevolt are perhaps a more substantial proposition that Dibbukim.

Their new album Alef Base – which is free to download from their site – is their second and the experience shows. They  cover Yiddish standards such as ‘Tum Balalaika’, but their music is far from an uncomfortable  pastiche. What’s interesting is that while Gevolt’s use of violin and Anatoly Bonder’s heartfelt Yiddish diction tick those authenticity boxes more than Dibbukim, their music offers a much more interesting and unique kind of hybrid. The closest musical reference point is not folk metal but Rammstein and the Neue Deutsche Härte.

Bonder’s dramatic vocal stylings recall Till Lindemann,  their Yiddish cadences offering an implicit commentary on Germanic hardness. It is this counterpoint between Germanic hardness and lilting Yiddishisms that make Gevolt so interesting. Their version of the famous World War Two Jewish partisan anthem Zog Nit Keyn Mol throws up a host of fascinating  issues: is Gevolt’s Yiddish metal a celebration of Jewish – non-Zionist – hardness? Or is it a more nuanced and ironic exploration of Jewish hard masculinity? As with Rammstein, you never really know. There lies Gevolt’s interest.

Whatever the relationship between Gevolt and Dibbukim with Jewishness may or may not be, there is no mistaking their metalness. Pitom are a much more complex proposition; an act whose Jewishness and metalness are constantly in motion, avoiding pre-determined meanings. Their new album Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes is out on John Zorn’s Tzadik label – the home of the finest ambiguously Jewish music. Led by guitarist Yoshie Fruchter, this US-based group are a lean and vocal-less four-piece based around nimble, dueling guitars and violin, backed up by busy drumming and a fuzzed-out bass guitar.

Pitom’s music is always in motion, refusing to come to rest on any own genre or identity. Sometimes Pitom will alight on a meaty metal or punk riff only to move off somewhere less constricting. Sometimes they introduce an unmistakably klezmer-ish melody, only to fly away into free-form improvisation. Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes is a frustrating delight which may be ‘heavy’ at times, but – unlike Dibbukim or Gevolt – its musical playfulness makes it as light as a feather.

Pitom’s model of Jewish metal – if it can be called a model at all – is perhaps a more productive one. Although I enjoyed Gevolt and Dibbukim’s albums, I am also aware that one has to be careful what one wishes for. I may have yearned for Jewish metal for years, but ultimately it may be a more exciting Jewish practice to refuse the kind of closure that a fully fledged genre would produce. Maybe Jewish metal is ideally elusive, just as Jewishness itself should be.

Jewish metal video

I don't know who made this short video or why, but it's a nice enough tribute to Jewish (particularly Israeli) metal:

 

 

Yeah yeah I know I'm not posting much at the moment

....in the meantime, here's some interesting titbits:

- I've recommended 'punkassjewjazz' act Pitom before . They have a new album out which looks interesting and there's a nice feature on them here.

- Here's a cool post on Jewish parody songs (and boy are there a lot of them).

- And I simply can't resist posting a track from the latest Anal Cunt release. A celebration of dumb redneckhood:

 

Jewish metal from Midbar

Years ago I heard about a jewish metal band from New York that was active in the 1990s called Midbar. I couldn't find any other info so I posted a call for further info on this blog. Well finally my call was answered and Hershel Firbank sent me a couple of tracks by Midbar. Here they are:

Midbar - Aj Tzadikim

Midbar - Adon Olam

They're both metal covers of Jewish standards. I'm guessing that the band may have been Lubavitch or strictly orthodox. There's often a faint whiff of 'hey we're making the liturgy cool! we're down with the kids!' in this sort of thing but on the evidence of these tracks, Midbard appear to have been a decent metal band. To put it another way, the two tracks hold their own as metal, they have a reason to exist other than making Jewish tradition more palatable. So belated cudos to Midbar.

 

Orphaned Land slay London

I went to see Orphaned Land live in London last night. Although I've written about them loads over the year, I'd never actually seen them perform before. Given that it was a v hot day and the gig started crazily early, plus the fact that their version of metal isn't that popular in the UK, the attendance wasn't at all bad - probably about 300. As someone who respects rather than loves there most recent album (it's a bit proggy for my tastes) I was totally knocked out by what a great live act they are. They've been touring a lot and it shows. They know how to work a crowd and Kobi isn't just a great vocalist, he's a charismatic frontman who holds the crowd in the palm of his hands. Despite the often lengthy and involved songs, there was a real buzz about the gig: Orphaned Land's fans really love the band. In particular, the oriental elements of their music - which are completely integrated into their metal sound -  are wildly appreciated.

The best thing of all? I saw a woman with a hijab in the audience, going wild for the band. I've never seen that at a metal show and how many Israeli bands attract observant Muslims. I was moved...

Best song? 'El Norra El Norra':

Iron Menorah

So I heard simultaneously about Iron Menorah from a couple of places, including Jack at Teruah. They're a Jewish Iron Maiden tribute band, who play dressed as ultra-orthodox Jews. Other than that the Jewish context is pretty minimal, give or take the odd burst of Hava Nagila. My first reaction when I heard about them was to groan inwardly: it's not that this sort of shtick isn't moderately amusing, it's that we Jews deserve so much better. Let me explain. There is a long history of Jewish novelty acts that draw on the presumed humorousness of Jews contributing to popular music and popular culture. It's based on the premise that Jews are so nerdy and uncool that to see them rock or whatever is intrinsically ridiculous. And for a long time this was fair comment and novelty acts provided a valid way of Jews dealing with such anxieties. But the thing is - we've moved on. There's too much interesting and vital Jewish popular music around now to see it as only ever a novelty. In metal itself, after Orphaned Land there can be no doubt that a Jewish metal hybrid is viable and interesting.

It's not that Iron Menorah aren't fun. It's just that they themselves seem anachronistic: a parody of a self-parody.

All that said, as an Iron Maiden cover band they're not at all bad. The vocalist especially channels Bruce pretty well. Here's the two videos of them from you tube so you can judge for yourself: