FULL METAL RACKET: THE PLAYLIST IS THE THING

(In this latest installment of our year-end LISTMANIA series, we welcome a guest writer who goes by the name doGbreath, with a different kind of list.)

This is my playlist.
There are many like it, but this one is MINE.
Without me, my playlist is nothing.
Without my playlist, I am nothing.

Ah, the mighty playlist. Conveyor of taste, provocateur. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

It’s the purest form of democracy, the art of music. You consume what you like and everybody else can swing. It’s purely subjective, an invitation to judge a book by it’s cover, but with the advent of the Internet and world-wide constant and immediate access, we as humans have taken communication deeper, to a more fundamental level. We speak to each other through music. Words have become passé.

The meme is king, social media is queen, and the playlist is the joker and fool, always speaking truth to power. Oh, your pop diva bullshit act just sold ten million albums? Fuck you, I have a thousand bands here that actually play instruments, have better production than your pseudo-teen bitch, write riffs that rip your face off, AND bang hotter chicks than her as a recreational sport back in their home countries. Their albums will live forever, while your flash-in-the-pan pop construct will fade into obscurity the instant the publicity train stops to refuel. I listen to shit that’s more melodic than their melodies, listen to lyrics and vocal delivery with more emotion than they can photo-shop and auto-tune, and ingest imagery and artistry through cover art that stretch the imagination into places that horrify the general public. That’s fucking art people, in all it’s contentious forms, defined.

Music is how we “speak” to each other these days. “This is how I feel right now, this is what’s blowing me away, this is why I cry, this is why I fight, this is why I fuck, this is why you suck, bitch, this is how we can FLY… take some drugs and follow me, spiritual adventurer…” Music is deeper than emotion and more complex than speech, and is the only universal constant. Even deaf people can feel the thunder of a riff, the crash of a cymbal, the galloping beat of the double bass drum! Sound has a physical, emotional, and audible component.

This is my playlist. There are many like it, but this one is mine… enjoy or suck it, it still belongs to me… and no act of government, war, tragedy, or hater, can take it away from me.

Fuck yeah. Fucking METAL!

Disclosure: I have been a die-hard metalhead since 1991, when a good friend of mine packed a series of phat B’s, put on “Domination” (Pantera) and followed it up with “One” (Metallica) and then dropped “Dead Embryonic Cells” (Sepultura)… and my fate was sealed. In the intervening years, I have expanded my horizons of heavy music, and that includes a six-year stint as a techno DJ, playing dark twisted beats for the late-night crowds in our nation’s capital… but I promise, only the dark evil late night shit (email me for a mix if you like dark techno 126 bpm).

Anyway, my playlists tend toward the journey as “The Thing”, painting a picture with the mix of whatever emotion I am trying to condense. The tracks are meant to be listened to, at least the first time, in order… a story is being told and you decide where it will take you.

DIE…mother…fuckerrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!” ~ Brett Hoffmann, motherfucker

 

Ufomammut – I

 

Pelican – Threnody

 

In Vain – Culmination of the Enigma

 

Zonaria – The Blood That Must Be Paid

 

Blood Red Throne – Soulseller

 

Illdisposed – A Child is Missing

 

Panzerchrist – Lies

 

The Absence – The Murder

 

Evocation – Divide and Conquer

 

Arkan – The Eight Doors of Jennah