Last Monday: Metallica - The Thing That Should Not Be

     Time for another Metallica Monday for your much belated post not for yesterday (I'm writing this on Tuesday, January 12th, spoiler alert!) but a week ago yesterday. This Monday we're going to go predictably classic and take a cut from arguably the best Metallica record, Master of Puppets.

     "The Thing That Should Not Be" is one of several Metallica songs to take inspiration from Lovecraft and the Cthulu mythos, with "Thing" having its origins with those fish-faced fuckers from Innsmouth. Musically, it's got that great big stompy main riff running roughshod throughout the track, with a little Hammett leadwork in there towards the end, of course. There's faster stuff on Puppets, but this one's got great atmosphere, and its place on the album is perfect, slowing things down a little without sacrificing a thing in terms of heaviness. Put this one on and pledge your devotion to the ancient ones.

Monday: Metallica - Disposable Heroes

     While it is technically Wednesday out here in meatspace, it was only a short time ago Monday, which means that just a few brief days ago would have been an appropriate time to yearn for the period indulgence that is Metallica Monday. So here you go kids!

     Your Metallica Monday song this evening is the band's classic "Disposable Heroes" from 1986's high water mark Master of Puppets, because it's simply too good a song for me not to have featured yet. Let it be a light to you in dark places (that only play Metallica songs written since 1990), and let it remind you that, whatever else should happen in the rest of Metallica's career, they were indeed once great.

Monday Music Mayhem

     At the risk of sounding like I'm making excuses (which I suppose I am... shut up...) I'm going to lay a good chunk of the blame for my apparent inability to keep to a schedule lately on my early morning starts at work. My normal day starts at five in the morning, and the combination of that ungodly hour and an average of probably only five or six solid hours of sleep beforehand, on a regular basis, is that, unless I catch up with naps or keep myself well-caffeinated, by the end of the week I often end up falling asleep well before I mean to, and before I've gotten all of the day's shit done.

     But, to paraphrase the words of House Lannister, "a bearded man always pays his debts", so once again you're getting a hat-trick post today (that's three goals in a single game, for you non-hockey types out there), covering Saturday, Sunday, and today all in one shot. So let's get started.

     For your Saturday song, I'm going to need you to close your eyes and picture the following: old-school prog-influenced death metal (think old Opethy kinda stuff) filtered through the lens of a band like Baroness, if Baroness drew its melodic sensibilities and plaintive passages more from straight forward rock and less from countrified bluegrass. Now open your eyes, and find that you're gazing at the totally badass album art for Cormorant's 2011 disc Dwellings. There's a good chance you don't know these guys, but you should, especially if the word picture I painted you above sounded at all flavourful to you. A caveat, however: only two of the seven tracks on Dwellings clock in at less than five minutes long, so first time listeners are in for some attrition. But if you give Cormorant a chance, songs like "Funambulist" will take you for a ride.

     Next up, Sunday, and I'm going to do the unthinkable and take a single track out of the context of its "greater than the sum of its parts" album. You know the kind of album I'm talking about, even if I'm not doing the best job of articulating it right now: those magical records that work perfectly as a single piece of music rather than merely a collection of separate songs. Sure, those songs are good, but put 'em together and you've got a real slice of fried gold on your hands. Such is the case with "Quittance" from the debut LP Februus by Uneven Structure, a cool tune in its own right but also a piece of a much more awesome whole. Listen to "Quittance", but by all means listen to Februus from start to finish if you haven't already. Djent has become kind of a bad word, but Uneven Structure will show you one example of how powerful that kind of a sound can be.

     And for today, Monday, we're going to do a bit of a throwback to how I used to run Mondays around here with a Metallica Monday.In particular I'm picking "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", an old favourite of mine from way back when I was in high school and we used to attempt a few Metallica covers when jamming. Between us, we knew all the obvious ones, but we also liked to dust off this lesser-known (or lesser-liked, anyways) cut from 88's Master of Puppets, so I encourage you to dust it off too.

     Whew. Caught up. Again. Meet you back here tomorrow? Deal!

Song of the Day: Metallica - Fade to Black

     It's Monday, and it's been a while since I've done a Metallica song for a Song of the Day, so buckle up kids, because it's Metallica Monday again!

Song of the Day: Uneven Structure - Awaken

     Getting back to things a little bit newer than, say, Master of Puppets, today I've got a band I believe I've mentioned maybe once before, but only in passing and never again. Back in the United Nations of Metal post, I remember saying that I had some choice for the representative from France and that I went with Gojira because I wanted to save the other alternative, today's band, for another post. I've never gotten back around to bringing these guys up again, which is a shame because they're pretty good, so at the very least, even if they don't ever end up getting their own post, they deserve a Song of the Day.

Song of the Day: Metallica - Master of Puppets

     It's Monday once again (funny how it rolls around, like, once a week or so, eh? and I figure everybody (myself included) could use a bit of a pick-me-up this morning. And what better pick-me-up could there be for the metal fan lamenting the end of yet another weekend than listening to the band that wrote the book? So in an effort to brighten up your Monday, dear reader, I give you a new twist on the Song of the Day that I'll be pulling out every once in a while: Metallica Monday!

Song of the Day: Metallica - Battery

    Guten tag, everyone. Today I felt it would be nice to finally have some metal in the Song of the Day. In keeping with yesterday's summery theme, I've picked another good song to turn up loud with some good friends and good brews, and it also just so happens to be an album opener so that you can conveniently just put this song on and then let it ride. Tasty.

    The song of the day today is mother fucking "Battery" by Metallica. Horns up, bottoms up, friends.