In short, there is no clear doctrine ascribed to him. There are no texts of his that remain, there are no lists of his views on things, and there are no metaphysical treatises. For as we have seen, Diogenes has no ‘philosophy’ in the ordinary sense of the word. A strange task, the undertaking of which might seem pointless. It is now time to take a closer look at his actual philosophy. In our previous episode, we introduced Diogenes the Cynic. It’s all marvelously executed, and makes for the most exciting debut from an extreme metal band in recent memory.I recommend you read this article first to get a full understanding of today’s text, especially if you are unfamiliar with Diogenes. Layered over the music are various samples of interviews with serial killers, effectively contributing a chillingly psychotic atmosphere (and exemplifying the misanthropic attitude presented by the album title). Other standouts include 3-minute scorcher “To Hieron” and “I, Aurora”, which features a deliciously catchy main riff straight from the Dismember school of barn burning death metal mastery. He howls, heaves, spits and screams in an insanely cathartic performance that must be heard to be believed. If that sounds hyperbolic, look no further than the aforementioned opening song. Less a standard extreme metal vocalist, he comes off more like an enraged howler monkey amped on speed and set on fire. Opening number and brilliant statement of purpose “Boiled Angel/Buried With Leeches” absolutely kills it right off the bat, offering an 11 minute cocktail of crawling open-chord sludge grooves, amped up death metal blasting and violently harsh noise, as well as potently featuring the band’s secret weapon – the vocalist, simply named T. They play with such reckless energy and enthusiasm that it’s impossible not to feed off it with a grimaced face and a banging head. The performance itself is similarly unhinged – it’s loose, grimy and alive. Far from modern metal’s unfortunate propensity for unnecessary polishing, the band sounds like they’re tearing it up right in front of you. The production is absolutely jacked into the red – the septic guitar tone sounds like the Sunlight Studios ‘buzzsaw’ tone (popularized by Entombed, Dismember, etc) ran through a vat of battery acid, and when coupled with the excessive wash of ride cymbal noise you’re left to wonder whether that’s really distortion you’re hearing, or just the sound of your collapsing eardrums. Sonically DIS falls somewhere within the realm of sludge and death metal with something of a black metal visual aesthetic (and maybe a sprinkling of Whitehouse styled noise). Elias Merhige’s monstrosity of a film, Begotten.īut of course, all of this focus on presentation would be simple posturing if the music itself wasn’t so damned good. Even their official band page sports an ominous download link, a press package which features a jpeg image of a rotted corpse and an absolutely horrific music video set to E. Even the band’s presentation, totally removed from the music itself, adheres to this aesthetic – during live shows the band plays with their backs to the audience in total darkness (save some strobelights), the band members don’t release their real names, and they address interviewers without a lick of humor or irony about what they do. The English 5 piece known as Dragged into Sunlight takes this quest for extremity in metal music more seriously (and convincingly) than I’ve ever seen in a metal band in recent memory with their monster of a debut LP, “Hatred of Mankind”. It takes a special kind of artistic irresponsibility to produce something truly crushing, brutal, and heavy, even within a genre where such sonic characteristics are mere prerequisites. Anyone can buy a Line 6 amp, tune to drop A and chug out some “heavy” riffs. However, every so often there comes a band that really feels like they earn those descriptors, and then some. After all, there are only so many ways one can call a band “heavy”, “crushing”, or “brutal“ – metal has always been about extremes, but hyperbole has rendered many of these terms meaningless within the world of this funny little genre. Reviewing metal albums is a joy, but oftentimes somewhat frustrating. Review Summary: A dark, disturbing and flat-out brilliant debut.
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