The Spanish doom metal band Orthodox forgoes the distorted low-end for clustered piano chords.
The Spanish doom metal band Orthodox forgoes the distorted low-end for clustered piano chords.
Earlier today, NPR Music published one of my pieces for Take Five, our weekly jazz feature, called Blast Beat Improv: Metallic Free Jazz. I've come to subtitle it "Or How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love Bill Laswell"; the beret-ed bassist and producer is worth his own essay (seriously), in part because he spearheaded a lot of metal-influenced free jazz. (Aka grind-jazz, acoustic grind, death jazz or free death.) It's not swing for the faint of heart.
On the flip side, jazz (free and otherwise) has had a large influence on metal. Often, musicians with jazz backgrounds start thrash and death metal bands, using their knowledge of chord progressions and polyrhythms to inform brutal compositions.
There are countless other examples — too many to list — but I do want to know your favorite jazz-influenced metal bands, especially ones I may not have heard.
Excuse Me, Sir, You Have Some Jazz In Your Metal
Orthodox
- Album: Sentencia
- Song: Ascension
These Sevilla, Spain doomsters started as a Sunn O))) worship band, pounding on mega-low B chords at 16 beats per minute. It was all well and good for what it was, even if it wasn't particularly original drone-doom metal. Then upon Orthodox's second album, Amanecer en Puerta Oscura, the band started to incorporate avant-jazz flourishes of clarinet, horn and upright bass. It was interesting at its best — it likely blew some stoners' minds — but wasn't fully formed. Enter Sentencia, which loses the low-end distortion in favor of clustered chords from the piano. The heaviness comes not from the immediate sound, but from the looming gravitas. It's fitting (if a bit misleading) that Sentencia's 26-minute track is called "Ascension" (ring any bells?): the composition leans heavily on abstract upright bass bowing, theatrical vocals and, as showcased in the excerpt below, overblown clarinet and keys beaten into submission.
Sentenica is available from The Stone Circle.
Ehnahre
- Album: Man Closing Up
- Song: Part I
Whether serious or gimmicky, metal has a long-standing relationship with the devil. Appropriately, Ehnahre bills itself as "Satan Jazz." Featuring former members of the avant-metal band Kayo Dot, there's nothing resembling swing here, but there is some of the darkest free improvisation I've ever heard. Extreme doom fans might compare Ehnahre's angular wretchedness to Khanate, but the Boston quartet is also clearly invested in dragging misery through metal-based abstraction. It's caustic, ugly, gurgling, putrid filth that wanders a post-apocalyptic landscape. (Oh, that's a good thing, by the way.)
For more information, visit Ehnahre's website.
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