heavy friends
~ November 23, 2009 ~
Sometimes, when the weather seems colder and the sun seems a bit dimmer than usual, the only music that can lift my mood is the heavy kind. There’s something both energizing and soothing in the best kinds of heavy music that can feel a bit like meditation. On those days when my mind seems clouded with darker thoughts, I like to throw on some Neurosis and lose them in the warm, dense sludge of downtuned guitars. Or, I’ll nod my head to the repetitive grooves of Om, who have perfected the art of meditative, aggressionless metal.
There are a few albums I find myself coming back to again and again, like old friends who are always willing to lend a sympathetic ear. Times of Grace by Neurosis and Pilgrimage by Om (or pretty much any album by those two bands) are two. Jesu’s self-titled debut is one, and their last EP, Opiate Sun, is shaping to become another. I think Shrinebuilder’s awesome new album will join the rotation.
Metal for me is not an outlet for aggression or anger, but a comforting, warm blanket. The lyrics may describe desolation and apocalyptic imagery, but they soon recede into that thick, charged atmosphere which, I think, edges closer to the sublime than any other type of contemporary music. ∞