Comedian Reggie Watts blew me away the first time I saw him. He is like comedy's version of Rhazel meets Mike Patton. He creates beatbox loops and then sings over them, all is if it's improv. Here's an example for you. He's an awesome dude with an awesome 'fro, who "gets" music.
Which is why I found his review of the new Exhumed album, Necrocracy fascinating.
Reggie reviewed the album for The Talkhouse and admitted that he might not be the biggest death metal fan but he appreciates the art form:
I don't listen to death metal all the time but when I do hear it or I see a band playing that kind of music, I'm super down with it. I just appreciate the tones — and the new Exhumed record sounds fantastic.
Watts was very impressed with the engineering on the record, done by none other than Will Putney:
The problem with recording death metal, with all its distortion and overtones and volume, is that you can fill up the sound spectrum so quickly that it becomes very muddy and hard to hear anything — there's so much sonic information that it turns into a wash. With hip-hop or standard indie-rock, you can get away with sort of sloppy recording. But with death metal it has to sound good, otherwise it all goes to hell (and not in a good way). That's not easy to do, but this record is really well recorded. Everything has been done right. It sounds like what death metal should sound like: aggressive, very intentional, tight. And menacing.
Then, he gets into the philosophy of "good" death metal…
Like all death metal, Necrocracy is aggressive, but it's also a little bit mesmerizing, so I guess it's a little meditative to a certain extent. I like feeling the zen inside of music like this. Part of that is because it's actually pretty groove-oriented — it's all about what's happening rhythmically. Maybe some people can't see that, but the groove of it is what makes you want to rock your head back and forth while you're listening to it. Any great death metal band is going to have a strong groove.
Overall, it's an excellent review that I recommend you read, and while you're reading reviews, why not check out our review of Exhumed's Necrocracy while you're at it.
