Jon Caramanica, a smart guy who's contributing an essay to my upcoming Marooned anthology, has a good piece on art-metal in today's New York Times. It's well-sourced and well-written: he ticks off all the names your average metal-ignorant Times reader needs to know (Orthrelm, Aaron Turner/Hydra Head Records, Pelican, Sunn O))), Flying Luttenbachers, Albert Mudrian/Decibel, Justin Broadrick, et al.) without making it overwhelming. It'll fuel a heck of a trip to Amazon for some suburban teen looking for the next big thrill. And that's a good thing. It just feels funny to me, watching all these guys pop their heads out into public, because I've been beating this drum for a couple of years already - I profiled Pelican in The Wire just after Australasia dropped, and I managed to get Weasel Walter into Jazziz in 2002 or 2003 (I forget which) - and I've been sticking reviews that deal with metal as serious music for thinking people into just about every venue that'll have me for, well, quite a while now. (Make no mistake, I'm not begrudging Jon getting into the New York Times before me; I never would have even tried to pitch them a piece like this one.) Anyway, go read the thing, and if you're inspired to do some record shopping afterward, you could do a lot worse than to pick up any/all of the following:
Orthrelm, OV
Sunn O))), The GrimmRobe Demos
Earth, Earth 2 and Legacy Of Dissolution
The Flying Luttenbachers, Systems Emerge From Complete Disorder and The Void
Pelican, Australasia
Isis, Oceanic and Panopticon
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