Flying On Clipped Wings

"Who taught you how to hate your self? Who forced you to confide in spell?" - The Hotelier,  Life in Drag . It's a subject I've touched on quite a bit on my twitter, it's a core part of my identity, and yet I've never written a long form post about it. Perhaps it was fear of what people would say, how they'd look at me differently, the sneers of attention seeker I can see a few people making. Perhaps it was just not knowing what to say, the exact expression, the exact terminology is still something I'm trying to work out. All I have are a set of pronouns, they/them. The default when gender is unknown. An umbrella identity: non binary. Neither male nor female, but an other. I have occasional bursts of extreme facial hair, because some people tell me I can pull it off, marking me as mask. I lack the delicate features and high voice one might attribute to their idea of what androgyny is. I have makeup as a signifier, the black nails, black lipstick...

2017 has been a terrible year on most fronts, however for heavy music it has actually been one of the strongest years for the genre. What stands out most about heavy music is just how many new bands rose to prominence, and how many bands were able to achieve both artistic and commercial success while staying true to their artistic integrity. It's a brave new era, and while I'm excited to see what 2018 brings, here we will be getting reacquainted with the best albums of 2017. 1: Counterparts: You're Not You Anymore "YANA AOTY" was a bit of a meme this year, but in the case of Counterparts, that is more than justified in my opinion. They've always been one of the most distinctive bands within their vein of melodic hardcore, blending together the roughness of the early '00s metalcore scene with intricate technicality, a really intuitive sense of melody threaded throughout the chaos, and a whole lot of passion. Despite losing a few members, they'...

I’ve been a fan of horrible abrasive music for quite a while now, ever since my mam got me a copy of Nine Inch Nails’  The Downward Spiral , delving from there into all facets of the strange and aggressive side of music. This could be  the abstract Japanese noise of the Gerogerigegege ,  the soul crushing brutality of Nails ,  the sweeping beauty matched with searing noise that is Oathbreaker ,  the more accessible though no less intense likes of Slipknot , metal, punk, hardcore, noise, industrial, I wanted to consume it all. Alongside that I delved so heavily into the history of that music, the media surrounding it, the discourse in Facebook groups and message boards and even YouTube comments. Through all that I’ve realised something, something that’s taken me a while to get to grips with, but something that’s very important for understanding what makes this record here as special as it is. I’ve little to no sympathy or time for the “rock’s dead now...

(Originally published on The Odyssey at  https://www.theodysseyonline.com/10-songs-get-you-into-post-hardcore?utm_expid=.cZCE7oX8QCubI-ziFLsOXg.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theodysseyonline.com%2Fuser%2F%40mal-andintheway)   Post-hardcore is a rather vague genre label, initially referring to bands that took the hardcore punk framework and twisted it into strange new shapes, now just a bracket for bands too heavy to be pop punk and not aggro enough to be metalcore. However it is a genre that’s produced many brilliant records and many brilliant bands, and I’d like to give ye all a brief wee overview with ten songs to show you just what this little subgenre can do at its best. 1: Big Black: Bad Penny Steve Albini is notable for having produced a number of brilliant albums, In Utero needing no introduction. Before that however, he was a member of Chicago’s Big Black, a band that took the anger of hardcore, the invention of post-punk and created some o...

Ah yes, Placebo. Of all the bands to emerge from the British rock scene in the 1990s, they’re one of the most unique and indeed long lasting. Their sound was unlike the Blur and Oasis acolytes surrounding them, combining the abrasion of the American underground with a European sophistication. The secret ingredient is a gritty, darkly sexual touch that had a long and storied history in British music, from glam rock to Soft Cell and Depeche Mode but was almost forgotten at that stage. They’ve 7 studio albums recorded, covering a variety of sounds and styles, but still unmistakably them. Though their influence is widely observable, from the dramatics of the goth leaning punk of AFI and My Chemical Romance to a number of the post punk revival acts, there is still no band out there quite like them. (Originally published https://www.theodysseyonline.com/placebo-discography-guide)   Studio Albums    Placebo (1996) Their debut album is their scrappiest a...