Heavy Metal Roundup issue 1: Origin at The Zoo, Sept. 12, 2008.

Welcome to the Heavy Metal Roundup, or the Local Heavy, or some other witty title that has to do with me going to shows, taking a few lousy pictures and writing about it. This time around is Kansas’ insanely technical space-themed death metal juggernauts Origin.

But first, a few words about death metal and about me. Historically, I don’t like death metal. From the numerous stacks and racks of cds that haunt my apartment, I count roughly 5 cds that I would classify as being death metal. To the uninitiated - or uninterested - death metal is typically known for its blistering tempos, extreme heavyness, gutteral/screamed/incomprehensible vocals and technical musicianship. Like any genre of music, death metal has further sub-genres and categories with their own standards, but on the whole, these are the givens when the subject is death metal.

Now that I think about it, why don’t I LOVE death metal? I love heavy music, I can more than tolerate screamed vocals and anything involving impressive musicianship is destined to languish on my record shelf. And yet, death metal has never been a style I have fully embraced. Why? For one, it usually isn’t very much fun to listen to. It’s loud, fast, heavy (again, why don’t I like this?) but it’s also abrasive, devoid of melody (usually), and absolutely relentless. Since my ears crave melody, I can only tolerate so much brutality until I start to get bored and usually exhausted. That isn’t to say that I haven’t come across some exceptions, nor am I knocking death metal. It just usually isn’t for me.

Here is one such exception. Relapse Records’ Origin.

I suppose what attracts me to Origin is, oddly enough, their sheer relentlessness. This band does not let up. Their latest records Antithesis is a 30-odd minute blitzkrieg of super-human drumming and brutal guitar riffs. What I like most about this new record is that the band has really begun to push the boundaries of conventional death metal. Origin has certainly gotten faster (a feat I though impossible) but also more experimental and technical when it comes to guitar and bass parts. Instead of chunky, down-tuned monotony pervasive throughout the death metal world, Origin has incorporated lightning-fast arpeggios, guitar sweeps, and straight-up shredding. Needless to say, I was curious to see how the new record translated in the live setting.

The answer came moments into Origin’s set: awesome. The drumming was thunderous, often sounding more like artillery fire than percussion, the guitar lines were executed perfectly, the vocalist was both effective and hilarious, but the show stealer was the bass player.

For most metal, the emphasis is placed upon how brutal the vocals sound, how fast the drumming is, and how outrageous the guitar playing is. Not a whole lot of attention is given to bass players, who are usually left to hold things together while the drums and guitar are left to their own wanky devices. Not so with Origin’s bass wrangler Mike Flores. Flores practically re-defined the instrument as he followed the slithering, zig-zagging guitar lines to the very last note. Nearly dwarfed by his six-stringed bass, Flores’ hands scurried up and down the fretboard like spiders, at once keeping up with the hyperactive blasts from drummer and possible cyborg John Longstreth and even contributing to some gutteral vocals.

Musicality and technique aside, Origin put on a pretty entertaining set. The vocalist prevented the band’s posturing from getting too over the top by hamming it up a bit with some witty between-song banter - delivered, of course, in his singing voice, sounding like an aggressive version of Cookie Monster. Intentional or not, it had me laughing and held my interest. Perhaps it was these instances of humour and humility, juxtaposed against some nearly supernatural musicianship that made Origin’s set memorable.