From the Carpenters to Dark Throne

First posted on November 16, 2007

At last a day of sunshine in my area. What is it that the Carpenters sung, “Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down?” Now don’t laugh, the Carpenters did what they did about as well as anybody does anything. And that first album has a psychedelic tune and some powerhouse arrangements. In the music publishing days of my youth my boss used to send Karen Carpenter salamis as gifts (at her manager’s suggestion). Little did we know she had that eating disorder.

From the Carpenters to death/thrash/speed metal is a jump, and here we go. . . . Dark Throne is/was a European band working in the latter style. They formed in 1986. I’m checking out an anthology of their music from 1988-94, ironically called Preparing for War (Peaceville CD). Now the vocals and lyrics are not especially important to me. It’s the dark, bleak exorcist stuff. Pretty generic at that. But the wall of sound the guitars/bass get, the thrashing drums and the sheer musicality of the band over time sets them apart. Now keep in mind that musicality for such a band is not necessarily to be measured by normal standards. You listen, though, and you get a sensibility from them that I appreciate. Good weekends to all once again. Monday and Tuesday we’ll look at some electric African music.