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DarkBlack - The Sellsword

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 January 28 2010 at 01:12:48 PM



Grand funk. Axe for hire’s old news. Men disparate as Malmsteen, Mustaine, Ozzy comprised gangs of long knives. Mercenary chops fired baked comp, ran song to skies painted blast white for space ritual sundown. Cosmic “sellsword” does no differently, from annals Tolkien to Dungeon Master’s Guide to marked men gutted and left perched bleeding out amongst persimmon trees. Exhibit A: Food-cart country Portland, OR boasts Sylvania quartet DarkBlack, hair-farmers contented with El Camino ride, domestic cans, harsh tokes in fiber-optic addled basements.

DarkBlack’s tunes stand firmly with The Sellsword’s Bros Hildrebrandt riffed cover-art, and makes good on the self-anointing bit, engaging title-track conceptual apparatus pawed originally by Messrs Diamond, Dickinson.  Song titles, too, continue “Commune with Crom” shtick. There are furtive nods to swords, sentinels, flame and fire, mountains and tombs. Musical touchstones flagrant and endearing proliferate. Riffs encamped in midst of ‘Maiden (Somewhere in Time era), Van Der Volsing’s Brats, Gaskin’s Beyond Worlds End, and Rising Force’s more roccoco inclinations. Oooh-ooh, that smell.

The black/white post-ironic bullshit argument and so-called “troo” metal stance are honey-buckets many never dip into. Aping the populist brings us: Let them listen to what they will. And positing opinion ably encourages sand-drawn lines. The Sellsword surely is elephant-shitting-itself-in-rec room’s-corner, toe-to-tit within both warring camps. No pussyfooting. Were the music more developed, irritating subtext would never be an issue. Potential is one thing; actualization another. Burying vocals and phrasing riffs in nearly identical ways aren’t successful ingredients – no matter what status quo tells us.

Breathe it in. Nostalgia. Ah, the snaggletooth’d addiction. Is identifying with music because of its aesthetics entirely dissimilar from “liking it” because it calls to mind the redhead you sat across from in art class who wore Pocahontas boots, frayed Attacker tee, and truly loved Sword of the Shannara? Well, is it?

[Stewart Voegtlin]

DarkBlack
The Sellsword
Stormspell Records
2009

Comments (7)

  • 67 comments
    chauncey chomperz
    2:43 PM on Jan 29, 2010 // reply »
    outing myself like a boner in sweatpants but......I read the shit outta Terry Brooks as a lad.
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    11:41 AM on Jan 31, 2010 // reply »
    Are they any good? I always had a thing for the ladies that read 'em. Never cracked one myself. Too busy with inhalants and S.O.D.
  • 2 comments
    big carl
    8:43 PM on Jan 31, 2010 // reply »
    cover's no where near the elegance of bros Hildebrant, but I wanna hear this LP
  • 67 comments
    chauncey chomperz
    9:57 AM on Feb 01, 2010 // reply »
    at the time I loved it. I mean I was 10 and I read any fantasy crap I could get my hands so you take that for what it's worth....I really have no idea if they hold up since I haven't even laid eyes on a copy of the book in almost 20 years. Sword of Shannara I think was written in the late 60's which is kind of cool. obviously it's all second rate Tolkien, but I think Brooks was one of the best of the 2nd tier. maybe the Budgie to JRR's Led Zep?

  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    10:02 AM on Feb 01, 2010 // reply »
    When I was in high school - mid-to-late 80s - book store "fantasy" sections were in metastasis. It was difficult to tell what was knock-off and what was genuine.

    I knew Tolkien and Howard but I was more into the comics - Conan, Savage Sword of Conan, and Heavy Metal Mag. All the "metal" girls read that stuff though, especially Brooks. Can't say it wasn't endearing. And I love Budgie.
  • 67 comments
    chauncey chomperz
    11:31 AM on Feb 01, 2010 // reply »
    uh huh. so we're probably around 10 years apart. Terry Brooks wiki page which has a few interesting factoids:

    "[Brooks] has over 21 million copies of his books in print.[3] He is one of the biggest-selling living fantasy writers[4]"

    "[The Sword of Shannara] This novel became the first fantasy book ever to appear on the New York Times bestseller list, where it stayed for five months.[5]"

    he wrote it in '77. so I was wrong about the 60's but still...might still be a good read to dork out to.
  • 374 comments
    VOEGTLIN
    11:40 AM on Feb 01, 2010 // reply »
    Completely. Least I can do.
 

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