4 Metal Albums To Help You Survive the Inevitable Collapse of Society

Intro:

Let’s be real with each other for once: The world kind of blows right now. As Skinless so eloquently stated, life sucks, and then you die. The collapse of western civilization is nigh. The political climate is chaotic. The literal actual environmental climate, is hotter than hell. My personal life is less than nothing. My love life’s DOA. 

And so, with an open mind and an open heart, I want to share some of the epic albums that helped me survive 2024! That was such a rough time for me, personally, that even now, at this particular point of time, I’m still reeling and trying to process it all. Here’s how music helped me heal:

Ibridoma – Norimberga

Even though Ibridoma are from Italy, something about their music totally reminds me of Germanic metal, like Scorpions, Angel Dust, Dream Evil, or even Rammstein. The power chords and chugging riffs are just pure raw brute strength, giving your eardrums blunt force trauma. I do love me some thumping caveman drumbeats and badass T rex riffs. There is a brilliance to their industrial efficiency, like brutalist architecture. They have an old school hard rock edge. But of course, they also have a requisite lovey dovey monster ballad or two. 

This is the musical equivalent of your favorite vintage leather biker jacket. It’s comfortable and familiar, but still has it’s own unique cool attitude. It’s nostalgic for the past, but also has infinite exciting possibilities for future memories. It’s what I know, it’s what I like, and it makes me feel warm inside, while also boosting my own personal self confidence. This is just strong, solid, steady music that makes me feel pumped and energized, yet effortlessly chill. And those shredding guitar solos, man! Goddamn! Top tier! 

Futilitarian – Annihilation 

What a blast from the past. I wonder what these local fuckers are up to nowadays. Hey! Not bad! And so the Futilitarian saga continues, with yet another epic comeback!  They are still predominantly instrumental, but wait, what’s that I hear? Are they doing vocals again?!? Better yet, gravelly gutteral growls? Cool!  Spacy! Weird! Alien! 

My first impressions? It’s literally and figuratively out of this world! I always knew that they were one of the best bands in the city of Albuquerque, or maybe even in the entire state of New Mexico, but this is just incredible. They just keep on getting better and better, like the universe eternally expanding into infinity. I, like other diehard old school fans of the band, am always excited to hear new material from them. They are as atmospheric and heavy as an imploding star. 

But I also have mixed feelings, because as much as I enjoy the beautiful melodies, it simultaneously feels kind of melancholic, or sorrowful, or wrathful, or at least bittersweet. This sweeping epic melodic death metal, reminds me of the fact that we, us as a people, on the grand scale as a collective humanity, and also as unique individuals, we are all like planets, constellations, nebulae, galaxies, meteors, comets, rockets, spaceships, and UFOs, all colliding together. Like, the universe is mostly vast empty meaningless void, and whatever matter is out there, usually just exists to bump into each other and get in each other’s way, like a giant celestial moshpit. And so the cosmic toxic waltz continues forever and all eternity, or at least until the inevitable heat death of the solar system. So it’s like, cool song bro, thanks for the misanthropy, memento mori, existential dread, and primeval fear of human mortality. I totally needed this kind of nihilism in my life. Really appreciate it, my dudes. 

Dark Tranquility – Last Imagination 

Dark Tranquillity never disappoints. They simply cannot miss. I unconditionally love and absolutely adore each and every single last tiny detail about this practically perfect band. Even down to the band name, Dark Tranquillity, implying the possibility of being simultaneously both peaceful yet morbid. I even appreciate the subtle intentional misspelling of Tranqullity (with an extra L), invoking the aesthetically stylistic misspelling in rock music, going all the way back to The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and Def Leppard. The more I think about Dark Tranquillity, the more inspired I feel. 

Last Imagination is yet another melodic death metal masterpiece. The title track is a catchy single. The music video is like a trippy science fiction fantasy fairytale. The guitar riffs are magickal. The lyrics are poetic and sensitive, but sharpened and weaponized by growls and screams. 

Double negatives make a positive. It’s not a grammatical error, but a strategic literary technique, just like the clever band name. The ironic song titles and intentionally ambiguous lyrics are not quite what they seem, and that’s by design. One must read between the lines. Not Nothing, must mean something. Nothing to No-One, must mean something to someone. Fit them together like solving a puzzle. And fit all these songs, like moving pieces of a Rubix cube, to form the bigger picture of the whole album. Which in turn is  just a chapter in the story of Dark Tranqullity. The band, in turn,  is a single piece, of a greater fractal  of melodic death metal in general, including Amorphis, Soilwork, etc. 

Thy Catafalque – XII: A Gyönyörű Álmok Ezután Jönnek

Full offense, but Thy Catafalque > everything. Not my fault. Don’t shoot the messenger. Nothing personal. It’s just… He’s Hungarian avante garde prog metal, with experimental riffs, and weird poetic lyrics, so obscure that I literally have to translate them from scratch. Sorry not sorry. Not in a mean way, but just like… He’s objectively superior to everyone. Yes, even me, the best gothic hippie fairy princess rockstar in the entire galaxy!

The eponymous track, A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek (roughly, Beautiful Dreams Will Come After This ) had me pushing the repeat button nonstop. From a technical standpoint, the musical precision is tight. From an emotional standpoint, this is just fucking heartwrenchingly gorgeous. And the lyrics pertain to some of my favorite subject matter: dreams, love, nature, mutually assured self destruction… Story of my life! 

The language barrier adds to my fascination. It’s amazing how music can transcend the human confines and limitations, of culture and distance, respectively. Hell, I spend hours pondering over lyrics written in my native English, so of course I could spend hours translating the lyrics of a different language. And, on top of the literal linguistic interpretation of the words themselves, I also consider context, slang, word play, double entendres, etc. And, on top of that, I’m also wondering about the fact that human beings will never truly understand each other, but it’s awesome and adorable that we try so hard, that it’s intrinsically in our nature to reach out to each other and try to connect, even if it ultimately feels like an asymptotic exercise in futility. Any two individuals may never truly understand each other, but the truth that we even attempt to do so, speaks volumes. 

Outro: 

Well then! We just explored the depths of sorrow and the inexorable impact of human resilience, and everything in between. Isn’t it kind of crazy, how  something as simple as variations of air pressure, can get you right in the feels? Sound wavelengths and even radio signals, are all about tuning in to the same resonance. The entire universe is all vibrations, baby! Hell, even on a molecular level, subatomic particles are all just vibes. Protons are positive, neutrons are neutral, and electrons are negative. Either way, everything in all of existence is all some form of energy within the time/space continuum theory, from tiny infinitesimal quarks, to gargantuan gigantic humongous quasars. And what better example, than music itself!