Thursday, January 18, 2007

Blow Your Gats On This One

Darcy James Argue posted a million years ago about the long tradition of really terribly awful rock saxophone solos, but why did no one ask of metal saxophone solos? I'm sure may of you are thinking that's because the previous phrase was absurd and rediculous. However, I have a an example! A good one! So you know I'm not talking about Dick Parry.

I've sat on Yakuza's Samsara for almost a year now, it was one of the last CDs that came in during my watch as metal director at WLFM. The first track "Cancer of Industry" was pretty br00tal and the muezzin-styled intro, that I assumed to be sampled, stuck it in my head. It wasn't until last week that I finally got back to listening to the rest of the album, it turns out that those saxophones at the beginning are real, and that the sax player is a dedicated member of the band. He's also listed as a vocalist, so I'm not sure if he's the one doing the standard hardcore scream or actually singing ("clean vocals" as we in the biz call them). The standout in my opinion is "Exterminator" which primarily features the aforementioned clean vocals and our saxophone friend with the courage to play that most metal of instruments, the soprano sax.


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