This topic was inspired by the saddest song-thread. Mind, the song doesn't have to be particularly heavy or metal or something like that to be aggressive. However, instead of just embedding a bunch of songs, explain why a song feels aggressive to you. Does it sound aggressive (like a lot of metal or punk music)? Does it make you feel aggressive, get your heart pumping and adrenaline flowing, or does it work as an outlet of your anger and eventually wind up relaxing you? What elements of the song make it aggressive to you? The lyrics? The notes? The tones? Does it evoke angry/frustrating memories that get you riled up? Or is it something else? You know, analyze the songs you post. I'll post three examples to demonstrate just how different songs can be and still be considered aggressive music: Meshuggah - The Mouth Licking What You've Bled Meshuggah - The Mouth Licking What You've Bled This is pretty self-explanatory: the riffs are very heavy, the vocals sound angry and aggressive, and there's this groove going on that just works really well as background music for, say, boxing practice; it makes you wanna bob your head and move to the flow of the music. I once read a quote in an Amazon review of this album that I found hilarious. I'm paraphrasing here: "Meshuggah sounds like someone is repeatedly slamming a steel door on the singer's fingers." I love this song, but it does sound a bit like that. Tori Amos - The Waitress Tori Amos - The Waitress Here it's mainly two things: the lyrics and the way Tori Amos sings it. To me it's the emotion she puts into the performance that makes it just sound very angry; you can hear the frustration just from how she uses her voice. Another thing that adds to the mood of the piece is the contrast of the percussion loop running in the background, which lends for a mechanic, cold atmosphere, with the far more human emotions expressed by the broad dynamics of the arrangement (light piano work all the way to drums, bass, and distorted, low-tuned guitar). I don't know if she ever intended it, but to me it almost sounds like the drum machine represents the cold control one needs to cultivate in a service profession, like a waitress: you need to rein in your anger and frustration and just smile whereas the rest of the music, the vocals, the "organic instruments" represent the natural, more primal reactions to being provoked. Blitz - Someone's Gonna Die Tonight Blitz - Someone's Gonna Die Tonight Harcore punk is the music of aggression. Here it's not the sounds/tones or the riffs that make it sound aggressive, but the way the instruments are played (hard, without finesse or technical skill), the way the lyrics are shouted in a very low-tech sort of way, and, of course, the lyrics themselves. In a way it's the polar opposite of Meshuggah, who rely a lot on custom-built 8-string guitars tuned very low, expensive amplifiers to get the heaviest, chunkiest guitar tones, high-end production, super-tight technical performances etc. to get their sound whereas here it's pure, raw expression. If Meshuggah is like a technical MMA fight, Blitz is a street scuffle behind the fish & chips stand. Ladies and gentlemen, the stage is yours.
I'd go Meshuggah, but the song, Bleed, or Obzen. It always gets me into the mood. Chimaira's, The Flame is brutal too (what's it's about even more so).
. The lyrics are all the commentary that is needed: Ænema Some say the end is near. Some say we'll see Armageddon soon. I certainly hope we will. I sure could use a vacation from this Bullshit three ring circus sideshow of freaks Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA The only way to fix it is to flush it all away. Any fucking time. Any fucking day. Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona Bay. Fret for your figure and Fret for your latte and Fret for your lawsuit and Fret for your hairpiece and Fret for your Prozac and Fret for your pilot and Fret for your contract and Fret for your car. It's a bullshit three ring circus sideshow of freaks Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA The only way to fix it is to flush it all away. Any fucking time. Any fucking day. Learn to swim, I'll see you down in Arizona Bay. Some say a comet will fall from the sky. Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves. Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still. Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits. Some say the end is near. Some say we'll see Armageddon soon. I certainly hope we will cause I sure could use a vacation from this Stupig shit, silly shit, stupid shit... One great big festering neon distraction, I've a suggestion to keep you all occupied. Learn to swim. [x2] Mom's gonna fix it all soon. Mom's coming round to put it back the way it ought to be. Learn to swim. Fuck L Ron Hubbard and Fuck all his clones. Fuck all these gun-toting Hip gangster wannabes. Learn to swim. Fuck retro anything. Fuck your tattoos. Fuck all you junkies and Fuck your short memory. Learn to swim. Fuck smiley glad-hands With hidden agendas. Fuck these dysfunctional, Insecure actresses. Learn to swim. Cause I'm praying for rain And I'm praying for tidal waves I wanna see the ground give way. I wanna watch it all go down. Mom, please flush it all away. I wanna see it go right in and down. I wanna watch it go right in. Watch you flush it all away. Time to bring it down again. Don't just call me pessimist. Try and read between the lines. I can't imagine why you wouldn't Welcome any change, my friend. I wanna see it all come down. Suck it down. Flush it down.
Gwar - it's not just a concert, it's an experience that will stay with you for the rest of your life. When they spray the fake blood - and people are pushing you toward the stage and the mosh forms at your feet and suddenly you're in the fray of battle, like a half-naked fanatic in a barbarian horde - the crowd erupts and you do damage - yes, damage will be done. This is Gwar. If you like metal, you have to see Gwar in concert - I command you, go and see them. You can thank me later. I could randomly pick out an aggressive song - but they are all brutal.
Early 90's grunge rock, in general, was the most aggressive type of music I've heard. The lyrics were sad, depressing, aggressive, and irresponsible, I think. After hearing a few grunge rock songs, you'd feel like life and this world were only bad, with nothing to be happy about. Man!
For me it's gotta be this one Bow down before the one you serve, you;re going to get what you deserve... It takes me right back to the 90s. The chorus and the video are all-consuming.
Like the choices, but I'd have to go with Possession by Whitechapel. As a good friend once told me 'every time I hear that song I want to go out and murder people with my truck'. something about them screaming WE ARE THE DISEASE. excuse me for a moment I have to go punch somebody in the face now.... I feel so much better.
I guess I'd categorize some of this as aggressive, but to me it's mostly just noisy. I'm too old for this shit, as they say. When I think "aggressive," the first sound that comes to mind is guitarist Angus Young of AC/DC. He's a mean, snarling junkyard dog of a guitarist. When he solos, it sounds like he's coming at you in the dark with a switchblade. I used to have a VHS video of an all-star concert that was a tribute to Bob Dylan, for Dylan's 30th anniversary as a recording artist or something like that. Eddie Vedder sang a rendition of Dylan's "Masters of War" that chilled me. He made every line drip with hate. "And I hope that you die / And your death will come soon / I will follow your casket / in the pale afternoon / And I'll watch while you're lowered / Down to your deathbed / And I'll stand o'er your grave 'til I'm sure that you're dead." Ow!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL-BA86UhoE F*ck your God by them too, lyrically is pretty hard-core. Maybe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7NTFMW3NX0&feature=share&list=FLBNW5BSMiuoGPc41Svx1j2A http://youtu.be/A3Kbv0rGZHE
Rage Against the Machine -- Settle for Nothing ... there is something so raw about Zach's emotion throughout this track. 2pac -- Hit Em Up ... pure vitriol
Considering how depressing grunge rock is, I'm sorry that I still hear it on the radio, as American rock stations play the old grunge rock songs from the 90's over and over.
I guess it would depend on the definition of "aggressive". For me it would be Joni Mitchell's Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire. Anyone who knows Michell's work might find it bizarre that I would chose her of all singers, but I chose it because the subject matter, the culture of heroin abuse, would have been scandalous writing territory in the year the song came out, 1970. Also because the writer, Joni Mitchell, tackled the writing of such a dark and ugly subject with the sublimely graceful prose typical of all her work. It may not seem agressive from a standpoint of vulgarity or musicality, but it was aggressive from the standpoint of a songwriter, known for folk music, taking on a subject as ugly as this one when she did.
Grunge rock is not only depressing in of itself, but some of the worst years of my life were during the time when Grunge rock was big. So hearing old Grunge rock songs are often extra-depressing for me.
