Certain musicians possess what alchemists would describe as chrysopoeia, and what historians would describe as the Midas touch. Like the Greek King of the city of Pessinus, many metalheads are in league with the celestial and seem to draw divine inspiration with ease.
Tomas Lindberg
The second tour of metal midases begins in Sweden, with a man whose band At The Gates and their 1995 album Slaughter Of The Soul launched a thousand other albums metalcore and melodic death metal in stance and 9 times out of 10, inferior in quality and consistency.
The Björler brother Anders was the maestro behind the guitar wizardry, but it was Tomas Lindberg whose enigmatic harsh vocals have served not only ATG but a soiree of other high quality acts so well over the years. The raw punky discharge of Disfear makes for a fearsome live set any day, and the stint Tomas did in the Crown was hugely rewarding.
Karl Sanders
An old picture of a young blonde haired metaller on stage at a Morbid Angel shows part of the death metal upbringing of a man named Karl Sanders. That man is the main impetus behind the successful and extremely talented Nile. After one has dismissed the haters who hate just because it’s another hype to try and dispel and also dismissed the fanboys out there who pander to Nile because its “brutal” or whatever, there is a legacy of truly awesome death metal.
The consistency of Nile’s output is phenomenal, only slightly wavering of late with Ithyphallic (2007). The ability to produce such technical yet organic and empowering death metal and marry it with an obsessive love for Egyptology and keep up the quality album after album is nothing short of astounding.
Karl has also notably created many Ancient Egyptian themed instrumental passages and tracks which are unbelievably grandiose and sweeping, ranging from dark and mysterious to glorious and triumphant, his compositions swell with passion. The best example would be the glorious mini movie soundtrack that is ‘Halls of Saurian Entombment’ from 2002’s In Their Darkened Shrines.
Attila Cshiar
Back to Scandinavia for the final Midas and one would be forgiven for thinking there’s enough metal talent in these relatively sparse countries to turn a whole lake into gold. A band formed in Oslo named Mayhem, became the most well known and longstanding of a slue of metal bands who also formed under that moniker in the 80’s.
This article hails the mighty Attila Cshiar, a vocalist and black metal legend from Hungary. He supplied the vocals for the questionably greatest but definitely most contentious black metal album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994). This performance was a strong and varied attack, with low and tortured vocals, at that time unique and the closest one had come to inhuman vocals.
In the years that followed Attila lent his distinctive throat to many a classic album (see Aborym) and masterfully pulled off many guest appearances. (see Keep of Kalessin, Sunn o))) and Grave Temple). A career only slightly tampered by some dubious onstage antics and meandering material from contemporary Mayhem.
As King Midas would attest to; Gold is certainly the colour of royal blood, and that is certainly what carries the oxygen to and from the brains of these men, pulsating with the sway for forward thinking and predatory like musicianship.
