Riff Analysis 035 - Spawn of Possession 'Scorched'

Feels pretty fast to me!

Justin London's book:

Arnie Cox's book:

[jonajon]

The balls on this man to play SoP guitar parts on camera.

[nikhilt]

I think production quality also plays a factor in perceived speed specifically with drums as well—rawer recordings tend to sound faster than overly sampled ones as the raw performance captures the frantic energy and human-ness of trying to play at hyperspeeds

[alirezabayat]

Yes sir you're absolutely right.
I've noticed when i try to headbang to tech-death type of music i tend to headbang to the song in half time, and the actual song is a just mad tornado around me.

[bigyobbos]

This video is really awesome. I often get sad and frustrated about listening to tech death because most people think metal is "just a bunch of screaming" already, and tech death can easily sound like gibberish to an average non musician listener. If only they realized that this music is actually very beautiful and intricate.

[nigelproctor]

This is super interesting. Archspire always claims to hit that "350bpm" mark but I really always feel like I'm bopping my head at 175 bpm, like something is kind of lost at that speed, even in terms of SPEED.

[tyelerhiggins]

220 bpm is actually around where I can't consistently use one hand for 8th notes anymore, so I'm glad it's the tempo you referenced.

[lamniformes]

Just watching the cursor bounce around that list of guitar techniques was anxiety inducing. It's interesting how someone's instrumental background could also influence how fast a song feels. For example, stuff like Converge/TDEP/etc feels way faster to me as a drummer than a lot of blast-happy tech death stuff. The former is constantly throwing new rhythmic information at me, whereas the latter feels like smaller subdivisions of a bigger, slower tempo. Cool to hear it from the guitarists perspective!

[seaofseeof]

People often don't understand art. Art isn't about doing something. It's about making someone experience something. If you want to someone to experience raw speed, figure out a way of conveying that artistically. This CAN and often DOES involve "high" BPMs, but BPM is only a tool that ought to be used a certain way. Sometimes, tou convey something artistically, you physically have to do the opposite things you want people to _ feel_. Sometimes, a small distant sound conveys "silence" better than absolute silence. Or sometimes, you convey speed, you sandwich it between something slow as a frame of reference.

But holy shit! You've actually put my experience into words perfectly. I don't have much background in music theory (I used to play some tech death and Dillinger type stuff on guitar though). From producing electronic music, and having music tastes that include speedcore, I learned very soon that speed is only conveyed as "speed" up to a certain BPM. Once passed that, it tends to lose subjective qualities we associate with speed. Maybe the transients get so close to each other that it feels like white noise or ambient music, I don't know. Or maybe it's poor arrangement, and everything is put on a single element to sound fast (drums, or more specifically blast beats) where the rest grooves at half the tempo. But a lot of the intensity is just killed. Either way, DAWs allow you to play as fast as you want, and yet, one of the fastest sounding songs to me is in second half of "This Dream People Call Human Life" by Abelcain. Also, with a bpm of around 160.

One musician in the metal and grind world that TRULY knows how to convey speed, though, is Scott Hull.

[AlexTechNicol]

Hell yeah. My mans out here on some tech death. Can we take a moment to collectively shit our pants about Archspire’s “Bleed the Future”?
Awesome video dude. You have helped my writing a lot.

[yellowsaurus]

The intro about "rhythm hounds" really cracked me up haha

[chainsawvsgod]

These are becoming some of my fav vids on YouTube. Sick cover at the end too

[incongruous]

Ack Dack has one hell of a catchy riff. I'm sure they will be huge years from now and we will be hearing this riff for the next 50 years

[metalmaniac]

Love these long-form videos. Good shit

[pribadiwicaksono]

When you played that song in part of number 4 about guitar technique, there's much switched guitar techniques in every phrase riffs, that's the characteristic of their band that I've heard so far.

Thanks for your great analysis about that song.

[TheSquareOnes]

Excellent analysis as always. This is actually something that's always bothered me about speedcore and related electronic genres, I'm only vaguely aware of the style but whenever I try to give something at "600 BPM" another shot it sounds disappointingly slow because in reality the brain just reframes everything at a substantially slower tempo and turns their "beats" into 16th notes. The disconnect between how music has advanced (both with technology and with people in genres like tech death physically playing more and more notes in shorter periods of time) and our general ability to perceive that advancement is both interesting and frustrating.

[stolentechniques]

My favorite band of all time! Can't believe you have done a video with them!!
Basically, this band made my appreciate guitar playing so much more. Masters of tech death. R.I.P.

Edit: Spelling. Got so excited I typed something that made no sense...

[primitiveritual]

Super interesting stuff. This channel will be huge one day

[avantagonist]

Watching this after listening to Inferi's "Vile Geneisis" which feels cartoonishly fast and intense

[TheAnnihilator]

Great video and great points made.

Always found it laughable years ago (and even now) when bands advertise songs as being 280bpm+ tempos but they don't feel that fast or intense.

I haven't found much that feels faster or more intense than Scorched, Church of Deviance, Psycroptic's (Ob)Servant or Antaeus' Blood Libels.

[DaveFromVh]

I remember being blown away upon first listen when this album dropped, great vid!