Defeated Sanity | Stoned Then Defiled

Описание: I was in the mood of some Psalms-era Defeated Sanity. Since we didn't play this one live and I never got around learning the song in its entirety, I thought about "Stoned Then Defiled". It also helped that it's quite short. It was either Hideously Disembodied or the titular Psalms Of The Moribund then, which are also pretty fun to play. But they are too long for just a short cover in between...whatever I'm in between. Yeah.

And story time again: I owe a lot of my skills to this album, as well as Obscuras "Cosmogenesis" and Necrophagists "Epitaph", which I already mentioned in my last video. And btw, I just "re-discovered" Deadborn, and I totally forgot how much I listened to them back in the day when I was craving some Necrophagist riffing that wasn't Necrophagist.

After my initial nu-metal and then melodic death metal phase I was drawn to more technical stuff. And those 3 albums were the "cornerstone" of my playing back then. Actually, up to this day. You can find this riffing and picking that I'm now kinda known for in all of these albums.
No matter where my playing is going, or my personality or whatever, at the core I will always be a death metal guy/musician. These are my roots. I barely play hi-gain stuff anymore, but I always know where it's coming from when I hear and see sheet music of my own music.

And that's bringing me to an interesting subject: Dynamics in guitar playing. Since last year the way I play the guitar has totally changed for me. I will go in depth in another video/description where it is more fitting, but there's one passage in this video that involves what I'm talking about. That is the short tritone hammer-on lick/riff that is played open first and then palm-muted while still being hammer-oned at 0:31. So no picking or anything.

It's funny that a band like Defeated Sanity, with that kind of sound, has more dynamics than most metal bands or guitar players out there. This is just my opinion and you might not understand what I'm talking about yet, since, well it's ultra-br00tal-hi-gain death metal. So I'll keep it short. Here I'm really interested in the dynamics of palm muting. How you can or have to alter the sound by introducing your palm. You might think: "Kevin, of course I know what palm muting is, so what the heck are you talking about?".

They way you mute with your palm, where, how much, and in combination of how hard you pick or if you even pick can introduce a lot of great dynamics and a more interesting timbre. And that's something I'm missing in metal or most of the guitar players in that genre I know of. For most players, palm-muting is just on or off. 1 or 0. No inbetween. No dynamics.
That was also my own biggest issue when I first played with Defeated Sanity. You see, Lille wants almost everything to be played with palm muting. Heavily influenced by Disgorge and Suffocation. That's also his issue with most of the players that he saw playing his material.

And I was the same 4-5 years ago. First off, I didn't know that there are bands that play almost everything muted. (I still think I'm right with this. Suffocation don't mute as much for example). Second, I could only play something open or with my go-to palm muting position/technique. No variation. And now back to dynamics: Defeated Sanity have muted legatos. Something I've not really seen before (Keep in mind, I was always a metal guy) When you want to play palm-muted legatos you have to change the position of your palm. You can't have a tight palm mute and the ability to play legatos with the same muting position. A tight palm mute with picking has your palm a little bit more forward, in the direction of the neck. One for good legatos has a position nearer to the bridge. You either start with a hard palm mute and open up your palm/bring it back to the bridge until you hear it opening up. Allowing it to breath. Or you start with an open note and introduce your palm until it starts to choke a little. These are two techniques for a more dynamic style of palm-muting. The later is used here in that tritone passage. You're forced to use your ears for this which is also great. As we are musicians. Using your ears. Musicians. Yeah, you get that.

It's funny that a band like Defeated Sanity started my journey to a new world of dynamic guitar playing. But that's what I'm all about now. Utilizing all the great flavours and timbres a guitar has to offer. You just have to figure out how. I know, sounds like some spiritual bullshit. I hope I can show you more of that in the future. I also want to share my opinion of the sound of the guitar later. (Short version: I do think a guitar has an ugly neutral sound, compared to a piano for example. But now, I embrace how much stuff you can do on it, how you can alter it to make it beautiful)

Also, I think this description is a bit more disjointed than usually. But that's just a reflection of my current headspace which is not so great right now.

Enjoy the video :)