The Witching Hour Featured Artist

The Black Dahlia Murder is a death metal band who takes on the impossible task of performing live as a death metal entourage. There is a drummer who comes to mind when I think of a ‘90s archetype that stands out like no other. Alan Cassidy, the Black Dahlia Murder’s footwork engineer, and blast beat architect can be heard throughout the new single titled “Verminous.”

When I think of a drummer who is Verminous, I picture the sickest drum delivery as possible. Alan Cassidy nails the listener with a labyrinth filled with a variety of footwork typically unheard of in the death metal craft. Growing up as a drummer in a death metal band of the ‘90s, I am particular of making three things perfectly clear what death metal is, and what it is not. The Witching Hour drum reviews take on the firsthand expectation from someone who served in the trenches as a drummer who expects three things with the death metal brand—contagious beats, cathartic blast beats, followed by quick feet.

Archetype Delivery

The myth that all bands who play death metal must be satanic is a fallacy. Chuck Schuldner at the “Day of Death” in Milwaukee, Wis. announced during the “Death Human Tour ‘91” made clear death metal was his genre and ideology was not the focus of his prototypical expectation of the future of the genre he engineered. The Black Dahlia Murder flashes pentagrams, which is a total turn off to sell out to draw viewers. Drummers could care less. Alan Cassidy takes on the tough task of holding down originality in a genre that offers three forms of delivery with blast beats, quick time simplistic patterns with single-footed tempo keeping and the typical machine gun barrage drumming commonly played in all death metal bands.

The Trance

Death metal drummers take on the anthropological role of invoking ecstatic forms of performance. The audience keeps staring in awe in amazement while drummers like Alan Cassidy seem possessed, but realistically, simply has perfected his abilities with his craft. Playing death metal drumming is like opening a portal to a new universe in the percussion stratosphere.

All religious and sacrilegious values aside, the world and mind of a drummer like Alan Cassidy spends countless hours entranced in thought trying to sharpen the axe of improving the future of the toughest genre to play. Alan Cassidy scores high marks in the death metal community with his mastery of whips and snaps through his rolling double bass.

The Possession

Ecstatic performers who are masters of their craft seemed possessed with their inhuman ability. Alan Cassidy makes the fundamentalist drummer hang on for dear life trying to emulate. Developing a style like Cassidy’s does not come easy and give him extra points for his Verminous footwork. I felt like I was being led through a maze of snakes slithering through an isle of ooze trapping me in place. From an anthropological and pragmatic survey of the ecstatic nature of death metal, the average listener, or those who are faint of heart, would run scared for their life when hearing such a fright. Drummers who have perfected their ability to demonstrate their prodigal possession perform their sorcery with flawless facets of full flavorful fan feeding frenzy.

The Ritual

The Witching Hour seeks to survey death metal through the lens of ecstatic trance and possession to dispel any myth the group is possessed by the devil or have a paranormal possession. Religions and genres are cultural representations of how musicians and fellowships view the world. Myths are symbolic and rituals are how the group performs their practice. Alan Cassidy dispels all myths with his flawless transmittal heard in the recording of Verminous. In contrast to ritualistic performance heard in previous albums, hand work and fills were marginal. I felt the foot work stood out as a new approach to future songs. The song flow was marginal in contrast to previous albums, but the cymbal work accented the placement of color heard throughout.

Happy Hauntings

One does not have to have a formal anthropological background to appreciate the sorcery of Alan Cassidy and his footwork style of imagistic flavor to appreciate the Black Dahlia Murder’s new album “Verminous.” Cassidy takes his listener to parts unknown leaving them wanting more. Cassidy lands his place as a legend in the Hall of Fame of archetypical death metal players—the Witching Hour stamp of approval.

The Founder of Gonzo Journalism

One cannot put into words a way of describing Hunter S. Thompson other than “Gonzo Journalist.”

Thompson was a stuntman who went out of his way as a hellraiser riding with the Hell’s Angels on a cruising for a bruising that eventually turned ugly. As a rebellious youth growing up in Appleton, Wisconsin, in the ‘90s, I followed Thompson’s writing style whose genre sparked the interest of rebellious weirdos like me.

Gonzo Journalism was first introduced through my history teacher, who hated the concept that defied all the laws of journalism objectivity.

He called us all “Jag bag Rhodes Scholars” for liking him. Thompson was my form of literary escape and rebellious rebuttal to my teacher’s low appraisal of me.

“Fear and Loathing” became my montage attending his class where I purposely placed Thompson’s books on my desk for my teacher to see.

I lived each day by one of Thompson’s quotes that propelled me to barely pass his class. My history teacher told me I would never make it to college.

Hunter S. Thompson’s writing style fed me, who is responsible for my rebellious approaches to journalism today.

“When the going gets weird—the weird turn pro.”-Hunter S. Thompson

Biographical Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hunter-S-Thompson and Google search.

The Man Behind the Scenes

Name: Hunter Stockton Thompson
Place of Birth: Springfield, Kentucky
Born: July 18, 1937
Died: February 20, 2005
Education: Columbia University, Florida State University, Columbia University of General Studies, Louisville Male High School.

Hunter S. Thompson Defies the Laws of Journalism

My love for Thompson starts with his going above the status quo writing feature stories from the first-person cockpit. Journalist editors scold writers from inserting themselves in their reporting.

Thompson ignores the editor and does it anyway.

Gonzo Journalism is frowned upon at the Clarion. I have been scolded on many occasions for taking the gonzo approach.

My favorite character feature about Thompson was his beat down he took with the Hell’s Angels who reported his life behind the scenes. My favorite gonzo movies are “Where the Buffalo Roam (1980)” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).”

Bill Murray and Johnny Depp take on the role of animating the life of the Gonzo journalist, who feature Thompson’s signature cigarette filter chewing memoirs—his best attribute.

Thompson served in the Air Force as a sports editor for an on-base newspaper starting in 1956 until he was discharged in 1957. Thompson followed his journalism career long after.

Going Gonzo with the Hell’s Angels

The best way to describe Gonzo journalism would do so by examining Hunter S. Thompson through introspection and delving into the mind of a madman who documented his ride-along with the Hell’s Angels.

Introspection investigation helps form observations regarding the writer’s state of mind leading them into their journalism career. Thompson was a rebel.

By disregarding journalism expectations of objectivity, his writings became outlawed in the eyes of editors. But the reader kept wanting more and more.

Gonzo journalism investigated the Hell’s Angels after befriending the organization, who turned on Thompson and beat the life out of him.

The introspection of Thompson’s “Hell’s Angels (1966)” prospect editorial dialogued a state of mind of a writer, who lived beyond the human capacity, going above and beyond the status quo, entertaining ideas with readers (Introspection examination: https://youtu.be/ccyu44rsaZo).

 

Journalism Sample: Fear and Loathing in America

“The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time. Make no mistake about it. We are at war now—with somebody—and we will stay At War with that mysterious enemy for the rest of our lives.”
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What are we going to do?

First off, give yourself a break and get situated. We know, you left your pictures of your wife and kids at the office, your colleague has had to relocate from COVID-19 unemployment, your roof is leaking and your not quite sure what to do next. Try checking in on our website and give blog casting a try.

Blog casting takes you on a journey to take you out of your head. Welcome to the journey in the mind of the COVID-19 Madison College Clarion Radio General Manager of Broadcast. We are teaching you mechanisms used in combat to quell anxiety and depression.

Outpost 422 is your sanctuary of trauma informed hope.

Our mission is to connect with you to help you carry your trauma crux. We can fight COVID-19 together with hope and courage to see this through. You are the catalyst. You are the future of this case study. We need your imput to care for those who cannot care for themselves.

Stay the Course.

Take this time to give yourself a break. Take your time. Scroll, listen and engage on our widgets that connect you to Facebook pages for immediate support. The Outpost 422 broadcast at Madison College featured in our experimental footage is available on Mondays at 1 p.m. CDT.

The Witching Hour Catharsis Case Study.

We are surveying the effects of death metal on trauma informed listeners. Metal Max is our critic who helps you decide what songs to pick and choose.

Go to his website at: Ask Metal Max

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The Founder of Gonzo Journalism

One cannot put into words to describe Hunter S. Thompson other than “Gonzo Journalist.” Thompson was a stuntman who went out of his way to ride with the Hell’s Angels on a cruising for a bruising that eventually turned ugly. As a rebellious youth growing up in Appleton, Wis. in the ‘90s, I followed Thompson’s writing style whose genre piqued the interest of weirdos like me. Gonzo Journalism was first introduced through my History teacher who hated the concept that defied all the laws of journalism objectivity.

He called us all “Jag bag Rhodes Scholars” for liking him. Thompson was my form of literary escape and rebellious rebuttal to my teacher’s low appraisal of me. “Fear and Loathing” became my montage attending his class where I purposely placed Thompson’s books on my desk for my teacher to see. I lived each day by one of Thompson’s quotes that propelled me to barely pass his class. My history teacher told me I would never make it to college. Hunter S. Thompson’s writing style fed me who is responsible for my rebellious approaches to journalism today.

“When the going gets weird—the weird turn pro.”-Hunter S. Thompson

Biographical Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hunter-S-Thompson and Google search.

The Man Behind the Scenes

Name: Hunter Stockton Thompson
Place of Birth: Springfield, Kentucky
Born: July 18, 1937
Died: February 20, 2005
Education: Columbia University, Florida State University, Columbia University of General Studies, Louisville Male High School.

Hunter S. Thompson Defies the Laws of Journalism

My love for Thompson starts with his going above the status quo to write feature stories from the first-person cockpit. Journalist editors scold writers from inserting themselves in their reporting. Thompson ignores the editor and does it anyway. Gonzo Journalism is frowned upon at the Clarion. I have been scolded on many occasions for taking the gonzo approach. My favorite character feature about Hunter S. Thompson was his beat down he took with the Hell’s Angels who reported his life behind the scenes. My favorite gonzo movies are “Where the Buffalo Roam (1980)” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).” Bill Murray and Johnny Depp take on the role of animating the life of the Gonzo Journalist, who feature Thompson’s signature cigarette filter chewing memoirs—his best attribute. Thompson served in the Air Force as a sports editor for an on-base newspaper starting in 1956 until he was discharged in 1957. Hunter S. Thompson followed his journalism career long after.

Going Gonzo with the Hell’s Angels

The best way to describe Gonzo Journalism would be to examine Hunter S. Thompson through introspection to delve into the mind of a madman who documented his ride-along with the Hell’s Angels. Introspection seeks to form observations regarding the writer’s state of mind leading them into their journalism career. Thompson was a rebel. By disregarding journalism expectations of objectivity, his writings became outlawed in the eyes of editors. But the reader kept wanting more and more. Gonzo Journalism investigated the Hell’s Angels after befriending the organization who turned on Thompson and beat the life out of him. The introspection of Thompson’s “Hell’s Angels (1966)” prospect editorial, dialogued a state of mind of a writer, who lived beyond the human capacity, to go above and beyond the status quo, to entertain ideas with readers (Introspection examination: https://youtu.be/ccyu44rsaZo).

 

Journalism Sample: Fear and Loathing in America

“The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time. Make no mistake about it. We are at war now—with somebody—and we will stay At War with that mysterious enemy for the rest of our lives.”
###