The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 07, 1997, Page 3, Image 3
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WUSC n
JOHN LYONS Features Editor
Have you been flipping the dial in search of a radio
station that offers songs about death, Satan, war and
pestilence?
If that's what you're looking for, then get ready to tune
into WUSC-FM 90.5 on Monday nights for a weekly dose
of metal.
The Witching Hour on WUSC gives Columbia music
listeners two hours of unabashed, pounding metal every
Monday between 6 and 8 p.m.
But, if you're looking for reincarnations of the big-hair
glam bands of the '80s, then you'd best look elsewhere,
because the Witching Hour focuses on metal, not hard
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rock. From the cutting edge of black /
metal to grindcore and thrash, ^
the Witching Hour presents the mi
vital, thriving side of metal that rCUSi.*.
most people don't even know overlooked IS 1
exists. #
The shows hosts, Ching Chang prominent any]
Charlie and the Wardog, both ^ kids wall
sophomores at the university,
said that the show defies the campUS in old
popular thought that metal died ?,
with the '80s. It s underg
"I think all this questioning
of whether or not metal is dead The Vli
is kind of pointless," Ching Chang WTTC
Charlie said. "If s not what was W U k.
popular in the '80s. What people
don't realize is that what we play is not y
what was popular. What we play is
extreme metal, and that has never been
popular."
The Wardog added that the genre of true metal has
grown a lot in the last few years.
"Metal has just branched out so much," he said. "It has
so many subgenres now. If s all distinct, but if s all distinctly
metal. And it's extremely alive.
"The reason that metal is overlooked is because if s not
prominent anymore. You don't see kids walking around
campus in old metal T-shirts. It's underground now."
The Wardog said that Columbia has one of the South's
stronger metal scenes and pointed to the Cannibal Corpse's
two recent shows at Rockafella's as proof there's a small,
but thriving metal scene here.
Both DJs said the main stepping stones to metal's
success are the same qualities that endear it to fans.
Double-bass drums are prominent in many types of
metal, and while the drumwork is very complicated, it is
also harsh and pounding to a point where it turns off as
many listeners as it turns on.
And then there's the lyrics.
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/ The lyrics to metal focus on
W subjects most people don't like
41* ?4 or don't want to hear about.
ill ^ ' "There's a brutal side to the
beeause it's not world," the Wardog said.
'There's a side of the world that
fMOPC. YOU doll t people avoid because they don't
kilts around want to see and that's what
& metal deals with. It s not
metal T-shirts. glamorizing it, but if s drawing
* attention to it."
,1*01111(1 llOW* In the '80s, one of the ideas
metal bands brought attention
Kfdoff was ^e possibilities of
P ? nuclear warfare. And the lyrics
to metal today are about topics
like death, drugs, hatred, rape,
y Satan, suicide and many other negative
topics.
"They don't glorify it," the
Wardog said about the lyrics. "But they present it in the
most brutal light possible because they don't hide it."
And between the harsh, pounding qualities of the music
and the negativism, if s not the simplest music to get into.
As Ching Chang Charlie put it, "Most people just don't
like this stuff."
And the music the Witching Hour focuses on is probably
the least accessible side of metal. Ching Chang Charlie
said the show focuses on what he called "extreme metal."
The show focuses mainly on eight different branches
of the metal genre. These styles are black, death, doom,
grindcore, heavy, speed, thrash and weird metal. Ching
Chang Charlie and the Wardog explained what each of
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uitHstj genres suunu rnte ana now tney are ainerennaiea.
They said heavy metal is the first type of metal and
was started in the '80s by bands like Metallica. The name
has become generic and is used to describe all types of
metal.
Black metal, on the other hand, is the most recent
addition to the metal genre. The Wardog said the music
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There's a brutal side to the world.
There's a side of the world that people
avoid because they don't want to see,
and that's what metal deals with. It's not
glamorizing it, but it's drawing attention
to it
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11
th metal
*
features high-pitch, screeching vocals, atmospheric overtones ,
and rapid guitar picking with lots of chords.
It uses synthesized effects to create a somewhat ambient
sound, and it is very tonal. Black metal developed recently
in Scandinavia and is .still difficult to find in the U.S.
Between this newest genre of metal and more standard
heavy metal, there are several distinct styles of metal that
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addition to the show is older, more established genres,
while Ching Chang Charlie brings newer elements to the
show.
One of the elements the Wardog brings to the show is
speed metal, which was probably the first genre of metal
to be defined outside of the generic realm of "heavy" metal.
This style is very fast, rhythmic and melodic.
Thrash metal added elements of punk to speed metal.
Its a little bit fester, with a punk feel to it and lots of chords.
Doom metal, on the other hand, slows everything down.
It is, musically, the simplest style of metal and features
slow single notes with deep, slow vocals.
The band Napalm Death started the branch of metal
called grindcore in the mid-'80s. This was probably the
first definitive example of what Ching Chan Charlie call
extreme metal. The music is extremely fast, sometimes
sacrificing rhythm to speed, and it features snare and
symbols in rapid succession.
After grindcore came death metal. Death metal is a
conglomeration of all the styles of metal that came before
it. It features deep, raspy vocals, very fast guitars with
long solos, and speed metal-like drums. The music is very
deep and extremely chromatic.
The Witching Hour covers all these types of music and
glances at a few others. The hosts said they occasionally
play bands like Fear Factory and Machinehead, which fell
somewhere between metal and industrial.
And the Wardog said he occasionally plays what he
calls weird metal. He said this category is filled by bands
like GWAR and ManOWar, which are oddballs and do
things nobody else has done.
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sales skills and make yourself
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inking of marketing as a career,
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ients to work as Marketing Consultants
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