HEADBLAST - DAVIDCOGSWELL.COM

"Sane Vibrations -- Musical consciousness emanating from the relatively civilized country to the north. With the major media almost entirely corrupted by right-wing slime consciousness and corporatist consumerist propaganda, one must seek outside of that realm to find any authentic cultural messages. Rock and roll was at its root a medium of alternative culture and consciousness, though of course it is constantly under attack, being undermined and exploited by the same predatory corporate forces that now have the neck of civil society under their collective boot all around the world. Hence music becomes Britney Spears, currently one of the top "artists" in the world. So it's always great to discover a strong, authentic voice that is not coopted by corporatist consciousness. I just discovered a Canadian band called Inner Surge, which calls itself a political metal band and has intense political messages in its music with such titles as "Halliburton Piggies", "The Monroe Doctrine" and "Limb from Limb" and music videos for "Wolves" (based on the Rwandan genocide) and "Retribution Song". You can check them out at www.innersurge.com
- David Cogswell



THE VUE MAGAZINE

DISTANT REPLAY By STEVEN SANDOR

THIS WEEK: Steve Moore of Inner Surge discusses Nirvana’s In Utero


There’s no doubt that Nirvana’s Nevermind changed the music industry forever. To make the record, Nirvana broke all the industry rules, and the Seattle grunge trio took a huge advance from Geffen Records to make the album, risking owing the label millions if their major-label debut tanked.
But the record did anything but tank; instead, Nevermind showed the world that a band without any of the traditional pop ingredients—good-looking members, angelic voices, songwriting closely monitored by the label—could become a massive pop sensation. The day that Nevermind reached the number-one spot on the Billboard charts in 1991, the term “alternative music” ceased to have any meaning; the lines between counterculture and pop-culture were forever blurred.

But for Steve Moore, founder of Calgary’s Inner Surge—a metal act that combines elements of jazz and Asian rhythms with their grinding guitar assault—the album that most influenced his career wasn’t Nevermind. It was In Utero, Nirvana’s controversial 1993 followup.

In Utero was released under very different circumstances from Nevermind. Geffen was in serious financial trouble and desperately needed another smash single like “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” But instead, Nirvana leadman Kurt Cobain penned an album that was a raw, purposeful attempt to scorn his own band’s rise to fame. While “Heart-Shaped Box” was a hit, the album featured none of the pop hooks of Nevermind; in fact, songs like “Rape Me,” “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” and “Milk It” were direct jabs aimed at Geffen and the music industry as a whole.

“I would have to choose this album over many other strong ones because it proved that you don’t have to follow the rules—as long as you have passion it will shine through,” says Moore. “This album is still brilliant today. Songs like ‘Scentless Apprentice’ and ‘Tourette’s’ are more raw than anything most metal or punk bands produce.... This album motivated me to play music that’s emotionally raw, and to not be afraid of it.”

Producer Steve Albini was one of the major reasons why In Utero was so unapologetic. He demanded that the band lay down the music in as stripped-down a form as possible, and legend has it that he often clashed with Courtney Love, Cobain’s wife, over the direction of the album. Cobain was still struggling with heroin addiction, fatherhood and a stormy marriage, and high-profile stories about his ill health made him rock’s most likely candidate for burnout. To his credit, Albini—who continues to be the best damn producer in the world of heavy music (Mclusky, anyone?) as well as a key member of Shellac—won’t say too much about that process. He has decided to let those stories die.

Unfortunately, anyone who predicted Cobain wouldn’t survive his success was right: in 1994, Cobain’s body was found in his Seattle home. Police ruled that he died from self-inflicted shotgun wounds, but even a decade after his death, legions of fans and conspiracy theorists claim Cobain was murdered. 






Metal Band Surges Ahead
Mike Bell
Calgary Sun
March 31, 2006

And they stun you mainly because, however obvious they are, they’re so rarely expressed, so rarely given voice.


INNER SURGE

Steve Moore drops one such statement in an interview to promote the release of his Calgary band Inner Surge’s latest Signals Screaming and as odd as it is to hear expressed, it’s equally as refreshing.

“There are no rules in music,” Moore says. “I think that’s what people have forgotten.”

Well, some may have forgotten, but there are so many others who choose to forget, and impose on themselves rules in order to appeal to a certain crowd or to reach a wider audience or even to get signed.

That’s true on a wider scale and on a more local level.

“It’s an idea that’s cloned itself in all of the scenes,” Moore says. “We’re pretty open about it in all of our interviews because we’re sick of it.

“It seems people don’t even understand the idea of being a good band. People are always, ‘You’re not metal, you’re not hardcore, you’re not punk.’

“Well the whole point is we don’t care. We don’t care what we are.

“Our goal is to be a great band and for people to be able to listen to the album and get something out of it.”

Signals Screaming gives a great deal.

It’s an attempt by the newly minted quartet — Moore began the project in 2001 and took it through various incarnations before settling down with Scott Taylor, Bryan Sandau and Jim Fernandes — to show how little they care for convention, bridging the attitude, aggression and ideas of punk with the more out-there musical aspirations of progressive metal.

Subsequently, the disc is an accomplished, politically charged and mind-blowing meld of acts such as Pink Floyd, Tool, Refused, System of a Down and Rage Against the Machine.

After April 1's pair of CD release parties at the Underground — an all-ages show at 5 p.m. and a licensed event at 9 p.m. — Inner Surgeis looking forward to things that will raise their profile both at home and abroad, not the least of which is the inclusion of one of the album’s tracks on the soundtrack to an upcoming horror movie Cabras (due out next year), and the release of a pair of videos shot by Cabras’ Colombian-born director Fredy Polania.