Elephant's Graveyard: AN ANATOMY OF THE BEAST1997

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   Welcome

Hello everyone :-) welcome back! I hope my last few pieces were enjoyed, I definitely had a lot of fun writing out more creative works. But! I still want to share cool music I think y'all should listen to...which is Intestine Baalism!!

They're a melodic/progressive death metal band from Japan, and have worked their way to being in my top favorite bands of all time.

Their work has inspired artists I love and have seen such as Blood Incantation, and in my opinion, each album that they've released has been incredibly unique, and so refreshing to listen to. A gripe I have regarding death metal is how repetitive everything can get--which is why I tend to lean more towards the prog-melo area, and I've been drifting away from the DM/BDM scene since high school, but this band is like a palate cleanser, so incredible.

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Intestine Baalism released An Anatomy Of The Beast in February of 1997, and spent their time throughout April to October of 1996 recording in Studio Nest Chiba, Funabashi. The band's lineup consists of four members: Takeshi Ohkouchi (drums, songwriting), Seiji Kakuzaki (vocals, electric & acoustic guitar, songwriting), Atsushi Miyata (electric and acoustic guitar), and Katsumasa Yoshida (bass guitar). I fully encourage people who enjoy this album to read the reviews written on The Metal Archives, as there are reviews back from 2004 to 2025.

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A review had stated something I absolutely agree with that I feel is important to share, and it's that intestine Baalism does a phenomenal job at making progressive and intricate-sounding work, whilst keeping such a heavy DEATH sound. THAT itself is amazing, and I feel is hard to find, because I am not the largest fan of metalcore, and some labeled progressive death bands lose their edge. There is beauty in keeping the rough, deathly sickening sound without replaying a redundant theme of "butcher-basement-axe-murderer-killing-everyone-screaming-blah-blah-blah." that every death band spews.

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A piece I also would like to note is in regards to the lyric writing, I have a frequent gripe with pornogrind, BDM, and slam bands that exacerbate the brutality against women theme. I often see people involved in online discourse surrounding the topic of the violence against women in these music scenes. The common comment is "well, it's fictional like anything else, it's like a horror genre, and it's supposed to be the most disgusting thing you can think of." Which, I can understand, however, I still think of it as lazy, low-hanging fruit that is not only socially repulsive (congrats!), but with how common these instances are, it stops becoming fiction and is just describing the horror that many women have experienced prior to their death. When I had covered Kristin Hayters work last year, one of the reasons why she had distanced herself from the scene was BECAUSE of how violent it was towards women, and how the scene protected men that would do these "horrible fake horror movie fictional things that aren't always happening."

The main point I'm trying to convey is throughout this album there isn't a prevalent theme of violence towards women, which I appreciate! It shows that they're actually creative writers within this sphere, and don't resort to lazy themes that are reiterations of the thousands of albums that came before them.

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Overall, I absolutely adore the brutal sound this album brings, and I encourage people to give it a try if they're wanting to branch out more. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope the best for you all :-)