Precious Metal: Metal from Birth

 
story by tim mcmahan

Lazy-i: April 13, 2005

Precious Metal w/Beep Beep, Bombardment Society April 15, 9 p.m. Sokol Underground 13th & Martha $5

Death Metal.

The name alone conjures images of blood and fear. There is an immediate assumption that any "music" identified by such a dark designation must be filled with fear, noise, brutality, hate and anger. How could anyone be attracted to it?

"What I like about death metal is the artistic idea of taking music and a 'look' to an extreme, going very far in one direction and not messing around with the idea."

So says Dapose (just Dapose), a musician known mostly as the guitarist for Saddle Creek Records band The Faint. But before joining that band, Dapose was a member of Omaha's death metal scene, playing in a band called Lead. "What I really liked about death metal was its intense energy," he said. "It's extremely difficult to play and once you do play it, it gives you an electric charge. It's like a drug, and in that sense, you feed on it."

Back then, Dapose said he listened to death metal bands with names like Suffocation, Morbid Angel, Emulation and Gore Guts. "I didn't like it when I first heard it," he said. "Then I found myself listening to it, and it became this infatuation. That's why I joined a death metal band. We got really good at playing that style, but after awhile I got out of it because I was sick of the negativity involved with it."

Through his friendship with Jacob Thiele, a former Westside High classmate, Dapose would eventually meet The Faint and contribute to 2001's Danse Macabre before becoming a full-fledged member of the band. "I traded the spastic idea of music being really aggressive and pissed off for the idea of lyrics that actually meant something, and a song that makes you feel something other than just the energy charge from death metal."

Success with The Faint soon followed, and although Dapose loves playing The Faint's brand of no-wave electronic dance music, his fascination with death metal never faded.

Enter Precious Metal, Dapose's one-man death metal project that will debut Friday night at Sokol Underground. Standing alone with an electric guitar and a microphone, Dapose will perform his brand of death metal over prerecorded drums and keyboards. More than just a side project, he says it's a chance to influence the direction of a musical style that has become stagnant.

"Death metal is fun, but it's limited in its negativity, which is old and boring," Dapose said. "There's some good gore bands out there like Cannibal Corpse who present music in a horror-movie way. It's completely disgusting to read the lyrics, but you get a kick out of it. I like that, but at the same time, that's not the only thing I want to hear and think about. Every other band that's not painting a picture is pissed off and hates everything, and it's kind of juvenile and not thought-out.

"It's hard to express something positive in death metal because the frequencies and sounds aren't pleasant," he said. "They're satisfying, but they don't make you smile or hold your fist in the air and go 'Yes!' I'd like for that to change, and I think there's a way to do that, but it probably won't be popular. Metal heads like their metal the way it is."

Still, Dapose is going to try. He's been working on the project since last fall, sandwiching it in between The Faint's never-ending rehearsals, tours and his work developing the band's multi-media productions and other artwork. He describes Precious Metal as hardcore electronic death metal. "At the same time, I reference different musical styles, like classical -- things that make me smile rather than hold my fist in the air. I'm not using anything that's coming from a pissed-off attitude. People are rediscovering Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and metal that wasn't filled with hatred and anger."

Dapose said Precious Metal's debut is far from his full vision for the project, but it's a start. Studio recordings and a limited vinyl or CD release could follow. How he'll get it done is another question. The Faint are currently in the middle of all-day rehearsals, preparing for the upcoming Faint/Bright Eyes tour, where members of The Faint will act as Conor Oberst's backing band.

"I take it day-to-day figuring out what I'm going to do with it," Dapose said. "The Faint work all day together and when I'm on my own at home, I work on other stuff for The Faint -- video and artwork and other things. It's kind of a balancing act."

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Published in The Omaha Reader April 13, 2005. Copyright © 2005 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.