Long in times past, during the darkest era of human history when Huns plundered the lands, battles fought, castles were built aloft steep mountainsides, horses trod for thousands of miles to new territory, witches were burnt, animals raised, nobelties flourished, and common people tended to the land, there was creative expression to represent them. Traditionally, a design was drawn on a piece of wood, and then a specialist cutter would carve away the piece into a finished plank that would resemble a scene of some sort. The surface receives the ink and the paper or canvas is placed over it and rubbed over with a brayer. Aesthetically, these were mostly done in black and white, but color did appear on occasion. These completed works were probably quite sought after, and now are some of the best reflections of medieval times next to literature.

Some of my favorite ones date from the hostility and fear became rampant when Satan was recognized and the women were accused of witches. Others were thought to hold Sabbaths    and black masses in honor of the dark lord.  I   also have a particular fondness for the complex cuts depicting the crimes of Attila The Hun, The Blood Countess, and Vlad Tepes. Horrific portrayals of death, sorrow of the people, evil, war, and tyranny became part of the  magnificent Gothic art that we remember it for now. They span a period of time so rich, and have survived to this day. They originate not only from the medieval period but also from the nomadic and viking times and include some fictional collection. Admired by common folk, metalheads, historians, occultists, etc.

Check out some of the works here READ MORE…

Two nights past I had the pleasure of witness the originators of Norwegian Black Metal darkness for the second time in my unpleasant history. I arrived later at the venue in Toronto to avoid watching through the sub par acts of the rest of the bill, and stayed for the gem. It is obvious that Mayhem has grown exponentially in popularity over the years. To some this would be a powerful, and often relevant, deterrent. But if you examine Mayhem closely, they have always remained true to themselves, and have methodically chosen their path not for the corporate ‘advancement’ but for personal reasons which were prevalent during the hostile times of the early scene. They remain focused on the attitude, and professionalism, untainted directly from exposure. As all the fans, promoters, etc are crying out for new material/interviews/hype, they just take their fucking time and remove the parasitic “interest” that the bloodsuckers have. This being known, my expectations were set high for their set, and there was no disappointment on any level.

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For anyone who can tolerate harsh noise, i want to make the name 20.sv, known. The SV part is named after the level of radioactive contamination while would cause death in 100% of humans. This is extremely unsettling to sit through, and not recommended entirely for everyone. The man behind it, Xardas, also did mixing for Stalaggh and explains his passion to make such harsh noise resulted in rarely finding anything heavy or extreme enough even in the metal scene. He has released apparently 8 albums, though less than half of those are readily available. Xardas comments that he does not want his music to be limited in anyway. To give a couple words at least about the sounds he produces, like on Insects, truly sounds like you have your head stuck inside a wasps hive for half an hour, and acid vomit.human genocide, there are a couple ambient feedback pieces with the title track bringing to mind being locked up inside a nuclear sector with loud alarms and explosions going off every couple seconds. Apocalyptic Desert is somewhat more desolate sounding like a rustling of the earth after in a toxic wasteland. some statements were made that 20SV were the most extreme project to ever emerge on planet earth”.

The authorities in Lebanon seized the recordings and took him for interrogation, saying that the music was exclusively devil worship and used for rituals but later let him go. They banned him from receiving any packages in the mail so Xardas was forced to have them smuggled into the country, and sell them secretly. The albums were also illegal and deemed as an act of terror.

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The man himself doesn’t need an introduction nor does his persona. I choose to focus on his despotic fascination for homemade costumes and “clothing” that he chooses to adorn himself with on stage for Mayhem, Void Ov Voices and Sunn O))). At one gig going as far to make himself up as a tree, explaining that Sunn O))) music was for the plants. Some of his appearances have nonetheless been deemed controversial or lame, but opinions are irrelevant because it is not made with the intentions to impress. Some of his masks were designed by Nader Sadek, who i also plan to write about. Various others designs that have come across were the German Hitler outfit, broken mirror man, the death priest (over 70 years old and made by nuns) and the mummy…

Atilla states about the purpose of the visual aesthetics “I like to challenge the audience, so the worst thing for me is going on stage with something that has been seen a million times before, like corpse paint. Actually, the first time I wore corpse paint was in 1987 with my band Tormentor. Alien Sex Fiend were using white make-up, so I started to wear a white base and put black make-up on top, around the eyes and the mouth. It was cool then”

Read about his other thoughts and check out all the costumes here READ MORE…

This tome has been the ridicule of some and received dark praise from others. My own notion of the book lies somewhere in between. Hideous Gnosis, subtitled ‘Black Metal Theory’ has a scholarly type approach to the writing style, and does become quite verbose at times but provokes many interesting questions and explanations behind the ideological and aesthetical side of this far too often black and white and causal subgenre. The book itself is written by several authors, so a varying degree of writing style are present. Chapters deal with extensive and varying subject not strictly based on the music but the influence and culture that it occupies. I found interest reading the portions titled ‘The Light That Illuminates Itself, The Dark That Soils Itself’. It impugns what most black metallers might already hold as truth, and opens opinions to be re-evaluated, for those of nature and the absolute. All imagery is tastefully put into the pages, and since i have a reverence for art, it was cool to see something there while pouring over the text. I thought the piece about reflecting on the politics in some black metal unbiased and rather left to voice the ideology of certain members in the underground scene, prominently, Famine of Peste Noire & Toxik Harmst of Diapsiquir. Taken from a perspective standpoint you will realize that the views of such members are posited in conspiracy with their own experiences, future, and influences and thus their meaning of anything is subjective. While most of it makes rational sense, and is relevant to them at the point in time to which it was said, it shall be noticed that one specific mode of thought is never constant, which is quite possibly the purpose of the book in it’s entirety. I personally cannot relate to the world on one level, and can’t limit my expression or ideas in such a confined way as to follow something, i create my own purpose and celebrate my individual. If you realize this already within yourself, this will serve as a psychological view of the writings as a means to further your own knowledge. And if you are still in the dark with who you are, you might then take from it what you need, like a tool to carve your own path.

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Greetings, i believe it would be appropriate to say the pieces designed by Spacebrain seem to come from another dimension. Born in Germany now living in Oslo and adapted a fascination with horror and biomechanism, René M. Hamel started to craft weird experimental sculptures. Looking like real life versions of some of H.R. Giger’s or Hieronymus Bosch paintings although sligtly more obscure and complex. His work often involves a lot of household materials and handmade items. The immense amount of work put into them are truly commendable. His exposure has reached various groups of people, and has also built some stage pieces for Mayhem! Some common elements seem to be gasmasks, bones, tubing, goggles, knives, armour, etc.

Check out some more of the sculptures here http://www.spacebrain.no/gallery.html and after the jump. READ MORE…

Pete Helmkamp is a true warrior of life, shedding his vocal and bass talents in the past for Revenge and Kerasphorus. Two war metal bands that blaze a blasphemic path of nuclear destruction in the face of the modern death metal scene. The latter disbanded a short time ago. What some might not know about Helmkamp is that he has written two books, or rather collections of ideological aphorisms designed for the strong and iron willed. He calls it the “philosophy of ascendance”, and it tends to fall in line with similar ideas and stances posed by other iconical writers like Nietzsche and even Hitler. His first tome is entitled The Conqueror Manifesto, and is somewhat of a more vast scope of information in which his second book offers. From an interview i had read with him, he explains the purpose of infiltrating this will of ascending, and creating an elite, and evolving from the ills of modern man.

Hear some war metal torture and then read about his interesting ideas here

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I was bred in the northern parts of Canada, and know the secrets of nature and have shared a close reverence for the ferality of it’s inhabitants and archaic landscape for an extremely long time. I was pleased to know as i matured there were others with the same thoughts and ideology about such things. I have copious amounts of time procuring the secret lore about the forest, animals, etc. It has offered me some transcendental visions of what i believe is the only truth. The inherit source of from which we all came and shall return, and one should respect this. Anyways, in contrast i’ve also accumulated a lot of hatred for the ones who think it is their purpose to destroy these things for mankind’s “improvement”. Their ignorance is accepted and for the most part we are limitless in the way we choose to act upon it. I discovered a documentary film entitled If A Tree Falls from a friend, who also shares an alignment with these ideals, and lives her life in a way to support nature worship. Before this i was unaware of the sect which had it’s central group in Portland, Oregon, the Earth Liberation Front. It is well documented and chronicles the crimes committed by them, their symbolic acts of rebellion against logging companies, slaughterhouses, and ski lodge. Apparently they are labeled as “terrorists” by the FBI, which is quite unintelligent on their part.

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I was scavenging for some obscure film once and happened upon one from 1989 called’Der Todesking’ (lit. The King of Death). Then found out soon after the maker of the film, Jörg Buttgereit, was also behind Nekromantik, I had seen none of them but felt inclined to sit through and try to take something from them. The former I much preferred in its obscurity, and series of unassociated events. I fell into a very absorbing mood within the first 5 minutes of the film, as it displays a time laps of a rotting corpse in black and white. This continues throughout the duration and shows the stages of decay as the skin becomes hard and falls off and maggots eventually consume the flesh from the inside out. Der Todesking is truly experimental German film and is not meant for the weak hearted. I thought it was rather fucked up and still do but have grown conditional to it, and remains one of my favorites. Their exists a linear flow to the concept of it, which does not employ characters, but attempts to represent the essence of suicide and mental illness or human suffering, set on a timeline over 7 days which are the days of the week.

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Quite some years ago when I spent more time reading metal reviews I found an author going under the pseudonym of Scarlet, and her particular writings were completely unique in the sense that she did not waste time explaining to death the sound and characteristics of each track or comparing it to other bands. She wrote in a very proselike and eloquent manner that injected creative thought and metaphorical references to the album she was talking about. This changed the way i perceived metal journalism, and made me realize that reviews are already biased and quite objective but when trying to analyze the music, it removes some of the inherit mystery or often pre-conceived expectations and cancels out the experience of a pure listen. I continue to write such reviews in this way, not to advocate the listener to fully align themselves with my own ideas but in an attempt to create some kind of textual atmosphere around the band. I also came to see that most will rather read a review of a band they are already into, and try to relate in some way. So i’m going to shed some black speech on the latest Archgoat offering, of which it truly is a copious dose.

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