20 Buck Spin update: Kylesa, Coffins, more

Kylesa Static Tensions lineup

20 Buck Spin has kicked off 2009 with a massive new update. It's so cool I posted the whole thing below. New Kylesa LP (called Static Tensions)! Coffins to play Murderfest! I feel a plane ticket coming on. 20 Buck Spin's site features a new ad for Oaken Throne zine - which means a new issue is en route! One of my happiest finds recently was the flickr page of Kylesa's Laura Pleasants. She's an extremely talented artist and photographer. (She does much of Kylesa's artwork.) Someone should collect her work into an exhibit. This photo would make a great start.

- - -

"20 Buck Spin will release the new Kylesa LP titled Static Tensions in March. The regular version will be a single LP with an 8 page LP size booklet. A 'deluxe' version will also be made, limited to 500 copies. That version will be a Gatefold 2xLP mastered at 45 RPM housed in a full color foil stamped slip case and comes with the booklet as well as an A2 sized poster (same size as the one that came with the Coffins and Samothrace LPs). The deluxe version will be on colored wax. Orders direct from 20 Buck Spin for either version will probably also get a patch and sticker, still working it all out. All artwork is being done by John Dyer Baizley of Baroness. 20 Buck Spin is releasing this in North America only. The La Familia label will do the European version of the LP (and is also planning to exclusively sell copies of the deluxe version in Europe). CD will be on the Prosthetic label. For the first time ever we're gonna try and get it together enough to do pre-orders on this one, probably sometime in February.

Also coming in March/April will be the long planned Stormcrow / Laudanum split 12er. The two Oakland bands each come with two epic new tracks unavailable elsewhere.

Laudanum, who are probably unknown to most out there, will also have a new full length album coming out sometime after the split with Stormcrow. 20 Buck Spin will do the CD version while Life Is Abuse will handle the LP. Crushing and punishing doom and warped noise clash head-on on The Coronation, the band's second full length. Features the bass talents of one Greg Wilkinson (Brainoil, Pig Heart Transplant, Earhammer Studio and a zillion other bands). Check 'em out at myspace.com/laudanum18.

We can announce that Coffins is finally coming to the American West Coast. They will be a headliner at the LA Murderfest this year at the Knitting Factory in LA. Prior to that the band will do about a week of shows starting up in Seattle around April 30th if all goes as planned. Other cities will likely be Portland, Olympia (of course), Eugene, somewhere in Norcal like Arcata/Eureka/Chico, SF and Oakland. No SoCal shows besides Murderfest. Stormcrow is also gonna tour with the band and play the Murderfest as well. If the stars align properly a split 12er between the two bands will surface in time for the tour but that's probably wishful thinking..."

Links
Label site
20 Buck Spin interview
Actual Noise (sister label)

Metal Mixtape: Best of 2008

by Cosmo Lee

A final kiss-off to 2008 - my favorite metal songs that year. As I hear these for the umpteenth time, I can't help but wonder: why can't albums now be this wall-to-wall awesome? All these bands with all these chops - is it so hard to write a song? One with shape, meaning, and identity? Metallica did not become #1 by being the most intense or dexterous band. They just wrote the best songs. Good albums are around, but good songs are rare. Here are 14, totaling under an hour. They got me through 2008, that bear of a year.

Invisible Oranges Best of 2008 [125.04MB .zip]

1. War of Ages - The Deception of Strongholds
2. Grand Magus - Like the Oar Strikes the Water
3. ASG - Low End Insight
4. Viking Skull - Doom, Gloom, Heartache & Whiskey
5. In Flames - The Mirror's Truth
6. Meshuggah - Bleed
7. Terminal Function - Spawn
8. Austrian Death Machine - Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers
9. The Rotted - Get Dead or Die Trying
10. Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God
11. Lord Belial - Trumpets of Doom
12. Khold - Mester Og Trell
13. Lifelover - Brand
14. Brave - Something to This

Year-End Thoughts - 2008

by Cosmo Lee

So much music comes out now that it's impossible to have a bad year in anything. Take metal, for example. Approximately 234,827,358 metal records (give or take several degrees of magnitude) came out in 2008. If you couldn't find 10 to like among those 234,827,358, you weren't trying hard enough.

Though 234,827,358 records negates the notion of a bad year (and perhaps the very notion of a year), it also means that year-end lists now have basically infinite variation. 20 years ago, things were a lot simpler. In 1988, your year-end Top 10 list probably included some of these records: Megadeth's So Far, So Good...So What!, Metallica's ...And Justice for All, Slayer's South of Heaven, Testament's The New Order, Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime, and Voivod's Dimension Hatröss.

Dead Congregation - Morbid Paroxysm

Now the sky's the limit, as lists from various luminaries show below. (For more, see Pitchfork's year-end column, which includes my Top 10 in the form of haikus; Phil Freeman (Metal Edge); Adrien Begrand (Decibel, Metal Edge); The Left Hand Path.) Still, patterns emerge. People really liked the Nachtmystium and Torche records, though neither made a dent on me. The latest Leviathan and Origin records also got deserved props. But the name that popped up the most was Dead Congregation: Athenians doing death metal right. If one aggregated metal year-end lists across the Internet, Dead Congregation might be the surprise winner.

What were your favorite records/things of 2008?

- - -

Aidan Baker (Nadja)
Andrew (Aversionline.com)
Chris Bruni (Profound Lore)
Cosmo Lee (Invisible Oranges, Decibel, Pitchfork)
Dave Adelson (20 Buck Spin)
Dave Haley (Psycroptic)
Dave Schalek (Metal Runs in My Veins, Live4Metal)
J. Bennett (Decibel)
Jess Blumensheid (Invisible Oranges)
Laurie Sue Shanaman (Ludicra)
Mel Mongeon (Fuck the Facts)
Nick Green (Decibel)
Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth, Total Fucking Destruction)
Rob Milley (Neuraxis)
Ryan Adams (from Filter magazine)
Wrath (Averse Sefira)

- - -

Aidan Baker (Nadja)
Sun Kil Moon - April
Wovenhand - 10 Stones
Boris - Smile
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!
Thisquietarmy - Blackhaunter
Jesu - Pale Sketches
Pyramids - s/t
Evangelista - Hello, Voyager
Retribution Gospel Choir - s/t
Genghis Tron - Board Up The House

Top 5 people I'd like to collaborate with
Caspar Brotzmann
Stina Nordenstam
PJ Harvey
James Plotkin
Warren Ellis

- - -

Andrew (Aversionline.com)

ASRA "The Way of All Flesh" CD

22 minutes of totally pristine grindcore mayhem. This was their debut, and sadly they've already broken up. A damn shame!

Bison B.C. "Quiet Earth" CD

Incredibly energetic hardcore/punk-infused rock from a band that I had never heard of before. This one took me completely by surprise and really hooked me in. I love it when that happens...

Celestine "At the Borders of Arcadia" CD

Crushing debut from this Reykjaví­k, Iceland outfit. They'd be huge if they were from California or something like that. Way more people should be all over this one. Awesome.

Cynic "Traced in Air" CD

I hate everyone who claims that this album is better than "Focus" (probably my favorite album of all time), because to state such is completely ignorant. But that being said, it's fucking Cynic! The wait was all too long. Far from perfect, but a very solid album from one of the most amazing bands ever.

The Death of Her Money "Spirit of the Stairwell" CD

SuperFi Records drops some obscure gems here and there, and this UK group is one of 'em for sure. A wide range of influences swirl around here, and the results generally bash your head to the ground and then scrape it across the pavement... with care.

J. Bannon "The Blood of Thine Enemies" one-sided etched 7"

A lot of people seemed to be iffy on this one, but I was all over it from the first second. An utterly incredible song. Chillingly somber and powerfully moving.

The Joy Formidable "Austere" 7"

I still have no idea how you'd accurately classify this band, and it's way outside my normal realm with its poppy indie/new wave action, but the songs kick ass. They've yet to record a track that's not catchy as hell, and I'm always excited to hear more.

Make Do & Mend "We're All Just Living" CD

This might have come out in 2007, but I got a copy and wrote about it way back in January, so... it's on the list. I was sort of torn on this EP when I wrote it up, but now I'm 100% in love with it. "Insomniac Jams" is one of the best songs I've ever heard in my life, and by far my favorite song of 2008. No doubt.

Reign Supreme "American Violence" CD

The best 12 minutes of straight up, no bullshit metallic hardcore all year. Fact.

Subrosa "Strega" CD

Easily the most intriguing release of the year for me. Dark, weird, and highly effective. You've really got to check this band out for yourself to get a feel for the eerie types of sounds they're exploring, and that's pretty damn rare these days.

- - -

Chris Bruni (Profound Lore)
01. NIGHTBRINGER – Death And The Black Work
02. BOHREN & DER CLUB OF GORE – Dolores
03. LIFELOVER – Konkurs
04. OCRILIM – Anwyn
05. LEVIATHAN – Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
06. NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!
07. DEAD CONGREGATION – Graves Of The Archangels
08. AURA NOIR – Hades Rise
09. PORTISHEAD – 3
10. SKEPTICISM - Alloy

- - -

Cosmo Lee (Invisible Oranges, Decibel, Pitchfork)
01. ASG - Win Us Over
02. Brave - Monuments
03. Grand Magus - Iron Will
04. Nasum - Doombringer
05. Austrian Death Machine - Total Brutal
06. Daylight Dies - Lost to the Living
07. The Rotted - Get Dead or Die Trying
08. Fuck the Facts - Disgorge Mexico
09. Byzantine - Oblivion Beckons
10. Dead Congregation - Graves of the Archangels

Best of the rest, alphabetically
Averse Sefira - Advent Parallax
Brown Jenkins - Angel Eyes
Cynic - Traced in Air
Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
Keep of Kalessin - Kolossus
Khold - Hundre År Gammal
Meshuggah - ObZen
Neuraxis - The Thin Line Between
Origin - Antithesis
Trap Them - Seizures in Barren Praise

Top 5 Shows
01. Landmine Marathon
02. Fuck the Facts
03. Today Is the Day
04. Black Anvil
05. Iced Earth

- - -

Dave Adelson (20 Buck Spin)
Necrovation - Breed Deadness Blood
Pig Heart Transplant - Hope You Enjoy Heaven
Skepticism - Alloy
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part I: Fourth World War
Portishead - Third
Skullflower - Taste The Blood Of The Deceiver
Skip James - 1931 Sessions
Sex Vid - Communal Living
US Christmas - Eat The Low Dogs
Extortion - Sick

Top 5 Bands I Want To Do A Record With
Necrovation
Iron Lung
White Mice
Destroyer 666
Con-Dom

- - -

Dave Haley (Psycroptic)
Top 5 Memorable Occurrences on Tour for Psycroptic This Year

1. Breaking down in the middle of Arizona, and experiencing the desert firsthand
2. Playing Laser Skirmish, and all of Psycroptic getting beaten by little kids playing it
3. Being shown firsthand how expensive the US hospital system is, after having to take Joe to the hospital in Florida
4. Cam dancing drunk in a bar full of Nigerian gangsters who didn't really appreciate him being there
5. The horrendous smell of the tour van after we finished the Australian tour we just completed

- - -

Dave Schalek (Metal Runs in My Veins, Live4Metal)
01. Krisiun - Southern Storm
02. Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
03. Nachtmystium - Black Meddle: Assassins Pt. I
04. Toxocara - The Great Rebellious
05. Leviathan - Massive Conspiracy Against All Life
06. Prostitute Disfigurement - Descendants of Depravity
07. Decrepit Birth - Diminishing Between Worlds
08. Defloration - Necrotic Nightmares
09. Bloodbath - The Fathomless Misery
10. Origin - Antithesis

- - -

J. Bennett (Decibel)
01. Graveyard – Graveyard
02. The Devil's Blood – Come, Reap
03. Black Mountain – In The Future
04. Pyramids – Pyramids
05. Torche – Meanderthal
05. Harvey Milk – Life… The Best Game In Town
06. Pilgrim Fathers – Short Circular Walks In Hope Valley
07. US Christmas – Eat the Low Dogs
08. Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1
09. Ancestors – Neptune With Fire
10. Darkthrone – Dark Thrones and Black Flags

- - -

Jess Blumensheid (Invisible Oranges)
01. Plague Bringer - Life Songs In a Land of Death
02. Coffins - Buried Death
03. Fistula - Burdened By Your Existence
04. Moss - Sub Templum
05. Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
06. "Four Burials" compilation off of Battle Kommand Records
07. Graveyard - Graveyard
08. Dystopia - Dystopia
09. Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game In Town
10. Torche - Meanderthal

- - -

Laurie Sue Shanaman (Ludicra)
Top 5 San Francisco Bands These Days
01. Grayceon
02. Saros
03. Drift of a Curse
04. Moses (Oakland)
05. Worm Ouroboros (Oakland/SF)

- - -

Mel Mongeon (Fuck the Facts)

Best albums released in 2008

1. Impure Wilhelmina – Prayers and Arsons
2. Genghis Tron – Board Up the House

2008 albums that I should listen to more in 2009 because they seem rad

1. Unearthly Trance - Electrocution
2. Bison B.C. – Quiet Earth
3. Gojira - The Way of All Flesh

Albums most listened to in 2008 (released prior to 2008)

1. Gadget – The Funeral March
2. The Dillinger Escape Plan – Ire Works
3. Antigama - Resonance
4. Year of No Light – Nord
5. Kylesa – Time Will Fuse Its Worth

Biggest nuisance of 2008

1. The Canadian elections (or how to spend money to get a status quo)
2. Any crap about the celebrities (from magazines to entertainment TV shows, etc.)
3. Spam

Most useful object

1. Gravol (there has been a lot of pucking (Ed. note: Canadian for puking?) this year for some obscure reasons)
2. Can opener key chain (if you don’t have one, make sure you hang out near someone who does)

Best drink

1. Red Wine
2. Light beer
3. Red Wine

Best places to go

1. The beach : you can swim for free, it's awesome on the road
2. The mall : on the road: it’s warm or cold, depending on what you are escaping from outside, and you can kill time for free
3. Dirt cheap ugly grocery stores : they don’t pretend to sell you anything else than the food, and it's cheap

- - -

Nick Green (Decibel)
01. Harvey Milk - Life… The Best Game in Town
02. Nachtmystium - Assasins: Black Meddle Pt. 1
03. Genghis Tron - Board Up the House
04. Wetnurse - Invisible City
05. Torche - Meanderthal
06. Eluveitie - Slania
07. Protest the Hero - Fortress
08. Gojira - The Way of All Flesh
09. Death Angel - Killing Season
10. Intronaut - Prehistoricisms

- - -

Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth, Total Fucking Destruction)
Insek "Maaiers" cd
Abiku "Left" cd
Abiku "Right" cd
Sickdrummer.com's Brutal Beatings V.1 compcd
Misery Index "Traitors" cd
Spoonful of Vicodin "pill poppin'" 7inch vinyl
Total Fucking Destruction "Peace, Love and Total Fucking Destruction" cd
Black Ganion "First" cd
FU "Love Children" cd
Old Head 2008 demos cd-r

- - -

Rob Milley (Neuraxis)

Top 5 albums of 2008

1. Testament - The Formation Of Damnation
2. Opeth - Watershed
3. Ihsahn - angL
4. Cynic - Traced in Air
5. The Faceless - Planetary Duality

Top 5 Places to Eat in the US While on Tour

1. San Antonio, TX : restaurant at White Rabbit venue, best chicken wings and calzone ever tasted!
2. Philadelphia, PA: restaurant that served the best Philly cheesesteak subs ever tasted
3. Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX: to the friends of Dave (tour manager for The Faceless - Planetary Duality tour), best ribs ever tasted!
4. Denver, CO : to Leonard's (Cephalic Carnage singer) great Mexican cooking, spiciest meal ever tasted!
5. Modesto, CA : tried the famous "In-N-Out" burger, delicious!

- - -

Ryan Adams (from Filter magazine)
Testament - The Formation of Damnation
Krallice - Krallice
The Killers - Day and Age
The Smiths - The Sound of The Smiths: The Very Best of The Smiths
Metallica - Death Magnetic
Mariah Carey - E=MC 2
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Fleet Foxes - Sun Giant EP
Ihsahn - angL

- - -

Wrath (Averse Sefira)
Things you won't find while touring the UK
01. Hot tap water
02. Widespread intolerance for Cradle of Filth
03. Paper towels
04. Sunlight
05. A public place where someone isn't communicating by yelling
06. An unedited version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
07. A person who eschews slang
08. Delicious regional food

Ancestors, Night Horse to spark up West Coast

Night Horse Photo by Ilana Shulman

Tee Pee Records had a good run this year. The label put out records by Ancestors, Annihilation Time, Blackstrap, Earthless, Graveyard, and Night Horse, with not a dud in the bunch. This Friday, Ancestors and Night Horse embark on a joint (pun intended) US West Coast tour (dates below). Ancestors bring blacklit heaviness (I reviewed their record here), while Night Horse bring Danzig doing '70s rock. Hot boxing and good times will be had by many.

Ancestors - Neptune with Fire (edit)
Night Horse - Wicked Love

- January -
2 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
3 Sacramento, CA @ On The Y
4 Eureka, CA @ Auntie Mo's
5 Medford, OR @ Johnny B's
6 Eugene, OR @ Samurai Duck
7 Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern
8 Portland, OR @ East End
9 Seattle, WA @ Josephine (w/ Wildildlife)
10 Portland, OR @ Blood Bank (house show)

- Links -
Ancestors
Night Horse
Tee Pee Records

How "Trapped Under Ice" got its name

Umlaut and James Hetfield Air guitaring, 1983

Earlier this year, I complained about over-exposure to the new Metallica record. However, I will never complain about over-exposure to old Metallica. Metal O.G. Umlaut has a habit of dropping bombs in the comments box; the latest is a ten-ton daisy cutter. It's a piece he wrote two years ago for So What!, the Metallica fan club magazine. In it, he recalls 24 years of following Metallica, all the way from day one. The stories he tells! Tape trading with Brian Slagel, seeing Cliff Burton's pre-Metallica band, sending a care package to Metallica while they recorded Ride the Lightning - wow. My favorite story is of how Umlaut gave "Trapped Under Ice" its name! Dig also the amazing photo above of Umlaut air guitaring with James Hetfield 25 years ago. You can download the article here.

Trapped Under Ice

Remote viewing

"Universal Intelligence" Oil on canvas, by Ingo Swann

From the 1970's until 1995, the US military ran a series of projects under the umbrella name Stargate. The Stargate Project attemped to gather intelligence using a technique called remote viewing ("RV" for short). Psychics were asked to divine information on faraway people, places, and things. (An example: what was going on inside a large Soviet building. It turned out, as supposedly predicted, to be the construction of a submarine.) Googling "remote viewing" yields fascinating results - sites and forums supporting and debunking it, and numerous instructional courses taught by former Stargate operatives. (Prominent ones include Ingo Swann, Joe McMoneagle, and Ed Dames.) New-agey graphics and primitive site design abound.

Alarum - Remote Viewing
Cephalic Carnage - Scientific Remote Viewing
Terminal Function - Remote Views

To my knowledge, three metal bands have addressed remote viewing. Australia's Alarum did so on 2004's Eventuality. They're unabashed Cynic acolytes, and the jazz fusion/elevator music tones of "Remote Viewing" are pure Cynic, with a splash of later Death. Cynic, "Gaia," "and "Universal Intelligence" seem appropriate in the same sentence. Cephalic Carnage also tackled the topic on 2005's Anomalies; vocalist Lenzig Leal is an avid sci-fi buff. Sweden's Terminal Function ended their brilliant debut this year with a song about RV. Swirling in eerie synths and unanswered questions, it's the best sonic treatment of the subject so far. It's uncertain which is creepier - the fact that the US government sank $20 million into remote viewing, or the possibility it might not be bunk.

Too Old, Too Cold

by Cosmo Lee

My mother, who lives in North Dakota, emailed me recently:

...there is a winter storm and we have been under Arctic spell for several days now and will continue to X'mas day (windchill -30 F and + everyday)...

-30 F converts to -34 C, for you Europeans. Gothenburg, SE, and Bergen, NO currently enjoy temperatures at least 30 degrees higher on both scales. This is a whole another level of cold. When I left New York to visit my parents, the temperature there was around zero C. That's cold, but manageable. It mostly just makes one stiff.

Go into the negatives, though, and the cold becomes hostile. When I stepped off the plane in North Dakota, the cold felt like shards. It was sharp and penetrating. My face felt headed for freezer burn. I resolved not to leave the house for the next two weeks. Today, when my mother returned from the grocery store - she is tougher than I am - she opened the door, and I felt glassy spears of cold stream in. My mother, who is pushing 60, wore a big smile. She said, "It's much warmer today than I thought it would be!"

Darkthrone - Too Old, Too Cold

This is all peanuts compared to the South Pole. My friend Brad works there as a scientist. Evidently, one South Pole tradition is the 300 Club, in which one sits in a 200 F sauna, then runs outside in -100 F weather. You can read about it and see pictures here and here.

Lifelover - Konkurs

by Cosmo Lee

The name Lifelover is probably ironic. Vocalist/guitarist Kim Carlsson has a project called Hypothermia which plays suicidal black metal, one of the few music genres that baffle me more and more over time. Why make music that's deliberately pathetic? Can music so wrist-slitting even be called metal? ("Man up!" I want to tell Xasthur. "Get some sun!") Why sing as if Grover were being skinned alive?

Mental Central Dialog
Brand

Carlsson keeps up his mopey Muppet schtick in Lifelover. Thankfully, other people balance him out, most notably "B," of Dimhymn and Ondskapt. Dimhymn's cut-and-paste tendencies crop up in Lifelover (I reviewed the Hypothermia/Dimhymn split here), as songs often drop into random bits of keyboards and found sounds. (One track ends with 45 seconds of what sounds like a German drinking song.)

Lifelover truly is some of the strangest music I've ever encountered. Konkurs (Avantgarde, 2008) is half black metal, half early Cure and Joy Division, and a splash of Coldcut cut-and-paste. The production is deliberately lo-fi, often reducing mighty metal riffs to a kind of shambolic, indie rock appeal. Yet gorgeous melodies and big hooks hang all over the place. I bet these guys are actually having fun.

Valkommen Till Pulvercity

Here is evidence: "Valkommen Till Pulvercity," from last year's Erotik. It's a knee-slappingly, tambourine-shakingly loose jam, only with dark jewels of piano and a madman howling Swedish things above. Then, at 2:15, jaunty hand claps enter - I must make a mixtape of metal with hand claps - and the song lifts off into cute, astral, suicidal polka punk metal territory. I love life, and I love Lifelover.

Buy:
The End
Sound Cave
Profound Lore

Metallica's first rehearsal with Cliff Burton

Photo by Umlaut

Re: Slayer's first album, someone can't just leave this comment - "Slagel sent me an advance tape of the album several months before its release" - and slink away unnoticed. That someone is Umlaut, a true metal old-schooler. His blog recently documented his 34th (!) time seeing Metallica. Dig his mind-blowing photo set on Flickr - flyers, set lists, live photos of Metallica, Slayer, Exodus et al. from 1981 onwards. He took pictures, did a zine, hung out with bands, and corresponded with Lars Ulrich. Metallica's first headlining show in SF, Slayer's first show in SF, Metallica's first show with Cliff Burton - Umlaut was there. He also captured Burton's first rehearsal with Metallica. You can read the account and see photos here.

Ye Olde Metal Days photo set

Peter Beste - True Norwegian Black Metal

by Cosmo Lee

By now, the images are iconic. Frost breathes fire in a cave; King ov Hell glowers next to a blood-red building; Nattefrost wields an inverted cross (see above). Peter Beste's black metal photography has penetrated popular culture enough so that it's lost some of its shock value. It's still striking, though. Those who saw the photos on the Internet likely paused for a minute, then moved on. But a hefty 14.5" x 11.5" x 1" book demands time. Now these images stand still, regarding us as warily as we do them. Beste captured them with simple means, mostly a 35mm camera. Though his shots are skilled, his greatest accomplishment is getting them in the first place. Persuading grown men to don corpsepaint and nail-studded wristbands in broad daylight is no mean feat.

This photo collection is called True Norwegian Black Metal (Vice Books, 208 pages). Perhaps Beste realized that only his photos, which start in 2002, would not live up to that name. Thus, he's rounded up collaborators. Writer/editor Johan Kugelberg contributes historical context and curatorial direction. "Tara G. Warrior" adds a detailed, three-page timeline of black metal. Most importantly, Jon "Metalion" Kristiansen writes a lengthy history of his Slayer 'zine and Mayhem's beginnings. It mentions Beste only in passing; Metalion says, "He has inspired me to pick up the camera. I hope to do a book myself."

Though Beste serves up a visual feast - shots of Gorgoroth's infamous 2004 gig in Krakow are particularly satisfying - text is the best part of True Norwegian Black Metal. Following Beste's photos are pages and covers from old Slayer 'zines. (The upcoming Slayer compilation on Ian Christe's Bazillion Points imprint is major cause for celebration.) There's something urgent and gripping about reading about something as it happens. (A letter by Euronymous regarding Dead's suicide is especially chilling.) Old photos - not Beste's, of course - of Mayhem & co. make up in primal intensity what they lack in technical prowess. Also included is contemporary press coverage of the murders and church burnings. Metal journalism back then was just as empty and sensationalistic as it is today.

More than any other metal subgenre, black metal has struggled with image. True Norwegian Black Metal cleverly incorporates various portrayals of black metal, thus preempting attacks of bias. Ultimately, it's up to one to make of it what one will. Ironically, it would also make a great Christmas present.

LA exhibit flyer

I recently viewed the Los Angeles exhibit of True Norwegian Black Metal, at Zune LA. Yes, that Zune, as in Microsoft. It's a flexible space that functions as an office, a nightclub, and, in this case, an art gallery. When I visited it, all three uses were on display. Laptops littered the place like some hip architecture studio. People wove in and out, carrying materials for a party that night. The exhibit was upstairs in a single room. Techno music streamed softly from speakers, while large TV screens incongruously showed MTV videos. (Fall Out Boy and Gwen Stefani were on at the time.) Hung on bright white walls were large prints of Beste's photographs. They lacked placards, though a piece of paper provided a simple index.

Seeing these images for the third time (after the Internet and the book), I was well used to them. But despite the inappropriate setting, their power remained undiminished. This was the closest to life-size I'd ever see them, free of browser restrictions and page divisions. The inappropriate setting only cast these images in greater relief. (The fake snow machine in the adjacent indoor courtyard seemed particularly apt.) A corpsepaint and leather-clad Abbath walking in verdant woods was both risible and touching. My favorite image was of Kvitrafn in the streets of Bergen, as a passing lady eyes his get-up. Despite his inclusion in a camera lens, he's still a misfit.

Buy:
Amazon (regular edition)
Peter Beste (deluxe editions)

Jeff Loomis - Zero Order Phase

by Cosmo Lee

I was thrilled to see Nevermore's Jeff Loomis put out an instrumental solo record. Loomis is one of the top five shredders I've seen play live. (The others are Moyses Kolesne, Trey Azagthoth, Alex Skolnick, and the guy from Revocation.) Those spidery, dexterous fingers were made to play spidery, dexterous riffs. And Zero Order Phase (Century Media, 2008) is wall-to-wall spidery, dexterous riffs.

Cashmere Shiv
Jato Unit

In fact, it's exactly what one would expect: a Nevermore album without Warrel Dane singing, and with even more guitar-ness. It's also a chance to use song titles inappropriate for Nevermore, like "Cashmere Shiv" and "Opulent Maelstrom." The latter could describe the entire record. It's full of layered guitars, harmonized solos, and general self-indulgence. But despite his "shredder tone" (think Guitar Center), Loomis, to my mild disappointment, writes actual music. (I'm masochistically drawn to the use of guitar as a drill. Of John McLaughlin, Frank Zappa once said, "The guy has certainly found out how to operate a guitar as if it were a machine gun.") He's not as catchy as Joe Satriani or Steve Vai, but the melodies often stick.

Loomis enlists a few illustrious guests. Ron Jarzombek does his tech-skronk thing on "Jato Unit." (The new Lamentations of the Flame Princess blog has the world's longest interview with Jarzombek here, and an excellent exposition on instrumental metal here.) Former bandmate Pat O'Brien of Cannibal Corpse appears on "Race Against Disaster." "Cashmere Shiv" has the best cameos. Fretless bassist Michael Manring turns in some wacky breaks, and producer Neil Kernon, whose discography ranges from Cannibal Corpse to Hall & Oates, contributes fretless guitar!

Super-slick and compressed-sounding, Zero Order Phase is hardly soulful. Then again, shred guitar is rarely about soul. In fact, part of its magic is how incredibly unsoulful it is, especially when its purveyors think they're being soulful. The gently over-the-top Loomis mostly avoids such irony. His solo record easily bests the other one this year from Nevermore, Warrel Dane's. (Half of Dane's band came from Soilwork, and the record merely sounded like him singing over later Soilwork.) As with most side projects, though, it's inferior to the main gig. Here's hoping Loomis and Dane are done with diversions; Nevermore is more than the sum of their parts.

Buy:
The End (CD)
Amazon (MP3)

Guillotine (Swe) - Blood Money

by Cosmo Lee

Today's retro thrash revival mostly comes in two flavors - modern and hyper-compressed, and slavishly old-school, down to the crappy production. The latter only makes me want to listen to the original. (Why date someone who's just like your ex?) Blood Money (Pulverised, 2008) skews towards the former, but balances its pancake drums with old-school riffing. Guillotine have somewhat of an old-school claim, putting out Under the Guillotine, a German-style thrash workout, in 1997 before hiding out for a while. Most likely they saw the current thrash revival and decided to get a piece of it.

Die, Live
Insanity

Which is fine - I'm finding that my favorite retro thrash is by rejuvenated old guys. (Recent records by Death Angel, Exodus, Laaz Rockit, and Testament come to mind.) Guillotine have probably kept tabs on younger bands, as "Insanity" has melodic ostinatos that recall The Haunted. In fact, Guillotine is pretty much the band that The Haunted should be. Slayer-isms pop up here and there, and "Dying World" is Testament-esque, down to its clean-toned intro, "Madness." Thus, Guillotine haven't come back as anything terribly original. (Later Kreator is a good reference point.)

But one crucial aspect does feel original - songwriting. The hooks, tension and release, and balance of melody and brutality all make for memorable songs. These are in short supply in today's retro thrash. Sad that the ability to write an actual song has become a lost art. Guillotine have it, though, and they maintain their roots while moving forward with modern touches. Ed Repka's artwork is perfect for the occasion: the end of one era, the start of another. Adios Motherfucker (A.M.F.) - there's a thrash title right there.

Buy:
Relapse
The End
Pulverised

Thrash can

Thanks to roxymuzak for the tip.

The Devil's Blood - Come, Reap

by Cosmo Lee

The Devil's Blood is likely the only entity whose MySpace "Top Friends" include both Roky Erickson and Watain. At first, the Dutch band's brand of '70s psychedelic rock seems out of place palling around with black metal terrorists. But as details come into focus, the picture coalesces: (presumably fake) blood-drenched performances; occult-soaked lyrics ("Nightshade and devil root / Wolfsbane and eye of newt / Round and round and round and round we go"); a warm, feminine atmosphere.

The Heavens Cry Out for the Devil's Blood

Other bands like Blood Ceremony and Jex Thoth (not to mention most of Tee Pee's roster) have tried such retro ritual magick this year. But Blood Ceremony sounded sterile, and Jex Thoth didn't have the songs. The Devil's Blood has both the sound and the songs. Crisp tunes with crisp execution make up Come, Reap (Ván/Profound Lore, 2008). But despite its electricity, its analog sound is seductively soft. Lucifer is more potent not standing behind a wall of flames, but crooking a finger and uttering the titular invitation. On the band's MySpace, one photo of the singer (the members remain nameless) is captioned, "The Mouth of Satan." Lilith, that mythical challenge to male hegemony, comes to mind. Not only does the devil have all the best tunes, she has the best guitar tones.

Buy:
Amazon (MP3)
Profound Lore (CD)
All That Is Heavy (CD)
Vinyl out late December on Ván

Shame on you, Century Media

by Cosmo Lee

Century Media is selling a 2009 calendar called "Maidens of Metal." It's supposed to be "sexy." (You can see the calendar images here.) I'm not surprised the label would do such a thing, and I appreciate the female form as much as anyone - but this gives me pause.

Perhaps one could liken these women to Suicide Girls, who've dealt with the "exploitation" vs. "female empowerment" issue for some time. But this feels different. Unlike Suicide Girls, these women don't seem "real." They've been airbrushed, windmachined, and Photoshopped into settings that aren't even sexy so much as kitschy. That's fine; some people think Playboy is erotic. To each his own.

But ostensibly these women are musicians. They shouldn't have to sell their bodies. I realize this was a conscious choice for them - at least I hope it was - but what little respect I had for them as musicians has vanished. Hooters girls have more integrity.

Metal has plenty of sex appeal from men and women alike. The greatest sex appeal comes from those who don't try to show it. This tries too hard, it's poorly executed, and it demeans everyone - the women, their bands, their fans, and the label who preys upon them all. Shame on you, Century Media. What are you selling, exactly? Music, or women's bodies?

Black September / Thou - Split 7"

by Cosmo Lee

At the moment, Chicago's in the news for all the wrong reasons, so here's a right one. Thrive and Decay is a split 7" between two young, potent bands. Chicago's Black September harkens back to the crust punk/death metal of old Bolt Thrower and the rough majesty of old Amon Amarth. Yes, that's a lady on vocals, and she's as leather-lunged as they come. "Under the Rising" journeys up and down rugged terrain, culminating in a mammoth, doomy denouement.

Black September - Under the Rising (excerpt)
Thou - Smoke Pigs (excerpt)

Baton Rouge's Thou, whose Peasant I reviewed here, contributes the meanest track I've heard in a while. The drums are big, cruel body blows. Guitars grumble acridly below sandpaper-grade howls. In keeping with the band's lyrical acumen, "Smoke Pigs" (as in verb-object) examines police brutality from two sides - the "Fool" and the "Sage." Reading the lyrics is necessary to grasp the dual voice, but they, as well as Thou's trademark woodcut artwork, come with the 7". So does a free CD of its MP3's. Small vinyl, huge impact.

Buy:
Black September

Kuma's Doom Fest

Go Bears!

Set the controls for the heart of Chicago - Kuma's, the best burger joint in the world, is sponsoring Doom Fest, a two-day festival (Dec. 20 and 21) at the Double Door (1572 N. Milwaukee Ave.). In keeping with Kuma's community spirit - its bar donates earnings each month to various causes - all proceeds will go to charity. The lineups are killer. First day highlights include Indian's sludgy pummelings, Samothrace's soulful doom, and the amazing, mighty Kongh, who journey from Sweden to make their first US appearance. Second day highlights include the beefy Americana of Across Tundras, the savage lashings of Lair of the Minotaur, and the drum machine grind of Plague Bringer. The lineups aren't 100% doom, but they are 100% heavy. Invisible oranges will be raised aplenty.

Kongh - Counting Heartbeats (excerpt)
Samothrace - Cacophony (excerpt)

Info:
Doom Fest
Double Door
Kuma's Corner

Thanks to Trevor for the lineups/poster update.

Kommandant - Stormlegion

by Cosmo Lee

Kommandant evoke the Red Baron segments of Peanuts cartoons, where Snoopy, piloting his doghouse-turned-Sopwith Camel, would invariably get shot down. Those drones haunt Stormlegion (Planet Metal, 2008) in the form of electrically buzzing riffs. The visuals are warlike, too, with vaguely fascist fonts and images of gas masks. However, the Chicago band, which has included members of Nachtmystium, is emphatically apolitical. So far, it has not printed lyrics to its songs, which are mostly about war. The songs are short, sharp shocks of thrashy black metal. (Imagine Slayer crossed with Immortal.) They're efficient - only one is longer than four minutes - with a crisp, dry mix. Guitars churn like finely tuned engines; drums are set to "strafe." A slight industrial edge tinges the record, not through electronics but through goose-stepping riffs. Kommandant may well become the Bolt Thrower of black metal.

No Compassion
Social Parasite

Buy:
Relapse
The End
Planet Metal