_______ __ __ __ ___ | _ | |--.----.-----.-----|__.----| .-----.-----. .-----.' _| |. 1___| | _| _ | | | __| | -__|__ --| | _ | _| |. |___|__|__|__| |_____|__|__|__|____|__|_____|_____| |_____|__| |: 1 | |::.. . | `-------' _______ __ | _ | |--.---.-.-----.-----. |. 1___| | _ | _ |__ --| |. |___|__|__|___._|_____|_____| |: 1 | |::.. . | `-------' CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, December 7, 2004, Issue #80 http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com Co-Editor / Founder: Gino Filicetti Co-Editor / Contributor: Pedro Azevedo Contributor: Brian Meloon Contributor: Paul Schwarz Contributor: Aaron McKay Contributor: David Rocher Contributor: Matthias Noll Contributor: Alvin Wee Contributor: Chris Flaaten Contributor: Quentin Kalis Contributor: Xander Hoose Contributor: Adam Lineker Contributor: James Montague Contributor: Jackie Smit Neophyte: James Slone Neophyte: Todd DePalma The individual writers can be reached by e-mail at firstname.lastname@ChroniclesOfChaos.com. (e.g. Gino.Filicetti@ChroniclesOfChaos.com). >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Issue #80 Contents, 12/7/2004 ----------------------------- * Chats -- Anthrax: Weathering the Storms (And Coming Out Smiling) -- Marduk: The Plague Rages On -- Behemoth: Keeping It Real -- The Amenta: The Thunder Down Under * Albums -- 8th Sin - _Sinners Inc._ -- Acheron - _Rebirth: Metamorphosing Into Godhood_ -- Agnostic Front - _Another Voice_ -- Amon Amarth - _Fate of Norns_ -- Anaal Nathrakh - _Domine Non Es Dignus_ -- Anthrax - _The Greater of Two Evils_ -- Arch Enemy - _Dead Eyes See No Future_ -- Cruachan - _Pagan_ -- Cult of Catharsis / Opus Forgotten - _Lord of the Gallows_ / _Unleash the Fury_ -- Dark Tranquillity - _Exposures: In Retrospect and Denial_ -- Enslaved - _Isa_ -- Imperial Empire - _The 3rd War_ -- Marduk - _Plague Angel_ -- Mechanical Poet - _Woodland Prattlers_ -- Nattefrost - _Blood and Vomit_ -- Nokturnal Mortum - _Twilightfall_ -- Omnium Gatherum - _Years in Waste_ -- Shape of Despair - _Illusion's Play_ -- The Axis of Perdition - _Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xuchilbara (The Red God)_ -- The Crown - _Crowned Unholy_ -- The Soundbyte - _Rivers of Broken Glass_ -- Thee Maldoror Kollective - _A Clockwork Highway_ -- Vampire Mooose - _Vampire Mooose_ -- Void of Silence - _Human Antithesis_ -- Woods of Ypres - _Pursuit of the Sun & Allure of the Earth_ * Rants -- Doom Metal: The Gentle Art of Making Misery =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= _, _,_ _, ___ _, / ` |_| /_\ | (_ \ , | | | | | , ) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ WEATHERING THE STORMS (AND COMING OUT SMILING) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Scott Ian of Anthrax by: Jackie Smit At first glance, Anthrax founding member, guitarist and chief songwriter Scott Ian cuts a distinctly dissimilar figure to the Bermuda-short wearing blockhead of the mid-'80s. This is a man whose eyes tell tales of a road travelled that has had more inclines, twists, turns and slippery slopes than most dare to dream of, and almost remarkably considering the disposable nature of music in our day and age, is still going strong and still burning with the hunger of a young upstart dead-set to earn his stripes amidst some fairly gnarly competition. It's this attitude, however, that has seen Anthrax not only survive the untimely dissolution of key business arrangements, the rise and fall of nu-metal and a whole lot more to spare, but it's also been the driving force that sees the band still capable of maintaining an absolutely rabid fanbase, while consistently drawing fresh blood into the fold so that they might too discover what so many of us were weaned on. In that respect, the latest offering from Camp Anthrax, _The Greater of Two Evils_, which sees the band re-record a veritable diapason of classic tunes, might serve as a perfect introduction to fresh, unsuspecting ears. Says Scott about the record: Scott Ian: It came from the idea that we were going to do a box set this year to commemorate twenty years of _Fistful of Metal_ being out, and once we started gathering all of our ideas together we realised that we would have needed to start planning everything for this box set about four years ago. There literally was so much stuff that we would have wanted to include, and just the time that it was going to take to make this happen... One of the ideas came from a discussion from where you would play a show and someone would come up to you and say: "Well, why didn't you play this song or that song?" So out of that came the idea to put all the songs from the first five albums on the website and have people vote -- not that it would actually solve the problem, because we would still have to put every song in our catalogue on to please everybody. But just as a cool thing, we thought for the box set we would put those songs up, have the fans vote, and then we would have a disc where we record a bunch of the old song that the fans picked. Because we aren't going to do the box set at this point, we just figured that we'd take that idea and still do that, so that's where it came from. CoC: In listening to the finished product, do you ever find yourself comparing them to the earlier recordings? SI: I don't compare it at all. You can't compare it because it's two completely different things -- different times, different people. You know, we're different musicians now as players -- it's just completely different. That's the point of it. These songs recorded now are exactly as you would hear them if you came to see us live tonight. That was the idea that we had going in. We weren't trying to remake anything, we weren't trying to reinvent the original studio versions. We just set up our gear and we played the songs live and we recorded seventeen tracks in two days. That was it -- done. This was a representation of what the songs sound like live. It's a live album recorded in the studio. CoC: Have Joey Belladonna or Neil Turbin heard any of the tracks on _The Greater of Two Evils_, or given you any input on how the material sounds? SI: Not that I know of. We didn't have any input from them, and I don't know whether they've heard it yet or not. I actually don't know how they would have unless someone sent them a promo copy or something. CoC: You guys never wondered whether they would take this record the wrong way -- you know, perhaps seeing it as an insult to their work? SI: I don't care. Truthfully -- why would it matter? They don't have a say, so... But I would find it odd if they had anything negative to say. I couldn't imagine them being negative about it -- that would really seem weird to me. CoC: Speaking of Joey, care to shed any light on why the Belladonna / Bush tour never happened? SI: Joey decided not to do it -- simple as that. You'd have to ask him his reasons for doing that. We were really disappointed, because we felt like we were going to do something really cool and special that had never been done before, and then he pulled himself out of the mix. I mean, we ended doing the tour ourselves anyway, and had a great time. And that's where things started again for me, anyway. I look back at that tour in 2000 and I think that's where it all finally started to turn back around for us after all the late '90s crap. But anyway, you know -- there's a part of me that wishes we would have done it, just to satiate my curiosity and just to see what it would have sounded like and what people would have thought. Then there's another part of me that's glad we didn't do it, because we really didn't need to do it. I'll probably always be curious, and who knows, maybe someday it will happen, unless Van Halen beats us to the punch, and I don't see that happening. CoC: He never gave you any sort of hint about his reasons behind not wanting to do the tour? SI: We were told things, but it's not fair for me to speculate or put words in his mouth. CoC: And you don't have any more contact with him? SI: I haven't spoken to him since 2000. CoC: I remember talking to John [Bush] last year about the troubles that befell Anthrax during the late '90s, and now that the band is on track once again, what do you have to say about the last five to six years of your career? SI: Well, like I said, beginning of 2000 is when things really started to flip around for us and you could tell that things had changed. In 1998 we released _Volume 8_, and everything was going really well for six months, and that's when the label we were on at the time [Ignition Records] went out of business. So six months into this project, we had a record that had just sold 100 000 copies in the States and we were about to hit with a second single which was going to be "Crush", and then right before Christmas our manager calls us up and says that the label is going out of business, we don't have any more distribution -- the record is done, and we have to go and find a new deal. And it was like "What the fuck?" We thought everything was great going into the project after getting away from Elektra on the _Stomp 442_ record -- which had already been a nightmare unto itself -- and then everything was set up for _Volume 8_, it was going great and then a rug gets pulled out from under us. The record company goes out of business -- what the fuck is that? So basically, '99 was just a lost year. We were fucked and we trying to find a new deal and then we did that tour in the beginning of 2000, and we did another one in the summer of 2000 and then toward the end of the year we started writing, and then in 2001 was when we were supposed to go and do the Priest tour, and then 9/11 happened, so that got postponed. So we finished writing the record and then we went into the studio at the end of 2001 and actually started recording. We did the Priest tour in the States at the beginning of 2002, finished _We've Come For You All_, and next thing you know we where back here in the UK supporting Motorhead; the album comes out in March 2003, and here I am sitting in front of you eighteen months later. It's been the best eighteen months of our lives, and the last record enabled us to get to the point where we're even better than we were before. Things have really started to go back up and with _We've Come For You All_ we actually had a label that did its job for us, which really isn't too much to ask for. And it actually worked this time, and obviously the support we've had has been the best, so yeah... That's about all I can say about that. CoC: Looking back at those difficult times, did you ever think that Anthrax might be on the verge of extinction? SI: Well, it was never going to go away. We were never going to quit because something bad had happened in the music business. That's just frustration for me and it just causes me to fight even harder. You know, the song "Refuse to Be Denied" on the last record -- that's where that title came from. After all that shit had happened at the end of the '90s, I remember writing that on a piece of paper and I had that stuck up in a room at my house for a year, so that every day I would see it. Admittedly that's not what the song is about, but that's where the title came from. My attitude was like there's no way that anyone is going to ever stop me from doing this unless I decide that I don't want to do it anymore. I refuse to have any outside source, outside of anyone who is not physically inside this band, to ever have an effect on what do or what we don't do, because that's the way it's been since day one. And as frustrating as it is, you have to overcome those fucking obstacles -- and that's what makes us as strong a band as we are. There's a lot of bands that never even made it out of the '80s, because they couldn't overcome those fucking low times and couldn't deal with stuff and get over the hump or whatever you want to call it. That's something that I would never let stand in my way or in the way of this band, and that's just how I am in all walks of life. It's just the way it has to be. CoC: If you look back at your time with Anthrax going back to the '80s and the early days, is there anything you wish you had done differently? SI: No. That's another thing I have never done, look back at our career. I will when I'm 75 years old or something, but I always go forward. It's all about what I'm doing today, what we're doing tomorrow, what we're doing next year or whatever. We've always been very good at being able to plan out x-amount of time in advance. You set those goals, you make those plans and you make it happen. That's how it's always been with this band. I always compare this band to a shark, because a Great White shark can't live in captivity, it has to be constantly free and moving or it dies. And basically that's how I feel about this band -- we always need to be moving forward. I don't need to sit around and reminisce -- I've experienced all that and it's all inside me. I have plenty of time in my life to sit around and do that when I'm not actually experiencing it. I'm right in the thick of it now. CoC: So let's talk about S.O.D. for a second, if I may. A lot of news sources was quoting some really harsh comments from Billy after you guys had brought out _Bigger Than the Devil_. Care to comment on the reason for this bust-up? SI: There was no bust-up. S.O.D.... you know, you can talk to all four members of S.O.D. and they'll give you a different answer on their opinion of what S.O.D. is, and that is because S.O.D. was never a band. Billy might give you a completely different answer to what I just did, but I look at it this way: Billy might be the mouthpiece for S.O.D., but I invented S.O.D.; I drew the mascot on a piece of paper, I wrote the first ten songs, and then I called Lilker up and we wrote the next ten songs, and we asked Billy to sing on the record. S.O.D. was never a band and there's never been something to bust up. It's something that was a project and it remains an on-going entity, but it was never meant to be a band that makes records and then tours and then makes another record. It was never supposed to have that kind of baggage. The fact that we even made _Bigger Than the Devil_ was a complete fluke in that sense. It's just something that was only ever supposed to be for complete and absolute fun without any of the things that being in a band entails -- without any of the business; without any of that. We were able to create this thing with _Speak English or Die_ that operated completely outside of the music -- it was the exact opposite of the way things are supposed to be done. And that was the point of it. Making that album was a complete reaction to doing _Spreading the Disease_, because we had spent six months in the studio, because we had a producer who was being paid by the day, so the longer he took the more money he made. I wrote that S.O.D. album during that time and then we recorded and mixed that record in three days, and it enabled me to call Carl Canedy and tell him that we'd done the album in that amount of time and it sounded pretty fucking good, and that with _Spreading the Disease_ he had ripped us off. That was the whole idea with S.O.D.: it was supposed to exist outside of the normal. Billy, I think, had different ideas: he would have loved for the band to more of a permanent thing. He would have loved to have made more records, done more touring or whatever. Everyone who has ever been in S.O.D. have always had their eyes open, though. Charlie and I obviously have our priorities, and Lilker has always had his -- whether it was Brutal Truth or Nuclear Assault --, and that's just the way it is. Billy and I have an interesting relationship: we're more like brothers than anything else. Sometimes you could not like each other, but you're still brothers, you know? That's our relationship in a nutshell. CoC: Scott, let's talk politics. You're known as being a fairly outspoken dude, so what do you make of the outcome of the US elections? Are you planning on joining the outflow of US citizens to Canada anytime soon? SI: It's so funny, you know, because I voted Kerry, but this reactionary thing where people want to move to Canada... It's good, you know, because there's too many people in this fucking country anyway. They got a lot of room up there. That to me is just fucking sheer stupidity, but the people that think that way can go ahead. I don't need to live somewhere cold, that's why I moved to California fifteen years ago. If I was going to move anywhere, I'd move somewhere beautiful like Tuscany -- what the fuck are you going to move to Canada for? There's nothing wrong with Canada, but just because George Bush won you want to move out? I'm obviously disappointed. I'm a very optimistic person in general and I believed in what Kerry was saying. I'm not a Republican and I'm not a Democrat; I'm a human being who bases my voting for a candidate on what that candidate says on issues that affect me and that affect the world, and it doesn't matter to me what party they represent. I voted for Kerry because I truly believe that the administration that's in power right now is not good for the world and I truly believed that Kerry's change was necessary -- not even just for the United States, but also from a global point of view, which I think I get because we're always touring. I'm not one of those people who think "Fuck what's going on in the rest of the world, it only matters what goes on in America -- we shouldn't let the world decide who becomes our next president!" Well, maybe we should. Anyway, Kerry was not the most inspiring candidate in the world and I think that the problem is only going to get worse going into 2008, because what I see happening is that it's not even going to matter anymore who the candidates are -- people are just going to start voting along party lines and it won't matter who's running. Republicans will only vote for a Republican and Democrats will only vote for a Democrat, and it wouldn't even matter if it were the second coming of fucking Abraham Lincoln. It could be the greatest guy in the world, but people are only going to vote for the party. I truly believe that Kerry was the better candidate -- uninspiring as he was. It's amazing to me that more people didn't see that and people who live in the Republican state just didn't seem to care. They just went: "Fuck all that, fuck that shit -- we're voting for George Bush." Why? "We don't know; we're voting for Bush." I heard so much of that in the last year -- I have friends who are Republicans and you can get into some crazy fucking arguments with them about this shit and no one can ever really tell me why. Let's take Billy Milano for example. Billy is a huge Bush supporter, and I won't even argue with him over stuff like that, simply because I don't feel like getting yelled at. I would never try and change Billy's opinion, but the fact of the matter is that Billy is a musician and he lives a lifestyle and expresses himself in certain ways that if it were up to the administration that he supports, they would censor everything he had to say, and they wouldn't even let him make records. Fuck, half the music that comes out these days would not be allowed if the Bush administration had their way, and if they were able to just keep going on in the way they're going on with taking away personal freedoms. I posed that question to a lot of people and particularly to a lot of my friends who are Republicans -- you're life style is 180 degrees opposite to what they condone and what they're getting at. How the fuck could you vote for this guy? And if they really have their way, you wouldn't be sitting in this bar right now talking to me. And these people are like: "Whatever, fuck that shit -- George Bush!" You can't get an answer. It's become this fucking robotic thing where people will only vote along party lines and I don't see how that's going to change unless they change how presidents are voted for in America. But I'm not going to move to Canada. CoC: Do you think that's just a matter of party-line politics that cost John Kerry the election, or do you think that he dropped the ball elsewhere as well? SI: No, I don't really think he dropped the ball, personally. I don't. Like I said, he wasn't out there, all fire and brimstone winning people over with his amazing personality -- he's no Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton knew how to win over an audience. Bill Clinton came in 1992 against George Bush Sr., who should have won a second term realistically. Incumbents should usually win a second term, and Clinton came in and just knocked the shit out of a guy who had a huge personality and knew how to talk to an audience. Kerry was no Bill Clinton. Clinton could have come in 2004 and if he were allowed to run again, he probably would have won. I know this might sound crazy, but truthfully not 2008, but 2012 I won't be surprised if you're looking at President Schwarzenegger, because that law about having to be born in the United States will get changed, and that is someone who is capable of winning hearts and minds. He has charisma and a big personality, whether or not he's a good politician -- which is an oxymoron to me anyway. He might be a Republican, but I actually morally agree with him on most things. He believes that a woman has the right to choose whether or not she wants to have a baby. He's way more moderate than anyone in the Bush administration, that's for sure. In California, he certainly wasn't out there yelling for Bush, because California is such a Democratic state. He probably felt like he couldn't be out there being pro-George Bush because he would end up losing support next time round. CoC: Well, one thing that in my opinion really threw Kerry out of contention was the way in which he handled the appearance of the most recent Usama Bin Laden video message. Rather than actually take the Republicans to task about the fact that such a video could even exist in the first place, he seemed to just ignore it, which in turn didn't do much for his credibility in terms of how voraciously he would seek to protect America. SI: He came on and said that he'd hunt down and kill the terrorists, but certainly not to the extent that Bush had been doing. But Al Qaeda and Bin Laden -- you know, for those guys Bush is the ideal president, because he's like the poster boy for Al Qaeda recruitment at the moment. Kerry comes in and all of a sudden people are going to be like "Well, he doesn't seem so bad, he's not like that fucking asshole from Texas." I mean, with the Bush administration -- if they had their way, you wouldn't be able to release metal records. The Republican administration wants to shut you up and I would fight to the death for something like that. CoC: So, Scott, what's next on the cards for Anthrax -- when are you guys going to start working on the follow-up to _We've Come For You All_? SI: January is when we'll get together and start writing and see where the train takes us. I'm sure we'll be in the studio at some point during the year and hopefully have the new album out by the end of 2005. I have some ideas, which are mostly just riffs being sung into my cellphone, so things are pretty much in the stem-cell stage right now. CoC: Last question: after all this time that you've been doing Anthrax, what's still left for you to conquer? SI: We want to play Download next year. Just kidding. For me this is all about the career, you know? It's been my goal and my driving force. I love doing this, I love being in a band -- and the day that it stops being fun, then it will end. I can say that it will end the day that all five of us can look each other in the eye and say that it was fucking great and walk away from it happy. But until then, I love doing this -- this is my life and my goal is to continue what we're doing and to continue doing things our own way and call our own shots. CoC: Speaking of Download -- this is something I've always wanted ask your opinion on: Metallica bring out _St Anger_ and claim that they're returning to their roots, yet they take Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Deftones on tour with them. I've always wondered why they don't put their money where their mouths are and take Anthrax or Death Angel or someone on the road with them instead. What are your thoughts on that? SI: Ask Lars. I can't answer that -- he is the one who calls the shots and he'd probably never answer your question even if you had the opportunity to ask him. Believe me, if Metallica called us up and asked us out on the road with them, we'd do it without hesitation. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= T H E P L A G U E R A G E S O N ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson of Marduk by: Jackie Smit Before _Plague Angel_, there was very little that one could say about Marduk that anybody with an elementary knowledge of the extreme underground didn't already know. Fourteen year veterans of the genre, Marduk have been tagged as one-trick ponies on several occasions during their illustrious career -- their detractors eager to thumb their noses in the direction of the band's liberal use of speed in their über-dark assault. But no more, as _Plague Angel_ ushers in a new era of songwriting maturity and misanthropic efficiency for the Swedish quartet that is bound to silence even the biggest disbelievers. I recently had the pleasure of a telephone conversation with a very excited Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson to discuss matters pertaining to the new record, black metal as a whole and a number of things beside. CoC: Leading into the recording of _Plague Angel_, Marduk went through some line-up changes. First of all, you brought in Mortuus to replace Legion on vocals, and then you had your bassist, B War, leave the band as well. What sort of effect did this have on the eventual outcome of the new record? Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson: Well, the effect was really positive, I think. First of all, we brought the vocalist in to replace Legion, and he brings a new dimension to the music, because he uses his voice as more of an instrument and a vehicle than most vocalists, and that helps us do more mad and more morbid stuff. He also shows more devotion and more passion for the lyrical concept than Legion did, so we work together better as a unit. He wrote two songs worth of lyrics for the new album, and then I wrote the rest and he rearranged them, which is really fine with me, you know? It works well. And when it comes to our bass player, getting Devo [Andersson] back -- he used to be our guitar player between '92 and '94. CoC: He played on the first two albums, right? MSH: Yeah, and having him back a decade later; he's more focused and both he and Mortuus are driving forces in the band. Even our drummer, Emil [Dragutinovic], stepped up to the plate and wrote like three or four songs completely by himself for the new album. Everybody is taking part in the process now, and that's fine with me, if everyone wants to be driving forces in the band and everybody is working toward the same goal. CoC: So more than anything, _Plague Angel_ is more of a band effort than anything you've done previously? MSH: At first it was mostly me and drummer, because the vocalist came in kind of late, but he worked a lot on the vocal arrangement and things like that. With the next album, we'll have even more time for the vocals and for all things like that, so we'll put even more work into everything. CoC: The key aspect of _Plague Angel_ that stands out for me is how much more mature the band comes across in terms of songwriting. MSH: Yeah, but I also think that the production makes a difference, because we recorded in the same studio between 1996 and 2000 with Peter Tagtgren -- and of course it was very good to work with him, and when I listen to _World Funeral_, I'm still very satisfied with the album. But I do think that it sounded a little bit too digital and clean for the music, and this time when we wrote the new material we decided that we wanted different production, and we felt that as we had had the line-up changes, we would also change studio. So for _Plague Angel_ we made sure that the production was more rusty -- more black and white, you know? CoC: The other thing about _Plague Angel_ is that it's a more mature sounding album, but it's also much more aggressive. MSH: It is more aggressive and in-your-face, because we want everything to reflect the idea of the band -- music, lyrics, layout; we want it all to be one. CoC: Legion's departure obviously left you guys in a bit of a quandary at first, and you ended up having to cancel some of your appearances on the Blackest of the Black tour. What's the story behind his decision to quit the band? MSH: It's the same thing for both him and B War: people change. He was in the band for over eight and a half years and B War was in the band for twelve, and they have family and kids and just couldn't be 100% loyal to the band and maintain the level of focus and dedication that the band requires. So they had to step down, because it doesn't work that way with this band. You have to be with us 100%, because it takes a lot of time and energy. There are no bad feelings between any of us or any shit like that -- we're still friends, or whatever you want to call it. We talk once in a while, but we don't really hang out. But it was just a natural thing to happen to this band. CoC: So, in retrospect, you think it's all been for the best? MSH: Yeah, absolutely. CoC: Speaking of Blackest of the Black -- this is similar to what I have asked a lot of the bands that were on that tour, but how did the connection between yourselves and Glenn Danzig start? MSH: Well, we've always been big fans of Glenn Danzig, so it was really cool to be able to play on the tour. We were on tour in the States in 2001 and we were backstage one evening when our tour manager came in and said that Glenn Danzig wanted to meet us, and we were like: "Are you sure?" We didn't think he was actually being serious. Then he came back a few minutes later and said that Glenn was in the bar and that he wanted to meet us, and I thought to give him a copy of our latest album, but he said that he already had it. So I was like: "What?" Anyway, I got his phone number and we stayed in contact and became really good friends. We share a lot of views, and I don't know -- I get along with him really fine. He's one of the most dedicated people I have ever met in the music business. He's so loyal to what he's doing and he never lets anybody fuck with him, and he does what he wants to do, and I really respect that. He is one of maybe three or four musicians that I have met that I actually respect. We've had many offers to go back to the States, but we have many problems with papers going over there right now; but we did the European shows with him and it was fantastic. I heard so many stories about how people get treated by him, but I had no bad experience. It was the best ever to be able to tour with a bigger band like that, you know, and Glenn was just like: "Marduk are my boys -- they want anything, you help them." So we had a really good time, we share a lot of ideas and we'll tour together in future. CoC: So what was it like playing those tours, because clearly there are a few major fundamental differences in Marduk's music when compared to the stuff Danzig does? MSH: Well, some people of course didn't like what we do -- I think we're a little too extreme for them, but it was cool. I think it's great when bands that share a similar devotion to things and get different crowds together so that each can appreciate what the other is doing, you know? It's great that he brings out bands and exposes people to darker and heavier stuff. Some people were standing staring at us like we had just landed in a UFO or something, wondering what the hell we were, but we had a lot of our own fans at shows as well, and it was a good experience. CoC: Have you toyed with the idea of touring with any other non-black metal bands in future? MSH: I wouldn't mind that at all. I mean, I'd love to play with a band like Slayer for example, because people that like them that maybe haven't heard about us, could possibly still appreciate what we are doing. A lot of black metal bands don't like to tour with bands like that, but it doesn't bother us, because at the end of the day we are still doing what we do and we are a fist in the face that would love to play for different audiences. CoC: This is something that I've actually always respected about you guys -- in the sense that you are one of the few bands to have started in the early '90s to still actually have the same attitude and the same approach to music. MSH: We don't compromise -- that's what we're about. We have changed labels because we don't want to compromise, and now we have started our own, because we don't want anyone telling us what to do. I could never let anyone interfere with this band, because it means too much to me. CoC: At the same time you continue to become more popular and I'm sure that _Plague Angel_ will help that along even further. MSH: We're satisfied with it and we hope to take it to an even higher level on the next one. CoC: If you had to comment on the state of black metal in 2004, how does the scene compare to when you got into it initially? MSH: Of course it has grown tremendously. When we started out, there was no talk of going out on tour or something like that. It has changed and it has grown and grown -- some of it is positive and some of it is negative. It's positive that you can bring the message to more people and get your music out to a wider audience, but it also means that the concept has become very watered down. People are always referring to whatever band as being "black metal", and when you read an advertisement and you see the words "black metal" and then you see someone sitting with an umbrella and a painted tear on their face, looking depressed -- that's not black metal for me. I don't care, really. We do what we do -- that means something to me -- and I don't care what anyone else is doing. CoC: What is it about black metal that still makes it so attractive to fourteen years on in your career? MSH: For me it's extreme metal with Satanic ground values -- that's how I would describe it. Sometimes you hear a band that people are calling a black metal band because it has screechy vocals. To me it's more of a philosophy, and the thought behind the music more than how it actually sounds. CoC: In terms of new bands coming out and potentially one day picking up where Marduk leaves off, have you heard anything that has impressed you yet? MSH: I haven't heard many bands that I really like. I heard a few, for example Deathspell Omega from France, and I like a Swedish band between called Watain. Those are the bands I heard that I actually like. Apart from that, I cannot really think of very much that I've heard lately. I don't really go out and try and discover anything new either -- I prefer to be on my own and listen to other types of music. CoC: So what's spinning in your CD player right now? MSH: I listen to what I regard as the best black and death metal, for example right now I'm listening to a lot of early Morbid Angel stuff. _Altars of Madness_ and _Domination_ still remain very powerful and very heavy. I also like dark and powerful industrial music, I like classical music -- I like everything that I can find that has a soul. For example, I like two bands who are actually very Christian, but are still a lot darker than many so- called black metal bands: Sixteen Horsepower and Woven Hand. CoC: Never heard them. MSH: Oh my God, you should really check them out -- they're really dark and really Christian, but still extremely fascinating. I'm going to see them live on Sunday; it's really bizarre music. I like anything that can really paint pictures in my mind. CoC: With _Plague Angel_ -- if someone were to come up to you and say that they weren't a fan of Marduk before, what would you tell em ththey'd find on this record that would change their mind? MSH: It depends on what a person is looking for. It's hard for me to say, actually. I always try and take the band to the next level with every album, and if someone likes extreme music, then they should like this record -- it definitely has something for everyone. It's heavy, it's fast, it's dark -- it's everything an extreme metal album should be. In terms of lyrics -- this new album deals with plagues in all its different forms. Death and war, those are things that fascinate me, and I feel far more motivated to write music about things like that than about sitting in the wood feeling depressed, looking into a lake and thinking about trolls. Those things mean nothing to me. Death and war puts music into my head. An historical event like the city of Warsaw being blown to pieces puts music in my head, and I'm not saying what's right or wrong -- I'm just reflecting on those events and the way it occurred. I consider myself to be a vehicle for my creativity. CoC: Marduk has been catching some flack for the World War II references since _Panzer Division Marduk_. MSH: Yeah, absolutely, but I don't care. I do this to satisfy myself, and if people don't like it or want to censor me -- that's why I have my own label, so that I can do what I want. It's annoying that people would criticize a band for having German language in the song title, even if we've sung things in French or Turkish or Russian or whatever. But what can you say? Humans will always be sheep in that respect. This is an art form, and I'm not saying that people should interpret it in any particular way. CoC: Last question, Morgan: nine albums into your career, having achieved quite a lot for a band in the underground, what remains the biggest driving force in this band? MSH: I don't know, because every time I finish an album, I already have a vision for the next one in my head. Right now I'm working on three lyrics for the next album, and I'm starting to have some musical ideas. That's the driving force: so long as I have that vision that makes me want to create music and go one step ahead, and as long as I have that driving force, I will be doing this. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= K E E P I N G I T R E A L ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Nergal of Behemoth by: Jackie Smit There's times when it can be a truly surreal thing being a music journalist. Take the following scenario example: I'm sitting in the famous World's End pub in London's Camden Town, sharing a beer with Nergal of Poland's current heavyweight death metal champs, Behemoth. In just a few short minutes following our interview, he will reappear on the downstairs Underworld stage, evoking all manner of hellish malarkey, but for now he is simply Nergal -- absolute gentleman and avid music fan -- and he is about to investigate a certain extreme music magazine's review of his band's latest effort, _Demigod_. The verdict, as it turns out, is somewhat disappointing -- but this particular publication's lack of enthusiasm is quite possibly the only strain of negativity currently headed in the direction the rising juggernaut, who since releasing their latest album have tasted everything from overwhelmingly positive press, to mammoth industry buzz and sold-out performances, to a sojourn in their country's domestic top 20. A supremely confident Nergal is nonplussed however: Nergal: Well, I see Behemoth as one of the most hard-working bands on the planet, that's for sure. And it's good to see the new album doing well. What can I say? We did our best, you know? We didn't let any bullshit through this time -- it's just the most brutal riffing, the best lyrics I could write... We did our best, and I think that people really appreciate it when they see a band that pays so much attention to every single detail of their work. CoC: Attention to detail is something that definitely stands out on this album for me as well. Something I mentioned in my review as well; _Demigod_ for me, was the album where Behemoth was either going to be promoted to the ranks of Morbid Angel and Nile or stay in the second tier of death metal, and as far as I'm concerned I feel like you have definitely succeeded in doing so. What is your opinion on that? N: Give me a few months and I'll be able to answer that question. This tour that we're on right now is going to be the first test, and we're going to see how it goes. I'm an optimistic guy and I like to think it's going to be that way, and all the signs point to it happening. But I can't really say; I can't foresee the future. Many people have told us that this album is going to see us get much bigger and that the critics are really into it, and of course that makes me happy. But I'm really here to make good music, and I'm beyond all the competition. My thoughts are in the future -- the next album, maybe. I already have some titles in my mind, how we should sound in the future; things like that. For the media and the support so far, I'm thankful, but let's wait and see. CoC: What did you want to achieve when you set out to write and record _Demigod_? N: Well, with _Zos Kia Cultus_ and _Thelema.6_, I had huge expectations. I was thinking that we were going to top ourselves and that we were going to blow everyone away. And by contrast this album was so simple. I came back from the Six Feet Under tour -- a two month tour -- and I found myself in a really, really shitty situation. I don't want to go into any details, but I was just so pissed and so angry and it was like "Fuck it, I am just going to concentrate on making music." The band is my family. This music is my life. This is the reason I live and breathe, so I am going to give it everything and just do the best songs that I can do. And that's what I did -- I wrote songs. I wanted to have melodies, I wanted to have nice solos, and the most fucking extreme music I could come up with -- fucking blasting, yet really technical. And I just did it -- nothing else. I was pissed. This album for me has a very "fuck you" attitude to it. It's very arrogant. It's very strong. Just go through the lyrics for this album and you'll know what I've been through, and you'll know what I'm about. This band has never been as strong as it is nowadays, because we have nothing left to lose. CoC: It does strike me as a case of bringing out the big guns, so to speak, in your decision to hire Daniel Bergstrand to mix and produce the album for you. What was the thinking behind that? N: We wanted to have a name. I was tired of doing everything myself. I've always had the last word in production and stuff like that; I just felt that we needed somebody else from the outside to get involved in things, and to help us get to where we needed to be. Mixing is essential, you know? You can put together a pretty good album from some shitty rehearsal tapes with good mixing. We spent two and a half months just tracking everything for this album, so it was a really solid recording, but we had no idea what we needed to do in order to avoid repeating ourselves. That was something that I was really afraid of. Of course, we also didn't really have much money, but we just though "Fuck that -- we'll sell our houses and our cars to make the album that we want to make." Luckily we didn't have to do that, because the label eventually gave us the money that we needed to make the album, but that was the commitment. I was willing to do that. I just wanted to achieve my goal and get a new sound for Behemoth. _Thelema.6_ was different, _Zos Kia Cultus_ was different, and I just did not want this album to sound too equal to those two. I wanted _Demigod_ to be much better -- to be the next step up, you know? Daniel did a great job. I'm happy and we'll work with him again in the future. This album is just so attacking -- it's like a blow to the head. For me _Zos Kia Cultus_ was almost a little laid back; a little mellow -- it had a lazy sound. I like it, but with this album we wanted something fast and aggressive. CoC: One of the things that you're relatively well-known for is the tremendous amount of research and preparation that you go into while you're writing the lyrics for the album. Talk to me about the background to _Demigod_. N: Well, there's an Old Testament touch to this album, because we deal with themes like the nephilim mythos for example. That kind of thing hasn't ever really been explored by a lot of metal bands. And that's the way I've always tried to do this -- I mean, we have a fairly consistent theme running through all our music, but at the same time I don't want to re-explore the same theories and the same ideas again and again. On this album we set out to find new things that we felt would be good for us to sing about. And I like the imagery of the Old Testament. With all our albums we have very specific imagery. _Zos Kia Cultus_ has this kind of iconic figure that introduced you to the record on the cover. This album just naturally turned out the way it did -- there's a lot of ancient Christian references and images that are used on the record, and us being anti-Christian, still have a connection to that stuff. So we took that on board and decided to take it a step further. We brought in the Aramaic writing on the front cover and further explored the connections between ancient Christianity and other pagan cultures in our lyrics. It's all about contrast for me, you know what I mean? I'm pretty sure that we'll always have anti- religious themes running through our music, but I think that we do it in a really intelligent way. We approach our lyrics and our themes in a very philosophic way and I think that makes us a really multi-dimensional band. I also think that we are very real and true in the way that we come across and that we bring our point across. CoC: In what way do you see yourself as being a contradiction toward a lot of the pretenders in the scene at the moment? N: Well, it would be arrogant to compare Behemoth to specific bands. I think that I'm very real in my feelings and I can take the anger that I feel and I can look at my own work and know that I may not be the best at this or that, but when you put it all together, and you put us on stage, there's a lot of energy and we're a good quality band. On the other hand, there are a million bands out there who just fucking shred -- they're just so tight and they have an awesome sound and... So what? So fucking what? I don't want to compare Behemoth to Venom, because Venom couldn't play at all -- they couldn't handle their instruments -- but I love them. They're one of the most important bands on this planet, because they were real. And that's how I see Behemoth. Whatever a band does has to be sincere and it has to be real, or you'll just know it. No matter how well you play and how nice you are on stage and how great your sound is, that band is still gonna suck. These days I judge it by experience. I can listen to an album and it takes me one minute and I'll be like "No, fuck it." I don't need to spend hours and hours analysing stuff. CoC: What forms the basis for your criteria when you're judging a band in that sense? N: I don't know -- it's instinct. When I see a girl that I might want to do something with, I just know it. I don't even have to talk to her. Then on the other side of the street there's another girl walking who is maybe even more beautiful, but she just doesn't do it for me: she's completely unattractive to me. I don't really know how to say it other than to say that things like that just happen. We have so many people coming to us at shows who say: "I never really liked you on the album, but I've just seen the show and you look so real and so serious on stage." And I truly think that we convince people by our live shows and what we put out when we're on stage is just real -- there's no bullshit. CoC: So what do you think is most important then -- Behemoth on CD or on stage? N: I've asked myself that question several times, and I think it depends on one's mood, you know? It's almost like two different bands, in a way. We are very technical and detailed on albums, but on stage we go for energy. We never try to play songs that we feel might be too complicated to play live -- we want to go all-out to get the crowd as energetic as possible. I don't really have any interest in seeing someone standing on stage, masturbating on their guitar. Fuck that. We make mistakes when we play -- sometimes I go for a long time without even playing! You just get so lost in the moment of being on stage. It's a moving experience. It's part of the show. It's part of the trance and that comes from the energy that moves between the stage and the audience. CoC: Behemoth was part of the "Blackest of the Black" tour a few years ago, and obviously there you're playing a show where a band like Danzig is headlining and where you're presenting yourself to a much different audience than you'd normally do. How did your spot on the tour come about first of all? N: Well, I met Glenn [Danzig] in Berlin for the first time, and I'm a huge Danzig fan, so I brought him a copy of _Zos Kia Cultus_ and a T- shirt. And I thought that the guy would be fucking big, so I brought him an XXL, only to find out that he wears medium. So he was like: "No problem, thank you very much", and I told him about my band and said to him that it was extreme music and that he had probably never heard of us. I mean, he is a fan of Roy Orbison! So, I didn't think that he'd like it, but I am very influenced by what he does, so I just wanted to give him a copy of the album and pay my respects. Then he was like: "You know what? If I like your album, I'm going to invite you to a festival I'm organizing called "Blackest of the Black"." And I just thought whatever, you know. So a few months later, we were in the US and our agent called us up and let us know that he had something big for us -- the "Blackest of the Black" tour! I just went: "Fuck yeah! Let's go for it." Before the tour started, actually, we played in LA and Glenn showed up came to check us out, and he was just listening to the music and checking us out. He came backstage afterwards and he was just fucking great, and really friendly. So we went to "Blackest of the Black" and the response was great. I mean, the whole experience still leaves me speechless. CoC: So, since you've started Behemoth in the early '90s, what has been the highlight in your career so far? N: Well, I think that the highlight of our existence is yet to come. I don't like analysing the past, you know -- I just look for more; I look ahead. I'll never go: "Oh look, we've done so much, we're so experienced." I always think about what else we could do and what's next for us and that we need to work harder. You know, we're touring with Krisiun right now, and when I see these guys every night I just think that on the next album, we'll have to double our efforts. We can never stop -- we always need to move ahead and just fucking keep conquering, and pushing the limits and just see how far we can take things. CoC: What are your hopes for the new album? N: We've already gained so much in the recording of this new album. It sounds good, you know, so from now on, we'll be doing things abroad and we'll only be using professional guys to produce the album. This is how I see it: _Demigod_ opened new artistic doors for us, because it made us realise what can be achieved. And I'll say this: if people like the new album, then they're going to like the next album as well. I just want to keep going in this direction -- just getting better and better; more technical, more brutal. It would be cool if we could raise our commercial profile, but the way it is right now is fine. We can make our living out of music and that's great. Let me tell you something: on this tour so far we've played four dates, and we've already sold like 250 shirts. It's never been that crazy for us. I don't know what else to say. We'll talk in two years when we've finished the next album and see what happens. CoC: It's going to be hard to top _Demigod_ though... N: I've heard that since we did _Pandaemonic Incantations_. Then we did _Thelema.6_ and everyone said that we'd never be better. Then we did _Zos Kia Cultus_. Give me two years, and I'll bring out an album that's better than _Demigod_. CoC: Nergal, I'd like to finish off this interview with one question: what is it that you love about metal? N: Well, metal is energy, man. You'll see it on stage tonight. I fucking live for it. And I'm not a typical metalhead. When I'm in the street, I don't look like a typical metalhead. But it's an energy. I love to be on stage, and I love feeling that energy. Metal is life. It's all about life. Pop music is about fucking, right? Then hip-hop is about how bad the world is and how poor people are. Metal is about all of that and more. Find any other music genre that will give you so much stimulation... It's fucking excellent. It's freedom. Do I sound like Manowar? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= T H E T H U N D E R D O W N U N D E R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CoC chats with Ethion of The Amenta by: Jackie Smit It's an arguable point and likely to be a bone of contention among a fair few metal acolytes, but the lineage of extreme music in Australia can be traced all the way back to AC/DC -- a band whose influence stretches over several decades and at the very least got a fair few aspiring metalheads started on their road of discovery. And while in the subsequent years, those who were formed in the wake of AC/DC's renown haven't always been quite as salubrious as the gloriously cacophonous din that Angus Young and his cohorts kicked up so many years ago, the 21st century has thus far seen the Australian metal underground ready to explode like the proverbial Mount Vesuvius, with bands like Alchemist and Destroyer 666 sharing refreshingly unique interpretations on extreme music for the next decade. But perhaps most impressive of all has been The Amenta's _Occasus_ -- a debut which, as I stated in my review thereof on this very website, is not only one of the best albums to be unleashed this year, but quite possibly one of the most evolutionary stride to hit death metal since the release of Nile's _Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren Ka_. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to one of The Amenta's chief engineers, who rang me from his home in Australia in the small hours of a Monday morning. CoC: Ethion, I hope that the ungodly timing of this interview hasn't forced you to curtail any social activities? Ethion: Absolutely not. I've been in bed, sleeping and getting ready for work tomorrow, so it's all good. I didn't cancel any of your midday activities? CoC: Not at all. I wanted to ask you first of all: how did the deal with Listenable come about, because from the bio on your website I saw that apparently Chronicles of Chaos had a hand in setting the wheels in motion? E: Yeah, absolutely. We actually sent out about 70 or 80 promos for _Mictlan_, our mini-album, to different zines and things like that. We sent one to Chronicles of Chaos and one of your guys [David Rocher] got in touch with us and mentioned that he had spoken to some of the people at Listenable about us, and they had said that they couldn't guarantee anything, but that they'd want to have a listen to it. So we sent a CD out to them and they got in touch with us and said that they were really interested. We prepared some demos for a few more songs that we had been working on and that would eventually become _Occasus_, and from there it just kind of evolved into a deal. We tied it up around last year -- we were talking to them for a while -- but eventually everything got set up and that's how everything came about. CoC: Did you speak to any other labels prior to this? E: We sent out _Mictlan_ to a couple of other labels toward the middle of 2003, but no one was as enthusiastic or seemed to be on the same page as Listenable was. There were a couple of other labels that expressed interest, but I guess we went with Listenable because of their reputation and because of the dedication they show towards their bands. Also, there's a million and one horror stories you hear about labels and how they treat bands. Listenable definitely seemed to be the most honest and definitely the one with the best reputation as far as that was concerned. That was a really big factor for us. CoC: They also happen to have Immolation on their roster... E: Yeah, that was a big thing for us as well. They're a big influence, and it's a good thing to be able to run around and tell everyone that we're on the same label as Immolation. That definitely sealed the deal for us. CoC: The reason I asked you about labels is because there's a really strong underground scene in Australia right now, but often one hears stories about bands having difficulty getting deals because of the geographic limitations that artists in your position obviously have. Did you experience that with The Amenta at all? E: I imagine from a label's point of view that when you sign a band from Australia there's certain logistical things you need to take into consideration. It's easier for a label to be based in Europe and to take on a European band, if you know what I mean. I think to counteract that though, you have the curiosity factor that the US and Europe have got toward the Australian scene. I think that we definitely have a really unique flavour out here, so for as many bad points as there are, there are one or more good points canceling that out, you know. Australian extreme music definitely has its own identity and I think that's a factor that counts in the favour of bands like us. CoC: So tell me a little bit about the Australian scene. What's support like for local bands out there? E: Because all the cities are so far apart, it tends to be a case of a lot of bands sticking to the city where they're from. Melbourne and Sydney for example are about 800 kilometres apart, and in between those cities there's very little scope for other shows. So scenes tend to be based in the bigger cities and they don't really intermingle. Of course, that's much different to the impression one gets in Europe. What you also find is that each city has a really strong identity, like Melbourne which has a really strong black and thrash scene with bands like Destroyer 666 and so on. Then in Sydney they're more caught up in a modern death metal style. So, each city has its own scene, but then the bands that make it will move up to an interstate level, if you know what I mean, where they're touring nationally. Bands like Destroyer 666, Alchemist, Nazgul are all really big players in the scene. CoC: How many people could you expect would turn up if you guys were to play a local show? E: At a guess, I'd say anything from 150 to 250. We're very new on the scene. For the bigger bands in Sydney you could get anywhere from 250 to 400 people for a show. CoC: I know you all played in different bands before, but how did The Amenta eventually get together? E: Well, I had been working with a couple of the guys in different bands before this, and for quite a few years we were actually working on songs for The Amenta; just working and reworking the songs and doing stuff in our little home studios. I didn't really have all that much to do with the Australian scene, to be honest. But anyway, we just gradually developed into The Amenta and like all other bands we've gone through our fair share of line-up changes to get to the point we are today. CoC: Off and on, how long have you all been working on the material that's on _Occasus_? E: Some of the stuff we've had on this album, I had with me when I was sixteen. But really, from the point where we first sat down as a band, I'd say probably two years that we've been working on that material. Probably a bit longer, but then there's things like line- up changes that slow things down. And it's quite an evolution when you get someone new into the band; a lot of things change, you know? CoC: How do you guys go about writing music -- is The Amenta a completely democratic band, do you jam on stuff together? E: We are very technology-based, which I think really comes out in our music. We don't write a lot in the conventional sense, like where we would go to a rehearsal room and jam until a song magically appears. Everything we've done... We're all quite knowledgeable in the computer recording front, which I think shaped our sound a lot. Everybody brings in riffs and stuff like that, but it's always a question of how we can model or mangle something until it becomes something new, or how we can take our influences and put like a new spin on them. So we might chop up a guitar riff on the computer or something, or our keyboard player might tell us that he has found a new sound by plugging his keyboard into a new distortion pedal or something like that. Things like that tend to result in a new part of a song, which tends to create itself, if you know what I mean. We take things like that and experiment together, and that's how things come about. CoC: With _Occasus_ one can hear that a lot of the album was recorded digitally, but tell me more about how you guys went about doing the record. E: Initially we decided that we'd spend a fair bit of our recording budget on the drum tracks; so we went to a studio called Q Studios in Sydney, we tracked all the drums there, took it away to our home studios, and then took things further from there. Basically, I was working very little at the time, as were some of the other guys in the band, because we decided that we wanted to be able to focus on completing the album as much as possible. So we'd get together every day and just add things like guitars and vocals to the drum tracks and try new things and see how it turns out. CoC: So a lot of what one hears on _Occasus_ was done at home? E: Yeah, everything except the drums. Essentially we got to the point where we just felt like we couldn't take things any further. The process took about five months, starting in January this year. When we were done we took it to our engineer, we started mixing the thing and we spent six days doing that, letting him shape the sound as much as he could, and just put his perspective on everything, which ultimately led to the album sounding the way it did. CoC: The five months you mentioned; are we talking two to three hours of work a day, or was this a full-time deal? E: Well, just the nature of how I work -- I work weekends -- meant that this was a full-time job for us for that time. I work weekends, as do a lot of other guys in bands, so we'd spend Monday to Friday just pottering around in the studio, recording and re- recording songs and just, as I said, taking everything as far as we possibly could. It was quite intense, for sure. CoC: That's quite a long time to be working on an album, particularly when you consider that a lot of bigger acts sometimes don't even spend half that much. E: Yeah. For us it was a blessing and a curse, because probably a few things we did, we didn't really have to do. When you spend that long on a record, you tend to risk over-analyzing things, so when you have that much time on your hands, you might end up being just as destructive as you are creative. In the end, it was definitely quite a lot of work, as you say, but I think we did get the most out of what we had. I mean, everyone's performance -- we had nothing left to give, if I can put it that way. CoC: Now, the drums -- I'm sure you get this from a lot of people, but to what extent did you enhance the drums in terms of triggering, etc.? E: Everything barring the toms and the cymbals was triggered. We replaced the kick drums and the snare drum sounds completely. The snare drums were a blend of the actual sound in the room, as well as the ambient sound picked up by the recording microphones. That was quite a complex thing to do, particularly because of the speed at which some of the songs are played. In terms of performance, our drummer is definitely one of the best in the country, if not in the world. And we get a lot of questions about this, but I can assure you that the performance is real and that he can play the stuff on the album. CoC: I've actually had a few debates with people about whether or not you use a drum machine. E: If you're listening really closely, you can hear when a real snare of tom is being played, I think. But it's quite a bone of contention on a lot of websites and a lot of message boards, which is quite entertaining. CoC: _Occasus_ has a very consistent theme that runs through the record and also throughout the visual aspect of the band. Could you explain a bit more about this? E: The theme is essentially about how religions and philosophy act as a mind-control for society in terms of giving people a crutch and not giving them reason to question anything that they're presented with. They're happy to work nine to five in something they're not passionate about in their lives, because they feel that at the end of their time, they're going to be presented with this grand reward that makes everything worthwhile. Obviously our opinion, if you read our lyrics, is that you're presented with this short amount of time on earth and then you die. Society, and especially Western society, has been trained and conditioned not to question, and so the whole album's underlying message is to think for yourself and to reject anything like that -- be it Christianity, Satanism, Islam or anything that would affect how you act and how you behave -- because you've been brought up to believe in certain things. It's got a lot to do with taking back individual thought rather than following herd mentality. CoC: Talk me through some of the lyrical influences you had for _Occasus_, because a lot of your lyrics are very visceral and you refer to a lot of mythological imagery. E: We didn't want to present anything on _Occasus_ as being just this basic cut and dried thing. If you were to take the time to look at the lyrics to the album, I would hope that you'd see that the lyrics aren't just stories: they're metaphors that use comparison to point toward what we're saying. The lyrics look at how, for example, certain older cultures viewed religion, and how their society's thoughts were shaped and how people were being trained in how to act and how to live their lives. And we run those metaphors and comparisons through a variety of different eras, so for example you have a song like "Mictlan" that looks at certain Aztec mythology, through to a song like "Zero" that takes a very modern approach. That's essentially what we wanted to do. We wanted to take a holistic look at how various cultures and societies have affected human behaviour and thought throughout the years until now. CoC: Given how densely layered the material on _Occasus_ is, it must be a phenomenal task recreating that on stage. How do you go about doing this? E: A lot of it comes down to the samples and effect on the keyboards and we've been working more and more toward being able to recreate the album in its entirety on stage, using a lot of computer technology and things like that. It's quite interesting and it's quite complex, but it's something we can definitely do. CoC: What does the future hold for The Amenta? Can we expect to see you guys in Europe or in the rest of the world anytime soon? E: Well that is something that is definitely on the cards, and it's our biggest aim at the moment, because we know that we need to get over there and we need to show people what we can do. So hopefully in the next twelve months we'll definitely be in Europe and hopefully even the US touring. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= _, _, __, _,_ _, _ _, / \ | |_) | | |\/| (_ |~| | , |_) | | | | , ) ~ ~ ~~~ ~ `~' ~ ~ ~ Scoring: 10 out of 10 -- A masterpiece indeed 9 out of 10 -- Highly recommended 7 out of 10 -- Has some redeeming qualities 5 out of 10 -- You are treading in dangerous waters 3 out of 10 -- Nothing here worth looking into 0 out of 10 -- An atrocious album, avoid at all costs! 8th Sin - _Sinners Inc._ (Black Lodge, 2004) by: Jackie Smit (3 out of 10) There has to be some sort of explanation for why so many one-time stalwarts in black metal have cast off their bullet-belts and spiked wrist-bands in favour of effeminate make-up and bondage wear. Dimmu Borgir's Nagash was one of the first to lead the contrived exodus with The Kovenant, and more recently members of Swordmaster and Dissection joined eyelined forces in the Deathstars. Problem is that however infrequently, these aforementioned acts do actually have their moments. 8th Sin, on the other hand, does not. In fact, _Sinners Inc._ is at best execrable, and at worst a lesson in sonic torture the likes of which would have the current United States governmental administration crying pre-emptive strike. Most shockingly, this atrocity is the work of one-time black metal bad boy It. Notwithstanding the fact that the erstwhile voice of such anti-social denizens as Abruptum and Ophthalamia has neither the capacity nor the sheer soaring ability to pull this style off at any point during the record, _Sinners Inc._ runs the gamut of damn near every cliché in the gothic rock handbook, and does so to such an unpalatable and tawdry extent that it could potentially serve to lend the final dash of brevity to the claim that It may be one of the most twisted, scary individuals to enter the music industry. Contact: http://www.8thsin.biz Acheron - _Rebirth: Metamorphosing Into Godhood_ by: Todd DePalma (6.5 out of 10) (Black Lotus Records, 2003) Acheron returns with their sixth full-length record, topping a career spanning over a decade. With six tracks (sans intros) that are not likely to usher in new converts, the band nevertheless delivers an effectively blunt sermon of what else: vampires, misogyny and devil worship. My version also contains a slipcase cover with more tasteful artwork than the cartoonish ritual splattered on the album's booklet; a sort of ode to the classic film "Rosemary's Baby", this painting is used for the inner sleeve as well, but I guess the band just couldn't resist a self portrait of themselves with a cherubic Anti-Christ halfway spat out the snatch of some big-boobed blonde caricature metal babe. But I digress... Featuring a far less symphonic sound than 1999's _Those Who Have Risen_ (and no Peter Gilmore, which also means no more of the cheesy intros that are, depending on your tastes, one of the band's more charming qualities.) _Rebirth_ is the biggest sounding album the band has ever put out. There is no hollow bridging off verses by way of the pseudo gothic keyboards tending to wash out most of what is heavy; instead the album begins with a Morbid Angel style intro of distortion and overlaid vocal tracks that leads into the rolling barrage of "Church of One". Being stripped down to a three piece is immediately beneficial as the band's old-school, somewhat laic riffs are performed with much fiercer calculation juxtaposed against guitarist Michael Estes' liquid sweeps (for more contrast see Acheron's _Xomaly_ MCD featuring several songs from this album recorded with keys). The opener and proceeding track "Xomaly" are some of the most monstrously epic and well produced songs the band has ever conjured (witness the ugly and victorious simplicity of "Church's" post solo verse four minutes in), and speaking of the latter track, Kyle Severn has never sounded more like Bill Ward in his life. Other tracks like "The Kindred", "Bow Before Me" and "Betrayed (A Broken Pact)" showcase more doom and groove, tending to drag at around 7-8 minutes a piece, but are quality enough to keep this album from trailing off completely like the hilariously bad and robotic monologue Vincent Crowley delivers on "A Long Time Ago" or the closing waste of "The 9th Gate" -- a grating nine minute exhibition of what sounds like a singing wine glass? Though warning signs of the end have appeared with the recent release of both a "Best of" and tribute album, _Rebirth_ is a large improvement over the band's previous output and their strongest since ninety-four's _Lex Talionis_. There is nothing groundbreaking here, but the band has certainly proven to have outlasted their Floridian contemporaries who now rely on either the sheer worthlessness or fame begotten from previous albums and large press campaigns to prop up their latest mediocre works. "...If I am wrong I will surely be damned" - Acheron, "Church of One" Contact: http://acheron666.com Agnostic Front - _Another Voice_ (Nuclear Blast, 2004) by: Jackie Smit (9 out of 10) Damned if somebody didn't light a fire under these guys. Those expecting another collection of anthemic sing-alongs in the vein of recent 'Gnostic efforts like _Dead Yuppies_ and _Riot, Riot Upstart_ may as well prepare themselves for a rude awakening beforehand, as _Another Voice_ pulls no punches, following the same brutal road as the often-imitated, never-bettered _One Voice_. Given the lethal handle of good, old fashioned hardcore and boorish, in-your-face metal that is stuck so effectively to tracks like "Pure", "Peace", and the incendiary "Casualty of the Times", the recruitment of Hatebreed's Jamie Jasta to oversee production of the album has to be seen as a masterstroke, but in truth the entire band is on form for the duration. Roger Miret spits out acid-laced diatribes like "Fuck you and everything you ever said about me / I despise you and I'll never show you mercy", like he's about to be let loose on a murderous rampage, while Vinnie Stigma and particularly new drummer Steve Gallo keep it ultra-tight on the instrumental side of things. Let's just hope that it doesn't take the band twelve more years to create another oh-so-perfectly executed outburst of aggression. Contact: http://www.afnyhc.com Amon Amarth - _Fate of Norns_ (Metal Blade, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10) A fiery red 'n' yellow front cover -- yes, it's another Amon Amarth album! Truth be told, this time they varied the motif somewhat, although they still didn't give up on linking _Fate of Norns_ pretty strongly to their previous albums' imagery. Having included a bonus disc with old demo tracks on the limited edition of their previous album, _Versus the World_, Amon Amarth have now provided the metal market with another big limited edition digipak, this time featuring the flavour of the year (and probably the next few year's too): a bonus live DVD. The album itself is one of those predictable affairs if you already know the band; an album that that will neither seriously disappoint existing fans nor win any former disbelievers over. Much like other recent efforts, the band displays a mixture of controlled aggression and what I like to call a post-battle mood on _FoN_. The material is not as fast as on some older albums, retaining those trademark riffs but applying them to mostly mid-paced rhythmic structures instead -- it actually gets doomy at times, like it already did on _Versus the World_. There really isn't much else to say about _Fate of Norns_; some may feel they already have enough Amon Amarth in their collection because they're not really going anywhere new with their music -- but on the other hand, the metallic appeal of their Swedish death metal remains vivid, and they have lost none of their skill. This is simply another collection of very good songs within the same specific style as usual. If you happen to catch one of the DVD-enhanced editions, you'll be treated to a gig filmed at a small venue in Iceland. The sound is plain old stereo, and the filming is very simple throughout, but at least the band do not disappoint: drumming, guitar playing and vocal performance all get high marks, and there's a good atmosphere about the whole thing. Still, this is no full DVD release: do not expect any great audio or video here. It's a nice bonus if you can get it, but not fundamental -- I'd wager it won't be too long before Amon Amarth have a full DVD release of their own, and they certainly deserve it. [Quentin Kalis: "Although not a horrible album, _FoN_ borders on the repetitive, which is not helped by the near-constant sluggish pace sustained throughout the album. There are a number of noteworthy moments on this album, but not nearly enough for _FoN_ to be considered as a worthy successor to _Versus the World_. Nonetheless, this album is still above average, but comes closer to that mark than anything else released by Amon Amarth."] Contact: http://www.amonamarth.com Anaal Nathrakh - _Domine Non Es Dignus_ (Season of Mist, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (8 out of 10) "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face... forever." This George Orwell quote at the beginning of third track "Do Not Speak" provides no indication of what happens about one minute into the song: Anaal Nathrakh doing a melodic chorus with clean vocals a la Emperor and a King Diamond-ish shriek at the end. True enough, the album opens up with a typically necro intro in the shape of the evocatively titled "I Wish I Could Vomit Blood on You... People" and the ripping black metal of "The Oblivion Gene". However, by then the Anaal Nathrakh connoisseur will have already noticed the vast changes in production, instrumental subtlety (including the occasional guitar solo), and even the debut of a (very quick) human drummer in place of their traditional drum machine. Next up is "Procreation of the Wretched", which returns to more recognizable Anaal Nathrakh territory in spite of the line-up and production changes -- but still there seems to be a much greater concern with technical detail than before. There may be another King Diamond hint or two to be found, but AN's traditional insane screamed vocals definitely suit the music. The track also happens to be damn good, much like its predecessors. The strange beginning of next track "To Err Is Human, To Dream -- Futile" hints at another trip into the unexpected however, and indeed a couple of minutes into the track we get some sort of Eastern-like influences, which are never again heard on the record. The second half of the album presents another good collection of tracks, but revolves around pretty much the same elements; it's enjoyable if you like the rest of the album, but doesn't bring any significant novelties into the mix. Anyone who knows Anaal Nathrakh from _The Codex Necro_ will likely be left wondering what happened to the band in order to cause such deep changes. Whatever it was, the results are mixed: some new elements work very well (e.g., improved guitar work, human drumming), while others are detrimental (e.g., decrease in savagery, some of the clean vocals). _Domine Non Es Dignus_ takes a lot of getting used to if you really like old Anaal Nathrakh, but it can become a rather cracking album. My interest tends to dissipate somewhat after the first few tracks, and I miss the sheer extremity and viciousness of _The Codex Necro_; but there is no taking away from the quality of _Domine Non Es Dignus_. Anaal Nathrakh have created an album that may well launch them into much greater notoriety in the future -- something that those who have accompanied the band since their inception would have found hard to believe... until now. Contact: http://www.anaal-nathrakh.tk Anthrax - _The Greater of Two Evils_ (Nuclear Blast, 2004) by: Jackie Smit (6.5 out of 10) This must have seemed like a winning idea in theory: book a few days in the studio and ride the wave of the current thrash metal renaissance by re-recording a glut of venerated classics, giving fans the opportunity to hear these songs in a modernised state, and maybe -- just maybe -- pocketing a few bucks in the process. Trouble is that a only a couple of months ago, Anthrax released a live album [_Music of Mass Destruction_] which for all intents and purposes fills the role of _The Greater of Two Evils_ in a far more energetic and convincing manner. It's not like the music on this record is under par by any means -- no matter how surprisingly gormless John Bush sounds on "Among the Living", you can't argue against the continued appeal and fervour of "Caught in a Mosh" and "Deathrider". But even though these songs prove that Anthrax can still kick ass and take names with the best of them, they make a piss-poor case for anyone other than the obsessive completist to go out and buy this record. Contact: http://www.anthrax.com Arch Enemy - _Dead Eyes See No Future_ (Century Media, 2004) by: Jackie Smit (5 out of 10) Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I have a hard time seeing the point in this release. A singular, already available studio outtake ("Dead Eyes See No Future"), a few adequately recorded live tracks and a clutch of fairly by-the-numbers covers (all packaged at the price of a regular full-length) doth not a cause for celebration make -- even if like me, you did actually quite enjoy _Anthems of Rebellion_. From a purely musical point of view, this effort is certainly passable: the sneering, downtuned reinterpretation of Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" is definitely interesting, if not the most wholly inventive cover you'll hear in 2004. But putting aside the band's skyrocketing popularity for a moment, there is very little about this that doesn't scream "blatant cash-in". Contact: http://www.archenemy.net Cruachan - _Pagan_ (Karmageddon Media, 2004) by: Quentin Kalis (7.5 out of 10) I've always had a soft spot for Cruachan, even if few of my associates can understand my appreciation for this Irish band. But as can be seen by the relatively modest rating above, this is not their strongest album -- the weakest in their career to date. First the negatives: there are two re-recordings of old songs; one that first appeared on the debut album, _Tuatha na Gael_ ("The Fall of Gondolin") and another that initially surfaced on their 1997 promo ("Erinsong"). "The Fall of Gondolin" is the third song to be resurrected off _TnG_; as such this re-recording is utterly predictable and boring. Admittedly, the 1997 promo is hard to obtain; however the songs contained on the promo have long since been included as bonus tracks on the re-release of _TnG_ and thus easily obtainable. No less than four instrumentals can be found on this thirteen track CD. Instrumentals are not necessarily filler material; but only one doesn't sound like a desperate attempt to extend the playing length. There is also the obligatory Cruachan version of a traditional Irish song. Unlike the evocative "Brian Boru", this one sounds like little more than some guitars backing the performance of a pub song. Another song from the 1997 promo, "The Return" returns (excuse the pun) in the form of a pilfered riff clumsily and inexplicably incorporated into "Viking Slayer". "The Return" is Cruachan in classic form and it would have been far more acceptable as a re-recording than the inclusion of the comparatively mundane "Erinsong". Despite this, "Viking Slayer" is still enjoyable, even if less than inspired. On the positive side, songs such as "Pagan" and "1000 Years" show Cruachan doing what they do best: performing an endearing mix of Bathory inspired riffs (though gradually heading towards more heavy metal territory) combined with Irish/Celtic folk instruments. Songs such as the above are comparable to the best that they have to offer. When compared to _Folklore_ (their previous album), this definitely feels inferior. There are fewer catchy melodies and fewer catchy songs. Those songs that I enjoy, such as "Pagan" and "Ard Ri Na Heirann", have received extensive play -- but unlike _Folklore_, I hardly ever play the full CD. Those who enjoyed _The Middle Kingdom_ or _Folklore_ will find a few moments to savour -- but those who hated the aforementioned albums need not bother with _Pagan_, as it will in all likelihood be hated for the exact same reasons as _Folklore_. Cult of Catharsis / Opus Forgotten - _Lord of the Gallows_ / _Unleash the Fury_ by: Alvin Wee (6 out of 10) (Aftermath Music, 2004) Cult of Catharsis start off with a refreshing mix of styles, melding grandiose, doom-laced passages with an oddly complementary Gothenburg-thrash demeanor. While coming across as passé at first listen, especially coming after the recent melodic-death boom, the tracks begin to assert themselves after a few spins. Well-executed rock 'n' riff fests like the second track "Blade of the Prowler" become strangely infectious when played at volume, even if they reek of previous work by Swordmaster or more recent Impaled Nazarene. Not a bad five tracks, but unfortunately overshadowed (in terms of originality at least) by the distinctive style of Opus Forgotten. Taking a base of DM-infused Norse brutality, OF add a liberal dose of solo violin to their black metal chaos, tingeing their sound with an intruiging -- if not entirely comfortable -- incongruency. It's hard to decide if the violin is boon or bane to their otherwise run-of-the-mill compositions. At times, it charges the music with a dazzling urgency, but at its worst, clashes miserably and disrupts the momentum of perfectly good guitar passages. Nevertheless, the seven tracks are entertaining enough, and moments of brilliance suggest the band's potential with some practice and a little compositional maturity. Contact: http://www.aftermath-music.com Dark Tranquillity - _Exposures: In Retrospect and Denial_ by: Quentin Kalis (8 out of 10) (Century Media, 2004) _E:IRaD_ is a double CD set celebrating some fifteen years of existence, and is composed of rare songs and a live concert, split between disc one and disc two respectively. The live concert is the same one that was recorded in Poland for the _Live Damage_ DVD, and is more than adequately covered in an earlier review of the DVD -- therefore I will not waste time on the live disc and will focus exclusively on the rarities disc. The rarities disc can be divided into two sections: the first section is composed primarily of unreleased songs from the recording sessions for the last three studio albums, while the second section consists of the entire _Trail of Life Decayed_ and _A Moonclad Reflection_ demos -- both remastered. The rarities are a rather mixed bag -- they are, after all, songs rejected for inclusion on a full-length for some or other reason. Of much greater interest are the _Trail of life Decayed_ and _A Moonclad Reflection_ EPs. Both were extremely limited releases on vinyl, and these re-mastered versions are the first time that they have been committed to plastic. These tracks are pretty good, but inferior to just about every song on _Skydancer_. Nonetheless, I'm surprised that they weren't used on _Skydancer_ or included as bonus tracks somewhere before now, as they are nowhere near that bad. Judging from the track list, there appear to be no songs which gained a limited release in-between the demos and _Projector_; it is a significant gap, covering what many regard as their golden period. It's hard to believe that there are no demos, rehearsals or covers from this period which could have been included. I realise that considerably little has been said about the music in this review. But when a compilation of this nature is concerned, it is largely the nature, not the quality of the songs included that is of primary importance; unlike similar commemorative releases from My Dying Bride and Darkthrone, this CD set contains absolutely zero widely available songs and that counts for a lot in my book. Contact: http://www.darktranquillity.com Enslaved - _Isa_ (Tabu Recordings, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (8.5 out of 10) After the less impressive _Mardraum_ and _Monumension_ albums, the opening track of last year's _Below the Lights_, "As Fire Swept Clean the Earth", was unexpectedly and overwhelmingly excellent -- it would turn out to be the album's finest moment, but to my ears _BtL_ still marked a return to form for Enslaved. It was therefore with a great deal of anticipation that I first spun _Isa_, wondering whether its start could match its predecessor's, and even whether the entire album might be as great as that particular song. As it turned out, the first track was just an anonymous ambient intro -- quite the anti-climax. When "Lunar Force" did begin, it proved to be a rather different affair; an excellent track, but not quite as great. "Lunar Force" does not dwarf the rest of the album by comparison however, contrarily to what happened on _Below the Lights_ to a considerable extent. There may not be anything as good on _Isa_ as the aforementioned "As Fire Swept Clean the Earth", but overall it is more cohesive and more consistently enjoyable than _Below the Lights_. Enslaved seem to have regained focus after 2001's rather disappointing _Monumension_, and this last couple of albums easily surpass anything they have done since 1999's _Blodhemn_. Tracks like "Lunar Force", "Isa" and "Return to Yggdrasil" rank among Enslaved's finest, and that should say a lot. Without having had to backtrack or stop experimenting, Enslaved seem to have been able to select less discordant elements for their music: it remains blackened as well as progressive, and retains a majestic Viking feeling, but this time the whole thing does not clash with unnecessary psychedelic explorations. The black metal rasps are still very good, and the clean vocals are very inspired. While more than adept instrumentally, the album does not need to go into excessive technicality to make its point. Similarly, the level of aggression in the music seems to almost regulate itself, rather than coming across as forced in some parts or lacking in others. The music sounds mature and self-assured, which is something that started to become apparent on _Below the Lights_. On _Isa_, Enslaved occasionally sound more like Borknagar than I would have thought possible a couple of years ago; but it would be unfair to imply any loss of identity or the following of someone else's path. Enslaved are clearly still doing their very own thing, and doing it very well indeed. Contact: http://www.enslaved.no Imperial Empire - _The 3rd War_ (Independent, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (7.5 out of 10) Wasting not even a second, one-man death metal machine Imperial Empire (a.k.a. Lee Wollenschlaeger) immediately opens hostilities on _The 3rd War_. Though assembled in South Africa, the album has an American death metal feel to it -- the guitar work and vocals leave no room for doubt in that matter, while the rhythm section is led by a well employed (and usually fast) drum machine. The album apparently aims to provide an enjoyable listen above all, with no pretension of being revolutionary or becoming the new landmark in some kind of extremity. This purpose has been achieved, and with great tracks like "My Claim" and "My Majesty", _The 3rd War_ is quite possibly the best independent release to have come my way this year -- not to mention an impressively cohesive effort from a single individual. However, in order to really progress, the project seems to need a different kind of studio and resources compared to what _The 3rd War_ and its predecessor _The Second Coming_ had. Nevertheless, this is another very solid death metal effort -- all the more impressive when you consider that this is an independent release put together single-handedly. That a label should take notice and sign Imperial Empire seems obvious: with better technical means at his disposal and perhaps a human drummer, Wollenschlaeger would then have all the elements in place to potentially come up with one hell of an album. Marduk - _Plague Angel_ (Regain Records, 2004) by: Jackie Smit (8.5 out of 10) So this is it: Marduk, fourteen years and nine albums into a career that in this writer's opinion has teetered between mediocre and overrated. Yet there's something different about _Plague Angel_, a sense that the band has at long last managed to reach that previously unattainable level where they are able to consolidate their greatest assets and do away with that which held them back. Hard as it may be to believe, boys and girls, _Plague Angel_ is the sound of Marduk growing up, even though on first impression it isn't exactly a drastic stylistic departure from the breakneck blasting of _World Funeral_ or _Panzer Division Marduk_. Hell, there's enough misanthropic venom coursing through "The Hangman of Prague" and "Throne of Rats" to power small cities. Likewise, the introduction of the infinitely superior Mortuus to the vocalist's podium proves to be a boon for the band in every respect, and while it's highly debatable whether or not Marduk are -- as their press release claims -- the only true black metal band around, _Plague Angel_ is definitely one of the best releases of its kind this year so far. Contact: http://www.marduk.nu Mechanical Poet - _Woodland Prattlers_ (Aural Music, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (6 out of 10) Mechanical Poet from Russia throw a lot of elements and influences into their mix of traditional, symphonic and progressive metal. A very theatrical release, _Woodland Prattlers_ reportedly comes with a twenty page comic book that illustrates the concept behind the album (my promo copy doesn't have one, so I won't comment on that). There are significant hints of Danny Elfman soundtracks in the classical elements that Mechanical Poet merge into their metal; if that tickles your curiosity, then you should probably give _Woodland Prattlers_ a shot. Clearly a lot of work has gone into the album, and it is a worthy effort that offers plenty to be discovered. It requires a very high tolerance to all sorts of sweet melodies, clean vocals and harmless fantasy themes, though -- not my thing, but still a good piece of work within the band's chosen style. Contact: http://www.auralmusic.com Nattefrost - _Blood and Vomit_ (Season of Mist, 2004) by: Quentin Kalis (4 out of 10) When it comes to solo albums released by Norwegian black metal veterans, the end result invariably leaves a lot to be desired. Satyr (Satyricon vocalist), Fenriz (Darkthrone drummer) and Gaahl (Gorgoroth vocalist) produced extremely patchy albums under the aegis of their respective Wongraven, Isengard and Gaahlskagg monikers. In his contribution to this lineage, Carpathian Forest vocalist Nattefrost doesn't deviate from the pattern established by his predecessors in delivering a rather mediocre solo album. Musically, it is strongly based in old school black metal. The music is defined by an abrasive guitar sound played with old school punkish simplicity and complemented by distorted and harsh vocals. The lyrics are ridiculous; lines such as "Swallow my cum bitch" and "Shut up bitch, I'm in command" sound as if they were lifted from an amateur S&M video. Carpathian Forest can hardly be said to represent the intellectual side of black metal in the sense Emperor or Ulver did, but even this is several steps lower than any of their paeans to deviant sex. "Nattefrost Takes a Piss", which should be understood in its most literal sense, lowers the tone even further, something I didn't think was possible. Defenders of Nattefrost will probably point out that he was just having fun, that this CD shouldn't be taken seriously. This is a spurious argument; a solo album / side project should be an opportunity for an artist to explore a musical facet neither possible nor desirable under the banner of their main band, not as an excuse to serve poorly conceived and executed bouts of onanistic excess. To sum up: the lyrics are juvenile; the music is over simplistic and will cease to be of any interest after a couple of months. If this album didn't have the name of a black metal veteran attached to it, I seriously doubt Season of Mist would even have looked at it. Nokturnal Mortum - _Twilightfall_ (Oriana, 2004) by: Quentin Kalis (7.5 out of 10) _Twilightfall_ is the re-release of Nokturnal Mortum's 1995 demo, which was originally released only on cassette format. This re-release follows reissues of all their full-lengths and a reissue of _Return of the Dragon Lord_ / _Marble Moon_ and will be followed with a double CD "rarities / best of" compilation shortly. One can only hope that the next step will be the release of their long-awaited full-length -- which will be their first since 1999's _Nechrist_. I'm tempted to consider this rash of reissues a cash in, except that Oriana is far too small for this to be considered a cash in. In addition, given that Oriana is headed by vocalist Knjaz Varggoth, a more nuanced interpretation is that this process of reissuing virtually every note recorded by Nokturnal Mortum can be more accurately considered as a labour of love (one look at the beautifully redesigned CD booklet for _Nechrist_ should serve as sufficient proof) than as a desperate money grabbing venture. The _Twilightfall_ reissue is the latest stage of this process. The music has been remastered and is, surprisingly enough, romanticised doom metal in the vein of early My Dying Bride or Anathema. Granted, this is hardly going to give _Turn Loose the Swans_ a run for its money, but for a first demo by a band who obviously had not found their sound, this is far from shabby. There are sufficient similarities with later material for this to be recognisable as Nokturnal Mortum; in particular, the guitar sound and leads display noticeable similarities with later albums, especially _Lunar Poetry_. Varggoth's vocals are recognisable for the most part, except for when he performs (competent, but otherwise unassuming) death growls. Folk elements, an important component of later songs, are also featured; however, it is a more conventional and familiar folk style that is embraced rather than the Slavonic folk tendencies that pepper their newer material. If, like me, you are a fan of the band or are interested in the origins of one of the underground giants, then you will want to hear this no matter what. For those unfamiliar with the band, this is the worst CD to serve as an introduction. Omnium Gatherum - _Years in Waste_ (Nuclear Blast, 2004) by: Jackie Smit (7 out of 10) It's been a year of ups and downs for melodic death metal. On one hand there have been sterling releases by Wintersun and Insomnium -- proving that a few simple twists on what has become an increasingly tired blueprint can still create some very memorable metal moments. Unfortunately the reverse has also been true, and never more so than in the case of acts like Mercenary, who with _11 Dreams_ delved into realms of mediocrity not seen since Mystic Circle inflicted _Damien_ on the music world. _Years in Waste_ is Omnium Gatherum's third full-length effort (their first for Nuclear Blast) and falls squarely in the middle of these two polar opposites. Hinting at the progressive, sci-fi-tinted sound of Nocturnus (circa _Thresholds_) on more than one occasion, the Finns entertain in fits and starts. By turns, _YiW_ is challenging and inventive ("The Fall Went Right Through Here"), and by others exasperatingly average ("No Moon & No Queen"), but ultimately the over-saturation of the melodeath scene, and a host of superior acts, hardly helps to elevate _Years in Waste_ to the stratosphere of essential listening. Contact: http://www.omniumgatherum.org Shape of Despair - _Illusion's Play_ (Spinefarm, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (8.5 out of 10) It's never easy to come up with a suitable follow-up to a great album, and Shape of Despair's second effort _Angels of Distress_ was just that. Its successor, _Illusion's Play_, starts things off in typically laid back fashion with a lengthy instrumental intro, as if Shape of Despair are in no rush to prove anything to the listener. When second track "Still-motion" begins, the band utilizes a softer than usual mixture of clean-sung male and female vocals -- Pasi Koskinen (formerly of Amorphis) and Natalie Koskinen, respectively. (I have no idea as to whether the two are related.) The male/female vocal interplay remains tasteful and well done whenever it is used. Pasi's deep death vox finally surface after a few more minutes, with lead guitarist extraordinaire Tomi Ullgren (Rapture, Thy Serpent) providing an excellent emotional backdrop with his slow guitar lines. The track finishes with a long minimalist keyboard section, again displaying an unwillingness from the band to rush proceedings (though at nearly seven minutes in length, I tend to skip it). "Entwined in Misery" resumes the album in typical Shape of Despair (nearly?) funeral doom style, and in fine form too. The music emanates a feeling of disillusionment and sorrow, but retains an exquisite beauty -- again mainly thanks to Ullgren's guitar work. Some of Jarno Salomaa's synths fail to convince me, but they do not significantly harm the music, and this turns out to be one of the best doom metal songs I've heard this year. Helped by acoustic guitar and much better synth work, the next track, "Curse Life", keeps things interesting. "Fragile Emptiness" and the title track finish the hour-long effort with aplomb in a similar vein. Overall _Illusion's Play_ is a worthy follow-up to _Angels of Distress_, and although it may not cause as much of an impact, it should still satisfy fans of the band. _Illusion's Play_ helps prove once again that Finnish doom is still going strong, and that Shape of Despair are one of its greatest exponents. Contact: http://www.shapeofdespair.tk The Axis of Perdition - _Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xuchilbara (The Red God)_ by: Pedro Azevedo (6 out of 10) (Code666, 2004) On this half-hour EP, The Axis of Perdition indulge in mixing a greater amount of dark ambient with the hyperblast blackened metal of _The Ichneumon Method (And Less Welcome Techniques)_. The rhythm machine driven black noise is still somewhat reminiscent of countrymates Anaal Nathrakh's less polished days, with often abstract vocals on top. The production is relatively lo-fi, which favours the ambient side of things but detracts somewhat from the metallic sections. The dark ambient passages are well integrated into the music, and the first couple of tracks are quite interesting. Unfortunately the rest of the EP is let down by a lack of driving, memorable riffs and passages, which means the listener is left with some reasonably interesting but not very playable tracks. Granted, The Axis of Perdition probably tried to do just that, creating an uncomfortable and extreme listening experience; but this EP is unable to provide worthwhile material throughout. Nevertheless, even though _Physical Illucinations..._ fails to live up to its potential, I'll still be waiting for the next full-length. Contact: http://www.code666.net The Crown - _Crowned Unholy_ (Metal Blade, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (5 out of 10) 2001: charismatic frontman and founding member Johan Lindstrand leaves The Crown after the release of _Deathrace King_, saying he cannot endure any more touring. The band hire legendary vocalist Tomas Lindberg (formerly of At the Gates, among many others) to replace him, stating in interviews that Lindberg was the only acceptable option for them and that the band would have otherwise been forced to split up. 2002: _Crowned in Terror_ is released with Lindberg on vocals. After some touring, Lindberg leaves the band. Bassist Magnus Olsfelt allegedly points Tomas' different drinking habits as the reason (getting drunk before the show rather than afterwards and becoming impossible to deal with when in said state) and is quoted as saying that this was also what led to the demise of At the Gates. Lindstrand returns to the fold. 2003: _Possessed 13_ comes out, featuring Lindstrand back on vocal duties. 2004: Plans are put in place for partially re-recording the Lindberg-led, Lindstrand-less album _Crowned in Terror_. The Crown split up, citing problems caused by unprofessional touring arrangements as the main reason behind their decision. And so we arrive at _Crowned Unholy_. Johan Lindstrand has recorded vocal tracks of his own for each and every song (including a solo performance on "Death Metal Holocaust", where he had previously participated in a duet with Lindberg), Magnus Osfelt has redone his bass tracks and Janne Saarenpää his drums -- only the original guitar lines have been kept intact. The whole thing has been remastered and packaged together with a bonus DVD featuring a gig in Germany. When comparing the two versions, what stands out is that the drum sound has been considerably improved, the guitar sound has been tweaked into something that sounds more like _Possessed 13_ (whether that should also count as an improvement depends on your taste) and the vocals are Lindstrand's rather than Lindberg's. While this last item is also ultimately a matter of preference, it is undeniable that Lindstrand is the recognizable voice of The Crown, and as such comparing the two performances is somewhat pointless -- in my case, I was quite satisfied with Lindberg's, but Lindstrand's voice certainly sounds more natural for The Crown. Lindstrand's interpretation of the _Crowned in Terror_ material includes a rather cringeworthy clean sung chorus on "The Speed of Darkness" -- why they did that is beyond me, but it gives me strange flashes of The Crown turning into bloody Soilwork if they had kept going. Apart from this, the overall sound is superior to the original version (the beefier guitars will please most fans, and the drums are certainly better), and the album obviously retains the riffs and songs that made _Crowned in Terror_ a damn good album, as well as those that meant it wasn't the band's most inspired effort overall. The live DVD was recorded in 2003 -- that's after Lindstrand rejoined the band, but before _Possessed 13_ was recorded. The Crown are playing a gig in what seems to be a small venue in Karlsruhe, Germany. The sound (plain stereo) is average for a live recording, and the visuals are kept basic throughout. The band delivers a fairly good performance overall, with impeccable drumming, tight rhythm guitar, variable melodic details and somewhat underwhelming vocals and stage presence. I'm left wondering exactly what made The Crown want to take the highly unusual path that led to _Crowned Unholy_. It couldn't have been an excuse to include the shabby bonus live DVD, because there's supposed to be a full DVD release in the works. If it's down to ensuring a back catalog with Lindstrand singing on every album (the "true line-up"), then I find it peculiar, considering Lindberg's performance can hardly be faulted. If, on the other hand, this re-recording stems from the band feeling the original sound wasn't good enough (which they amply state on the liner notes), then that may be more justifiable; but I'm still unsure it is sufficient, unless Metal Blade are willing to offer a refund to everybody who bought the original defective(?) product. Maybe all of this together adds up to enough to turn _Crowned Unholy_ into something credible; but that will likely remain a point of contention for fans to discuss heatedly for some time -- and since I have a hunch Metal Blade believe there's no such thing as bad publicity, they'll probably be quite pleased by that. Overall, _Crowned Unholy_ may be worth it for fans who already own the original but dislike its sound, and it's definitely worthwhile for those who do not own _Crowned in Terror_. However, I can't value the tepid bonus DVD much when a dedicated DVD is about to come out, and although the album sounds better than the admittedly faulty original, I don't see how that justifies paying for the album all over again. Much as this reeks of cash-in from Metal Blade, I'll still give it a 5 overall, taking into account the slight value it does offer to fans and the fact that there's also some people who don't own _CiT_. Contact: http://www.thecrownonline.com The Soundbyte - _Rivers of Broken Glass_ (Amaranth, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (7.5 out of 10) Trond Engum, best known for his guitar work and songwriting in The 3rd and the Mortal, apparently recorded this solo effort over a period of two months spent on a boat, somewhere in the North Sea. The Soundbyte is made up of mellow electric guitar and strings, drums and bass, male and female vocals, brass, keyboards and programming. Despite the presence of female vocals, there isn't much for old The 3rd and the Mortal fans here: the music is far from the realms of metal, and the focus is more on low-key gothic male vocals. Most of the songs relate to the suggestive album title, _Rivers of Broken Glass_; though not overly dark by extreme metal standards, the feeling Trond Engum managed to create using mainstream sounds comes across as quite refreshing and effective. Forget the annoyingly upbeat "Waiting" -- it only serves to mark the beginning of the second half of the album, with such interesting tracks as "The Line", the atmospheric "Reflections of Broken Glass", "The Dark" and the female-sung "Til Ungdommen". This isn't to say there is nothing of interest in the first half of the album, but I tend to find the generally darker tone and compositions of the second half much more enjoyable. If you feel like embarking on a cold voyage outside the realm of metal, then I would advise seeking _Rivers of Broken Glass_. Contact: http://www.thesoundbyte.com Thee Maldoror Kollective - _A Clockwork Highway_ (Code666, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (4 out of 10) The rather repetitive, tepid opening track does not bode well for _A Clockwork Highway_, and unfortunately the album turns out to be unable to shake those problems. There's a bit of a Red Harvest kind of industrial metal to Thee Maldoror Kollective's sound, coupled with a myriad of electronic and ambient elements. The results vary considerably between tracks, and even within each song; think a more electronic, less blackened and rather bland variation of Dodheimsgard on their brilliant _666 International_. If you like electronica and tribal rhythms, then you may well enjoy this more than I did; however don't rely on the mostly simplistic riffs to save the day. A lot of speech samples are also used, but a cohesive whole is not achieved. This isn't to say there aren't some good passages; but they end up buried and lost in a nearly hour-long album where most of the time there isn't much to keep you interested. After some line-up changes, it seems to me Thee Maldoror Kollective are presently working with a variety of ideas, but still need time to consolidate them much further. Contact: http://www.code666.net Vampire Mooose - _Vampire Mooose_ (Rotten Records, 2004) by: Todd DePalma (2 out of 10) It is problematic that a band calling itself "Vampire Moose" excels at so much unintentional comedy. This St. Louis gang of four prove to be capable musicians (a fact put forth more noticeably by their drummer); however their record label's boast that this album is "anything but the same old metal thing" dooms Vampire Moose not only as a band plundering the tired formula of metalcore, but one surrounded by delusion about it as well. In short: there is nothing new here, and what does work is so disconnected from the rest of the crap that it seems almost pointless to mention. The first track opens with a brief drum intro that evolves like pebble on a hill, slowing building a steady rhythm that cues in a thin wave of guitar distortion and tense bass played tightly; leading in for about a minute before their conditions are amplified and transformed into a chugging, simplistic verse that unifies all the instruments into a precise machine, slamming open and shut like a steel door, though it is probably the band's casket lid. What follows for the rest of the album is more of the same, no doubt taken to new levels ("of what?" is the key question...) as Vampire Moose employs a variety of desperate clichés in search of anything that could possibly hold its audience's attention (without being too daring, of course). Rapping over Meshuggah riffs may be "new" in a sense, but it's typical faux profundity that has about the same novel appeal as green ketchup. Another confused aspect of this band's approach is their touting of artists like Tool and Tori Amos as influences, which needs to be addressed partly as a problem of logic: the characteristics of your favorite artists do not necessarily manifest in any substantial amount of your own works produced. There is more Pantera and Drowning Pool at work in the macho slamming and low-end vocal wheezing of tracks like "Eye of the Knorm" than anything. And speaking of shameless plugging for attention, I might as well pass along the marketing point to you readers that star of "Evil Dead" and bearer of a mighty chin Bruce Campbell appears in one track, though he exists as nothing more than an onanistic coup for the band and won't amuse you in the slightest. Closing out this album is "Khali Ma", a fifteen minute track which labors on for a third of its time before coming into a beautifully acoustic instrumental played in classical style over the sound of rainfall. This soft melody is easily the most evocative music on this disc, and after everything else I'm able to report at least one surprise, however fleeting. Contact: http://www.vampiremooose.com Void of Silence - _Human Antithesis_ (Code666, 2004) by: Pedro Azevedo (8.5 out of 10) My interest was most certainly piqued when I heard that Primordial vocalist Alan Nemtheanga would be teaming up with Italian apocalyptic doomsters Void of Silence for the follow-up to _Criteria ov 666_. It was therefore with high hopes that I first spun _Human Antithesis_, and the opening spoken lyrics seemed to confirm there was much in common between Nemtheanga and VoS: "This is where the dream ends / Where the soul of every man and woman is broken / Where you carry your crippled children in hope of salvation / And you will lay them down to die, for salvation does not come / And the worth you have placed upon your life is finally revealed as nothing". One cannot fault Nemtheanga for lack of effort, in the sense that his performance is up to par with what he's done with Primordial. However the music itself is quite different, much slower and full of various elements creeping in and out of the soundscape. Most of the time his vocals are still well suited to what is going on in the music (which is the case throughout the excellent twenty minute title track, for instance), but on a couple of occasions he oversings some passages in a way that would have sounded more appropriate on a Primordial album. Still, his mixture of solemn, morose and wrathful vocals remains as talented as anyone who likes Primordial would expect. It is therefore one of the strongest elements in _Human Antithesis_, and a definite improvement over the vocals on the last album. Meanwhile, Void of Silence continue to prove adept at creating very good apocalyptic doom, with plenty of subtle ambient touches and well incorporated keyboards. There is a great concern with ambient elements that is prevalent throughout the record; it is something the band do very well, and it helps elevate the album further away from anonimity. The interludes linking the main songs provide the most evident examples of this penchant, but VoS do not stop there, and it gives the album a more cohesive feeling. There is a great solemnity and desolation in their sound, a kind of decayed grandeur. Sometimes one gets the feeling that this hour-long album could have been a few minutes shorter, that some less inspired bits might have been condensed or left out for the benefit of the rest; but _Human Antithesis_ still plays very well, and firmly places Void of Silence among the best of 2004's doom metal. Contact: http://www.voidofsilence.com Woods of Ypres - _Pursuit of the Sun & Allure of the Earth_ by: Todd DePalma (4 out of 10) (Krankenhaus Records, 2004) Much has changed for Canada's Woods of Ypres since 2002's _Against All Seasons_ was released and showered with praise for its blend of melodic black metal with a pensive doom quality. In the time that followed various complications grew to the band being put on hold, and as other members eventually left, Woods of Ypres was shaved down to its backbone: founder/drummer David Gold, who according to the liner notes has written and performed everything for this full-length release with the exception of keyboards played by Jessica Ross. _Pursuit of the Sun..._ is a concept album of ten tracks that the artist recommends to stay with from start to finish upon the first listen. These new recordings reflect a definite sharpening of vision dubbed "Summer Black Metal" -- but while this latest categorical tag may raise a few eyebrows, it is ultimately unconvincing. In fact, there is little here to connect with black metal as a genre -- save the occasionally aggressive passage that resembles the demo material, though now wrapped in a more separate atmosphere, leaving the phrase a kind of shallow enterprising. On the upside, it can be said that this new sound more adequately matches the lyrics, which continue to convey Woods of Ypres' sentimentalist philosophy, and though there are noticeably strong influences throughout, the music may be coming more appropriately into its own. That aside, I found difficulty in keeping to Gold's instruction. Performance wise, almost every bit this album, from ringing nylon to rumbling bass, is performed with a high quality of musicianship, and easily noticeable due to the unclouded production standards. Only the vocals are distracting in terms of actual execution, but they eventually work to impede on _Pursuits_ attractiveness. It's safe to say that once you're within the range of the album's fifth track (already 25 minutes in) you will be impressed enough to go on or be almost excruciatingly bored by these iterate ballads. The formulaic path that each song continues off on consists of acoustic interludes that enter with the echoes of rustling distortion in tow, tailing the dreamy, golden aesthetic of those slowly pondering notes. "The Looming of Dust in the Dark" and "The Will to Give" capture this slow building atmosphere of personal reflection perfectly, and with a more forceful tone than anything else that follows, with the latter track having an anthemic, nearly power metal feel. The essence of this music is not dark, but moody and blue. The vocals which propel this narrative predominantly dwell in the lower pitch of monotonous Vintersorg worship and sound straining as well as occasionally off key. The theme here seems to be a miscue of judgment, not absence of skill -- Gold is capable of singing clean, but sounds much more convincing when screaming or growling, and no matter what part of the writing process has called for the former to be used in its excess, it exposes him as overextended. Similar in this respect is the album's constant falling back on the garish effect of the acoustic guitar -- strumming pretty, hopeful verses that fade in every five minutes or so, in one case following a session of Immortal-esque storm blasting ("Dragged Across a Forest Floor"). There's a disingenuous quality at play here, not for the mere pairing of these generally polar voices, and not because these more subtle moments of introspection are perhaps beautiful, but because they are a cliché of "beautiful". At the heart of _Pursuit of the Sun..._ is an episodic statement of will in the face of severed relationships, but it's apparent sincerity becomes a cloying, dull expression of torrid metaphors. At over an hour's length, the album provides a handful of interesting tracks that may find an ear with fans of the band's demo; however, this new sound will most likely find more of connection among those already enjoying similar projects like Agalloch and Opeth. Contact: http://www.woodsofypres.ca =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= __, _, _, _ ___ _, |_) /_\ |\ | | (_ | \ | | | \| | , ) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ DOOM METAL: THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING MISERY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ by: Pedro Azevedo About This Article ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In trying to assemble my thoughts on doom metal and shape the result roughly as a guide, I had to touch upon the genre's history, definition and categories. However, please keep the following in mind: this is not meant to cover every last band and event in doom metal history; the influence I indicate certain bands or styles may have had on other bands or styles is simply deductive rather than factual; this article does not aim to unambiguously define doom metal or rigidly categorise its bands; and my own analysis of some of the psychology behind doom metal is entirely based on experience, rather than any formal knowledge of said science. Since this article focuses on doom metal, I couldn't resist writing this negative introductory paragraph -- something along the lines of a tired old "abandon all hope, ye who enter here". Indeed, in collecting these thoughts I have only tried to combine my experience in doom metal (which is of course influenced by personal taste) with some reflection and a bit of historical information. Hopefully it will help some of you discover a rich new genre, further explore some of its more secluded areas or just ponder on its peculiarities. While writing this I've had to go back to old records I hadn't played in years, as well as look into bands and subgenres I knew less about; and that turned out to be a reward in itself. Thanks to everyone who helped in any way. What and Why ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Doom metal is a style of heavy or extreme metal music most safely characterized by its depressiveness, which can be conveyed in a number of ways: while the music is often slow and minimalist, it can be extremely heavy and ugly as well as more melodic and sorrowful. This is about as close to a generic definition as I'm willing to go for the benefit of newbies -- anyone with a reasonable grasp of the genre surely understands the inherent variety caused by the more avantgarde bands as well as various partial fusions with other genres. One can just as easily find a slow doom/death album as a melodic, clean sung one; a somewhat noise-based, much less melodic approach is not uncommon, and a mix of black and doom metal is not unheard of either. Given these first few lines about what doom metal sounds like, I was initially going to write an introduction describing how I first encountered doom metal many moons ago, and how the music has affected my life and so on; but I won't, because none of you would care. No, not a single one of you cold-hearted people would give a damn. So I'll just go sit alone in my corner, thinking about life and the state of this bleak world and listening to some doom metal -- and you can write this damn article yourselves if you want. Joking aside, the paragraph above tries to illustrate what I think truly separates doom from every other metal genre: when done right, it is by far the most personal, introspective and individual of them all. With this I don't mean to raise doom above other genres, or call it more profound or distinctive than the others. All I mean by this is that people can headbang and fist-pump together to death or thrash metal, they can try black magic and pull grim faces together with black metal, they can air-guitar and croon together to heavy or progressive metal... but a good doom metal album is something you take along when you want to be by yourself, when you need some isolation. While this can also be achieved with other genres and entirely depends on the taste of each individual, I think that contrary to other genres, this is what doom metal was truly created for. Or in the context of the less serious kind of treatment I just gave the other genres, doom metal is made for those beings that are overly sensitive and depressed, and aren't doing anything about it. This last isn't necessarily any more or less useful an outlet than any of the other stereotyped behaviours I described above. When one is feeling low, help can come from a large variety of sources: adrenaline-pumping aggression, misanthropic spite and soaring melodies are just a few possibilities. So why am I separating doom metal from the pack here? Because it is arguably the only metal genre that actively provides a source of depression for the listener. And nobody wants that when they're feeling great, so why would anyone want it when they're in the mire, right? Well, wrong, at least judging by the fact that doom metal keeps selling records and has done so reasonably constantly while bigger selling metal genres kept going around in rollercoaster rides of popularity. Doom metal is very unlikely to ever truly become the flavour of the day, but what hampers its growth to a global scale is precisely what keeps it alive: it doesn't try to sell itself; it doesn't try to offer you what you want, it offers you what it -is-. Of course it would be deeply naïve to believe doom to be the one pure, uncommercial genre in the middle of a bunch of sell-outs; with neither extreme being true, the reasoning behind that conclusion stems from what I wrote about providing directly uplifting and reinvigorating music that people want to hear (even in the case of black metal at its core) versus providing a further dampener to their spirits, such as doom metal does. In the interestingly-named LifePositive.com website, one of the suggested solutions to help one "come out of the blues" was to "accept the mood, enter into it fully by listening to sad music and gradually change it to light, pleasant tunes". (They also suggest that you should "lock yourself in a room and laugh loudly for half an hour", but I won't go into that sort of discussion.) On the Mental Health Info website at MindInfo.co.uk, it is flatly stated that "sometimes if you're feeling low, it's tempting to play slow sad music, but this will make you feel worse. An uplifting tune or cheerful song can instantly improve your energy levels and your emotional well being." So if these websites are right, then how do you sell misery to people? Well, I won't try to make any general statements like the last one above, but I can safely state from personal experience that not everyone is negatively affected by sad music, and not everyone's spirits improve by way of music that is supposed to be directly uplifting in nature. The way to go for those must therefore be a bit more winding and narrow, through a wretched path that may -- or may not -- lead to a better place. In other, less dramatic words, this is usually either through doom metal or the darkest shades of the genres mentioned before. And while for some people doom metal is strangely uplifting, for others the arguably unparalleled torrent of emotion -- melodically or crushingly conveyed -- that can pour from it is enjoyable even on a good day, rather than depressive as it might be for the majority. There may be an interesting parallel to be drawn between this situation and SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). SAD, according to the NOSAD.com website, "is a type of winter depression which affects millions of people (...), caused by a biochemical imbalance in the hypothalamus due to the shortening of daylight hours and the lack of sunlight". The article also devotes a whole sentence to briefly explain that "in summer SAD, symptoms may be related to excessive heat rather than light". While some people may not be affected at all, most are expected to fell some lowering of spirits during the Winter months, even if only slightly; those who actually like those dreary months -better- than the happy seasons can be expected to be a tiny minority. Similarly, I have little doubt that the minority of people who will truly enjoy doom metal will also prefer the colors of Autumn to those of Summer, grey clouds to bright sun. Whether or not this would be due to the aforementioned biological reasons is beyond me, but perhaps the rationale behind the seasonal and musical situations isn't very different. Bjørn Grinde, in an article published in the Nordic Journal of Music Therapy (online version at www.hisf.no/njmt), discusses music in which "particular passages can generate the intense pleasurable experience described as a chill, a thrill, or a shiver". It may come as a surprise, but according to the article, "research suggests that chills are evoked more often by sad music than by happy music". "At least in Western culture, sadness is thought of as a negative feeling, yet we flock to movies known to make us cry. Both visual art and music offer us the possibility of taking gratification from sorrow without having to undergo the bereavement that normally precedes this feeling." I happened to finish reading Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" during the writing of this article. In this book, the author portrays a world where humans are distinguished from highly developed androids by the former's capacity for empathy, which the latter lack. Humans devoted to Mercerism frequently used a device called an empathy box, which allowed them to empathise with each other in their struggle to ascend an interminable hill infested by invisible enemies. From this perspective, the doom metal album may be some listeners' empathy box -- they all share their successes and failures in that doomed ascent, and empathy makes the whole stronger. For some people, perhaps empathy with the feelings being eloquently portrayed on a doom metal album can provide a more uplifting and enjoyable experience than other genres. Whichever way you look at it, there is a certain uniqueness to doom metal. This doesn't imply that other genres lack their own unique characteristics; but I personally find the idiosyncrasies of doom metal to be the most endearing of all metal genres. Who, Where and When ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most people point to the early work of Black Sabbath (England), during the first half of the '70s, as the starting point for doom metal. Indeed their self-titled debut (1970) marked the beginning of a series of albums that would become fundamental for heavy metal and doom in particular, due to their dark and brooding nature, which was unlike anything else at the time. Revolutionary and unique, these albums would pave the way for others like Pentagram, Trouble and Saint Vitus (all from the USA) to make their mark in the '80s. These bands would remain active well into the '90s, much like Candlemass (Sweden), who decisively helped shape "doom metal" with their landmark _Epicus Doomicus Metallicus_ (1986) -- an album that brought a sense of the classical to doom for the first time, coupled with emotional vocals and strong, tortured riffs. Candlemass would finish the decade strongly with new vocalist Messiah Marcolin and albums such as 1987's _Nightfall_, and they would enter the '90s as possibly the biggest doom metal band in existence. Doom metal became an established genre, and from the early '90s onwards it started to branch out in a number of directions -- to the extent that the first few years of that decade, perhaps as far as its midpoint, were fundamental in shaping the vast landscape of what doom metal is today. The '70s and '80s saw the establishment of a base for the genre, while the '90s witnessed the growth of a number of separate branches of doom metal and its crossover with other genres, greatly expanding its sonic and emotional spectrum. As the '90s started, the classic doom metal branch kept going -- bands including Solitude Aeturnus, Penance, While Heaven Wept (all from the USA) and Solstice (England) deserve to be mentioned as some of its leading forces throughout the decade. The aforementioned Trouble, Saint Vitus and Candlemass also continued to produce albums and remained as heavyweights in the genre. To this date the United States continue to be arguably the most fertile ground for this original version of the doom metal genre, as well as for sludge and stoner doom outfits -- less melodic than the European doom styles, examples can be found in Crowbar and Sleep's ponderous music respectively. The Sabbath influence can also be found in other heavily distorted and more primitive works, such as those of Khanate (USA), Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine (USA/UK), Iron Monkey (UK) and Church of Misery (Japan). Do not expect any poetic reflections or finesse here; it's all as ugly and bleak as they perceive this world to be. England was the first to produce extremely slow and distorted derivations of doom, however, with the early works of Cathedral becoming instrumental for the busy decade that was just beginning when they released _In Memoriam_ (1990) and _Forest of Equilibrium_ (1991). Though greatly influenced by the '80's major doom acts, these albums also contained an element of death metal: vocalist Lee Dorrian's (ex-Napalm Death) death-like vocals were one of Cathedral's distinguishing characteristics at this stage. Meanwhile, also in England, the early works of the Peaceville trio of British doom saw the bleak light of day: Paradise Lost with _Gothic_ (1991) and _Shades of God_ (1992); My Dying Bride with their _Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium_ EP (1991) and _As the Flower Withers_ (1992); and Anathema with their _Crestfallen_ EP (1992) and _Serenades_ (1993). In this initial stage of their careers, these bands also focused on a fusion of doom and death metal, with a variable amount of usually heartbreaking melody and anguish thrown in. Great amounts of these elements were used in the case of My Dying Bride and Anathema, who became pioneers in the inclusion of darkly romantic elements in their brand of doom metal. A considerable dose of classical art, which had previously been used only occasionally, started to make its way into doom metal much more frequently at this stage, becoming a prevalent feature of some of its subgenres. These three bands have since followed very distinct paths. Paradise Lost, formerly a straightforward death metal band on their debut album, dropped the death metal side of their doom/death and injected some heavy metal into their sound for a few albums. They then left doom metal and veered strongly towards a more commercial approach. My Dying Bride famously incorporated a violin and piano player into the band as well as some clean vocals, creating landmark doom albums in the mid-'90s such as _Turn Loose the Swans_ (1993) and the clean-sung _The Angel and the Dark River_ (1995). My Dying Bride are quite possibly the most successful doom metal band still active today. As for Anathema, they too made the change to clean vocals, although in their case this was a complete departure from death vox; their sound became lighter and presently features a considerable Pink Floyd influence. The early work of the aforementioned doom/death bands paved the way for several others to follow, including the lovelorn Celestial Season (Holland), Novembers Doom (USA), Mourning Beloveth (Ireland), Saturnus (Denmark), Desire (Portugal), Paramaecium (Australia) and Lacrimas Profundere (Germany). Indeed the first half of the '90s saw some feverish activity in this darkly romantic subgenre, which eventually led to a trend of duelling death and female vox, as typified by Theatre of Tragedy (Norway) with their self-titled debut (1995). This album helped spawn a large number of sugarcoated doom metal acts that popped up within a relatively short time of each other, temporarily drowning out pioneers such as The 3rd and the Mortal (Norway) and The Gathering (Holland), who had practically created female-led doom metal with the Norwegians' _Tears Laid in Earth_ (1995) and the Dutch band's _Mandylion_ (1995) -- records that have nevertheless withstood the test of time. As if to further illustrate the multiple faces of doom metal, another one of the most influential '90s bands followed a somewhat different set of rules. Like Candlemass, they hailed from Sweden; but the desperately sad melodies and agonizing shrieks of 1993's _Dance of December Souls_ set Katatonia apart from its peers. An intense and spontaneous album, _Dance of December Souls_ showed a different way to approach depressive, doomy metal, and Katatonia were not about to conform to any standards: 1996's bleak _Brave Murder Day_ proved just that, with the band developing their riffing style and again creating a different -- but very doomy -- record. Katatonia have since moved on to a more ear-friendly, song-oriented (though still emotional) approach, and have continuously been an influence to several bands throughout their career -- their first couple of albums likely had considerable influence on bands such as Empyrium (Germany) and Rapture (Finland). But the birth of doom/death in the early '90s also helped enable some more extreme branches to develop. Perhaps the most important of these is the mid-'90s funeral doom of bands such as one-album wonders Thergothon, the somewhat more prolific Skepticism, Unholy and lately Shape of Despair (all four from Finland), as well as Esoteric (England). While shedding most or all of British doom's romantic elements, these bands have taken the atmospheric side of the genre to new levels: the music is usually extremely slow, bass-heavy and repetitive, sometimes nearly to the point of becoming hypnotic. Depending on the band, one can also find elements such as church organ, violin, ambient touches and mostly secondary female vocals. While some, like the aforementioned quintet, took a turn for funeral doom, others such as Evoken and Morgion (both from the USA) worked instead on an extreme side of doom/death -- the latter have moved into more tranquil territory recently, with Evoken emerging as the leading force in their style. Tangentially, a grey area begun to develop where different kinds of black and doom metal elements touched. What I call black/doom (also known as "suicidal black metal") is characterized by black metal sound fused with doom metal feeling and a mix of both genres' aesthetics. Compared to doom/death, there is usually relatively little musical input from doom metal, although there are some exceptions. More importantly, black metal's traditional fury and aggression are partially or even entirely replaced by a more pensive or despairing -- even suicidal -- mood that is more akin to doom metal than to the work of the originators of black metal back in the '80s. One of the most notable examples can be found in black metal's own Burzum (Norway). The track "Det Som En Gang Var" (1994) was built from their raw black metal, but mixed with droning, repetitive, bleak atmospheric qualities and a certain sense of despair; this all gave it a different feeling from what black metal was (and still is) renowned for. 1996's _Filosofem_ would prove that "Det Som En Gang Var" wasn't simply a one-off experiment, as most of the album (all of its metal tracks except the more uptempo "Jesus' Tod") shared that song's characteristics to a considerable extent -- in fact, the music was often slower and at least equally doomy. _Filosofem_ remains as one of the prime examples of its kind, and while Burzum's departure from all things metal following that album is well documented, so is the influence that their old albums have had on other bands. A few more names rose in the mid-'90s to develop the black/doom metal crossover: the suicidal Bethlehem (Germany) with a three-album series that began with 1994's _Dark Metal_; the more epic and melodic In the Woods... (Norway) with 1995's _Heart of the Ages_ (they then dropped the black metal component); and the gothic derangement of Deinonychus (Holland), who released a series of albums that begun with 1995's _The Silence of December_. This black/doom crossover, or grey area, is presently developing rapidly, with bands including Nortt (Denmark), Shining (Sweden), Forgotten Tomb (Italy), Xasthur and Leviathan (both from the USA) rising to the forefront. Strictly speaking, most of these bands cannot be said to play doom metal (their style is usually described as "suicidal black metal") or anything that sounds much like it, and as such won't be mentioned in the fundamental album list below; but the feeling they all share to some extent certainly makes them relevant to anyone exploring the doom metal genre. Never the most fashionable of genres, doom metal nonetheless enjoys a considerable number of dedicated followers. Looking to the future, one should perhaps consider the past first: it doesn't take much of a visionary to realize that doom metal will probably never be a hugely popular genre, but even that will remain as another one of its endearing qualities. A Selection of Fundamental Doom Metal Albums ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following is a personal selection of brief reviews of albums you might do well to procure should you want to (further) investigate what this genre is all about. Although I tried to keep this collection varied, some subgenres may be missing. Above all, my aim here was to provide a good representation of the various aspects of doom metal, all quality albums, and if possible of some historical interest -- the latter not having been an overriding criteria, as there are only two pre-'90s albums in the list. There is only one album reviewed per band; as such, some albums might have had a right to their own entry based purely on their quality, but ended up simply mentioned under a somehow more relevant release from the same band. Black Sabbath - _Black Sabbath_ (Warner, 1970) Here is where it all started, and I can only imagine the impact that the eponymous album opener must have had following all the musical happiness of the '60s. I'm not about to write the umpteenth _Black Sabbath_ review ever -- so suffice to say that the massive black cloud that this album must have placed over unsuspecting heads all over the world is something that no other band may ever be able to repeat to the same extent, such was the change of spirit it signified within the musical world. Candlemass - _Epicus Doomicus Metallicus_ (Black Dragon, 1986) Album opener "Solitude", with its desperate lyrics and vocals and unforgettable guitar line, remains one of the best known doom metal songs ever. It also marked the beginning of Candlemass's hugely influential career, which would be continued especially during the following three albums -- which featured the renowned Messiah Marcolin in place of _Epicus Doomicus Metallicus_ vocalist Johan Lanquist. One of the most influential albums in forming doom metal, _Epicus Doomicus Metallicus_ combines much of what would become genre trademarks in the years to come, including the characteristic drumming style and the ponderous but melodic guitar work. Candlemass were also responsible for bringing classical elements into doom metal in a number of ways, something that again would be vastly influential in the following decade. In stark contrast with all the heavy metal frenzy of its time, _EDM_ showed different musical objectives and quietly but decisively helped carve a path for doom metal against all trends. Cathedral - _Forest of Equilibrium_ (Earache, 1991) One can never know for sure, but I would hazard a guess that Cathedral's miserable mixture of death and traditional doom metal on _Forest of Equilibrium_ had considerable influence in the development of British doom -- which bands such as My Dying Bride, Anathema and Paradise Lost cemented as one of the major doom metal movements during the '90s. You probably wouldn't tell by the album opener, but second track "Ebony Tears" should wipe away all doubt. Vocalist Lee Dorrian, formerly of Napalm Death fame, brought tortured, half-sung death vox to the deeply depressed doom metal sound he created with fellow founder Mark Griffiths. At a time when death metal was on the rise, and bands like Paradise Lost still dabbled with said genre, _Forest of Equilibrium_ helped sow the seeds for doom/death as we know it today. Paradise Lost - _Gothic_ (Peaceville, 1991) Paradise Lost were the ones who first fully utilized orchestral elements in their doom metal sound, namely on their second album, 1991's _Gothic_. Orchestral bombast and sumptuous female choirs were added to their doom/death metal, creating a mix previously unheard of -- not only did they tread new paths with their mixture of doom and death metal (carried from their 1990 death metal debut _Lost Paradise_), they also added a massive new symphonic element. Although a relatively brief album and the only one of its kind in PL's discography, _Gothic_ remains a landmark of great vision and influence in the doom metal scene -- not to mention some damn good music. Katatonia - _Dance of December Souls_ (No Fashion, 1993) How a band as young as Katatonia were when they recorded _Dance of December Souls_ could produce a record as affecting as this I won't try to fathom; but this was an album that could sink its velvet thorns into one's heart and leave an indelible mark. _Dance of December Souls_ condensed an immeasurable sorrow in its music; be it the melodies, the despairing vocals or the curiously spontaneous drumming, somehow its arguably disparate elements formed a classic album that not many people will remain indifferent to -- most likely either they'll love it or hate it. After the _For Funerals to Come..._ EP, Katatonia released _Brave Murder Day_ (1996) with Opeth vocalist Mikael Akerfeldt; this bleak, less dramatic album also remains a classic in its own right. Katatonia have since opted for clean vocals and chorus-oriented song structures, in a nearly complete departure from their days of old that only retains some of the original feeling -- and from that period, _Last Fair Deal Gone Down_ (2001) is also a mandatory album. My Dying Bride - _Turn Loose the Swans_ (Peaceville, 1993) From personal experience, if a worldwide poll was conducted to determine the popular opinion on which was the best doom metal album of the '90s, _Turn Loose the Swans_ would be my pick as most likely winner (not to mention my own choice). While its predecessor, My Dying Bride's full-length debut _As the Flower Withers_, may have been a fundamental step in getting here, _Turn Loose the Swans_ was the real crowning achievement in this darkly romantic doom/death genre. The riffing is simply monstrous, the violin and keyboard unique at the time and to this date unrivalled in its brilliant integration with the music. Intelligent drumming and a superb mix of raw, tortured clean singing and mighty death vox complete this collection of lengthy songs that never cease to amaze even after all these years. MDB would temporarily abandon death vocals to create its successor _The Angel and the Dark River_ (1995), a landmark in its own right; lately _The Dreadful Hours_ (2001) and the live album _The Voice of the Wretched_ (2002) also constitute outstanding additions to MDB's lengthy discography. The 3rd and the Mortal - _Tears Laid in Earth_ (Voices of Wonder, 1995) This was the first, and also one of the few real doom metal albums with female vocals. It was released at a time when the girl 'n' grunt acts of the mid-to-late '90s had yet to be devised -- though that was soon to happen, and would become a popular subgenre for the next few years thanks to the likes of Theatre of Tragedy. Lengthy, atmospheric and solemn, this successor to the equally outstanding _Sorrow_ EP (1994) is a delicate album; not one that falls for the easy melody, the frequent chorus, or what would become the trendy goth influences. The emotional, angelic vocals of Kari Rueslatten became virtually legendary in the second half of the '90s (she was replaced by Ann-Mari Edvardsen immediately after this album), while the doomy, dreamy guitar lines (both electric and acoustic) helped shape the music into something of a gem. With their new vocalist, The 3rd and the Mortal departed the doom metal genre, and while still active to this day, they now appeal to a mostly different audience. Anathema - _The Silent Enigma_ (Peaceville, 1995) _The Silent Enigma_'s predecessor _Serenades_ (1993) and successor _Eternity_ (1996) also rank as two of my favourite doom metal albums ever, and remain fundamental in their own right. The lovelorn dirges of _Serenades_, led by singer Darren White, and the similarly emotional but somewhat Pink Floydian _Eternity_, where current singer Vincent Cavanagh first explored his clean vocals, deserve a place in any doom metal collection. Yet _The Silent Enigma_ is perhaps Anathema's most distinctive accomplishment, in the sense that it captures Anathema at a point where their music was not only incredibly emotional, but also delivered with great intensity. This doesn't mean the mellower efforts that followed are less worthy, but there is no escaping the classic status of songs like "The Silent Enigma", "Shroud of Frost" or album closer "A Dying Wish". While showing the band in the middle of a massive transition, _The Silent Enigma_ is a hugely inspired album, with a superb combination of atmosphere, emotion and riffs. Skepticism - _Lead and Aether_ (Red Stream, 1998) Before Skepticism could unleash their debut _Stormcrowfleet_ in 1995, Thergothon released their only album, _Streams From the Heavens_, in 1994 -- both following each band's early '90s demos. These two releases, though underproduced by today's standards, would set many of the defining characteristics of the funeral doom subgenre. However, it wasn't until 1998 that Skepticism released their second album, _Lead and Aether_, and for the first time fully realized the potential of this subgenre -- one that is sometimes confused with the more extreme side of doom/death purveyed by bands such as Evoken. Crawling pace, downtuned guitars, ponderous drumming, church organs and cavernous death vox formed the backbone of this album, which has the sort of ethereal ambient quality that helps separate funeral doom from doom/death. Music this extreme definitely isn't for everyone; and while this statement might also apply to much of what's being reviewed here, it is at its most certain in funeral doom. For most people this is just boring and repetitive, but for connoisseurs, its barren, hypnotic soundscapes provide a precious desert to lose themselves in. Currently funeral doom is quite active, though always in a relatively underground sense compared to some other subgenres; Skepticism themselves have only recently released another landmark album, 2003's _Farmakon_, which is about as fundamental as _Lead and Aether_. Sleep - _Jerusalem_ (Dream Catcher, 1999) While European bands seem more inclined for melodic elements, emotional touches and other embellishments, others such as Sleep, from the USA, opt for a stripped-down approach that entails distortion, snail-like pace, massive soundwaves, and a lethargy that pins you to the ground like you're experiencing tenfold gravity. There's nowhere to hold on to -- everything is barren and bereft of life. _Jerusalem_ is comprised of only one track, over one hour of dope-ridden sludge doom; it follows Sleep's early '90s couple of albums and represents this particular subgenre like no other I've heard. Evoken - _Quietus_ (Avantgarde, 2001) Somewhere between doom/death and funeral doom lie Evoken, creating a monstrous sonic force that constitutes one of the main exponents of present day doom metal. While not necessarily pioneers, Evoken have been part of the doom metal since the mid-'90s, and had already impressed with 1998's _Embrace the Emptiness_. _Quietus_ is the most recent doom metal album I have picked for this list, and indeed I regard it as the best example of the genre to have been released since anywhere near the turn of the millennium -- much as others like My Dying Bride's _The Dreadful Hours_, Shape of Despair's _Angels of Distress_, Skepticism's _Farmakon_ or Mourning Beloveth's _The Sullen Sulcus_ are also superb records in their own right. Evoken's approach to doom metal is an unrelenting, uncompromising one; their crushingly heavy, but subtly refined dirges bear a great emotional charge, and the result can be staggering. Extreme doom/death remains one of the most thriving doom metal subgenres today, mainly thanks to bands such as these. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= W H A T W E H A V E C R A N K E D ! ! ! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pedro Azevedo's Top 5 1. Enslaved - _Isa_ 2. Behemoth - _Demigod_ 3. Amon Amarth - _Fate of Norns_ 4. Anaal Nathrakh - _Domine Non Es Dignus_ 5. Pig Destroyer - _Terrifyer_ Brian Meloon's Top 5 1. Sieges Even - _Steps_ 2. Ancient Wisdom - _...And the Physical Shape of Light Bled_ 3. Coroner - _Mental Vortex_ 4. Descendents - _Liveage_ 5. Virgin Black - _Sombre Romantic_ Alvin Wee's Top 5 1. Astriaal - _Renascent Misanthropy_ 2. Woods of Ypres - _Pursuit of the Sun..._ 3. Jag Panzer - _Casting the Stones_ 4. Mysticum - _Lost Masters of the Universe_ 5. Draugar - _Weathering the Curse_ Quentin Kalis' Top 5 1. Gontyna Kry - _Welowie_ 2. Nokturnal Mortum - _Return of the Vampire Lord_ / _Marble Moon_ 3. Impaled Nazarene - _All That You Fear_ 4. Cruachan - _Tuatha na Gael_ 5. Cruachan - _Pagan_ Jackie Smit's Top 5 1. Usurper - _Cryptobeast_ 2. Darkthrone - _Sardonic Wrath_ 3. Marduk - _Plague Angel_ 4. Lamb of God - _New American Gospel_ 5. Agnostic Front - _Another Voice_ Todd DePalma's Top 5 1. Sepultura - _Beneath the Remains_ 2. Drudkh - _Autumn Aurora_ 3. Disincarnate - _Dreams of the Carrion Kind_ (remastered) 4. Kyuss - _Welcome to Sky Valley_ 5. Sonic Youth - _Sonic Nurse_ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= __, __, ___ _, _ _, _, | \ |_ | /_\ | | (_ |_/ | | | | | | , , ) ~ ~~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~ ~ Web Site: http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com FTP Archive: ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Zines/ChroniclesOfChaos --> Interested in being reviewed? 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