norway

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7vw5Wydfi4] by Jess Blumensheid Four years after its expected release, Metal Mind has put out Black Mass Krakow 2004. The DVD highlights Gorgoroth’s performance notorious for impaled sheep heads and naked human crucifixes. However, Gorgoroth live on video is less exciting than I expected. Three quarters of the footage is mundane shots of bullet belts […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPO-LfZp-7E] Speaking of Darkthrone and black metal documentaries, Until the Light Takes Us will supposedly come out this year. Details so far are shadowy, but YouTube has a hilarious excerpt starring Fenriz. In a phone interview with a metal publication, he affirms his love for house and techno, specifically Monika Kruse. The silence on the […]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVA7pSkzopU] The Misanthrope (Peaceville, 2007) is very much misnamed. No teenagers in corpsepaint here – Darkthrone’s Nocturno Culto is quite the social creature. He goes ice fishing with his buddies; he goes camping with REI (or in Europe, probably Jack Wolfskin) endorsee Fenriz; he hangs out with an old guy named Knut; he shoots live […]

Given the critical drubbing F.O.A.D. (Peaceville, 2007) got, I expected the worst from it. I was surprised to find it not only bearable, but also quite likable. It’s not a great album – the last half is basically mailed in – but it’s memorable. The songs are head-smackingly simple, and, more importantly, funny as hell. […]

The 33 minutes of Skrekk Lich Kunstler (Nekk Brekk, 2007) required over 900 studio hours. Either the studio was a home setup, or someone cut the band a sweet deal. If Steve Albini had engineered this record, at 10 hrs/day and his rate of $650/day, it would have cost $58,500. Nekk Brekk, Slagmaur‘s own label, […]

Speaking of Ulver, Aspherical Asphyxia Productions (say that two times fast), a Russian imprint, has released a two-disc tribute to Ulver – free for download. (The physical version is due out May 15, 2008.) I am normally not big on tribute records. But this one interests me, since the objet d’affection is Ulver, whose material […]

After eight demos and two EP’s, Bergen, Norge’s Slavia finally issues its first full-length. It’s unclear whether Slavia is a one-man project with live session musicians, or a full-blown band. What’s certain is that Jonas Raskolnikov Christiansen is on vocals (Raskolnikov is an awfully heavy name to lay on a child), backed by members of […]

Occasionally, a record comes along and grabs my “too many releases these days,” “illegal downloading is cheapening music,” “tired of wading through Blabbermouth’s endless Aerosmith and KISS news, not to mention every single Megadeth micro-update,” “will vomit upon hearing another deathcore album,” “will vomit upon hearing another retro thrash album,” “Metallica should pack it in” […]

Dødheimsgard started as a standard black metal outfit (1996’s Monumental Possession stands out), then threw fans a major curve ball with 1999’s 666 International. The album was, frankly, a friggin’ mess. Blastbeats and industrial hip hop and classical piano interludes made for an occasionally interesting but wildly scattershot listen. A name contraction in 2000 to […]