torsdag den 11. februar 2010

11.02.2010 Edition

Part one of a two part series this week: the way WHUS' schedule rolls over makes it so I'm the very last show of the fall roster, and my new time slot happens to be one day later in the week, so I'll be on tomorrow evening as well. This is the test of my dynamic programming skills, and rather than sending four hours of similar sounding metal over our big antenna, I've decided to update the format of the program: 1.) There is now no genre-grouping. Grindcore and black metal selections will be interspersed as they choose to be amongst the pantheon we hear from. 2.) There is now a wider selection of acceptable genres. There will be avant-garde classical, IDM and noise, but none so characteristic of any of those genres that it will be jarring. Well, only as non-offensive as six minutes of static and shrieking can be I suppose.
On to the show.

(Format goes ARIST - TRACK - ALBUM - COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - YEAR - RELEVANT INFO.)

0.) Lustmord - Compassion - Rising - Wales - 2006 - Live performance for 6/6/06.

1.) 21st Century Schizoid Man - Shining - Blackjazz - Norway - 2010 - The furious, metal child of ELP and Mahavishnu Orchestra, covering a King Crimson track. Highly recommended progressive listening. If conservative or concerned about aging, this will be frightening.

2.) Cannibal Corpse - The Spine Splitter - Bloodthirst - USA - 1999 - Post-Barnes era, (nothing wrong with either dynasty, but my preference is the higher production values of later works, which coincide with Corpsegrinder's performances), with particularly wild sections of tapping or arpeggiation action.

3.) The County Medical Examiners - Kaleidoscopic Malacia - Olidous Operettas - USA - 2007 - Particularly disgusting title from the album released as a fragrant, specifically after applied friction, record stinking of rotten meat. As it goes for the late-comers, my edition smells fine. Lyrics recount the varying colors of decomposing tissue.

4.) Dark Fortress - Ylem - Ylem - Germany - 2010 - Eidolon seemed to be the midpoint fans desired between large-sounding symphonic metal and the mildly uninformed black metal production particular to northwestern Europe. Ylem is a bit more electronic, but no less loud, malicious and fun.

5.) Darkthrone - Hanging out in Haiger - Dark Thrones and Black Flags - Norway - 2008 - As far as I can tell, that is Haiger in Germany. This has the punk-style I think they think they meant to be all along.

6.) Drawn and Quartered - Bind, Torture, Kill - Hail Infernal Darkness - USA - 2006 - Besides sharing a title with a Suffocation track, I included this because I remember being under the mistaken impression when I was younger that the BTK man was living and "working" in my home state. Psychopathy has always been a reading interest of mine, because of what Hervey Cleckley, M.D. called "The Mask of Sanity," that is, the high-functioning nature of a psychopath in social settings. I never wondered how many people around me were robots so much as psychopaths.

7.) Dying Fetus - Unadulterated Hatred - War of Attrition - USA - 2007 - Yet another exhibit in my case indicting these guys as those responsible for the epitome of hyper-technicality.

8.) Exhumed - Dinnertime in the Morgue - Slaughtercult - USA - 2000 - Demonstrative of the gore genres.

9.) Goatwhore - Alchemy of the Black Sun Cult - A Hunting Curse - USA - 2006 - A live favorite of mine, though I've never seen them perform with a bassist.

10.) Gorgoroth - Unchain My Heart!!! - Incipit Satan - Norway - 2000 - What I've come to understand is a fan-favorite for Gorgoroth.

11.) Graveworm - Vengeance is Sworn - Diabolical Figures - Italy - 2009 - Opening track from a band I consider to be rather hit-or-miss. "Legions Unleashed" from Engraved in Black is the single best symphonic metal song I've ever heard. Unfortunately, outside of that, I don't really understand most of their other work.

12.) Hate Eternal - Hell Envenom - Fury & Flames - USA - 2008 - I tend to follow Alex Webster. This record is mixed almost like a Belphegor track, were the syncopation is so loud and accurate that it sounds like quick waves of sound, with clear crests and troughs.

13.) Immortal - Eternal Years on the Path to the Cemetery Gates - Pure Holocaust - Norway - 1993 - Yet another debateable NSBM affiliation. My understanding is that they are not national socialists, and the record title is not anti-semitic, but refers to an event like Ragnarok.

14.) Charles Ives - From the Steeples and the Mountains - An American Journey - USA - 1901 - From Ives' series of short instrumental songs. He seemed to be particular to writing very quiet songs around this time.

15.) Bach, J.S. - Du Lieber Heiland, Du - Matthaus Passion - Germany - 1727 - A randomly chosen piece from the middle of the first part of the composition.

16.) Boris with Merzbow - Nothing Special - Rock Dream - Japan - 2007 - The occasional punk-rage of non-drone-or-calm Boris, with Merzbow lining everything through noise machines.

17.) Anaal Nathrakh - The Yellow King - Eschaton - UK - 2006 - Contains a sample from the splatter film "Saw."

18.) Altar of Plagues - Through the Collapse II - Watchers Restrained - White Tomb - Ireland - 2009 - A more active incarnation of what is normally called atmospheric black metal.

19.) Abruptum - Icendio Fulminis Tecis - Evil Genius - Sweden - 1995 - Because I can't play the Vi Sonus Veris Nigrae Malitiaes record.

20.) Aborted - Threading on Vermillion Deception - The Archaic Abattoir - Belgium - 2005 - I visited a hospital during the day before this show, and it got me thinking about the imagery or bands like Aborted, General Surgery, TCME, all that business. It's not as bad, I think, to see a lifeless human, as it is to see an elderly person, unable to speak, persisting in agony. I wasn't nervous thinking about the morgue, but everytime a bed wheeled by with someone drooling down their own shirt, looking terribly depressed, I wanted to eat my shirt.

21.) Gravetemple - III - Ambient/Ruin Demo - USA - 2008 - I also follow Atilla Csihar.

22.) Velvet Cacoon - Chapelflames - Northsuite - USA - 2005 - Search through the catalog of a label Southern Lord, and you'll find needles like this in the haystack of metal.

23.) Wardruna - Dagr - Runaljod - Norway - 2009 - I thought the non-agressive instrumental would be appropriate to include.

24.) Xasthur - May Your Void Become As Deep As My Hate! - Telepathic with the Deceased - USA - The one-man USBM thing has always been an attractive idea. This is our own Striborg.

25.) Mutiny Within - Awake - Mutiny Within - USA - 2010 - I'm not a fan of the delicate, clean vocals juxtaposed with metal structures. I come to metal to be immersed in it completely. With that said, eyes should be kept on these kids.

26.) Freya - Sons of Yamir - All Hail the End - USA - 2010 - For my love of runes.

27.) The Kandidate - In Hell - Until We Are Outnumbered - Denmark - 2010 - Might be a down-tuned punk outfit. Hard to say. They're Danish though, I can't ignore it.

28.) Troll - Age of Satan - Neo-Satanic Supremacy - Norway - 2010 - Imagine Dimmu Borgir without internal drama and other distractions. Evil intent, evil execution. Like the position of the Eidolon record by Dark Fortress.

Submit your own analysis of what's happened in full or for any particular part as a comment. Internet streaming made possible by WHUS 91.7FM at www.whus.org

torsdag den 4. februar 2010

04.02.2010 Edition

As is the case this time of year, the bed track there at the beginning is Compassion by the Welsh soundman Lustmord. Unfortunately, I haven't been serviced a copy of the new Overkill or the new Arsis, so you'll have to make do waiting for those to exist. My favorite new cut comes from the Black Jazz record by a black-metal-jazz-fusion act called Shining. Onto to the show:

(Format goes ARIST - TRACK - ALBUM - COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - YEAR - RELEVANT INFO.)

1.) Freya - Sons of Yamir - All Hail the End - USA - 2010 - As far as I can tell, this band has a habit of spelling their Norse names differently than my sources say, so I think Freyja's song about the sons of Ymir is about the first giant who came into existence in the universe. From Ymir came three sons, Odin, Vili and Ve, who killed him and, depending on your source, may have burned his body to ash, from which Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, (an ash tree) was formed. This is Snorre Sturlason's account of the beginning of the world.

2.) Mutiny Within - Awake - Mutiny Within - USA - 2010 - Young buzz.

3.) Rob Zombie - Jesus Frankenstein - Hellbilly Deluxe 2 - USA - 2010 - New material from an old zombie.

4.) The Kandidate - In Hell - Until We Are Outnumbered - Denmark - 2010 - My Danish brothers.

5.) Shining - Healter Skelter - Black Jazz - Norway - 2010 - Progressive black metal, strongly influenced by jazz fusion. They do the meanest cover of "21st Century Schizoid Man" in history. Now that you're done cringing, I assure you, it's much crazier and much cooler than you'll expect. This is the point where the average band would fail to deliver, but Shining manages to claim ownership of death jazz.

6.) Slayer - World Painted Blood - World Painted Blood - USA - 2009 - You're familiar, I'm sure.

7.) Striborg - Wrapped in a Cocoon Out of Harm's Way - Embittered Darkness/Isle de
Morts - Tasmania - 2006 - Not the best Tasmanian atmospheric black metal because it's the only Tasmanian atmospheric black metal, it's actually grim and beautiful work. Doom/Avant champions Sunn 0))) named Striborg their favorite black metal act.

8.) Windir - Svartesmeden og Lundamyrstrollet - Arntor - Norway - 1999 - Valfar called it Sognametal.

9.) Wintersun - Beyond the Dark Sun - Wintersun - Finland - 2004 - Former Ensiferum guitarist making a mockery of anything light and simple.

10.) Taake - Lukt Til Helvete - Taake - Norway - 2008 - Helvete is hell. Possible Nazi affiliation, it isn't really clear

11.) Gorerotted - Zombie Graveyard Rape Bonanza - Only Tools and Corpses - UK - 2003 - Something in the water in Britain turns average metal heads into remarkably sadistic murder worshippers. And they make some outstanding goregrind.

12.) Nasum - A Welcome Breeze of Stinking Air - Human 2.0 - Sweden - 2000 - One of the high points of aggressive grindcore, the whole Human 2.0 record is one to lose your hearing to.

13.) Mortician - Slaughtered - Chainsaw Dismemberment - USA - 1999 - The B-horror movie never stops being fun. If you don't have a sense of humor, this won't be a good match for you...nothing will, really.

14.) Gorguts - Rottenatomy - Considered Dead - Canada - 1991 - Every so often Canada musters up all it's latent anger and puts it all into a few creative people. After Margaret Atwood, Canada needed to step up the affront somehow, so a chain of low-key but damn reliable black metal and goregrind acts have emerged.

15.) Rotten Sound - Dominion - Under Pressure - Finland - 1997 - Less gore obsessed, (sometimes), but nonetheless sickeningly fast and pungent grindcore.

16.) The County Medical Examiners - Pugilistic Burn Postures - Forensic Fugues and
Medicolegal Medleys - USA - 2001 - This is that Carcass tribute band, (in a sense), that manages to be original and effective. The pugilist posture refers to what happens when a normal, (pre-rigor mortis), corpse is engulfed by fire. As everything tightens up, the knees bend, the back arches, and what's called the Pugilist Pose helps medical examiners determine how long before the fire death occurred. Dr. Bill Bass explains it more capably than myself.

17.) Aborted - Engineering the Dead - Engineering the Dead - Belgium - 2001 - Madness. Belgian, freakout deathgrind gore-madness.

18.) Blood Vomit - Disemboweled - Up From the Grave - USA - 2002 - A lesser known one man act, ably titled and decently produced.

19.) Mayhem - Funeral Fog - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas - Norway - 1994 - The only record I'm aware of that features a murderer and his victim performing together. One of the most evil recordings I've ever found.

20.) Hellhammer - Massacra - Apocalyptic Raids - Switzerland - 1984 - Black metal forfatterer. Check the Fenriz Presents album.

21.) Gorgoroth - Bergtrollets Hevn - Antichrist - Norway - 1996 - Earlier Gorgoroth than last week, but this one contains my favorite riff in black metal history. Hevn means port or harbor.

22.) The Funeral Pyre - Here the Sun Never Shines - The Nature of Betrayal - USA -
2006 - Slightly symphonic, and always meandering between the genre lines.

23.) Darkthrone - Witch Ghetto - Dark Thrones and Black Flags - Norway - 2008 - Very recent Darkthrone, exposing their punk roots much more than normal. I support letting them be who they think they have been.

24.) Azaghal - Vihani Raivoavina Valtamerina - Omega - Finland - 2008 - Minimal but intriguing cover art on this Finnish blasphemy troupe's Omega record.

25.) Embalmer - The More Fuckers Dead, The Better - 13 Faces of Death - USA - 2006 - Not the best Ohio death metal because...

26.) Dying Fetus - Conceived Into Enslavement - Descend Into Depravity - USA - 2009 - The most intricate and pointlessly complex but still convincing hyper-technical death metal on record. Origin is a close second, and this song is why Dying Fetus takes the title.

27.) 1349 - Maggot Fetus...Teeth Like Thorns - Revelations of the Black Flame - Norway
- 2009 - In 1349, a ghost ship bobbed into the harbor in Bergen, Norway. When it was boarded, the crew was found dead, and the black plague entered Norway.

28.) Bloodthorn - Age of Suffering - Under the Reign of Terror - Norway - 2001 - Later than the female-fronted incarnation of Bloodthorn.

Submit your own analysis of what's happened in full or for any particular part as a comment. Internet streaming made possible by WHUS 91.7FM at www.whus.org

torsdag den 28. januar 2010

28.01.2010 Edition

Metal-mennesker, this is the first written account of an edition of Den Sidste Rejsen, and I think I waited too long to make this happen. Unfortunately, it won't actually help or fix anything to fret, so we have to just push on anyway. I recently stopped using the track "Big Church" from Sunn 0)))'s Monoliths and Dimensions record as my intro music, not for any negative reason, I just felt like updating the program after a few months of regularity. So, every week will start with the Lustmord listing you see below.

The format goes ARTIST - TRACK - ALBUM - COUNTRY OF ORIGIN - YEAR - RELEVANT INFO

0.) Lustmord - Compassion - Rising (LIVE) - Wales - 2006 - Definitely a pioneer, if not the actual inventor of dark-ambient music, Lustmord produces really huge, creepy records sometimes based on field recordings made in crypts or ritual incantations or both.

1.) Gorgoroth - Wound Upon Wound - Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam - Norway - 2006 - Norwegian black metal act currently in the midst of a major transformation. Their notably violent singer Gaahl lost a legal battle over the right to perform under the name "Gorgoroth," and subsequently withdrew from music entirely.

2.) Trelldom - Sannhet, Smerte Og Død - Til Evighet... - Norway - 1995 - An obscure black metal act related through multiple members to Gorgoroth.

3.) Darkthrone - Det Svartner Nå - Hate Them - Norway - 2003 - Remarkably influential Norwegian black metal act. In the quest for truth, (True Norwegian Black Metal), they are about as close as it gets.

4.) Enslaved - Større enn Tid - Tyngre enn Natt - Mardraum - Norway - 2000 - Another Norwegian black metal troupe, Enslaved tends to directly address "Eddic" mythology with song titles like "I Lenker til Ragnarok," (In Chains until Ragnarok, the fate of trickster deity Loki after the death of Balder), and "Yggdrasil," the name of the burned body of the giant Ymir as an ash tree which supports the world.

5.) Burzum - Jesu død - Filosofem - Norway - 1996 - One-man black metal icon Burzum is the product of Varg Vikernes, who was just recently released from prison for the murder of Euronymous from the band Mayhem.

6.) Satyricon - My Skin is Cold - The Age of Nero - Norway - 2008 - Yet another former lo-fi black metal act, Satyricon's track "Mother North" explains their position.

7.) Emperor - Ye Entrancemperium - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk - Norway - 1997 - Emperor has remained a suture of the black metal movement despite most of its members being incarcerated for murder and anti-christian arson at various points in time.

8.) Drawn and Quartered - Nightghoul of the Graveyards - Hail Infernal Darkness - USA - 2006 - You wouldn't know it wasn't Scandinavian by ear alone. Their influences are clear, and they follow in the anti-christian black metal tradition without the neopaganist support.

9.) Slayer - World Painted Blood - World Painted Blood - USA - 2009 - Most recent hit by one of the least recent bands in metal. Considered one of the "Big Four" of American thrash metal, Slayer returns to a sound reminiscent of their late 80's work after a departure into a more basic "hardcore" style of production.

10.) Anaal Nathrakh - The Unbearable Filth of the Soul - In the Constellation of the Black Widow - UK - 2009 - Amalgamated grindcore and black metal make a remarkably aggressive and "atmospheric" sounding extreme-metal band.

11.) Cannibal Corpse - Five Nails Through the Neck - Kill - USA - 2006 - This is an American's source of international acknowledgment in metal circles. If truth were a goal to acheive in death metal, Cannibal Corpse would the standard to judge by. Deadworld contributor Vince Locke draws their record covers, which are equally violent, violently sexual, fictional, offensive and captivating.

12.) Aborted - The Holocaust Incarnate - Engineering the Dead - Belgium - 2001 - Goregrind, deathgrind, brutal death metal...It's not so much a blend of old ingredients, but an invention based on the blueprints drafted by Carcass.

13.) Amon Amarth - An Ancient Sign of Coming Storm - Fate of Norns - Sweden - 2004 - The reigning forfatterer of Viking Metal. This band was a new movement, and one culturally important to the national identity of Scandinavian countries.

14.) Behemoth - At the Left Hand ov God - The Apostasy - Poland - 2007 - With a notable Middle-Eastern musical influence, this extreme blasphemy engraved in plastic describes the position of an adversarial and anti-christian philosophy or faith.

15.) Belphegor - Vomit Upon the Cross - Necrodaemon Terrorsathan - Austria - 2000 - Another religious outburst expressed in song.

16.) Brutal Truth - Black Door Mine - Need to Control - USA - 1994 - Senselessly blasting grind-band.

17.) Carcass - Corporal Jigsore Quandary - Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious - UK - 1992 - Influential and genre-establishing grindcore act that was probably the first band to sing about corporeal dissection from a medical perspective.

18.) The County Medical Examiners - Expeditious Evisceratory Mishap - Olidous Operettas - USA - 2007 - Reclusive and unusual Carcass-tribute band in the loosest sense. They write material intended to replicate the sound of middle-era Carcass, (as above,) and may actually be medico-legal students and potential candidates for the position.

19.) Exhumed - Blazing Corpse - Gore Metal - USA - 1998 - They aim to preserve the bloody tradition of goregrind.

20.) Mortician - Decapitated - Hacked up for Barbecue - USA - 1996 - The meeting point of horror films and grind metal. Most tracks begin or end with samples from classic or cult-observed films.

21.) Dying Fetus - Insidious Repression - War of Attrition - USA - 2007 - Hypertechnicality in it's most unanimously offensive incarnation. Musicianship comparable to a youth spent in conservatory training or stealing the Apples of Wisdom.

22.) Drudkh - Decadence - Microcosmos - Ukraine - 2009 - It's eastern European folk-based atmospheric black metal. Multiple forms of protest merged into one brilliant unit.

23.) Eluveitie - The Cauldron of Renascence - Evocation I: The Arcane Dominion - Switzerland - 2009 - The Swiss folk-metal collective named after the Helvetic tribe: they called themselves the Eluveitie. Musically western European, historically Celtic and traditionally Gaulish.

24.) Equilibrium - Widars Hallen - Turis Fratyr - Germany - 2005 - Essentially Germanic neo-pagan folk-metal, their composition is of a noticeably classical style. Huge focus on harmonic progression, sweet and properly constructed melody and thousand-year old brutality.

And that's all the time we have for this particular program. Submit your own analysis of what's happened in full or for any particular part as a comment. Internet streaming made possible by WHUS 91.7FM at www.whus.org

God nat!

Opening Night - 28.01.2010

God aften metal-mennesker!

This is opening night here at the official Den Sidste Rejsen Blog, the weekly black metal, death metal and grind program at WHUS 91.7FM. I am radio programmer, metal department director and blogguy Hearse. In an effort to make my show more accessible to normal, just-curious listeners, as well as those from deep within the black metal scene, I decided to start a companion blog to facilitate the public discussion of what goes on each week.
Each week, you can expect a playlist from the show, including song titles, artist descriptions and countries of origin. I highly encourage all comments: if this is the blood in your brain, help other black metallers feel less alone in the world. And if this is the worst garbage you've ever had bounce off the organs in your ear, you're welcome to let your rage out here, too.
I am writing from the studio, so I have to go work on the first edition. You can stream Den Sidste Rejsen and many other strange, fantastic programs at www.whus.org.