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!