Requiem

Goddamn I love that Twisted Sister cover by Dimmu. So good. The 'Alison Hell' cover is the last piece of the pie I need to digest with 'Cryptoriana'. I haven't given it a lot of time, instead investing my attention on the original material. I'm fully committed to the idea that 'Achingly Beautiful' is the album's achilles heal.

Black metal is the snow-covered forest at sunset; the full moon glimpsed through jagged trees; the candle that flickers in ghost winds; the indelible emptiness of the lonely human soul that cries out to empty skies.

Vampyrique and I have waxed lyrical about it over in the Cradle Filth thread in the Gothic Metal forum. Head over and catch up on the latest authoritative opinions on it. Basically I think it's cool and fun but it's not a shadow on the original.

I've been there three times but I don't have any rock n roll friends there. It's just me, a case of budweiser, and a dream. A dream to rock.

Excellent!

In 1983 Jorn and Manheim went to the same school, called Langhus School where Manheim's father was the headmaster. They had a punk band together called Musta. Then, one fateful day in the summer of 1984 Jorn was at Ski Station in Follo when he met Oystein Aarseth on the platform. They were both 16 years old. Jorn and Manheim would rehearse at Langhus School and one day Jorn invited Aarseth to come and jam. They decided to change their names so Jorn became Necrobutcher and Aarseth became first Destructor and then Euronymous. Manheim kept his regular name. So technically, it was the three of them who first jammed together as Mayhem and the year was 1984.

I would have given this 9/10 and, if I'm in the wild west, 10/10.

Great call. His work on 'Spiritual Black Dimension' (the best type of dimensions) is tremendous.

Mayhem - ‘Freezing Moon’ has my favourite black metal solo.

Weak.

If you've quite finished posing rhetorical questions... are you going to Wintersun on Nov 2?

Even I might grow a little weary of the excessive vampirism of @Vampyrique's playlist, although I sense some less than serious sentiment in that undead creature's post. Day 3,455. Location: Island. Vampyrique: What do you want to listen to? Requiem: Put on some vampire music. Vampyrique: Excellent.

I haven't heard it beyond that one track that was released in the lead-up. To be honest, I'm a little tired of that ego-maniac Satyr. I'll stand by much of Satyricon's work till I die, but I found the last album (self titled) an abomination, and I was really turned off by Satyr's pontificating about this current release. Satyr's just not as 'deep' as he thinks he is. I guess I'll give it a listen on youtube or something but I think my run with the current 'band' is going on hiatus. If I'm being truly honest, I haven't been moved by Satyricon since 'Volcano', but I've been buying them dutifully, expecting more. Well, no longer. I keep looking into Winterfylleth due to their amazing artwork, good reputation and high praise in England, but I'm always disappointed. Maybe I'm just not hearing the right songs? They don't hold a candle to (early) Drudkh, if you ask me. I can't say they really sound like them either, although I haven't heard the last couple of Drudkh albums, so who knows.

Ah yes, the Smithsonian and all of that. That was really cool.

'Anthems' is definitely a miracle album, and it was huge at the time of release. I remember at the end of 1999 Terrorizer magazine ran a list of greatest albums of the 90s and Emperor's 'Nightside' came in at number 1 and 'Anthems' at number 3, so you can't really overestimate Emperor's impact during the late 90s. For some reason 'Anthems' doesn't get a lot of coverage these days, but it's truly an inspired work. Coming out in 1997, in many ways it signals the end of the great Norwegian black metal movement. It's still couched in black metal spirit but it has just that touch of innovation that you know if feels different and that the black metal template was changing. It's like the glint of a new sun rising over the forest and life would never be the same again.