Requiem

Wow, you must really love that December Moon album, as it’s all they’ve got! It really makes the top 5 for you? That one album? Considering your taste, have you heard bands like Dissection and Darkthrone? Are you rating the December Moon album over all of these bands’ releases? Not having a go at you, it’s just that I’m curious.

I’m a routine fool for this type of thing. Without detail, here are some albums I’ve struggled with but have come to love, sometimes years after release: Kampfar - ‘Mare’ Dimmu Borgir - ‘Eonian’ Katatonia - ‘Night is the New Day’ Marduk - ‘La Grande Danse Macabre’ There are a thousand others but I can’t think of them at the moment.

Borknagar are a manifold beast, and this is their second album as Brun is trying to figure out what they're going to be. It's way more rustic and knockabout compared with their later releases, and I find it less engaging. Depending on your musical tastes, they get a hell of a lot better. Try the following albums (lead vocalists in brackets): 'Empiricism' 2001 (Vintersorg with a bit of Lars), 'Urd' 2012 (Vintersorg, ICS Vortex, Lars - hail!), 'Winter Thrice' 2016 (Vintersorg, ICS Vortex, Lars plus Garm on the title track!) 'True North' (ICS Vortex and Lars) from this year! One of the albums of the year. My 3 Albums of the Week 1. Kampfar - 'Ofidians Manifest' 2. Borknagar - 'True North' 3. Insomnium - 'Heart Like a Grave' All three are contenders for my Top 10 of 2019.

Recently passed over the drawbridge of Castle Requiem: Kampfar - 'Ofidians Manifest' Borknagar - 'True North' digipak Mgla - 'Age of Excuse' Mayhem - 'US Legions' (amazing that I never bothered to pick this up, even though I've owned 'European Legions' for ever. I found a mint shrink wrapped copy of this on discogs.com, which is just such a great site. I love that place and have tracked down a lot of hard to find releases - not that 'US Legions' is particularly rare).

Kampfar - 'Ofidians Manifest' One of the few albums that genuinely has an unsettlingly evil atmosphere. What an amazing band - glad I got back into them after sort of fading out with the underrated (by me) album 'Mare'.

It’s Lemmy. And I’ve been to the Rainbow twice and it was free to get in both times. At least I think so. I walked everywhere and partied hard. Last time I was there was a Tuesday and there was hardly anyone there. It was awesome. Hollywood’s great. I love it.

Requiem reporting for duty. Hair metal is one of the joys of rock n roll. Motley Crue, Skid Row, Warrant (hail Jani Lane), 80s Whitesnake, 80s Kiss. The energy, the enthusiasm, the coolness. It’s the music that got me into metal, gateway bands all. There’s family talk of a trip to California to see my sister in 2021 and I’m already planning my Rainbow Bar and Grill day. Sebastian Bach was the greatest rock singer of all time. Untouchable.

They should stick to their Scar Symmetry and Five Finger Death Punch Albums. NP - Insomnium - ‘Heart Like a Grave’ its really more of the same from Insomnium, and they recycle riffs and guitar tone enough to make Maiden and Rotting Christ look like innovators. Still, it’s a good album. They always have a couple of hits on each release and a bit of filler. The true hit here is ‘Mute is my Sorrow’ which is an emotional masterpiece. It could be their best song. So beautiful. I hope they make a video for it.

No doubt he was a great guitar player, but he was also a brilliant songwriter, which doesn’t get mentioned as often. He and Bob Daisley wrote and arranged all of those amazing songs like ‘Crazy Train’, ‘Mr Crowley’, ‘Diary of a Madman’ and ‘Suicide Solution’. The two Ozzy albums that Randy played on have cracking tracks (obviously). Interesting though that Randy said that some of the songs on ‘Diary’ make him “cringe” because they didn’t have enough time to perfect them. ‘Diary of a Madman’ (and I bet Ozzy never read Gogol either) was recorded really quickly on the heels of ‘Blizzard’ while they we’re still actually touring their first album. Still, not a bad effort considering the circumstances.

Does that mean the pun’s over? Sorry, the fun’s over?

Sunday afternoon beer session today prior to the early Turilli/Leone Rhapsody show, the culmination of a power metal ‘festival’ that includes Vanishing Point and about six other bands. Can’t wait to see the best version of Rhapsody. ‘Prometheus’ was a great album and so is this year’s ‘Zero Gravity’. Even since Luca Turilli left Rhapsody of Fire and had full control he’s turned down the guitar wankery and written excellent epics of ‘science meets religion’ themed symphonies. It will be very interesting to see how it translates to the live setting. We really need a live thread... I keep forgetting to start/resume one.

Luckily I haven’t heard too many people bitch about the sound quality of ‘Live in Leipzig’ because I’d be coming around for a serious word. It’s one of the greatest live albums of all time let alone in black metal. Comparable to other amateur live recordings the sound is fantastic. Also what sort of black metal fan is going around complaining about the sound quality of a 1991 live black metal album? Goddamn. NP: Mgla - ‘Age of Excuse’ Definitely growing on me.

You’re in fine form lately.

They haven’t lost any members recently. What are you on about? It’s Dani by the way, not Danny. No one’s claiming FFDP were/were not on the Gigantour. The comment was about Megadeth opening for them on the current tour. I feel like we’re really not on the same wavelength here... I refuse to listen on principle... for the moment. Death to corporate makeovers.

I'm out of the city. Insomnium, Katatonia, and Borknagar are on the stereo. The air is fresh. The wine is perfectly balanced.