Requiem

This is a pretty cool thread that I missed somehow. I live down the road from True Belief (sort of). Melbourne is a pretty cool city to live in. Lots of culture, theatre, music and sport and a crazy number of restaurants. I live in a suburb called Balwyn, where my wife grew up. We were lucky to get into the housing market early in our lives just after getting together, so we have a pretty nice place in a leafy part of town. We renovated our house in 2011 and put a second storey on, so it's no mansion but we have plenty of nice space and plenty of room for the Requiem princesses. For some reason back in the 1920s they made this area of Melbourne a 'dry area', meaning no pubs or bars, and it's still this way today. You can only buy alcohol from stores and restaurants. However, there is an ok pub about ten minutes walk from my place in the next suburb (where True Belief used to work, amazingly. I hope he doesn't mind me revealing these details). So it's a lovely suburb but very old skool, conservative. It's great for raising children but not exactly a rock n roll mecca. We are about a 20 minute bus ride from the city (which is what Melbournians call the central business district). Melbourne in general is great but we're a pretty conceited bunch, with the 'World's Most Liveable City' title for 6 years in a row or something. We also have a traditional rivalry with Sydney because they are worse than us in every way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balwyn,_Victoria

Let's talk about Shakespeare sometime. I'm an obsessive with a huge collection including a really cool facsimile copy of the first folio. His understanding of the human condition and achingly perfect ability to poetically transpose it is the greatest artistic accomplishment of our species. Now back to deciding whether I would rather have an eagle, an owl or a chicken. Um.. I think practically I would go with chicken so others can ultimately feed it and look after it. In some kind of fantasy world I would choose the eagle though to help me in battles and to give me advice when adventuring over vast distances through its superior sight and wisdom. Would you rather only ever eat pizza or burgers?

I have Chateau Requiem to myself as the family's down the beach house, so I'm partying like it's 1996. As luck would have it I left my brand new Macbook Air at the bloody beach house, so here I am typing on my wife's ancient Windows based work laptop. It's clunkier than cowbell on a hair metal album and weighs about as much as a 1970 Toni Iommi riff. It's taken me 20 minutes to figure out all the buttons. I think it was released sometime between the light bulb and black and white TV. It's so old the keys are Egyptian hieroglyphs. I could go on....

Opeth - Ghost Reveries. I'm about ten minutes in and sort of getting bored again. I really do like Opeth in the right environment, but for some reason I grow quite impatient and switch them out pretty quickly when I have a pile of CDs to listen to and the house to myself (thank you god). Also 'The Karelian Isthmus' is a pretty good album, and Amorphis are one of my favourite bands, but I don't get all the great love that online communities throw at it like panties at Rod Stewart. Considering what they were about to put out on their next two albums....

In regards to Opeth, this is pretty much how I feel. I remember being really excited about the idea of 'Damnation' as well, because it promised to be a 'Benighted' style softer album that would display their musicianship and be truly mesmerising with acoustic guitar etc. When I heard it I thought it was really flat and kind of unexciting - a sentiment I still hold today. 'Ghost Reveries' is indeed a very good album. Dare I say it has lots of great gothic moments? It has a great, dark, atmosphere. Very haunting in a sense. I might put it on now actually. Edit: Got it on now, and I remember two things that I really like about it in particular: 1. Steven Wilson isn't producing. 2. It's the last album of theirs with the four original members? (plus a keyboard player).

I presumed some people would pick up on it hahaha. I also forgot to mention that I am really into black metal with a historical connection or theme. Windir and the first three Enslaved albums (even though they didn't call themselves black metal) are way up there for me. Listening to these bands while travelling through the Norwegian fjords in 2008 was one of the highlights of my life.

Ever since I heard the opening Norwegian vocalisation in Satyricon's 'Hvite Krists Dod' back in 1995 as a 15 year old, I knew that suddenly life had new meaning. Back then, even the use of the Norwegian language set these bands apart. They were like beasts or (black) wizards - so exotic and foreign to my middle class Australian sensibilities. It was an intoxicating (strange old) brew. As far as black metal styles are concerned, I definitely have a predilection for the swinging riff styles and atmosphere of Snorre Ruch that influenced Mayhem, Satryicon and Burzum. Keyboard accompaniments can work really well when used tastefully like in Burzum, Emperor, early Satyricon etc. I don't mind more bombastic keyboards later on, like in Dimmu, but the vibe is completely different and lacks the 'magic' of the other bands mentioned. I think most people recognise this. I love the imagery of forests and mountains too, so the epic grandeur of nature that comes through in some bands is transcendent. Bands like Drudkh and Ulver are therefore some of my favourites. I also really like acoustic guitar and contemplative moments. Unlike a lot of people, I'm much less impressed by the dissonant and experimental evolution of the genre. I just can't get into Deathspell Omega and Blut Aus Nord, for instance. Same with the latest Leviathan. They tend to leave me cold. I do like Xasthur though but I find them a lot more structured. As for the shoegaze stuff, I actually don't mind the 'Sunbather' album for its emotion, but I ain't keeping it in my black metal collection... The more commercial and heavy offerings of bands like Marduk and Watain, and the suicide stuff of Forgotten Tomb and Shining also hold a lot of interest for me. For me the perfect black metal album is Satyricon's 'The Shadowthrone', as I heard it 22 years ago and as I hear it now. It's got the darkness, the swing, the keyboards, the acoustics, the nature worship - combining all of this into songs.

Beherit are an amazing band, but I would say that the first lot of Norwegian bands is rated just right. I think most of the 1990-1995 releases from Darkthrone, Burzum, Mayhem, Satyricon and Emperor are better than Beherit. Just more cohesive and focused somehow. There's one major exception: as much as I love Immortal I don't think they really hit their stride until 1997. I enjoy their first few albums but they lack the X factor of the others I've listed, especially their first four albums.

Shakespeare is my favourite hero. I'd rather be a hunter for the glory it would bring my village and me, although farming is more amenable to settling down with my buxom peasant wench. I'll go hunter. A doctor or a lawyer?

Correct, and that's the genius of this thread. Solid gold internetting.

I don't understand the intricacies of cars so I'll go with the first one cause I like a good laugh. Would you rather winter or summer?

Some huge surprises here, True Belief, but a perfect list in the spirit of the islands. Plenty of variety and large back catalogues. Imagine listening to Kiss on a deserted island. Surreal. Meant to quote you, True Belief....

Do your parents ever say anything about your drinking? I'm 37 and still feel self-conscious getting a third glass of wine under my parents' austere yet well-meaning gaze... Mercifully I'm seldom back at Requiem Towers these days. You seem to throw a one man metal party every night. What gives?

It's a lot cooler today (Melbourne weather goddamn), so I'll go with no for now, but on our hot days with sand getting everywhere and sun burn destroying my vampiric visage, I'll trade for a couple of weeks!

Braving the summer sun at the beach on this interminable family holiday. Oh for some snowy mountains beyond the great vast forest....

Yeah, so it's awesome posting on these forums around this time each night, where there is literally no one here hahaha. It's the deadtime for some reason. Not sure what time it is in the UK and US but I guess people are otherwise occupied!

Medicine

Understandable though, because there's always something funny about your own voice. People don't like seeing their true selves hahaha. Like bloody Jonas Renkse from Katatonia singing with his hair over his face the entire night. It's just ridiculous. It's like Uncle Fester with a microphone. He's a gun, put the hair out of your eyes and be the rockstar you want to be. But no, 90 minutes of a dude with his hair literally straight over his face. Lame.

Now Playing: My Dying Bride - Songs of Darkness, Words of Light. Their last true classic album. Bit of a worry it was 12 years ago. What an album though.

Have you guys heard 'Who Dies in Siberian Slush'? Amazing Russian band. Also one of the best band names ever. This song kills me.

Drinking is good for you.

Me too initially. Thankfully it wasn't that. As for putting powdered tobacco up my nose and into my sinuses... no thanks.

Wow, that's interesting about the cars. I've never driven either car so wouldn't have a clue. I'd be afraid I'd scratch it or something. Knowing me, I would go with either NWOBHM or the Sunset Strip, and to be honest I think I'd be going to Hollywood. That'd be amazing. You get two calls from an agent offering you a spot in two famous bands. Would you rather be a member of Iron Maiden or Metallica? (assume you're a kickass instrumentalist and could confidently handle the roles).

Speaking of - Rotting Christ - Sleep of the Angels. I love this album as it's during their gothic metal phase. They even went to Germany to record at Woodhouse studios where Sentenced, The Gathering and Theatre of Tragedy recorded. So it's got that great crisp late 90s production you can only get from Woodhouse. Love it. Also, as a point of interest, my CD copy of 'Sleep of the Angels' comes with a compilation CD called 'Darkness We Feel Volume II' that actually has the tracklisting IN THE ROTTING CHRIST BOOKLET! It's stapled in there in the middle pages. Really unusual and I think this is the only time I can recall this happening in my near thousand CD collection.

They live on in our memories and all that shit. It's funny though, because guys like us, True, are getting to an age where our childhood heroes are now fairly advanced in years. This is going to be happening more and more often, and with the internet and 24/7 news coverage I think we're going to notice it a lot more than, say, 20 years ago where you might see something in the newspaper or television news if the person was particularly significant. Nowadays we find out instantly ever tragic detail immediately.