Requiem

I gave it a good go last night, which was unwise because tonight Belief is coming over and tomorrow night is a black metal show, which means alcoholocaust. It's a long weekend in Melbourne so the family has fled to the beach and I'm unchaining the wolf within.

Huge Darkthrone push at the moment. Just played: 'Ravishing Grimness' with commentary Now playing: 'Total Death' with commentary. I'm really loving these two albums as well as 'Hate Them'. Just great, atmospheric albums.

Me too. What do you think? I actually really like it. It took a few listens but I'm enjoying it a lot.

So the 'Henhouse Recordings' have been released on CD by good old Peaceville just as I'd hoped, and I now have a copy. It came out January 24th, and a few months earlier on vinyl. When I saw it on vinyl I was really hoping it would get a CD release, and like all patient maniacs it eventually came to me. It's a recording of a rehearsal from 1989 and features the mighty Dead, Euro, Necro, Hellhammer line-up. Just to save everyone the hassle of listening to it, the sound is pretty bad. I'm obviously a perverted Mayhem apologist, but even for me this sound is terrible hahaha. Oh man. Don't expect a great deal of sonic precision. It says a lot about the appetite for Mayhem CDs when this thing can be released on a decent label (and people like me buy it...). The reason it's taken 31 years to come out is because in the past people wouldn't have tolerated this shit. There aren't even any real liner-notes or discussion on Mayhem, because it's all been covered on the previous 5 or 6 live CDs Peaceville have released. I think Peaceville have given up and are now just releasing literally everything they have come hell or high water and can't be fucked interviewing Metalion and Faust about their first Mayhem experiences again. It's still cool though. The talking between songs is interesting even though it's in Norwegian, as it's always special to hear Dead and Euronymous's speaking voices. You can't hear a lot of Dead's vocals on the songs, probably due to where the tape recorder is set up, but for some reason you can hear the between song banter really clearly. I have so many versions of the songs 'Deathcrush' and 'Freezing Moon' by now, and these two songs appear twice on this disk! I think I probably have 21 unique versions of 'Freezing Moon' in the collection. I'm too afraid to actually do a full audit. By far the most interesting aspect of the release is Track 7 (Untitled). Remember when you were listening to Emperor's 'Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk' and the booklet said that the intro to 'Ye Entrancemperium' was written by Euronymous? Well, here it is, Track 7 on this recording! It's actually the same speed, key and everything, as far as I can tell. Sort of amazing to hear that opening played here. This is a really amazing inclusion for the collector. There's also a DVD with this release which I'm too afraid to play because I know I'm going to get some unwatchable grainy footage. I'll save it for a (very) rainy day. Stay tuned for the next time I shell hard earned money over for some sort of shitty Mayhem related item.

Interesting. Reminds a little bit of Tristania in their glory days. Like most videos, I prefer the music to the corny visuals, and despite myself I actually do like this. It has a great vibe that fills the empty spot in my soul that Tristania left when Morten left. I'd love to hear why you posted the video and what your thoughts are, beyond that a lot of other people have also clicked on their youtube video.

I've bought a fair bit of stuff lately, and let's be honest, I can't remember it all precisely and you can't be bothered reading about it. But what I do want to post is that I've purchased a second copy of Bathory's - 'Blood Fire Death'. The reason being, I originally bought a cheap copy off ebay thinking I had an official version at a great price, but what I ended up with was a very poor, colour photocopied version by a company called Kraze. The inlay had no lyrics and it was just a shoddy presentation. If anyone is going to buy this album, check that it's not the Kraze version. So I went ahead and bought the 2003 Black Mark release, which at least has the lyrics and a crisply clear front and back cover. It also leads me to believe that the first 5 Bathory albums are sorely in need of a proper re-release in deluxe editions. It seems a pity that this hasn't happened. And even more of a pity if it's happened and I've missed it somehow...

Updated Darkthrone collection. I've been going through a bit of a Darkthrone resurgence lately and finally picked up all the releases I felt I was missing. Most interesting is the 'Black Death and Beyond' release, with its huge book that includes a biography, rare photos and everything you could imagine about the band, as well as three disks that chronicle their three stages: Black (excellent), Death (good) and Beyond (dodgy). I also have a flag, a couple of versions of 'Transilvanian Hunger' including the notorious Norsk Arisk deleted version and some clothes that I wear to church. Edit: Just realised I've effectively double-posted, considering the very last post was also my Darkthrone collection. I'll change it up next time with a different collection!

Satanic Warmaster - 'We are the Worms That Crawl on The Broken Wings of an Angel' A5 digipak This cost a little bit on ebay, but it's worth it. Like a similar release by Moonblood, this elegant package contains a number of Satanic Warmaster's tracks from various split CDs over the years. 12 tracks of True Finnish Black Metal. Melodies everywhere. Darkness entire.

Darkthrone - ‘Old Star’ I eventually bought this. It’s pretty cool but ultimately about as exciting as... something that’s not very exciting.

Amen. I’ve made no secret of my eternal love for this album, and no future secrets shall be made about it either. I think the only other release to transport me so thoroughly into the world of the album is ‘October Rust’. ‘Dusk’ is a true gothic fantasy sprung to life.

I love that clean vocalist hahaha. That would be great fun. I loved Tomi J as much as anyone when he burst into our lives, but I’m kind of tired of his voice(s) for some reason. Perhaps due to the sheer number of albums they’ve pumped out since 2004? He’d be a beast live though - I can only imagine.

Amorphis are one of my few favourite bands that I’ve never seen live. This would be an amazing show! Even better if Tomi K did the vocals, but that could be asking too much. Long weekend coming up. It’s going to be metal to the brim.

Death to life affirming death metal and their jogging suits.

Lot’s of mistake’s grammatically, but stil’l funn’y.

Katatonia - ‘Lacquer’ The first track released from the new album ‘City Burials’. It’s a very modern electronic song in the vein of ‘Unfurl’. No guitars or real drums. Interesting choice for first single, considering they’ve stated that there are some real rockers on the album. I think this is a soft track to get us ready for the big metal second single. It grows after several listenings. I’ll share my full thoughts in the Katatonia forum when I grab a computer....

Aldo Nova was the next big thing for a while. Nothing cheesy about leopard skin jump suits and lasers in guitars. That’s what rock should be! NP: Rotting Christ select tracks.

It’s hot as hell in Melbourne today. 43 Celsius. Cold air and beer required.

More so. It’s a black metal classic and far beyond my wildest hopes and expectations. NP: Mgla - ‘Exercises in Futility’ soon: Mayhem - ‘Daemon’

Gorgoroth - 'Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt' Fantastic Infernus written album, played at loud volume. Hail Infernus, the true master of Gorgoroth.

After perusing the extensive and opulent book shelves at Castle Requiem, I'm managed to located the two books in question. I have: 'Liber Al Vel Legis (The Book of the Law') Redwheel/Weiser 2004, Hardcover, Red with Gold font on the cover. Contains facsimiles of Crowley's original handwritten draft at the back. 'The Book of the Goetia - or The Lesser Key of Solomon the King', Softcover, Martino Publishing, Mansfield Centre CT, which is a glorious facsimile of the 1903 edition, containing all the charts, chants. They're so evil I think I accidentally summoned three daemons between taking the books down and writing this post.... Hail Crowley. King of indecipherable books that suckers still buy in the 21st century!

Bathory - 'Blood Fire Death' The final black metal album from the mighty Quorthon before he invented viking metal. This is a very good album, but I don't love it as much as a lot of people do. I prefer the debut and 'Under the Black Mark', but it's still a classic, obviously.

When the Bible was first translated into local languages and printed via Gutenberg's infernal machine, a lot of this mysterious forced trust took a different shape. Religious belief didn't disappear, which is really interesting - it just encouraged a new form of worship. You do see cults everywhere. Mankind was born in tribes, so it's little wonder tribes still prevail, albeit ideological ones in 'progressive' western societies. Also, regarding Crowley's books: I have a couple and gosh they're hard to read. Largely gobbledegook and claptrap. I was hoping for a little more coherence. Maybe I have the wrong books.

Twilight Force - 'Dawn of the Dragonstar' What a glorious and engaging epic of power metal this is.

Restless, this sounds like an amazing trip. I've always wanted to go to Japan, but alas it hasn't come up on the cards yet. It's definitely next on my list of new countries to visit, but I don't think it's on the radar at the moment unfortunately. When do you leave? Also on my mind is that this is the last night with the Castle to myself, and that's ok because I'm kind of growing tired of the metal lifestyle. It's been good and hey, I'll have a few vinos tonight, but I'm looking forward to regular life beginning again. I'm doing Feb Fast as well, which I do most years. Not sure if this is a thing outside Australia, but it basically means you go without something all through February, usually alcohol. So I'm doing alcohol and junk food. My body is going to thank me.... But tonight, it's still January....

Wintersun - 'Time 1' I bought the special mediabook edition of this back when it came out and it's really cool. While I like the epic tunes and the Japanese(!) theme running throughout the music, I initially found it all a bit too plastic/digital sounding. I've long since come to peace with it and can really enjoy this. In fact, unlike a lot of people, I prefer 'The Forest Seasons' and 'Time 1' over the self-titled debut. By the way, did Wintersun ever get around to building their own studio with the bags of loot they acquired through crowdfunding?