MaxFaust

1. The "Mars" movement from Gustav Holst's Planet Suite. It is, literally, the tritone theme that inspired the song Black Sabbath, by the band by the same name. So a bit like heavy metal, yes. 2. That gunfire thing from the 1812 overture by Piotr Tchaikovsky. 3. I feel like there should be something by Wagner. Let's do the classic, Ride of the Valkyries. (I'll leave the Paganini angle to someone else.) Rite of Spring is by Stravinsky. Big scandal in Paris back in the day. Fascinating story.

Awright ... as the song started, I was thinking "power metal" ... and I'm not big on power metal ... but then it evolved ... and I would have to say that I'm now in agreement ... who the hell are these guys? 8/10 Which leaves me with the task of providing the power metal (don't ask).

Okay ... Japanese cosplay girls who do the rock'n'roll ... that's a clear 7/10. And that pony thing above definitely goes on my permanent playlist. Now ... let's do the 80s ...

Hmm. I was under the impression that Therapy was considered a valid "nu metal" band, kind of genre similar with Primus, Prong and SOAD ... but whatever. I've heard "rock band" too. Either way, I like that sort of thing. 7/10. Now for something completely different:

Ay caramba ... Kingdom Come. Yeah, I remember them. I even have a CD, or maybe two ... but I don't like them much. They belong to a genre of "MTV formatted bands" that was the metal mainstream of the 1980s. They all sounded the same, looked the same, and had the same road crew (that were the ones I related to). Competent and all, but very formulaic. 6/10. I grew up in the 70s ... and used to dig this kind of stuff:

That was quite interesting ... deserving a 7/10 for making me google it ... because it came in with a distinct "80s feel" that made me puzzled, because I shoulda heard of them. Then I listened some more and came to the decision that it must be retro ... one of those many "wave" things ... that are like "core" things, insofar that they can mean anything these days. So I googled. My "probably no more than ten years old" prediction was correct. I like to be right. Now I feel all happy and shit. Let's stick with the "artsy" theme ...

The golden trio is also sometimes called "Sad Stains of Sin". Easy to remember, innit.

Fucking classic!!! A major musical kick back in the day. 9/10. Sone years later ... and also somewhat inspired ... "black space metal" from Norway ...

Good grief. I remember that stuff. They're very good at what they do, I just don't like it much. 4/10 Let's move for some 80s German disco-punk (Nina Hagen's old backing band)

This is going to be weird no matter what. My first thought is that I could probably name twenty bands that are important from the year 1973 alone. Which I shall so not do, so relax. However, it remains a fact that 1973 is the year I got into "hard rock and heavy metal" (I guess a somewhat broader umbrella applies, on account of seniority), so there's been some years. So there's that. Then there are some peculiarities. For instance, I like Judas Priest before 1980, Iron Maiden before 1982, Metallica before 1987, and so forth. So ... fuck it, this is not the sort of thing I want to overthink, so I'm just gonna list 20 bands that seems like "repeat offenders" in the sense that I play their records a lot. As in more than just one record that they made, and that I also like. There must be a certain consistency over time, in that they've been "with me" for a while ... without me getting tired of them. One last disclaimer though. With few exceptions, any band on this list could be replaced by "something similar" that I could also find in the shelves ... so not written in stone, by any means. It's more like an imaginary situation, where I have to quickly decide which 20 bands I'd like to bring with me for a year alone somewhere remote. My "one full year diet" so to speak. With such caveats as has been mentioned, here we go: 20. Sodom. German act. Runs on pure fury. This is Motorhead level, bare knuckled rock'n'roll attitude. 19. System Of A Down. They get included because I seem to play them a lot, yet I hardly ever mention that. 18. Kvelertak. Norwegian "black'n'roll" act that lays down a serious effort on blowing people away. 17. Kreator. See "Sodom" ... only more technical, perhaps also a notch more aggressive. 16. Electric Wizard. I don't know WTF it's called. Stoner? Doom? Whatever. It rocks. 15. Wo Fat. Definitely stoner. As fat as you'd expect, from the name. 14. Diamond Head. Classic NWOBHM act from ye aulde days. 13. Cro-Mags. Metal meets hardcore, yet it's not metalcore. Like a riddle. 12. Obituary. Picked up "Rot" because of the corny cover. "Yeah it's pretty heavy" said the clerk. It was. 11. Slayer. Nuff said. 10. Darkthrone. Let's be real: This is Gylve "Fenriz" Nagel's art performance project. It's still on the road. 9. Gojira. They are different ... but they do whatever it is that they do very well. 8. Rammstein. You either get it or you don't. 7. Led Zeppelin. It's genius. Really. There will never be another band like that. 6. Mayhem. Call me weird, but I like them for their music. All that other nonsense is only annoying. 5. Deep Purple. 1970. In Rock. OMG! Nobody could believe their ears. Then it got better. 4. Death. The band that never did anything wrong. Except for what the name kind of gave away. 3. King Diamond. (Also MF.) For the second time today: You either get it or you don't. 2. Black Sabbath. Where it started for me. My first "heavy album" was Paranoid, for my birthday in 1973. 1. Motorhead. My 16th birthday in 1979. Overkill. I saw the god sound. I still see it.

Hmm ... I'm going to be "political" about it and say 9/10 (even if it's only an "8" ) just because I think that particular Slayer album is so criminally underrated. But as far as thrash metal go, this is the shit:

Yeah ... that was before Buzzcocks became interesting ... so 5/10. If I wasn't already Viking -- with enough badass history to indulge in -- I'd want to be Mongol.

Playing other people's music may not be as glorious as making it all on your own ... but my opinion on the matter is that you get a lot of interesting interpretations of this and that song because of ... shall we say the "tribute" end of cover versions, as in when really competent people do your material in "their" way ... rather than trying to sound like, here and now, Darkthrone. If you're going to sound exactly like the original, then that's a great way to rehearse and learn of course, but perhaps less interesting as "cover version" per se. Darhthrone has made numerous GREAT songs ... but this is perhaps the most covered one:

Only vaguely so. We're not friends or anything, we just used to hang out in the same places, know a lot of the same people, like the same dirty rotten sounding bands, etc. The music scene in Norway is comparatively small, so there's quite a lot of "crossing over" between the phylums, so to speak. I belong to the "punk" generation that peaked around the year 1980, whereas the larger bulk of the black metal scene in Norway is around 10 years younger than me ... but I still know the Darkthrone boys enough that it would be a little weird if I did not go and say hi if we met by chance somewhere. Anyway ... speaking of Darkthrone covers: Then there is this: And let's not forget the genre benders:

You can use them however you like, but they mean two very different things. Whether that's useful information to you is a different matter. Again, none of my business.

Left Lane Cruiser - Bring Yo' Ass To The Table

I guess that's edging the non-metal concept a little ... but hey, if they are going to rap, I prefer they rap in a langage I don't understand, so that was like a more likeable nu metal band in my ears ... which is still not great, so 5/10. Let's try some rather minimalist blues ...

So ... this entire black metal section is four pages long at this point in time. I wasn't expecting to not find any Darktrone in the black metal section of a metal forum ... nor did I ... because at last, on the very last page, there was a Darkthrone thread ... but that one went to shits and has remained dead since 2013. Someone didn't like some record, or possibly a song, and were unable to accept that others could enjoy it, so it was like that. You can't really have a proper discussion under such conditions. Nor can you really salvage the thread. Nor should you, probably. Anyway, I've been following Darkthrone since 1988 ... and I will very likely keep on listening to whatever they care to publish. It's not complicated. I like Darkthrone. Those who don't, feel free to find something else to enjoy. Life is too short to bitch about all the stuff that seems less than pleasing to you. That being said, let's move on. I've been hunting for Darkthrone cover songs. Check this out:

Brant Bjork - Tao of the Devil

Please allow me to quote myself: See? Two different things. "Supernature" is the philosophical concept of a spirit world, or "realm beyond" in some other kind of way, that we are sort of connected to by way of a soul, which may be immortal. "Paranormality" means -- literally -- things that are on the side of what's normal. When people say "supernatural" they mean creatures from this other world arrangement, that cause things to happen "here on earth". Gods and demons, angels and whatnot. Saying that something is paranormal means in and of itself only that it's a freak incident, that can't be explained at the moment. It stops being paranormal as soon as it gets "explained" (even wrongly). Fuck me, I'm starting to feel like bloody Ghostbusters.

Yeah ... well ain't that an easy one. The hot shit from back when I was a punk ass kid in my early 20s. 9/10 of course. So let's try to hit two birds with one stone:

Sonoluminescence is another thing it might be of some interest to look into. The phenomenon is well known ... but the mechanisms are unknown. Good old sound may, under certain conditions, cause a bit of a light effects show. It's not something I've speculated a lot around, I must confess, this ghost business. I don't believe in any supernature, outside of psychology. However, I'm willing to accept that people see all kinds of weird shit all over the place, all the time. Edited to add: Anlil Seth's TED talk on neuroscience is 17 minutes well spent.

Anyway, back to the thrashing board. I haven't seen Dead Trooper mentioned anywhere. I think some will like them: Then there is of course Cadaver ... Since three is a charm, we'll thrown in thos crossover-blackthrash piece of work by Sarke:

There's something off about the time count ... but they deserve a clean 6/10 for fighting spirit. For once, I shall post something newer ... fron Norway ... that I've just stubled over by accident:

Meh. Maybe if they had increased the speed by about 30% ... so 5/10.