MaxFaust

Either would suddenly add more than a decade to my age ... and I'd like it to be a little slower than that ... but for the purposes of this game: Ace Frehley. I could make up just about any shit and claim legend. KK seems more "normal" ... all things considered. How else am I gonna get laid at that age? David Bowie or Mick Jagger (in their 1970s form)?

I've been with Mayhem since 1986. There are some "older" fans than that, but not many. However, I agree that they got several orders of magnitude more musically interesting after Blasphemer came into the picture. That Wolf's Lair thing was pretty impressive back in the day. Before, they were arguably more myth and posture than actual performers of art worth taking seriously. Which is okay, but it's not the same thing. I have a soft spot for that "total performance" thing, where somebody go "all in" for the purpose of making a point. This is not unheard of in the great tradition of black metal. But "its a long way to the top if you wanna rock'n'roll" and there's no way at all if you haven't got the right kind of chemistry working between several people who are singularly talented in their own right. Which is why I have no problem saying that Mayhem didn't come into "true form" like that until the first Maniac/Blasphemer incarnation. I also like the work with Attilla. The "old" Mayhem was a whole different kind of act. They were less artistical and more political.

Definitely 8/10. Psychobilly is "up there" ... and Nekromantix is among the best. But now for something completely different. I bought this on 7" in 1981 ... based only in the creepy looking cover art (it was some kind of industrial gulag death camp thing). I was expecting some kind of punk act, but what I got was much, much better ...

That's my observation as well. Lots of strange (and seemingly random, often) things pop up there. Right at this very moment, I can't think of anything "sensational" that I've discovered that way ... but the normal way this works is that I get clues, and when I start following the lead, I often wind up with some interesting "insight" about who did what, and when ... related to sideprojects, other bands, and so forth.

What's really funny about this all is -- as was covered in another thread just the other day -- that a consevative estimate of how many "metal" releases there were in 2018 is in the area of 16-18,000 ... so there's just no way anybody is going to know everything about everything, let alone listen to it all. Add, too, that there is no real agreement over what "metal" means. The internal debate among metalheads, over the issue, must seem like madness to an outsider. A typical civilian might perhaps associate all "noisy" music that has screeching guitars and pounding rhythm as "metal" ... whereas for instance if they listened to something like that recent Bell Witch album, they might think that some kind of weird, experimental jazz. He and I had words over the issue ... specifically the Mercyful Fate problem. I just don't see it. Seriously. How can MF be considered black metal by any stretch of the imagination? I mean, I was there. I remember what happened. Everybody loved "Melissa". Both people who were "venomous" (who were into darker, harder, dirtier stuff) and people who were "bitches" (commercial metal, har and MTV, the whole shebang). That was what it was like at the time. I suspect that the genre classification confusion here -- the Mercyful Fate problem -- has a lot to do with that whole "Satan" thing that was going on in America at the time. Melissa was kind of shocking like that, I imagine, to people who for any reason have to defer to that sort of nonsense. After all, MF was a Danish band. We Scandis don't take the religious stuff seriously, really. It's s theatre thing. Psychodrama. And King Diamond ain't nothing if not theatrical. Hence all the cheepnis shclock schock effects. For fun. For the hell of it.

OK ... now this is on my mind. That's a clear candidate to being the funniest fucking thing I will hear all day.

... come about new things? New sounds, new stuff, new bands, whatever? I get all my news online these days. The problem isn't as much finding stuff as filtering off all the slag material, to get to the gold. Also, both production quality and technical competence is at a higher level of "normal" than it has ever been before. I mean ... back when the Van Halen debut album arrived, I think it was 1978, everybody was positively stunned. OMG! That guy may actually be better on guitar than Richie Blackmore! How is that even possible? (And so on. We were very young.) But nowadays, you will find 8 year old Chinese children on YouTube, performing "Eruption" to a very high standard, on their Hello Kitty toy guitar. It's fucking ridiculous. However, things don't becessarily have to be "great" that way. Back in 1982 I said bye-bye to Iron Maiden because I didn't like the new road they were taking because of their new singer. On its own merit, Paul Di'Anno doesn't reach Bruce Dickinson to the knees, as a singer, properly speaking, but that's not what it's all about. You can be like the best technician ever, but still not be able to feel it the right sort of way, at least as far as my own taste goes. I speak for nobody else. Which is why I went with Venom and that sort of thing back in the day. Iron Maiden was the "better band" from a music analyst perspective, but Venom had the right attitude. Needless to say, things have changed a little since 1982. Also, shit is piling up. I keep buying stuff on a whim, in thrift and charity shops, because ... how could I not? This is why, for instance, I have close to everything Metallica has ever released, even though I don't particularly like anything Metallica has done after Cliff Burton died. Except for those "garage" things they have made. They are fun. But it's not like I'm looking for "the band that ate Metallica" or anything like that. I just like the Motorhead and Venom attitude ... some, far from all, of the black metal boys, that sort of thing. Blah blah whatever ... the question is, what's your favourite source for "inspiration" in this regard?

I think most people wind up in that position, eventually. Even those who choose to invest considerable amounts of lifetime towards the cause of keeping order in the haunted house. The thing with subgenres is that it may be helpful if you're looking for "new stuff". Something that's similar to the stuff that you already like. But it goes a little too far, in my opinion, when it becomes doctrine and "truth".

Grandpa is having one of his 1970s acid flashbacks again, so ... I'm currently into May Blitz, Spirit and the Petards. None of which you kids have heard of, of course. There is also a little Hawkwind. What do I do while listening to music? Well, I'm a writer. So ... I write. Nothing exciting there, except to an outside observer, I must look like a right tosser, giggling at my own funnies, waving my arms and talking to myself. There is a chicken and egg problem. Whenever I write nasty stuff I like to play nasty music. But I am not sure which one "comes first". It's probably a mood kind of thing. Who knows where the ideas come from?

Aye. It starts out really promising ... then they kind of lose it a little for a while. About Voodoo, Inc. I'd have to say that it's competent and well made ... but it kind of sounds like a bunch of other bands that I think of as "the Pantera genre" (with more or less deviation from true form) ... so I don't really get any feeling of "hey this is interesting" or anything like that. Nothing to complain about, nothing to brag about. Everyday meat and potatoes. So a solid 6/10. Here's a souvenir from Denmark, 1969:

The first thing that came to my mind was Merzbow. Japanese chap. He makes "noise sculptures" with all sorts of arcane electronic equipment. Not all of it intended to be pleasing to the ears. Excellent, though. I'm gonna have to check that out, power electronics.

What does "power electronics" mean?

Friend of mine couldn't figure my taste. There is seemingly no order. I said it's the fuzz, man. That crunchy fuzz. That's what's doing it for me. Upbeat or downbeat, it's all about the fuzz. Do you have a name for what appeals to you? (Especially when it falls somewhat outside of your "usual" direction of taste.)

I can't say that I'm big on horror books ... but I luv me a good horror movie! There are even some "collector" tendencies. Both the classics and newer, "postmodern" stuff ... where you can't really tell if what's going on is "for real" or something that's only happening in the mind of the lead character(s). Such as for instance Haute Tension (High Tension, or some times also called Switchblade Romance) and Martyrs.

Of albums released in 2018 ... are you fucking kidding me? I'm not even up to date with the 80s yet ... it seems kind of random what I hear about and not, so it's not like I've made any informed and conscious choice based in what I've listened to and subsequently arranged in some kind of neat order ... I can only say that there are two albums that have seriously hit it home with me this year of 2018: There is Craft, "White Noise And Black Metal" ... it appeals to me for the same reasons that the "new" Mayhem appeals to me. There is some kind of weird "surgical chaos" vibe going on in there that I find pleasing. Very competent work with several layers of discreet complexity. The "trve evil kult" black metal kids are probably not going to like this album, but metal conisseurs, musicians and intellectuals might just find a gem. Then there is Rivers of Nihil, "Where Owls Know My Name" ... which is one of those projects that break the form, in that it incorporates elements of various, seemingly incompatible things, such as chugging death metal riffs with a mellow saxophone solo ... which really should NOT work, but it kind of does anyway. Very interesting album, also a strangely beautiful creature. My third mention is going to be Outre-Tombe ... but I haven't quite processed that one yet. However, it seems so far that it might just become one of my "legends". We shall see.

Another note on this issue: For some time now, I've been trying to understand why people are so hard assed about this "genre" thing. Because it wasn't like that at all back in the day. Nobody could care less whether it was rock or punk or glam or metal or whatever. Having the right kind of "groove" was what it was all about. Also, I suppose the attitude went a long way. Being in opposition, like. The only reasonable explanation I can come up with is the practical impossibility of having a "broad genre" approach these days. I asked about this in another thread. Thing is, mathematically speaking, a year has only 8,760 hours, and I think the total metal production in our world of today goes WAY beyond that ... so it's physically impossible to cover everything, no matter your good will and intention. The next step will probably be to get married to some more specialized subgenre then. Such as focusing exclusively on death, thrash, prog, stoner, trad, whatever ... and also mayhaps being a little defencive about this, in a "my way is the right way" kind of way. I don't know. The age of the old school "rock star" thing may be over. It's about genres now.

I keep buying shit all the time ... being still a "hard copy" kind of guy (I don't even own a smartphone) ... so that CD rack will have to be disassembled and replaced by something with more shelf space pretty soon. I keep putting that off. I also need to make another book shelf. Whatever. Ain't no big hurry. Anyway, I got both May Blitz albums at a bargain price recently. That's probably of no interest to anybody who's not into either 70s or "stoner rock" ... but if you are, I think it's still in stock at Amazon. It's not the "real" albums of course, but a re-release of both records on just one disc. Hurricane Records in Berlin might be involved. They have done that sort of thing with other great (but somewhat forgotten) names from the 70s scene, like Sir Lord Baltimore and Aunt Mary. Other than that, I think a lot of people are dumping their CD collecions these days Why else would you find so much cool stuff from the 80s in thrift and charity shops? I picked up a copy of "Melissa" for ONE euro. I had to. Fucker sells for like a 100 on Amazon. Why do need two copies? I don't. I'll probably gift one of them some day, to some young snotpuddle who don't know shit about "the good old days" ha ha.

I'm gonna have to give Monolord 9/10 ... because I fucking love that album. If I were forced to "sacrifice"most of what I've acquired over the last couple of years, the Monolord album would be among the last to go. Over to some Mexican proto-metal from way back in Aztec times.

I never met Peter Steele, but I find it really hard to imagine Lemmy in a fight. Seriously. I don't think he would even know what to do. He simply wasn't that kind of guy. On the other hand, why would anyone want to fight Lemmy? He never told a lie in his life and he never bothered anybody.

Curiouser and curiouser. That's not exactly my cup of tea ... so 2/10 for effort? Have things gone disco here lately? I like some of that ... how about this one?

"Human" by Death has been on high rotation these last few weeks.

I must admit having a problem with the very concept of "prog metal". I'm like that bird who comes flying along and then goes THUD into the window glass ... that is called 70s prog rock. While everybody else is flying merrily along, I'm stuck in the 70s. There is no getting around it. Arrested development, probably. Only today, I was at the post office and picked up a specimen of "Pet Arts" by the Petards, on CD, ordered through Amazon. German chaps, from 1971. "Krautrock" they used to call it. Not so much any kind of metal as perhaps "heavy psych" ... with tendencies towards "space rock". (Hawkwind is the big dick in the genre of space rock.) OK that was a lot of unnececessary information ... point is, as soon as I read the word "prog" my mind goes all 70s on me. It can't be helped. That being said, I did in fact enjoy the album "Affinity" by Haken (that's pronounced like the word "taken"). I believe they get sorted under the genre of "prog metal". It was released a couple of years ago.

I have a feeling that the Pink Floyd album classic "The Wall" ought to have a sales peak these days ... since that word is having a weird kind of reoccurrence as "talking point" in mainstream politics. Doesn't search engines favour certain buzz words? Does this reflect any kind of reality ... or is it just one of those funny things?

Specialization is inevitable at this point in time. I have the feeling that I've heard pretty much "everything" that was released in 1980 ... but only a few years after, I'd definitely lost control and started looking for narrower genre-oriented material ... in the general direction of Motorhead, Venom, Exciter, Tank ... as the eternal problem with this sort of thing is money. You just can't afford to buy it all. And even if you could, when are you going to have time to listen to everything? Also, there's a new problem in town. What exactly constitues an "album" these days? That was a spinoff question that came up during one of those inevitable "record of the year" conversations. It would seem like the music market is back at that point in the 50s and 60s when people would buy singles rather than albums. I have friends my own age who have completely stopped buying music in hardcopy. Instead, they have a godzillion tunes on their fucking phone. Who saw that one coming? Also, people cherrypick one or two songe from albums released by various bands, rather than buying the entire product. I'm uncertain what this "means" (if anything).

I can tell you why, but I'm unsure whether you'll believe me. Fear was never the issue. The word would be something closer to disgust. He thought of the metal scene as a bunch of fucking idiots. He would read magazines in search of "this week's most ridiculous band name" and laugh at their pathetic attempts at looking "evil and scary" ... when in fact they are just a bunch of ignorant kids. Metal as a separate genre wasn't created by the fan base, it's a mind trick that the record industry came up with to boost sales. Anybody who can remember a time before metal knows what happened ... because they watched it go down. It was like the Spanish Inquisition suddenly came to town and started sorting the good from the bad, the worthy from the unworthy ... and now we have a situation where people almost kill eachother over whether this or that is "true metal".