NokturnalBoredom

Right now, I'm listening to Nokturnal Mortum "Twilightfall" different from all of their other work in that it's more of a doom metal album than black metal. Still really good material for being a demo though.

It's backed up by real-world examples and numbers though. You can find female bass players and guitar players, keyboardists & vocalists definitely but female drummers are rare. None of the women I know who play music (and I know scores of them, like upwards of 30 different women in music) ever wanted to play drums, not even in high school marching band... it was always a guys instrument and the girls would play either woodwinds or brass. Girls tend to like orchestra more anyway in my experience, because it's more... idk, "refined" than marching band. I know one girl who played drums in marching band and she never got that into it enough to play behind a kit. The only female drummers I can think of offhand are Mercedes Lander and the girl who was in Nekromantix for a while when I saw them tour but that doesn't change the fact that female drummers are in the extreme minority because drums are typically seen as a guys instrument due to the fact that pretty much all of the renowned rock and metal drummers are men. My sister works in the music industry and has brought it up before that women do not generally like to play drums because of the fact that the drummer is hard to see behind the kit. Which is why they tend to play guitar or bass (or in my sister's case, violin). Drummers tend to be men because of the jokes that we've all heard about drummers being dumb, sweaty, etc. (How do you know if the drummer's riser is uneven? Check which side of his mouth the drool is coming out of). I have noticed that women tend to be bass players in a lot of cases. Never figured out why this was but I have my guesses based on the same reason why I prefer to play bass than rhythm or lead guitar... Women also tend to be keyboardists and piano players on a much higher incidence than men. I don't know how that's reflected in metal, because I can only think of a handful of them but this information comes directly from my sister who is a working musician as we've had this conversation before at holidays when she would tell me about the projects she was working on. She knows one woman who plays drums and says that she's good enough to get by in a punk band, but can't do much aside from the very basic patterns that punk music requires. Female musicians don't generally tend to be that represented in metal anyway outside of vocalists. There are tons of them in indie rock, emo, alternative rock, hip-hop, punk and whatever else but metal is still a man's game for the most part based on what I know of the industry through my sister's stories. A lot of women who get into music are either session musicians or become idols/pop stars and that's just an undeniable fact because we can name them all off of the tops of our heads: Madonna, Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, Allison Goldfrapp, Jennifer Lopez, Pink, Avril Lavigne, et al. I know like two metal bands that are all women: Astarte and Kittie. The music is generally seen as too aggressive for a lot of women who want to make music, so they don't get involved in the genre because they'd rather make something more mellow.

I was looking for some of their stuff on Hells Headbangers but he doesn't have the two that I wanted to get right now, so I'm debating going through Osmose to see if I can find them. I'm going to actually check Spotify first to see if I like them before I go buying any of their albums.

Blind Guardian is great. I got into them through Tales from the Twilight World and specifically the song "Lord of the Rings". I was listening to them a lot when the Lord of the Rings movies came out. I feel like they are a criminally under-appreciated band & am not even sure if they have anything on vinyl, but I would totally pick up some of their stuff if it existed.

Rotting Christ "Non Serviam"

Around the 8th grade, probably the age of 14. I was into Nu-Metal like Orgy, Kittie, and Deftones but that Christmas I had some money and I went out and bought Iced Earth's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" because I had heard a kid at the friday night Magic the Gathering tournaments talking about Iced Earth and I wanted to see what they were about. Shortly after this, I went out and bought Metallica's "Master of Puppets". See in those days, I used to judge albums by their cover art so I saw two albums with cool cover art: Dark Funeral's "Secrets of the Black Arts" and Emperor's "In The Nightside Eclipse" and I bought both of those as well & from then on, I mostly forgot about Nu-Metal (save for Kittie, I had a huge crush on every girl in that band) and started listening to proper metal. It was only a matter of time from there that I was searching "goth metal" online and came across MP3s of a band called Nokturnal Mortum on The End Record's website, particularly the song Unholy Orathania off of the "Goat Horns" album and from that point on, I was fully hooked on black metal.

Nokturnal Mortum "Black Moon Overture" Goat Horns Nokturnal Mortum "The Funeral Wind Born in Oriana" Nechrist Burzum "Dunkelheit" Filosofem Emperor "Alsvartr (The Oath)" Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk Dark Funeral "The Secrets of the Black Arts" The Secrets of the Black Arts (not the true opener but the first proper song) Iced Earth "Angels Holocaust" Night of the Stormrider Rotting Christ "The Fifth Illusion (Furrowed Background)" Non Serviam

I just have a shitty $14 pair of Skullcandy earbuds. I don't tend to use headphones very often because I'm always listening to stuff on my turntable and it doesn't have a port for headphones as far as I am aware. My turntable is a Fluance RT80. Not the most advanced turntable by far, but does the job for me. I have edifier speakers that are bluetooth capable, but I'm not certain what the model number is for those. I eventually want to upgrade my turntable and give the one I have now to my buddy so he can get into vinyl too, but I'm not sure what I would even buy. Probably an RT81 elite by Fluance as I'm not looking to be shelling out tons of money on a turntable any time soon.

I did not like Dimmu Borgir's "Stormblast" (the original, not the blatant cash-in rerecording of 2005) when I was younger. I was into albums like Spiritual Black Dimensions, Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia, and Death Cult Armageddon because the guitars were very prominent and it sounded "brutal" and "hard". Only when I got older did I realize that the original recording of Stormblast was a very different, amazing record due to the way that the keys were pushed to the front and the guitars were down in the mix. I would love to find a copy of that mix on vinyl but sadly, because of the copyright infringement on (I think it was Sorgen's Kammer) that's probably never going to happen & the only one I'll be able to find is the garbage 2005 re-recording. Another album I never liked at first was the first Burzum album. Come to think of it, I did not like any of the Burzum albums as a kid because I was on a whole Dimmu Borgir/Cradle of Filth kick originally and thought that the only black metal worth listening to was stuff that had "good production". It wasn't until I got into my 30s that I realized that Burzum was some of the best black metal ever recorded and, this is going to be an unpopular opinion here, but is superior to Darkthrone and Mayhem in every way. Speaking of Darkthrone, A Blaze in the Northern Sky was another album that I did not like until I got older. I couldn't understand Darkthrone as a kid but now that I'm older I get what it was that they were going for. Still not my favorite black metal band, but I at least appreciate them now.

This is a hard call to make, but probably in terms of black metal: Nokturnal Mortum (always, my favorite black metal band of all time) Emperor (didn't do as much as NM did, but are essential for my vinyl collection) Marduk (Just can't not like these guys, their music was such a part of growing up for me) Rotting Christ (I really like how the Greek sound is different from Scandinavian & Slavic sounds) Burzum (Because the Burzum black metal albums are excellent, top shelf stuff) As far as other metal goes: Iced Earth (first non Nu-Metal band I ever got into... Night of the Stormrider and Burnt Offerings are classics) Cannibal Corpse (because they're an institution even though death metal isn't really my thing) Dying Fetus (Really the only other death metal band I'm into) Nightwish (Old Nightwish at least, not into the post-Tarja material) Acid Witch (because I like less serious, fun stuff as well and they have a great sound)

Metallica is the best example of this. The first three Metallica albums were great for their time and I still listen to them on occasion but as soon as Cliff died they began to change their style until they cut their hair and you got Load & ReLoad and now I can't even stomach listening to them anymore because they're basically just a hard rock band with the word "Metal" in their name, so everyone thinks that they're still a metal band when they really haven't been one since ...And Justice for All (which being completely fair, was never my favorite album by them). Slayer sort of changed their style too, but people liked them more for it. My favorite period of Slayer is like Show No Mercy through Hell Awaits because they were that early black metal thing that wasn't really well defined yet (Mercyful Fate often falls into this category and the kvlt kiddies get pissed about it when you say that Mercyful Fate was an early black metal band because they feel threatened by Mercyful Fate or something but let's be honest here: a lot of black metal bands cover Mercyful Fate so it's appropriate to put them in the "first wave of Black Metal" category in my mind). Another band I can think of that changed their sound and turned a lot of people off was Bathory. They went from true first wave black metal to Viking/Pagan metal and the kvlt kiddies are willing to say "Bathory isn't black metal" when they know that they can get away with it. Graveland is another one: They started off as black metal and did the same thing Bathory did and went viking/pagan on more recent albums. Only thing is Graveland fans can deal with it.

1914 is the shit but I'll be the first to admit that I am completely biased toward Ukrainian bands anyway because I am Ukrainian-American. They really are putting out the best stuff in recent years over there. My favorite black metal band of all time is Nokturnal Mortum and it's because of them that I realized that Ukraine tends to put out the best stuff these days. Sadly I think Norway & Sweden's time under the moon is over and Ukraine, Russia, & Poland have picked up the torch. Granted I still love Emperor, Marduk, Immortal and whatnot but it just seems like Scandinavia's black metal time has largely passed and that's OK because that's what happens to scenes-- they only last for so long until people grow out of them and want to start making different sorts of music. I think the reason that Ukraine, Poland, Belarus, Russia, and a lot of Eastern Europe is producing so much amazing black metal now is because they were living under communist repression for so long where that sort of nonconformity wasn't allowed whatsoever, so you have generations of artists that had been holding it in for so long, both the older guys who experienced communism and the younger generations who lived in the aftermath of the collapse, when people had to go out and sell their possessions to be able to eat, created a lot of hatred, misanthropy, and general negativity that is perfect for making amazing black metal. My buddy recently told me about 1914 and I'm going to be buying some of their stuff as soon as I can find it because they really are great and I like Marduk's WWII subject matter so a band that writes about WWI is pretty cool too, since WWI is the war that nobody ever really talks about when compared with WWII. Supposedly there's a band called Minenwerfer who writes a lot about WWI as well and I've heard great things about them, but I'd have to import their stuff from Osmose which costs an arm and a leg compared to Hell's Headbangers.

Well the other day I ordered a green vinyl copy of "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk" off of discogs and just now I ordered the following from Hells Headbangers: Graveland "Hour of Ragnarok" (Gold and black marble vinyl) Vietah "Smalisty zah" (clear vinyl) Witchtrap "Evil Strikes Again" (orange and green swirl vinyl) Varathron "Walpurgisnacht" (blue and white splatter vinyl) Obtest "Dyvlika Juodvarniu" 7" (picture disc) I decided that I can spend the money because it's what I would have spent at the Vinyl expo tomorrow if I was off of work, but chances are the expo isn't going to have a lot of metal so I was able to justify it. And after the day I had at work today, I deserve to buy some new albums. Good thing is I get half of my day's wages every time I work, so I'm never truly broke. Probably going to wait until next paycheck to buy any more albums. These should keep me busy for a while even if they'll take like a week to get here.

I'm listening to Varathron "Walpurgisnacht" because I'm probably going to buy a copy of it

I've been looking for a vinyl copy of that Kroda album for a minute now.

My buddy keeps telling me I need to check out 1914. He says that they'd be right up my alley. Right now I'm listening to Cro Mags "In The Beginning" not really metal I know, but I listen to a lot of different music.

Yeah actually, I'm a big fan of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Dave Brubeck. I have a few LPs by them and was just listening to them last night.

Nokturnal Mortum "Return of the Vampire Lord/Marble Moon". It's a comp, but it's actually one of my favorite albums by them due to the title track.

What's on my mind is trying to figure out how to get out of working with this rancid bitch night manager that I have to work with for an hour on Saturday. All of my other managers are fine, because they are leaders who are supportive and have a can-do attitude. This ginger Uruk-Hai is one of the nastiest people I've ever met, gets multiple customer complaints every day, likes to try and run off new hires so that her little night clique isn't disrupted, and is generally a hate filled and miserable person to work with. I cannot stand her. I had the option to leave early today, but I told the Manager on Duty "I'd rather leave early on Saturday so I don't have to work with (name) as I am pretty sure that she hates me". Got good news today though that she is on her last leg with the company. They just have to find a replacement for her and then she's getting let go for being such a nasty human being. I hope they find a replacement soon.

I think that women just don't like to play drums. The only female drummer I can think of is Mercedes Lander from Kittie, which was one of my favorite Nu-Metal bands as a kid before I really knew what metal actually was. I was one of the teenage boys who had Kittie photos all over his wall in the 9th grade and I had a massive crush on a girl at school who looked almost exactly like Morgan... that was not reciprocated until after high school when we had a pretty fun fling for a month.

I actually checked out TheMetalDetektor and was able to find the edition of Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk that I've been hunting after for ages (dark green vinyl). Granted it cost me $52 but I just got paid today, so no harm no foul. Probably going to be the last album I buy for a little while as I am running out of ideas for albums to get and need to start checking out new bands.

I haven't painted in a while. I draw and my drawing skills are the shits, but it's still something that I sometimes do for fun. The thing I'm actually into is woodburning. Some of my woodburnings look pretty good, others are also the shits. My skills are not that great, but it's still something I enjoy doing although I haven't done it in a minute.

I used to watch a decent amount of anime: Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, Wicked City, Evangelion, Escaflowne and the Miyazki movies among others. I remember really getting a kick out of Shin-Chan for a while. I didn't get that deep into manga, just Akira and Appleseed. It was too hard to find decent manga as most of the stuff that made it over to my bookstore was made specifically with angsty American teenagers in mind (which coincidentally, is the problem with most anime that makes it in the US now-- it's produced primarily for American teen audiences instead of Japanese audiences and it shows)

Where I live is quickly becoming over-developed and the amount of traffic even during the non-Snowbird season is starting to get ridiculous. Too many old people who run to the doctor every time they sneeze, so it's also somewhat difficult to get health & medical care when you need it as a result. The old people think that the working & family-raising age people exist specifically to serve them, and there are a lot of them that cop attitudes when you let it be known that you don't care about giving them what they want 24/7/365. Having said that, where I live is traditionally seen as the "home" of Death Metal in the United States but despite that, we don't have anywhere near as many good shows as we used to in the 00s and even the 10s. Most of the shows now are gentle indie rock or hipster mumble rap shows. The area where I specifically live is only about twenty minutes from the beach when there is no traffic, but I don't get to go a lot anymore because of the constant red tide that has been happening more and more frequently and for longer periods throughout the year. We also get some pretty fantastic thunderstorms and a good portion of the year, it rains every afternoon (although I think that we're out of that season for the year now). Truth be told, I won't be living down here that much longer. God willing, I'll be moving to upstate NY in another year or two to be closer to family (aunt & uncle, sister & brother in law) and it will be a refreshing change from the almost thirty years that I've been living down here. Not terribly excited about having to shovel snow again, because that shit is physically difficult and driving in snow is not a terrible lot of fun as driving already makes me nervous enough down here. Hoping that when we do move, that there will be come better hardcore and metal shows in the area, but barring that I'll just take the bus into the city to see the shows I want to see if NYC ever opens back up and life ever gets back to normal (which I'm honestly not counting on for other reasons & think that we're entering a new, remarkably shitty phase of life in the formerly awesome US&A that's going to make everyone pine for the George W. Bush years as a "better time" which let's be honest, is not something I used to think about when W was in office)

Batushka - Raskol