DOOMS DAY METAL

Photos by Peter Beste

Fenriz himself

Nattefrost, covered in his own shit in his bathtub

Whaddayouknow! A Danish survey showed that experts are used in papers and press more than ever before, and that they are pathologically S U B J E C T I V E.

I will, only partly, be THAT honest.

To give you all a heads up on Black Metal, I think I’ll just avoid what sucks more than BOA vs. PYTHON and start cranking shit out. After a weekend of excess somebody asked me if I got around to see EMPEROR. So, eh—I guess (for those of you into progressive BM) they have A: reformed, or B: reformed slightly, for some gigs or what not. My friend Oscar, from the German band OLD that we recently signed to our Tyrant Syndicate label, points out that Emperor had (HAS?!) more riffs in one song than the Old debut album will contain as a whole. He he.

Norway stirs up with bands like URGEHAL and TSJUDER—strong bands with a will to conquer, tightly followed by VULTURE LORD, although I have to share with you that modern old school Black Metal have way too good drummers. It’s like Mickey Dee in Motörhead—sure it’s tighter than Condoleeza’s ass, but I miss the shabbiness. Which GHASTLY from Australia has plenty of, they even play an ancient RUNNING WILD cover and make it sound blacker than BOOTSY! Also, the latest patch on MY jacket is Australian VOMITOR. Their Bleeding the Priest album may not be brand new, but it has the best Black Metal feeling I have heard for ages. Other ABSURDLY great albums were SARCOMA INC’s Torment Rides Forever and NATTEFROST’s first solo Blood and Vomit. His recent offering didn’t have shabby enough drums for me, ha ha, but he already has an immortal hit song amongst our Oslo crew with the outrageous “DANSDANSDJEVELDYRKAR!!!” track from this years Terrorist album. Also, ANYTHING with ORCUSTUS is great beyond belief. This band has ex-Gehenna, Enslaved, and last but not least GORGOROTH members on the prowl. And GORGOROTH themselves will try to tour extensively before police and authorities get their clutches dug into them once again. *shudder*

On a pleasant mid-August afternoon I met up with Geir Kolden, metal monger and regular Elm Street metal DJ for the Monday metal nights, to drink and be merry on a pre-listening session of the new 1349 album. Entrancing and hard as well, they have a brave production from STUDIO STUDIO, and the final track was an instant classic—it sounded like Burzum gone Wagner.

Journalism…I have to share this with you, I am really not allowed to even speak to the press right now. But I can blame it on my recent therapy sessions when I hereby blurt out that Darkthrone’s “difficult twelfth album” is now finished. Nuff said.

Did you hear what happened to Norwegian GEHENNA at the Hole In The Sky festival this year? Talk about stage show when their eminent member Morten found out he was an epileptic—LIVE ONSTAGE! Musicians everywhere get in line for strobe check-ups immediately!!! Apparently the whole ordeal was quite dramatic, but their PRIMA grim album of this year should make up for the gig that came to a halt.

I texted with Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir, but he was busy redecorating (or maybe bulldozing) a house. All he could tell me is that his doomsday macho rock and roll project CHROME DIVISION will be finishing their album shortly.

People hungry for the Darkthrone sound, check out TANGORODRIM album on Southern Lord recs. They kick our ass and they’re maniacs, ha ha.

Journalists in Norway are also all over a certain Erlend Erichsen’s book, “Nasjonalsatanisten.” I doubt if this will add gasoline to the fire, but even before it was released his publishers were being hunted down by foreign companies willing to translate and release it. I don’t know what y’all may think of this, but what I am asking myself is: Where is the sense of OMERTA these days? Was an insider novel on Black Metal personalities really necessary? Will I have to read it?—No. Just as with the famous “Lords of Chaos” book, I will completely ignore it. My favourite word is no.

Fenriz, THE GREAT AVOIDER OF TABLOIDS will now let you go. But with an added bonus of mentioning that really fast drumming (which often leads to boring soulless slow and mid paced drumming) was never really an important part of Black Metal. I urge you all to check out German BLIZZARD (godz), WARFARE’s (Britain) Mayhem Fuckin Mayhem album from –87, the first ONSLAUGHT album, CHEMIKILLER from the states, SLAUGHTER’s (Canada) Strappado album from –87, DEATHSTRIKE Fuckin Death demo from –85 (thanx forever Nicke Andersson) and don’t forget that there is more Black Metal in Motörhead and Necrovore than there is in Denmark. Which doesn’t really say much.

FENRIZ

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