LP Review: "Blades, Chains, Whips, & Fire" by Magick Touch

Blades, Chains, Whips, & Fire

About five years ago, this guy was standing inside of the Firebird for the first time.

Kill Devil Hills, featuring Rex Brown, was headlining the venue that night. It was actually a large night of firsts for me.

My first interview with a legitimate star, first show in the firebird, and the first time that friend stood me up.

But the point of all of this, isn't Brown, KDH, or whatever, but the fact that this band came out and went crazy town on me for about 45 minutes...they also sold me my first new vinyl record.

Crobot was funky and chunky, lean and mean, surf and turf, and most of all, they were sharp and tarp. I'm also given to understand they have a hot sauce that could be quite tasty.

What they showed me that  night is that we were all missing out on new rockers. If you huck a penny at any of our night club districts, you'll probably wing about fifteen national metal bands....but how many rockers?

To Hell and Back: A Trip to the World's Most Diabolical Record Store -by Danny Nichols

The Gates of Hell- Neseblod Record Store

There may not be a location in the world which is as singularly important to a genre of music as Helvete Records in Oslo, Norway was to black metal.  Maybe not so much to the sound itself, but definitely to the establishment of the cult following it achieved in the early 90s, and which persists until this day.  Black metal is the most extreme form of music, with guitar riffs so fast they morph into an ambient noise, blast beats on drums so intense they sound like a Gatling gun and vocals comprised of demonic grows, screams and yelps.  The black metal aesthetic, at least in the early days, included musicians in corpse paint, stages decorated with  pentagrams and an overt fascination with the occult.

Heavy Metal Everywhere 

If you are reading this, you probably already know what black metal is and how it became an musical phenomena based out of Norway in the early 90s.  Although black metal did not originate in Norway, its creed, sound and direction were largely codified there, with much credit due to a man named Euronymous and his band Mayhem.  The movement garnered worldwide attention when members of Mayhem and their followers began the nefarious practice of burning down churches throughout Norway.  Partially to create a headquarters for the proliferation of this cult,  Euronymous opened a record store on Schweigaards Gate in east Oslo.  He named this store “Helvete”, the Norwegian word for “Hell”.

Concert Review and Photos: Airbourne at the USF Verftet in Bergen, Norway August 4, 2016 -by Danny Nichols

Airbourne rocks the USF Verftet in Bergen

Admittedly, I did not know much about Airbourne before buying tickets to see them play at the USF Verftet in Bergen, Norway, but there was no way I was leaving Scandanavia without seeing a metal show.

Based upon the power of the band, the energy of the audience and the quality of the songs it turned out to be one of the best shows I have ever seen.  Many of the songs I heard for the first time that night and yet a week later I am actively adding Airbourne's complete discography to my collection.  It was clearly a mistake to have left them undiscovered for so long.

Album Review: "Wandering Blind: by Brutus

Wandering Blind

Untiled, the director's cut of Almost Famous is one of my absolute favorite movies.

The music business was such an amazing thing back during the Seventies and that flick just captures the raw power of music in those days.

Though music is just as good as ever, if not better, the industry has sure seen better days. No one can deny that.

It's easy to wax nostalgic about some of the towering bands that prowled the earth bringing earth shatteringly loud concerts that have kept ears ringing to this day.

I can't be the only one who thinks that the vinyl rebirth didn't just start because somebody wanted to crank Led Zeppelin II like they did back in the day right? There are many things to remind us of those heady days when cocaine was the subject of song and bathroom breaks.

Album Review: "Perennial Void Traverse" by Reptilian

Perennial Void Traverse

There was a time in the not too distant past when Metal was considered too nerdy for some folks, like Kim Thayil, to relate to.

Personally, as a nerd the Dungeons & Dragons imagery really spoke to me, because that's basically where Black Sabbath started anyway.

After that was considered hokey, metal refocused and became very, very angry. Kirk Hammett's done interviews where he discussed whether or not he was still angry as he's gotten older.

But  more and more metal is finding new inspiration and the howls of anguish, which are ever so prevalent, are now even beginning to give way to the screams of the insane.

If nothing else, this seems a pretty rational progression if you ask me. In 1975, metal guys were all nerds. In 1980 we got angry for not being accepted. Later on, we became sad because we still didn't rule the world. Now, we've been driven insane.

Album Review: "Fort Bak Lyset" by Tusmörke

Fort Bak Lyset

It's not really evidenced on these pages, but personally, I love Broadway Musicals.

Naturally my favorite one is Spamalot which is lovingly stolen from Monty Python and The Holy Grail. Three times I've seen that play.

There are few things in this world that strike me like the flutes of Robin's wandering minstrels.

It's something that's very conspicuously insane. The music they play is just as important as the crazy words they spew about their brave master.

Sadly, their musical bit is very short. In the play it is fleshed out a bit more, but I still think back to the movie, where the show was sourced, when I hear anything with a similar timbre. If only it could be used in some psychedelic Norwegian prog-metal....

Album Review: "Chiaroscuro" by Vingulmork

Chiaroscuro

The double metal.

Vingulmork is a band that's too big for a single metal subgenre. Their music transcends the boundaries of death metal, thrash metal, and black metal to create a new thing.

Blackened Thrash, or Death Thrash, or whatever other permutation you can come up with.

I'm going with Death Thrash, because it just sounds so much cooler than blackened anything , besides chicken.

Perhaps I'm just being a silly writer, but damn it it's my space to write in.

Vingulmork have been at this a few  years and today's album is their first full length album, a follow up to their self released EP, The Long March, from 2013.