Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

What is this? I can’t even…

2:57 – 3:07 is pretty cool though
Annihilator - The Trend

So I’m sure that people around here have heard about this new Black Metal documentary ‘Until the Light Takes Us’ that debuted at Film Festivals a year or two ago and has been playing for limited stretches at limited numbers of Cinemas ever since then. It was playing at Cinéma du Parc here in Montreal so I decided to check it out.

First of all, anyone who has at least a limited knowledge about the History of Black Metal won’t learn very much from this film. The only new historical (as it were) bits that I took away from it were a few juicy anecdotes, that were however so juicy that they were almost worth the ticket price – namely Varg’s very detailed (and grimly hilarious) account of Euronymous’s murder. The film presents its overriding theme well though; it shows the ways in which Black Metal was essentially misunderstood by the media and thus presented to the world in a different form; that Black Metal, in its essence, is therefore still unknown to all save for a relatively small group of people. True Black Metal, or more precisely it’s spirit, still survives as an esoteric phenomenon because it was never in essence revealed to the world. It’s an optimistic message to an underground mentality.

The film really excelled in how well it portrayed each personality visually (also worth the ticket price are a few heroic appearances made by Abbath and Demonaz from Immortal). Moreover, the soundtrack – fantastic. All of the appropriate metal fare plus some unexpected but welcome others, most notably ‘Boards of Canada’, a Scottish electronica outfit that supplies Fenriz’s nightly trudging with a bleakly melodic backdrop that is as cold and icy as the forest surrounding him. It’s a great movie to watch and to listen to. Go.

Until the Light Takes Us – Official Trailer

Nifelvind, Finntroll‘s new album is out now in Europe. That doesn’t mean it’s not available anywhere else though… Anyway, I’m giving it a listen right now and with every song I’m reminded why Finntroll is such a great band. They will never top Jaktens Tid in my heart, but that doesn’t mean they have to give up on making good music. This album continues the troll’s quest for expanding their sound and folksing up their metal in ways untried before. The result? A very enjoyable album.

7/10

A lucky writer for Terrorizer online got to take a listen to the upcoming new album from Immortal, “All Shall Fall”. James Minton gives a colorful track by track description.

‘All Shall Fall’
Where ‘Sons Of Northern Darkness’ rushes out of the gates like a horse with its arse on fire, the opening title track of the new opus flows like cold molasses with snowy industrial ambience. Then it’s straight into trademark melodic riffs, colder than an Inuit’s snatch with a subtle ‘Hanger 18-esque tone and uplifting ascending chords. There’s deeper vocalisations, thundering, phased guitar and delicately woven leads making this cross between ‘One By One’ and ‘In My Kingdom Cold’ less ‘Sons…’ part two more Immortal 2.0.

Check out the full story here

This concert really wasn’t going to be a highlight for me. I was mainly looking forward to Municipal Waste, and to see if Children of Bodom played anything good. But when As I Lay Dying had to cancel and were replaced by the mighty Suicidal Tendencies, I began to really look forward to this show.

God Forbid: We showed up late and missed these guys. I’ve heard mixed things about them but never bothered to really check them out.

Municipal Waste: I’m a pretty big fan of these guys, so I was pissed that we only showed up for the last 2 songs (Fuck trying to go anywhere with more than 3 people btw) but they were solid from what I saw. I don’t think they were used to having such a big stage and didn’t take advantage of it. I look forward to seeing them in a smaller venue sometime though.

Children of Bodom: What can I say? Practically the definition of sell out, they opened up with Silent Night, Bodom Night, and played Bed of Razors towards the end. By that point though, I was just waiting for them to end it so I could drive a nail without burning out the teeny bopper girls jumping all over me creaming in their panties.

I can’t say there’s been a band I’ve been this disappointed with live, at least I could laugh at Dragonforce, but I went through a big Children of Bodom phase and it’s like Alexi took the money I spent on their early albums and wiped his ass with it on stage. His “Hey look guys I’m Americanized” tough guy bullshit was out in full force. “FUCK YEAH IVE NEVER SEEN A FUCKING PIT THIS FUCKING BIG I WAS SO FUCKING HUNGOVER THIS FUCKING MORNING BUT YOU FUCKING GUYS MADE ME NOT FUCKING HUNGOVER AND FUCKING I FUCKING FUCKER FUCKER BITCH HATECREW MOTHERFUCKERS!”. If I remember correctly this guy used to have an accent.

It also didn’t help that during some slower song this dude was dry humping his girlfriend and his ass kept banging into my leg on the back thrusts.

Fuck Children of Bodom

Suicidal Tendencies: The pain of the Children of Bodom set was washed away as soon as Cyko Miko came skipping out on stage. I’ve been listening to these guys forever. They were one of my Dad’s favorites and are now one of mine. The crowd thinned quite a bit, the area that was pretty jam packed during Children of Bodom was now sparsely sprinkled with groups of kids who didn’t know what the fuck was going on, “WTF? Where’s As I Lay Dying?”. Looking at all the Suicidal Fans like they were crazy… Which made the opener “You Can’t Bring Me Down” all the more fitting.

Who the hell you calling crazy?
You wouldn’t know what crazy was if Charles Manson was eating Fruit Loops on your front porch

They played a lot of good stuff, Send Me Your Money, War Inside My Head, Possessed to Skate, Cyco Vision (This is when a glimmer of recognition shone through the crowd towards the back), and Pledge Your Allegiance as a closer.

As usual it was part rock concert and part motivational speech from Mike. He’s been doing this for close to 30 years, and you can tell he wouldn’t change a minute of it.

Lamb of God: This band has always been a mixed bag for me, so I didn’t have much opinion on seeing them. But as usual they put on a good show, solid playing from every member in the band. And they were fun to watch. They dedicated the song Contractor to Suicidal Tendencies, if every song they wrote was more along the lines of that one I would probably enjoy Lamb of God a good deal more.

Overall I had a good night, and No Fear was giving out free drinks after the show so it was all good. Suicidal Tendencies is going to be in Europe in June, don’t miss them.

After posting the video for the single “Omnos” Eluveitie have posted the entire album on their MySpace, as well as a song by song interview to read while you listen.

While so far I’m liking it more than I thought I would, I don’t think the label “acoustic” really fits it… at all. The whole thing comes off as a little overproduced with weird electronic effects put on the drums. It doesn’t evoke an acoustic atmosphere, it’s no more acoustic than something like Wild Dances by Ruslana.

Actually that song is more entertaining than this whole album, and she’s hotter to boot, so I’ll leave you with a video of Ruslana.

Eluveitie – Evocation I – The Arcane Dominion 6/10… metalscapes?