R.A. The Rugged Man - Uncommon Valor

This is some of the illest rhymes I've heard. Amazing!

Dimmu Borgir - Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse

Hell?

Let's face it. We're all going to hell. According to everyone, everyone else, other than the few "true" believers, are facing eternal damnation in the fiery pits of hell. But hey, who wants to spend eternity praising the complacent, judgemental, hateful, unforgiving (unless you do exactly as he says) and jealous deity that is the christian god. 'Eternity' is a really long time, and I bet you get tired of singing hymns and praising, after, oh I don't know, the first 10 million years. Most people can't even stand spending 1 hour a week in their local  church.

And without spending time on the 7 deadly sins, life would be pretty boring. But who knows? The 7 sins aren't even mentioned in the bible, which makes me wonder if it's okay to, at least, once in a while, be able to enjoy a good meal. Guess I will never find out, considering the fact that hell, after all, is made up by some sick and twisted individuals a long time ago. All to maintain power over the masses.

The masses back then obviously didn't have the level of education we have today. One would think that we would be able to see past the fairytales and stories. But no! According to a site I found, we're only 16% that dares to think and believe the facts instead of the fiction. And looking closer, half of those are theists, so that leaves 8%!

Could it be so simple that 92% of humankind can't handle the simple fact that we're going to die. Why not stop the focus on death and the dream of an afterlife? Try to focus on life and the reality of a life before death.

Covers

I must confess that I have a soft spot when it comes to well done covers. Think I will post some of them today. The best ones is when a band takes a song from another genré of music than they usually play and turn it into a totally different thing. This is one example:

The original:

The cover:

The Kolony – Mischiefs And Shenanigans (2009) 8/10

Try to imagnine the following scenario: It’s saturday night and Helloween decides to try hallucinogenic drugs for the first time in their lives. Tripping out, they suddenly decide that they want to play grindcore, kick out Andy Deris and let two friends scream their lungs out. Then they realize that they want to put punk drums and hardcore choirs and why not, some Macabre influences into the mix.

It may sound to good to be true, but this is exactly what Gothenburg’s The Kolony sound like. To make it even more psyched out, they have song titles like Good Boys Swallow, The Ballad of Sir Bastard,  Dead Metal Dance and Raping The Royal Retard.

The album contains 29 minutes of pure psychedelic punk metal madness, and it’s your own fault if you don’t give this one a listen.

Spotify: Mischiefs And Shenanigans

Opeth – Still Life (1999) 9/10

Opeth is a band I discovered several years ago when I bought the brilliant My Arms, Your Hearse. Then I didn’t listen to them for some years (don’t ask me why). Last year I gave Watershed a chance, and it was simply amazing. Like the headline say, this isn’t about any of those, but Still Life.


What we’re talking about here is progressive death metal. There’s a lot of bands out there that claim to be progressive, but Opeth is one of the few bands that actually plays progressive  death metal, with the emphasis on progressive. It’s so obvious that Mikael Åkerfeldt loves the old progressive bands from the 70′s. He’s one of the best growlers around, but what separates them from the rest of the bunch is that his clean vocals are out of this world. I don’t know how he does it.  The combination of brutal death metal with beautiful vocals and acoustic guitars is what makes them unique.


The opening track, The Moor (11:27),  is worth checking out if you, like Mikael Åkerfeldt, are into ABBA. You know what I mean when you hear it.  Track no.2, Godhead’s Lament (9:48), is a brutal progressive death metal masterpiece. Then when you’re prepared for another growl attack no. 3, Benighted (5:00), starts, and it turns out to be sort of a ballad. The track has an eerie feeling to it, but it’s so beautiful, and Åkerfeldt gets to prove his clean vocals.


No. 4, Moonlapse Vertigo (9:00) starts out as a metal song with some nice melodic guitar playing, then goes into a clean part with acoustic guitars before going back to the metal and growling.  No. 5 Face Of Melinda (7:59) starts out as a calm song, but then goes into distorted guitars with clean vocals. No.6, Serenity Painted Death (9:14), continues with more metal and growling. Once again Åkerfeldt proves his ability to mix growling with clean vocals. Last, but not least, no. 7, White Cluster (10:05), is the grande finale of this album. Simply amazing! It has everything one could wish for from a progressive death metal album. Once again with the emphasis on progressive.


It may sound like I’m idolizing Mikael Åkerfeldt. But his voice and amazing guitar work is what creates the Opeth sound. The only reason I’m not giving this 10 out of 10 is that Watershed is better.


Spotify: Still Life

Karl Sanders – Saurian Exorcisms (2009) 9/10

I loved Karl Sanders first solo album, Saurian Meditation from 2004, and was very excited when I heard that he had released a new one. He usually sings and play guitar in the technical death metal band Nile, which, like the name says is all about egyptian mythology. With Saurian Meditation and Saurian Exorcisms, he continues to be influenced by the ancient, middle-eastern mythologies. The difference is that this is as far as you can get from technical death metal. What we’re dealing with here is world music, and he does an excellent job.

A lot of metal bands claim to be influenced by H.P. Lovecraft, but this is the only album I’ve heard that actually is truly Lovecraftian. And this is totally my own interpretation. Not once have I heard or read an interview where he mention the great author.

This is one of those albums that take you on a journey to another place and another time. If I close my eyes, I can really see the mad arab; Abdul Alhazred writing his book, Necronomicon. I can see the shapes of Yog-Sothot and Cthulhu, and feel the presence of the civilizations and unnameable creatures that existed long before we, the human race, came to be. I see unspeakable rites being performed.

From the beginning, Preliminary Purification Before The Calling of Inanna, to the end, Dying Embers Of The Aga Mass SSSratu, it is a journey, and Karl Sanders is your guide.

Spotify: And here you can listen to the album.

Satyricon - The Shadowthrone (1995) 9/10

Satyricon was my first contact with black metal, and The Shadowthronewas the one album that got me interested in this genré. Let’s face it, this is is a classic! The album came out when the “inner circle” of the norwegian black metal scene burned a lot of wooden churches. Satyricon was one of the bands that chose to stay away from all that, and focus on the music instead. 

It begins with Hvite Krists Død (White Christ’s Death) (8:28). This is a call out to war against 1000 years of oppression from christianity. This is, in my humble opinion, one of the best opening tracks ever. 

Track no.2, In The Mist By The Hills (8:01)  is a track where the title actually reflects the music very well.  

On to no.3, Woods To Eternity (6:13). This is another black metal masterpiece with some nice acoustic guitar playing.

No.4, Vikingland (5:15), is another one with norwegian lyrics. (You can probably find translations of the lyrics somewhere on the net). This is the sound of the norwegian landscapes. 

No.5, Dominions Of Satyricon(9:25), begins with bombastic drums and continues with some great riffing mixed with some piano. 

No.6, The King Of The Shadowthrone(6:14) is bombastic and atmospheric. It also includes some nice acoustic guitar playing fom Satyr, who plays all instrument on the album, except for the drums which are played excellently by Frost.

With a great intro like Hvite Krists Død, they had to record a great outro.  With I En Svart Kiste (In A Black Coffin) (5:24) they manage to do just that. No guitars, just keyboards. It has a norwegian, folky feeling to it.

In fact, the whole album sounds very norwegian. It’s not just the norwegian lyrics on two of the tracks. (I En Svart Kiste is an instrumental track). The cold feeling is the sound of the norwegian mountains, if that makes any sense. What strikes me when I hear this album is firstly; that the band consists of two musicians. And secondly; I could never, in my wildest imagination, when I heard it for the first time back in the mid-90′s, picture the success they would have. Being the first black metal to be signed to a major company is quite an achievement. And all of this without becoming sell-outs. They do what they want. And, in my book, that’s the only thing that matters.

Believe The Lie

(songwriters: Glen Benton, Brian Hoffman, Eric Hoffman, Steve Asheim)

Time you died for you religion

Hypnotized by his infliction

Go to him, he is your saviour

Leave this place, do us a favor

Believe the lie of a god you'll never know

Prepare to die when you least expect to go

A desperate mind will ignore reality

The word of christ has you lost in fantasy

Believe the lie to reside with him in death

Conserve to buy into what he's promising

Don't be so blind not to mind hypocrisy

You just might find what you want can never be

Take your life, be a true christian

For the lies of its existence

Sacrifice rendered unable

Book of god, it is a fable

Believe the lie to return from which we came

The serpent's light has you mesmerized again

When faith decides suicide at heaven's whim

Believe the lie, you are saved from all your sins

When is life worth a religion

Ease your mind, make the incision

Prey to him, incoming stranger

Son of god dead in the manger

Hate

Hate. It's just a word. A collection of four letters. Just like 'Love'. I wish that the followers of the christian god would focus on love. After all "he's" a loving and compassionate god. At least, that's what I've been told by a lot of christian people.

I guess I wouldn't have that big of a problem with religious people if they used their energy on, like it says in the "good book", loving their neighbours. Seems like that passage, along with a lot of other things in the bible, has passed them by. Most of them put all of their energy on hating people that doesn't fit into their picture of the perfect world. And there's a lot of people that doesn't fit. Let's say that there are appr. 2 billions christians in the world. That means that the rest of us (close to 5 billion) will burn in hell. Of course, if you ask the muslim population, they probably say that all christian people will burn in eternal damnation. Guess there'll be one hell of a BBQ, when the rapture comes upon us. It don't even matter if you spend your whole life being good to people. As long as you don't have the true faith, you still burn in hell.

That being said, I find it kind of hard to understand why they put the energy on hating, if we still are going to hell when we die. Isn't that the final punishment? And speaking of hell; what kind of sick and twisted deity (who, we must remember, is a loving and compassionate one) creates a place like that?

I just had a crazy thought. Could it be that man created god in his own picture, instead of the other way around? That would explain why the christian god has all the bad characteristics of the human race.