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From the Times of Malta:

The note, which parish priest Fr Kalċidon Vassallo confirmed was the parish’s doing, comes replete with a hand-drawn skull and pumpkin and warns readers that Halloween “celebrates a culture of death” and “attacks that which is holy”.

In boxed, bolded text, it says: “As a Church, we are warning parents of Halloween’s serious dangers. This feast is a dangerous celebration of fear and the macabre.”

It concludes with a motley list of “other things which draw children towards the occult”. The list includes heavy metal music, negative and fantastical role-playing, sadistic pornography and reading about the occult and Satan.

If you wonder why people distrust religions, it’s because of stuff like this.

You want to find evil? There’s real evil everywhere.

And then some grandstanding idiot, who spends his days comfortably blowing off the actual problems, worries about halloween.

You want evil? How about the toxic waste dumped in the mediterranean sea, the organized crime, the corrupt leaders, the people who walk among us and daily lie cheat and steal, or even Fr. Buttfinger who’s violating young boys down the hall?

That’s evil… but it’s harder to face and harder to win against, where bashing halloween is easy and provides cheap karma points on the social network of do-nothings.

I liked this thorough and insightful review:

When listening to this album, a repugnant air permeates constantly throughout “Infernal Warriors of Death”’s duration, in a similar vibe to Obituary’s “Cause of Death” or Incantation’s “Onward to Golgotha”, although the album is far from a mere rehashing of classics. The gut-wrenchingly low guitar tone is enough to level those without proper preparation, while the blasphemous vocal assault of Lord Apollyon represents an ideal archetype of its genre. The riffing style of Wes Infernal, previously a guitar player for Texas legends Imprecation, concentrates on a more “meat-and-potatoes” style of playing that removes any excesses in favor of a disgusting assault on the eardrums, without any hints of “modern metal” clichés such as overuse of breakdowns or soulless guitar noodling. The rhythm section of Joe Necro (bass) and Matt Mayhem (drums) keep in-the-pocket over the course of the entire album, maintaining a blasphemous beat that compliments the guitar riffing. Lord Apollyon utilizes an echoed effect on many of the album’s songs, which only adds to the old-school vibe of the album. – Texas metal reviews: Blaspherian, “Infernal Warriors of Death” on Examiner.com

Between this album, recent BEHERIT, the new DEMONCY, the last and next DIVINE EVE, recent BAHIMIRON and ASPHYX material, we see how old school underground metal not only remains alive but advancing.

The usual suspects — a media composed of bitter also-rans and half-thoughts — has spewed forth its latest confusion between causation and correlation:

A new study conducted by Melbourne University finds that teens exposed to heavy metal music are more susceptible to depression and suicide.

Dr. Katrina McFerran — who we’ve confirmed isn’t Tipper Gore operating under a pseudonym — looked at the effects of several types of music on teenagers 13-18, and found that there was a higher risk of mental illness.

“Most young people listen to a range of music in positive ways; to block out crowds, to lift their mood or to give them energy when exercising,” said McFerran, “but young people at risk of depression are more likely to be listening to music, particularly heavy metal music, in a negative way.” – Guitar World

What makes someone seek heavy metal? They have realized that morality does not command the world, but power, and have also begun to seek a contrary power that is not afflicted with the terminal small-minded egomania of the modern “equal but unique” individual.

Why might they be depressed? They have realized that our society is falling like Rome fell, and that these things take time, but that the cause is not the damn Vandals but the corruption within. Our society has no values except an immediate and temporary power within the social context. Metal is beyond the social context.

What these dummies should ask instead is: Why are non-heavy-metal-fans in danger of falling into terminal narcissism, egalitarianism, oblivion, selfishness, egodrama and social “nonconformist” conformity?

t’s perhaps the biggest threat to the nation’s mental wellbeing, yet it’s freely available on every street – for pennies. The dealers claim it expands the mind and bolsters the intellect: users experience an initial rush of emotion (often euphoria or rage), followed by what they believe is a state of enhanced awareness. Tragically this “awareness” is a delusion. As they grow increasingly detached from reality, heavy users often exhibit impaired decision-making abilities, becoming paranoid, agitated and quick to anger. In extreme cases they’ve even been known to form mobs and attack people. Technically it’s called “a newspaper”, although it’s better known by one of its many “street names”, such as “The Currant Bun” or “The Mail” or “The Grauniad” (see me – Ed).

In its purest form, a newspaper consists of a collection of facts which, in controlled circumstances, can actively improve knowledge. Unfortunately, facts are expensive, so to save costs and drive up sales, unscrupulous dealers often “cut” the basic contents with cheaper material, such as wild opinion, bullshit, empty hysteria, reheated press releases, advertorial padding and photographs of Lady Gaga with her bum hanging out. The hapless user has little or no concept of the toxicity of the end product: they digest the contents in good faith, only to pay the price later when they find themselves raging incoherently in pubs, or – increasingly – on internet messageboards. – The Guardian

Our society is dying because it has no values in common, and so the selfishness of individuals predominates, and so oligarchy and commerce takes over from where leadership once stood.

Don’t blame heavy metal fans for noticing that, and being willing to face it and be depressed instead of hide their heads in the sand like the rest of you.

A death metal activist asked and got recognition of a death metal musician:

But even though we wouldn’t go near the seller, and even though death metal isn’t exactly our cup of tea (grunting is best left for the bedroom), when we got home, we read up on the history of the genre. And what we found is that Chuck Schuldiner, the frontman of the band “Death” (clever name there), called by many “The Father of Death Metal”, was Jewish.

So you see, at least one good thing came out from attending a street fair.

Clowns? Don’t get us started.

Verdict: Jew.

– JewOrNotJew

If you haven’t read this hilarious site, you should visit — it’s a semi-satirical yet fairly serious display of loyalty to origins. And now, it recognizes DEATH METAL.

Speed metal band from the UK featuring a lot of 1980s bravado and the talents of ex-Benediction/Bolt Thrower vocalist Dave Ingram. Will keep your blood pounding in your ears as you strangle people who richly deserve it as you have wanted to do for years.

Some signs of interest:

Swedish death metal veterans Uncanny will enter the studio today to record two new songs scheduled to be released on an upcoming 7″ through Dark Descent Records. These two tracks are the first new material from Uncanny since 1994’s Splenium for Nyktophobia album. The album for this new material will have the same lineup that appeared for a one-off appearance for the release of the Swedish Death Metal book. – Metal Funderground

All but a handful of bands — Asphyx, Beherit, Demoncy — have booted their reformation and new material by trying to pander to trends popular in the lowest common denominator of humanity that represents the biggest number of people, but not of loyal or intelligent fans. Instead of aiming for the ballcap crowd, let’s hope these death metal revivals focus on the not-small group who just like quality music that does not confuse its own intent with that of being popular.

Most of Massacre, that is:

Terry Butler (DEATH, MASSACRE, SIX FEET UNDER, DENIAL FIEND, OBITUARY) and Rick Rozz (MANTAS, DEATH, MASSACRE, M INC.) will celebrate the 20th anniversary of MASSACRE’s classic “From Beyond” album by embarking on a European tour in January/February 2012. Dubbed “Army Of Darkness”, the trek will feature additional performances from GRAVE and MASTER. – Roadrunner

We can’t talk about the missing vocalist, but it’s clear how much the classic rhythm and guitar section contributed not only to Massacre but also to Death. A death metal revival is more than reforming the old bands and going through those nostalgia pathways, but this is not a bad start.

Birth A.D. will enter the studio in January to record the full-length follow up to their Stillbirth Of A Nation EP. The album will be recorded with renowned producer and thrash metal guru Alex Perialas (ANTHRAX, S.O.D., NUCLEAR ASSAULT).

Birth A.D. is currently seeking label support so they can cause problems worldwide. – BTBK

• birthad.com

Black metal, again:

Upside-down-cross pendants and spiked bracelets were common accessories. The tabloid-worthy events centered on a musician named Varg Vikernes, of the one-man band Burzum, who encouraged and participated in the burning of churches. In 1993, while playing bass in a band called Mayhem, he murdered the guitarist, a man known as Euronymous.

Until recently, it was a legacy that the genre couldn’t shake. But now American bands such as Liturgy, Krallice, Absu, Leviathan, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Inquisition have left a fair amount of the pageantry behind—not to mention the violence—and helped to create a community, as well as a musical moment that is rife with activity. Because of what the music does formally, there is little chance that we will see a Top Ten black-metal act. The elements of the genre that are common to its bands—even those which don’t subscribe to the term, since black metal’s borders are fiercely policed—are extremely fast strumming of guitars, equally fast drumming, and singing that is either extremely low and almost gastric or very high and vaguely spectral. The vocals in the lower register have been called both “the Cookie Monster thing” and “reptilian.” The most accelerated version of the black-metal beat—in which cymbals and multiple drums are hit with the rapid and even force of a sewing machine, which almost erases the idea of drumming as time-keeping—is called the “blast beat,” which Liturgy has modified into a variable-speed approach called the “burst beat.”

This is all extreme stuff, and, when it’s played by grown men who look like couture pandas, there is plenty of reason to be skeptical. Get past the novelty, though, and you find a level of passion and an attention to detail that make a number of mere rock bands look lazy. People are starting to pay attention. Liturgy, whose members live in Brooklyn, records for the respected indie-rock label Thrill Jockey, which made its name in the mid-nineties releasing avant-garde but civilized rock. Because so many varieties of electronic and non-Western music have been tapped by traditionally organized rock bands, there is great allure in the lesser-known strategies of black metal, which was for years a self-sufficient, distinct subgenre that wasn’t looking to expand. – The New Yorker

They took out the leadership, the unique viewpoint, and the outsiderness.

They replaced it with safe, tame, comforting and unchallenging indie rock.

Now black metal — the true movement of the 1990s — is the disco of the 2010s.

Run for the hills. Or just listen to the new Demoncy, Beherit, Cianide, Divine Eve and others who haven’t quaked.