1980s: the world may end at any minute. The Cold War ravaged the earth: missiles inbound at any second had people living in fear of total obliteration, total erasure. There was passion in the moment and in striving for some sense of rationality despite it all.

2010s: it may never end. Rationality, liberal democracy, commerce, etc. — the “good guys” of the past 20 wars — have won. The result is a society so boring and unpleasant that we fear this may be all there is to life, and it makes us frustrated and futile.

Good novels about our dilemma:

• “White Noise” by Don Delillo
• “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
• “Journey to the End of the Night” by Ferdinand Celine
• “Elementary Particles” by Michel Houellebecq

This lends itself to black metal, which is a rage not for order but for the passion in our hearts that can create a drive to order. It is rage against the meaningless, safe, conformist, and well-intentioned society. It is a statement that rationality itself has defeat us and we need to embrace the feral, irrational, and passionate again.

Of course, society gives us false outlets. Sports/vids, porn, shopping are substitutes for what we need.

The primary purpose of civilization is to allow the intelligent to rule over the unintelligent, which achieves better long-term results because it makes all of society as effective as its smartest members. The paradox of civilization is that by making the unintelligent effective, they survive at greater rates, which given their greater reproduction rates means they rapidly drown out the intelligent and reverse the advances of civilization.

Indeed.

We are getting lots of emails from people wondering about the Demoncy – Enthroned Is The Night CD. We sincerely apologize for this massive delay that is at hand, but we are asking graciously for your utmost patience that the cd should not be much longer in progress. Everything is in production and should just about be done, except the outer jacket that is the piece giving us the most problems. I was told last monday that soon we should have the jacket resolved. I am hoping greatly that this week this issue is settled so we can get it into production and have the release ready in the first weeks of February. I know everyone must be getting tired of the delays, I’m getting quite tired announcing them but in the end the way I see it is, is that when the cd is done it will be done correct and not the other way around and for this I am reluctantly accepting the delays as for a good cause. We’ve already had problems in the past with products that went through too quickly and for that had perminent issues we could no longer resolve so in the end we will be much happier that the Demoncy CD was done precisely to our vision. So again I say I am thankful for everyones patience and hopefully all your understanding. Onward… (from FPR)

I have been assured by the band that “Full Moon Conquest” does not refer to sodomy.

• Wulfgravf “Fullmoon Conquest” EP playlist

WULFGRAVF is old school hardcore, RAC and primitive black metal (Impaled Nazarene, Profanatica) in a blender.

To be released in 2012 by Wolftyr. Alruna plays fiddle on some tracks. For this video I used various samples from myspace etc (Note: some of the samples are in their unfinished form). Album is inspired heavily by Conan the Barbarian.

• Pre-order ($14 + $3.50 shipping)

OUT NOW: ALTAR “DARK DOMAINS 1989 – 1995” DEATHOGRAPHY CD
To order a copy, email to: konqueror_records@hotmail.com or order from Pulverized Records ($15)

1. Nothing Human (1992 CD)
2. Lifeless Passion (1992 CD)
3. Daymare/A Message From The Grave (1992 CD)
4. Decapitated (1992 CD)
5. Ex Oblivione (1992 CD)
6. Sleeping Prophet (1993 Demo)
7. Floodgates Of Emotions (1993 Demo)
8. Darklight (1993 Demo)
9. Violent Acts (1994 Demo)
10. Days Forever Grey (1994 Demo)
11. Severed On The Attic (1991 Demo)
12. Decapitated (1991 Demo)
13. Hallucinations (1991 Demo)
14. No Flesh… (1991 Demo)
15. Instrumental (1995 Demo)
16. Severed On The Attic (1992 CD)
17. No Flesh… (1992 CD)

Also can find them here
https://www.facebook.com/konquerorrecords

Tomas from Forever Plagued Records helped us out with some news. Apparently, a technical question on the album art arose and is being answered by experts in the coming week. As a result, the release of the CD has been pushed back by a fortnight or more. However, the label, band and staff remain committed to making this a release of the highest quality and so will not accept inferior compromises in the art or production. We should have more news within the delay period.

In the meantime, enjoy the track which has been released to the public:

Confidential sources suggest this is one of the less-distinctive tracks on the album and is used to bridge between two more complex songs. In the opinion of this author, Demoncy has never shipped a turd or anything like it, so the new Demoncy album should be relished by all.

Insightful commentary on those “Best of Metal 2011” lists:

I’ve begun to realize that most of the lists currently being published are also exercises in varying, and scalable degrees of exclusionism. I say this because in the past two years major non-metal/indie oriented media outlets have taken it upon themselves to declare to their reading audiences what is the Best Metal of the Year. I’m referring to websites such as NPR, Pitchfork Media, Spin, PopMatters, Stereogum, Noisecreep, Frontier Psychiatrist, etc…There are countless other minor non-metal oriented blogs and sites that have their own list up as well, and they all pretty much loosely mirror one of the examples posted above.

This is a curiously new phenomenon: ten, seven, even six or five years ago you wouldn’t find non-metal/indie media daring to touch the very idea of the “best metal” released in those years. The cynic in me wants to ask, “Did the hipsters get tired of all the garage-rock bands ironically limping around Brooklyn?” That is mean spirited I know, but part of me does wonder, how long will this new found interest last? First let me offer this: I am not attempting to argue that these sites have no business publishing best of metal year end lists, nor am I attempting to critically analyze their selections. Each of the writers of these lists have their own tastes, preferences, and the right to promote them…but after mulling these lists over for a few weeks and listening to most of the albums on them, one thing has become very clear to me: The most popular of these lists are created by a handful of very prolific writers/bloggers, and the rest stem from the templates laid out by said writers. In particular, the highly read and discussed lists from NPR’s Lars Gotrich and Pitchfork/Stereogum’s Brandon Stosuy are parroted throughout the blogosphere. In deserving respect to these two writers, they both offer their opinions with interesting takes and lucid arguments. I enjoy reading their stuff, and dislike having to single them out — however due to their popularity, I feel they are liable to be held to a higher standard.

Without delving too deeply into Gotrich and Stosuy’s lists, the most obviously striking things about them both is that they tend to lean heavily on the new crop of post-black metal bands. There are occasional death metal albums sprinkled throughout, the odd doom record, and a good bit of math-metal (I hate that label but its what everyone uses). Okay fine, I actually like a few of their selections as well, but here’s a question: Aren’t we missing something in terms of various other styles of metal? You’ll notice that traditional metal and power metal are noticeably absent from these lists. – The Metal Pigeon

That’s the point. These aren’t metal lists, they’re replacement metal. That is to say, indie metal is taking over with the support of Big Media.

Metal is undisciplined by commercial standards. It has a gauge of trueness of spirit. That makes it a hard product to sell. Rock music on the other hand is accepting, has no specific spirit other than ironic surliness and greed, and is universal and easy to make. The labels prefer to sell rock music.

As a result, they’ve invaded metal with the indie hipster crowd because indie-metal sells. It’s familiar like rock, but seen as “rebellious” like metal, so all the extremely ordinary people who work very hard to style themselves as extra-ordinary are in love with it.

It’s the perfect product.

Legendary BLACK SABBATH guitarist Tony Iommi has been diagnosed with the early stages of lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphocytes, a type of cell that forms part of the immune system.

Iommi is currently working with his doctors to establish the best treatment plan and remains upbeat and determined to make a full and successful recovery.

This comes as BLACK SABBATH — Ozzy Osbourne (vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass) and Bill Ward (drums) — are writing and recording their first album in 33 years in Los Angeles (still set for release this fall) with producer Rick Rubin. They will now go to the U.K. to continue to work with Tony. – Blabbermouth

:(

Has metal traded its soul for its popularity with the “service industry” workers, a/k/a hipsters and indie rockers?

Metal today is probably the most popular its been since the 80’s with bands reaching “the charts” with more frequency, worldwide acceptance in mainstream culture (even hipsters and indie fruitcakes are into it nowadays), feature films and documentaries (The Story of Anvil, Metal: A Headbangers Journey, Hesher). The ability for bands to tour on this side of the globe when in past years they would never had gotten the chance because of lack of label support, the popularity of Metal festivals not only in Europe but now in the U.S. with MDF, Gathering of the Bestial Legion, CIM, 70000 of Metal and others. The involvement of major companies like Scion with the Scion Fest and all the shows they put on and a wider acceptance by major venues like HOB to host Metal shows.

Come to think about it, its a pretty good time to be a Metalhead these days.

On the flipside one can’t help but notice that a lot of what people call Metal these days is utter crap I wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole. A lot of the bands and music being churned out left and right is unoriginal and emotionless. It is more concerned with fashion and image than with creative riffs and memorable anthems. So much of what kids (old fart voice) listen to nowadays is so watered down,tepid and soulless. Its hard for me to find new bands have any of that spark that would get my heart racing…. memories of listening to Dismember’s Like an Ever Flowing Stream for the first time and headbanging nonstop because you couldn’t help but feel the music. – SDMETAL.org

He makes a good point. Click the link above to read the whole rant.