Pasadena Napalm Division – P.N.D.

This solid slab of “modern crossover thrash” tends more toward hardcore than 1980s thrash but shows the quirky influence of the three bands from which it draws members: DRI, Dead Horse and Verbal Abuse. Showing the evolution of metal since the 1980s, it has the tighter rhythms and more encompassing wall of guitars achieved with more precise tremolo.

In a nod to the NOLA music of the last two decades, it uses “riot vocals” where all band members chant and sing at once in infectious trope; from DRI it borrows the fluid rhythms and almost theatrical interruptions of song structure, but like later Dead Horse it tries to merge blues, rock, punk and metal into something more accessible. More like SOD than the original DRI, it features very much punk-influenced riffs that do not vary in shape or intensity as much, which makes for a more continuous listening experience. Vocal rhythms guide these songs which tend to be longer and more sociable in topic than the old thrash songs.

“P.N.D.” improves on the technical precision (or lack thereof) of older thrash, and by mixing in the death metal influences, makes this music hit more like a linebacker than a cynical kid zinging one-liners over the heads of the Responsible Authority Figures (RAFs) nearby. It’s good to hear Kurt Brecht when they let him do the vocal tracks alone, and he has lost none of his vitriol, but has more of a uniform delivery.

In fact, what makes this different from older punk and thrash the most is that it is more uniform in approach. Riffs are all strummed at the same speed and do not break for weirdness like DRI did. It’s hooky, with the melodic chants dominating the listener’s brain. The somewhat funky rock influence may turn off hardliners from the thrash days, but for listeners accustomed to newer hardcore, metal or swamp-groove metal this will be a powerhouse that may open their eyes to a wider world.

Death Strike – Fuckin’ Death (Re-Issue)

Like a glass-bottomed boat sailing over the submerged remains of an ancient city, this re-issue lets us voyeurs peer into the past of death metal. Master/Deathstrike/Abomination represented one wing of the early hybrids, sounding more like the aggressive uptempo hardcore of the early 1980s as crossed with the attitude that had been consisten in metal since its earliest days.

To wit: a straightforward absence of quirky changes, an emphasis on cadence instead of alternating syncopation, a historical view of the world that subsumed politics to a whole view of the human experience, and songs made by fitting riffs together in an internal dialogue that not only kept the song coherent but propelled it forward. These distinguish Death Strike as well, which packs them into punch songs of high-intensity fast tremolo punk riffs.

Our original review of this Death Strike masterpiece still stands. Like its associated band Master, Death Strike represents an early form of death metal that was nearly contemporaneous with Slayer-influenced bands like Sepultura and Possessed, as well as European-style proto-death/proto-black bands like Bathory, Hellhammer and Slayer. All of these re-interpreted punk hardcore in metal a different way than thrash (DRI) had done, and as a result, achieved a unique sound that was later highly influential to scenes as diverse as Sweden and New York.

The re-issue is beautiful. Quality pressing, good photos, elegant disc. The inclusion of demo tracks is always dubious, since you get more primitive versions of what you just heard, providing only academic interest; it’s better to release a historical issue like Immolation did. However, in this case, the rehearsal of “Pay to Die” is truly worth hearing to see how far this band came in the early 1980s.

Seeing this classic ride again in general availability is a sight for sore eyes for any true old school metal fan. If you want to know the origins of this music, pick up this CD and explore the first releases of the other bands mentioned above. While the know-nothing music press trumpets Venom, it’s good to see that contemporary acts were exploring other avenues for metal with the power of hardcore punk, and from this fertile ferment, death metal was born.

• Death Strike – Fuckin’ Death ($10, Dark Descent)

IXXI – Assorted Armament

The way modernity destroys you is entry through the back door (hehe). While you’re watching for the enemy at the gates, someone sidles up to you with a mild proposition and you OK it. In the process, you’ve admitted the basic ideas of your enemy and those then grow inside of you.

IXXI is one such fifth column. Like a cross between Rammstein, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter and Ministry with an emphasis on black metal stylings and more organic percussion, this band seems extreme but in fact is a domesticated version of the feral emotions that metal unleashes. This is tamed; it panders to you, repeats itself, has jazzy interludes and rides the offbeat like a rock band. This is entertainment, not subversion.

The result is that you can listen to this whole thing and tune in for the death metal and black metal riffs in it and not notice how it quickly detours to hardcore riffing and then some funky, hooky, cheesy and quirky rock-n-roll tricked out in powerchords. Nothing here is badly done, and it’s catchier than most, but it has nothing to offer.

I am a nihilist; I believe nothing is inherent, not even nothingness. It all arose as a result of the logical composition of the universe.

I am also fond of many of the people in this universe, and am aware that others hate me. I understand. Nothing I do is without purpose and I do not compromise my principles.

Part of that is the old saw: the best reviewer is a friendless hermit.

You want to help people you like; what if you don’t like their music? Or what if you like their music, and they don’t like you?

The answer is that such things are irrelevant.

Harkonin – Ghanima

This is the first album to get everything right but be all wrong. Harkonin just broke up, probably from the huge amount of hope invested in this CD. After all, they did all of the parts right — riffs, rhythms, production, songs that fit together at the right paces, on top of every development in metal, good vocals, excellent playing — but when they put those together, the result was less than the sum of its parts.

Like a rock record, this album comes across as disorganized, mainly because it attempts to hit us with contrasts between unrelated elements instead of seemingly unrelated elements that resolve to complementary pieces which cooperate like partners in a conversation to tell a story. It’s amazing that this is the case, given how much proficiency is shown. It as if confidence in their own tastes in metal held these guys back. That, the aforementioned “modern metal” style disorganization, and boring melodies that result from trying to keep it short and hookish and playing it too conservative.

Mixed elements of black metal, death metal, speed metal and even power metal comprise this CD. The problem is that they change within songs without any clear roadmap, so what results is the sensation of random pieces thrown together into carnival music, trying to shock us with how radically different each part is and as a result, creating a norm of differentness in which some kind of developing consistency would be the only shocker. The case is not song structures being constructed to fit a song, but archetypes modified to be distinctive from one another and their origins. As a result, form and content are confused. It is as if the band is trying to use form to substitute for content, but the result is not songs that are “about” a certain kind of impression, but a general song theory adapted to fit whatever topic is assigned.

It’s a heartbreaker to hear this one. It is fundamentally not interesting. It’s not boring, in that there are frequent changes. It’s not bad as in incompetent; in fact, it’s so super-competent that had it been interesting, this would have been an A-level album and a new classic. But it’s not about anything. It centers only on the idea of tweaking appearance to create a pattern, but that pattern gestures at nothing else, and descends even if in negative impression from an archetype, which leads to this album not distinguishing itself and so remaining a pile of high-quality parts that never gels into a whole.

Harkonin Facebook

Lord Wind & Alruna
“Ales Stenar”

Photos for album Lord Wind “Ales Stenar” (2011) Wolftyr Prod (USA)

with Alruna (fiddle)

Fraghments of Lord Wind music with Alruna fiddle, you can listen on : http://www.reverbnation.com/lordwind

(first song : fragment of song19 “Cult of Set” with A…)

From the Graveland web presence.

You could have art, or meaningful exploration of life through media, but instead you want the lowest common denominator “entertainment” e.g. ways to pass the time between job and sleep, waiting for death. No surprise your chosen dalits are degenerates:

According to former child star Corey Feldman, child molestation is rampant in the entertainment industry, as he told Nightline in an interview.

“The No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia,” he said Wednesday. According to Feldman, the “casting couch” exists for children, too.

Feldman asserts that directors and other adults in the industry take advantage of young aspiring actors on a regular basis. “It’s all done under the radar… But it’s the big secret,” the 40-year-old said. – CNN

Sodomy, pedophilia, race fetishism, sexual musical chairs… it’s a wonder anyone listens to Hollywood at all.

Black Lake Fest VI
3 Locations – 3 Weekends – 3 Headliner
The 6th Edition of Black Lake Fest will grow up and go with a different approach.
3 different locations, 3 different kind of black metal, 3 different dates.
3 headliners: Necros Christos, Lifelover, Dornenrech.
All in October. All in Lumbardia / Italy
Part 1
1st October, Carlito’s Way – Retorbido (PV)
Necros Christos + Mortuary Drape + Abysmal Grief + Black Oath + guests
Part 2
15th October, Shelter Live – Lipomo (CO)
Lifelover + Hypothermia + guest
Part 3
31st October, Decimo Secolo – Brescia (BS)
Dornenreich + Agrypnie + (EchO) + Sedna + guest
Info & Presales

www.eyecarver.com
eyecarver@gmail.com

Austin’s longstanding head-shredding ultra-orthodox metal show Metal Enema returns with a new venue:

METALENEMA – Death, Black, Thrash!
Metalenema began in 1994 on KVRX FM Radio in Austin, Texas. Hosted by The Undertaker and Agapornis Epicac, it was the only radio show broadcast from The University of Texas to local, and later international, acclaim. The show was tied to numerous touring underground concerts and boasted hundreds of listeners at the height of its popularity. It resurfaced as a guest program on BCR in Bridgewater, England, in 1999, and was then revived once more for a series of popular podcasts on Solarfall.com from late 2005 to the end of 2007.

The focus of the show is Black and Death Metal spanning the ’80s, ’90s, and the new millennium, as well as some good old timeworn Speed and Thrash Metal for good measure. While the music is always serious, your intrepid hosts are rarely anything but irreverent, ridiculous, and occasionally patently offensive in their quest to promote the long-lost lighter side of an art form they hold so dear. Tune in and give your brain a Viking funeral every Saturday night on No Control Radio on 107.1 HD2! – No control radio on 101x

Check out the older shows (2004-2009) at the Metal Enema website, or tune in on Saturdays from 10 PM – 1 AM CST:

• Metal Enema
• No Control Radio Live Stream (MP3)
• No Control Radio website

Could be interesting:

Gabby Riches, a master’s student in the faculty of physical education, is writing her thesis on mosh pits for a degree in recreation and leisure studies.

Riches, 25, has been a heavy metal fan since she was 15. During her undergraduate degree, she decided to combine her hobby and her studies and asked one of her professors if she could do a paper on metal music and immigrant integration.

Her professor liked it, so she did another paper on women’s experiences in heavy metal. She realized she was interested in music fans, so that led her to study mosh pits for her graduate degree. Riches also runs a student group called Heavy Metal on Campus.

Moshing started in the early 1980s in the American hard core punk scene. A band called Bad Brains used to yell at their audience to “mash it up.”

“But the singer had a thick Jamaican accent, so people heard ‘mash’ as ‘mosh,’” said Riches. – Edmonton Journal

A use for academics and English-speaking Canada in the same post. Awesome.

It’s easy to type words:

In tens of millions of reviews on Web sites like Amazon.com, Citysearch, TripAdvisor and Yelp, new books are better than Tolstoy, restaurants are undiscovered gems and hotels surpass the Ritz.

Or so the reviewers say. As online retailers increasingly depend on reviews as a sales tool, an industry of fibbers and promoters has sprung up to buy and sell raves for a pittance.

“For $5, I will submit two great reviews for your business,” offered one entrepreneur on the help-for-hire site Fiverr, one of a multitude of similar pitches. On another forum, Digital Point, a poster wrote, “I will pay for positive feedback on TripAdvisor.” A Craigslist post proposed this: “If you have an active Yelp account and would like to make very easy money please respond.” – NYT

Label sends stuff to blogs, blogs fawn, label reprints, and on it goes.

What gets lost? Any notion of music quality.

You can be a wank metal blog, and be popular for some time, but you’ll never touch the popularity of the metal that really made life more intense for people.

A repo man’s always intense. Come on, let’s go get a drink.