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Black metal troll Arckanum again attacks the weak

The Swedish chaos/Pan cult Arckanum already has left a long history of hooved tracks behind. Mostly obscure in the 90′s amidst all mediocre Swedish black metal and norsecore, later praised for the mysticism and personality of the field recording, campfire ritual and mythology enhanced albums “Fran Marder”, “Kostogher” and “Kampen”, at about the exact time Necropolis Records collapsed and the discography went out of print. For about a decade, fans were drooling over news of promised future albums but received only weak signs of such in 7″ format.

Finally last year the chaos gods decided to smile upon mankind in the form of two Arckanum EP’s and a new full length, “Antikosmos”. Though a solid effort of Swedish black metal, it’s retro speed metal riffs and more rocking, direct style was something of a disappointment to many fans who wished Arckanum would return to the abstract forest atmosphere of old.

Apparently Arckanum did not only become activated but hyperactivated because another album for this year, “ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ” (for the mythological significance of the number 11 and the thurisaz letter, visit your library) has been announced. Based on the Myspace samples, the band is back at fusing a more romantic and ambient sound with the 80′s influences mentioned on the site. Consistent to its trollish nature, Arckanum is also probably the first black metal band to release a statement against Óðinn and the rest of the ǽsir!

We hope that also the long awaited book on Chaos mysticism and philosophy by Mr. Lahger, “Pan Paradox”, shall be unleashed through Ixaxaar soon. It would undoubtedly enhance the enjoyment of Arckanum which seems to be deeply rooted in his archaic, mythological perception of things.

Debemur Morti Productions
Carnal Records

Clips
Arckanum – Gava Fran Trulen

Reviews
Fran Marder
Fran Marder
Fran Marder
Fran Marder
Kostogher
Kostogher
Kostogher
Kampen
Kampen

Pandemic death

You might have heard the news and encountered the spreading panic relating to this year’s outbreak of swine flu, most notable in Mexico but by now also spread into USA and possibly Europe. Anyone who agrees that the Earth can not support a population of 6 billion people shouldn’t be anything less than happy about this bit of news. Prepare for your personal encounter with the disease by listening to some death metal.

Clips
Slayer – Epidemic
Morbid Angel – Lord of All Fevers and Plagues
Pestilence – Chronic Infection

An evil compilation of Sinister’s pre-Cross the Styx recordings

When writing the Asphyx update I knew I was forgetting some essential Dutch death cult but couldn’t put my finger on it. Well now, here it is: underworld abominators Sinister. They already have eight albums out in the rather basic but on the two first albums evocative and possessed, brutal style of death metal. They are probably the Dutch band closest to Morbid Angel.

Goregiastic Records finally has available: “The long-awaited collection of all the early, long-time out-of-print demo & EP material released by this Dutch death metal masters!!. Includes their 2 EP’s from 1990, the 1990 and 1991 demos, the split EP with MONASTERY from 1991 plus one bonus track!. Masterful cover artwork by none other than cult underground artist Chris Moyen.” I bet this one could even serve as a good first exposure to the band for those who still haven’t got into them.

Reviews
Diabolical Summoning
Diabolical Summoning
Hate
Hate
Hate
Bastard Saints
Bastard Saints
Bastard Saints
Aggressive Measures
Aggressive Measures

Once again: National Day of Slayer!

Originally inspired by the National Day of Prayer that religious groups
created to draw attention to their beliefs, the National Day of Slayer
was thought to be a holiday on June 6, 2006 — that’s 6/6/06 — but now
it has grown.

http://www.nationaldayofslayer.org/

All right, we can all admit that Slayer is not what they used to be. Yet, there is something very difficult to describe, pleasurable and fascinating, proved by each one of their live performances (I dare you name another band that still gets the kids and the old scenesters alike to do this), an unbending spirit to show death and madness in their true nature, through musical abomination based on British punk and British metal, forever.

Why a National Day of Slayer, since we worship Slayer every day? Because according to the laws of magic, intent and the energetic mass created by all metalheads preparing for headbanging and evil upon this day will cause very special things to happen. Take it as a psychic experiment (once again)!

Directing Power Forcibly
The Fire Of Hell Is Cast

Resurrect From Crypts Of Death
A Demon From The Past

Festivals of death: Maryland Deathfest, Gathering of Shadows and Jalometalli

Sometimes one gets just a bit envious of those who live in the States; more precisely when Maryland Deathfest or Gathering of Shadows lineups are announced.

Friday, May 22nd, Maryland Deathfest: Asphyx, Mayhem, Marduk, Venomous Concept and more
Saturday, May 23rd, Maryland Deathfest: Bolt Thrower, Atheist, Napalm Death, Brutal Truth, Immolation, Hail of Bullets and more
Sunday, May 24th, Maryland Deathfest: Pestilence, Destroyer 666, Abscess, Aura Noir, Absu, Sigh, Devourment, Lair of the Minotaur and more
Friday, June 12th and 13th, Gathering of Shadows: Nightbringer, Krieg, Abyssmal Nocturne, Ravensbrück and more

Those bigger black metal names are nothing that special since they seem to tour just about every year, but Immolation last year threw the best death metal gig in Nosturi, Helsinki I’ve ever seen during my life. Few bands have such a reputation as Bolt Thrower and Destroyer 666 for totally slaying the live audience. Absu, Aura Noir, Asphyx and the like can’t help but be professional and strong at this stage of their careers. Gathering of Shadows has a couple of USBM faves and of course the most attractive part is the whole idea of worshipping these cults “under the night sky deep in the Rocky Mountains”. According to stories I’ve heard it gets pretty wild out there.

Luckily we Finns have one opportunity to experience some of this madness, namely the most “keep it true” spirited metal festival of Finland, Jalometalli of Oulu which is infinitely superior to the commercialized and boring Tuska Festival.

14-15.8., Jalometalli, Oulu: Voivod, Atheist, Hail of Bullets, Whiplash, Rage, Agent Steel, Asphyx, Artillery, Spiritus Mortis, Deathchain and more

If they would add some of the missing bands from the Maryland lineup, I wouldn’t mind. In any case it will be brutality, madness and headbanging in the old school speed and death metal vein. Metal being trendy right now has its good points.

Mircea Eliade – The Sacred and the Profane

Mircea Eliade from Romania is one of the most publically revered figures on history of religion and the philosophy of religion, even though at one point he had an interest in Garda de Fier, the Romanian fascist movement contemporary with Mussolini. Among his vast corpus of work, this treatise concerning primarily what it is that men perceive as sacred, is one of the most read and debated ones.

The point of talking about this book is that it’s the most succinct and lucid introduction to the concepts of sanctity and ritual from a neutral perspective. Theology is obsessed with the Christian material and the occultists are obsessed with whatever it is they are obsessed with at the time. Eliade, on the other hand, is remarking on the intention of ritual and temples, cosmogonical myths and how civilization deals with the problem of adjusting to time, the great destroyer, and nature/environment, the great nurturing force. It is not surprising that one finds a lot in common with the ideals of Nietzsche and Evola, such as the concept of cyclical time and eternal return. In stressing the otherness of that which is perceived as sacred, he has interesting parallels to Jungian psychology and seems to foreshadow Foucault.

I believe this book is most helpful to understanding the character of mystical and religious experience and ritual, which has a definite part in metal culture whether in the hippie-tinged early psychedelia, the archaic revivalism of black metal or death metal’s explorations of the religious-psychotic mind. Eliade’s book does have its problems such as putting forward of very generalized statements, some unclear arguments and stylistically the writing is rather bouncing. Yet it is very descriptive, luscious and inspiring. Besides being a scientist, it’s obvious that he is also fulfilling some artistic, visionary and personal aims with this study.

Asphyx raises the horns of death

Asphyx, one of the original Dutch death cults together with Pestilence and Thanatos, is breaking nearly a decade of silence. Remembered for legendary albums such as “The Rack”, they pioneered doomy and grinding slow-ish death metal alongside bands such as Bolt Thrower from England and Benediction from Denmark. The new album is called “Death… the Brutal Way” and shall be released during summer via Century Media Records.

A demonic return: Beherit 2009

As opposed to the relatively linear development from punkish thrashers to morbid death metallers to evil romantic black metal in the rest of Scandinavia, trends and styles caught up in Finland relatively late. The rise of practically all the forms of underground metal happened simultaneously: grindcore with Xysma, death metal with Abhorrence (pre-Amorphis) and black metal with Beherit.

Beherit, alongside friends Impaled Nazarene and Barathrum, formed a mini-scene of Finnish black metal before the style was popular anywhere else. The satanic and lo-fi, thrash and Sarcofago influenced style, closer to Canadian ultra warfare Blasphemy, was at odds with the more intricate, distanced approach that was to become the norm, resulting in the Finnish acts receiving quite an amount of threats and derisive statements at the time. Ironically it was to be the only one of the early BM phenomena that retained its mystique, integrity and ultimately, honour, through the dark years that followed for black metal after the collapse that resulted from mainstream media attention.

After the acclaimed debut album “Drawing Down the Moon” and the curious EP “Messe des Morts”, Beherit drifted further into obscurity by releasing two electronic albums “H418ov21.c” and “Electric Doom Synthesis” that the black metal world wasn’t ready for at the time. Accused of having rejected black metal, even if it happened only in the surface of the content, no-one expected Beherit ever to come back. When rumours started to circulate in the Finnish underground that Nuclear Holocausto is planning a new album, many dismissed it as some delirium tremens hallucination. But as ever, facta loquuntur.

At one point reluctant to divulge information to the point of refusing to promote his ongoing work, Holocausto had according to rumours gathered a rather curious group of musicians, including original Beherit drummer Sodomatic Slaughter, Spikefarm label boss Sami Tenetz mostly remembered for the unremarkable nearly forgotten black metal of Thy Serpent (and infernally undescriptive reviews in Finnish metal magazines) and Albert Witchfinder, the vocalist of retro-doomsters Reverend Bizarre and the creator of lo-fi industrial black metal of Armanenschaft. It sounded like Holocausto was playing one of his famous practical jokes again on the hapless underground.

In a few days all of us will be able to hear the results of this cosmic-religious joke. The release date for “Engram” is set as April 9th, on Spinefarm records. You can read a preview of the album here and find a small sample by exploring the void at www.beherit.fi. If the stars are right, Beherit will be able to give a promise of hope back to the underground and the sense of mystique that was lost when black metal started getting treated as just one among clothing styles.

Beherit talks to Dark Legions Archive

Gary Valentine Lachman – Turn Off Your Mind

When it appeared, I thought this book is mostly worthless, because from a few glances the factual errors, opininiated attitude and the fact that it’s aimed at hipsters who ironically appreciate the counterculture were obvious. Lately I have changed my mind: this is a valuable book for beginners who are wondering about the new age, cult and heretical obsessions from Lovecraft to Crowley, Manson to Castaneda and parallel topics that inflitrated heavy metal from the beginning and even more obviously death and black metal. The writer Lachman has previously contributed to the underground through his work in early post-punk bands Blondie and Television. He comes across as a honest and astute writer, even though his ultra-liberalism causes him to be very unobjective when facing topics such as nazism and murder – it seems he sometimes chooses not to see the context.

The best part is that obviously he himself was very much oriented from a young age towards the topics of the occult in the same spirit as old death and black metallers were: picking up those parts that seem to benefit the empowerment of man, reveal the experience of the mystical in life and reach towards transcendence no matter how “crazy” deemed by the public. And despite the aforementioned shunning of brutal elements in Western culture and counterculture, his conclusions tend to be sane and without the excessive burden of moralism. Overall, while labeled as a book about the 60′s, possibly for marketing reasons, in describing the threads that connected popular culture to esoteric practice throughout the whole century it’s a better guide to reveal the spiritual tendencies behind death metal, from Morbid Angel’s deities to Deicide’s blasphemy, than books that are actually about death metal itself.

Winterwolf (pre-Deathchain) is recording a new album

People from abroad might wonder who the fuck is Deathchain but at least it’s obvious to everyone in Finland, thanks to them starting a neo-trend of old school death metal with some euro-thrash influence. With their first attacks “DeadMeat Disciples” and “Deathrash Assault” they found a fertile breeding ground from Kuopio’s infamous beer-swilling headbangers who are known for their love of Sodom and Kreator, but then divided opinions with the next album “Cult of Death” that attempted for a more evil, viral atmosphere.

Their most deathlike spirit was actually displayed in the early demos released under the moniker of Winterwolf. According to Winterwolf Myspace, they reformed with De Lirium’s Order members and most important of all, Demilich guitarist Antti Boman, to record a new album. We are hoping for a truly interesting item!

MP3
Winterwolf – “Death… Will Come Your Way” demo 2000
Let Them Die…
Winter of Wolves
Elizabeth Bathory (Tormentor cover)