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Tourdates of the Tormentors

Death Metal has never been averse to tolling the end of our unsustainable, technocratic age by manipulating it’s very machinery against the system, for the purposes of pure electro-sonic destruction. In the same spirit of infiltration and warfare, we’ve upgraded our upcoming events list to a compact and calendrical crystal ball of future live underground Metal massacres!

In anticipation of the profane rites of spring and summer

As the solar powers emancipate the winter’s icy grip, the pieces of art we hoped to dominate this year’s playlists are gradually fading to old news, not to spoil any upcoming reviews of efforts such as Burzum‘s pastoral “Belus”, Immolation‘s showy “Majesty and Decay” and Winterwolf‘s cheeky “Cycle of the Werewolf”. Insatiable death squads that we are, relentlessly lusting for the lower ethereal planes, our sights gaze upon promised treasures such as the debut album of North Carolina’s Anu, “Opus Funaerum” and the sophomore benedictions of Australia‘s Cauldron Black Ram and New York’s Profanatica; namely, “Slubberdegullion” and “Disgusting Blasphemies Against God”. The Anu CD is currently in press and will be available through Graveless Slumber Records and distributors worldwide, this Demoncy related band having already caused a stirring of unbenevolent underground majesties with its acrid and harsh self-titled EP and Myspace samples promising neo-ambient black metal hymnals dedicated to the darkness and quietude of night, in the profound manner of Sorcier des Glaces and Legion of Doom who know how to make the synthesizer sound archaic. The LP version will be out later on Werewolf Records, whose releases I generally find worthwhile to pay attention to. Cauldron Black Ram has hardly softened their sound over the years in favor of pirate maniacs scattered by the sinking of Running Wild‘s flagship, instead paying homage to Autopsy and Hellhammer with primi-syncopated drumscapes, poisonous grunts and eerily progressive riffing that gets at times, not that surprisingly, close to what compatriots Portal practice on galactic hyperspeeds, CD out now on Weird Truth Productions. Profanatica’s audial sodomy, out in summer through the hallowed Hells Headbanger Records hardly needs much explanation nor much can be provided, as Ledney remains the official high priest of evil USBM since more than two decades of non-compromising, pummelling, harsh and blasphemous black metal.

And while waiting for all these to intrude your mailbox as if it was the holy anus, check out some of the forthcoming gigs in your area and present yourself simultaneously as a brutal but intelligent metalhead, in order to raise the honourable status of this artform in your country. Hail and kill.

Sarcophageous film on Finnish heavy metal culture

Promised Land of Heavy Metal is a documentary about the history and philosophy of Heavy Metal and how it became such a big deal in a small country called Finland.

The film is narrated by Kimmo Kuusniemi, a filmmaker, Sarcofagus guitarist and a forefather of Finnish Metal. Kimmo has lived in England for 16 years, and sees the current popularity of Heavy Metal as a strange phenomenon. He was the one who fought for the metal message 30 years ago! What happened in Finland in his absence?

One of our aims over the years has been to prove how the vital undercurrents of Finland produced cultivated metal sensations over the years from the earliest heavy metal days, best exemplified by the inimitable Sarcofagus, to thrash and the Finnish death metal movement, finally creating a discharge of consciousness that erupted in mainstream metal sensations all over the world, leaving most of the more focused and gloomy explorers to repose in the depths.

Kimmo Kuusniemi, the founder of Sarcofagus, the earliest Finnish metal band, has aggregated his unique vision into a documentary giving sporadic but meaningful glimpses into metal culture in search of the ultimate question: why?

40 Candles upon the Altar of Heavy Metal

If we say that the average life-expectancy age in the western world is 80 and simplify things a little further by positing that half of those years are spent asleep during the night, then we’ve only got about 40 years to do some real, serious living. It’s been that many years to this day since Black Sabbath released their debut album, as good a day as you’re going to get to hail the 40th anniversary of Heavy Metal, and every single one of those years has been spent wide awake through procession of the daily sun and the darkness of the night. Heavy Metal arrived at a time to sentence a generation of delusion to death and confront the rest of modernity with the weight of reality and the power of the occult. A lot of newer generation listeners entered the Metallic planes of hell through bands that were breaking away from Heavy Metal’s Rock formalities and Blues atavisms, giving an impression that the older music was in most cases obsolete. From the moment that Sabbath had arrived and Satan unveiled his majestic black wings, the spirit of Metal was unlocked like a Pandora’s box that held all the secrets from the past and future, and the subversion of the present ensued, encoded in the language of the riff! Let us mark this unholy day with the truest celebration of Heavy Metal imagineable, as Devamitra introduces his epic compilation chronicling this wise and powerful art-culture:

History has become obscured, for few are interested to learn and explore the dawn of the barbaric and romantic sounds of metal music. All sorts of glam and joke bands are mistaken for Heavy Metal, which they aren’t, and many even believe there was never any serious merit, dark insight or focused direction to Heavy Metal in the past. The “Anvil of Thor” compilation was created to aid discourse on death metal and black metal with a friend of mine, as our musical learnings were composed in entirely different moulds and I wanted him to see the language of heavy metal with its forms, symbols and motion at least partially from my perspective. “If you don´t know the past, it´s impossible to understand the present.” Listening to these tracks in the preferred order as they appear in the playlist file, it should be easy, for example, to see how the tritone blues of Black Sabbath and the poetic narrative of Judas Priest contained the suggestion of high energy riffs as they appeared in occult bands Mercyful Fate, Death SS and Angel Witch, consequently mutating into Doom Metal in Trouble and Candlemass, Speed Metal in Slayer and Metallica and Epic Metal in Manilla Road and Manowar. This isn’t quite a “best of Heavy Metal” but one of the possible paths of seeing through core visions, techniques and moods of Heavy Metal music. For old heavy metal fans, it will hopefully revive fond memories of these sinister and majestic LP’s and for others, broaden the perception and hopefully bestow surprises.

Anvil of Thor – Heavy Metal Thunder Compilation

Achtung! Totten Korps Kommen

In the abyssic southern lands of the Americas, an ancient force is re-awakening, as one of Chile’s best Death Metal bands prepares their next attack on this complacent world. After an absence of 9 years from the scene, within which saw the re-release of their last album, ‘Tharnheim: Athi-Land-Nhi; Ciclopean Crypts of Citadels‘ in a double-CD package along with another abomination of occultic Death Metal, Imprecation‘s ‘Theurgia Goetia Summa’, Totten Korps evoked the images of their forthcoming creation with these words to Deathmetal.Org:

Francisco Torres: I tell you that it’s gonna be really wicked, 9 songs and 2 old school bonus tracks… it is worth waiting for, we are very motivated and convinced that it will be a very good production. Right now, it’s 100% produced by Totten Korps, although we don’t discard any offer that may raise our interest. It’ll become a reality in April, at the latest.

Obviously the way we play and the sound have evolved in a very good way, take account of the 9 years that had passed by. Back in those years, the reachability and technology weren’t the same of today, so, now it’s much easier to achieve something monstrous.

Recalls the change in sound that occured in Sarcofago‘s music two decades ago, so it will be very interesting to hear what level of brutality can be summoned by this premier South American Death Metal band. For those unfamiliar with the capabilities of the Chilean commanding veterans Totten Korps, a review of their only full-length album is due to burst from the festering cadaver of this post and onto your screens.

Thanks to Octuple of Forest Poetry for the translation of Totten Korps’ update.

Onwards to a decade of dominance

Death Metal is neither an outdated form of immature musical expression nor one commercially produced alternative product for consumers who would pretend to be real individuals. It is a way of seeing the world, always has been and always shall be. Regardless religious, scientific or political orientation I assume we can agree that death, as concept, is universal and encompassing, since no king nor magician nor soldier nor businessman is exempt from its eventual icy touch.

It is the first New Year since we reformatted this site to bring you vital, non-obvious and hopefully inspiring information, news and discussion about Death Metal and related topics. Appropriately, it is also the turn of the decade and we are at the threshold of new ideas, innovations and intents. To celebrate the endless possibilities given to us by the Universe for our brief lives upon the Earth and to thank all the people who have worked with us, gotten in touch or read us, last but not least the brave musicians who throughout the years have brought us all these dimensional deconstructions, we have a massive update for you to peruse and guide you in making the right New Year’s promises such as: to listen to more Death Metal.

Everyone knows bands like Amorphis, Demilich and Sentenced devastated worldwide audiences with their darkspawned conjurations in 1993 but very few know what’s good in the new millennium Finnish Death Metal. To correct this state of things we discussed with chosen bands such as Lie in Ruins, Slugathor, Hooded Menace, Deathspawned Destroyer, Sepulchral Aura, Ascended and Devilry about their mysterious ways. The article “Ascension of Sepulchral Echoes: A Finnish Death Metal Revival” is now online here at Deathmetal.Org.

Before there were metal websites and reference tools such as the Metal-Archives for one to easily access every tidbit of information, there were underground metal zines produced non-profit by maniacs who had basically the same purpose as we do: to tell you about good metal, new vistas and infernal heresies. A large exhibit “Morbid Scriptorium: A Museum of Metal Zines” of some of the best zines we have come across has been gathered here and on the side, a long exploration featuring craftsmen who brought to you the verbal abominations of Buttface zine, Chainsaw Abortions zine, Hammer of Damnation zine, Fallen Pages zine and Pure Fucking Hell zine is published here in the articles section: “Pages of Pure Fucking Damnation: Zines in the Death Metal Underground”. And if that’s not enough reading for you to get you through the dark days when the winter storms lock you inside your cabin, check out the eclectic “road book” by ex-Metal Maniacs writer Ryan Bartek, “The Big Shiny Prison”, spanning from black metal to raves, Stalaggh to Barack Obama here as a free PDF directly from the author.

We hope you enjoy the materials and the rest of the winter.

Morbid New Years’ hails to the devotees from the entire Deathmetal.Org staff!

New Year’s Incantation

Incantation will be raiding the eastern-most shores of Europe this January. Fellow Ibex Moon heathens Divine Eve will also be hitting the dates in England, Spain and then onwards to Italy, no doubt unleashing heavy doses of the old-school, cryptic language from the upcoming ‘Vengeful and Obstinate’ EP. The pan-European conglomerate of Hate, Nerve and Noctem will provide further support throughout the tour, with local bands intervening. A diabolical start to the year for European residents who can’t resist the infernal sound of northern USDM.

13/01/2010 – The Central – Nottingham, UK
14/01/2010 – Rio’s – Leeds, UK
15/01/2010 – Bannermans – Edinburgh, UK
16/01/2010 – The Elektrowerkz – London, UK
17/01/2010 – Den Eglantier – Antwerp, Belgium
21/01/2010 – Mephisto – Barcelona, Spain
22/01/2010 – Santana 27 – Bilbao, Spain
23/01/2010 – Grind In The Veins Metal Fest 2010 – Vigo, Spain
24/01/2010 – Ritmo & Compas – Madrid, Spain
30/01/2010 – Siddharta - Prato/Florence, Italy
31/01/2010 – Pieffe Factory – Gorizia, Italy

This is the latest tour schedule as of the date of posting, including the changes of venue that were made to the British leg.

The White God returns from the Underworld

It’s been 13 years since the last sonically black metallic beast from the most infamous Norwegian perpetrator of Germanic mysticism and spells of darkness. Post-produced while Varg was already enchained to the dungeons of Ila, Oslo, Burzum’s “Filosofem” influenced a decade of ambient black metal with its melancholic drone textures, mid-paced romantic metal on the edge of desperation and hope and slowly drifting synthesizer movements akin to Tangerine Dream. Within the next few years, the caged wolf defied repression by a series of neo-classical MIDI works, that essentially showed he still has deep music within him despite the obvious difficulties in his situation to get the end product he would like to. Yet, this was not a catastrophe for pieces of music that were about concept more than anything else. As a pioneer of narrative and ritual composition, Burzum was never dependent on the devices of rock or traditional metal to bring across the ever deepening spheres of twilight that still continue to confuse listeners of the early albums and create endless clones of “depressive” or “suicidal” black metal which fail to have anything to do with the special mood of the original works.

While loudmouths and troublemakers were proclaiming Burzum’s death on the basis of a multitude of (not unfounded) anti-black metal statements, Varg’s release from prison was accompanied by a promise to return to the scene, figuratively. While details about the forthcoming album weren’t revealed then, now there’s enough to give any real Burzum fan sleepless nights of anticipation. “Den Hvite Guden”, conceptually a drama on the trials of the White God of various European ancient traditions, will include a couple of songs written as far back as 1988, with of course lots of brand new exercises in purely mesmerizing runic metal as only Varg can do it, besides Odin himself! An album to crush the whole past decade of mediocrity in black metal, or another safe, lukewarm comeback? We shall all hear it with our own ears, in the season when the Sun returns.

Nile and Immolation go for a winter campaign

I don’t know if it’s the right season for war, but here’s a list of dates for you lucky Americans again. Go see them, as even the new Nile album “Those Whom the Gods Detest” has been growing on me, not the least because it has the best death metal use of the “allahu akbar“ phrase so far. Here’s the review by Mr. Stevens, for more information. Plus maybe Immolation will play something from the forthcoming album.

Jan. 15 – Baltimore, MD – Sonar
Jan. 16 – Worcester, MA – The Palladium (MA)
Jan. 17 – Philadelphia, PA – The Trocadero
Jan. 18 – New York, NY – The Blender Theatre
Jan. 20 – Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s
Jan. 21 – Chicago, IL – Metro/Smart Bar
Jan. 22 – Milwaukee, WI – Rave
Jan. 23 – St. Paul, MN – Station 4
Jan. 24 – Kansas City, MO – The Beaumont Club
Jan. 25 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theatre
Jan. 27 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon
Jan. 28 – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre
Jan. 29 – Orangevale, CA – The Boardwalk
Jan. 30 – San Francisco, CA – Slim’s
Jan. 31 – San Diego, CA – House Of Blues
Feb. 02 – Los Angeles, CA – Key Club
Feb. 03 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
Feb. 04 – Mesa, AZ – U.B.’s Bar
Feb. 05 – Tucson, AZ – The Rock
Feb. 06 – Farmington, NM – Gator’s
Feb. 08 – Corpus Christi, TX – House of Rock
Feb. 09 – San Antonio, TX – Scout Bar
Feb. 10 – Houston, TX – Scout Bar
Feb. 11 – Dallas, TX – Trees
Feb. 12 – Tulsa, OK – Marquee
Feb. 13 – Louisville, KY – Headliner’s Music Hall
Feb. 14 – West Springfield, VA – Jaxx
Feb. 16 – Virginia Beach, VA – Peppermint Beach
Feb. 17 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
Feb. 18 – Charlotte, NC – Amos Southend
Feb. 19 – Raleigh, NC – Volume 11
Feb. 20 – Charleston, SC – Music Farm

Immolation builds a new WMD

You love Immolation, don’t you? If you do, you’ll be as excited as we are about this piece of news. If not, what’s wrong with you!?

Unique-disharmonic-blackend-death-metal legends Immolation, have entered Millbrook Sound Studios in New York with longtime producer Paul Orofino to begin recording their Nuclear Blast Records debut and eighth over all album. The band checked in from the studio today to offer the following details and update:

“We are still in the process of getting ideas together for the album’s concept and cover art, but these final details will be worked out in the near future.”

Hopefully it will be convoluted, insane and maniacal again as “Close to a World Below” was. I mean, the last album was great of course but maybe not as awe-inspiring after about 100 listens, which should be the norm for Immolation studies by death metal fans.