Daniel Ekeroth – Swedish Death Metal

Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth is an easy and enjoyable read that recounts the glory years of Swedish Death Metal told in large part through the mouths of those who actually lived it. Ekeroth presents the history of Swedish death metal, focusing mainly on the release of seminal albums and demos, and the means by which fanzines and tape trading played a role in the development and proliferation of the Swedish death metal genre.  This is definitely a worthwhile read if one is looking for a chronology of all of the important bands, namely Bathory, Nihilist/Entombed, Dismember, At the Gates, and Therion, that played an important role in the development and consolidation of Swedish Death Metal. Additionally, the layout of the book is such that it is easily navigable, making use of handy headings, subheadings and band headings, which also make this a great quick-reference text.  However compelling, it is a slight draw back that the various snapshots throughout the book interrupt the flow of the read, and are laid out in such a way as to provide a distraction.  One may be better off reading the book through and then returning to the snapshots at a later date.

In addition to analyzing the careers of many important Swedish Death Metal bands, Ekeroth indulges the curiosity of the reader and earns additional merit for mentioning important non-Swedish bands such as Master and Deathstrike, and for emphasizing the role of Morbid Angel in the overall development of Death Metal. Interestingly, the author seems at pains to make sure that the reader understands the relationship between Crustcore, Punk, and Metal and adds some welcome depth to his account of Swedish Death Metal by mentioning Discharge, whose strumming style and melody would influence countless metal bands. If you are looking for a chronology of the glory days of Swedish Death Metal, this book proves enlightening. Thankfully, there is little mention of “Slaughter of the Soul” and second rate Swedish bands such as In Flames and Soilwork that would later hijack, dilute and all but destroy this once living art form.

With that said, readers beware!  Ekeroth has a tendency to try and convince his reader that death metal was all about “fun” back in the day and tends to present the extracurricular activities, namely drinking and partying, as the highlights of many bands careers. Although Ekeroth’s goal was to tell the history of important bands, releases and tours, I believe this book could have been improved had Ekeroth attempted to explore the philosophical underpinnings of this genre and refrained from presenting Metal culture as simply an offshoot or replication of self-indulgent rock culture. New frontiers await those willing to explore this aspect of Swedish Death Metal and Ekeroth’s book may in fact prove to be a trailblazer. Time Shall Tell.

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!

Glorious times of death

We’re definitely not alone creating a corpus of para-historical research and evaluation of death metal mythology. We’ve been in touch recently with the editors of a very interesting book to be published soon, apparently exhibiting similar tendencies to our own ongoing, arduous work of digging death metal relics and evidence from shadow-haunted attics, cellars and sealed archives.

Former ‘zine editors Alan Moses (Buttface ‘zine) and Brian Pattison (Chainsaw Abortions ‘zine) are nearing completion on a book unlike any other. Instead of the standard “history of” book, “Glorious Times” will showcase rare (many never before seen) pictures from the death metal scene (1984-1991) and instead of narration by an outside author, the stories contained in the book will come from the bands and ‘zine editors of the period. Who could be better at telling the inside stories of what really happened than those that were there and lived it.

For more information go to: http://www.myspace.com/glorioustimesdeathbook

While it is common to remember death metal by its biggest commercial successes around ’93, I can’t help but agree with these authors that the era they have chosen to represent through their material is the one most vital, formative and interesting for death metal, as afterwards a collection of superficial, random sonic trends took over the more holistic immersion in death metal as serious business.

While waiting for this book and also a massive expansion to our virtual exhibits (including new exclusive interviews of course), spend your time by listening through each one of Austin Metal Music Examiner’s top death metal albums of all time.

Death metal is good for you

So they think they can keep us blind
We must be aware to survive

Our friend from Houston wrote recently a piece on why heavy metal is good for you while the Hessian Studies Center relentlessly works to get the Hessian cause and viewpoints matter in society and politics. Everyone with personal experience of death metal bands knows that the musicians are intelligent and often highly educated, so there is no reason the average fan would want anything else than live, join in action and search for knowledge. The intricate and mysterious subject matter of death metal is a conglomeration of the scientific and the occult, inspiring personal and social development and even creating multiple career choices far more useful than a menial job at Wal-Mart, if one is capable of dealing with the intellectual challenge of an academic institution.

Parents since the dawn of time have been skeptical about death metal and convinced that it magically makes youth into losers, because they are not prepared to accept the idea that one can “win” by critical thinking and penetration of the illusion that makes up the world of adults – the unholy trinity of propaganda (in advertising and politics), numbing of mind / evasion of challenge (entertainment and most of work life) and consumerism (egoistic individualism).

It’s probably not big news to anyone that if you fight for the truth, you are going to offend people and you are going to get into problems. Parents, teachers and men of religion spent decades fighting against rock music that was basically about the problems concerning dating and loneliness, until heavy metal came along and changed matters for far worse. The songs dealt with social reality in a dark way and actually incorporated mythology and influence from philosophy. Progressive rock or psychedelic rock (The Doors, Pink Floyd…) might have opened the gates for heavy subject matter, but still there was something about Black Sabbath‘s demonic prophecies and Judas Priest‘s irreligious romanticism that was simply too much, particularly for reborn Christians involved in movements. Ironically, when death metal and black metal submerged into more and more extreme symbols, the PMRC and the preachers didn’t care so much anymore – because their agenda was mind control based on paranoia about hidden messages and symbols. Documentaries such as Decline of Western Civilization part 2 paints a picture of heavy metal as unintellectual hedonists, but the chosen interviewees, you might notice, are mostly shock rock and hard rock performers.

Organized satanism and blatantly satanic art didn’t give zealots any chance to exercise their status as messengers of God, who reveals hidden evil. The extreme death and black metal of Hellhammer and Bathory stimulated fantasy, circulated in the underground and was in all ways a separate phenomenon from mainstream youth culture, where always resided the “souls that needed saving”. That’s why WASP and Twisted Sister albums were burnt – they were supposed to corrupt the innocent, while the assumption was that no-one in their right mind would listen to death metal in the first place. The reputation was backed by misconceptions I’d like to examine.

The morbid visuals of death metal, reminiscent at once of Gustave Doré, surrealism and satanic kitsch, were of course portraying the contortions of a soul writhing in the agony of Hell. Psychologists seem almost equivocal about the fact that this kind of feasts of gore fulfill a need in our personalities which can be repressed by formal, robotic upbringing and circumstance in a modern consumeristic society. Some of the lyrical content is focused on depictions of murder, satanic rituals and otherworldly visions. Like religious literature, mystical poetry and horror novels, dealing with powerful subjects seem evil and dangerous not because they would correlate with inspiring psychopaths, inciting youth violence or anything of the kind; the most frightening of scenarios is the journey – being taken outside of oneself to see reality from a cold, inhuman perspective, to grasp the freedom of a mind that exists beyond the boundaries of jurisdiction and morality. In other words, the slave is afraid to escape the master because out there is the world of predators and vastness, with no hand to feed him or slap him; survival requires action, not reaction, so the lazy and the ineffective choose never to test themselves, never to really engage.

The imaginative music of death metal, which incorporates chromaticism, atonalities and wild, untamed structures, incites unease, confusion and even revulsion. As when faced with a reasonably difficult piece of text or mathematical equation, the untrained human mind can develop surprising and irrational excuses in order to not deal with the challenge presented by the information at hand, such as claim that it is ugly or random or that “anyone can play that noise”.

Atheist‘s metaphysical, spatial vision of human existence is only thoroughly understood by the application of theoretical philosophy and psychology. Bolt Thrower‘s tactical war metal inspires one to study military history and even national defence. Carcass‘ satirical surgery of organisms is perfect listening when reading for your medical degree exams. Deicide and Immolation challenge the theologist‘s empty dreams and drives to contemplate the images of God and Satan throughout cultural forms. Nocturnus seeks for the limits in astronomy and physics while Napalm Death is pure sociology and economics. Amorphis and Nile practically force you into World History 101.

You catch my drift. Be useful. Study. Develop. Win. Sodomize the weak! The war rages on…

And so the Psychic Saw meaningful ends
Become the meaning of it all
To set the stage
For the fears that will be
To pull the curtain
For the whole world to see

Maryland madness, a new dimension

Only a few years ago it seemed that the ancient death cults were left as pickings for ravens and metal festivals were mostly interested in metalcore and other more marketable forms which, after a long resistance, invaded even Europe. For the first time in a wide scale since death metal left MTV and Billboard in mid-90′s, USA sees a new resurgence of brutal growls, chromatic riffs and obscure dialectics borne from studies of Sumerian myths, underground art and cemeteries by the light of a full moon.

Or what say you about this line-up of confirmed bands for Maryland Deathfest 2010:

AUTOPSY
GORGUTS (Canada)
OBITUARY
ENTOMBED (Sweden)
POSSESSED
PENTAGRAM
ASPHYX (Netherlands)
EYEHATEGOD
PESTILENCE (Netherlands)
NAGLFAR (Sweden)
MALEVOLENT CREATION
CONVERGE
NECROPHOBIC (Sweden)
MELECHESH (Netherlands)
SINISTER (Netherlands)
INCANTATION
PORTAL (Australia)
WOLFBRIGADE (Sweden)
HAEMORRHAGE (Spain)
THE CHASM
COFFINS (Japan)
IMPALED
DECEASED
SADISTIC INTENT
NAZXUL (Australia)
GRIDLINK
ROMPEPROP (Netherlands)
BIRDS OF PREY
STORMCROW
GRIDE (Czech Republic)
INGROWING (Czech Republic)
GOROD (France)
16
JESUS CRÖST (Netherlands)
MASSGRAVE (Canada)
FUCK THE FACTS (Canada)
TOMBS
HOWL

If you ask me, it’s nothing short of insane. First of all, there’s Autopsy, Entombed and Possessed, who are practically the founders of death metal as a phenomenon. I can confirm from their Tuska Festival appearance a couple of years ago that Entombed can still crank out vicious early Swedish sounds when they realize that’s what their setlist should be filled with. Possessed might be a living corpse but it has a historical purpose. Autopsy is a black horse. There are many other interesting cases such as the in-depth musical fusion of Gorguts (heirs of Voivod), almost everyone of note from Netherlands, one of the least devolved Swedish melodic death metallers Necrophobic, the ever-relevant Incantation, the weird Aussies Portal and Nazxul, The Chasm, Sadistic Intent, powerful stuff all around.

Go there if you can! Hell, I’m considering it even if it might mean economic disaster for a student from overseas.

Ur-Tod – on the birth of death metal

Something like the problem of transubstantiation for the church fathers, the birth of death metal, who did it and where, is one of the prime causes of contention of metal messageboards across the world. Some give credit to Venom‘s blasphemies and chaos that were basically Motorhead with less technique and more sluts, ca. 1981. Thomas Gabriel Fischer‘s Hellhammer, formed in 1982, was an extreme entity from Switzerland that explored the furthest reaches of negativity and doom, guitars tuned low and vocals devolving into grunts and screams. Around this time the same guys also started a fanzine called “Death Metal”, later to lend their logo to a 1984 compilation of Noise Records bands, including Hellhammer. Around 1983, still not more than two years after Venom’s “Welcome to Hell” and the same year Mercyful Fate and Metallica would debut, Kam Lee of Mantas (pre-Death) and Jeff Becerra of Possessed were utilizing growled low vocals from the bottomless depths of Hell and elements of death metal guitar (tremolo and chromatics) and drum technique (blastbeat) that are staple elements of what consist a normal death metal album today.

I went to high school with Jeff Becerra and Larry Lalonde. They actually recorded and released ‘Seven Churches’ when we were in school. I even had a copy of the demo. I read all the time people citing that album as one of the first Death Metal albums and that they helped start all that. I seem to remember those guys being really into bands like Destruction, Venom and Celtic Frost… but I guess Possessed took it a little further. At the time I didn’t think it to be the start of anything. -Mark Peters

The above quote from the Peacedogman forum highlights the essence: bands were taking the influence of the previous generation of bands into areas that seemed so natural to them that they were not thinking of going out of their way to create another “experimental” genre. Thinking about thrash and thinking about death metal in their pre-trend incarnations is mostly an invention of the historians – it’s best to focus on the organic development of metal over time and remember how people unrelated to each other stumbled across the same kind of approach independent of each other. To celebrate the diversity and energy of this formational period when speed metal bands were discovering the praise of death and invocation of satanic forces, one could do worse than listen to this old school death metal compilation created by Fenriz for Vice Magazine – it’s in fact a good supplement to our article on the history of Norwegian death metal, because it represents both the contemporary sound of Sweden and the various evil conjuring voices from around the world that these kids heard by tapetrading, thus influencing their sound.

If God lived on Earth, we would break his windows

Just about two weeks ago, Tromsø prison released possibly the most well-known church arsonist in history, Varg Vikernes of Burzum, on parole. One week later, one of the famous churches of Norway still untouched by him, Våler church in Hedmark, went down in flames cast by an unknown force of retaliation. Gravestones have been toppled in various regions and the infamous “666″ in graffiti adorns suburbs and outskirts of holy places again. Coincidence or not, Norway should be thankful to these scoundrels that they continue to remind the social-democratic society that not everyone is happy to conform to pseudo-values, lies and hypocrisy. A beautiful European church might not deserve destruction, but it is among the least valuable things anyway that will be destroyed if things turn out much darker… and they are turning darker, in political, social and ecological worlds, one instrument of decay and wrath feeding another.

red hot embers
dreaming of becoming
a fizzling crackling fire
once more

Clips
Burzum – Dunkelheit
The church of Våler in fire

Unsilent Storms in the Texas Abyss

From the arid deserts infested with scorpions and snakes to the liberal cities and more conservative rural ranches, Texas carries the memory of the American frontier, the spirit of man against overwhelming odds; an age when harmony with nature determined survival. In the 80′s groundbreaking bands such as DRI, Helstar, Watchtower, Ripper and Necrovore created both musical and aggressive anti-normal metal that gave foundations for genres such as progressive metal, thrash and death metal. In the 90′s, the sceptre was mostly carried by death metal influenced black metal bands Absu, Averse Sefira and Thornspawn. Just as the Texas scene seemed to have quieted down in keeping with the hipsterization of metal, the last two years have shown many new promising acts to arise: the occult metal of Dagon, the hyperactive metal/punk crossover of Birth A.D. and the demonic and subliminal Blaspherian. While all of these are formally very much crafted according to the rules of subgenres established by the previous degenerations, their no-nonsense attitude and direct, perceptual spirit in the creation of insistent, spontaneous and un-commercial metal artifacts deserves nothing but applause.

Reviews
Birth A.D. – Stillbirth of a Nation
Blaspherian – Allegiance to the Will of Damnation
Dagon – In Desolationem per Nefandum

Historical perspectives on Singapore and Latin American underground scenes

While the basics of black metal and death metal were mostly laid down in the basements, clubs and rehearsal rooms of USA and Europe, the interest in morbid and extreme metal that mirrored the chaotic world, the hypocrisy of religion and the evil of politics which exist regardless of where you live, was inevitably spread to farthest reaches of Western youth culture: the alleys of the mega-city of Singapore and the hot shores surrounded by slums in Latin American lands. Key bands such as Sarcofago and Sepultura from Brazil and Impiety from Singapore, cranking out satanic, unhinged, delirious forms of early death metal and thrash, were reciprocally a tremendous shock and inspiration to underground metal fans in USA and Europe of the late 80′s and influenced a complete transformation of attitude in underground black metal from Mayhem to Beherit, leading to the so called second wave of black metal. As information about these phenomena outside the centres of main black and death metal culture is often scarce because of a lack of mainstream interest, social and language barriers etc. it is indispensable to have this kind of phenomenal resources and articles where to study it from:

Metaleros – A comprehensive resource on Latin American metal
Necromansy – Vasp Necrogoat’s underground metal page, including a massive article on Singaporean metal

Norwegian death metal article with Fenriz, Anders and Manheim

To illuminate the spiritual roots and original perspective of the Norwegian late 80′s metal underground, Deathmetal.org contacted Fenriz of Darkthrone, Anders of Cadaver and Manheim of Mayhem to discuss early Norwegian death metal. We focus on how continental and American influences combined into a unique form of rebellion for young Norwegian musicians, spawning diverse projects and bands such as Vomit, Old Funeral and Thou Shalt Suffer in addition to the interviewees’ bands. We prove that this was not only an unimportant bunch of demos from pre-black metal bands but a necessary training ground and logical development of musical ideas that were in many cases to be transferred to classic Norwegian black metal. The final article with overview, reviews and lots of interesting discussion is now finally published, exclusively at Deathmetal.org.

Iconoclasm Sweeps Norvegia: Impressions of Norwegian Death Metal