Forces of Satan Stumble

The consensus seems to be that Christ does not belong in metal.  Well, neither does Satan.  Rigid patterns of thought are not conductive to the creation of transcendental metal music.  The failure of NSBM stems from the rigid ideology into which the music was forced like a Procrustean bed.  The two Christian metal bands worth a shit have been covered on this site: Paramaecium and Antestor.  The only NSBM bands that are not terrible are the bands, like Graveland, that preceeded the creation of the subgenre and were only lumped in with the scene later… Gontyna Kry seems to be the sole exception to NSBM sucking.

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Jim Konya/Sadist from Nunslaughter, 1971-2015

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Much respected and befriended drummer Jim Konya, a/k/a “Sadist,” of Nunslaughter has died. He suffered a series of strokes beginning three weeks ago and was put on life support last week, with the machines deactivated on October 7.

Over the years, Nunslaughter with Konya at the helm has produced a series of speed metal/death metal hybrid records known for their unrelenting energy, gleeful anti-Christianity and creative riffs. His drum work propelled the work forward with a type of combat-like integrity.

We have dimmed the lights at the Dark Legions Archive in tribute to this legendary metalhead. As his obituary reminds us, “He was an avid sports fan, especially of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Jim has many friends all over the world because of his musical tours and love of music. He will be missed by many.”

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Nunslaughter drummer Jim Konya to be removed from life support

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Nunslaughter drummer and vocalist Jim Konya, who once famous ran for a local political office with a quasi-Satanic platform, and fueled Nunslaughter through almost a dozen full-length releases and nearly infinite 7″ EPs, experienced a stroke three weeks ago and recently worsened. He will be taken off life support today, October 7, and is not expected to survive.

Konya, whose output with the band was matched by his fierce loyalty to the underground metal scene, will be remembered by many as a generous and committed persona who along with several others created one of the longest-running and most prolific bands in death metal history.

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The Best Underground Metal of 2014

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William Burroughs often wrote about the “edge,” or the liminal threshold between states. The last real edge year for underground metal was 2009 when strong contenders and new voices united to defend extreme metal against the onslaught of imitators making Potemkin village metal from hipster flair and lite-jazz fireworks but underneath it, nothing but disorganized songwriting and an absence of something to express. As the underground has come back with a vengeance, it has begun to displace the imitators because their music simply does not measure up. This has created a backlash as the hipsters defend their territory with guilt, ostentation, pretense and surface-level novelty. On the other hand, the underground has produced some strong contenders. And so we move forward through the past to the future, remembering that what is true is eternal, and trends, novelties, fads, hipsters and other transient moments pass quickly away…
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Nunslaughter – Angelic Dread

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This band have been around for over 400 years and have made the same album over 75 times, but each time it is good for a simple reason: this band know what they are aiming for and carefully edit their songs to make sure all parts fit together into a smooth musical experience. While it is tempting to categorize Nunslaughter as death metal, they are in fact speed metal, as most of these riffs come straight from the late-1980s fully-developed speed metal that incorporated advances by Slayer, Exodus, Anthrax and others into the Metallica standard.

Although Nunslaughter first came to the US on the Mayflower many years before Metallica existed, it is believed that Nunslaughter developed this style on its own and may have in fact invented it before the band was formed during the final days of the Roman Empire. While some may be tempted to categorize Nunslaughter as dinosaurs, the fact remains that this band takes the raw ingredients of power metal, speed metal and most death metal and makes a stripped-down, hardcore-punk style ripping version of this that remains highly listenable even if not particularly distinguishable on a song-to-song basis. Like other collections of many short songs, such as Dead Infection or Carcass, Angelic Dread operates like many small insights into roughly the same idea.

When paleontologists recently unearthed a complete Archaeopteryx fossil, they found early Nunslaughter recordings beneath it. Somehow, what this band creates never gets old, in part because they understand their riffs as a language from the same basic source, and in part because like a thrash band their song format carefully fits the particular clash of the two riffs (with a few budget transitions, and sometimes rhythmic variations, Nunslaughter uses two riffs per song on average) and the need of presenting them in the best light. The result is compelling and enjoyable and upholds the best tradition of riffcraft and expressive violence in underground music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7xz6lqOAOc

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Nunslaughter – The Devils Congeries Vol. 1 release date set

nunslaughter-the_devils_congeries_vol_1Grinding midwestern primitive catchy death metal band Nunslaughter will release The Devils Congeries Vol. 1 on July 23, 2013, on Hells Headbangers record label. This 2-CD set is part of a series of releases which will attempt to compile every single short-length Nunslaughter vinyl release from the late 90s and early 2000s with their Killed by the Cross early 7″ as well.

The second disc contains live versions of many of the same songs. An elaborate booklet contains artwork from each EP and other background information. While this CD set seems designed for collectors, it’s probably a great series like the Relapse Underground series from the late 1990s which can be both introduction and archive.

For those who enjoy the humorous, ribald, blasphemous and rhythmically infectious style of primitive death metal that Nunslaughter have produced for decades, The Devils Congeries Vol. 1 should be a delight of chaotic metal thrashing noise.

Disc 1 (studio)
1. I.N.R.I
2. Power of Darkness
3. Sacrifice
4. Emperor in Hell
5. Demons Gate
6. Bring me the Head of God
7. If the Dead Could Speak
8. Devil Metal
9. Black Beast
10. Church Bizarre
11. Midnight Mass
12. Resurrection
13. It is I
14. Poisoned Priest
15. Fire
16. Obsessed with the Visions of a Satanic Priest
17. Atheist Ways
18. The Fucking Witch
19. She Lives by Night
20. NunSlaughter
21. I Am Death
22. NunSlaughter
23. Hells Unholy Fire
24. Killed by the Cross
25. Burn in Hell
26. Hells Unholy Fire
27. Death by the Dead
28. Killed by the Cross
29. I Am Death

Disc 2 (live)
1. Face of Evil
2. Emperor in Hell
3. Dead Plague
4. Midnight Mass
5. Killed by the Cross
6. I.N.R.I
7. Fire
8. Power of Darkness
9. Blood for Blood
10. The Fucking Witch
11. I am Death
12. Death by the Dead
13. It is I
14. Altar of the Dead
15. Atheist Ways
16. Reign in Blood
17. In the Graveyard
18. Obsessed with the Visions of a Satanic Priest
19. Burn in Hell
20. Burning Away
21. NunSlaughter
22. Satanic
23. Black Horn of the Ram
24. Piranha
25. Hellchild
26. Ritual of Darkness
27. Devil Metal
28. Church Bizarre
29. Poisoned Priest

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The Best Metal of 2011

I’ve just completed reading the 2011 “best of” lists from a number of popular websites. The results are predictably dismal. Are these people incompetent or just deaf?
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