Infamous contributed two tracks to the split CD/EP with Cmentarny Zew, Thorncastle and Ordo Sanguinis Noctis named Winter Ruins in Howling Mist released by Darker Than Black Records. These songs demonstrate why Infamous remains at the head of the new brand of black metal, mainly by staying true not just to black metal, but to idea-driven music.
3 CommentsTags: Black Metal, darker than black, infamous
We find ourselves at one of those terrifying and exciting points in history, like standing on the narrow point of a mountain ledge and feeling the cold northern breeze. The old system has failed; we are going to change to something new, although most are still kicking their feet in a tantrum of protest at the threat of change. This opens up new spaces and possibilities.
19 CommentsTags: Black Metal, far-Right, national socialism, nationalism, Nazism, racism
As documented before in an article about the death of the traditional English pub at the hands of nanny state smoking bans, the lack of ability to smoke in pubs has ruined much of their appeal as social spaces.
15 CommentsTags: beer, pint, pub, smoking, smoking ban
The task before a reviewer varies widely. If you want to be a big shot, you need to write about what the labels want, since they are the only source of top-down money coming into the genre. They will then reward your publication with advertising, it will then reward you with a promotion, and eighteen months later, you can ditch it and move up to the big leagues.
25 CommentsTags: 2018, Angantyr, archgoat, best of, black funeral, Black Metal, condemner, death metal, deceased, Drawn and Quartered, Grindcore, Heavy Metal, internal bleeding, iskandr, judas priest, kever, master, monstrosity, nachtlieder, phosphore blanc, progressive metal, retortion terror, Satan, slam metal, sludge, Speed Metal, Summoning, Therion, trenchant, underground metal
Among pipe smokers, the Virginia/Perique genre retains a perennial appeal because it mixes the sweetness of Virginia varietals with the tangy fruitiness of fermented Perique, creating a unique flavor that provides a nice transition from the monolithic sweetness of aromatics into the world of natural tobaccos.
16 CommentsTags: burley, nicotine, perique, pipe smoking, pipe tobacco, tobacco, va/per, virginia
Brutal yet melodic Dutch-German black metal fire team Sammath plan to unleash their latest album, Across the Rhine Is Only Death, during early second quarter 2019. This album extends their work on Godless Arrogance which took the grandeur of Strijd to its logical conclusion given the increasing viciousness and technicality of intervening albums.
17 CommentsTags: Black Metal, sammath
If we had to concoct a subgenre that would be a form of Spinoza Ray Prozak Vijay Prozak Brett Stevens sonic Hell, it could well be slam: a death metal influenced continuation of what Pantera and Meshuggah did to speed metal, giving it a bit of groove and lots of chromatic fills based on rhythmic expectation. Internal Bleeding pretty much pioneered this subgenre.
Tags: internal bleeding, pantera, slam, unique leader records
Kshatriya comes to us from that odd category of bands whose material would be great if they would just stop screwing around with the presentation, which ends up creating padding that while not terrible, detracts from the listening experience as a whole. Anyone who has sat through the first Impaled Nazarene album knows the pain of too much gimmick.
3 CommentsTags: Black Metal, Kshatriya
All of humanity exists as a conspiracy against the obvious but not fully pleasant truth. In reality, few things are absolutely good or bad; most are a mixed bag, which means that there are trade-offs between things that we like and things that we dislike. This bothers individuals, who want guarantees of 100% safety, and fails to excite groups, who love illusions because those make everyone in the group feel warm and happy, which strengthens the group as a parasitic artificial entity.
37 CommentsTags: alcohol, cigar smoking, drinking, pipe smoking, pubs, smoking, social life, tobacco
Progressive rock came out of jazz jams in which the goal was to see how long you could keep a song going by inventing variations on its internal structures. Having had high school education in classical music, European rock musicians threw those structures into the mix and tried to see how long they could keep the song together, or coherent.
9 CommentsTags: condor, folk music, Heavy Metal, progressive rock
