Music

Darkthrone – Astral Fortress

Updated/Cleaned up 15/11/22

Album images HERE

Astral Fortress is real good. Its Darkthrone, I cant really rate it some number. Side one is like OK, this is the modern Darkthrone we kinda know from the last 2 albums. The more you listen the more you find. There’s some call backs to previous album songs in the riffs, the references to cult bands, the awesome new Ted riff’s, and some real oldschool style D.T. black metal riffs now in a cleaner sound, and I swear there is literal Panzerfaust style riffs on here? Side 2 though, as well as all the above, has some real standout ideas, and riffs, and just interesting new directions. There’ also a few moments where you go OK fuck that’s something I have never heard from them before, or maybe at all. And its fantastic. Yes, Its not ’92 or ’93 or ’95….there’s not ever going to be another Under a Funeral Moon like album by Darkthrone, they did that, its probably the best Black Metal album ever and its called Under a Funeral Moon. Some weird Ved Buens Ende era isn’t coming, either (they did Goatlord already). Who would even want that now? We know these guys, and we go back time and again because we like what they do. I want the metal anchor of Darkthrone to hold fast doing what it does, what they want to do, regardless of opinion or modernity or genres, and I will love it not out of some mindless loyalty, but because its two people who like what I like and create an interpretation of the metal we all like into their own thing. And they do it very well.

I like to be surprised and challenged by music. I also like to be on a level playing field of sorts with people, like with friends, and just drop band names and best songs, and this and that fucking riff, and be related to each other by the love of the metal, the music. And that’s what we get from a band not making attention seeking hits, or pretending to be mythological creatures, but just making true good music in the genre (genres?) we love, with originality, and most of all their own personality.


Music

Hell Yeah!

Haha! I got the Deluxe box set & Limited blue LP! That blue is looks fantastic and I think same as the limited to Scandinavia version of Eternal Hails (that I obviously missed out on)

Also, probably the best album cover of the last 30 years! for any band!

Music

Best Of August 2022

Didn’t listen to anything new except Crime. Listened to Sodom In the Sign of Evil a bunch of times, mostly.
Sodom – Burst Command til War
Skinny Puppy – Rodent
Crime – Baby You’re So Repulsive

Music, Video

Some old second hand vinyl albums

At some time in the late 90’s good second hand records were easy to find and I got quite a few real gems over various genres…and here’s a few.

I got Kreator – Endless Pain album second hand before the internet when second hand record shops just had stuff there at any random price because there was no vinyl renaissance, or a Discogs , to say its worth $$$$$!!!!
I remember hearing it talked about in whatever zines we could get our hands on or word of mouth from fellow metal heads. A particular famous black metaller would say this is an influence or whatever and being pre-internet you’d have to find it in a store, ask them to order it in, or find it second hand…or contact a distro you found in a zine via snail mail. I got all of these from DaDa Records, classic important record store..

Around the same time…. I also got a copy of Kreator – Pleasure to Kill. This was before I had even heard Behind the Mirror radio show on RTR FM, who’s name was taken from the final album track of the same name. Its more polished, tighter, more “modern”, but still hard and wild thrash. I prefer Endless Pain , but not by too much, these are both pretty great albums, Endless Pain being more dirty, raw and influential on the type of music I personally like.

At some point, around the same time I got a copy of Cadaver – Hallucinating Anxiety, and its still one of my favorite albums ever. I knew nothing of this band compared to Kreator, its death metal. Its brutal, twisted and oldschool as hell. I used to think my copy was really worn out, but nope, it seems to just sound like a demo tape. Which is a positive.

Around the same time I also found a copy of Voivod – Dimension Hatross, and what the fuck was this? Canadian technical science fiction thrash? Obviously my mid was going wild, an amazing album from an amazing band that still never really gets its due respect.

Oh and around the same time I found a copy of Sadistik Exekution – The Magus. An insane extreme bizarre and infamous band from Australia…holy shit. An absolute classic. The copy I have is an original first pressing on Vampire Records and out via Modern Invasion. and it does still have a little DaDa Records “review” sticker still on it, so it was taken back a few years later, I wonder what they got for it. “Review” says Warning This One Will Haunt. Contents Will Offend. Link to album images

Music

Best of July 2022

4 tracks, and its mainly from the last week or so.
Return to Forever – Sorceress
Autechre – Basscadet
Sphinx – Ruthless Power
Crystal Age – Son of Time

Music

Best of June 2022

Kingdom Come – Time Captives
Abhoth – Recantation of the Forsaken
Defeated Sanity – Consuming Greif
Mayhem – Ghoul

Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come – Time Captives, yes, the Crazy World of Aurthur Brown guy, crazy psychedelic prog stuff, with a drum machine from their 1972 album Journey.
The Abhoth track is just great early 90’s deathmetal, with a lot of the elements that remind me of Soulside Journey.
Defeated Sanity is just awesome. The Disposal of the Dead // Dharmata album this track is from is almost impossible/fucking pricey to find on LP.
The Mayhem track is from their Pure Fucking Armageddon demo which I picked up on vinyl re-release recently. It was also covered by Kvikksølvguttene (insane/forgotten project with Necrobutcher) on their only album.