  _______ __                     __      __                      ___ 
 |   _   |  |--.----.-----.-----|__.----|  .-----.-----. .-----.'  _|
 |.  1___|     |   _|  _  |     |  |  __|  |  -__|__ --| |  _  |   _|
 |.  |___|__|__|__| |_____|__|__|__|____|__|_____|_____| |_____|__|  
 |:  1   |                                                          
 |::.. . |                                                          
 `-------'                                                          
                   _______ __                      
                  |   _   |  |--.---.-.-----.-----.
                  |.  1___|     |  _  |  _  |__ --|
                  |.  |___|__|__|___._|_____|_____|
                  |:  1   |                        
                  |::.. . |                        
                  `-------'                        


       CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, December 7, 2004, Issue #80
                  http://www.ChroniclesOfChaos.com


Co-Editor / Founder: Gino Filicetti
Co-Editor / Contributor: Pedro Azevedo
Contributor: Brian Meloon
Contributor: Paul Schwarz
Contributor: Aaron McKay
Contributor: David Rocher
Contributor: Matthias Noll
Contributor: Alvin Wee
Contributor: Chris Flaaten
Contributor: Quentin Kalis
Contributor: Xander Hoose
Contributor: Adam Lineker
Contributor: James Montague
Contributor: Jackie Smit
Neophyte: James Slone
Neophyte: Todd DePalma

The   individual   writers   can   be   reached    by    e-mail    at 
firstname.lastname@ChroniclesOfChaos.com.                            
     (e.g. Gino.Filicetti@ChroniclesOfChaos.com).

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Issue #80 Contents, 12/7/2004
-----------------------------
* Chats
-- Anthrax: Weathering the Storms (And Coming Out Smiling)
-- Marduk: The Plague Rages On
-- Behemoth: Keeping It Real
-- The Amenta: The Thunder Down Under
* Albums
-- 8th Sin - _Sinners Inc._
-- Acheron - _Rebirth: Metamorphosing Into Godhood_
-- Agnostic Front - _Another Voice_
-- Amon Amarth - _Fate of Norns_
-- Anaal Nathrakh - _Domine Non Es Dignus_
-- Anthrax - _The Greater of Two Evils_
-- Arch Enemy - _Dead Eyes See No Future_
-- Cruachan - _Pagan_
-- Cult of Catharsis / Opus Forgotten -
   _Lord of the Gallows_ / _Unleash the Fury_
-- Dark Tranquillity - _Exposures: In Retrospect and Denial_
-- Enslaved - _Isa_
-- Imperial Empire - _The 3rd War_
-- Marduk - _Plague Angel_
-- Mechanical Poet - _Woodland Prattlers_
-- Nattefrost - _Blood and Vomit_
-- Nokturnal Mortum - _Twilightfall_
-- Omnium Gatherum - _Years in Waste_
-- Shape of Despair - _Illusion's Play_
-- The Axis of Perdition -
   _Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xuchilbara (The Red God)_
-- The Crown - _Crowned Unholy_
-- The Soundbyte - _Rivers of Broken Glass_
-- Thee Maldoror Kollective - _A Clockwork Highway_
-- Vampire Mooose - _Vampire Mooose_
-- Void of Silence - _Human Antithesis_
-- Woods of Ypres - _Pursuit of the Sun & Allure of the Earth_
* Rants
-- Doom Metal: The Gentle Art of Making Misery

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

                          _, _,_  _, ___  _,
                         / ` |_| /_\  |  (_ 
                         \ , | | | |  |  , )
                          ~  ~ ~ ~ ~  ~   ~ 

           WEATHERING THE STORMS (AND COMING OUT SMILING)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                 CoC chats with Scott Ian of Anthrax
                           by: Jackie Smit


At  first  glance,  Anthrax  founding  member,  guitarist  and  chief 
songwriter Scott Ian cuts  a  distinctly  dissimilar  figure  to  the 
Bermuda-short wearing blockhead of the mid-'80s. This is a man  whose 
eyes tell tales of a road  travelled  that  has  had  more  inclines, 
twists, turns and slippery slopes than most dare  to  dream  of,  and 
almost remarkably considering the disposable nature of music  in  our 
day and age, is still going strong and still burning with the  hunger 
of a young upstart dead-set to earn his stripes  amidst  some  fairly 
gnarly competition.  It's  this  attitude,  however,  that  has  seen 
Anthrax not only survive the untimely  dissolution  of  key  business 
arrangements, the rise and fall of nu-metal and a whole lot  more  to 
spare, but it's also been  the  driving  force  that  sees  the  band 
still capable of  maintaining  an  absolutely  rabid  fanbase,  while 
consistently drawing fresh blood into the fold so that they might too 
discover what so many of us were weaned  on.  In  that  respect,  the 
latest offering from Camp Anthrax, _The Greater of Two Evils_,  which 
sees the band re-record a veritable diapason of classic tunes,  might 
serve as a perfect introduction to  fresh,  unsuspecting  ears.  Says 
Scott about the record:                                               

Scott Ian: It came from the idea that we were going to do a  box  set 
           this year to  commemorate  twenty  years  of  _Fistful  of 
           Metal_ being out, and once we started gathering all of our 
           ideas together we realised that we would  have  needed  to 
           start planning everything for  this  box  set  about  four 
           years ago. There literally was so much stuff that we would 
           have wanted to include, and just  the  time  that  it  was 
           going to take to make this happen... One of the ideas came 
           from a discussion from where you would  play  a  show  and 
           someone would come up to you and say:  "Well,  why  didn't 
           you play this song or that song?" So out of that came  the 
           idea to put all the songs from the first  five  albums  on 
           the website and have people vote  --  not  that  it  would 
           actually solve the problem, because we would still have to 
           put every song in our catalogue on  to  please  everybody. 
           But just as a cool thing, we thought for the  box  set  we 
           would put those songs up, have the fans vote, and then  we 
           would have a disc where we record a bunch of the old  song 
           that the fans picked. Because we aren't going  to  do  the 
           box set at this point, we just figured that we'd take that 
           idea and still do that, so that's where it came from.      

CoC: In listening to the finished product, do you ever find  yourself 
     comparing them to the earlier recordings?                             

SI: I don't compare it at all. You can't compare it because it's  two 
    completely different things -- different times, different people. 
    You know, we're different musicians now as players --  it's  just 
    completely  different.  That's  the  point  of  it.  These  songs 
    recorded now are exactly as you would hear them if  you  came  to 
    see us live tonight. That was the idea that we had going  in.  We 
    weren't trying to remake anything, we weren't trying to  reinvent 
    the original studio versions. We just set  up  our  gear  and  we 
    played the songs live and we recorded  seventeen  tracks  in  two 
    days. That was it -- done. This was a representation of what  the 
    songs sound like live. It's a live album recorded in the studio.  

CoC: Have Joey Belladonna or Neil Turbin heard any of the  tracks  on 
     _The Greater of Two Evils_, or given you any input  on  how  the 
     material sounds?                                                 

SI: Not that I know of. We didn't have any input  from  them,  and  I 
    don't know whether they've heard it yet or not. I actually  don't 
    know how they would have unless someone sent them a promo copy or 
    something.                                                        

CoC: You guys never wondered whether they would take this record  the 
     wrong way -- you know, perhaps seeing it as an insult  to  their 
     work?                                                            

SI: I don't care. Truthfully -- why would it matter? They don't  have 
    a say, so... But I  would  find  it  odd  if  they  had  anything 
    negative to say. I couldn't imagine them being negative about  it 
    -- that would really seem weird to me.                            

CoC: Speaking of Joey, care to shed any light on why the Belladonna / 
     Bush tour never happened?                                             

SI: Joey decided not to do it -- simple as that. You'd  have  to  ask 
    him his reasons for doing  that.  We  were  really  disappointed, 
    because we felt like we were going to do  something  really  cool 
    and special that had never been done before, and then  he  pulled 
    himself out of the mix. I mean, we ended doing the tour ourselves 
    anyway, and had a great time. And  that's  where  things  started 
    again for me, anyway. I look back at that  tour  in  2000  and  I 
    think that's where it all finally started to turn back around for 
    us after all the late '90s crap. But anyway, you know --  there's 
    a part of me that wishes we would have done it, just  to  satiate 
    my curiosity and just to see what it would have sounded like  and 
    what people would have thought. Then there's another part  of  me 
    that's glad we didn't do it, because we really didn't need to  do 
    it. I'll probably always be curious, and who knows, maybe someday 
    it will happen, unless Van Halen beats us to  the  punch,  and  I 
    don't see that happening.                                         

CoC: He never gave you any sort of hint about his reasons behind  not 
     wanting to do the tour?                                               

SI: We were told things, but it's not fair for me to speculate or put 
    words in his mouth.                                                   

CoC: And you don't have any more contact with him?

SI: I haven't spoken to him since 2000.

CoC: I remember talking to John [Bush] last year about  the  troubles 
     that befell Anthrax during the late '90s, and now that the  band 
     is on track once again, what do you have to say about  the  last 
     five to six years of your career?                                

SI: Well, like I said,  beginning  of  2000  is  when  things  really 
    started to flip around for us and you could tell that things  had 
    changed. In 1998 we released _Volume 8_, and everything was going 
    really well for six months, and that's when the label we were  on 
    at the time [Ignition Records]  went  out  of  business.  So  six 
    months into this project, we had a record that had just sold  100 
    000 copies in the States and we were about to hit with  a  second 
    single which was going to  be  "Crush",  and  then  right  before 
    Christmas our manager calls us up and  says  that  the  label  is 
    going out of business, we don't have any more distribution -- the 
    record is done, and we have to go and find a new deal. And it was 
    like "What the fuck?" We thought everything was great going  into 
    the project after getting away from Elektra on  the  _Stomp  442_ 
    record -- which had already been a nightmare unto itself  --  and 
    then everything was set up for _Volume 8_, it was going great and 
    then a rug gets pulled out from under us. The record company goes 
    out of business -- what the fuck is that? So basically,  '99  was 
    just a lost year. We were fucked and we trying to find a new deal 
    and then we did that tour in the beginning of 2000,  and  we  did 
    another one in the summer of 2000 and then toward the end of  the 
    year we started writing, and  then  in  2001  was  when  we  were 
    supposed to go and do the Priest tour, and then 9/11 happened, so 
    that got postponed. So we finished writing the record and then we 
    went into the studio at the end  of  2001  and  actually  started 
    recording. We did the Priest tour in the States at the  beginning 
    of 2002, finished _We've Come For You All_, and  next  thing  you 
    know we where back here in the UK supporting Motorhead; the album 
    comes out in March 2003, and here I am sitting in  front  of  you 
    eighteen months later. It's been the best eighteen months of  our 
    lives, and the last record enabled us to get to the  point  where 
    we're even better than we were before. Things have really started 
    to go back up and with _We've Come For You All_ we actually had a 
    label that did its job for us, which really isn't too much to ask 
    for. And it actually worked this time, and obviously the  support 
    we've had has been the best, so yeah... That's about  all  I  can 
    say about that.                                                   

CoC: Looking back at those difficult times, did you ever  think  that 
     Anthrax might be on the verge of extinction?                          

SI: Well, it was never going to go away. We were never going to  quit 
    because something bad had happened in the music business.  That's 
    just frustration for me and it  just  causes  me  to  fight  even 
    harder. You know, the song "Refuse to  Be  Denied"  on  the  last 
    record -- that's where that title came from. After all that  shit 
    had happened at the end of the '90s, I remember writing that on a 
    piece of paper and I had that stuck up in a room at my house  for 
    a year, so that every day I would see it. Admittedly  that's  not 
    what the song is about, but that's where the title came from.  My 
    attitude was like there's no way that anyone  is  going  to  ever 
    stop me from doing this unless I decide that I don't want  to  do 
    it anymore. I refuse to  have  any  outside  source,  outside  of 
    anyone who is not physically inside this band, to  ever  have  an 
    effect on what do or what we don't do,  because  that's  the  way 
    it's been since day one. And as frustrating as it is, you have to 
    overcome those fucking obstacles -- and that's what makes  us  as 
    strong a band as we are. There's a lot of bands that  never  even 
    made it out of the '80s, because  they  couldn't  overcome  those 
    fucking low times and couldn't deal with stuff and get  over  the 
    hump or whatever you want to call it.  That's  something  that  I 
    would never let stand in my way or in the way of this  band,  and 
    that's just how I am in all walks of life. It's just the  way  it 
    has to be.                                                        

CoC: If you look back at your time with Anthrax  going  back  to  the 
     '80s and the early days, is there anything you wish you had done 
     differently?                                                     

SI: No. That's another thing I have never  done,  look  back  at  our 
    career. I will when I'm 75 years old or something, but  I  always 
    go forward. It's all about what I'm doing today, what we're doing 
    tomorrow, what we're doing next year or  whatever.  We've  always 
    been very good at being able to plan  out  x-amount  of  time  in 
    advance. You set those goals, you make those plans and  you  make 
    it happen. That's how it's always been with this band.  I  always 
    compare this band to a shark, because a Great White  shark  can't 
    live in captivity, it has to be constantly free and moving or  it 
    dies. And basically that's how I  feel  about  this  band  --  we 
    always need to be moving forward. I don't need to sit around  and 
    reminisce -- I've experienced all that and it's all inside me.  I 
    have plenty of time in my life to sit around and do that when I'm 
    not actually experiencing it. I'm right in the thick of it now.   

CoC: So let's talk about S.O.D. for a second, if I may. A lot of news 
     sources was quoting some really harsh comments from Billy  after 
     you guys had brought  out  _Bigger  Than  the  Devil_.  Care  to 
     comment on the reason for this bust-up?                          

SI: There was no bust-up. S.O.D.... you know, you  can  talk  to  all 
    four members of S.O.D. and they'll give you a different answer on 
    their opinion of what S.O.D. is, and that is because  S.O.D.  was 
    never a band. Billy might give you a completely different  answer 
    to what I just did, but I look at it this way: Billy might be the 
    mouthpiece for S.O.D., but I invented S.O.D.; I drew  the  mascot 
    on a piece of paper, I wrote the first  ten  songs,  and  then  I 
    called Lilker up and we wrote the next ten songs,  and  we  asked 
    Billy to sing on the record. S.O.D. was never a band and  there's 
    never been something to  bust  up.  It's  something  that  was  a 
    project and it remains an on-going entity, but it was never meant 
    to be a band that makes records and then  tours  and  then  makes 
    another record. It was  never  supposed  to  have  that  kind  of 
    baggage. The fact that we even made _Bigger Than the Devil_ was a 
    complete fluke in that sense. It's just something that  was  only 
    ever supposed to be for complete and absolute fun without any  of 
    the things that being in a band entails --  without  any  of  the 
    business; without any of that. We were able to create this  thing 
    with _Speak English or Die_ that operated completely  outside  of 
    the music -- it was the exact opposite  of  the  way  things  are 
    supposed to be done. And that was the point of  it.  Making  that 
    album was a complete reaction to doing _Spreading  the  Disease_, 
    because we had spent six months in the studio, because we  had  a 
    producer who was being paid by the day, so the longer he took the 
    more money he made. I wrote that S.O.D. album  during  that  time 
    and then we recorded and mixed that record in three days, and  it 
    enabled me to call Carl Canedy and tell him that  we'd  done  the 
    album in that amount of time and it sounded pretty fucking  good, 
    and that with _Spreading the Disease_ he had ripped us off.  That 
    was the whole idea with S.O.D.: it was supposed to exist  outside 
    of the normal. Billy, I think, had different ideas: he would have 
    loved for the band to more of a permanent thing.  He  would  have 
    loved to have made more records, done more touring  or  whatever. 
    Everyone who has ever been in S.O.D. have always had  their  eyes 
    open, though. Charlie and I obviously have  our  priorities,  and 
    Lilker has always had his --  whether  it  was  Brutal  Truth  or 
    Nuclear Assault --, and that's just the way it is.  Billy  and  I 
    have an interesting relationship: we're more like  brothers  than 
    anything else. Sometimes you  could  not  like  each  other,  but 
    you're still brothers, you know? That's  our  relationship  in  a 
    nutshell.                                                         

CoC: Scott, let's talk politics.  You're  known  as  being  a  fairly 
     outspoken dude, so what do you make of the  outcome  of  the  US 
     elections? Are  you  planning  on  joining  the  outflow  of  US 
     citizens to Canada anytime soon?                                 

SI: It's so  funny,  you  know,  because  I  voted  Kerry,  but  this 
    reactionary thing where people want to  move  to  Canada...  It's 
    good, you know, because there's too many people in  this  fucking 
    country anyway. They got a lot of room up there. That  to  me  is 
    just fucking sheer stupidity, but the people that think that  way 
    can go ahead. I don't need to live somewhere cold, that's  why  I 
    moved to California fifteen years ago. If I  was  going  to  move 
    anywhere, I'd move somewhere beautiful like Tuscany --  what  the 
    fuck are you going to move to Canada for? There's  nothing  wrong 
    with Canada, but just because George Bush won you  want  to  move 
    out? I'm obviously disappointed. I'm a very optimistic person  in 
    general and I believed in  what  Kerry  was  saying.  I'm  not  a 
    Republican and I'm not a Democrat; I'm a human being who bases my 
    voting for a candidate on what that candidate says on issues that 
    affect me and that affect the world, and it doesn't matter to  me 
    what party they represent. I voted  for  Kerry  because  I  truly 
    believe that the administration that's in power right now is  not 
    good for the world and I truly believed that Kerry's  change  was 
    necessary -- not even just for the United States, but also from a 
    global point of view, which I think I get  because  we're  always 
    touring. I'm not one of those people who think "Fuck what's going 
    on in the rest of the world, it only  matters  what  goes  on  in 
    America -- we shouldn't let the world decide who becomes our next 
    president!" Well, maybe we should. Anyway, Kerry was not the most 
    inspiring candidate in the world and I think that the problem  is 
    only going to get worse going  into  2008,  because  what  I  see 
    happening is that it's not even going to matter anymore  who  the 
    candidates are -- people are just going  to  start  voting  along 
    party lines and it won't matter who's running.  Republicans  will 
    only vote for a Republican and Democrats will  only  vote  for  a 
    Democrat, and it wouldn't even  matter  if  it  were  the  second 
    coming of fucking Abraham Lincoln. It could be the  greatest  guy 
    in the world, but people are only going to vote for the party.  I 
    truly believe that Kerry was the better candidate --  uninspiring 
    as he was. It's amazing to me that more people  didn't  see  that 
    and people who live in the Republican state just didn't  seem  to 
    care. They just went: "Fuck all that, fuck  that  shit  --  we're 
    voting for George Bush." Why? "We don't know;  we're  voting  for 
    Bush." I heard so much of that in the last year -- I have friends 
    who are Republicans and you  can  get  into  some  crazy  fucking 
    arguments with them about this shit and no one  can  ever  really 
    tell me why. Let's take Billy Milano for example. Billy is a huge 
    Bush supporter, and I won't even argue with him over  stuff  like 
    that, simply because I don't feel like getting yelled at. I would 
    never try and change Billy's opinion, but the fact of the  matter 
    is that Billy  is  a  musician  and  he  lives  a  lifestyle  and 
    expresses himself in certain ways that  if  it  were  up  to  the 
    administration that he supports, they would censor everything  he 
    had to say, and they wouldn't even let him  make  records.  Fuck, 
    half the music that comes out these days would not be allowed  if 
    the Bush administration had their way, and if they were  able  to 
    just keep going on in the way they're going on with  taking  away 
    personal freedoms. I posed that question to a lot of  people  and 
    particularly to a lot of my friends who are Republicans -- you're 
    life style is 180 degrees opposite to what they condone and  what 
    they're getting at. How the fuck could you vote for this guy? And 
    if they really have their way, you wouldn't be  sitting  in  this 
    bar  right  now  talking  to  me.  And  these  people  are  like: 
    "Whatever, fuck that shit --  George  Bush!"  You  can't  get  an 
    answer. It's become this fucking robotic thing where people  will 
    only vote along party lines and I don't see how that's  going  to 
    change unless  they  change  how  presidents  are  voted  for  in 
    America. But I'm not going to move to Canada. <laughs>            

CoC: Do you think that's just a matter of  party-line  politics  that 
     cost John Kerry the election, or do you think  that  he  dropped 
     the ball elsewhere as well?                                      

SI: No, I don't really think  he  dropped  the  ball,  personally.  I 
    don't. Like I said, he wasn't out there, all fire  and  brimstone 
    winning people over with his amazing personality -- he's no  Bill 
    Clinton. Bill Clinton knew how to  win  over  an  audience.  Bill 
    Clinton came in 1992 against George Bush Sr., who should have won 
    a second term realistically.  Incumbents  should  usually  win  a 
    second term, and Clinton came in and just knocked the shit out of 
    a guy who had a huge personality and  knew  how  to  talk  to  an 
    audience. Kerry was no Bill Clinton. Clinton could have  come  in 
    2004 and if he were allowed to run again, he probably would  have 
    won. I know this might sound crazy, but truthfully not 2008,  but 
    2012  I  won't  be  surprised  if  you're  looking  at  President 
    Schwarzenegger, because that law about having to be born  in  the 
    United States will get  changed,  and  that  is  someone  who  is 
    capable of winning hearts and minds. He has charisma  and  a  big 
    personality, whether or not he's a good politician -- which is an 
    oxymoron to me anyway. He might be a Republican, but  I  actually 
    morally agree with him on most things. He believes that  a  woman 
    has the right to choose whether or not she wants to have a  baby. 
    He's way more moderate than anyone in  the  Bush  administration, 
    that's for sure. In California, he  certainly  wasn't  out  there 
    yelling for Bush, because California is such a Democratic  state. 
    He probably felt like he couldn't be out there  being  pro-George 
    Bush because he would end up losing support next time round.      

CoC: Well, one thing that in my opinion really  threw  Kerry  out  of 
     contention was the way in which he handled the appearance of the 
     most recent Usama Bin Laden video message. Rather than  actually 
     take the Republicans to task about the fact that  such  a  video 
     could even exist in the first place, he seemed  to  just  ignore 
     it, which in turn didn't do much for his credibility in terms of 
     how voraciously he would seek to protect America.                

SI: He came on and said that he'd hunt down and kill the  terrorists, 
    but certainly not to the extent that Bush had been doing. But  Al 
    Qaeda and Bin Laden -- you know, for those guys Bush is the ideal 
    president,  because  he's  like  the  poster  boy  for  Al  Qaeda 
    recruitment at the moment. Kerry comes in and  all  of  a  sudden 
    people are going to be like "Well, he doesn't seem so  bad,  he's 
    not like that fucking asshole from Texas." I mean, with the  Bush 
    administration -- if they had their way, you wouldn't be able  to 
    release metal records. The  Republican  administration  wants  to 
    shut you up and I would fight to the  death  for  something  like 
    that.                                                             

CoC: So, Scott, what's next on the cards for Anthrax -- when are  you 
     guys going to start working on the follow-up to _We've Come  For 
     You All_?                                                        

SI: January is when we'll get together  and  start  writing  and  see 
    where the train takes us. I'm sure we'll be in the studio at some 
    point during the year and hopefully have the new album out by the 
    end of 2005. I have some ideas, which are mostly just riffs being 
    sung into  my  cellphone,  so  things  are  pretty  much  in  the 
    stem-cell stage right now.                                        

CoC: Last question: after  all  this  time  that  you've  been  doing 
     Anthrax, what's still left for you to conquer?                        

SI: We want to play Download next year. <laughs> Just kidding. For me 
    this is all about the career, you know? It's been my goal and  my 
    driving force. I love doing this, I love being in a band  --  and 
    the day that it stops being fun, then it will end. I can say that 
    it will end the day that all five of us can look  each  other  in 
    the eye and say that it was fucking great and walk away  from  it 
    happy. But until then, I love doing this -- this is my  life  and 
    my goal is to continue what we're doing  and  to  continue  doing 
    things our own way and call our own shots.                        

CoC: Speaking of Download -- this is something I've always wanted ask 
     your opinion on: Metallica bring out _St Anger_ and  claim  that 
     they're returning to their roots, yet  they  take  Linkin  Park, 
     Limp Bizkit and Deftones on tour with them. I've always wondered 
     why they don't put their money where their mouths are  and  take 
     Anthrax or Death Angel or someone on the road with them instead. 
     What are your thoughts on that?                                  

SI: Ask Lars. I can't answer that -- he is  the  one  who  calls  the 
    shots and he'd probably never answer your question  even  if  you 
    had the opportunity to ask him. Believe me, if  Metallica  called 
    us up and asked us out on the road with them, we'd do it  without 
    hesitation.                                                       

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                T H E   P L A G U E   R A G E S   O N
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        CoC chats with Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson of Marduk
                           by: Jackie Smit


Before _Plague Angel_, there was very little that one could say about 
Marduk that anybody with  an  elementary  knowledge  of  the  extreme 
underground didn't already know. Fourteen year veterans of the genre, 
Marduk have been tagged as  one-trick  ponies  on  several  occasions 
during their illustrious career -- their detractors  eager  to  thumb 
their noses in the direction of the band's liberal use  of  speed  in 
their über-dark assault. But no more, as _Plague Angel_ ushers  in  a 
new era of  songwriting  maturity  and  misanthropic  efficiency  for 
the Swedish quartet  that  is  bound  to  silence  even  the  biggest 
disbelievers. I recently had the pleasure of a telephone conversation 
with a very excited Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson  to  discuss  matters 
pertaining to the new record, black metal as a whole and a number  of 
things beside.                                                        

CoC: Leading into  the  recording  of  _Plague  Angel_,  Marduk  went 
     through some line-up changes.  First  of  all,  you  brought  in 
     Mortuus to replace Legion on  vocals,  and  then  you  had  your 
     bassist, B War, leave the band as well. What sort of effect  did 
     this have on the eventual outcome of the new record?             

Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson: Well, the effect was really positive,  I 
                             think. First  of  all,  we  brought  the 
                             vocalist in to replace  Legion,  and  he 
                             brings a new  dimension  to  the  music, 
                             because he uses his  voice  as  more  of 
                             an instrument and a  vehicle  than  most 
                             vocalists, and that helps us do more mad 
                             and more morbid  stuff.  He  also  shows 
                             more devotion and more passion  for  the 
                             lyrical concept than Legion did,  so  we 
                             work together better as a unit. He wrote 
                             two songs worth of lyrics  for  the  new 
                             album, and then I  wrote  the  rest  and 
                             he  rearranged  them,  which  is  really 
                             fine with me, you know? It  works  well. 
                             And when it comes to  our  bass  player, 
                             getting Devo [Andersson] back -- he used 
                             to be our guitar player between '92  and 
                             '94.                                     

CoC: He played on the first two albums, right?

MSH: Yeah, and having him back a decade later; he's more focused  and 
     both he and Mortuus are driving forces in  the  band.  Even  our 
     drummer, Emil [Dragutinovic], stepped up to the plate and  wrote 
     like three or four songs  completely  by  himself  for  the  new 
     album. Everybody is taking part in the process now,  and  that's 
     fine with me, if everyone wants to be driving forces in the band 
     and everybody is working toward the same goal.                   

CoC: So more than anything, _Plague Angel_ is more of a  band  effort 
     than anything you've done previously?                                 

MSH: At first it was mostly me and drummer, because the vocalist came 
     in kind of late, but he worked a lot on  the  vocal  arrangement 
     and things like that. With the next album, we'll have even  more 
     time for the vocals and for all things like that, so  we'll  put 
     even more work into everything.                                  

CoC: The key aspect of _Plague Angel_ that stands out for me  is  how 
     much more mature the band comes across in terms of songwriting.       

MSH: Yeah, but I also think that the production makes  a  difference, 
     because we recorded in the same studio  between  1996  and  2000 
     with Peter Tagtgren -- and of course it was very  good  to  work 
     with him, and when I listen to _World Funeral_, I'm  still  very 
     satisfied with the album. But I  do  think  that  it  sounded  a 
     little bit too digital and clean for the music,  and  this  time 
     when we wrote  the  new  material  we  decided  that  we  wanted 
     different production, and we felt that as we had had the line-up 
     changes, we would also change studio. So for _Plague  Angel_  we 
     made sure that the production was more rusty -- more  black  and 
     white, you know?                                                 

CoC: The other thing about _Plague Angel_ is that it's a more  mature 
     sounding album, but it's also much more aggressive.                   

MSH: It  is  more  aggressive  and  in-your-face,  because  we   want 
     everything to reflect the idea of the  band  --  music,  lyrics, 
     layout; we want it all to be one.                                

CoC: Legion's departure obviously  left  you  guys  in  a  bit  of  a 
     quandary at first, and you ended up having  to  cancel  some  of 
     your appearances on the Blackest of the Black tour.  What's  the 
     story behind his decision to quit the band?                      

MSH: It's the same thing for both him and B War:  people  change.  He 
     was in the band for over eight and a half years and B War was in 
     the band for twelve, and they have  family  and  kids  and  just 
     couldn't be 100% loyal to the band and  maintain  the  level  of 
     focus and dedication that the band requires. So they had to step 
     down, because it doesn't work that way with this band. You  have 
     to be with us 100%, because it takes a lot of time  and  energy. 
     There are no bad feelings between any of us  or  any  shit  like 
     that -- we're still friends, or whatever you want to call it. We 
     talk once in a while, but we don't really hang out. But  it  was 
     just a natural thing to happen to this band.                     

CoC: So, in retrospect, you think it's all been for the best?

MSH: Yeah, absolutely.

CoC: Speaking of Blackest of the Black -- this is similar to  what  I 
     have asked a lot of the bands that were on that  tour,  but  how 
     did the connection between yourselves and Glenn Danzig start?    

MSH: Well, we've always been big fans of  Glenn  Danzig,  so  it  was 
     really cool to be able to play on the tour. We were on  tour  in 
     the States in 2001 and we were backstage one  evening  when  our 
     tour manager came in and said that Glenn Danzig wanted  to  meet 
     us, and we were like: "Are you sure?" We  didn't  think  he  was 
     actually being serious. Then he came back a  few  minutes  later 
     and said that Glenn was in the bar and that he  wanted  to  meet 
     us, and I thought to give him a copy of our latest album, but he 
     said that he already had it. So I was like:  "What?"  Anyway,  I 
     got his phone number and we stayed in contact and became  really 
     good friends. We share a lot of views, and I don't know -- I get 
     along with him really fine.  He's  one  of  the  most  dedicated 
     people I have ever met in the music business. He's so  loyal  to 
     what he's doing and he never lets anybody fuck with him, and  he 
     does what he wants to do, and I really respect that. He  is  one 
     of maybe three or four musicians that I have met that I actually 
     respect. We've had many offers to go back to the States, but  we 
     have many problems with papers going over there right  now;  but 
     we did the European shows with him and it was fantastic. I heard 
     so many stories about how people get treated by him, but  I  had 
     no bad experience. It was the best ever to be able to tour  with 
     a bigger band like that, you know,  and  Glenn  was  just  like: 
     "Marduk are my boys -- they want anything, you help them." So we 
     had a really good time, we share a lot of ideas and  we'll  tour 
     together in future.                                              

CoC: So what was it like playing those tours, because  clearly  there 
     are a few major fundamental differences in Marduk's  music  when 
     compared to the stuff Danzig does?                               

MSH: Well, some people of course didn't like what we do  --  I  think 
     we're a little too extreme for them, but it was  cool.  I  think 
     it's great when bands that share a similar  devotion  to  things 
     and get different crowds together so that  each  can  appreciate 
     what the other is doing, you know? It's great that he brings out 
     bands and exposes people  to  darker  and  heavier  stuff.  Some 
     people were standing staring at us like we had just landed in  a 
     UFO or something, wondering what the hell we were, but we had  a 
     lot of our own fans  at  shows  as  well,  and  it  was  a  good 
     experience.                                                      

CoC: Have you toyed with the idea of touring with any other non-black 
     metal bands in future?                                                

MSH: I wouldn't mind that at all. I mean, I'd love  to  play  with  a 
     band like Slayer for example, because people that like them that 
     maybe haven't heard about us, could  possibly  still  appreciate 
     what we are doing. A lot of black metal bands don't like to tour 
     with bands like that, but it doesn't bother us, because  at  the 
     end of the day we are still doing what we do and we are  a  fist 
     in the face that would love to play for different audiences.     

CoC: This is something that I've actually always respected about  you 
     guys -- in the sense that you are one of the few bands  to  have 
     started in the early  '90s  to  still  actually  have  the  same 
     attitude and the same approach to music.                         

MSH: We don't compromise -- that's what we're about. We have  changed 
     labels because we don't want to  compromise,  and  now  we  have 
     started our own, because we don't want anyone telling us what to 
     do. I could never let anyone interfere with this  band,  because 
     it means too much to me.                                         

CoC: At the same time you continue to become  more  popular  and  I'm 
     sure that _Plague Angel_ will help that along even further.           

MSH: We're satisfied with it and we hope to take it to an even higher 
     level on the next one.                                                

CoC: If you had to comment on the state of black metal in  2004,  how 
     does the scene compare to when you got into it initially?             

MSH: Of course it has grown tremendously. When we started out,  there 
     was no talk of going out on tour or something like that. It  has 
     changed and it has grown and grown -- some of it is positive and 
     some of it is negative. It's positive that  you  can  bring  the 
     message to more people  and  get  your  music  out  to  a  wider 
     audience, but it also means that the  concept  has  become  very 
     watered down. People are always referring to  whatever  band  as 
     being "black metal", and when you read an advertisement and  you 
     see the words "black metal" and then  you  see  someone  sitting 
     with an umbrella and a  painted  tear  on  their  face,  looking 
     depressed -- that's not  black  metal  for  me.  I  don't  care, 
     really. We do what we do -- that means something to me -- and  I 
     don't care what anyone else is doing.                            

CoC: What is it about black metal that still makes it  so  attractive 
     to fourteen years on in your career?                                  

MSH: For me it's extreme metal with Satanic ground values  --  that's 
     how I would describe it. Sometimes you hear a band  that  people 
     are calling a black metal band because it has  screechy  vocals. 
     To me it's more of a philosophy,  and  the  thought  behind  the 
     music more than how it actually sounds.                          

CoC: In terms of new bands coming out and potentially one day picking 
     up where Marduk leaves off, have you  heard  anything  that  has 
     impressed you yet?                                               

MSH: I haven't heard many bands that I really like. I  heard  a  few, 
     for example Deathspell Omega from France, and I like  a  Swedish 
     band between called Watain. Those are the bands I heard  that  I 
     actually like. Apart from that, I cannot really  think  of  very 
     much that I've heard lately. I don't really go out and  try  and 
     discover anything new either -- I prefer to be  on  my  own  and 
     listen to other types of music.                                  

CoC: So what's spinning in your CD player right now?

MSH: I listen to what I regard as the best black and death metal, for 
     example right now  I'm  listening  to  a  lot  of  early  Morbid 
     Angel stuff. _Altars of Madness_ and _Domination_  still  remain 
     very powerful and very heavy. I  also  like  dark  and  powerful 
     industrial music, I like classical music --  I  like  everything 
     that I can find that has a soul. For example, I like  two  bands 
     who are actually very Christian, but are still a lot darker than 
     many so- called black metal bands: Sixteen Horsepower and  Woven 
     Hand.                                                            

CoC: Never heard them.

MSH: Oh my God, you should really check them out  --  they're  really 
     dark and really Christian, but still extremely fascinating.  I'm 
     going to see them live on Sunday; it's really bizarre  music.  I 
     like anything that can really paint pictures in my mind.         

CoC: With _Plague Angel_ -- if someone were to come up to you and say 
     that they weren't a fan of Marduk before, what would you tell em 
     ththey'd find on this record that would change their mind?       

MSH: It depends on what a person is looking for. It's hard for me  to 
     say, actually. I always try and take the band to the next  level 
     with every album, and if someone likes extreme music, then  they 
     should like this record  --  it  definitely  has  something  for 
     everyone. It's heavy, it's fast, it's dark -- it's everything an 
     extreme metal album should be. In terms of lyrics  --  this  new 
     album deals with plagues in all its different forms.  Death  and 
     war, those are things that fascinate me, and  I  feel  far  more 
     motivated to write music  about  things  like  that  than  about 
     sitting in the wood feeling depressed, looking into a  lake  and 
     thinking about trolls. Those things mean nothing  to  me.  Death 
     and war puts music into my head. An historical  event  like  the 
     city of Warsaw being blown to pieces puts music in my head,  and 
     I'm not saying what's right or wrong -- I'm just  reflecting  on 
     those events and the way it occurred. I consider myself to be  a 
     vehicle for my creativity.                                       

CoC: Marduk has been  catching  some  flack  for  the  World  War  II 
     references since _Panzer Division Marduk_.                            

MSH: Yeah, absolutely, but I don't care. I do this to satisfy myself, 
     and if people don't like it or want to censor me -- that's why I 
     have my own label, so that I can do what I want.  It's  annoying 
     that people would criticize a band for having German language in 
     the song title, even if we've sung things in French  or  Turkish 
     or Russian or whatever. But what can you say? Humans will always 
     be sheep in that respect. This is  an  art  form,  and  I'm  not 
     saying that people should interpret it in any particular way.    

CoC: Last question, Morgan: nine  albums  into  your  career,  having 
     achieved quite a lot for a band in the underground, what remains 
     the biggest driving force in this band?                          

MSH: I don't know, because every time I finish an  album,  I  already 
     have a vision for the next one in my head. Right now I'm working 
     on three lyrics for the next album, and  I'm  starting  to  have 
     some musical ideas. That's the driving force: so long as I  have 
     that vision that makes me want to create music and go  one  step 
     ahead, and as long as I have that driving force, I will be doing 
     this.                                                            

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                    K E E P I N G   I T   R E A L
                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                  CoC chats with Nergal of Behemoth
                           by: Jackie Smit


There's times when it can be a truly  surreal  thing  being  a  music 
journalist. Take the following scenario example: I'm sitting  in  the 
famous World's End pub in London's Camden Town, sharing a  beer  with 
Nergal of Poland's current heavyweight death metal champs,  Behemoth. 
In just a few short minutes following our interview, he will reappear 
on the downstairs Underworld stage, evoking  all  manner  of  hellish 
malarkey, but for now he is simply Nergal -- absolute  gentleman  and 
avid music fan -- and he is about to investigate  a  certain  extreme 
music magazine's review of his band's latest effort,  _Demigod_.  The 
verdict, as it turns out,  is  somewhat  disappointing  --  but  this 
particular publication's lack of enthusiasm  is  quite  possibly  the 
only strain of negativity  currently  headed  in  the  direction  the 
rising juggernaut, who since releasing their latest album have tasted 
everything from overwhelmingly positive press,  to  mammoth  industry 
buzz and sold-out performances,  to  a  sojourn  in  their  country's 
domestic top 20. A supremely confident Nergal is nonplussed however:  

Nergal: Well, I see Behemoth as one of the most hard-working bands on 
        the planet, that's for sure. And it's good  to  see  the  new 
        album doing well. What can I say? We did our best, you  know? 
        We didn't let any bullshit through this time -- it's just the 
        most brutal riffing, the best lyrics I could write... We  did 
        our best, and I think that people really appreciate  it  when 
        they see a band that pays so much attention to  every  single 
        detail of their work.                                         

CoC: Attention to detail is something that definitely stands  out  on 
     this album for me as well. Something I mentioned in my review as 
     well; _Demigod_ for me, was the album where Behemoth was  either 
     going to be promoted to the ranks of Morbid Angel  and  Nile  or 
     stay in the second tier of  death  metal,  and  as  far  as  I'm 
     concerned I feel like you have definitely succeeded in doing so. 
     What is your opinion on that?                                    

N: <laughs> Give me a few months and I'll  be  able  to  answer  that 
   question. This tour that we're on right now is  going  to  be  the 
   first test, and we're going to see how it goes. I'm an  optimistic 
   guy and I like to think it's going to be that  way,  and  all  the 
   signs point to it happening. But  I  can't  really  say;  I  can't 
   foresee the future. Many people have told us that  this  album  is 
   going to see us get much bigger and that the  critics  are  really 
   into it, and of course that makes me happy. But I'm really here to 
   make good music, and I'm beyond all the competition.  My  thoughts 
   are in the future -- the next album, maybe. I  already  have  some 
   titles in my mind, how we should sound in the future; things  like 
   that. For the media and the support  so  far,  I'm  thankful,  but 
   let's wait and see.                                                

CoC: What did you want to achieve when  you  set  out  to  write  and 
     record _Demigod_?                                                     

N: Well,  with  _Zos  Kia  Cultus_  and  _Thelema.6_,  I   had   huge 
   expectations. I was thinking that we were going to  top  ourselves 
   and that we were going to blow everyone away. And by contrast this 
   album was so simple. I came back from the Six Feet Under tour -- a 
   two month tour -- and I found myself in a  really,  really  shitty 
   situation. I don't want to go into any details, but I was just  so 
   pissed and so angry and it was like "Fuck it, I am just  going  to 
   concentrate on making music." The band is my family. This music is 
   my life. This is the reason I live and breathe, so I am  going  to 
   give it everything and just do the best songs that I can  do.  And 
   that's what I did -- I wrote songs. I wanted to have  melodies,  I 
   wanted to have nice solos, and the most fucking  extreme  music  I 
   could come up with -- fucking blasting, yet really technical.  And 
   I just did it -- nothing else. I was pissed. This album for me has 
   a very "fuck you" attitude to it. It's very  arrogant.  It's  very 
   strong. Just go through the lyrics for this album and you'll  know 
   what I've been through, and you'll know what I'm about. This  band 
   has never been as strong  as  it  is  nowadays,  because  we  have 
   nothing left to lose.                                              

CoC: It does strike me as a case of bringing out the big guns, so  to 
     speak, in your decision to hire Daniel  Bergstrand  to  mix  and 
     produce the album for you. What was the thinking behind that?    

N: We wanted to have a name. I was tired of doing everything  myself. 
   I've always had the last word in production and stuff like that; I 
   just felt that we needed somebody else from  the  outside  to  get 
   involved in things, and to help us get to where we needed  to  be. 
   Mixing is essential, you know? You can put together a pretty  good 
   album from some shitty rehearsal tapes with good mixing. We  spent 
   two and a half months just tracking everything for this album,  so 
   it was a really solid recording, but we had no idea what we needed 
   to do in order to avoid repeating ourselves.  That  was  something 
   that I was really afraid of. Of course, we also didn't really have 
   much money, but we just though "Fuck that -- we'll sell our houses 
   and our cars to make the album that we want to make."  Luckily  we 
   didn't have to do that, because the label eventually gave  us  the 
   money that  we  needed  to  make  the  album,  but  that  was  the 
   commitment. I was willing to do that. I just wanted to achieve  my 
   goal and get a new sound for Behemoth. _Thelema.6_ was  different, 
   _Zos Kia Cultus_ was different, and I just did not want this album 
   to sound too equal to those two. I wanted  _Demigod_  to  be  much 
   better -- to be the next step up, you know?  Daniel  did  a  great 
   job. I'm happy and we'll work with him again in the  future.  This 
   album is just so attacking -- it's like a blow to the head. For me 
   _Zos Kia Cultus_ was almost a little laid back; a little mellow -- 
   it had a lazy sound. I like it, but  with  this  album  we  wanted 
   something fast and aggressive.                                     

CoC: One of the things that you're relatively well-known for  is  the 
     tremendous amount of research and preparation that you  go  into 
     while you're writing the lyrics for the album. Talk to me  about 
     the background to _Demigod_.                                     

N: Well, there's an Old Testament touch to  this  album,  because  we 
   deal with themes like the nephilim mythos for example.  That  kind 
   of thing hasn't ever really been explored by a lot of metal bands. 
   And that's the way I've always tried to do this -- I mean, we have 
   a fairly consistent theme running through all our  music,  but  at 
   the same time I don't want to re-explore the same theories and the 
   same ideas again and again. On this album we set out to  find  new 
   things that we felt would be good for us to sing about. And I like 
   the imagery of the Old Testament. With all our albums we have very 
   specific imagery. _Zos Kia Cultus_ has this kind of iconic  figure 
   that introduced you to the record on the cover.  This  album  just 
   naturally turned out the way it did -- there's a  lot  of  ancient 
   Christian references and images that are used on the  record,  and 
   us being anti-Christian, still have a connection to that stuff. So 
   we took that on board and decided to take it a  step  further.  We 
   brought in the Aramaic writing on  the  front  cover  and  further 
   explored the connections between ancient  Christianity  and  other 
   pagan cultures in our lyrics. It's all about contrast for me,  you 
   know what I mean? I'm pretty sure that  we'll  always  have  anti- 
   religious themes running through our music, but I think that we do 
   it in a really intelligent way. We approach  our  lyrics  and  our 
   themes in a very philosophic way and  I  think  that  makes  us  a 
   really multi-dimensional band. I also think that we are very  real 
   and true in the way that we come across  and  that  we  bring  our 
   point across.                                                      

CoC: In what way do you see yourself as being a contradiction  toward 
     a lot of the pretenders in the scene at the moment?                   

N: Well, it would be arrogant to compare Behemoth to specific  bands. 
   I think that I'm very real in my feelings and I can take the anger 
   that I feel and I can look at my own work and know that I may  not 
   be the best at this or that, but when you put it all together, and 
   you put us on stage, there's a lot of  energy  and  we're  a  good 
   quality band. On the other hand, there are  a  million  bands  out 
   there who just fucking shred -- they're just  so  tight  and  they 
   have an awesome sound and... So what? So  fucking  what?  I  don't 
   want to compare Behemoth to Venom, because Venom couldn't play  at 
   all -- they couldn't handle their instruments -- but I love  them. 
   They're one of the most important bands on  this  planet,  because 
   they were real. And that's how I see  Behemoth.  Whatever  a  band 
   does has to be sincere and it has to be real, or you'll just  know 
   it. No matter how well you play and how nice you are on stage  and 
   how great your sound is, that band is still gonna suck. These days 
   I judge it by experience. I can listen to an album and it takes me 
   one minute and I'll be like "No, fuck it." I don't need  to  spend 
   hours and hours analysing stuff.                                   

CoC: What forms the basis for your criteria  when  you're  judging  a 
     band in that sense?                                                   

N: I don't know -- it's instinct. When I see a girl that I might want 
   to do something with, I just know it. I don't even have to talk to 
   her. Then on the other side of the  street  there's  another  girl 
   walking who is maybe even more beautiful, but she just doesn't  do 
   it for me: she's completely unattractive to  me.  I  don't  really 
   know how to say it other than to say that things  like  that  just 
   happen. We have so many people coming to us at shows who  say:  "I 
   never really liked you on the album, but I've just seen  the  show 
   and you look so real and so serious on stage." And I  truly  think 
   that we convince people by our live shows and what we put out when 
   we're on stage is just real -- there's no bullshit.                

CoC: So what do you think is most important then -- Behemoth on CD or 
     on stage?                                                             

N: I've asked myself that question several  times,  and  I  think  it 
   depends on one's mood, you know? It's almost  like  two  different 
   bands, in a way. We are very technical and detailed on albums, but 
   on stage we go for energy. We never try to play songs that we feel 
   might be too complicated to play live -- we want to go all-out  to 
   get the crowd as energetic as possible. I don't  really  have  any 
   interest in seeing someone  standing  on  stage,  masturbating  on 
   their guitar.  Fuck  that.  We  make  mistakes  when  we  play  -- 
   sometimes I go for a long time without even playing! You just  get 
   so lost in the moment of being on stage. It's a moving experience. 
   It's part of the show. It's part of the trance and that comes from 
   the energy that moves between the stage and the audience.          

CoC: Behemoth was part of the "Blackest of  the  Black"  tour  a  few 
     years ago, and obviously there you're playing  a  show  where  a 
     band like Danzig  is  headlining  and  where  you're  presenting 
     yourself to a much different audience than  you'd  normally  do. 
     How did your spot on the tour come about first of all?           

N: Well, I met Glenn [Danzig] in Berlin for the first time, and I'm a 
   huge Danzig fan, so I brought him a copy of _Zos Kia Cultus_ and a 
   T- shirt. And I thought that the guy would be fucking  big,  so  I 
   brought him an XXL, only to find out that he wears medium.  So  he 
   was like: "No problem, thank you very much", and I told him  about 
   my band and said to him that it was extreme music and that he  had 
   probably never heard of us. I mean, he is a fan  of  Roy  Orbison! 
   So, I didn't think that he'd like it, but I am very influenced  by 
   what he does, so I just wanted to give him a copy of the album and 
   pay my respects. Then he was like: "You know what? If I like  your 
   album, I'm going to invite you to a festival I'm organizing called 
   "Blackest of the Black"." And I just thought whatever,  you  know. 
   So a few months later, we were in the US and our agent  called  us 
   up and let us know that  he  had  something  big  for  us  --  the 
   "Blackest of the Black" tour! I just went: "Fuck  yeah!  Let's  go 
   for it." Before the tour started, actually, we played  in  LA  and 
   Glenn showed up came to check us out, and he was just listening to 
   the music and checking us out. He came backstage afterwards and he 
   was just fucking  great,  and  really  friendly.  So  we  went  to 
   "Blackest of the Black" and the response was great.  I  mean,  the 
   whole experience still leaves me speechless.                       

CoC: So, since you've started Behemoth in the early  '90s,  what  has 
     been the highlight in your career so far?                             

N: Well, I think that the highlight of our existence is yet to  come. 
   I don't like analysing the past, you know -- I just look for more; 
   I look ahead. I'll never go: "Oh look, we've done so  much,  we're 
   so experienced." I always think about what else we  could  do  and 
   what's next for us and that we need  to  work  harder.  You  know, 
   we're touring with Krisiun right now, and when I  see  these  guys 
   every night I just think that on the next  album,  we'll  have  to 
   double our efforts. We can never stop -- we always  need  to  move 
   ahead and just fucking keep conquering, and pushing the limits and 
   just see how far we can take things.                               

CoC: What are your hopes for the new album?

N: We've already gained so much in the recording of this  new  album. 
   It sounds good, you know, so from now on, we'll  be  doing  things 
   abroad and we'll only be using professional guys  to  produce  the 
   album. This is how I see it: _Demigod_ opened new  artistic  doors 
   for us, because it made us realise what can be achieved. And  I'll 
   say this: if people like the new album, then they're going to like 
   the next album as  well.  I  just  want  to  keep  going  in  this 
   direction -- just getting better and better; more technical,  more 
   brutal. It would be cool if we could raise our commercial profile, 
   but the way it is right now is fine. We can make our living out of 
   music and that's great. Let me tell you something: on this tour so 
   far we've played four dates,  and  we've  already  sold  like  250 
   shirts. It's never been that crazy for us. I don't know what  else 
   to say. We'll talk in two years when we've finished the next album 
   and see what happens.                                              

CoC: It's going to be hard to top _Demigod_ though...

N: <laughs> I've heard that since we did _Pandaemonic  Incantations_. 
   Then we did _Thelema.6_ and  everyone  said  that  we'd  never  be 
   better. Then we did _Zos Kia Cultus_. Give me two years, and  I'll 
   bring out an album that's better than _Demigod_.                   

CoC: Nergal, I'd like to finish off this interview with one question: 
     what is it that you love about metal?                                 

N: <pauses> Well, metal is  energy,  man.  You'll  see  it  on  stage 
   tonight. I fucking live for it. And I'm not a  typical  metalhead. 
   When I'm in the street, I don't look like a typical metalhead. But 
   it's an energy. I love to be on stage, and  I  love  feeling  that 
   energy. Metal is life. It's all about life.  Pop  music  is  about 
   fucking, right? Then hip-hop is about how bad the world is and how 
   poor people are. Metal is about all of that  and  more.  Find  any 
   other music genre that will give you so much  stimulation...  It's 
   fucking excellent. It's freedom. Do I sound like Manowar? <laughs> 

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

             T H E   T H U N D E R   D O W N   U N D E R
             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                 CoC chats with Ethion of The Amenta
                           by: Jackie Smit


It's an arguable point and likely to be a bone of contention among  a 
fair few  metal  acolytes,  but  the  lineage  of  extreme  music  in 
Australia can be traced all the way back to AC/DC  --  a  band  whose 
influence stretches over several decades and at the very least got  a 
fair few aspiring metalheads started on their road of discovery.  And 
while in the subsequent years, those who were formed in the  wake  of 
AC/DC's renown  haven't  always  been  quite  as  salubrious  as  the 
gloriously cacophonous din that Angus Young and  his  cohorts  kicked 
up so many years  ago,  the  21st  century  has  thus  far  seen  the 
Australian metal underground ready to  explode  like  the  proverbial 
Mount Vesuvius, with bands like Alchemist and Destroyer  666  sharing 
refreshingly unique interpretations on extreme  music  for  the  next 
decade. But perhaps most impressive of  all  has  been  The  Amenta's 
_Occasus_ -- a debut which, as I stated in my review thereof on  this 
very website, is not only one of the best albums to be unleashed this 
year, but quite possibly one of the most evolutionary stride  to  hit 
death metal since the release of Nile's  _Amongst  the  Catacombs  of 
Nephren Ka_. I recently had the pleasure of speaking to  one  of  The 
Amenta's chief engineers, who rang me from his home in  Australia  in 
the small hours of a Monday morning.                                  

CoC: Ethion, I hope that the ungodly timing of this interview  hasn't 
     forced you to curtail any social activities?                          

Ethion: <laughs> Absolutely not.  I've  been  in  bed,  sleeping  and 
        getting ready for work tomorrow, so it's all good.  I  didn't 
        cancel any of your midday activities?                         

CoC: Not at all. I wanted to ask you first of all: how did  the  deal 
     with Listenable come about, because from the bio on your website 
     I saw that apparently Chronicles of Chaos had a hand in  setting 
     the wheels in motion?                                            

E: Yeah, absolutely. We actually sent out about 70 or 80  promos  for 
   _Mictlan_, our mini-album, to  different  zines  and  things  like 
   that. We sent one to Chronicles of Chaos  and  one  of  your  guys 
   [David Rocher] got in touch with us  and  mentioned  that  he  had 
   spoken to some of the people at Listenable about us, and they  had 
   said that they couldn't guarantee anything, but that  they'd  want 
   to have a listen to it. So we sent a CD out to them and  they  got 
   in touch with us and said that they  were  really  interested.  We 
   prepared some demos for a few more songs that we had been  working 
   on and that would eventually become _Occasus_, and from  there  it 
   just kind of evolved into a deal. We tied it up around  last  year 
   -- we  were  talking  to  them  for  a  while  --  but  eventually 
   everything got set up and that's how everything came about.        

CoC: Did you speak to any other labels prior to this?

E: We sent out _Mictlan_ to a  couple  of  other  labels  toward  the 
   middle of 2003, but no one was as enthusiastic  or  seemed  to  be 
   on the same page  as  Listenable  was.  There  were  a  couple  of 
   other  labels  that  expressed  interest,  but  I  guess  we  went 
   with Listenable because of their reputation  and  because  of  the 
   dedication they show towards their bands. Also, there's a  million 
   and one horror stories you hear about labels and  how  they  treat 
   bands. Listenable definitely seemed to  be  the  most  honest  and 
   definitely the one with the best reputation as  far  as  that  was 
   concerned. That was a really big factor for us.                    

CoC: They also happen to have Immolation on their roster...

E: <laughs> Yeah, that was a big thing for us as well. They're a  big 
   influence, and it's a good thing to be able to run around and tell 
   everyone  that  we're  on  the  same  label  as  Immolation.  That 
   definitely sealed the deal for us.                                 

CoC: The reason I asked you about labels is because there's a  really 
     strong underground scene in Australia right now, but  often  one 
     hears  stories  about  bands  having  difficulty  getting  deals 
     because of the  geographic  limitations  that  artists  in  your 
     position obviously have. Did you experience that with The Amenta 
     at all?                                                          

E: I imagine from a label's point of view that when you sign  a  band 
   from Australia there's certain logistical things you need to  take 
   into consideration. It's easier for a label to be based in  Europe 
   and to take on a European band, if you know what I mean.  I  think 
   to counteract that though, you have the curiosity factor that  the 
   US and Europe have got toward the Australian scene. I  think  that 
   we definitely have a really unique flavour out  here,  so  for  as 
   many bad points as there are, there are one or  more  good  points 
   canceling that out, you know. Australian extreme music  definitely 
   has its own identity and I think that's a factor  that  counts  in 
   the favour of bands like us.                                       

CoC: So tell me a little  bit  about  the  Australian  scene.  What's 
     support like for local bands out there?                               

E: Because all the cities are so far apart, it tends to be a case  of 
   a lot of bands sticking to the city where they're from.  Melbourne 
   and Sydney for example are about  800  kilometres  apart,  and  in 
   between those cities there's very little scope for other shows. So 
   scenes tend to be based in the bigger cities and they don't really 
   intermingle. Of course, that's much different  to  the  impression 
   one gets in Europe. What you also find is that  each  city  has  a 
   really strong identity, like Melbourne which has a  really  strong 
   black and thrash scene with bands like Destroyer 666  and  so  on. 
   Then in Sydney they're more caught up  in  a  modern  death  metal 
   style. So, each city has its own scene, but then  the  bands  that 
   make it will move up to an interstate level, if you  know  what  I 
   mean, where they're touring nationally. Bands like Destroyer  666, 
   Alchemist, Nazgul are all really big players in the scene.         

CoC: How many people could you expect would turn up if you guys  were 
     to play a local show?                                                 

E: At a guess, I'd say anything from 150 to 250. We're  very  new  on 
   the scene. For the bigger bands in Sydney you could  get  anywhere 
   from 250 to 400 people for a show.                                 

CoC: I know you all played in different bands before, but how did The 
     Amenta eventually get together?                                       

E: Well, I had been working with a couple of the  guys  in  different 
   bands before this, and for quite a  few  years  we  were  actually 
   working on songs for The Amenta; just working  and  reworking  the 
   songs and doing stuff in our little home studios. I didn't  really 
   have all that much to do with the Australian scene, to be  honest. 
   But anyway, we just gradually developed into The Amenta  and  like 
   all other bands we've gone  through  our  fair  share  of  line-up 
   changes to get to the point we are today.                          

CoC: Off and on, how long have you all been working on  the  material 
     that's on _Occasus_?                                                  

E: Some of the stuff we've had on this album, I had with  me  when  I 
   was sixteen. But really, from the point where we first sat down as 
   a band, I'd say probably two years that we've been working on that 
   material. Probably a bit longer,  but  then  there's  things  like 
   line- up  changes  that  slow  things  down.  And  it's  quite  an 
   evolution when you get someone new into the band; a lot of  things 
   change, you know?                                                  

CoC: How do you guys go about  writing  music  --  is  The  Amenta  a 
     completely democratic band, do you jam on stuff together?             

E: We are very technology-based, which I think really  comes  out  in 
   our music. We don't write a lot in the  conventional  sense,  like 
   where we would go to  a  rehearsal  room  and  jam  until  a  song 
   magically  appears.  Everything  we've  done...  We're  all  quite 
   knowledgeable in the  computer  recording  front,  which  I  think 
   shaped our sound a lot. Everybody brings in riffs and  stuff  like 
   that, but it's always a question of how we  can  model  or  mangle 
   something until it becomes something new, or how we can  take  our 
   influences and put like a new spin on them. So we might chop up  a 
   guitar riff on the computer or something, or our  keyboard  player 
   might tell us that he has  found  a  new  sound  by  plugging  his 
   keyboard into a new  distortion  pedal  or  something  like  that. 
   Things like that tend to result in a new part  of  a  song,  which 
   tends to create itself, if you know what I mean.  We  take  things 
   like that and experiment together,  and  that's  how  things  come 
   about.                                                             

CoC: With _Occasus_ one can hear that a lot of the album was recorded 
     digitally, but tell me more about how you guys went about  doing 
     the record.                                                      

E: Initially we decided that we'd spend a fair bit of  our  recording 
   budget on the drum tracks; so we went to a studio called Q Studios 
   in Sydney, we tracked all the drums there, took  it  away  to  our 
   home studios, and then took things further from there.  Basically, 
   I was working very little at the time, as were some of  the  other 
   guys in the band, because we decided that we wanted to be able  to 
   focus on completing the album as much as  possible.  So  we'd  get 
   together every day and just add things like guitars and vocals  to 
   the drum tracks and try new things and see how it turns out.       

CoC: So a lot of what one hears on _Occasus_ was done at home?

E: Yeah, everything except the drums. Essentially we got to the point 
   where we just felt like we couldn't take things any  further.  The 
   process took about five months, starting  in  January  this  year. 
   When we were done we took it to our engineer,  we  started  mixing 
   the thing and we spent six days doing that, letting him shape  the 
   sound as much as  he  could,  and  just  put  his  perspective  on 
   everything, which ultimately led to the album sounding the way  it 
   did.                                                               

CoC: The five months you mentioned; are we talking two to three hours 
     of work a day, or was this a full-time deal?                          

E: Well, just the nature of how I work -- I work  weekends  --  meant 
   that this was a full-time  job  for  us  for  that  time.  I  work 
   weekends, as do a lot of other guys in bands, so we'd spend Monday 
   to Friday just pottering around in the studio, recording  and  re- 
   recording songs and just, as I said, taking everything as  far  as 
   we possibly could. It was quite intense, for sure.                 

CoC: That's quite a long time to be working on an album, particularly 
     when you consider that a lot of bigger acts sometimes don't even 
     spend half that much.                                            

E: Yeah. For us it was a blessing and a curse, because probably a few 
   things we did, we didn't really have to do. When  you  spend  that 
   long on a record, you tend to risk over-analyzing things, so  when 
   you have that much time on your hands, you might end up being just 
   as destructive as you are creative. In the end, it was  definitely 
   quite a lot of work, as you say, but I think we did get  the  most 
   out of what we had. I  mean,  everyone's  performance  --  we  had 
   nothing left to give, if I can put it that way.                    

CoC: Now, the drums -- I'm sure you get this from a  lot  of  people, 
     but to what extent  did  you  enhance  the  drums  in  terms  of 
     triggering, etc.?                                                

E: Everything barring the toms and  the  cymbals  was  triggered.  We 
   replaced the kick drums and the snare drum sounds completely.  The 
   snare drums were a blend of the actual sound in the room, as  well 
   as the ambient sound picked up by the recording microphones.  That 
   was quite a complex thing to do, particularly because of the speed 
   at which some of the songs are played. In  terms  of  performance, 
   our drummer is definitely one of the best in the country,  if  not 
   in the world. And we get a lot of questions about this, but I  can 
   assure you that the performance is real and that he can  play  the 
   stuff on the album.                                                

CoC: I've actually had a few debates with people about whether or not 
     you use a drum machine.                                               

E: If you're listening really closely, you can hear when a real snare 
   of tom is being  played,  I  think.  But  it's  quite  a  bone  of 
   contention on a lot of websites and a lot of message boards, which 
   is quite entertaining.                                             

CoC: _Occasus_ has a very consistent  theme  that  runs  through  the 
     record and also throughout the visual aspect of the band.  Could 
     you explain a bit more about this?                               

E: The theme is essentially about how religions and philosophy act as 
   a mind-control for society in terms of giving people a crutch  and 
   not giving them reason to question anything that they're presented 
   with. They're happy to work nine to five in something they're  not 
   passionate about in their lives, because they feel that at the end 
   of their time, they're going  to  be  presented  with  this  grand 
   reward that makes everything worthwhile. Obviously our opinion, if 
   you read our lyrics, is that  you're  presented  with  this  short 
   amount of time on earth and then you die. Society, and  especially 
   Western society, has been trained and conditioned not to question, 
   and so the whole  album's  underlying  message  is  to  think  for 
   yourself and to reject anything like that -- be  it  Christianity, 
   Satanism, Islam or anything that would affect how you act and  how 
   you behave -- because you've been brought up to believe in certain 
   things. It's got a lot to do with taking back  individual  thought 
   rather than following herd mentality.                              

CoC: Talk me through some of  the  lyrical  influences  you  had  for 
     _Occasus_, because a lot of your lyrics are  very  visceral  and 
     you refer to a lot of mythological imagery.                      

E: We didn't want to present anything on _Occasus_ as being just this 
   basic cut and dried thing. If you were to take the time to look at 
   the lyrics to the album, I would hope  that  you'd  see  that  the 
   lyrics aren't just stories: they're metaphors that use  comparison 
   to point toward what we're saying. The lyrics  look  at  how,  for 
   example, certain older cultures viewed  religion,  and  how  their 
   society's thoughts were shaped and how people were  being  trained 
   in how to act and how to  live  their  lives.  And  we  run  those 
   metaphors and comparisons through a variety of different eras,  so 
   for example you have a song like "Mictlan" that looks  at  certain 
   Aztec mythology, through to a song like "Zero" that takes  a  very 
   modern approach. That's essentially  what  we  wanted  to  do.  We 
   wanted to take  a  holistic  look  at  how  various  cultures  and 
   societies have affected human behaviour and thought throughout the 
   years until now.                                                   

CoC: Given how densely layered the material on _Occasus_ is, it  must 
     be a phenomenal task recreating that on stage.  How  do  you  go 
     about doing this?                                                

E: A lot of it comes down to the samples and effect on the  keyboards 
   and we've been working more and more toward being able to recreate 
   the album in its entirety  on  stage,  using  a  lot  of  computer 
   technology and things like that. It's quite interesting  and  it's 
   quite complex, but it's something we can definitely do.            

CoC: What does the future hold for The Amenta? Can we expect  to  see 
     you guys in Europe or in the rest of the world anytime soon?          

E: Well that is something that is definitely on the cards,  and  it's 
   our biggest aim at the moment, because we know that we need to get 
   over there and we need to show people what we can do. So hopefully 
   in the next twelve  months  we'll  definitely  be  in  Europe  and 
   hopefully even the US touring.                                     

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

                       _, _,  __, _,_ _, _  _,
                      / \ |   |_) | | |\/| (_ 
                      |~| | , |_) | | |  | , )
                      ~ ~ ~~~ ~   `~' ~  ~  ~ 

Scoring:  10 out of 10 -- A masterpiece indeed
           9 out of 10 -- Highly recommended
           7 out of 10 -- Has some redeeming qualities
           5 out of 10 -- You are treading in dangerous waters
           3 out of 10 -- Nothing here worth looking into
           0 out of 10 -- An atrocious album, avoid at all costs!


8th Sin - _Sinners Inc._  (Black Lodge, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (3 out of 10)

There has to be some sort of explanation for  why  so  many  one-time 
stalwarts in black metal have cast off their bullet-belts and  spiked 
wrist-bands in favour of effeminate make-up and bondage  wear.  Dimmu 
Borgir's Nagash was one of the first to  lead  the  contrived  exodus 
with The Kovenant, and  more  recently  members  of  Swordmaster  and 
Dissection joined eyelined forces in the Deathstars. Problem is  that 
however infrequently, these  aforementioned  acts  do  actually  have 
their moments. 8th Sin,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not.  In  fact, 
_Sinners Inc._ is at  best  execrable,  and  at  worst  a  lesson  in 
sonic torture the likes  of  which  would  have  the  current  United 
States governmental administration crying  pre-emptive  strike.  Most 
shockingly, this atrocity is the work of one-time black metal bad boy 
It. Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  erstwhile  voice  of  such 
anti-social denizens as Abruptum  and  Ophthalamia  has  neither  the 
capacity nor the sheer soaring ability to pull this style off at  any 
point during the record, _Sinners Inc._ runs the gamut of  damn  near 
every cliché in the gothic rock handbook, and  does  so  to  such  an 
unpalatable and tawdry extent that it could potentially serve to lend 
the final dash of brevity to the claim that It may be one of the most 
twisted, scary individuals to enter the music industry.               

Contact: http://www.8thsin.biz


Acheron - _Rebirth: Metamorphosing Into Godhood_
by: Todd DePalma  (6.5 out of 10)  (Black Lotus Records, 2003)

Acheron returns with their sixth full-length record, topping a career 
spanning over a decade. With six tracks (sans intros)  that  are  not 
likely to usher in new converts, the band  nevertheless  delivers  an 
effectively blunt sermon of what else: vampires, misogyny  and  devil 
worship. My version also contains a slipcase cover with more tasteful 
artwork than the cartoonish ritual splattered on the album's booklet; 
a sort of ode to the classic film "Rosemary's Baby", this painting is 
used for the inner sleeve as well, but I guess the band just couldn't 
resist a self portrait of  themselves  with  a  cherubic  Anti-Christ 
halfway spat out the snatch  of  some  big-boobed  blonde  caricature 
metal babe. But I digress...                                          

Featuring a far less symphonic sound  than  1999's  _Those  Who  Have 
Risen_ (and no Peter Gilmore, which also means no more of the  cheesy 
intros that are, depending on your tastes, one  of  the  band's  more 
charming qualities.) _Rebirth_ is the biggest sounding album the band 
has ever put out. There is no hollow bridging off verses  by  way  of 
the pseudo gothic keyboards tending to  wash  out  most  of  what  is 
heavy; instead the album begins with a Morbid Angel  style  intro  of 
distortion and overlaid vocal tracks  that  leads  into  the  rolling 
barrage of "Church of One".                                           

Being stripped down to a three piece is immediately beneficial as the 
band's old-school,  somewhat  laic  riffs  are  performed  with  much 
fiercer  calculation  juxtaposed  against  guitarist  Michael  Estes' 
liquid sweeps (for more contrast see Acheron's _Xomaly_ MCD featuring 
several songs from this album recorded with  keys).  The  opener  and 
proceeding track "Xomaly" are some of the most monstrously  epic  and 
well produced songs the band has ever conjured (witness the ugly  and 
victorious simplicity of "Church's" post solo verse four minutes in), 
and speaking of the latter track, Kyle Severn has never sounded  more 
like Bill Ward in his life. Other tracks  like  "The  Kindred",  "Bow 
Before Me" and "Betrayed (A Broken  Pact)"  showcase  more  doom  and 
groove, tending to drag at  around  7-8  minutes  a  piece,  but  are 
quality enough to keep this album from trailing off  completely  like 
the hilariously bad and robotic monologue Vincent Crowley delivers on 
"A Long Time Ago" or the closing waste of "The 9th Gate" -- a grating 
nine minute exhibition of what sounds like a singing wine glass?      

Though warning signs of the end have appeared with the recent release 
of both  a  "Best  of"  and  tribute  album,  _Rebirth_  is  a  large 
improvement over the band's previous output and their strongest since 
ninety-four's _Lex Talionis_. There is nothing  groundbreaking  here, 
but the band has certainly proven to have outlasted  their  Floridian 
contemporaries who now rely on either the sheer worthlessness or fame 
begotten from previous albums and large press campaigns  to  prop  up 
their latest mediocre works.                                          

"...If I am wrong I will surely be damned" - Acheron, "Church of One"

Contact: http://acheron666.com


Agnostic Front - _Another Voice_  (Nuclear Blast, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (9 out of 10)

Damned if somebody didn't  light  a  fire  under  these  guys.  Those 
expecting another collection of anthemic sing-alongs in the  vein  of 
recent 'Gnostic efforts like _Dead Yuppies_ and _Riot, Riot  Upstart_ 
may as well prepare themselves for a rude  awakening  beforehand,  as 
_Another Voice_ pulls no punches, following the same brutal  road  as 
the often-imitated, never-bettered  _One  Voice_.  Given  the  lethal 
handle of good, old  fashioned  hardcore  and  boorish,  in-your-face 
metal that is stuck so effectively to tracks  like  "Pure",  "Peace", 
and the incendiary  "Casualty  of  the  Times",  the  recruitment  of 
Hatebreed's Jamie Jasta to oversee production of the album has to  be 
seen as a masterstroke, but in truth the entire band is on  form  for 
the duration. Roger Miret spits out acid-laced diatribes  like  "Fuck 
you and everything you ever said about me / I despise  you  and  I'll 
never show you mercy", like he's about to be let loose on a murderous 
rampage, while Vinnie Stigma and particularly new drummer Steve Gallo 
keep it ultra-tight on the instrumental side of  things.  Let's  just 
hope that it doesn't take  the  band  twelve  more  years  to  create 
another oh-so-perfectly executed outburst of aggression.              

Contact: http://www.afnyhc.com


Amon Amarth - _Fate of Norns_  (Metal Blade, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (8 out of 10)

A fiery red 'n' yellow front cover -- yes, it's another  Amon  Amarth 
album! Truth be told, this  time  they  varied  the  motif  somewhat, 
although they still didn't give up on linking _Fate of Norns_  pretty 
strongly to their previous albums' imagery. Having included  a  bonus 
disc with old demo tracks on the limited edition  of  their  previous 
album, _Versus the World_, Amon Amarth have now  provided  the  metal 
market with another big limited edition digipak, this time  featuring 
the flavour of the year (and probably the next  few  year's  too):  a 
bonus live DVD.                                                       

The album itself is one of those predictable affairs if  you  already 
know the band; an album that that will neither  seriously  disappoint 
existing fans nor win any former disbelievers over. Much  like  other 
recent efforts, the band displays a mixture of controlled  aggression 
and what I like to call a post-battle mood on _FoN_. The material  is 
not as fast as on some older albums, retaining those trademark  riffs 
but applying them to mostly mid-paced rhythmic structures instead  -- 
it actually gets doomy at times, like it already did on  _Versus  the 
World_. There really isn't much else to say about  _Fate  of  Norns_; 
some  may  feel  they  already  have  enough  Amon  Amarth  in  their 
collection because they're not really going anywhere new  with  their 
music -- but on the other hand, the metallic appeal of their  Swedish 
death metal remains vivid, and they have lost none  of  their  skill. 
This is simply another collection of very good songs within the  same 
specific style as usual.                                              

If you happen to catch one of the DVD-enhanced  editions,  you'll  be 
treated to a gig filmed at a small venue in  Iceland.  The  sound  is 
plain old stereo, and the filming is very simple throughout,  but  at 
least the band do not disappoint: drumming, guitar playing and  vocal 
performance all get high marks, and there's a good  atmosphere  about 
the whole thing. Still, this is no full DVD release:  do  not  expect 
any great audio or video here. It's a nice bonus if you can  get  it, 
but not fundamental -- I'd wager it won't be  too  long  before  Amon 
Amarth have a full DVD release  of  their  own,  and  they  certainly 
deserve it.                                                           

[Quentin Kalis: "Although not a horrible album, _FoN_ borders on  the 
 repetitive, which is not helped by the near-constant  sluggish  pace 
 sustained throughout the album. There are  a  number  of  noteworthy 
 moments on this album,  but  not  nearly  enough  for  _FoN_  to  be 
 considered as a worthy successor to _Versus the World_. Nonetheless, 
 this album is still above average, but comes  closer  to  that  mark 
 than anything else released by Amon Amarth."]                        

Contact: http://www.amonamarth.com


Anaal Nathrakh - _Domine Non Es Dignus_  (Season of Mist, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (8 out of 10)

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot  stamping  on  a 
human face... forever."                                               

This George Orwell quote at the beginning  of  third  track  "Do  Not 
Speak" provides no indication of what happens about one  minute  into 
the song: Anaal Nathrakh doing a melodic chorus with clean  vocals  a 
la Emperor and a King Diamond-ish shriek at the end. True enough, the 
album opens up with a typically necro  intro  in  the  shape  of  the 
evocatively titled "I Wish I Could Vomit Blood on You... People"  and 
the ripping black metal of "The Oblivion Gene". However, by then  the 
Anaal Nathrakh connoisseur will have already noticed the vast changes 
in production, instrumental subtlety (including the occasional guitar 
solo), and even the debut of a (very quick) human drummer in place of 
their traditional drum machine.                                       

Next up is "Procreation of  the  Wretched",  which  returns  to  more 
recognizable Anaal Nathrakh territory in spite  of  the  line-up  and 
production changes -- but still there seems  to  be  a  much  greater 
concern with technical detail than before. There may be another  King 
Diamond hint or two to be found, but AN's traditional insane screamed 
vocals definitely suit the music. The track also happens to  be  damn 
good, much like its predecessors. The strange beginning of next track 
"To Err Is Human, To Dream -- Futile" hints at another trip into  the 
unexpected however, and indeed a couple of minutes into the track  we 
get some sort of Eastern-like influences, which are never again heard 
on the record. The second half of the  album  presents  another  good 
collection of tracks,  but  revolves  around  pretty  much  the  same 
elements; it's enjoyable if you like  the  rest  of  the  album,  but 
doesn't bring any significant novelties into the mix.                 

Anyone who knows Anaal Nathrakh from _The Codex Necro_ will likely be 
left wondering what happened to the band in order to cause such  deep 
changes. Whatever it was, the results are mixed:  some  new  elements 
work very well (e.g., improved guitar work,  human  drumming),  while 
others are detrimental (e.g., decrease in savagery, some of the clean 
vocals). _Domine Non Es Dignus_ takes a lot of getting used to if you 
really like old Anaal Nathrakh, but it can become a  rather  cracking 
album. My interest tends to dissipate somewhat after  the  first  few 
tracks, and I miss the sheer extremity and viciousness of _The  Codex 
Necro_; but there is no taking away from the quality of  _Domine  Non 
Es Dignus_. Anaal Nathrakh have created an album that may well launch 
them into much greater notoriety in  the  future  --  something  that 
those who have accompanied the band since their inception would  have 
found hard to believe... until now.                                   

Contact: http://www.anaal-nathrakh.tk


Anthrax - _The Greater of Two Evils_  (Nuclear Blast, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (6.5 out of 10)

This must have seemed like a winning idea in theory: book a few  days 
in the  studio  and  ride  the  wave  of  the  current  thrash  metal 
renaissance by re-recording a glut of venerated classics, giving fans 
the opportunity to hear these songs in a modernised state, and  maybe 
-- just maybe -- pocketing a few bucks in  the  process.  Trouble  is 
that a only a couple of months ago, Anthrax  released  a  live  album 
[_Music of Mass Destruction_] which  for  all  intents  and  purposes 
fills the role of _The Greater of Two Evils_ in a far more  energetic 
and convincing manner. It's not like the  music  on  this  record  is 
under par by any means -- no matter how  surprisingly  gormless  John 
Bush sounds on "Among  the  Living",  you  can't  argue  against  the 
continued appeal and fervour of "Caught in a Mosh" and  "Deathrider". 
But even though these songs prove that Anthrax can still kick ass and 
take names with the best of them, they  make  a  piss-poor  case  for 
anyone other than the obsessive completist to go  out  and  buy  this 
record.                                                               

Contact: http://www.anthrax.com


Arch Enemy - _Dead Eyes See No Future_  (Century Media, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (5 out of 10)

Maybe I'm just being cynical, but I have a hard time seeing the point 
in this release. A singular, already available studio outtake  ("Dead 
Eyes See No Future"), a few adequately recorded  live  tracks  and  a 
clutch of fairly by-the-numbers covers (all packaged at the price  of 
a regular full-length) doth not a cause for celebration make --  even 
if like me, you did actually quite enjoy _Anthems of Rebellion_. From 
a purely musical point of view, this effort  is  certainly  passable: 
the sneering, downtuned reinterpretation of Megadeth's  "Symphony  of 
Destruction" is  definitely  interesting,  if  not  the  most  wholly 
inventive cover you'll hear in 2004. But  putting  aside  the  band's 
skyrocketing popularity for a moment, there is very little about this 
that doesn't scream "blatant cash-in".                                

Contact: http://www.archenemy.net


Cruachan - _Pagan_  (Karmageddon Media, 2004)
by: Quentin Kalis  (7.5 out of 10)

I've always had  a  soft  spot  for  Cruachan,  even  if  few  of  my 
associates can understand my appreciation for this Irish band. But as 
can be seen by the relatively modest rating above, this is not  their 
strongest album -- the weakest in their career to date.               

First the negatives: there are two re-recordings of  old  songs;  one 
that first appeared on the debut album, _Tuatha na Gael_  ("The  Fall 
of Gondolin") and another  that  initially  surfaced  on  their  1997 
promo ("Erinsong"). "The Fall of  Gondolin"  is  the  third  song  to 
be resurrected off  _TnG_;  as  such  this  re-recording  is  utterly 
predictable and boring. Admittedly, the 1997 promo is hard to obtain; 
however the songs  contained  on  the  promo  have  long  since  been 
included as bonus tracks on the re-release of _TnG_ and  thus  easily 
obtainable.                                                           

No less than four instrumentals can be found on this  thirteen  track 
CD. Instrumentals are not necessarily filler material; but  only  one 
doesn't sound like a desperate attempt to extend the playing  length. 
There is also the obligatory Cruachan version of a traditional  Irish 
song. Unlike the evocative "Brian Boru", this one sounds like  little 
more than some guitars backing the performance of a pub song.         

Another song from the 1997 promo, "The Return"  returns  (excuse  the 
pun) in the  form  of  a  pilfered  riff  clumsily  and  inexplicably 
incorporated into  "Viking  Slayer".  "The  Return"  is  Cruachan  in 
classic  form  and  it  would  have  been  far  more  acceptable   as 
a re-recording  than  the  inclusion  of  the  comparatively  mundane 
"Erinsong". Despite this, "Viking Slayer" is still enjoyable, even if 
less than inspired.                                                   

On the positive side, songs such as "Pagan"  and  "1000  Years"  show 
Cruachan doing what they do best:  performing  an  endearing  mix  of 
Bathory inspired riffs (though gradually heading towards  more  heavy 
metal territory) combined with Irish/Celtic folk  instruments.  Songs 
such as the above are comparable to the best that they have to offer. 

When compared to _Folklore_ (their previous album),  this  definitely 
feels inferior. There are fewer  catchy  melodies  and  fewer  catchy 
songs. Those songs that I enjoy, such  as  "Pagan"  and  "Ard  Ri  Na 
Heirann", have received extensive play -- but  unlike  _Folklore_,  I 
hardly ever play the full CD. Those who enjoyed _The Middle  Kingdom_ 
or _Folklore_ will find a few moments to  savour  --  but  those  who 
hated the aforementioned albums need not bother with _Pagan_,  as  it 
will in all likelihood  be  hated  for  the  exact  same  reasons  as 
_Folklore_.                                                           


Cult of Catharsis / Opus Forgotten -
                           _Lord of the Gallows_ / _Unleash the Fury_
by: Alvin Wee  (6 out of 10)  (Aftermath Music, 2004)

Cult of  Catharsis  start  off  with  a  refreshing  mix  of  styles, 
melding grandiose, doom-laced passages with  an  oddly  complementary 
Gothenburg-thrash demeanor. While coming across  as  passé  at  first 
listen, especially coming after the recent  melodic-death  boom,  the 
tracks begin to assert themselves after a  few  spins.  Well-executed 
rock 'n' riff fests like the second  track  "Blade  of  the  Prowler" 
become strangely infectious when played at volume, even if they  reek 
of previous work by Swordmaster or more recent Impaled Nazarene.      

Not a bad five tracks, but unfortunately overshadowed  (in  terms  of 
originality at least) by the distinctive  style  of  Opus  Forgotten. 
Taking a base of DM-infused Norse brutality, OF add a liberal dose of 
solo violin to their black metal chaos, tingeing their sound with  an 
intruiging -- if not entirely comfortable -- incongruency. It's  hard 
to  decide  if  the  violin  is  boon  or  bane  to  their  otherwise 
run-of-the-mill compositions. At times, it charges the music  with  a 
dazzling urgency, but at its worst, clashes  miserably  and  disrupts 
the momentum of perfectly good  guitar  passages.  Nevertheless,  the 
seven tracks are  entertaining  enough,  and  moments  of  brilliance 
suggest  the  band's  potential  with  some  practice  and  a  little 
compositional maturity.                                               

Contact: http://www.aftermath-music.com


Dark Tranquillity - _Exposures: In Retrospect and Denial_
by: Quentin Kalis  (8 out of 10)  (Century Media, 2004)

_E:IRaD_ is a  double  CD  set  celebrating  some  fifteen  years  of 
existence, and is composed of rare songs and a  live  concert,  split 
between disc one and disc two respectively. The live concert  is  the 
same one that was recorded in Poland for the _Live Damage_  DVD,  and 
is more than adequately covered in an earlier review of  the  DVD  -- 
therefore I will not waste time on  the  live  disc  and  will  focus 
exclusively on the rarities disc. The rarities disc  can  be  divided 
into two  sections:  the  first  section  is  composed  primarily  of 
unreleased songs from the  recording  sessions  for  the  last  three 
studio albums, while  the  second  section  consists  of  the  entire 
_Trail of Life Decayed_ and _A Moonclad  Reflection_  demos  --  both 
remastered.                                                           

The rarities are a rather mixed bag -- they  are,  after  all,  songs 
rejected for inclusion on a full-length for some or other reason.  Of 
much greater interest are the _Trail of life Decayed_ and _A Moonclad 
Reflection_ EPs. Both were extremely limited releases on  vinyl,  and 
these re-mastered versions are the first time  that  they  have  been 
committed to plastic. These tracks are pretty good, but  inferior  to 
just about every song on _Skydancer_. Nonetheless, I'm surprised that 
they  weren't  used  on  _Skydancer_  or  included  as  bonus  tracks 
somewhere before now, as they are nowhere near that bad. Judging from 
the track list, there appear to be no songs which  gained  a  limited 
release in-between the demos and _Projector_;  it  is  a  significant 
gap, covering what many regard as their golden period. It's  hard  to 
believe that there are no  demos,  rehearsals  or  covers  from  this 
period which could have been included.                                

I realise that considerably little has been said about the  music  in 
this review. But when a compilation of this nature is  concerned,  it 
is largely the nature, not the quality of the songs included that  is 
of primary importance; unlike similar commemorative releases from  My 
Dying Bride and Darkthrone, this  CD  set  contains  absolutely  zero 
widely available songs and that counts for a lot in my book.          

Contact: http://www.darktranquillity.com


Enslaved - _Isa_  (Tabu Recordings, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (8.5 out of 10)

After the less impressive _Mardraum_ and  _Monumension_  albums,  the 
opening track of last year's _Below the Lights_, "As Fire Swept Clean 
the Earth", was unexpectedly and overwhelmingly excellent -- it would 
turn out to be the album's finest moment, but to my ears _BtL_  still 
marked a return to form for Enslaved.                                 

It was therefore with a great deal of anticipation that I first  spun 
_Isa_, wondering whether its start could match its predecessor's, and 
even whether the entire album might be as great  as  that  particular 
song. As it turned out, the first track was just an anonymous ambient 
intro -- quite the anti-climax. When  "Lunar  Force"  did  begin,  it 
proved to be a rather different affair; an excellent track,  but  not 
quite as great. "Lunar Force" does not dwarf the rest of the album by 
comparison however, contrarily to what happened on _Below the Lights_ 
to a considerable extent. There may not be anything as good on  _Isa_ 
as the aforementioned "As Fire Swept Clean the Earth", but overall it 
is more cohesive and more  consistently  enjoyable  than  _Below  the 
Lights_.                                                              

Enslaved  seem  to  have   regained   focus   after   2001's   rather 
disappointing _Monumension_, and this last couple  of  albums  easily 
surpass anything they have done since 1999's _Blodhemn_. Tracks  like 
"Lunar Force", "Isa" and "Return to Yggdrasil" rank among  Enslaved's 
finest, and that should say a lot. Without having had to backtrack or 
stop experimenting, Enslaved seem to have been able  to  select  less 
discordant elements for their music: it remains blackened as well  as 
progressive, and retains a majestic Viking feeling, but this time the 
whole thing does not clash with unnecessary psychedelic explorations. 

The black metal rasps are still very good, and the clean  vocals  are 
very inspired. While more than adept instrumentally, the  album  does 
not need to  go  into  excessive  technicality  to  make  its  point. 
Similarly, the level of aggression  in  the  music  seems  to  almost 
regulate itself, rather than coming across as forced in some parts or 
lacking in others. The music sounds mature and self-assured, which is 
something that started to become apparent on _Below the  Lights_.  On 
_Isa_, Enslaved occasionally sound more like Borknagar than  I  would 
have thought possible a couple of years ago; but it would  be  unfair 
to imply any loss of identity or  the  following  of  someone  else's 
path. Enslaved are clearly still doing  their  very  own  thing,  and 
doing it very well indeed.                                            

Contact: http://www.enslaved.no


Imperial Empire - _The 3rd War_  (Independent, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (7.5 out of 10)

Wasting not even a  second,  one-man  death  metal  machine  Imperial 
Empire (a.k.a. Lee Wollenschlaeger) immediately opens hostilities  on 
_The 3rd War_. Though assembled in South Africa,  the  album  has  an 
American death metal feel to it -- the guitar work and  vocals  leave 
no room for doubt in that matter, while the rhythm section is led  by 
a well employed (and usually fast) drum machine. The album apparently 
aims to provide an enjoyable listen above all, with no pretension  of 
being revolutionary or becoming the new  landmark  in  some  kind  of 
extremity. This purpose has been achieved, and with great tracks like 
"My Claim" and "My Majesty", _The 3rd War_ is quite possibly the best 
independent release to have come my way this year -- not  to  mention 
an impressively cohesive effort from a single individual. However, in 
order to really progress, the project seems to need a different  kind 
of studio and resources compared  to  what  _The  3rd  War_  and  its 
predecessor _The Second Coming_ had. Nevertheless,  this  is  another 
very solid death  metal  effort  --  all  the  more  impressive  when 
you consider  that  this  is  an  independent  release  put  together 
single-handedly. That a label should take notice  and  sign  Imperial 
Empire seems obvious: with better technical means at his disposal and 
perhaps a human drummer, Wollenschlaeger  would  then  have  all  the 
elements in place to potentially come up with one hell of an album.   


Marduk - _Plague Angel_  (Regain Records, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (8.5 out of 10)

So this is it: Marduk, fourteen years and nine albums into  a  career 
that in this writer's  opinion  has  teetered  between  mediocre  and 
overrated. Yet there's something different about  _Plague  Angel_,  a 
sense that the band has at long last managed to reach that previously 
unattainable level where they are able to consolidate their  greatest 
assets and do away with  that  which  held  them  back.  Hard  as  it 
may be to believe, boys  and  girls,  _Plague  Angel_  is  the  sound 
of Marduk growing up,  even  though  on  first  impression  it  isn't 
exactly a drastic stylistic departure from the breakneck blasting  of 
_World Funeral_ or _Panzer Division  Marduk_.  Hell,  there's  enough 
misanthropic venom coursing  through  "The  Hangman  of  Prague"  and 
"Throne of Rats" to power small cities. Likewise, the introduction of 
the infinitely superior Mortuus to the vocalist's podium proves to be 
a boon for the band in every respect, and while it's highly debatable 
whether or not Marduk are -- as their press  release  claims  --  the 
only true black metal band around, _Plague Angel_ is  definitely  one 
of the best releases of its kind this year so far.                    

Contact: http://www.marduk.nu


Mechanical Poet - _Woodland Prattlers_  (Aural Music, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (6 out of 10)

Mechanical Poet from Russia throw a lot of  elements  and  influences 
into their mix of traditional, symphonic  and  progressive  metal.  A 
very theatrical release, _Woodland Prattlers_ reportedly comes with a 
twenty page comic book that illustrates the concept behind the  album 
(my promo copy doesn't have one, so I won't comment on  that).  There 
are significant hints of Danny Elfman soundtracks  in  the  classical 
elements that Mechanical Poet merge into their metal; if that tickles 
your curiosity, then you should probably give _Woodland Prattlers_  a 
shot. Clearly a lot of work has gone into the  album,  and  it  is  a 
worthy effort that offers plenty to be discovered. It requires a very 
high tolerance to all sorts  of  sweet  melodies,  clean  vocals  and 
harmless fantasy themes, though -- not my thing,  but  still  a  good 
piece of work within the band's chosen style.                         

Contact: http://www.auralmusic.com


Nattefrost - _Blood and Vomit_  (Season of Mist, 2004)
by: Quentin Kalis  (4 out of 10)

When it comes to  solo  albums  released  by  Norwegian  black  metal 
veterans, the end result invariably  leaves  a  lot  to  be  desired. 
Satyr (Satyricon vocalist), Fenriz  (Darkthrone  drummer)  and  Gaahl 
(Gorgoroth vocalist) produced extremely patchy albums under the aegis 
of their respective  Wongraven,  Isengard  and  Gaahlskagg  monikers. 
In his contribution  to  this  lineage,  Carpathian  Forest  vocalist 
Nattefrost doesn't  deviate  from  the  pattern  established  by  his 
predecessors in delivering a rather mediocre solo album.              

Musically, it is strongly based in old school black metal. The  music 
is defined by an abrasive guitar sound played with old school punkish 
simplicity and complemented by distorted and harsh vocals. The lyrics 
are ridiculous; lines such as "Swallow my cum  bitch"  and  "Shut  up 
bitch, I'm in command" sound as if they were lifted from  an  amateur 
S&M video. Carpathian Forest can hardly  be  said  to  represent  the 
intellectual side of black metal in the sense Emperor or  Ulver  did, 
but even this is several steps lower than  any  of  their  paeans  to 
deviant sex.                                                          

"Nattefrost Takes a Piss", which should be  understood  in  its  most 
literal sense, lowers the tone even further, something I didn't think 
was possible. Defenders of Nattefrost will probably point out that he 
was just having fun, that this CD shouldn't be taken seriously.  This 
is a spurious argument; a solo album /  side  project  should  be  an 
opportunity for an artist to explore a musical facet neither possible 
nor desirable under the banner of their main band, not as  an  excuse 
to serve poorly conceived and executed bouts of onanistic excess.     

To sum up: the lyrics are juvenile; the music is over simplistic  and 
will cease to be of any interest after a couple of  months.  If  this 
album didn't have the name of a black metal veteran attached to it, I 
seriously doubt Season of Mist would even have looked at it.          


Nokturnal Mortum - _Twilightfall_  (Oriana, 2004)
by: Quentin Kalis  (7.5 out of 10)

_Twilightfall_ is the re-release of  Nokturnal  Mortum's  1995  demo, 
which  was  originally  released  only  on  cassette   format.   This 
re-release follows reissues of all their full-lengths and  a  reissue 
of _Return of the Dragon Lord_ / _Marble Moon_ and will  be  followed 
with a double CD  "rarities  /  best  of"  compilation  shortly.  One 
can only hope that the  next  step  will  be  the  release  of  their 
long-awaited full-length -- which will be their  first  since  1999's 
_Nechrist_. I'm tempted to consider this rash of reissues a cash  in, 
except that Oriana is far too small for this to be considered a  cash 
in. In addition, given  that  Oriana  is  headed  by  vocalist  Knjaz 
Varggoth, a more nuanced  interpretation  is  that  this  process  of 
reissuing virtually every note recorded by Nokturnal  Mortum  can  be 
more accurately considered as a labour  of  love  (one  look  at  the 
beautifully redesigned CD booklet  for  _Nechrist_  should  serve  as 
sufficient proof) than as a desperate money grabbing venture.         

The _Twilightfall_ reissue is the latest stage of this  process.  The 
music has been remastered and is, surprisingly  enough,  romanticised 
doom metal in the vein of early My Dying Bride or Anathema.  Granted, 
this is hardly going to give _Turn Loose the Swans_  a  run  for  its 
money, but for  a  first  demo  by  a  band  who  obviously  had  not 
found their sound, this is far  from  shabby.  There  are  sufficient 
similarities with later material  for  this  to  be  recognisable  as 
Nokturnal Mortum; in particular, the guitar sound and  leads  display 
noticeable similarities with later albums, especially _Lunar Poetry_. 
Varggoth's vocals are recognisable for the most part, except for when 
he performs (competent, but otherwise unassuming) death growls.  Folk 
elements, an important component of later songs, are  also  featured; 
however, it is a more conventional and familiar folk  style  that  is 
embraced rather than the Slavonic folk tendencies that  pepper  their 
newer material.                                                       

If, like me, you are a fan of the  band  or  are  interested  in  the 
origins of one of the underground giants, then you will want to  hear 
this no matter what. For those unfamiliar with the band, this is  the 
worst CD to serve as an introduction.                                 


Omnium Gatherum - _Years in Waste_  (Nuclear Blast, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (7 out of 10)

It's been a year of ups and downs for melodic  death  metal.  On  one 
hand there have been sterling releases by Wintersun and Insomnium  -- 
proving that a few simple twists on what has become  an  increasingly 
tired blueprint can still create some very memorable  metal  moments. 
Unfortunately the reverse has also been true, and never more so  than 
in the case of acts like  Mercenary,  who  with  _11  Dreams_  delved 
into realms of mediocrity not  seen  since  Mystic  Circle  inflicted 
_Damien_ on the music world. _Years in Waste_  is  Omnium  Gatherum's 
third full-length effort (their first for Nuclear  Blast)  and  falls 
squarely in the middle of these two polar opposites. Hinting  at  the 
progressive, sci-fi-tinted sound of Nocturnus (circa _Thresholds_) on 
more than one occasion, the Finns entertain in fits  and  starts.  By 
turns, _YiW_ is challenging  and  inventive  ("The  Fall  Went  Right 
Through Here"), and by others exasperatingly average ("No Moon  &  No 
Queen"), but ultimately the over-saturation of the  melodeath  scene, 
and a host of superior acts, hardly helps to elevate _Years in Waste_ 
to the stratosphere of essential listening.                           

Contact: http://www.omniumgatherum.org


Shape of Despair - _Illusion's Play_  (Spinefarm, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (8.5 out of 10)

It's never easy to come up with  a  suitable  follow-up  to  a  great 
album, and Shape of Despair's second effort _Angels of Distress_  was 
just that. Its successor, _Illusion's Play_,  starts  things  off  in 
typically laid back fashion with a lengthy instrumental intro, as  if 
Shape of Despair are in no rush to prove anything  to  the  listener. 
When second track "Still-motion" begins, the band utilizes  a  softer 
than usual mixture of clean-sung  male  and  female  vocals  --  Pasi 
Koskinen (formerly of Amorphis) and Natalie  Koskinen,  respectively. 
(I have no idea as to whether the two are related.)  The  male/female 
vocal interplay remains tasteful and well done whenever it  is  used. 
Pasi's deep death vox finally surface after a few more minutes,  with 
lead guitarist extraordinaire Tomi  Ullgren  (Rapture,  Thy  Serpent) 
providing an excellent emotional backdrop with his slow guitar lines. 
The track finishes with a long  minimalist  keyboard  section,  again 
displaying an unwillingness from the band to rush proceedings (though 
at nearly seven minutes in length, I tend to skip it).                

"Entwined in Misery" resumes the album in typical  Shape  of  Despair 
(nearly?) funeral doom  style,  and  in  fine  form  too.  The  music 
emanates a feeling of disillusionment  and  sorrow,  but  retains  an 
exquisite beauty -- again mainly thanks  to  Ullgren's  guitar  work. 
Some of Jarno Salomaa's synths fail to convince me, but they  do  not 
significantly harm the music, and this turns out to  be  one  of  the 
best doom metal songs I've heard this year. Helped by acoustic guitar 
and much better synth work,  the  next  track,  "Curse  Life",  keeps 
things interesting. "Fragile Emptiness" and the  title  track  finish 
the hour-long effort with aplomb in a similar vein.                   

Overall _Illusion's  Play_  is  a  worthy  follow-up  to  _Angels  of 
Distress_, and although it may not cause as much  of  an  impact,  it 
should still satisfy fans of the band. _Illusion's Play_ helps  prove 
once again that Finnish doom is still going strong, and that Shape of 
Despair are one of its greatest exponents.                            

Contact: http://www.shapeofdespair.tk


The Axis of Perdition -
    _Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xuchilbara (The Red God)_
by: Pedro Azevedo  (6 out of 10)  (Code666, 2004)

On this half-hour  EP,  The  Axis  of  Perdition  indulge  in  mixing 
a greater amount  of  dark  ambient  with  the  hyperblast  blackened 
metal of _The Ichneumon Method (And Less  Welcome  Techniques)_.  The 
rhythm machine driven black noise is still  somewhat  reminiscent  of 
countrymates Anaal Nathrakh's less polished days, with often abstract 
vocals on top. The production is relatively lo-fi, which favours  the 
ambient side of  things  but  detracts  somewhat  from  the  metallic 
sections. The dark ambient passages  are  well  integrated  into  the 
music,  and  the  first  couple  of  tracks  are  quite  interesting. 
Unfortunately the rest of the EP is let down by a  lack  of  driving, 
memorable riffs and passages, which means the listener is  left  with 
some reasonably interesting but not very  playable  tracks.  Granted, 
The Axis of Perdition probably tried to do  just  that,  creating  an 
uncomfortable and extreme listening experience; but this EP is unable 
to provide worthwhile material throughout. Nevertheless, even  though 
_Physical Illucinations..._ fails to live up to its  potential,  I'll 
still be waiting for the next full-length.                            

Contact: http://www.code666.net


The Crown - _Crowned Unholy_  (Metal Blade, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (5 out of 10)

2001: charismatic  frontman  and  founding  member  Johan  Lindstrand 
leaves The Crown after the release of  _Deathrace  King_,  saying  he 
cannot endure any more touring.  The  band  hire  legendary  vocalist 
Tomas Lindberg (formerly of At  the  Gates,  among  many  others)  to 
replace him,  stating  in  interviews  that  Lindberg  was  the  only 
acceptable option for them and that the  band  would  have  otherwise 
been forced to split up.                                              

2002: _Crowned in Terror_ is released with Lindberg on vocals.  After 
some touring,  Lindberg  leaves  the  band.  Bassist  Magnus  Olsfelt 
allegedly points Tomas'  different  drinking  habits  as  the  reason 
(getting drunk before the show rather than  afterwards  and  becoming 
impossible to deal with when in said state) and is quoted  as  saying 
that this was also what led to the demise of At the Gates. Lindstrand 
returns to the fold.                                                  

2003: _Possessed 13_ comes out, featuring Lindstrand  back  on  vocal 
duties.                                                               

2004:  Plans  are  put  in  place  for  partially  re-recording   the 
Lindberg-led,  Lindstrand-less  album  _Crowned   in   Terror_.   The 
Crown split up, citing  problems  caused  by  unprofessional  touring 
arrangements as the main reason behind their decision.                

And so we arrive at _Crowned Unholy_. Johan Lindstrand  has  recorded 
vocal tracks of his own for each and every  song  (including  a  solo 
performance on "Death  Metal  Holocaust",  where  he  had  previously 
participated in a duet with Lindberg), Magnus Osfelt has  redone  his 
bass tracks and Janne Saarenpää his drums -- only the original guitar 
lines have been kept intact. The whole thing has been remastered  and 
packaged together with a bonus DVD featuring a gig in Germany.        

When comparing the two versions, what stands out  is  that  the  drum 
sound has been considerably  improved,  the  guitar  sound  has  been 
tweaked into something that sounds more like _Possessed 13_  (whether 
that should also count as an improvement depends on your  taste)  and 
the vocals are Lindstrand's rather than Lindberg's. While  this  last 
item is also ultimately a matter of preference, it is undeniable that 
Lindstrand is the recognizable  voice  of  The  Crown,  and  as  such 
comparing the two performances is somewhat pointless -- in my case, I 
was quite satisfied with Lindberg's, but Lindstrand's voice certainly 
sounds more natural for The Crown. Lindstrand's interpretation of the 
_Crowned in Terror_ material includes  a  rather  cringeworthy  clean 
sung chorus on "The Speed of Darkness" -- why they did that is beyond 
me, but it gives me strange flashes of The Crown turning into  bloody 
Soilwork if they had kept going. Apart from this, the  overall  sound 
is superior to the original version (the beefier guitars will  please 
most fans, and  the  drums  are  certainly  better),  and  the  album 
obviously retains the riffs and songs that made _Crowned in Terror_ a 
damn good album, as well as those that meant  it  wasn't  the  band's 
most inspired effort overall.                                         

The live DVD was recorded in 2003 -- that's after Lindstrand rejoined 
the band, but before _Possessed  13_  was  recorded.  The  Crown  are 
playing a gig in what  seems  to  be  a  small  venue  in  Karlsruhe, 
Germany. The sound (plain stereo) is average for  a  live  recording, 
and the visuals are kept basic throughout. The band delivers a fairly 
good performance overall,  with  impeccable  drumming,  tight  rhythm 
guitar, variable melodic details and  somewhat  underwhelming  vocals 
and stage presence.                                                   

I'm left wondering exactly what made  The  Crown  want  to  take  the 
highly unusual path that led to _Crowned Unholy_.  It  couldn't  have 
been an excuse to include the shabby bonus live DVD, because  there's 
supposed to be a full DVD release in  the  works.  If  it's  down  to 
ensuring a back catalog with Lindstrand singing on every  album  (the 
"true line-up"), then I  find  it  peculiar,  considering  Lindberg's 
performance can hardly be  faulted.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  this 
re-recording stems from the band feeling the  original  sound  wasn't 
good enough (which they amply state on the liner  notes),  then  that 
may be more justifiable; but  I'm  still  unsure  it  is  sufficient, 
unless Metal Blade are willing to offer a  refund  to  everybody  who 
bought the original defective(?) product.                             

Maybe all of this together adds up to enough to turn _Crowned Unholy_ 
into something credible; but that  will  likely  remain  a  point  of 
contention for fans to discuss heatedly for some time -- and since  I 
have a hunch Metal  Blade  believe  there's  no  such  thing  as  bad 
publicity, they'll  probably  be  quite  pleased  by  that.  Overall, 
_Crowned Unholy_ may be  worth  it  for  fans  who  already  own  the 
original but dislike its sound, and it's  definitely  worthwhile  for 
those who do not own _Crowned in Terror_. However, I can't value  the 
tepid bonus DVD much when a dedicated DVD is about to come  out,  and 
although the album sounds better than the admittedly faulty original, 
I don't see how that justifies paying for the album all  over  again. 
Much as this reeks of cash-in from Metal Blade, I'll still give it  a 
5 overall, taking into account the slight value it does offer to fans 
and the fact that there's also some people who don't own _CiT_.       

Contact: http://www.thecrownonline.com


The Soundbyte - _Rivers of Broken Glass_  (Amaranth, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (7.5 out of 10)

Trond Engum, best known for his guitar work and  songwriting  in  The 
3rd and the Mortal, apparently  recorded  this  solo  effort  over  a 
period of two months spent on a boat, somewhere in the North Sea. The 
Soundbyte is made up of mellow electric guitar and strings, drums and 
bass, male and  female  vocals,  brass,  keyboards  and  programming. 
Despite the presence of female vocals, there isn't much for  old  The 
3rd and the Mortal fans here: the music is far  from  the  realms  of 
metal, and the focus is more on low-key gothic male vocals.  Most  of 
the songs relate to the suggestive album  title,  _Rivers  of  Broken 
Glass_; though not  overly  dark  by  extreme  metal  standards,  the 
feeling Trond Engum managed to create using mainstream  sounds  comes 
across as quite  refreshing  and  effective.  Forget  the  annoyingly 
upbeat "Waiting" -- it only serves  to  mark  the  beginning  of  the 
second half of the album, with such interesting tracks as "The Line", 
the atmospheric "Reflections of Broken Glass",  "The  Dark"  and  the 
female-sung "Til Ungdommen". This isn't to say there  is  nothing  of 
interest in the first half of the album,  but  I  tend  to  find  the 
generally darker tone and compositions of the second half  much  more 
enjoyable. If you feel like embarking on a cold  voyage  outside  the 
realm of metal, then I would advise seeking _Rivers of Broken Glass_. 

Contact: http://www.thesoundbyte.com


Thee Maldoror Kollective - _A Clockwork Highway_  (Code666, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (4 out of 10)

The rather repetitive, tepid opening track does not bode well for  _A 
Clockwork Highway_, and unfortunately  the  album  turns  out  to  be 
unable to shake those problems. There's a bit of a Red  Harvest  kind 
of industrial metal to Thee Maldoror Kollective's sound, coupled with 
a myriad  of  electronic  and  ambient  elements.  The  results  vary 
considerably between tracks, and even within each song; think a  more 
electronic, less blackened and rather bland variation of Dodheimsgard 
on their brilliant _666 International_. If you like  electronica  and 
tribal rhythms, then you may well enjoy this more than I did; however 
don't rely on the mostly simplistic riffs to save the day. A  lot  of 
speech samples are also used, but a cohesive whole is  not  achieved. 
This isn't to say there aren't some good passages; but  they  end  up 
buried and lost in a nearly hour-long album where most  of  the  time 
there isn't much to keep you interested. After some line-up  changes, 
it seems to me Thee Maldoror Kollective are presently working with  a 
variety of ideas, but  still  need  time  to  consolidate  them  much 
further.                                                              

Contact: http://www.code666.net


Vampire Mooose - _Vampire Mooose_  (Rotten Records, 2004)
by: Todd DePalma  (2 out of 10)

It is problematic that a band calling itself "Vampire  Moose"  excels 
at so much unintentional comedy. This St. Louis gang of four prove to 
be capable musicians (a fact  put  forth  more  noticeably  by  their 
drummer); however their record  label's  boast  that  this  album  is 
"anything but the same old metal thing" dooms Vampire Moose not  only 
as a  band  plundering  the  tired  formula  of  metalcore,  but  one 
surrounded by delusion about it as well. In short: there  is  nothing 
new here, and what does work is so disconnected from the rest of  the 
crap that it seems almost pointless to mention.                       

The first track opens with a  brief  drum  intro  that  evolves  like 
pebble on a hill, slowing building a steady rhythm  that  cues  in  a 
thin wave of guitar distortion and tense bass played tightly; leading 
in for about a minute  before  their  conditions  are  amplified  and 
transformed into a chugging, simplistic verse that  unifies  all  the 
instruments into a precise machine, slamming open  and  shut  like  a 
steel door, though it is probably the band's casket lid. What follows 
for the rest of the album is more of the same, no doubt taken to  new 
levels ("of what?" is the key question...) as Vampire Moose employs a 
variety of  desperate  clichés  in  search  of  anything  that  could 
possibly hold its audience's attention (without being too daring,  of 
course). Rapping over Meshuggah riffs may be "new" in  a  sense,  but 
it's typical faux profundity that has about the same novel appeal  as 
green ketchup.                                                        

Another confused aspect of this band's approach is their  touting  of 
artists like Tool and Tori Amos as  influences,  which  needs  to  be 
addressed partly as a problem of logic: the characteristics  of  your 
favorite artists do  not  necessarily  manifest  in  any  substantial 
amount of your own works produced. There is more Pantera and Drowning 
Pool at work in the macho slamming  and  low-end  vocal  wheezing  of 
tracks like "Eye  of  the  Knorm"  than  anything.  And  speaking  of 
shameless plugging for attention, I might  as  well  pass  along  the 
marketing point to you readers that star of "Evil Dead" and bearer of 
a mighty chin Bruce Campbell appears in one track, though  he  exists 
as nothing more than an onanistic coup for the band and  won't  amuse 
you in the slightest.                                                 

Closing out this album is "Khali Ma", a fifteen  minute  track  which 
labors on for a third of its time before coming  into  a  beautifully 
acoustic instrumental played in classical style  over  the  sound  of 
rainfall. This soft melody is easily the most evocative music on this 
disc, and after everything else I'm  able  to  report  at  least  one 
surprise, however fleeting.                                           

Contact: http://www.vampiremooose.com


Void of Silence - _Human Antithesis_  (Code666, 2004)
by: Pedro Azevedo  (8.5 out of 10)

My interest was most certainly piqued when I  heard  that  Primordial 
vocalist Alan Nemtheanga would be teaming up with Italian apocalyptic 
doomsters Void of Silence for the follow-up to _Criteria ov 666_.  It 
was therefore with high hopes that I first spun  _Human  Antithesis_, 
and the opening spoken lyrics seemed to confirm  there  was  much  in 
common between Nemtheanga and VoS: "This is where the  dream  ends  / 
Where the soul of every man and woman is broken  /  Where  you  carry 
your crippled children in hope of salvation / And you will  lay  them 
down to die, for salvation does not come / And  the  worth  you  have 
placed upon your life is finally revealed as nothing".                

One cannot fault Nemtheanga for lack of effort, in the sense that his 
performance is up to par with what he's done with Primordial. However 
the music itself is quite different, much slower and full of  various 
elements creeping in and out of the soundscape. Most of the time  his 
vocals are still well suited to what is going on in the music  (which 
is the case throughout the excellent twenty minute title  track,  for 
instance), but on a couple of occasions he oversings some passages in 
a way that would have sounded more appropriate on a Primordial album. 
Still, his mixture of solemn, morose and wrathful vocals  remains  as 
talented as anyone who likes Primordial would expect. It is therefore 
one of the strongest elements in _Human Antithesis_, and  a  definite 
improvement over the vocals on the last album.                        

Meanwhile, Void of Silence continue to prove adept at  creating  very 
good apocalyptic doom, with plenty of subtle ambient touches and well 
incorporated  keyboards.  There  is  a  great  concern  with  ambient 
elements that is prevalent throughout the record; it is something the 
band do very well, and it helps elevate the album further  away  from 
anonimity. The interludes linking the main  songs  provide  the  most 
evident examples of this penchant, but VoS do not stop there, and  it 
gives the album a more cohesive feeling. There is a  great  solemnity 
and desolation in their sound, a kind of decayed grandeur.            

Sometimes one gets the feeling that this hour-long album  could  have 
been a few minutes shorter, that some less inspired bits  might  have 
been condensed or left out for the benefit of the  rest;  but  _Human 
Antithesis_ still plays very well, and firmly places Void of  Silence 
among the best of 2004's doom metal.                                  

Contact: http://www.voidofsilence.com


Woods of Ypres - _Pursuit of the Sun & Allure of the Earth_
by: Todd DePalma  (4 out of 10)  (Krankenhaus Records, 2004)

Much has changed for Canada's Woods of Ypres  since  2002's  _Against 
All Seasons_ was released and showered with praise for its  blend  of 
melodic black metal with a pensive doom quality.  In  the  time  that 
followed various complications grew to the band being  put  on  hold, 
and as other members eventually left, Woods of Ypres was shaved  down 
to its backbone: founder/drummer David Gold,  who  according  to  the 
liner notes has written and performed everything for this full-length 
release with the exception of keyboards played by Jessica Ross.       

_Pursuit of the Sun..._ is a concept album of  ten  tracks  that  the 
artist recommends to stay with from start to finish  upon  the  first 
listen. These new recordings reflect a definite sharpening of  vision 
dubbed "Summer Black Metal" -- but while this latest categorical  tag 
may raise a few eyebrows, it is  ultimately  unconvincing.  In  fact, 
there is little here to connect with black metal as a genre  --  save 
the occasionally aggressive passage that resembles the demo material, 
though now wrapped in a more separate atmosphere, leaving the  phrase 
a kind of shallow enterprising. On the upside, it can  be  said  that 
this new sound more adequately matches the lyrics, which continue  to 
convey Woods of Ypres' sentimentalist philosophy,  and  though  there 
are noticeably strong influences throughout, the music may be  coming 
more appropriately into its own. That aside, I  found  difficulty  in 
keeping to Gold's instruction.                                        

Performance wise, almost every bit this album, from ringing nylon  to 
rumbling bass, is performed with a high quality of musicianship,  and 
easily noticeable due to the unclouded production standards. Only the 
vocals are  distracting  in  terms  of  actual  execution,  but  they 
eventually work to impede on _Pursuits_ attractiveness. It's safe  to 
say that once you're within the range  of  the  album's  fifth  track 
(already 25 minutes in) you will be impressed enough to go on  or  be 
almost excruciatingly bored by these iterate ballads.                 

The formulaic path that  each  song  continues  off  on  consists  of 
acoustic interludes that enter with the echoes of rustling distortion 
in  tow,  tailing  the  dreamy,  golden  aesthetic  of  those  slowly 
pondering notes. "The Looming of Dust in the Dark" and "The  Will  to 
Give" capture this slow building atmosphere  of  personal  reflection 
perfectly, and with a more forceful  tone  than  anything  else  that 
follows, with the latter track having an anthemic, nearly power metal 
feel. The essence of this music is not dark, but moody and blue.  The 
vocals which propel this narrative predominantly dwell in  the  lower 
pitch of monotonous Vintersorg worship and sound straining as well as 
occasionally off key.  The  theme  here  seems  to  be  a  miscue  of 
judgment, not absence of skill -- Gold is capable of  singing  clean, 
but sounds much more convincing when screaming or  growling,  and  no 
matter what part of the writing process has called for the former  to 
be used in its excess, it exposes him  as  overextended.  Similar  in 
this respect is the album's  constant  falling  back  on  the  garish 
effect of the acoustic guitar --  strumming  pretty,  hopeful  verses 
that fade in every five minutes  or  so,  in  one  case  following  a 
session of Immortal-esque storm blasting ("Dragged  Across  a  Forest 
Floor"). There's a disingenuous quality at play  here,  not  for  the 
mere pairing of these generally polar voices, and not  because  these 
more subtle moments  of  introspection  are  perhaps  beautiful,  but 
because they are a cliché of "beautiful".                             

At the heart of _Pursuit of the Sun..._ is an episodic  statement  of 
will  in  the  face  of  severed  relationships,  but  it's  apparent 
sincerity becomes a cloying, dull expression of torrid metaphors.  At 
over an hour's length, the album provides a  handful  of  interesting 
tracks that may find an ear with fans of the  band's  demo;  however, 
this new sound will most likely find more of connection  among  those 
already enjoying similar projects like Agalloch and Opeth.            

Contact: http://www.woodsofypres.ca

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
                         __,  _, _, _ ___  _,
                         |_) /_\ |\ |  |  (_ 
                         | \ | | | \|  |  , )
                         ~ ~ ~ ~ ~  ~  ~   ~ 

             DOOM METAL: THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING MISERY
             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                          by: Pedro Azevedo


About This Article
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In trying to assemble my thoughts on doom metal and shape the  result 
roughly as a  guide,  I  had  to  touch  upon  the  genre's  history, 
definition and categories. However,  please  keep  the  following  in 
mind: this is not meant to cover every last band and  event  in  doom 
metal history; the influence I indicate certain bands or  styles  may 
have had on other bands or styles is  simply  deductive  rather  than 
factual; this article does not aim to unambiguously define doom metal 
or rigidly categorise its bands; and my own analysis of some  of  the 
psychology behind doom metal is entirely based on experience,  rather 
than any formal knowledge of said science.                            

Since this article focuses on doom metal, I couldn't  resist  writing 
this negative introductory paragraph -- something along the lines  of 
a tired old "abandon  all  hope,  ye  who  enter  here".  Indeed,  in 
collecting these thoughts I have only tried to combine my  experience 
in doom metal (which is of course influenced by personal taste)  with 
some reflection and a bit of  historical  information.  Hopefully  it 
will help some of you discover a rich new genre, further explore some 
of its more secluded areas or just ponder on its peculiarities. While 
writing this I've had to go back to old records I  hadn't  played  in 
years, as well as look into bands and subgenres I  knew  less  about; 
and that turned out to be a reward in itself. Thanks to everyone  who 
helped in any way.                                                    

What and Why
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Doom metal is a style of heavy or extreme  metal  music  most  safely 
characterized by its depressiveness,  which  can  be  conveyed  in  a 
number of ways: while the music is often slow and minimalist, it  can 
be extremely heavy and ugly as well as more  melodic  and  sorrowful. 
This is about as close to a generic definition as I'm willing  to  go 
for the benefit of newbies -- anyone with a reasonable grasp  of  the 
genre surely understands the inherent  variety  caused  by  the  more 
avantgarde bands as  well  as  various  partial  fusions  with  other 
genres. One can just as easily find a  slow  doom/death  album  as  a 
melodic, clean sung one; a somewhat noise-based,  much  less  melodic 
approach is not uncommon, and a mix of black and doom  metal  is  not 
unheard of either.                                                    

Given these first few lines about what doom metal sounds like, I  was 
initially going to write  an  introduction  describing  how  I  first 
encountered doom metal many moons ago, and how the music has affected 
my life and so on; but I won't, because none of you would  care.  No, 
not a single one of you cold-hearted people would  give  a  damn.  So 
I'll just go sit alone in my corner,  thinking  about  life  and  the 
state of this bleak world and listening to some doom metal -- and you 
can write this damn article yourselves if you want.                   

Joking aside, the paragraph above tries to illustrate  what  I  think 
truly separates doom from every other metal genre: when  done  right, 
it is by far the most personal, introspective and individual of  them 
all. With this I don't mean to raise doom above other genres, or call 
it more profound or distinctive than the others. All I mean  by  this 
is that people can headbang and fist-pump together to death or thrash 
metal, they can try black magic and pull  grim  faces  together  with 
black metal, they can air-guitar  and  croon  together  to  heavy  or 
progressive metal... but a good doom metal  album  is  something  you 
take along when you want to  be  by  yourself,  when  you  need  some 
isolation. While this can also be  achieved  with  other  genres  and 
entirely depends on the  taste  of  each  individual,  I  think  that 
contrary to other genres, this is what doom metal was  truly  created 
for. Or in the context of the less serious kind of treatment  I  just 
gave the other genres, doom metal is made for those beings  that  are 
overly sensitive and depressed, and aren't doing anything about it.   

This last isn't  necessarily  any  more  or  less  useful  an  outlet 
than any of the  other  stereotyped  behaviours  I  described  above. 
When one  is  feeling  low,  help  can  come  from  a  large  variety 
of sources: adrenaline-pumping  aggression,  misanthropic  spite  and 
soaring melodies are just a few possibilities. So why am I separating 
doom metal from the pack here? Because it is arguably the only  metal 
genre that actively provides a source of depression for the listener. 
And nobody wants that when they're feeling great, so why would anyone 
want it when they're in  the  mire,  right?  Well,  wrong,  at  least 
judging by the fact that doom metal keeps  selling  records  and  has 
done so reasonably constantly while bigger selling metal genres  kept 
going around in rollercoaster rides of popularity.                    

Doom metal is very unlikely to ever truly become the flavour  of  the 
day, but what hampers its growth to a global scale is precisely  what 
keeps it alive: it doesn't try to sell  itself;  it  doesn't  try  to 
offer you what you want, it  offers  you  what  it  -is-.  Of  course 
it would be deeply  naïve  to  believe  doom  to  be  the  one  pure, 
uncommercial genre in the  middle  of  a  bunch  of  sell-outs;  with 
neither extreme being true,  the  reasoning  behind  that  conclusion 
stems from what  I  wrote  about  providing  directly  uplifting  and 
reinvigorating music that people want to hear (even in  the  case  of 
black metal at its core) versus providing a further dampener to their 
spirits, such as doom metal does.                                     

In the  interestingly-named  LifePositive.com  website,  one  of  the 
suggested solutions to help one  "come  out  of  the  blues"  was  to 
"accept the mood, enter into it fully by listening to sad  music  and 
gradually change it to light, pleasant  tunes".  (They  also  suggest 
that you should "lock yourself in a room and laugh loudly for half an 
hour", but I won't go into that sort of discussion.)  On  the  Mental 
Health Info website at  MindInfo.co.uk,  it  is  flatly  stated  that 
"sometimes if you're feeling low, it's  tempting  to  play  slow  sad 
music, but this will make  you  feel  worse.  An  uplifting  tune  or 
cheerful song can instantly  improve  your  energy  levels  and  your 
emotional well being."                                                

So if these websites are right,  then  how  do  you  sell  misery  to 
people? Well, I won't try to make any  general  statements  like  the 
last one above, but I can safely state from personal experience  that 
not everyone is negatively affected by sad music, and not  everyone's 
spirits improve by way of music  that  is  supposed  to  be  directly 
uplifting in nature. The way to go for those must therefore be a  bit 
more winding and narrow, through a wretched path that may --  or  may 
not -- lead to a better place. In other, less dramatic words, this is 
usually either through doom metal or the darkest shades of the genres 
mentioned before. And while for some people doom metal  is  strangely 
uplifting, for others the arguably unparalleled torrent of emotion -- 
melodically or crushingly conveyed  --  that  can  pour  from  it  is 
enjoyable even on a good day, rather than depressive as it  might  be 
for the majority.                                                     

There may be  an  interesting  parallel  to  be  drawn  between  this 
situation and SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).  SAD,  according  to 
the NOSAD.com website, "is a type of winter depression which  affects 
millions of people (...), caused by a biochemical  imbalance  in  the 
hypothalamus due to the shortening of daylight hours and the lack  of 
sunlight". The article also  devotes  a  whole  sentence  to  briefly 
explain that "in summer SAD, symptoms may  be  related  to  excessive 
heat rather than light". While some people may  not  be  affected  at 
all, most are expected to fell some lowering of  spirits  during  the 
Winter months, even if only slightly; those who actually  like  those 
dreary months -better- than the happy seasons can be expected to be a 
tiny minority. Similarly, I have little doubt that  the  minority  of 
people who will truly enjoy doom metal will also prefer the colors of 
Autumn to those of Summer, grey clouds to bright sun. Whether or  not 
this would be due to the aforementioned biological reasons is  beyond 
me, but  perhaps  the  rationale  behind  the  seasonal  and  musical 
situations isn't very different.                                      

Bjørn Grinde, in an article published in the Nordic Journal of  Music 
Therapy (online version  at  www.hisf.no/njmt),  discusses  music  in 
which "particular  passages  can  generate  the  intense  pleasurable 
experience described as a chill, a thrill, or a shiver". It may  come 
as a surprise, but according to the article, "research suggests  that 
chills are evoked more often by sad music than by happy  music".  "At 
least in Western  culture,  sadness  is  thought  of  as  a  negative 
feeling, yet we flock to movies known to make us cry. Both visual art 
and music offer us  the  possibility  of  taking  gratification  from 
sorrow without  having  to  undergo  the  bereavement  that  normally 
precedes this feeling."                                               

I happened to finish reading Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids  Dream  of 
Electric Sheep?" during the writing of this article.  In  this  book, 
the author portrays a  world  where  humans  are  distinguished  from 
highly developed androids by the former's capacity for empathy, which 
the latter lack. Humans devoted to Mercerism frequently used a device 
called an empathy box, which allowed  them  to  empathise  with  each 
other in their struggle to ascend an interminable  hill  infested  by 
invisible enemies. From this perspective, the doom metal album may be 
some listeners' empathy box -- they all  share  their  successes  and 
failures in that doomed ascent, and empathy makes the whole stronger. 
For some people, perhaps empathy with the feelings  being  eloquently 
portrayed on a doom metal album can  provide  a  more  uplifting  and 
enjoyable experience than other genres.                               

Whichever way you look at it, there is a certain uniqueness  to  doom 
metal. This doesn't imply that other genres  lack  their  own  unique 
characteristics; but I personally find  the  idiosyncrasies  of  doom 
metal to be the most endearing of all metal genres.                   

Who, Where and When
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most people point to the  early  work  of  Black  Sabbath  (England), 
during the first half of the '70s, as the  starting  point  for  doom 
metal. Indeed their self-titled debut (1970) marked the beginning  of 
a series of albums that would become fundamental for heavy metal  and 
doom in particular, due to their dark and brooding nature, which  was 
unlike anything else at the time.  Revolutionary  and  unique,  these 
albums would pave the way for  others  like  Pentagram,  Trouble  and 
Saint Vitus (all from the USA) to make their mark in the '80s.        

These bands would  remain  active  well  into  the  '90s,  much  like 
Candlemass (Sweden), who decisively helped shape  "doom  metal"  with 
their landmark _Epicus Doomicus Metallicus_ (1986) -- an  album  that 
brought a sense of the classical to doom for the first time,  coupled 
with emotional vocals and strong, tortured  riffs.  Candlemass  would 
finish the decade strongly with new  vocalist  Messiah  Marcolin  and 
albums such as 1987's _Nightfall_, and they would enter the  '90s  as 
possibly the biggest doom metal band in existence.                    

Doom metal became an established  genre,  and  from  the  early  '90s 
onwards it started to branch out in a number of directions -- to  the 
extent that the first few years of that decade, perhaps as far as its 
midpoint, were fundamental in shaping the vast landscape of what doom 
metal is today. The '70s and '80s saw the establishment of a base for 
the genre, while the  '90s  witnessed  the  growth  of  a  number  of 
separate branches of doom metal and its crossover with other  genres, 
greatly expanding its sonic and emotional spectrum.                   

As the '90s started, the classic doom  metal  branch  kept  going  -- 
bands including Solitude Aeturnus, Penance, While  Heaven  Wept  (all 
from the USA) and Solstice (England) deserve to be mentioned as  some 
of its leading  forces  throughout  the  decade.  The  aforementioned 
Trouble, Saint Vitus and Candlemass also continued to produce  albums 
and remained as heavyweights in the genre.                            

To this date the United States  continue  to  be  arguably  the  most 
fertile ground for this original version of the doom metal genre,  as 
well as for sludge and stoner doom outfits -- less melodic  than  the 
European doom styles, examples can be found in  Crowbar  and  Sleep's 
ponderous music respectively. The Sabbath influence can also be found 
in other heavily distorted and more primitive works, such as those of 
Khanate (USA), Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine (USA/UK),  Iron  Monkey 
(UK)  and  Church  of  Misery  (Japan).  Do  not  expect  any  poetic 
reflections or finesse here; it's all  as  ugly  and  bleak  as  they 
perceive this world to be.                                            

England was  the  first  to  produce  extremely  slow  and  distorted 
derivations of doom, however,  with  the  early  works  of  Cathedral 
becoming instrumental for the busy decade  that  was  just  beginning 
when they released _In Memoriam_ (1990) and _Forest  of  Equilibrium_ 
(1991). Though greatly influenced by the '80's major doom acts, these 
albums also  contained  an  element  of  death  metal:  vocalist  Lee 
Dorrian's (ex-Napalm Death) death-like vocals were one of Cathedral's 
distinguishing characteristics at this stage.                         

Meanwhile, also in England, the early works of the Peaceville trio of 
British doom saw the bleak light of day: Paradise Lost with  _Gothic_ 
(1991) and  _Shades  of  God_  (1992);  My  Dying  Bride  with  their 
_Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium_ EP (1991) and _As the Flower 
Withers_ (1992); and Anathema with their _Crestfallen_ EP (1992)  and 
_Serenades_ (1993). In this initial stage  of  their  careers,  these 
bands also focused on a fusion  of  doom  and  death  metal,  with  a 
variable amount of usually heartbreaking melody  and  anguish  thrown 
in. Great amounts of these elements were used in the case of My Dying 
Bride and Anathema, who became pioneers in the  inclusion  of  darkly 
romantic elements in their brand of doom metal. A  considerable  dose 
of classical art, which had previously been used  only  occasionally, 
started to make its way into doom metal much more frequently at  this 
stage, becoming a prevalent feature of some of its subgenres.         

These three bands have since followed very distinct  paths.  Paradise 
Lost, formerly a straightforward death  metal  band  on  their  debut 
album, dropped the death metal side of their doom/death and  injected 
some heavy metal into their sound for a few albums.  They  then  left 
doom metal and veered strongly towards a more commercial approach. My 
Dying Bride famously incorporated a violin and piano player into  the 
band as well as some clean vocals, creating landmark doom  albums  in 
the mid-'90s such as _Turn Loose the Swans_ (1993) and the clean-sung 
_The Angel and the Dark River_  (1995).  My  Dying  Bride  are  quite 
possibly the most successful doom metal band still active  today.  As 
for Anathema, they too made the change to clean vocals,  although  in 
their case this was a complete departure from death vox; their  sound 
became lighter and  presently  features  a  considerable  Pink  Floyd 
influence.                                                            

The early work of the aforementioned doom/death bands paved  the  way 
for several  others  to  follow,  including  the  lovelorn  Celestial 
Season (Holland), Novembers Doom (USA), Mourning Beloveth  (Ireland), 
Saturnus (Denmark), Desire (Portugal),  Paramaecium  (Australia)  and 
Lacrimas Profundere (Germany). Indeed the first half of the '90s  saw 
some feverish  activity  in  this  darkly  romantic  subgenre,  which 
eventually led to a trend  of  duelling  death  and  female  vox,  as 
typified by Theatre of Tragedy (Norway) with their self-titled  debut 
(1995). This album helped spawn a large number  of  sugarcoated  doom 
metal acts that popped up within a  relatively  short  time  of  each 
other, temporarily drowning out pioneers such  as  The  3rd  and  the 
Mortal (Norway) and The  Gathering  (Holland),  who  had  practically 
created female-led doom metal with the  Norwegians'  _Tears  Laid  in 
Earth_ (1995) and the Dutch band's _Mandylion_ (1995) -- records that 
have nevertheless withstood the test of time.                         

As if to further illustrate the multiple faces of doom metal, another 
one of the most influential '90s bands followed a somewhat  different 
set of rules. Like Candlemass,  they  hailed  from  Sweden;  but  the 
desperately sad melodies and agonizing shrieks of  1993's  _Dance  of 
December Souls_ set Katatonia apart from its peers.  An  intense  and 
spontaneous album, _Dance of December Souls_ showed a  different  way 
to approach depressive, doomy metal, and Katatonia were not about  to 
conform to any standards: 1996's bleak _Brave Murder Day_ proved just 
that, with the band developing their riffing style and again creating 
a different -- but very doomy -- record. Katatonia have  since  moved 
on to a more ear-friendly,  song-oriented  (though  still  emotional) 
approach, and have continuously been an influence  to  several  bands 
throughout their career -- their first couple of  albums  likely  had 
considerable influence  on  bands  such  as  Empyrium  (Germany)  and 
Rapture (Finland).                                                    

But the birth of doom/death in the early '90s also helped enable some 
more extreme branches to develop. Perhaps the most important of these 
is the mid-'90s funeral doom  of  bands  such  as  one-album  wonders 
Thergothon, the somewhat more prolific Skepticism, Unholy and  lately 
Shape of Despair  (all  four  from  Finland),  as  well  as  Esoteric 
(England). While shedding most or  all  of  British  doom's  romantic 
elements, these bands have taken the atmospheric side of the genre to 
new levels: the music  is  usually  extremely  slow,  bass-heavy  and 
repetitive, sometimes nearly  to  the  point  of  becoming  hypnotic. 
Depending on the band, one can also  find  elements  such  as  church 
organ, violin, ambient touches and mostly  secondary  female  vocals. 
While some, like the aforementioned quintet, took a turn for  funeral 
doom, others such as Evoken and Morgion (both from  the  USA)  worked 
instead on an extreme side of doom/death --  the  latter  have  moved 
into more tranquil territory recently, with Evoken  emerging  as  the 
leading force in their style.                                         

Tangentially, a grey area begun to develop where different  kinds  of 
black and doom metal elements touched. What I call  black/doom  (also 
known as "suicidal black metal")  is  characterized  by  black  metal 
sound fused with doom  metal  feeling  and  a  mix  of  both  genres' 
aesthetics. Compared  to  doom/death,  there  is  usually  relatively 
little musical  input  from  doom  metal,  although  there  are  some 
exceptions. More importantly,  black  metal's  traditional  fury  and 
aggression are partially or even entirely replaced by a more  pensive 
or despairing -- even suicidal -- mood that  is  more  akin  to  doom 
metal than to the work of the originators of black metal back in  the 
'80s.                                                                 

One of the most notable examples can be found in  black  metal's  own 
Burzum (Norway). The track "Det Som En Gang  Var"  (1994)  was  built 
from their raw black metal, but mixed with droning, repetitive, bleak 
atmospheric qualities and a certain sense of despair; this  all  gave 
it a different feeling from what  black  metal  was  (and  still  is) 
renowned for. 1996's _Filosofem_ would prove that "Det  Som  En  Gang 
Var" wasn't simply a one-off experiment, as most of the album (all of 
its metal tracks except the more uptempo "Jesus'  Tod")  shared  that 
song's characteristics to a considerable extent -- in fact, the music 
was often slower and at least equally doomy. _Filosofem_  remains  as 
one of the prime examples of its kind, and while  Burzum's  departure 
from all things metal following that album is well documented, so  is 
the influence that their old albums have had on other bands.          

A few more names rose in the mid-'90s to develop the black/doom metal 
crossover: the suicidal Bethlehem (Germany) with a three-album series 
that began with 1994's _Dark Metal_; the more epic and melodic In the 
Woods... (Norway) with 1995's _Heart of the Ages_ (they then  dropped 
the black metal component); and the gothic derangement of Deinonychus 
(Holland), who released a series of albums  that  begun  with  1995's 
_The  Silence  of  December_.  This  black/doom  crossover,  or  grey 
area, is presently developing rapidly,  with  bands  including  Nortt 
(Denmark), Shining (Sweden),  Forgotten  Tomb  (Italy),  Xasthur  and 
Leviathan (both from the  USA)  rising  to  the  forefront.  Strictly 
speaking, most of these bands cannot  be  said  to  play  doom  metal 
(their style is usually  described  as  "suicidal  black  metal")  or 
anything that sounds much like it, and as such won't be mentioned  in 
the fundamental album list below; but the feeling they all  share  to 
some extent certainly makes them relevant  to  anyone  exploring  the 
doom metal genre.                                                     

Never the most fashionable of genres, doom metal nonetheless enjoys a 
considerable number of dedicated followers. Looking  to  the  future, 
one should perhaps consider the past first: it doesn't take much of a 
visionary to realize that doom metal will probably never be a  hugely 
popular genre, but even that  will  remain  as  another  one  of  its 
endearing qualities.                                                  

A Selection of Fundamental Doom Metal Albums
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following is a personal selection of brief reviews of albums  you 
might do well to procure should you  want  to  (further)  investigate 
what this  genre  is  all  about.  Although  I  tried  to  keep  this 
collection varied, some subgenres may be missing. Above all,  my  aim 
here was to provide a good representation of the various  aspects  of 
doom metal, all quality albums, and if possible  of  some  historical 
interest -- the latter not having been  an  overriding  criteria,  as 
there are only two pre-'90s albums in the list.  There  is  only  one 
album reviewed per band; as such, some albums might have had a  right 
to their own entry based purely on their quality, but ended up simply 
mentioned under a somehow more relevant release from the same band.   


Black Sabbath - _Black Sabbath_  (Warner, 1970)

Here is where it all started, and I can only imagine the impact  that 
the eponymous album opener must have had following  all  the  musical 
happiness of the '60s. I'm not about to write  the  umpteenth  _Black 
Sabbath_ review ever -- so suffice to  say  that  the  massive  black 
cloud that this album must have placed over  unsuspecting  heads  all 
over the world is something that no other band may ever  be  able  to 
repeat to the same extent, such was the change of spirit it signified 
within the musical world.                                             


Candlemass - _Epicus Doomicus Metallicus_  (Black Dragon, 1986)

Album opener "Solitude", with its desperate  lyrics  and  vocals  and 
unforgettable guitar line, remains one of the best known  doom  metal 
songs ever. It also  marked  the  beginning  of  Candlemass's  hugely 
influential career, which would be continued  especially  during  the 
following  three  albums  --  which  featured  the  renowned  Messiah 
Marcolin in place of  _Epicus  Doomicus  Metallicus_  vocalist  Johan 
Lanquist. One of the most influential albums in forming  doom  metal, 
_Epicus Doomicus Metallicus_ combines much of what would become genre 
trademarks  in  the  years  to  come,  including  the  characteristic 
drumming style and the ponderous but melodic guitar work.  Candlemass 
were also responsible for bringing classical elements into doom metal 
in a number of ways, something that again would be vastly influential 
in the following decade. In stark contrast with all the  heavy  metal 
frenzy of its time, _EDM_ showed  different  musical  objectives  and 
quietly but decisively helped carve a path for doom metal against all 
trends.                                                               


Cathedral - _Forest of Equilibrium_  (Earache, 1991)

One can never know  for  sure,  but  I  would  hazard  a  guess  that 
Cathedral's miserable mixture of death and traditional doom metal  on 
_Forest of Equilibrium_ had considerable influence in the development 
of British doom -- which bands such as My Dying Bride,  Anathema  and 
Paradise Lost cemented as one  of  the  major  doom  metal  movements 
during the '90s. You probably wouldn't tell by the album opener,  but 
second track "Ebony Tears" should wipe away all doubt.  Vocalist  Lee 
Dorrian, formerly of Napalm Death fame, brought  tortured,  half-sung 
death vox to the deeply depressed doom metal sound  he  created  with 
fellow founder Mark Griffiths. At a time when death metal was on  the 
rise, and bands like Paradise Lost still  dabbled  with  said  genre, 
_Forest of Equilibrium_ helped sow the seeds  for  doom/death  as  we 
know it today.                                                        


Paradise Lost - _Gothic_  (Peaceville, 1991)

Paradise Lost were the  ones  who  first  fully  utilized  orchestral 
elements in their doom metal sound, namely  on  their  second  album, 
1991's _Gothic_. Orchestral bombast and sumptuous female choirs  were 
added to their doom/death metal, creating a mix previously unheard of 
--  not  only  did  they  tread  new  paths  with  their  mixture  of 
doom and death metal (carried  from  their  1990  death  metal  debut 
_Lost Paradise_), they also added a massive  new  symphonic  element. 
Although a relatively brief album and the only one  of  its  kind  in 
PL's discography, _Gothic_ remains a landmark  of  great  vision  and 
influence in the doom metal scene -- not to mention  some  damn  good 
music.                                                                


Katatonia - _Dance of December Souls_  (No Fashion, 1993)

How a band as young as Katatonia were when they  recorded  _Dance  of 
December Souls_ could produce a record as affecting as this  I  won't 
try to fathom; but this was an  album  that  could  sink  its  velvet 
thorns into one's heart  and  leave  an  indelible  mark.  _Dance  of 
December Souls_ condensed an immeasurable sorrow in its music; be  it 
the melodies, the despairing  vocals  or  the  curiously  spontaneous 
drumming, somehow its arguably disparate elements  formed  a  classic 
album that not many people will remain indifferent to -- most  likely 
either they'll love it  or  hate  it.  After  the  _For  Funerals  to 
Come..._ EP, Katatonia released _Brave Murder Day_ (1996) with  Opeth 
vocalist Mikael Akerfeldt;  this  bleak,  less  dramatic  album  also 
remains a classic in its own right. Katatonia have  since  opted  for 
clean  vocals  and  chorus-oriented  song  structures,  in  a  nearly 
complete departure from their days of old that only retains  some  of 
the original feeling -- and from that period, _Last  Fair  Deal  Gone 
Down_ (2001) is also a mandatory album.                               


My Dying Bride - _Turn Loose the Swans_  (Peaceville, 1993)

From personal experience,  if  a  worldwide  poll  was  conducted  to 
determine the popular opinion on which was the best doom metal  album 
of the '90s, _Turn Loose the Swans_ would be my pick as  most  likely 
winner (not to mention my own  choice).  While  its  predecessor,  My 
Dying Bride's full-length debut _As the  Flower  Withers_,  may  have 
been a fundamental step in getting here, _Turn Loose the  Swans_  was 
the real crowning achievement  in  this  darkly  romantic  doom/death 
genre. The riffing is  simply  monstrous,  the  violin  and  keyboard 
unique at the time and to  this  date  unrivalled  in  its  brilliant 
integration with the music. Intelligent drumming and a superb mix  of 
raw, tortured clean  singing  and  mighty  death  vox  complete  this 
collection of lengthy songs that never cease to amaze even after  all 
these years. MDB would temporarily abandon death vocals to create its 
successor _The Angel and the Dark River_ (1995), a  landmark  in  its 
own right; lately _The Dreadful Hours_ (2001) and the live album _The 
Voice of the Wretched_ (2002) also constitute  outstanding  additions 
to MDB's lengthy discography.                                         


The 3rd and the Mortal - _Tears Laid in Earth_
(Voices of Wonder, 1995)
  
This was the first, and also one of the few real  doom  metal  albums 
with female vocals. It was released at a time when the girl 'n' grunt 
acts of the mid-to-late '90s had yet to be devised -- though that was 
soon to happen, and would become a popular subgenre for the next  few 
years thanks to the likes of Theatre of Tragedy. Lengthy, atmospheric 
and solemn, this successor to the  equally  outstanding  _Sorrow_  EP 
(1994) is a delicate album; not one that falls for the  easy  melody, 
the frequent chorus, or what would become the trendy goth influences. 
The emotional, angelic vocals of  Kari  Rueslatten  became  virtually 
legendary in the second  half  of  the  '90s  (she  was  replaced  by 
Ann-Mari Edvardsen immediately after this album),  while  the  doomy, 
dreamy guitar lines (both electric and  acoustic)  helped  shape  the 
music into something of a gem. With their new vocalist, The  3rd  and 
the Mortal departed the doom metal genre, and while still  active  to 
this day, they now appeal to a mostly different audience.             


Anathema - _The Silent Enigma_  (Peaceville, 1995)

_The Silent Enigma_'s predecessor _Serenades_  (1993)  and  successor 
_Eternity_ (1996) also rank as two of my favourite doom metal  albums 
ever, and remain fundamental in their own right. The lovelorn  dirges 
of _Serenades_,  led  by  singer  Darren  White,  and  the  similarly 
emotional but somewhat Pink Floydian _Eternity_, where current singer 
Vincent Cavanagh first explored his clean vocals, deserve a place  in 
any doom  metal  collection.  Yet  _The  Silent  Enigma_  is  perhaps 
Anathema's most distinctive accomplishment,  in  the  sense  that  it 
captures  Anathema  at  a  point  where  their  music  was  not  only 
incredibly emotional, but also delivered with great  intensity.  This 
doesn't mean the mellower efforts that followed are less worthy,  but 
there is no escaping the classic status of  songs  like  "The  Silent 
Enigma", "Shroud of Frost" or album  closer  "A  Dying  Wish".  While 
showing the band in the middle of a massive transition,  _The  Silent 
Enigma_ is a hugely inspired album,  with  a  superb  combination  of 
atmosphere, emotion and riffs.                                        


Skepticism - _Lead and Aether_  (Red Stream, 1998)

Before Skepticism could unleash their debut _Stormcrowfleet_ in 1995, 
Thergothon released their only album, _Streams From the Heavens_,  in 
1994 -- both following  each  band's  early  '90s  demos.  These  two 
releases, though underproduced by today's standards, would  set  many 
of  the  defining  characteristics  of  the  funeral  doom  subgenre. 
However, it wasn't until 1998 that Skepticism released  their  second 
album, _Lead and Aether_, and for the first time fully  realized  the 
potential of this subgenre -- one that is sometimes confused with the 
more extreme side of doom/death purveyed by  bands  such  as  Evoken. 
Crawling pace, downtuned guitars, ponderous drumming,  church  organs 
and cavernous death vox formed the backbone of this album, which  has 
the sort of ethereal ambient quality that helps separate funeral doom 
from doom/death. Music this extreme definitely  isn't  for  everyone; 
and while this statement might also apply to  much  of  what's  being 
reviewed here, it is at its most certain in funeral  doom.  For  most 
people this is just boring and repetitive, but for connoisseurs,  its 
barren, hypnotic  soundscapes  provide  a  precious  desert  to  lose 
themselves in. Currently funeral doom is quite active, though  always 
in a relatively underground sense compared to some  other  subgenres; 
Skepticism themselves have only recently  released  another  landmark 
album, 2003's _Farmakon_, which is about as fundamental as _Lead  and 
Aether_.                                                              


Sleep - _Jerusalem_  (Dream Catcher, 1999)

While  European  bands  seem  more  inclined  for  melodic  elements, 
emotional touches and other embellishments,  others  such  as  Sleep, 
from  the  USA,  opt  for  a  stripped-down  approach  that   entails 
distortion, snail-like pace, massive soundwaves, and a lethargy  that 
pins you to the ground  like  you're  experiencing  tenfold  gravity. 
There's nowhere to hold on to -- everything is barren and  bereft  of 
life. _Jerusalem_ is comprised of only one track, over  one  hour  of 
dope-ridden sludge doom; it follows  Sleep's  early  '90s  couple  of 
albums and represents this particular subgenre  like  no  other  I've 
heard.                                                                


Evoken - _Quietus_  (Avantgarde, 2001)

Somewhere between doom/death and funeral doom lie Evoken, creating  a 
monstrous sonic force that constitutes one of the main  exponents  of 
present day doom metal. While not necessarily pioneers,  Evoken  have 
been part of the doom metal  since  the  mid-'90s,  and  had  already 
impressed with 1998's _Embrace the Emptiness_. _Quietus_ is the  most 
recent doom metal album I have picked for this  list,  and  indeed  I 
regard it as the best example of the  genre  to  have  been  released 
since anywhere near the turn of the millennium -- much as others like 
My Dying Bride's _The Dreadful Hours_, Shape of Despair's _Angels  of 
Distress_, Skepticism's _Farmakon_ or Mourning Beloveth's _The Sullen 
Sulcus_ are also superb records in their own right. Evoken's approach 
to doom metal is an unrelenting, uncompromising one; their crushingly 
heavy, but subtly refined dirges bear a great emotional  charge,  and 
the result can be staggering. Extreme doom/death remains one  of  the 
most thriving doom metal subgenres today, mainly thanks to bands such 
as these.                                                             

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            W H A T   W E   H A V E   C R A N K E D ! ! !
            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pedro Azevedo's Top 5

1. Enslaved - _Isa_
2. Behemoth - _Demigod_
3. Amon Amarth - _Fate of Norns_
4. Anaal Nathrakh - _Domine Non Es Dignus_
5. Pig Destroyer - _Terrifyer_

Brian Meloon's Top 5

1. Sieges Even - _Steps_
2. Ancient Wisdom - _...And the Physical Shape of Light Bled_
3. Coroner - _Mental Vortex_
4. Descendents - _Liveage_
5. Virgin Black - _Sombre Romantic_

Alvin Wee's Top 5

1. Astriaal - _Renascent Misanthropy_
2. Woods of Ypres - _Pursuit of the Sun..._
3. Jag Panzer - _Casting the Stones_
4. Mysticum - _Lost Masters of the Universe_
5. Draugar - _Weathering the Curse_

Quentin Kalis' Top 5

1. Gontyna Kry - _Welowie_
2. Nokturnal Mortum - _Return of the Vampire Lord_ / _Marble Moon_
3. Impaled Nazarene - _All That You Fear_
4. Cruachan - _Tuatha na Gael_
5. Cruachan - _Pagan_

Jackie Smit's Top 5

1. Usurper - _Cryptobeast_
2. Darkthrone - _Sardonic Wrath_
3. Marduk - _Plague Angel_
4. Lamb of God - _New American Gospel_
5. Agnostic Front - _Another Voice_

Todd DePalma's Top 5

1. Sepultura - _Beneath the Remains_
2. Drudkh - _Autumn Aurora_
3. Disincarnate - _Dreams of the Carrion Kind_ (remastered)
4. Kyuss - _Welcome to Sky Valley_
5. Sonic Youth - _Sonic Nurse_

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                      | \ |_   |  /_\ | |   (_ 
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DESCRIPTION
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Chronicles  of  Chaos  is  a  FREE  monthly  magazine  electronically
distributed worldwide via the Internet. Seemingly endless interviews,
album reviews and concert reviews encompass the pages  of  Chronicles
of Chaos. Chronicles of Chaos stringently emphasizes all varieties of
chaotic music ranging from black and death metal to  electronic/noise
to dark, doom and ambient forms. Chronicles  of  Chaos  is  dedicated
to the underground and as such we feature demo reviews from all indie
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End Chronicles of Chaos, Issue #80

All contents copyright  (c)  1995-2004  by  individual  creators  of 
included work. All rights reserved.
All  opinions  expressed  herein  are  those  of   the   individuals 
expressing them, and do not necessarily reflect the views of  anyone 
else.                                                                
