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


       CHRONICLES OF CHAOS e-Zine, October 3, 2004, Issue #78
                  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 #78 Contents, 10/3/2004
-----------------------------
* Chats
-- Danzig: A New Cycle Begins
-- Mortiis: The Gloves Are Off
-- Celestia: Necromelancholic Reveries
-- Turisas: Thus Spake the War God
* Albums
-- Avec Tristesse - _How Innocence Dies_
-- Black Countess - _Carnivorous Romance_
-- Black Majesty - _Sands of Time_
-- Danzig - _Circle of Snakes_
-- Encrimson'd - _Agrarian Menace_
-- Frontside - _Forgive Us Our Sins_
-- Hellkult - _The Collection_
-- Krisiun - _Bloodshed_
-- Moonlyght - _Progressive Darkness_
-- Mortiis - _The Grudge_
-- Operation Winter Mist - _Winter Warfare II_
-- Rotting Christ - _Sanctus Diavolos_
-- Spastic Ink - _Ink Compatible_
-- The Haunted - _rEVOLVEr_
-- Turisas - _Battle Metal_
* Demos
-- Devastator - _Infernal Devastation_
-- Mórpheus - _Delomelanicon_
-- Thornafire - _Sin and Flesh Devotion_

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

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

                 A   N E W   C Y C L E   B E G I N S
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                     CoC chats with Glen Danzig
                           by: Jackie Smit


I'll be honest here -- I am a huge fan  of  Glen  Danzig;  have  been 
since I was thirteen years old. I have never paid attention to any of 
the media's constant baiting or insistence on portraying  him  as  an 
oafish, pompous tit. No, for me, it's always been about the music and 
there are few who can argue that after almost three  decades  in  the 
music business, Danzig does not have an impressive  body  work  under 
his belt. With so many ready to count him down after the  release  of 
_Blackacidevil_ back in 1995, it is heartening that he has managed to 
weather the storms with three outstanding albums, the most recent  of 
which is the forthcoming _Circle of Snakes_. Now,  being  the  fanboy 
that I am, I of course jumped at the chance  to  speak  to  the  Evil 
Elvis,  and  contrary  to  the  many  reports  I  heard  from  fellow 
journalists, I found  him  to  be  an  extremely  friendly  and  open 
interviewee. What follows is a totally unedited account of what  went 
down during the course of our conversation.                           

CoC: _Circle of Snakes_ once again sports a brand-new Danzig line-up, 
     so I guess my first question is: what drew you to recruit  Tommy 
     Victor to play on this record?                                   

Glen Danzig: Well, Tommy and I had  worked  together  before  on  the 
             _Blackacidevil_ album and on the _I  Luciferi_  tour  -- 
             Prong opened up. We kept in touch, and when it came time 
             to do this record, I called him up and asked him:  "What 
             are you doing and what's your schedule  like?",  and  he 
             was like "Yeah, let's do something."                     

CoC: With _Circle  of  Snakes_  being  obviously  very  different  to 
     _Blackacidevil_, what did Tommy bring to the plate in  terms  of 
     ideas -- how far did his contribution stretch on this record?    

GD: Well, he didn't really work on the album, he worked on  a  couple 
    of remixes and he did the whole tour. Like I said, we had  worked 
    together before and when Tommy got Prong back together, I invited 
    them on to the _I Luciferi_ tour. And we've  always  had  a  good 
    time working together and being on stage together, so in the  end 
    this worked out really good.                                      

CoC: Looking at _Blackacidevil_ for  a  moment,  _Circle  of  Snakes_ 
     strikes me as a  much  more  old-school,  organic  record.  What 
     prompted  you  to  drop  a  lot  of  the  electronics  and   the 
     experimentation following that record?                           

GD: I don't know that I really did.  _Blackacidevil_  was  still  all 
    done analogue and _Satan's Child_ was the  first  record  that  I 
    recorded in digital. For _Circle of Snakes_ we did everything  in 
    analogue first and then dumped it all into Pro Tools. So  as  far 
    as dropping the electronics... I'm not sure, really.  _Circle  of 
    Snakes_ certainly has a lot  of  stuff  that  references  earlier 
    material and some of it goes even further back than  Danzig.  But 
    it also has a lot of new stuff, like  the  double-kick  on  "Skin 
    Carver", and it's the first record that we've tuned down below C; 
    there are a couple of songs that are down to drop-D. I just  like 
    to break things down into segments that  I  can  experiment  with 
    and, you know, see how it turns out.                              

CoC: _Circle of Snakes_, as you've said in other interviews, is not a 
     themed album at all, but I do get the impression from a  lot  of 
     tracks, particularly "Netherbound", that it's  a  very  personal 
     record. Did you have anyone in specific in mind when  you  wrote 
     that song?                                                       

GD: It's more about a certain kind of lifestyle and a certain kind of 
    personality. A lot of people have told me  that  this  record  is 
    very personal, and it is. They're right on the money. It's a very 
    personal record for me --especially lyrically. There's a  lot  of 
    things I wanted to sing about and talk about that I may not  have 
    done the same way before.                                         

CoC: What made you decide to stop the numerology on successive Danzig 
     records?                                                              

GD: It's just something I knew I wanted to do. When  I  started  this 
    band, I had a seven-record cycle in my mind,  where  each  record 
    would do a different thing in this cycle, with the last one being 
    _I Lucifieri_.                                                    

CoC: You've chosen to sign with Regain Records for this album --  why 
     such a small label?                                                   

GD: Actually everything gets released on my label now [Evillive], and 
    I just license it to various companies for each territory.  If  I 
    like the relationship, I stay; and if  I  don't,  I  leave.  Then 
    eventually I get the album back and I can put it out again  later 
    on. For me, with Regain, it's basically down to me  liking  Per's 
    ideas, I like what he has to say and I like his partner  over  in 
    Germany.                                                          

CoC: Where do you see _Circle  of  Snakes_  fitting  into  the  grand 
     scheme of the Danzig discography?                                     

GD: Exactly where it is right now. <laughs> After the cycle. For  me, 
    it's an album where I could breathe again. I had finished a cycle 
    of records that I am very happy about and very proud of, but  now 
    I can move on and put that big body of work behind  me  and  just 
    keep creating new things.                                         

CoC: Does _Circle of Snakes_ signal the start of a new cycle  in  any 
     way?                                                                  

GD: I guess in a way it does, but not in  a  regimented  cycle.  It's 
    definitely a new beginning for me and it's very refreshing  in  a 
    way.                                                              

CoC: You've said that your next tour is going to be your  last.  What 
     is going to happen in terms of your musical projects?                 

GD: Well, this is one of the reasons I decided to take some time off. 
    I've had _Black Aria Part 2_ finished for like four years  and  I 
    have the cover lying in the corner of my room. People are  always 
    coming up to me and asking me when I'm going to release it, and I 
    just haven't had the time. I just never get the chance to go into 
    the studio and finish it, because I'm  stuck  in  this  cycle  of 
    recording and touring, where I think a lot of artists are anyway. 
    I mean, as a journalist I'm sure you know that  when  a  tour  is 
    done for most artists they have to start recording again straight 
    away to basically go back on tour. So, that's why  I  decided  to 
    take some off. I also have this other record I want  to  do  with 
    Jerry Cantrell, like a really dark blues record. He and I  worked 
    together on _Blackacidevil_ -- he came in and worked on a  couple 
    of tracks, and it was just  really  easy  process.  He's  another 
    guitar player that I really have a lot of respect for, apart from 
    Tommy. He is just a r eally natural guitar player, which is  very 
    hard to find these days.                                          

CoC: Now, you're also taking Doyle out on tour with you in  a  couple 
     of weeks and doing some of the old Misfits stuff. Are you  doing 
     this as some sort of vindication -- to  show  people  the  "real 
     deal", so to speak? I mean, as far as I'm concerned, The Misfits 
     right now is pretty much a case of Jerry Only being a prick  and 
     making money off something you started.                          

GD: <laughs> I'm glad you said it. No, actually,  Doyle  and  I  have 
    always remained in contact and  we've  always  remained  friends. 
    We've also talked about doing this a couple times and I guess now 
    that I'm going to be taking some time off, this is  probably  the 
    right time to do it. If all goes well,  I'll  also  be  producing 
    Doyle's record when he gets out to California. Him and me finally 
    getting together again on stage; it's probably been about  twenty 
    years since we've played together, so I guess it will  be  pretty 
    historic for a lot of people.                                     

CoC: Has there been any way for you to follow up  on  your  situation 
     with The Misfits in terms of who has the rights to what?  Again, 
     in my humble opinion, what you have right now is a guy just  out 
     to cash in on a name and tainting the legacy of the band.        

GD: You know, we made an agreement a long, long time  ago  that  we'd 
    never do it again unless we all did it together. Of course, later 
    on I told them: "If you're going to do it, then  just  make  sure 
    that people know I'm not involved." People know that I'm  not  in 
    the band and that I have nothing to do with it, but in  a  way  I 
    think that they have tarnished the name. I would prefer  for  him 
    to just go out as Jerry Only, the way I did -- just using my name 
    -- but he doesn't seem to have the confidence in  himself  to  go 
    out and do it that way. My attitude towards it is that  everybody 
    knows the real deal -- I think people know when they see him that 
    it's not the real thing.                                          

CoC: After being in the music scene for so long,  are  you  still  as 
     excited about making music  today  as  you  were  when  you  got 
     started out in the business?                                     

GD: Definitely. Especially with this record, I was really excited  to 
    do some of these songs, because I had just finished up that cycle 
    I was talking about and I just had so much energy, and I think it 
    shows. We had a couple of kids come up  to  us  the  other  night 
    after we had done the Summer Breeze fest and they said:  "Man,  I 
    love all the old stuff, but this  new  stuff  just  has  so  much 
    energy."                                                          

CoC: Well, the  new  album  definitely  sounds  very  dark  and  very 
     menacing. Is that something you set out to do from the start  or 
     did it just happen naturally?                                    

GD: Both. As I set out to make something, I think  that  sometimes  I 
    tend to go a little extreme. <laughs> But that's okay, because  I 
    think that way it ends being more along the lines  of  what  it's 
    supposed to be. With this record the main thing  was  that  I  am 
    just so annoyed with the music industry right now and the way now 
    it's almost exactly the same way it was when  I  started  in  the 
    '70s. It's even more so now with all  the  contracts  and  record 
    company controlling what sort of music will  come  out  of  their 
    bands. You know, finally, after so many years, in  America  we've 
    gotten rid of the whole nu metal thing. There's still a couple of 
    bands left, but for the most part it's dead. And now,  a  lot  of 
    the kids that were into that whole mall metal thing have grown up 
    and they're discovering real music, whether  it's  hard  rock  or 
    metal or whatever, which is kind of refreshing,  but  I  have  so 
    much anger still that bands would get caught  up  in  that  whole 
    record company monopoly control situ ation. I'm just shocked that 
    they haven't learned that money isn't everything.                 

CoC: So with nu metal dead, where do you see the metal  scene  headed 
     toward in the near future?                                            

GD: I don't know, because I'm not sure where I fit  into  that  whole 
    scene. I think that I have carved out a little niche  for  myself 
    over the years. I don't know. Like I said, people want  the  real 
    stuff now, and I think that's  always  been  true;  not  just  of 
    metal, but of music in general. People will  always  continue  to 
    discover  Led  Zeppelin,  if  you  know  what  I  mean?  Bauhaus, 
    Misfits, Minor Threat, Danzig or whatever it is that  people  are 
    discovering -- if it's real, it will stand the test of time,  and 
    I think in the long run if a band plays real  music  that's  from 
    the heart and not based on some trend, then  I  think  they'd  be 
    able to survive in this crazy musical world. At least that's what 
    I think.                                                          

CoC: Considering the amount of extreme bans you take out on the  road 
     with you (Behemoth, Marduk, Nile, etc.), do you see an increased 
     interest for this sort of music in future from kids who got into 
     the scene through bands like Slipknot or Korn?                   

GD: In America, definitely -- I see a lot  greater  demand  for  this 
    type of music. It's something I would certainly  see  growing  in 
    the future, for sure.                                             

CoC: Talk to me about your relationship with Johnny Cash.

GD: I was asked to write a song for him, and I said: "Of  course  I'd 
    write a song for Johnny Cash." You know, my dad was a huge Johnny 
    Cash fan and I knew his records from my dad. Getting back to what 
    we were talking about -- people playing  real  music  --  there's 
    always been something in what Johnny Cash has  done  that  I  was 
    really drawn to. He did things his way. If it was a  hit,  great; 
    if not, that's okay also. That attitude is a  great  attitude  to 
    have. You have to be true to yourself;  whether  you  go  through 
    good or bad times, you have to be true to yourself. This why when 
    I was asked to do the  song  for  him,  I  was  honoured  and  it 
    ended up taking me all  of  twenty  minutes  to  write  the  song 
    ("Thirteen"). That was basically my perception of Johnny Cash  -- 
    that song. I think it's probably one of the best songs that  I've 
    ever written, and I taught it to him and he  loved  it.  I  don't 
    think there's a bigger honour than to sit down  and  be  able  to 
    sing a song with Johnny Cash. After that  a  couple  of  Johnny's 
    friends called me, one of which was Kris  Kristofferson,  and  he 
    told me that the song was incredible and that he  wished  that  I 
    had written it for him. <laughs> I did actually write him another 
    song called "Come to Silver", which ended up  on  _Blackacidevil_ 
    because I didn't give it to him. That's actually  the  song  that 
    Jerry Cantrell plays on, but that was written for Johnny Cash.  I 
    wasn't ever really good friends with Johnny. We  worked  together 
    on the song and we spoke on the phone from time to  time,  but  I 
    would never want to intimate that we were the best of friends. He 
    invited me down to the "House of Cash"  things  he  used  to  do, 
    where a bunch of people would get together in his living room and 
    play music. But I have to say that he was one of the nicest  guys 
    that I have ever met. He's a true gentleman. And so many  of  the 
    old musicians are like that. I had the good fortune of writing  a 
    song for Roy Orbison and it was the same vibe  --  just  a  nice, 
    humble gentleman. And these guys are just so  talented.  I  mean, 
    you start playing and they start singing and  their  voices  just 
    fill up the room.                                                 

CoC: Why do you think that Johnny Cash caught on to such an extent in 
     the metal scene?                                                      

GD: It's like I said to you before, it's real. When something's real, 
    then people will find and discover it. You know why Wagner is  so 
    listened to by so many different kinds of artists? Because it has 
    a reality to it that's undeniable. There's so many musicians that 
    are like that, and no matter what genre of music  they  play,  if 
    it's real, then people will appreciate it and it will  be  around 
    for a long time to come.                                          

CoC: When you finally decide to hang up the microphone so  to  speak, 
     what would you most like people to remember you for?                  

GD: Uh... Jeez. <laughs> I guess I'd like people to remember  me  for 
    music that they could appreciate and music that they wanted to go 
    back to, and for never giving in to the pressures of  the  labels 
    and doing what I wanted to do. I could have been far richer if  I 
    didn't have this stubborn attitude,  but  that's  who  I  am  and 
    that's something that I like about myself -- that I stick  to  my 
    guns. And, you  know,  I'll  give  here  or  there  if  it's  not 
    important -- that's part of life. Working with  a  producer  like 
    Rick [Rubin],  for  example,  taught  me  that  if  something  is 
    important enough, then people can fight for it; if not, then  let 
    me try it my way. It's a good learning experience and it's  great 
    to see new kids coming to shows and discovering my stuff,  but  I 
    doubt that it's any stranger than it is for Jimmy Page or  Robert 
    Plant or David Bowie. And when they then go on  to  discover  the 
    old stuff, I'm honoured. That's why I wrote it to begin with.     

CoC: Any last words?

GD: Thanks for a great interview, man!

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

                 T H E   G L O V E S   A R E   O F F
                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                       CoC chats with Mortiis
                           by: Jackie Smit


Mortiis is pissed off. And why not? After years  spent  being  called 
everything from "Ole Rubber Nose" to  whatever  else  the  embittered 
flunkies of the greater music press could come up  with,  the  tables 
have finally turned. Suddenly the very scribes that  before  wouldn't 
give him the time of day are clamouring for his attention. The  irony 
is that the reason for this happening is at least partially rooted in 
an album that directs its venom at just  such  hypocrisy.  For  those 
that don't know yet, _The Grudge_ takes a massive leap  forward  from 
2001's _The Smell of Rain_. Branded "Era 3", it sees Mortiis  as  his 
most confident,  vengeful  best.  I  recently  had  the  pleasure  of 
receiving a call from the man himself, in what turned  out  to  be  a 
very lengthy  conversation  about  everything  from  the  forthcoming 
album, to being in the UK charts, to his days in Emperor.             

CoC: Starting with the new record first of all: you  have  said  many 
     times in the past that you have dubbed your early work  as  "Era 
     1", that _Smell of Rain_ was "Era 2" and  now  _The  Grudge_  is 
     "Era 3". Was it the plan all along for you  to  evolve  in  this 
     way, or is it something that happened naturally?                 

Mortiis: I think when I had finished _The Smell of  Rain_,  I  didn't 
         know what was going to happen. All I knew  was  that  I  was 
         going to start a band, so that we  could  go  out  and  play 
         live, and that's what I did. We  rehearsed  and  we  started 
         touring during 2002 and a little bit during 2003 and  that's 
         also when we started making the new album, and it was around 
         that time that I realised that this [_The Grudge_] was going 
         to be a hard album. I think I knew a little while before  we 
         started the  album  actually,  because  live  we  were  just 
         getting so much heavier. So, I kinda knew that  this  wasn't 
         going to be another poppy kind of album. I  knew  there  was 
         going to be more hate -- for very good personal reasons, all 
         of which tie in nicely with the album title as well.         

CoC: You had been touring for _The Smell of Rain_ already by the time 
     you decided this. So what made you want to  draft  in  permanent 
     members and get a fully-functional band going, so to speak?      

M: I think just that fact that I grew up with all these rock 'n' roll 
   bands in the Eighties, subconsciously this is what I always wanted 
   to do. And when I made _The Smell of Rain_, I knew that  the  next 
   step would be to stop the whole session  musician  thing,  because 
   that was basically the second album on which I had used a bunch of 
   session members, and I kind of felt that was a bit of  a  drag.  I 
   mean, not that I didn't like working with those guys, but  I  felt 
   that I wanted something that was  more  real,  more  true...  more 
   authentic. So that's what I set out to do -- I got  all  the  guys 
   together and, you know, here we are.                               

CoC: In terms of their contribution to your music, are the guys  that 
     have been drafted into the band given  an  active  say  on  what 
     makes it on to an album?                                         

M: No. No fucking way. <laughs>

CoC: You're still the boss then?

M: I listen to what they have to say, and I basically  come  up  with 
   stuff that everyone loves anyway. I remember one of the guys  when 
   we were in the studio really hated "Twist the Knife" because  when 
   I brought it into the studio one night, it was at  such  an  early 
   state of completion that it probably sounded  funny  to  him.  But 
   then when it started shaping up and it started to get the meat  on 
   to its bones, he said: "Fuck man that has  to  be  a  single."  Of 
   course, there's no way that song can be a single -- it's too  damn 
   weird for that. I agree that  it's  a  cool  song,  but  it's  too 
   fucking strange. But that just  goes  to  prove  that  I'm  always 
   right. <laughs>                                                    

CoC: The issue of having a designated band leader does seem  to  work 
     best in a lot of situations.

M: Yeah, you kind of have to go the Ceausescu route. Just  follow  my 
   lead and that's it. You've got to be a  dictator  in  a  way.  You 
   don't have to be a prick, but if you have  total  democracy  in  a 
   band, I think it's  going  to  end  up  being  a  very  unfocused, 
   confused band where everybody has a say and no one is really  100% 
   happy with everything  that's  going  on,  because  they  have  to 
   compromise with three or four other people all the  time.  I  just 
   find that it's better to have one designated leader  in  the  band 
   and everyone accepts that person, or you leave the  fucking  band, 
   basically. The point where that  happens,  where  someone  doesn't 
   necessarily  agree,  that's  where  problems  begin,  and  as  the 
   visionary or the leader of the band, you then have a weak link  on 
   your hands, which you will probably need to get rid  of.  At  that 
   point of course it ceases to be personal; you know, it's  business 
   as usual, it's what's best for the band -- if you want to take  it 
   seriously, you have to treat it lik e a business.                  

CoC: So, in that sense, what ultimately got the guys who are  playing 
     with you right now their jobs?                                        

M: Well, basically the fact that they're from around here [Oslo]  and 
   that they were ambitious and keen to be  in  the  band.  And,  you 
   know, they're not ugly and they look okay on photos and  they  can 
   play their instruments.  Everyone  was  okay  with  my  ideas  for 
   imagery and of course everyone was  into  the  stuff  that  I  had 
   written, like the stuff on _The Smell of Rain_. It took  a  little 
   bit of time to get them into the whole "you  don't  have  to  play 
   like Rammstein just because I'm saying that  this  is  a  slightly 
   more industrial sounding one than the last song."  That's  one  of 
   the points that I had to hammer home in the first week:  I  wanted 
   them to think in a more punkish attitude,  like  "fuck  you,  fuck 
   you, fuck you" -- you know what I mean? Just  be  aggressive.  And 
   you know, I even pushed that point home when  we  were  rehearsing 
   _The Smell of Rain_ songs, and  it  fucking  worked  great.  Those 
   songs, which  were  initially  poppy  and  catchy,  were  actually 
   working out great for this more aggressi ve way. We started adding 
   more guitars to that stuff and it sounds awesome. But the guys  in 
   the band -- they didn't have to audition or something to be in the 
   band. It's not like that -- we're not fucking Aerosmith, you know. 

CoC: Now, talk me through the recording process you went through  for 
     this album, because you did take a lot longer than  the  average 
     to finish this one up. Come to think of it, I  remember  reading 
     on your website when the album's recording started that you were 
     going to complete the album in brief bursts of activity.         

M: Yeah, kinda. What happened was that I would sit here at home  with 
   my setup and I would create songs. Usually every time I  had  like 
   two of them ready, which basically meant that there was  a  pretty 
   good structure with a beginning and  an  end  and  basically,  you 
   know, it made enough sense for the rest of the guys to be able  to 
   track their drums and bass and guitars on top of it. Then we'd get 
   the songs to a state of completion where it wasn't really going to 
   change a lot as far as structure and things like that. After  that 
   we'd hit the studio for like a week or two and basically just work 
   on those few songs. And usually once those got started and  I  had 
   given all my instructions to all the guys for drums or guitars  or 
   whatever, I would go  to  a  different  room  and  I  would  start 
   programming on  a  different  song  again  and  start  working  on 
   something else, like something that we had  already  worked  on  a 
   month before. That worked really well. Instead of me just  sitting 
   there like a fucki ng little Hitler watching  the  guys  work  and 
   barking orders, now I just  kinda  dropped  in  every  fourty-five 
   minutes to an hour and just see what was going on. And  you  know, 
   every now and then I'd notice that something had been  done  wrong 
   and we'd have to spend some time on it, and then  when  everything 
   was okay again, then I'd just go back to my thing. The last  thing 
   that we would then track would be obviously the vocals, and I  was 
   pretty adamant that as much as possible should already be  on  the 
   song, at least in some kind of demo  form,  before  I  tracked  my 
   vocals, because that's when the true power of the song  comes  out 
   and that's when you give the best performance vocally. It gave  me 
   a lot of time to drink a lot of whiskey before I went and did  it. 
   <laughs> We drank a lot of fucking whiskey, because, you know,  it 
   loosens up the vocal chords, it warms  up  your  throat  and  it's 
   kinda like an ointment. Plus, it gets rid of a little bit of  that 
   stage fright that you will feel. Like you're standing there in  an 
   empty room in front of a microphone  and  you're  supposed  to  go 
   ahead and impress everybody with your amazing voice or  something. 
   You know, so when you go ahead with all that whiskey  it's  really 
   not a problem at all.                                              

CoC: I can imagine.

M: Yeah, so that was always like a fun three or four hours  while  we 
   were doing the songs. I always had a lot of fun. When I  heard  my 
   vocals on the songs for the first time -- you know, we  had  never 
   rehearsed anything until we'd actually finished recording, so that 
   we could play them live. We never recorded anything live either -- 
   not vocals, drums or guitars or whatever. We  just  do  everything 
   bit by bit. It was really methodically done; things were looped up 
   and repeated and then cut and pasted. But yeah, like I said, I had 
   a really good time doing the  vocals.  It  was  weird  in  a  way, 
   because I'm singing about really negative stuff, so you're  really 
   living yourself into this while you're recording it,  but  at  the 
   same time you're kind of enjoying it. It's like you finally get to 
   vent all these things and then you get to hear them  screamed  out 
   into the air, and it's like "Wow, I finally got rid of that  --  I 
   finally got rid of that shit".                                     

CoC: Speaking of all the anger and the negativity  that  you  explore 
     with _The Grudge_, it's something that  you've  made  a  lot  of 
     mention of in other interviews. Do you think that you've managed 
     to exorcise all  those  personal  demons  completely  with  this 
     record?                                                          

M: Well, it's hard to tell, because right now I feel  like  it's  all 
   out of the system. But I felt the same when I did  _The  Smell  of 
   Rain_, which was like a shitty two year depression crap time  that 
   I never ever want to return to. There was a lot of stuff that  was 
   left there, but I feel like I got a lot said now. I feel like I've 
   had my revenge on a bunch of people and... I don't  know,  man.  I 
   feel like if I keep on whining about these people now, it's  going 
   to be kinda redundant and it's  going  to  be  like  "Haven't  you 
   complained enough now?" Having said that, I also deal with several 
   other things. There are always things that will piss you off in  a 
   variety of ways, and it's not like  I  just  want  to  make  music 
   that's angry just for the sake of being fashionable. It's not like 
   that. It's going to have to be real. These two  last  albums  have 
   been very real, as far as they both come straight from the  heart, 
   you know? So I'm going to really have to be careful  on  the  next 
   album, but I'm not too worried, because I know myself really  well 
   now. I know that whatever I do will be  based  in  truth  to  some 
   extent -- it's going to be something I feel  or  that  I  have  an 
   opinion about or something that's straight  from  the  heart.  I'm 
   sure that there's a lot more stuff that I can just bleed out,  you 
   know? But we'll have to see, man. I just don't want to be treading 
   water. It's a fine line, I guess, between just  repeating  oneself 
   and then kind  of  doing  something  that's  more  meaningful  and 
   sincere.                                                           

CoC: The anger that you talk about on _The Grudge_ -- was this  aimed 
     at something specific, or are you  just  generally  dissatisfied 
     with the state of the world right now?                           

M: Well, it's all kind of personal. Several songs on the  record  are 
   directed at specific people. I'm not going to name  any  of  them, 
   because I don't want to go down to that level. Then you get  songs 
   like "Gibber", which is more  like  an  observational  song  about 
   society and how society will  hide  and  not  acknowledge  certain 
   courtesies. You're supposed to  be  okay  to  people  and  society 
   preaches this with all their morals and all  that,  but  then  you 
   have like big groups of people that are really fucked  around  and 
   no one ever really acknowledges that. So "Gibber" is about that. I 
   guess, once again, it's set in a more Christian society -- the way 
   Christian normalist society could so easily condemn  people  while 
   at the same time preaching love and understanding. I never got the 
   logic in that. That always appeared to me  as  very  hypocritical. 
   I'm by no means a hyper-intelligent, research-driven  person.  I'm 
   not Manson or someone, who can back up every thing they're saying. 
   I just happened t o write a song about a topic that was  bothering 
   me and I've covered very similar topics with songs like  "Parasite 
   God". That song was pretty much about the same thing, just written 
   in a different way. As a matter of fact, about 80% of the  lyrical 
   content of "Gibber" is older than "Parasite God". It  was  written 
   ages ago with a different title and I found it, and I liked a  lot 
   of what it was saying and what I did then was to give it its  last 
   verse. I may also have changed the title and I changed a few lines 
   here and there just to make sure that it  kept  the  flow  of  the 
   rhyme, because a song like "Gibber" is something that has to rhyme 
   if it's going to be cool. And that's what  "Gibber"  is  about  -- 
   it's kind of  a  Ministry  tribute;  it  sounds  a  shitload  like 
   Ministry in many places. Also on the album, the  major  difference 
   in the way I sing is down to Al Jourgenson's influence. So, that's 
   one example and then you have songs like "Worse Than Me", which is 
   kind of like stupid shit tha t I've put myself  in.  It's  a  song 
   about stupid situation that I've allowed  myself  to  get  dragged 
   into and stupid people that have fucked me around, making me  feel 
   slightly unstable.  It's  very  retrospective  though,  because  I 
   haven't felt unstable like that for a great many years. It's  just 
   something you look back on and  you  never  really  examined  what 
   happened there -- sooner or later, it's  just  going  to  explode. 
   That's the kind  of  person  that  I  am.  Maybe  I'm  fragile  or 
   something. I don't know. But I thought "Let's just write a fucking 
   song about it." So, there's a lot of that kind of stuff.           

CoC: Well, I definitely think that the examples you  mentioned  there 
     are things that people can very easily relate to.                     

M: Yeah, it's extremely human. It  all  is.  Everybody  goes  through 
   things like that. Maybe I'm just a fucking sissy! <laughs>            

CoC: Aside from being much more aggressive, you also took a lot  more 
     chances with this album.                                              

M: Yeah, I agree with that. But then you can also argue that  if  you 
   compare _The Smell of Rain_ with _The Stargate_...                    

CoC: There's a big departure there definitely.

M: So there was a big change there. I knew at the time that  I  could 
   lose everything, but I figured that it was going to be worth it no 
   matter what, because I was at the  point  of  self-destructing  at 
   that time. I stopped enjoying what I was doing and I knew that  if 
   I kept doing this -- like do another _Stargate_ bullshit album  -- 
   I was going to fucking combust or something. I was just  going  to 
   fucking sink, you know? There was  no  passion.  And  that  was  a 
   really difficult, strange time for me for a little while,  because 
   I didn't have any vision for a little while. That's not like me at 
   all. I always have very definite ideas and  visions  over  what  I 
   want to do; there's always a focus  on  something.  And  for  some 
   time, there wasn't. I just didn't know what I  was  doing,  and  I 
   just had to get out of that fucking  situation  and  then  I  just 
   found my way and realised that this was what I wanted  to  fucking 
   do. I wanted to do the whole  rock  band  thing  that  I  grew  up 
   listening to in the '80s.  Not  your  general  kind  of  music  of 
   course, but just be the frontman -- to feel the  reaction  of  the 
   crowd, which is something that I find very  rewarding;  maybe  not 
   artistically, but egotistically. So that had to be done, so I knew 
   that even if I lost everything it would have been worth it because 
   I would have achieved something. But hey, what happened?  We  sold 
   almost double. It was a pretty big success. To me  on  a  personal 
   level, that was a lot more scary  than  anything  I  did  on  _The 
   Grudge_. I know that the _The Grudge_ is a big jump and  it  takes 
   on a lot of new things. You have  songs  like  "Twist  the  Knife" 
   which has some really weird stuff going on and then there's  songs 
   like "Loneliest Thing" -- that's a really bizarre song that begins 
   in one way and then ends off in a  completely  different  way  and 
   ends up sounding almost like a soundtrack  to  "Miami  Vice"  with 
   fucking digital synth that I was just going  off  on.  Stuff  like 
   that... I think we did a lot of  stuff  on  the  album  whe  re  I 
   couldn't tell myself "Yeah, they're going to love it." It was more 
   like "I think they'll like this." Do we care? Not really,  because 
   we're having a good time doing this and it feels  right.  So  fuck 
   'em. Fuck 'em all!                                                 

CoC: How do you feel you've been portrayed by the media?

M: On _The  Smell  of  Rain_,  I  felt  like  there  was  a  definite 
   improvement. At  that  point  I  think  that  people  were  really 
   surprised about the music that came out from Mortiis -- about  the 
   music on that album. I think people, the press, everyone  probably 
   expected another bizarre concept album about insane fucking themes 
   -- you know, travelling between dimensions and all kinds of spaced 
   out, hippie stuff. So when the album came out, it had real subject 
   matter, it had stuff that people could relate to, and I think that 
   people were forced to realise that Mortiis could  make  some  good 
   music. I'm sure that a  lot  of  media  people  hated  that  fact, 
   because until then I was such an easy target, especially with  the 
   UK press.                                                          

CoC: That's actually what I was going to get to a minute.

M: Yeah,  I  mean,  the  UK  press  were  pretty  fucking  merciless, 
   especially when _The Stargate_ came out. We got a 2 out  of  5  in 
   Kerrang!, there were references to Morris dancers in  the  review. 
   That wasn't exactly a fun read. You know,  The  Sun  ran  a  small 
   piece claiming that I was still living with my  parents,  which  I 
   wasn't, and then it really started to become like "Okay,  why  are 
   you seeing these things?" If you don't like the album,  fine,  but 
   why are you talking shit like this? Pretty much everybody  in  the 
   UK were taking the piss and the album got no good  reviews  and  a 
   lot of people were introduced to Mortiis for  the  first  time  in 
   that way. And I felt that  people  sending  letters  to  Kerrang!, 
   saying "Why the fuck  do  you  have  that  stupid  idiot  in  your 
   magazine in the first place?" -- I was used  a  lot  for  humorous 
   purposes. I thought that was like "Fuck them", you  know  --  I've 
   been through all this shit before, I can handle it -- and I could. 
   But it kinda felt like these guys pra ise guys like  Slipknot  who 
   have a very similar image in a way. While I  can  appreciate  that 
   musically, they're vastly different to what I do, so whether  that 
   makes them more justified to have an  image  like  that,  I  don't 
   know. I just felt picked out and made fun  of  like  you  wouldn't 
   believe -- ridiculed to the limit. That all changed  quite  a  lot 
   when _The Smell of Rain_ came out. There was more respect and more 
   press too. So, this time round it's a completely different  story. 
   Now we're getting great reviews -- I mean, we  got  great  reviews 
   for _The Smell of Rain_ too, but this time  it's  even  better.  I 
   think, if we didn't prove it  last  time,  then  we're  definitely 
   proving this time that Mortiis is musically very, very  good.  I'd 
   hate to blow my trumpet now, but I feel confident  now.  We  still 
   have the image, but we change and morph into  something  different 
   with every album, so I  think  that  visually  we've  also  gotten 
   better.                                                            

CoC: Talking still about the UK press, I generally find  particularly 
     magazines over here to be very hypocritical. As an example, like 
     you mentioned, you were a figure of fun  for  just  about  every 
     magazine around, and when _The Smell of Rain_ came out, suddenly 
     they started acting as though they'd been your biggest fans  all 
     along.                                                           

M: Now I'm writing for one of them every month! <laughs>

CoC: How does it make you feel when you step back and you analyse the 
     situation as it stands right now?                                     

M: I don't think I've really done that yet. I know that  things  have 
   changed. I am noticing what's going on -- I'm not blind. It's  not 
   like people suddenly changed. Nobody changes,  man  --  it's  just 
   that the tables have turned. All of a  sudden,  Mortiis  has  more 
   fans, we're playing live -- we've actually proven that we can be a 
   good live band as  well.  I  think  people  were  just  forced  to 
   acknowledge the fact that you can't just write us  off  as  a  one 
   year novelty. We're not something that just came and went. I think 
   we actually managed to override a lot of bullshit and a lot of the 
   crap that journalists tried to throw in my face, all the  ridicule 
   at my expense. We're still here. Still playing fucking  music  and 
   we're about to go out on a huge tour. We have ten UK dates and  we 
   were on the fucking charts over there!                             

CoC: Let's just talk about your imagery for a moment.  I  noticed  on 
     the press shots for the new album, your mask has changed from  a 
     full- on, face-covering to where it looks like a piece  of  skin 
     that's been stitched  over  your  basic  features.  I  might  be 
     reading too much into it, but is this a  subtle  hint  that  you 
     might be doing away with the prosthetics in the future?          

M: Well, that question proves that I have achieved what I set out  to 
   achieve. I wanted people to speculate and wonder, and that's  what 
   they're doing. It doesn't necessarily say that's going to  happen, 
   but it doesn't say that it isn't going to happen. I'm  building  a 
   lot of bridges and I'm sowing a lot of seeds for me and a  lot  of 
   other people. Let's all wonder what's going to happen now!  I  can 
   tell you this: it will be full make-up on  the  tour.  If  I  were 
   going to get rid of the mask, I'd never  do  something  like  that 
   cold turkey. As much as I love the shock factor, on that level, if 
   I were to ever take off the mask,  I'd  do  it  in  a  very  kinda 
   subtle, tasteful way. We have a  couple  of  really  nifty  things 
   going on in the album artwork as well, so  when  that  comes  out, 
   people are going to speculate even more, and there's going to be a 
   lot of theories out there.                                         

CoC: Well, one theory one could have is that the personal  nature  of 
     _The Grudge_ and the imagery of the mask peeling off  your  face 
     would indicate that you're opening yourself up a lot more.       

M: It is becoming more so. It's becoming a lot more human. As such, I 
   felt that the image needed to be humanized a  little  more.  Maybe 
   unwillingly, the character is becoming more human, because  he  is 
   being drawn into the evil of this world more and more -- to  be  a 
   little spaced out there for a second. That's one way of looking at 
   it, absolutely.                                                    

CoC: Were you surprised to see the  first  single  off  _The  Grudge_ 
     enter the UK charts?                                                  

M: Well, as I tell everyone, I have stopped having expectations and I 
   think that my enthusiasm was killed pretty early  on  when  I  was 
   introduced to the realities of this industry. I have  become  very 
   cynical and I've learned to accept that whatever happens, happens. 
   You learn not to jump up and down about things, because things are 
   never as good as they look. It was a pleasant  call  to  get  from 
   Earache, when they called and said that we'd come  in  at  #42.  I 
   mean, the aim for them was to just get into the charts,  but  it's 
   very difficult. They said that if we come in, it will probably  be 
   at the low end -- maybe like the top 75, you  know?  So,  when  it 
   happened, nobody was really expecting it. I was happy to  get  the 
   phone call, but it wasn't one of those moments where you  want  to 
   go and have dinner and celebrate.                                  

CoC: That's just because Earache don't pay you though.

M: <laughs> Exactly, I don't get shit! If they start to  play  it  on 
   the radio, then you start getting radio money, but  I  doubt  that 
   we've been A-listed yet.                                           

CoC: Sadly not. The music scene in the UK is probably  the  worst  in 
     the entire world.                                                     

M: It can't be worse than Germany. Or  France,  for  that  matter.  I 
   think France has to be the worst. They  have  really  weird  laws, 
   man, like 50% of whatever is played on the radio must  be  French. 
   The horror of listening to French radio!                           

CoC: Do you still get a lot of questions about your early  days  with 
     Emperor?                                                              

M: Yeah, they do. The question I get a lot these days, is  how  do  I 
   feel about the fact that they split up.  I  tell  them  that  they 
   split when they were at the top. It was a shock decision, for sure 
   -- I mean, I don't think that Samoth really wanted  to  split  up, 
   but he didn't really have a choice. It was Ihsahn's decision.  So, 
   that's how that was. A lot of journalists are pretty young, and  I 
   think they want the inside scoop on what went down  in  the  early 
   days.                                                              

CoC: What interests me is how similar you see your persona while  you 
     were in Emperor to the character that you are today?                  

M: On an extremist level, which I'm on -- I've  always  been  one  of 
   those "take it as far as you possibly can"  people.  Back  in  the 
   early days of Mortiis when I was in Emperor, I was definitely that 
   way as well. The day after I left Emperor, I sat down and  thought 
   about what I was going to do. Two days later, I went down  to  the 
   music store and bought a keyboard. Didn't even know how to fucking 
   play it! Still don't know how to play it actually, because I don't 
   do music like that, I program the stuff. I was probably  a  better 
   player back then than I am now, which is pretty scary. To get back 
   to your question though, I've always been a pretty extreme  person 
   in many ways, but it changed a bit about three years or so after I 
   started Mortiis. I lived in Sweden for a few years and  I  started 
   to open up a bit more to people, and listen  to  different  music. 
   And I think that all gradually made me become the  amazing  person 
   that I am right now.                                               

CoC: What tracks on _The Grudge_ stand out for you as the songs  that 
     capture everything that the album is about?                           

M: Wow... that's a hard one. I think songs like "Gibber"  and  "Worst 
   in Me" definitely. But they're all kind of important in their  own 
   way. I mean, there's "The Grudge" itself that kinda nails it  down 
   as far as how certain people have fucked me around. I don't  know, 
   "Way Too Wicked" does that as well. Then there's a song  like  "Le 
   Petit Cochon Sordide" that's just about this  person  that's  like 
   the devil himself.                                                 

CoC: And here I was thinking you were  singing  about  your  feelings 
     toward French radio on that song.                                     

M: <laughs> Yeah, I was singing about how much  I  hate  France.  No, 
   actually I don't hate France. It's just impossible  to  get  shows 
   there. They just have really strange  laws  over  there  and  it's 
   almost fascist in the way that they only  seem  to  support  their 
   own. They seem to only like themselves and everyone  else  can  go 
   fuck themselves in a way. It's a weird attitude. I mean, it's like 
   "Is Hitler back and ruling the musical climate of France?"         

CoC: In an ideal world, what would you like to see  _The  Grudge_  do 
     for you in terms of raising your profile?                             

M: I would be happy if we could sell enough that we could easily play 
   and sell out decent sized venues -- a thousand people a night,  so 
   it's still fairly intimate. That's a case where you can  get  good 
   fees and you  can  stably  live  off  of  record  sales,  so  that 
   everything could stop being such a hassle. The  way  it  is  right 
   now, it's just such a hassle. For everything that you want to  do, 
   there always has to be a meeting, because  it's  always  a  budget 
   question. It would be great to move  ahead  and  not  worry  about 
   doing videos, doing tours, worrying about tour support. All  those 
   things are part of daily life for me, and we have enough faith  in 
   ourselves to hope that those things are going to change with  this 
   album, or at the very least send us on our way.                    

CoC: Who would you regard as ideal touring partners for Mortiis?

M: Ministry and Nine Inch Nails.  I  don't  know  if  it  would  mean 
   anything to them, but to me it would mean a helluva  lot,  because 
   they're kind of like the bands that I really  enjoy  listening  to 
   and that I'm really impressed with. I think that their fans  would 
   also really appreciate the stuff that we do --  in  fact,  I  know 
   that a lot of them do -- so it kinda makes sense.                  

CoC: Well, thanks very much for your time today, and best of luck  to 
     you with the new album.                                               

M: Thanks for the interview, and  I'd  advise  people  to  check  out 
   www.mortiis.com to find out when we're going to be in  their  town 
   so that they can come and check us out.                            

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

          N E C R O M E L A N C H O L I C   R E V E R I E S
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
             CoC chats to Noctu Geiistmortt of Celestia
                          by: Quentin Kalis


France has a long and distinguished black  metal  lineage,  including 
luminaries such as Mütiilation, Antaeus and Vlad Tepes. Perhaps  such 
notable  company  would  help  to  explain  why  Celestia  have  been 
unjustly ignored in comparison to the  attention  the  aforementioned 
acts have received.  Their  lack  of  recognition  is  certainly  not 
due  to  any  deficiency  of  originality;  few  bands  have  created 
such devastating melancholic grimness, to which  Noctu's  vocals  add 
an extra  depressive  dimension.  Although  Celestia  is  temporarily 
inactive, Noctu Geiistmortt is still active within  the  black  metal 
scene and has recently released an album under the Mortifera moniker. 
Although I've not had the pleasure of hearing Mortifera, the  reviews 
have generally been  positive.  My  motivation  for  conducting  this 
e-mail interview is simple: I merely wanted to know more  about  this 
mysterious entity. Hopefully you, the reader, will too.               

CoC: I notice the band name is hardly your usual  black  metal  name. 
     Why was it chosen?                                                    

Noctu Geiistmortt: I think that you will agree with me about the lack 
                   of inspiration with these black metal band  names. 
                   The Celestia name can indeed be seen as  something 
                   weird  for  those  who  are  looking  for  "Forest 
                   Throne" band names. Celestia is a  simple  and  an 
                   iconic definition of my lyrical  concept.  I  have 
                   naturally put that name on my music and texts.     

CoC: Black metal ideology is rooted in conceptions of Satanism,  with 
     some bands  now  focusing  on  the  religion  of  their  ancient 
     forefathers. Is  Celestia  allied  with  any  Satanic  or  Pagan 
     ideology? Celestia seems to be aiming for a more cerebral  black 
     metal experience focusing on negativity and darkness but without 
     any cheesy "Hail Satan Our Master" silliness...                  

NG: Black metal is negativity for me. At least the negativity I  have 
    inside my own self, and that is quite vast  since  I  still  feel 
    that awful need to create black  metal  and  to  write  about  my 
    perception of things. There are too many branches  in  the  black 
    metal circus of today. I do not really understand the Pagan black 
    metal scene. For me, nothing negative is evoked in  their  music. 
    How can they talk about black metal  when  their  references  are 
    stories about old heroes from the past? A term that defines their 
    music better, I think, is "Historical Pagan metal"  or  something 
    of  that  kind.  Nowadays  people  who  are  usually  lacking  in 
    creativity are studying old myths and  legends  linked  with  old 
    religious books, such as the Holy Bible. I  was  fascinated  with 
    the last interview of Deathspell  Omega  by  the  capacity  those 
    people had to misunderstand black  metal  and  religion.  For  me 
    black metal must be far from  every  pre-  established  religious 
    doctrine, and when I read the words of people who wish to reach a 
    'Judeo- Christian equilibrium' while they pretend to  play  black 
    metal, I do admit that I have certain difficulties  in  following 
    them. What I mean by 'Judeo-Christian equilibrium' is more  of  a 
    justification of evil through the  experience  of  the  Christian 
    conception of "good". Maybe they just want to impress  people  by 
    quoting words of various authors to sell  more  albums?  I  don't 
    know. The worst conclusion is when you can  compare  black  metal 
    attitude with a Jewish attitude. That really makes me think  that 
    black metal reached a point where any kind of stupidity  is  able 
    to gather followers that will buy your records.  Well,  you  will 
    tell me also  that  black  metal  listeners  are  usually  really 
    immature and I will agree with you on that  point.  Celestia  has 
    fortunately nothing to do with these movements. We are  following 
    our own way without really paying attention to what is  happening 
    in that defunct black metal movement. We are not really  able  to 
    evolve musically since the music we are  playing  is  just  black 
    metal with a personal touch. An abstraction for many and a reason 
    to hate us for  others.  Celestia  is  a  male/female  vomit,  an 
    abstract void gathering all human negations. Some Evanescence  of 
    past dead images,  some  fantasies  leading  to  frustrations.  A 
    desire to  follow  the  path  of  self-destruction.  Think  about 
    putting all these things into a brain crushing  machine  and  you 
    will maybe be able to understand my concept.                      

CoC: I've noticed in other interviews that Celestia is at great pains 
     not to align itself with the black metal scene,  even  going  so 
     far as to cast doubts on the authenticity  of  Celestia's  black 
     metal credentials. While there certainly are a lot  of  pathetic 
     albums and the scene has its fair  share  of  idiots,  why  does 
     Celestia have such an aversion  to  being  associated  with  the 
     black metal scene?                                               

NG: Celestia is the only true black metal.  We  naturally  cannot  be 
    associated with the nowadays black metal  scene,  simply  because 
    what I'm trying to evoke with Celestia is going too far away from 
    the standards already used in black metal. Sorry,  but  I  cannot 
    copy/paste something already done in black metal. I just want  to 
    make the most sincere black metal without taking influences  from 
    anywhere.                                                         

CoC: I  understand  that  Celestia  have  played  live   on   several 
     occasions, a relatively rare occurrence for more underground (in 
     terms of style, not popularity) black  metal  bands.  What  made 
     Celestia decide to perform live?                                 

NG: Yes, we have performed something like 25 shows in nine  years  of 
    existence. I don't know if it's a lot or not, but it was  already 
    difficult to play in front of  stupid  humans.  Fortunately  some 
    shows were really pleasant. The nightmare is over  now  since  we 
    decided not to play live anymore.                                 

CoC: A large proportion of Drakkar  bands  (in  comparison  to  other 
     black metal labels such as No Colours) such as Watain,  Tsjuder, 
     Mütiilation and Abigail have performed live.  Having  worked  at 
     Drakkar Productions, could you comment on this? Is it a part  of 
     Drakkar policy to sign bands who are prepared to perform live or 
     is the current state of affairs completely unintentional?        

NG: I don't know. Drakkar Productions does not really  pay  attention 
    to such things. If bands wish to play live, that's fine; if  they 
    don't want to, that is alright too.                               

CoC: The Official Celestia  website  is  rather  sparse,  to  put  it 
     kindly. There is a deliberate lack of information on  the  site, 
     with not even basics such as band history or discography. Why is 
     no information provided on past  activities  and  why  are  past 
     activities regarded as unimportant?                              

NG: That web page is dead; Celestia is dead too. So, I don't see  the 
    point in going back to past events. Also another important detail 
    is that I don't know  how  to  deal  with  web  pages  since  our 
    webmaster disappeared into the maelstrom  of  humanity.  Celestia 
    has to remain unimportant, I think.                               

CoC: Could you tell us more about your side  project  Mortifera?  Are 
     any other Celestia members involved in other projects? Also, why 
     did you form Mortifera? Does Mortifera cover musical or  lyrical 
     territory that would be unthinkable under the  Celestia  banner? 
     Can we expect future Mortifera releases?                         

NG: Mortifera is indeed my second project. There were more  and  more 
    riffs or lyrics that I was not able to use  for  Celestia  and  I 
    have met a young man called Neige with whom I was sharing  common 
    points of view. Mortifera has existed  in  my  mind  for  several 
    years and since Celestia's work was put on ice, I decided  to  do 
    something with Mortifera. We  first  did  that  MCD  (_Complainte 
    d'Une Agonie Céleste_) and we recently released one album.  I  am 
    quite satisfied of the result; in fact  the  Mortifera  album  is 
    even superior to the old _Apparitia -  Sumptuous  Spectre_  album 
    which suffers from a really bad mix and mastering. Try  to  check 
    out our Mortifera album and you will not be disappointed.         

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

             T H U S   S P A K E   T H E   W A R   G O D
             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
              CoC chats with Matthias Nygard of Turisas
                           by: Jackie Smit


Undoubtedly one of the finer debuts of 2004, Finnish  folk  metallers 
Turisas seem to have taken the metal world  by  surprise  with  their 
brand of _Battle Metal_. The truth is, however, that Turisas has been 
in existence since 1997, when Matthias  "Warlord"  Nygard  and  Jussi 
Wickstrom met up in the small town of Hämeenlinna  with  the  express 
purpose of creating, in their  own  words,  "Pagan  metal  hymns".  I 
recently had the pleasure of conducting  an  interview  with  Nygard, 
shortly after it had been reported that the  band's  guitarist  Georg 
Laakso had been stabbed during an altercation  outside  a  fast  food 
restaurant.                                                           

CoC: Obviously first of all, our condolences go out to Georg  and  we 
     hope that he is recovering. How is he at the moment?                  

Matthias Nygard: He's very okay.  I  mean,  we  were  a  bit  scared, 
                 because we nearly ended up having to cancel our slot 
                 at the Tuska Open Air Festival, but he  got  through 
                 it. He managed to get stabbed six times in the back, 
                 but luckily he wasn't hit in  any  major  organs  or 
                 anything like that.                                  

CoC: I saw the photos on the website, actually, and  it  was  a  very 
     close call from what I can tell.                                      

MN: It was really close, and when you consider that it  could  happen 
    from just one stabwound, then he was very lucky to have survived. 
    But he was back again a week later playing at the Tuska festival. 
    He had to take it a bit easier to avoid tearing the  stitches  in 
    his back, but he is okay now. He is back on his feet.             

CoC: Have you been able to find out what the  particular  reason  was 
     for the attack -- you mentioned  on  the  website  that  he  was 
     involved in a fight outside a fast food restaurant?              

MN: It was kind of someone  that  he  had  known  before  --  nothing 
    serious, just sort of like a small-town fight, you know? So  they 
    just started in what looked like a normal fight; just man against 
    man and no one came between them or interfered or  anything  like 
    that. Then it was just afterward at the police  station  that  he 
    noticed that he had been stabbed in the back. Obviously what  had 
    happened was that the guy's girlfriend had come from behind while 
    they were busy with fighting and stabbed him  with  a  knife  and 
    nobody saw anything. It was a weird situation, because  afterward 
    we weren't even thinking about it. We thought that everything was 
    over and done with, but then later on  he  noticed  that  he  was 
    bleeding. Like I said, initially everything seemed really  normal 
    -- it was just a fast fight between two guys and he only  noticed 
    that he'd been stabbed later on.                                  

CoC: No one has made any sort of  fuss  about  this  in  the  Finnish 
     newspapers, have they?                                                

MN: No, nothing -- we're not really that  big  a  band.  If  we  were 
    bigger, then maybe they would have said something. But aside from 
    reports in the alternative music media, there was nothing.        

CoC: So no blaming metal for the ills of society then?

MN: <laughs> No. These sorts of things are  bad,  but  they  tend  to 
    happen quite often in Finland -- two guys fight and someone draws 
    a knife. So when it happens, nobody really thinks anything of  it 
    anymore.                                                          

CoC: Why do you think this sort of behaviour is growing so common  in 
     Finland?                                                              

MN: People get drunk and shit happens. I mean, we were just out for a 
    beer or two and then this happened. In  Finland  there's  nothing 
    like big problems with firearms or anything  like  that.  Usually 
    it's just petty disputes between people at bars or whatever.      

CoC: Fair enough. Let's move on to your debut,  _Battle  Metal_:  are 
     you satisfied with the reaction that you've  received  from  the 
     press and from audiences so far?                                 

MN: Yeah, definitely. The response from the  press  has  been  really 
    overwhelming so far. We got some really good reviews. I mean,  in 
    amongst some of that you will always get a  couple  of  guys  who 
    didn't like the album, but overall the media seems to really like 
    it. With this record it was kind of a long process to finish  the 
    whole album, and we were very deeply involved  in  that,  to  the 
    point where when we finished it was a really odd feeling  for  us 
    wondering what people were going to think of what  we  had  done. 
    But now everyone has given us really good  feedback.  Of  course, 
    when we were working on the album we did  think  that  the  album 
    would do well, but our fears were that our  judgement  was  being 
    clouded because of how much we were into the music.               

CoC: How long did the album take to complete?

MN: Well, our original plan was to enter the studio in April 2003, so 
    by that time we had already  completed  all  the  songs  for  the 
    album. Most debut albums tend to be a collection  of  songs  that 
    the band has written since the early days anyway, so  on  _Battle 
    Metal_ there are songs dating as far back as 1998 or 1997. But we 
    were supposed to enter the studio in April, as I said,  and  that 
    fell apart when we realised that we would  not  be  getting  more 
    than about three to three and a half weeks of studio time. So  we 
    decided to hang back and maybe go looking around  for  a  cheaper 
    studio with the opportunity to have more time,  because  we  know 
    that we would need it as a result of all the  various  orchestral 
    arrangements and so on that would go into  the  record.  Then  we 
    were told about the possibility to  record  in  France  at  Sound 
    Suite studios, which would have fit into our budget and given  us 
    more time. In the end that turned out to be a cool idea, although 
    we still had to record all the v iolins and  the  accordions  and 
    all the extra things in Finland.                                  

CoC: In retrospect, how do you feel about  the  way  that  the  album 
     ended up sounding?                                                    

MN: I am very happy. Whilst recording _Battle Metal_ we  got  into  a 
    situation where we didn't have time  to  really  record  anything 
    more, because we had run out of time and that kind of  forced  us 
    to come back to Finland  and  finish  recording  the  choirs  and 
    things like that. Obviously that brought us to the edge of having 
    to rush the album and just finish it as soon as  possible,  which 
    would have affected the end result quite badly. Then  Terje  from 
    Sound Suite let us know that he was really into the music and  he 
    ended up giving us ten days extra for free, just because he  knew 
    that we could do better if  we  had  some  more  time.  And  then 
    finally in April of this year it was ready. It came out  sounding 
    more or  less  the  way  we  wanted  it  to,  and  I  think  that 
    considering the situation that we were in, it ended  up  sounding 
    really good.                                                      

CoC: Would you have done anything differently  if  you  could  do  it 
     again now?                                                            

MN: I'd probably  ask  for  more  days  off  in  between  the  actual 
    recording. I mean, twelve hours was like our shortest day in  the 
    studio, you know, and that was really stressful. Next time  we'll 
    know, if we end up working with Terje again (which will be  great 
    in my opinion), how he does things and how we like to  work,  and 
    that will obviously make things go much faster.                   

CoC: Your music is very grandiose in the sense of you having a ton of 
     different instruments playing at once. Do you  see  yourself  as 
     expanding even more on that in future, possibly  to  the  extent 
     operating on a similar level to a band like Therion?             

MN: You know, for me a lot of people tend to think of  this  sort  of 
    music in terms of 'more is better' and to me it's not like  that. 
    We wouldn't want to have a full orchestra or something like  that 
    just for the sake of having it. It has  to  suit  the  music.  Of 
    course it would be great to work with more organic instruments -- 
    on this album we had to sample  a  lot  of  things  and  I  would 
    have preferred a more real sound.  On  the  other  hand,  I  like 
    experimenting more and trying new things, but that will never  be 
    the main starting point for everything. How we do it will  always 
    suit the music.                                                   

CoC: Talk me through some of your lyrics -- you've mentioned  in  the 
     past that you don't want people to associate  your  lyrics  with 
     fantasy themes?                                                  

MN: Well, I think that most people will  regard  our  music  as  very 
    fantasy based and even cheesy. To me the battle  themes  and  the 
    historical points are frames of reference to build up  each  song 
    and  in  that  lie  things  that  are  deeper  and  have  greater 
    significance. There are songs  on  this  album  that  are  pretty 
    straightforward and that have no greater meaning, and that's  the 
    way they were supposed to be. But then there are songs that  have 
    many sides to them -- criticism toward the glorification of  wars 
    and the romanticising of wars and stuff like that.                

CoC: Don't you think that because of your  appearance  on  the  album 
     sleeve and because of the way you are  portrayed,  people  might 
     discount Turisas as being cartoon-ish?                           

MN: I don't pay much attention to things like that,  because  at  the 
    end of the day, I'm not really affected by what people think. I'm 
    just happy with the people that do get what we're  going  for.  I 
    mean, I agree that it does have a cartoon-ish quality to it,  and 
    that's because it was meant to have that.  We  don't  intend  for 
    everything to be dead serious. People can make up their own minds 
    as to what they think about us, and I certainly don't  disrespect 
    people who avoid  us  because  they  deem  us  to  be  cheesy  or 
    whatever. There are people on the opposite side of the coin  that 
    like the theatrics in the band. But the visual elements  are  not 
    what's important -- if that were the case than Turisas  would  be 
    very empty. I think that it serves as an escape for many  people, 
    and that's definitely not a bad thing. I mean, if something isn't 
    deep or complex, it shouldn't necessarily be seen  as  having  no 
    value. It's the same case with movies --  you  have  your  highly 
    rated art movies and then you have the  basic  Hollywood  popcorn 
    movie, where you don't really need to think about  anything.  But 
    at the end of the day, it's equally important, because it's  also 
    entertainment.                                                    

CoC: If you had to look at your band from that context, would you see 
     yourself as  a  more  high-brow  artistic  statement  or  simply 
     popcorn entertainment?                                           

MN: I haven't really thought about that, to be honest,  but  I  think 
    that a combination of the two would be a good description of us.      

CoC: In the recent Turisas live shows you've featured dancing  girls, 
     and you've had full instrumental backing from accordion players, 
     violinists, etc.. Are you planning on taking your band toward  a 
     more extravagant live set as time and money eventually allows?   

MN: Yeah, I'd like to. I mean, it would be great  even  to  have  the 
    possibility of touring with the show that  we've  been  doing  in 
    Finland. Obviously in Finland, we have far less constraints  when 
    we play live than we would have if we  were  on  the  road.  When 
    you're on the road, then there's a financial side that comes into 
    it. Things like the dancing girls -- again that  comes  into  the 
    entertainment element in the band. It's not necessarily  integral 
    to what we do, but it works when we play live and people love it. 
    Eventually I would like to expand it even more,  but  then  again 
    you can spend thousands and thousands of  Euros  on  things  like 
    pyro, which wouldn't really bring anything more to  the  feel  of 
    the show. Doing things cheap, you're forced to come up with ideas 
    and it really stretches your creativity. If I had a bigger budget 
    for the show, I'd probably end  up  spending  more  money  paying 
    people more so that they would be more into what  they're  doing, 
    than use the money for huge las er shows or shit like that.       

CoC: Turisas throws together a lot of very  different  influences  in 
     ways that haven't ever really been done all  that  much  before, 
     and the result is obviously a fairly unique  end  product.  What 
     inspires you to make the music that you do?                      

MN: Well, I think that  people  always  try  to  see  the  connection 
    between bands and what they're doing. To me it's more about being 
    open- minded toward everything. I have  a  very  broad  taste  in 
    music and most of the guys in the band  feel  the  same  way.  We 
    listen to a lot of different kinds of music, and  we  also  check 
    out a lot of  different  bands  playing  live  and  we  generally 
    try to  find  positive  aspects  from  everything  we  encounter, 
    which eventually might end up in the  music  of  Turisas.  So  my 
    inspiration is not coming from any particular source -- it's more 
    about looking around and not being  afraid  to  use  things  just 
    because other people might not think it's cool.                   

CoC: So, what are your  immediate  plans  following  the  release  of 
     _Battle Metal_?                                                       

MN: Well, once the album has been released and we've seen how  things 
    go, we will look toward touring. Of course, being an eight-member 
    band, financial constraints play a big role  in  those  sorts  of 
    decisions,  but  I'm  hoping  that  someone  will  come  up  with 
    something to give us a chance to at least play  a  few  shows  in 
    Europe. Otherwise, I'm afraid  we'll  probably  have  wait  until 
    we've finished the next album. Also, one of  the  biggest  things 
    I'm looking forward to is to start work on  the  new  music.  Now 
    that I'm more accustomed to the song writing process, it's  going 
    to be much easier, and at the same time I want the  new  material 
    to be much more intense and to have a different  starting  point. 
    I'm really looking forward to that, but I don't think we'll start 
    anything for the next album before the end of the year.           

CoC: Any last words?

MN: Nothing in particular -- I hope that people will  check  out  the 
    new album for themselves and see what they  think.  There's  been 
    great reviews and there's been bad reviews, and I just hope  that 
    people will make up their minds for themselves.                   

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

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

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!


Avec Tristesse - _How Innocence Dies_  (Independent, 2004)
by: Brian Meloon  (8.5 out of 10)

Avec  Tristesse  hail  from  Brazil,  and  play  a  style  which   is 
reminiscent of Opeth, infused with elements of the black metal  style 
popularized by Dimmu  Borgir.  The  music  goes  from  soft  acoustic 
sections to fast black metal and covers many shades in  between.  But 
while the comparisons to Opeth  are  obvious,  Avec  Tristesse  don't 
simply blatantly copy their sound. Rather, they combine Opeth's sound 
with some other influences, and mix them together with a healthy dose 
of individual style. The vocals are a mix of black metal raspy  style 
and a smooth clean vocal style (very Opeth-like at times, less so  at 
others), with the occasional inclusion of female vocals. The  guitars 
provide the  basis  for  the  music,  and  cover  the  myriad  styles 
very well, while keyboards are used  to  subtly  add  atmosphere  and 
occasionally as a main  melody.  The  songs  flow  pretty  well,  and 
although most of the twelve songs are under six minutes, the  shorter 
songs generally run together, making this feel  more  like  an  album 
with six longer songs. Although  this  is  a  self-financed  release, 
everything about it is professionally done, from the playing and  the 
production down to the artwork and the liner  notes.  The  clean  and 
powerful production is especially impressive, as it  really  enhances 
the effectiveness of the music.                                       

That said, this isn't a perfect album. The major  problem  I  see  is 
that some of the songwriting doesn't make much  sense.  For  example, 
the album's closer, "Sceptical and Gone", builds impressively for two 
minutes, and then just stops and goes nowhere for the  remaining  six 
minutes. A similar fate befalls "Presence Ignored", which starts with 
a brief techno/industrial interlude, then goes into  a  Lacuna  Coil- 
inspired refrain (a sound which incidentally  is  completely  out  of 
place), and then just peters  out  before  the  second  verse  should 
start. In addition, there are a few awkward-sounding  passages  where 
the vocals or the guitars don't quite work.  But  despite  these  few 
missteps, on the whole this is an excellent offering. Fans  of  Opeth 
and similar bands as well as fans of melodic death  and  black  metal 
should enjoy this, and I'll certainly be  looking  forward  to  their 
next release.                                                         

Contact: http://www.avectristesse.com


Black Countess - _Carnivorous Romance_  (Metalism Records, 2004)
by: James Montague  (3 out of 10)

"Black Countess presents _Carnivorous Romance_: A  Story  of  Nympho- 
Vampirism and Licking Lesbian Lust". The attractive young lady on the 
CD tray insert presents  her  bare  breasts  and  shaved  snatch.  It 
doesn't take a genius to work out  where  these  Russians  got  their 
inspiration, or who they're aiming at. For those of you too young  or 
shy to buy from the top shelf, here's a CD with five tits  'n'  pussy 
photos and a far-fetched story of lezzo  vampires  for  you  to  jizz 
over. For those of us too old to give a shit, there's not too much to 
get excited about.                                                    

I should give credit where its due, and indeed this band has  flashes 
of potential with a promising opening riff, a rare ripping  solo  and 
some  good  melodic  leads  that  adorn  the  fifth  song,  "Vampiric 
Nymphomania". But in between these highlights, the band's haste to be 
Eastern Europe's answer to Cradle of Filth results in some irritating 
synthesized violins and gothic cliché. And  yes,  the  lead  vocalist 
wants to be Dani. Why, one can only hazard to guess; but I'm sure  as 
an old man he'll look back on these days and wince.                   

The lyrics tell an eight-part tale about a nobleman's daughter who is 
seduced by a countess and gradually becomes a lesbian, then a lesbian 
slut, then a lesbian slut vampire; so you  have  to  put  up  with  a 
lot  of  background  moaning  from  chicks  who  really  don't  do  a 
very convincing fake  orgasm.  All  these  puerile  distractions  are 
over-emphasized in the mix -- along with  a  sterile  drum  sound  -- 
detracting from the decent guitar work, which itself reverts to  weak 
tremolo riffing far too often for my liking.                          

_Carnivorous  Romance_  is  a  competently  executed  example  of   a 
contemptible musical style, bereft of any conviction, power  or  evil 
intent. In this way, it violates all the tenets of black metal I hold 
dear, but insatiable  fans  of  a  certain  English  troupe  will  be 
impressed. At the very least, they have cranked up the porn factor.   

Contact: http://darkerotica.narod.ru


Black Majesty - _Sands of Time_  (LMP, 2003)
by: Brian Meloon  (6.5 out of 10)

Australia's Black Majesty don't offer  up  many  surprises  on  their 
debut album _Sands of Time_. Though their name might not  immediately 
clue you in to what kind of music they play, a  single  look  at  the 
cover art of this album should immediately make the phrase  "European 
power metal" come to mind, and that is  exactly  what  Black  Majesty 
delivers. All of the  standard  power  metal  elements  are  present, 
manifested into uptempo songs with soaring harmonized  guitar  leads, 
soaring vocals and catchy choruses.  The  vocals  in  particular  are 
pretty good, though there are a few awkward-sounding parts. In  fact, 
that sentiment holds for the rest of the music as well.  In  general, 
the rhythm playing is very solid and  tight,  but  the  leads  are  a 
weakness. At some points, they sound very cheap, such  as  the  short 
guitar lead half a minute into "Guardian", and at other  times,  they 
don't really add anything to the music other than filling  the  space 
where the guitar solo should go. The production is quite good, with a 
strong, clean, and  powerful  sound.  However,  for  my  tastes,  the 
guitars are a little too  low  in  the  mix  and  the  vocals  are  a 
little too high.  In  the  end,  Black  Majesty's  style  is  nothing 
groundbreaking, but they're doing it well. Those who can't get enough 
power metal should find this much to their liking, though others  may 
want to tread carefully.                                              

Contact: http://www.blackmajesty.com


Danzig - _Circle of Snakes_  (Regain Records / Evillive, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (8.5 out of 10)

It is truly a crying shame that the eighth Danzig full-length  should 
be released amidst the controversy of something as ultimately trivial 
as the now infamous North Side Kings  punch-up.  This  is  especially 
true when you consider the steady increase in quality that has marked 
recent Danzig efforts, following critical  basting  lavished  on  the 
widely panned _Blackacidevil_. One could  therefore  only  hope  that 
when all is said and done that  the  Evil  Elvis  is  remembered  for 
making good music -- an ability that is  demonstrated  repeatedly  by 
the material on  _Circle  of  Snakes_  --  rather  than  the  tabloid 
controversy that seems to be hovering above him these days.           

Although he is once again sporting a brand new line-up following  the 
departure/firing of Howie Pyro, Todd Youth  and  Joey  Castillo,  the 
gloom-drenched opening of "Wotan's Procession"  makes  it  infinitely 
clear that _Circle of Snakes_ is going to be classic Danzig and  very 
little in between. That said, songs like the  double-kick  led  "Skin 
Carver" and the blacker than black (pun intended) "Skull Forest" show 
off a much darker and heavier sound than probably anything  Glen  has 
offered up in his career thus far. But ultimately -- as has been  the 
case since the Samhain days  --  Danzig  is  at  his  most  curiously 
effective when he slows down and reveals his more pensive side.  And, 
as _Satan's Child_ had "Cold Eternal" and _I Luciferi_  had  "Without 
Light I Am", so the highlight of _Circle of Snakes_ turns out  to  be 
"Netherbound" -- a  bleak,  heartfelt  ode  to...  well,  who  knows, 
really. _Circle of Snakes_ is pretty much everything you  could  want 
from a Danzig record, and while it is unlikely  to  convert  any  new 
acolytes to the man's cause, after nearly three decades in the  music 
industry, I doubt that's something he  pays  too  much  attention  to 
these days.                                                           

Contact: http://www.danzig-verotik.com


Encrimson'd - _Agrarian Menace_  (Independent, 2004)
by: Todd DePalma  (8.5 out of 10)

With a mark of tight musicianship that exists without  the  slightest 
hint of avant-garde theatrics, this Minnesota three-piece put forward 
a passionate and raw mix of folk music and black metal that  radiates 
a more humanistic approach to culture. Whereas the majority  of  folk 
themed metal releases focus almost completely  on  ancient  mythology 
and occultism, _Agrarian Menace_ concentrates on the dramatic aspects 
of  medieval  Czech  peasantry  and  through  this  unfolds  an  epic 
six-track debut of war, love, harvest, death and  revolt.  The  music 
itself is on a similar path as bands like Arghoslent and  Dissection, 
who combined  elements  of  classical,  NWOBHM  and  power  metal  to 
re-establish the  ideas  of  a  particular  sound.  Encrimson'd  pack 
catchy riffs  within  a  stripped  down  frame  that  join  with  the 
lyrics in minstrel-like narration,  united  by  a  range  of  brutish 
vocals. Technically intelligent, there are both odd time changes  and 
predictable melodies (in the sense that they are easy to follow) that 
lend a memorable quality to the songs but  also  leave  the  listener 
with a desire to return for its temporarily ungrasping aspects.  Each 
of these tracks hovers around seven minutes long and up without  once 
dragging. The mixing on this record favors the guitar and vocals, but 
the bass is well taken care of and is noticeably able to fill in  the 
gaps during their short breathes. The  drums  have  a  more  degraded 
sound, but are  less  of  a  distraction  in  light  of  a  competent 
performance. Though _Agrarian Menace_ holds firm through its entirety 
it does peak early with "The Piper's Tale", started  by  an  acoustic 
guitar played in a measured dream-like stroll, and  "Old  Man";  both 
representing the height of complexity in Encrimson'd's idyllic sound. 
Bearing no reactionary tones of blasphemy or nationalism, this  album 
is devoid of scene approval and cross-over  appeal  clichés,  and  it 
will be interesting to see what  the  future  holds  for  this  still 
unsigned band.                                                        

Contact: http://www.encrimsond.com


Frontside - _Forgive Us Our Sins_  (Regain Records, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (7 out of 10)

Apparently Frontside have the devil on their side  --  at  least,  so 
says their bio. If that is the case however, it would appear that Old 
Nick has grown a little rusty since the days when he  was  overseeing 
such masterpieces as _Seven Churches_ and _Reign in Blood_. For  one, 
I can't see the Hooved One of days gone  by  ever  condoning  a  drum 
production so disturbingly similar to _St Anger_ -- but  then  again, 
he is known in some quarters as a lord of misery and torture. In  all 
fairness though, Frontside are actually not half bad. Their brand  of 
deathcore may not set the world ablaze in terms of  originality,  but 
the material on _Forgive Us Our Sins_ is ample proof that when  their 
various elements are mixed together in the right quantities, they can 
be absolutely blinding. So while the pseudo-melodic posturing of "Cry 
of the Debased" may leave a good many listeners less than  impressed, 
it's hard to argue with the  bludgeoning  enmity  displayed  on  such 
pounding moments as "The Accused" a nd "The Extinction of the Earth". 
For now though, Frontside will have to  be  content  to  play  second 
fiddle to the majority of their contemporaries; but by the sounds  of 
things, that could be set to change very soon.                        

Contact: http://www.frontside.alpha.pl


Hellkult - _The Collection_  (Blood Fire Death / Regimental, 2004)
by: Todd DePalma  (5 out of 10)

Because the booklet of this release contains no  information  on  the 
band, its origins, recording dates,  etc.,  a  little  more  detailed 
introduction seems in order. Hellkult was the original moniker of the 
black metal project that later grew into Wyrd, and  features  members 
of Azaghal and folk metal group  Hin  Onde.  Between  1997  and  1999 
Hellkult released three demos which are all compiled  onto  this  CD: 
_The Christian Holocaust_, _Hail War_, and _Of Pure  Heathen  Blood_. 
Unfortunately any online  listings  one  could  comb  regarding  this 
discography are also incomplete, leaving at least one  song  on  this 
collection unplaceable between the first two demos.                   

The audio quality on most of these tracks  is  wretched;  a  body  of 
melodies raped by such complete distortion that some tracks sound  as 
though they're playing backwards. Simplistic, slightly punkish  riffs 
make up the bile churned out as the guitar and drums jog through  the 
first ten tracks,  highlighted  by  the  grimly  parading  "Summoning 
of  Elder  Gods";  the  eery,  Darkthrone  influenced  "Satanic  War" 
that  actually  pops  up  on  Azaghal's  _Mustamaa_  album;  and  the 
less straining "Chambers of Poisoned  Sleep"  (featuring  a  somewhat 
agitating flute/recorder and re-recorded as "Gods of the Storm).  The 
sound here is literally fighting below a ceiling of  age  and  crust. 
Fortunately as  the  album  progresses  the  tracks  move  past  pure 
curiosity and shed the completely warping dungeon/bedroom quality  of 
the first half. The final demo _Of Pure Heathen Blood_  reflects  the 
band's continued interest in black metal infused with folk tunes, but 
also mixes in more rudimentary speed/death metal riffs ("Der Sieg Ist 
Unser", "Winterkrieg"). It's easier from this point on  to  hear  the 
similarities between this material  and  Azaghal  besides  rerecorded 
songs; the improved sound (not much better or  worse  than  Azaghal's 
own debut)  giving  a  clearer  frame  of  the  timbre  within  often 
neuralgic riffs that can still bloom into warm, melodic charges.      

A more "official" style  release  (liner  notes,  dates)  would  have 
suited this material better for completists, and  though  it  is  not 
altogether listenable this release remains an  interesting  chronicle 
of exuberant extremism still active today.                            

Contact: http://www.regimentalrecords.com


Krisiun - _Bloodshed_  (Century Media, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (9 out of 10)

If ever a band has proven  themselves  to  be  a  reliable  commodity 
in  the  realm  of  extreme  music,  then  surely  Krisiun  fit  that 
description perfectly. With the exception of 2001's  overly  clinical 
_Ageless Venomous_, their discography remains  a  steadfast  vanguard 
for relentless musical violence in an age where death  metal  appears 
to be evolving at a staggering pace. With their  stunning  _Works  of 
Carnage_ effort still freshly embedded in my frazzled memory,  I  was 
quite surprised to find this package in my mailbox. As it  turns  out 
though, _Bloodshed_ is a collection of old and new tracks, similar to 
Vader's _Reign Forever World_ EP. Far from being a  shoddily  slapped 
together stop-gap while we  await  the  next  Krisiun  opus  however, 
_Bloodshed_ actually offers up a hefty dose of brutality, and despite 
being sold at the price of an  EP,  still  clocks  in  at  nearly  40 
minutes. Five brand new tracks get things going -- all of  which  are 
outstanding, particularly the mid-tempo grind of "Ominous "  and  the 
foreboding snarl of "Slain Fate". The ultimate highlight  however  is 
the inclusion of the band's ultra-rare,  vintage  _Unmerciful  Order_ 
material -- four supremely crafted examples of early '90s death  that 
make one ponder whether  the  Florida  explosion  would  really  have 
mattered as much if  someone  had  discovered  Krisiun  a  few  years 
earlier.                                                              

Contact: http://www.krisiun.com.br


Moonlyght - _Progressive Darkness_  (Escapi, 2004)
by: Brian Meloon  (8.5 out of 10)

Quebec's Moonlyght released their debut album _Progressive  Darkness_ 
in their home country in 2002 (through the tiny Metal Disk  records), 
though  it  is  now  being  re-released  worldwide  in  hopes  of  it 
finding a wider audience. With any luck it will,  as  it's  quite  an 
impressive piece of work. As titles  go,  this  album  has  a  rather 
fitting one, though the music is really more progressive  than  dark. 
Moonlyght incorporate a variety of styles into their music, including 
progmetal, folk, power metal and black metal. The result is a  unique 
sound that's simultaneously familiar and  distinct.  In  this  sense, 
they're like Extol,  though  they  sound  very  different.  A  closer 
comparison musically would be Ebony Tears' _Tortura  Insomniae_  [CoC 
#30] (before they released an albumful of nothing and went generic as 
hell) or  Misanthrope  [CoC  #26],  though  Moonlyght  are  generally 
lighter, more diverse, and more progressive.                          

The songs are mostly over the seven minute mark, so the  compositions 
are involved and non-traditional, featuring many different styles and 
changing quite frequently. Yet the music flows from  style  to  style 
very well, as the  band  have  clearly  worked  hard  on  making  the 
transitions smooth. The music is dominated by the guitars, though the 
keyboards play a prominent role as well. But  both  instruments  have 
a knack  for  keeping  their  parts  appropriate  and  neither  over- 
nor  underplaying.  For  the  sheer  diversity  of  styles  that  are 
displayed here, that's not  an  easy  feat.  The  rhythm  section  is 
competent, though they're not really exceptional in any aspect.  They 
occasionally have a chance to do something interesting,  but  they're 
usually content to let the guitars, keyboards  and  vocals  take  the 
spotlight. The vocals come in four main styles:  clean  power  metal, 
clean female, black metal  raspy,  and  a  half-clean  Hetfield-esque 
style. All but the last are of average quality, and  neither  add  to 
nor detract from the music. Unfortunately, the Hetfield-esque  vocals 
just aren't very good, as they sound  unnatural  and  forced  to  me. 
However, these vocals are a relatively small part of the  album,  and 
all together it's still very impressive. Moonlyght have been able  to 
develop their own distinctive style, which  is  not  something  every 
band can say, especially on their debut album. Fans  of  progressive, 
melodic death metal should definitely search this out.                

Contact: http://www.moonlyght.ca


Mortiis - _The Grudge_  (Earache Records, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (8.5 out of 10)

By now, it's safe to say that anyone expecting Mortiis to  return  to 
the conceptual days of old would be borderline delusional. While _The 
Smell of Rain_ did draw a distinct dividing line  between  those  who 
admired the latexed  one  for  having  the  testicular  fortitude  to 
reinvent himself so poignantly, and those for whom "Parasite God" was 
a death knell rather than a victory cry, it did catapult the man into 
a greater sphere of public conscience than he had ever known. Perhaps 
more importantly, it made a largely disdainful world finally  sit  up 
and take Mortiis, the artist, seriously.                              

Now clearly more comfortable in his role as the consummate front man, 
Mortiis has not so much revolutionized  as  distilled  the  blueprint 
laid down on _The Smell of Rain_.  Yes,  this  is,  as  he  has  been 
claiming, a much harder album; but it  certainly  isn't  without  its 
fair share of catchy, and dare I say, radio-friendly hooks. In  fact, 
hard as it may have been to believe this a few years ago, songs  like 
"Way Too Wicked" could very easily  see  Mortiis  become  staple  MTV 
programming. For those not put off by this fact and who do  take  the 
trouble to dig into the core of this album, _The  Grudge_  proves  to 
be a very rewarding  listening  experience.  Reminiscent  on  several 
occasions of a meeting between latter-day Ministry and  David  Bowie, 
some of Mortiis'  finest  moments  can  be  found  in  the  drum  'n' 
bass-influenced grooves of "Broken Skin", the electro-punk  snarl  of 
"Decadent & Desperate" and the reflective ambience of "The  Loneliest 
Thing". Not that it's a veritable coup de grace, mind yo u.  It  does 
improve on _The Smell of Rain_ by leaps and  bounds,  but  there  are 
still times when Mortiis' ego just can't seem to relegate  itself  to 
second fiddle over his ability to write songs. Then  again,  who  can 
argue that this hasn't always formed part and  parcel  of  the  man's 
appeal?                                                               

Contact: http://www.mortiis.com


Operation Winter Mist - _Winter Warfare II_
by: Todd DePalma  (7 out of 10)  (Regimental Records, 2004)

This CD is a combination of Operation  Winter  Mist's  first  release 
_Winter  Warfare_  (2002),  _Winter  Warfare  II_  (composed  of  new 
material recorded in 2003) and live tracks culled from  videotape  -- 
the sound quality of  that  being  better  than  expected.  Operation 
Winter Mist plays an atypical style of black / war metal dealing with 
all things  cold,  bloody  and  Canadian.  Twelve  tracks  create  an 
unsparing tribute to war behind nationalistic hymns that  make  other 
anthems' boastfulness seem like storming a mound of sand  castles  by 
comparison. Although they include a Bathory cover that is perhaps too 
slick -- reducing that classic "chainsaw" guitar  sound  to  a  heavy 
electric razor --, the  production  is  complimentary  to  their  own 
songs, which are reminiscent of early Gorgoroth and  a  less  evolved 
Burzum with more speed metal gallops in  the  breaks.  At  times  the 
conscious or unconscious nod  to  Marduk  cannot  be  ignored  ("Iron 
Coffins", "In the Trenches") and this band has  a  tendency  to  take 
their subject matter to the edge of gimmickry (note the text on their 
website that incessantly refers to the band's ersatz militancy).  The 
dedication pays off on this release,  which  is  quite  formative  in 
matching words, images and sound in  a  charge  of  blast  beats  and 
wolfishly descending guitar rhythms to tell  a  hopeless  reality  of 
combat.                                                               

Contact: http://owm.ark11.net


Rotting Christ - _Sanctus Diavolos_  (Century Media, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (9.5 out of 10)

As much as I've consistently admired their recorded  output,  Rotting 
Christ  has  always  been,  in  my  humble  opinion,  the   perennial 
runners-up in extreme music -- a band whose albums,  while  generally 
of a very high quality, always tend to fall just  one  notch  shy  of 
being truly quintessential. 2002's _Genesis_ came close; more so than 
the mildly underwhelming _Khronos_, but again, even  then  the  Greek 
outfit were a smidgen short of delivering  their  masterpiece.  Well, 
folks -- this time round Rotting Christ have upped the ante; not only 
for  their  own  music,  but  for  a  fair  amount  of  what's  still 
to be  released  this  year.  Because,  with  the  exception  of  the 
slightly average opening number, "Visions of a Blind Order", _Sanctus 
Diavolos_ is the sound of a band distilling  everything  that's  ever 
made them worth listening to, adding several more elements to broaden 
the depth of their sound, and taking it all up a gear or two.         

Curiously  given  the  departure  of  their  keyboardist  last   year 
(reputedly due to the band's  return  to  a  more  stripped-down  old 
school approach), _Sanctus Diavolos_ is actually slightly heavier  on 
the synths than either of its  two  predecessors.  In  addition,  the 
majority of the record is accompanied by a  full-size  female  choir, 
which lends the album a truly haunting and  organic  atmosphere.  But 
before you start thinking "Dimmu Borgir  bombast"  however,  you  can 
rest  assured  that  Rotting  Christ  are  using  these  elements  in 
ways that you've never  heard  before.  From  the  bleak  portent  of 
"Tyrannical" to the tranquil beauty of "Sanctimonious", the record is 
a clear testament to the fruits of the year-long gestation reportedly 
undertaken by band leader Sakis in the run-up to its  final  sprucing 
at Fredman Studios. Likewise, raw aggression is  available  in  ample 
doses, with "You My Cross" being easily the most upfront and abrasive 
work the band have recorded for ages. But while  the  record  may  be 
deeply rooted in black metal, calling it a return  to  the  primitive 
darkness of  _Thy  Mighty  Contract_  would  be  doing  it  a  severe 
disservice. Instead, _Sanctus Diavolos_ is the product of a  band  at 
their most confident and evolved. And perhaps most importantly it  is 
the sound of a band finally breaking into the upper echelons of their 
chosen genre in a most convincing manner.                             

Contact: http://www.rotting-christ.com


Spastic Ink - _Ink Compatible_  (Independent, 2004)
by: Brian Meloon  (8 out of 10)

Spastic Ink's second release comes seven  years  after  their  debut, 
_Ink Complete_. While the core of  their  sound  --  ultra-technical, 
quirky,  fusion-inspired,  instrumental  progressive  thrash  --  has 
remained intact, this album  shows  Ink's  mastermind  Ron  Jarzombek 
branching out into new directions. Unlike their previous work,  which 
was simply a collection of songs focused  around  individual  themes, 
this is mostly a concept  album  focusing  on  computers.  Musically, 
the first major  change  that  you'll  notice  is  the  inclusion  of 
vocals, courtesy of Jason McMaster.  Unfortunately,  his  vocals  are 
hit-or-miss: sometimes he sounds fine, and other times he's atonal or 
flat. In addition to vocals, this album also includes a few  samples. 
But while some of them are amusing, others fall flat and  are  pretty 
pointless. Luckily, the vocals and samples are a small  part  of  the 
album, as most of the songs have long instrumental sections which are 
clearly the focus and the strength of the album.                      

Another change from  _Ink  Complete_  is  that  this  album  features 
contributions  from  numerous  guest   musicians,   including   Marty 
Friedman,  Jens  Johansson,  Michael  Manring,   Doug   Keyser,   and 
many more. While  these  contributions  don't  dilute  the  level  of 
musicianship on display, they do tend to dilute the distinctive sound 
that Ink is known for. It's usually pretty obvious when a guitar solo 
is being done by one of the guest musicians, since nobody else  tries 
to mimic Ron's phrasing. This is perhaps not too surprising, as Ink's 
standard style is very different from what other bands are doing, and 
trying to mesh with it can't be an easy thing.  But  this  difficulty 
seems to lead to the inclusion of some jazz-lite sections which sound 
like they are there only as vehicles  for  bass  solos.  While  these 
sections are actually quite well done,  they  don't  feel  very  well 
motivated in the  context  of  their  songs.  In  fact,  I  get  this 
impression from other parts of the music as well. While the songs  on 
Ink's first album were very tightly focused, the songs on  this  disc 
more resemble those on Ron's solo work -- less focused and frequently 
changing. Although the songs are all in the 4-12 minute  range,  some 
of them could be broken  into  smaller  pieces  that  represent  more 
cohesive song units.                                                  

Ultimately, even with all of these complaints, this is still  a  very 
good album. The sheer level of technicality on  display  is  amazing, 
and the fact that their music is so very unique  is  a  testament  to 
Ron's vision and dedication. No one else in the metal world is mixing 
these kinds of tonalities with this level of complexity  in  the  way 
that Ink has been doing for over a  decade.  Fans  of  technical  and 
instrumental metal should find plenty here to enjoy. However,  as  an 
album, _Ink Compatible_  falls  a  little  short  of  their  previous 
release.                                                              

Contact: http://www.spasticink.com


The Haunted - _rEVOLVEr_  (Century Media, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (10 out of 10)

When The Haunted unleashed their debut record back in  1998,  it  not 
only came as a breath of fresh air in a world dominated  by  flagging 
heroes and nu-metal; it kickstarted a new wave of  aggressive  music. 
Perhaps almost as significantly, it served as a proverbial magnifying 
glass that exposed the sizeable chinks in  the  armour  of  stalwarts 
like Slayer et al, who at that point undisputedly  ruled  the  thrash 
metal roost. Soon enough, a host of very talented acts were answering 
the call, releasing record after record of  hard-hitting  metal  that 
nodded respectfully in the direction of the old school, while at  the 
same time taking the genre to dizzier heights than it had ever  been. 
As time passed by, The Haunted weren't the only big dogs in the  yard 
anymore. Of course, their  subsequent  releases  didn't  really  help 
either. Though not weak by any means, the comparatively lackadaisical 
approach of _The Haunted Made Me Do It_ could certainly not match the 
relentless violence of the band's o pening war cry, and even when the 
band did try to recapture the raw  aggression  of  their  early  days 
with _One Kill Wonder_ they came  up  short,  branded  formulaic  and 
uninventive. Clearly something needed to be done.                     

Sticking very much to the promise not so  subtly  hinted  it  in  the 
album's moniker, _rEVOLVEr_ is the sound of The Haunted not  so  much 
rewriting the rulebook, but refining everything  that  has  thus  far 
contributed to the band's fearsome reputation. The melodies are still 
there, along with the tight, razor-sharp hooks,  and  the  thunderous 
mid-tempo breakdowns -- only this  time,  they're  more  complex  and 
harder hitting than ever before. The first indication that the Swedes 
mean business can be found early on, when a purposefully  stuttering, 
awkward intro gives way to a riff that's made of the stuff  that  had 
people singing along to _Reign in Blood_ nearly two decades ago. "99" 
follows up "No Compromise"'s bludgeoning statement of intent  with  a 
rolling mid-tempo thrasher that's custom-made for mosh-pit pain.  And 
if these tracks  still  aren't  able  to  convince  you  that  you're 
listening to the best album to bear  The  Haunted's  logo,  then  the 
acerbic pre-chorus of "All Against All"  is  guara  nteed  to  put  a 
devilish grin on even the most jaded face.                            

More than anything though, the key to _rEVOLVEr_'s appeal lies in the 
fact that this time round The Haunted are confident  enough  to  take 
chances and make  them  stick,  the  best  example  being  the  final 
climactic dirge of "My Shadow". In  a  sense,  the  reinstatement  of 
Peter Dolving in the vocalist's booth proves to be another weapon  in 
their already impressive arsenal. Not that I  have  anything  against 
Marco Aro's efforts mind you,  but  when  Dolving  dementedly  croons 
"Come a little bit closer, so that I can see what you taste like"  on 
"Abysmal", you can't help but feel that a prodigal son  has  returned 
back to his rightful home. Certainly though, if time off was what was 
needed for him to deliver the outstanding  performance  that  he  has 
here, then it was well justified indeed.                              

So, for now, The Haunted have once again left pretty  much  everybody 
trailing in the dust. How long they will remain in that top  spot  is 
anyone's guess, but for now, one would hope  that  someone  somewhere 
plays this record loudly enough for Kerry King to  sit  up  and  take 
notice.                                                               

Contact: http://www.the-haunted.com


Turisas - _Battle Metal_  (Century Media, 2004)
by: Jackie Smit  (8.5 out of 10)

The sight of  grown  men  dressed  to  the  hilt  in  medieval  garb, 
performing all manner of unsociable acts with flails  and  longswords 
was always going  to  elicit  the  odd  snicker  or  two.  Thankfully 
however, this Finnish five-piece's music is  leap  years  beyond  the 
tongue-in- cheek façade that's depicted in the  record's  inlay.  One 
could even go as far as to say that if Bal Sagoth had ever  possessed 
any real sort of talent, then _Battle Metal_ is the album  that  they 
would ultimately have ended up making. As irony would have it though, 
it's taken Turisas only one attempt to craft the  musical  equivalent 
of "Braveheart", and they have done so with a  staggering  degree  of 
songwriting maturity. Not that you'd think so at first, though -- the 
faux-orchestral  introduction  that  kicks  off  the  album  is  more 
reminiscent of the soundtrack to "Rocky 3" than it is  an  anthem  to 
Middle Age warfare, but when the gee-tars  kick  in  on  "As  Torches 
Rise", Turisas are all business from there on out.                    

Along with a healthy dollop of Scandinavian folk, references to  just 
about every cornerstone in metal abound throughout the course of this 
record -- from the bombastic black metal  of  Dimmu  Borgir,  to  the 
sweeping grandiosity of Therion, to the progressive epics  of  Voivod 
and the traditional power  riffage  of  Iron  Maiden.  But  to  their 
immense credit, Turisas never once sound like simply the sum of their 
influences. In fact, one of the only gripes  that  come  to  mind  in 
reference to _Battle Metal_ is  that  the  somewhat  flat  production 
often times does not allow each instrument  the  necessary  breathing 
space to shine. For a debut effort  however,  this  is  a  staggering 
triumph, and  although  it  may  not  appeal  to  everyone,  it  will 
certainly get enough heads bobbing to justify its existence.  As  for 
me -- I'm off to go and buy myself a chainmail vest as soon  as  time 
allows.                                                               

Contact: http://www.turisas.com

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

Scoring: 5 out of 5 -- A flawless demo
         4 out of 5 -- Great piece of work
         3 out of 5 -- Good effort
         2 out of 5 -- A major overhaul is in order
         1 out of 5 -- A career change is advisable


Devastator - _Infernal Devastation_
by: Todd DePalma  (4 out of 5)

Florida based Devastator play  a  combination  of  black/thrash  that 
shapes itself from the cross-mutated influence of South American  and 
German metal. The five tracks on this demo take  time  to  digest;  a 
quality that is probably due more to the state  of  the  "production" 
than the actual structure of the music.  Simplistic  and  catchy,  if 
Kreator had sounded as inelegant as early  Sodom  or  Sarcofago  this 
would be the result. Analog recording thins out the guitars too much, 
but the drumming sustains a heavy  quality  in  stomping  combination 
with the feral snarl of the vocals, as the  riffs  frequently  become 
engulfed in an avalanche of static. Despite the  challenging  aspects 
of demo audibility, the content of this release is on par with any of 
the better blackened thrash bands like Alastor or  Witchtrap,  and  I 
eagerly await a professional full-length.                             

Contact: http://www.infernaldevastation.cjb.net


Mórpheus - _Delomelanicon_
by: James Montague  (4 out of 5)

Given that most demos fall squarely into genre-defined pigeon  holes, 
a reviewer can usually achieve a rapid turnover, citing a few obvious 
references and rating the new band on its cloning ability within  one 
or two listens. Other times, the demo is so dull that you can't  even 
be bothered  name-dropping.  This  debut  recording  from  the  Greek 
black/death quintet Mórpheus took almost three months to make its way 
from my stereo to my keyboard, but don't  think  for  a  second  that 
boredom was the cause. It was actually a combination of laziness, and 
the fact that _Delomelanicon_ defied my original perception.          

Noting that of the four tracks, two were  keyboard  instrumentals,  I 
prepared myself to be buried in another mound of  uninspired,  synth- 
driven, melodic black metal drivel. But I'll be damned, the intro was 
actually quite a  dramatic  and  well-conceived  piece  of  Wagnerian 
bombast, replete with thunderous timpani effects. It  led  seamlessly 
into an explosive pair of hymns, with  some  truly  malicious  riffs, 
mesmerizing bass drum pedalling and a tantalizing blend of  blackened 
screams and roaring death vocals. The mid-point of the  title  track, 
in particular, features an excellent layering  of  the  vocal  styles 
that  contributes  to  a  memorable  crescendo.  Keyboards  are  used 
extensively throughout a crisp  and  powerful  recording,  and  while 
occasionally redundant, they more often than not enhance  the  songs, 
placing Mórpheus head and shoulders above many amateurs  who  butcher 
their riffs with an ill-thought-out synth coating.                    

Just three years into their  existence,  Mórpheus  have  utilized  an 
astonishing fifteen band members, eight of whom contributed  to  this 
recording. This is a sign of their ambition  and  perfectionism,  and 
I'm  sure  this  excellent  demo  will  serve  as  a  first  step  to 
fulfilment.                                                           

(Note: CD is distributed free of charge but limited  to  500  copies. 
Tracks also available for download in  their  full  versions  at  the 
contact URL.)                                                         

Contact: http://www.the-morpheus.com


Thornafire - _Sin and Flesh Devotion_
by: Todd DePalma  (4 out of 5)

This promo/demo disc offers seven tracks of death metal born  from  a 
collision of death  metal  spectrums.  A  very  professional,  almost 
fleshy production adorns this set; the clear  mix  complementing  the 
sentiment of spectral, smoke-like  lead  guitars  emerging  from  the 
elastic storm of opener "Curse of the Limb"  and  the  abyss  scaling 
riffs on "From Punishment to Advent". For those that enjoy Krisiun or 
Rebaelliun, Thornafire offers a more diverse combination  amidst  the 
patent of generic vox and drum rifling; a combination  of  the  above 
mentioned  groups  with  Swedish  death  metal  (Eucharist)  that  is 
more structurally interesting even as  it  retains  a  foundation  of 
simplistic gallops towards the flaming pits.                          

Contact: http://www.thornafire.cl

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

Gino Filicetti's Top 5

1. Ewiges Reich - _Ewiges Reich_
2. Ministry - _Houses of the Mole_
3. Svartsyn - _Destruction of Man_
4. Pest - _Ad Se Ipsum_
5. Dolorian - _Dolorian_

Pedro Azevedo's Top 5

1. The Haunted - _rEVOLVEr_
2. Bloodbath - _Nightmares Made Flesh_
3. Rotting Christ - _Sanctus Diavolos_
4. Ulver - _A Quick Fix of Melancholy_
5. Krieg - _The Black House_

Quentin Kalis' Top 5

1. Amon Amarth - _Fate of Norns_
2. Bloodbath - _Nightmares Made Flesh_
3. Hecate Enthroned - _Recidimus_
4. Butterfly Temple - _Veles_
5. Butterfly Temple - _Dreams of Northern Sea_

Jackie Smit's Top 5

1. Behemoth - _Demigod_
2. Lamb of God - _Ashes of the Wake_
3. Krisiun - _Bloodshed_
4. The Hauned - _rEVOLVEr_
5. Rammstein - _Reise, Reise_

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DESCRIPTION
~~~~~~~~~~~
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
bands who send us material, as  well  as  interviews  with  a  select
number of independent acts.


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End Chronicles of Chaos, Issue #78

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.                                                                

