Tag Archives: Watain

Blitzkrieg: Rants, Raves and Recommendations

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I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with Apostle of Solitude’s Last Sunrise (Profound Lore, 2010).  These guys really stand out from the traditional doom pack thanks to Chuck Brown’s awesome Danzig-esque vocals.  Brown is an ex-member of Gates of Slumber, but trust me Apostle of Solitude rule way harder.

The band also has a great sense of dynamics and knows when to bring the heavy and when to mellow the fuck out and pour on the atmosphere.  The music and vocals are bleak and emotional without ever sounding cheesy or overwrought. There is a gravitas present on the album that other trad doom bands can’t hope to match with their pot-addled tales of wizards ‘n’ witches.  In other words, seriously killer stuff.

Listen to “December Drives Me to Tears”

A lot of fuss has been made over the cover art.  Is it bad that I don’t hate it?  To me it looks like it could be a still from some freaked out foreign film.  Or maybe a romantic comedy gone sociopath?  All I can say is, don’t let the artwork deter you in any way from checking out this sweet slab of doom.

There are also a couple of bonus cover songs tacked onto the release, my favorite of which is a spot on cover of the Misfits’ classic “Astro Zombies”.  Personally, I would love to hear the Apostles doom this sucker out rather than be so faithful to the original, but the song does speak to the band’s Danzig influence, which is great.

Apostle of Solitude just happens to be in the midst of a brief tour.  I’ve never seen them live, but I’d recommend doing so if you’re anywhere near these dates.

Jul 20 2010 8:00P The Court Tavern New Brunswick, New Jersey
Jul 21 2010 9:00P Ace Of Clubs Manhattan, New York
Jul 22 2010 9:00P The Bug Jar Rochester, New York
Jul 23 2010 9:00P Annabell Akron, Ohio
Jul 24 2010 9:00P The Metal Shaker Chicago, Illinois
Jul 30 2010 9:00P the Melody Inn Indianapolis, Indiana
Aug 7 2010 7:00P The Melody Inn Indianapolis, Indiana

http://www.myspace.com/apostleofsolitude

Another recent discovery is Italy’s Children of Technology.  This quartet recently released their first full length, It’s Time to Face the Doomsday, a catchier-than-syphillis blast of crusty Motorhead worship.  Think Toxic Holocaust doing speed and whiskey shots with Lemmy while watching a Road Warrior marathon in a filth-ridden garage and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what these fuckers sound like.  The album clocks in at less than 25 minutes, but CoT pack so many gnarly riffs and singalong hooks into that time that you’re still getting plenty of bang for your buck in spite of the abbreviated length.

Currently the album is only available on vinyl and cassette. I opted for the ultra-rad “radioactive green” cassette since I don’t currently own a turntable.  Word has it that the mighty Hell’s Headbangers will be releasing a CD version this Fall, so those of you that aren’t into outmoded forms of technology will get chance to hear this shit. I e-mailed them with an interview request a while back but have yet to get any sort of reply.

Watain‘s Lawless Darkness has finally started clicking with me.  I’ve been listening to the damn thing since before I interviewed Erik Danielsson for the now defunct Sonic Frontiers, but for some reason the album just wasn’t holding my attention.  Much like Sworn to the Dark, this album is a grower, and it’s myriad depths probably won’t reveal themselves to you unless you are willing to sit down with the album and devote your full attention to it.

I think that’s the reason a lot of albums get written off.  People either can’t or won’t devote the time and effort necessary to discern the intricacies of an album like Lawless Darkness. Even I don’t have time to give every CD the “king’s listen” it deserves.  People want instant gratification, but oftentimes the best works of art just don’t lay themselves bare so quickly.

Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind for it at the time, but I take back everything I’ve said about the band peaking with Casus Luciferi (although that is still my favorite Watain recording to date).

On the horrors of shopping at big chain record stores…

Personal rant time… when did record store clerks become so annoying? Unless I’m with my wife or one of my friends, I prefer to be left alone while browsing. No sooner did I start checking out the metal selection at the local FYE this weekend, then a clerk started stalking me. I was wearing a Sepultura Chaos AD shirt and the guy says to me “A guy who posts on one of the message boards I’m on says Sepultura is the worst band ever!” I felt like saying “That’s fucking great, do you and your message board buddy want a cookie?” but before I could come up with any sort of response, he says “I told him he didn’t know what he was talking about.” I said that Sepultura had gone down hill after Max left and kept browsing.

Just when I thought he had gone away and I was in the clear, he pops up over my shoulder again. This time he hands me the new Soilwork CD. At this point I wanted to say “Soilwork?! You’ve gotta be fuckin’ kidding me.” but instead I basically advised him that in my opinion Soilwork hadn’t put out a good album since Natural Born Chaos (some would argue they crapped out long before that) and I hadn’t paid attention to them since. With his Soilwork parade officially pissed upon, he went back to the register and at last I was left to browse in peace.

I’m sure he meant well and is a perfectly nice person.  However, I like to be left to my own devices when browsing music, unless I am with someone who has similar tastes (i.e. my wife, my friends).  Basically I’m a mean, curmudgeonly old son of a bitch who doesn’t want to deal with these young whippersnappers and their melodic metal.  I especially don’t want one of them recommending shit to me or commenting on the band adorning my fucking t-shirt to try and get a reaction. Man, I’m a total asshole.

Anyway, I think I’ll be posting scatterbrained pieces like this every so often, just to get things off my chest.  Any suggestions for bands or other metal-related subjects to be discussed are welcomed.

Interview: WATAIN

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Over the past decade, Sweden’s Watain have usurped the throne of Scandinavian black metal. By marshaling the forces of total darkness to create a string of devastating albums and asserting their dominance through mesmeric live performances, the unholy trio have positioned themselves as the one BM act that just might be able to make good on the genre’s promise of creating the soundtrack to armageddon. Their latest album, Lawless Darkness, is the culmination of the trio’s hellbent war-march towards the unlight. I spoke with frontman Erik Danielsson via e-mail to discuss the new album and cutting through the fabric of the universe.

THKD: Tell us about the new album, Lawless Darkness. What did you set out to accomplish?

Erik Danielsson: A thorough musical exploration of the darkside. Lawless Darkness to us is the greatest and most well-crafted monument we have ever risen in honour of ours gods. To the listener, it will be a glimpse into a world where the illusions of this world of flesh and light are absent; the garden of unearthly delights, the abode of liberated fire and boundless becoming.

THKD: How would you describe your songwriting approach for the new album? How has it evolved over the years since Rabid Death’s Curse?

E: As every craftmanship, the art of making larger-than-life music also demands constant progress and refining. When you are 16 years old you are usually not aware –or at least I wasn’t- of the many marvels and wonders that this kind of artistry has room for. In that sense, Watain started as a blunt piece of ardent iron, and through the years we have worked it into one of the sharpest daggers this cesspool of a world ever had thrusted into it’s fat belly. The sharpening and the embelishment of the blade that is Watain will be ever ongoing, until it can cut through the very fabric of the universe.

THKD: Unfortunately my promo copy of the album did not include lyrics. What are some of the main lyrical themes behind the new album?

E: The exploration, glorification and adoration of the Devil; the eternal adversary and enemy of the world as we know it.

THKD: What is “Lawless Darkness”? How does it relate to the overall concept of Watain?

E: The idea of Lawless Darkness is based upon the thought that light is a impulse of restriction and definition. Darkness, in turn, is the absence of light, and therefore the absence of the same restrictions. Note that Darkness in this context is also used as a spiritual and archetypal concept, not only the physical absence of light during, for example, night-time. The darkness that we refer to is the primordial wellspring of Chaos that is the abode of our gods, and unto which their children, the bloodline of fire, shall return.

As it is above, so it is below. Therefore, the same primordial darkness is reflected here in this filthy world as lawlessness, natural disasters, white-eyed panic, horror, bestial lust, passionate art, acts of true Will and to take a closer example that in a way binds all of these things together; in a band like Watain, and in all our work.

THKD: Aside from just the new album’s title, many Watain songs refer to the “Dark” or “Darkness” in various ways. Is this an allusion to Satan? What does Satan mean to you?

E: Satan is the archetype of the afore-mentioned darkness, the godform embodying all it’s aspects. His is the sword by which the bonds to creation are torn, and his is the torch that shall guide us his faithful children unto liberation by enlightenment.

THKD: To my ears, Lawless Darkness is a very natural progression from Sworn to the Dark. How do you think the band has changed /progressed since the last album?

E: I would say the new album sounds like if Sworn to the Dark had been on a journey beyond the stars, wandered through the magnificent gardens of the darkside, got drunk on the wine of the dark Mother and killed itself to be reborn as a free, radiant spirit in the great halls of the ancient gods. It will be very interesting to see where things will go from here…

THKD: For Lawless Darkness, Watain once again recorded at Necromorbus studios. Did the recording process for the the new album differ at all from that of Sworn to the Dark?

E: Not that much apart from that it was twice as long, two months this time. This allowed for more contemplating and more serious thinking, and less stress. This can undoubtedly be heard in the result.

THKD: The recently released “Reaping Death” single has been certified gold in your home country of Sweden. What was your reaction to this?

E: A yawn, and a scornful leer towards those who reacted with surprise and, in some cases, reluctance.

THKD: Sworn to the Dark was released in 2007. Why such a long wait in between albums?

E: I know this might be hard to fathom for all of you in this new myspace generation, but once upon a time there existed something called “artists”, who made music because their hearts and souls left them with no other choice, no other wish, no other way of feeling at ease with the filth of life. And, guess what, these brilliant beings were in fact NOT driven by greed, ego-centric whoredom, narcisism or the rules of an industry. And yes, Watain still belong to this rare kind of creators.

Next Watain album may come in 10 years or in 4 months. We do as please, and do not answer to the rules of any materalistic music industry.

THKD: Watain has emerged as one of the world’s leading black metal bands. What are your thoughts on the current state of the genre?

E: Similar to our thoughts of the world in general; overpopulated and uninspiring, with the exception of a small percentage who are able to spice it up. In a black metal scene context, those would be Norma Evangelium Diaboli, the Watain militias, Blasphemy, Vomitor, Nifelheim and a few others. In a world context, it would be truly excentric artists, terrorist groups, outlaws, drug-dealers, all those who aim to FUCK THE WORLD.

THKD: Watain takes its name from a song by the mighty VON. What is about that band that you found so inspiring when forming Watain?

E: Usually when you listen to music you can picture instruments being played and recorded, and what you hear is the outcome of that. When I heard VON i pictured a cauldron of human blood, in which was boiling the heads of dogs, infants, wax and resin made of human corpses and forbidden fruits. And what I heard were the sounds of that abominable concoction hissing, pounding, beckoning, evoking…

THKD: At this summer’s Sweden Rock Festival, Watain will play a special Bathory tribute set. How did this come about and how would you describe Bathory’s influence on the band?

E: We see it as a chance to educate the idiots who thought that Black metal started with Gorgoroth. If people would have turned to Bathory for inspiration instead of fjords and trolls then maybe this Black Metal thing would not have been so embarassing today. So this will simply be our way to point a torch towards Bathory, and also a personal opportunity to pay homeage to a band whose influence on our musical and artistic expression is undeniable.

THKD: To my knowledge, Watain has always been a trio. The number 3 and the concept of the trinity or triad is often considered a powerful symbol. Does it hold any special significance for you as it relates to the band?

E: The number 3 is a very important numerological key in the world of Watain, yes.

THKD: The band is known for using a lot of blood, carrion, etc when playing shows. What does this add to the live Watain experience?

E: They are totems uniting us with the forces which we want to flow freely through the performance. If you want to have a romantic dinner with your partner you light a candle and buy roses. If you want to commune with the powers of Satan you might have to employ other things.

THKD: You’ll soon be returning to US soil for the Maryland Deathfest. Are you looking forward to once again slaughtering US audiences?

E: We look forward to give them an orgasm shaking the very boundaries of the continent, as the forceful phallus of Lawless Darkness shall penetrate the unexpecting holes of their bodies and souls. The feeling afterwards shall be one of shame, confusion and blushed exhaustion.

THKD: Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to add?

E: Beware.

www.myspace.com/watainofficial

(originally written for Sonic Frontiers(dot)net)

Pray Satan (or Taste the blood of VON)

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AG11-Von-triple-gatefold-jacket

I’ve been wanting to write about VON for a long time.  Spawned from San Francisco’s dark underbelly in 1989, VON recorded two demos (Satanic Blood and Blood Angel) and played a handful of live shows before disappearing back into the unholy abyss from whence they came.

In spite of a total recorded output of about 20 songs, VON has been highly influential within the black metal underground, and with good reason.  Armed with piss-poor production values and a deliberately rudimentary approach to songstructure, the trio is responsible for some of the filthiest, most hypnotic extreme metal ever put to tape. Indeed, VON’s reliance on repetition, coupled with their ability to make the atmosphere provided by lo-fi production work to their advantage, has lead to 20 years of hopeless mimicry from all corners of the blackened globe.

VON’s demos have been compiled (along w/ some live recordings) as Satanic Blood Angel, and have been released on several occasions by the mighty Nuclear War Now! Productions (aka the label that snubs my e-mails because I’m not kvlt enough), and have also been bootlegged for a split with Dark Funeral called Devil Pigs.  While some will undoubtedly dismiss songs like “Watain”, “Satanic Blood” and “Blood Angel” as monotonous noise, they are missing the point entirely.  VON’s music is simplicity itself, pure evil distilled into two minute and thirty second bouts of demonic delerium.  Taken as a whole, these tracks have an uncannily ritualistic vibe, capable of inducing the grim, quasi-psychedelic trance-state so much black metal tries (and more often than not fails) to attain.

Personally, I find a lot of power in VON’s minimalism.  From song composition and instrumentation to production to imagery/artwork, everything about the band is crude, direct and to-the-point.  This stark, stripped down approach makes their music that much more sinister and mysterious, and whether or not the trio’s odes to the dark lord were legitimate, I can’t imagine a more genuinely eerie and esoteric batch of sounds than those found on Satanic Blood Angel ever being put to tape.  

It is the simplistic approach that lends the air of legitimacy to their sound.  While the concept of a bunch of devil worshippers whipping up slick-sounding metal in a multi-million dollar Pro-Tools equipped studio seems beyond ludicrous, the thought of three disciples of the left-hand path gathering in a dank, dark basement and capturing their unholy sonic ritual sacrifices on a decrepit 4-track machine sounds like the stuff of true nightmares.

So many so-called extreme bands get wrapped up in all the extra bells and whistles of the recording studio and over-the-top imagery that whatever they were originally attempting to get across becomes hopelessly diluted.  VON did not fall into this trap for even a second and this is why their music remains timeless in its black purity.

VON’s music IS the ritual.  Pentagrams smeared on the floor and walls with blood and vomit.  Acts of unspeakable human depravity invoking the unnameable.  Candlelit blood sacrifices.  Demonic possession.   Blood VON.

http://www.myspace.com/vonmusicgroup