New tourdates for Mayhem:
01/12 - Garage, Bergen (NOR)
01/13 - Markens, Kristiansand (NOR)
01/14 - Hydranten, Hamar (NOR)
01/15 - Samfundet, Trondheim (NOR)
01/21 - tba, Patra (GRE)
01/22 - tba, Tessaloniki (GRE)
01/23 - An Club, Athens (GRE)
More dates soon.
Pitchfork lauds Annie and her debut album "Anniemal": https://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/a/annie/anniemal.shtml
New release from Norwegian avant label Rune Grammofon:
Nils Økland is an innovative violinist and Hardanger fiddle specialist who is creatively expanding the range of the traditional music of his homeland. He is a renewer of folk music, consistently building bridges to classical, contemporary and improvised music. His playing combines freedom with respect for Norway's musical heritage and he is concerned both with the preservation of the oral folk music tradition and with the experimental possibilities of the music when it is charged with modern impulses. On "Bris", his third album and the second for Rune Grammofon, he has written all the music himself which is quite unusal for the genre. He is joined by Sigbjørn Apeland, his musical companion since long, as well as Mats Eilertsen (Food) on bass and Per Oddvar Johansen and Håkon Stene on percussion.
More info: https://www.runegrammofon.com/
The top Scandinavian videos streamed last week at on-demand video service Musicbrigade.com:
01. Nightwish - Wish I had An Angeln
02. Ana - We Aren
03. Annie - Chewing Gumn
04. Nightwish - Nemo
05. Alcazar - This Is The World We Live In
Requested Videos: 282,830
Total Streams: 427,208
Mate Recordings will release a limited edition split 7" from Roger and Boys of Scandinavia in December featuring the new Roger track "A kiss in the darkness" and a remastered version of "Worse than a girl" from Boys of Scandinavia. Go here for soundclips and more info: https://www.materecordings.com/mate007
Germany's Sellfish Webzine interviews Cult of Luna: https://sellfish.inserteffekt.com/_start.php?link=interviews/cultofluna.htm
Also new at Sellfish this week are reviews of new releases from Omnium Gatherum and The Wonderfools. Check it: https://www.sellfish.de
Swedish darkwave act Arcana will be performing at the "Old house" in St. Petersbrug, Russia on December 11 as part of the Radio Infernal Festival. In other news, look for samples from their new album "Le Serpent Rouge" to be posted online later this week: https://www.erebusodora.net/arcana/
Novoton Records, home of Black Belt and Novak, has a new website online with a bunch of downloadable video and audio content: https://www.novoton.se/
Look for the new issue of Drum! Magazine for an interview with Robert Eriksson of The Hellacopters. Fellow 'Copter Robert 'Strings' Dahlqvist is interviewed in the new issue of Guitar One.
A few years ago, while I was fully immersed in metal, The Haunted became one of my favourite bands. Their first album took the art of the no-frills trash record to new heights; to me that record was better than Slayer's "Reign in Blood" or "Season in the Abyss", Metallica's "Master of Puppets" or Megadeth's "Peace Sells". It was a revelation and it carried afterwards a slew of other good (Darkane, Defleshed, The Crown) and not so good (Carnal Forge, Gandalf) bands that were brought to prominence at the end of the nineties. While The Haunted continued their road on the thrash map, in the process changing vocalist from Peter Dolving to Marco Aro, I lost a bit of interest. Aro's delivery, while aggressive, was run-of-the-mill death vocals that did absolutely nothing for me. The additional consequence was that the bands felt the need to go as aggressive as possible with Aro and were losing the subtle things that made them good in the first place.
Two records later: Dolving is back and so is the band. First of all, this supposed evolution of the band is not that big of a deal. What they did is finally picked some melodic elements in the old At the Gates' bag of tricks, which was left unopened since the demise of the band and the formation of this one. We are talking about a majority of the songs here being extremely up tempo and a few numbers being mid-paced. The return of Dolving permits the band to use his vast array of talents in different situations and vary the attack with a lot more ease than it would have been possible with Aro. Here is how it goes song per song:
"No Compromise" starts the record as if recorded in a shoe box with strange rhythm pattern before going all out in the traditional Slayer-at-their-best thrash number that starts off the record not only with a bang but also reintroduced shouted backing vocals to the foray, something that was never part of their arsenal with Aro. The slower mid-section is so chest-pumping heavy it is amazing.
"99" is a bit of lower bpm affair that brings memories of "The Red in the Sky is Ours", with a bit a more modern melodic Gothenburg style but not without your scarifying on the violence.
"Abysmal" starts with clean guitars and Dolving doing what makes him a better fit for this band: the ability to actually sing (although he does very little of that on the record), and it is a nice change of pace. Once again this one lowers the bpm a little more and shows the band in all their mid-paced glory. This song sounds a bit like what Entombed sound like since the Death 'n Roll conversion.
"Sabotage" is one of those songs that is meant to blow your head clean off and does not quite succeed even though the song is pretty good. The breakdown at the end of the song particularly good the chorus just doen't do it.
"All Against All" is more of a mid-paced song that is probably the weakest on the entire album. I don't know why they felt the need to put it right in the middle of the album. It does have a nice lead and melodic guitar riff that accompanies it.
"Sweet Relief" is a throwback to the self-titled album: Fast and furious riffing but once again a very nice melodic lead and a breakdown changes things up mid song, much to my delight. This rocks.
"Burn to a Shell" once again displays Dolving's abilities, in the singing and screaming department. This could be considered The Haunted's ‘ballad' much like "Fade to Black" was but this one never stays in the ballad mode for long. Perhaps the strongest number on the album as it shows everything they are able to do, as well as combining them with a lot of ease.
"Who Will Decide" continues in the not-so-fast department but also shows just about every tempo change in a single song this band is able to do, and they do it well. Not the strongest song but certainly not the worst.
"Nothing Right". At this point if you did not enjoy the rest of the album, then you have no reason listening to this, but you would be missing out. The Haunted on this record throws at you everything but the kitchen sink and this song is a perfect example of subtle changes in riffs, stopping the guitars there and just changing things up mid-song. Just great stuff.
"Liquid Burns" continues the tradition of fast thrash and melodic enhancement this record brought to us.
"My Shadow" finishes the album, much like the self-titled one finished with a half spoken-word, half singing affair in depressing fashion. This is a good finishing song, although it is certainly not the band's strength.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Went and saw Supersilent and Jaga Jazzist last night and totally had my mind blown. I missed the first little 10 minutes or so of Supersilent, but what I caught was way more noisy and intense than I anticipated. Don't worry, that's a good thing. Words fail to describe how amazing and visceral they were - the sounds they produce are beyond comparison. Jaga Jazzist had a tough act to follow, but they tore it up and played quite a few new tracks due to appear on their next album. Drummer/bandleader Martin Horntveth radiates an astonishing amount of energy and really drives the rest of the 10-piece band beyond what constitutes a typical jazz show. If you get a chance to see either of these groups, don't pass it up.
We're going comp-crazy here in the mailorder department! Not only do I have the "Indie Workshop Random Sounds" and "Accelerator 2003" comps in stock, I've also slashed prices on "Accelerator 2004" and the "Picknick" singer/songwriter collections. Discovering new music has never been easier! How about package deals? Buy more than one comp, it'll only set you back $5 apiece! Buy all five budget comps from the mailorder and get one free! Go here to order: [click here]
Kristofer Åström CDs have been restocked, too.
New pics of Marit Bergman playing solo/acoustic at Rockfoto: https://www.rockfoto.nu/intSpelning/181/intBand/75