Ok folks,

A few have asked about the old L.E.G.O. consert tapes, and I've promised to digitalise it years ago. Today I delivered the tapes to Kenneth at Neseblod , and he will digitalise them and make them available. I'll come back to how and when.

I also gave other items from the good old times, among them some letters and fanzines and some previously unpublished pictures.

The reason for giving this to Kenneth is that there's not many people more dedicated to Norwegian BM in the world. So when he asked for items for an exhibition this spring in Oslo, I felt it was the right thing to give him what little I had.

 

 

For Norwegian readers.

ok, I made a lot of promises on what I'd post here in 2010. And I didn't keeep one of them.

Sorry about that, I've been kinda busy.

Just to let you all know. I haven't forgotten, and will be posting here again shortly.

Musicnodes, I love it

If you're interested in death and black metal, you might find this article interesting. Insightful and music oriented, from deathmetal.org.

I thought I'd recommend a record to play in these cold winter days -
at least they are cold enough here in the north. The record is from the concert Sunn o))) held in Bergen a few years ago, together with Lasse Marhaug and Attila. It really is worth having in your collection, and listen to in times when you need something all consuming :-)

Unfortunately it is only available in vinyl. On the other hand vinyl is a wonderful format for sound, so if you're into this it should be of no concern, really. 

I've listened a lot to the Sunn O))) lately. I do hope you have to. This band is what I choose to call solid wood. They had a ground breaking performance in the Dome church in Bergen, together with Lasse Marhaug and Attila on vocals, and I deeply regret I didn't take the trip over to see them. But shit do happen, and this was one of my mistakes that I have to live with.

But if I'm correctly informed all of us that coldn't be present at the concert, will be able to get a glimpse at the experience next year. The album will be called "Domkirken" and is to be released on the Southern Lord label in january. Have your credit cards ready, this is something to look forward to!

Here's more about it (in norwegian)

There's a documentary coming up. Stefan Rydehed is behind it. Here's some low quality clips on Youtube from it.

Well, the thruth is actually quite simple. The summer the record "Black metal" hit the norqegian marked, a friend of ours bought the record. He didn't like it himself, but gave us a copy because he thought we might find it interesting - given what we where thinking of with our own project. This was before Mayhem was established. We listened a lot to that album, and we where fascinated. Not only by the music, but mainly by the image and themes of the album.

It might be fair to asume that Venom was the seed for Mayhem as a image. They did something totally different, but we certainly had them as inspiration. And to manifest that we covered the song Black metal and wiching hour. Mayhem would have emerged without them, but probably under a different genre name. With Mayhem we took it much further, but the historical link is without question. Venom named the genre, without knowing I guess.

Now, is Venom worth while listening to? I say yes. For the ones that really want to explore the black metal genre, you should listen to Venoms album "black metal" and their album "at war with satan". They where two records we

Countess Elisabeth Bathory - there you have a psycho. Made famous for her insanity built up around the nevrotic pursue of eternal beauty. In these modern times we might understand her better, and maybe if she had been born into such wealth and power as she was in middle aged eastern Europe, things would've ended up completly different. But sadly for her and her victims, that was not the case. She killed a considerable number of virgins so she could bath in their blood - it was supposed to have a healing effect on her skin. Crazy enough to be house arrested even in the middle ages.

But hell, that was centuries ago. Let's look at the bright side of this tradegy. A swedish kid, with a scillfull father in music, was somehow inspired by her and named his band after her. And that is worth remembering, and give thanks to. The first album is one of the best LPs I have in the genre. And I dare say, it was very important for the first black metal bands in Norway.  He probably came over the name through Venoms song on the subject, and I know many critics say that they can see the musical influence on the early work of this kid. But I say they miss the point. Yeah, Venom inspired us all - I will come back to that in my recommended album list - but Bathory took the music down deep, build it up with a compact and evil expression that inspired others even more.

So - the first album "Bathory" (with a black and white cover if you're a collector) is worth having in your collection. When I first listened to it I loved it so much I hardly listened to anything else for weeks. It was something so compact and indeed new, with the whole brand package of evil that it was never to be forgotten. Musically you can of course argue a lot around it - but it was the right product at the right time for a lot of us.

Later works did not have the same inpact on me, even though I also rank "the return" high. But i would've listened to this album before I went any further with the bands productions.

I wouldn't know if this band is worth listening to today, but they still tour and have new releases so maby I should check it out. Anyway, one evening in the year 1984 (or was it 1985?) we sat down to listen to this new band from Germany. The title "in the sign of evil" was irresistible - of course :-)

Now, you might find that this album is more of a relic than a master piece. And you wuld be right. It isn't necessary a record to be played without the intention of just looking into the 80ies.

But if you have that intention, this is a record that impressed us all. It was agressive and fast, and it was new. I still play it from time to time, and enjoys the album. Mayhem rehersals often included playing some covers just to warm up, songs from this record where among those.

I never had the oportunity to see them live, but "In the sign of evil" was - and still is - a very important record in my collection. If you want to find a relic and see if you like it, here's your chance. And Sodom; if you ever visit Oslo, I'll be in the audience  :-)

In the series of albums that has inspired and influenced me and others, I want to bring attention to Diamanda Galas. She's well known and respected by artists of all genres, and up to this date I haven't heard of anyone without a strong opinion of her works - either they dislike her expression or they love it.

Now I could mention several albums, but the one I choose is " The Divine Punishment & Saint of pit". I do advise you all to listen in on albums like "The litanies of satan" and "Schrei", but that wasn't my first encounter with her musical works. The Divine Punishment & Saint of pit, or plague mass as it is known from the later live release, was a very special musical experience for me.

If I am correctly informed she made this musical work in connection to the spreading of the HIV virus.  The theme, the chosen lyrics, the final musical product and performance has a hard hitting effect. I had the pleasure to see her perfom the mass in Oslo in the 90's - and have been a big fan of her work since this first encounter in the late 80's. If you do not have this in your collection, I strongly recommend you put it on your wish list.

This record should be well known among black metal fans and musicians. But it is 20 years since its first release so it might be some people that is unaware of this jewel in the history of darker metal.

In 1985 this record made an impression on us all. Not that their previous releases didn't, but this was something so much more. In my opinion this is their best record, and still one of the recordings I still listen to after all these years.

There's so much music out there. One could say too much, because it is impossible to discover it all (and I hate to miss out on things).   The most interesting recordings and most treasured records I have, is a result of someone sharing their discoveries with me. In the old days we even went on blind shopping in catalogs to discover what was going on.

Now, why not use my blog to talk about records I like - regardless of genre and when they where recorded. It should be interesting for some of you visitors, I hope.

First one out is a very special LP for those who like synth from the 70's.  Klaus Schultze put out a record in 1972 that has been very important for me since I first discovered it 11 years later.

 

This is a record that I've seen both on peoples top 100 album lists and worst 100 lists, so I guess it isn't given that you will like it. But the most important about this record - for me - is how the sound image is built, and the movements within the 3 tracks. This is a hard core synth music production, and a wonderful introduction to Klaus Schultzes later works.