Victhor The Viking

This is a great article on black metal from Brooklyn Vegan.  The article includes an interview with Hupogrammos from Dordeduh.  Hupogrammos and Sol Faur are both former members of Negura Bunget.

Greetings and a happy new year! Looks like a very promising one for Dordeduh by the way: first live appearance, first EP later to be followed by a debut album, and both to be released by a very respected German label at that, maybe even a European tour to promote all of this. 2010 doesn’t look so bad…could we speak of an abundance of optimism?

Hupogrammos: Happy new year to you as well, and may it be a revealing one for us all. Well, optimism takes its shape from the way you create your path. In Dordeduh’s case, lots of work still remains to be done to achieve the things you speak of. Our first live date should be known to the interested public by now, the EP will be ready by March, then we’ll announce the debut album’s release, to be followed by the supporting live dates.

2009 has been an extremely agitating year for you, one of severe disappointment. Following Negura Bunget’s split we see two camps having formed, each being eager to see what the other has to offer, not only structurally, but also conceptually. Do you think that what didn’t kill you made you stronger? What does the future hold for Dordeduh, from the prism of NB’s formation to its split, both ? Or perhaps we should see everything from a completely different point of view, unrelated to the past?

Throughout our personal history there’s always been a natural continuity with our past; we’re not going to make a secret out of the fact that the split from Negura Bunget has not only been the most difficult moment in our musician-related lives (and I mean Sol Faur and I), but in fact, the greatest disappointment in our personal lives. It just shouldn’t have ended this way. It’s what hurts us the most, the way it was handled. Of course these events speak volumes about how much we have to learn about ourselves from our own personal experiences, and I’m also speaking about the modesty needed to approach such teachings with, so that they can be integrated in the best way. But these events surround our personal lives. Yes there is a lot to be learned but I’d rather the listeners saw Dordeduh as a new and definite entity, capable of seeing the future and learn from the past without being neither of their captive.

read the rest of the interview at BrooklynVegan.

Lucker of Chalice is the shit. Period! Wrest (Jef Whitehead) is one of the best all around musicians in extreme metal. He is one of the best drummer out there. His blast beats are fucking insane! His guitar work is chaotic and beautiful. As for vocals, creepy as fuck!

This self titled album is one of my favorite albums of all time. It so melancholy and creepy I can listen to it every day and not get tired of it. The album starts off with the funeral march I, and quickly moves into hypnotic drone of Piercing Where They Might, but my favorite song on the album has got to be the 10 minute epic This Blood Falls As Mortal Part III. The samples add so much dimension that I could meditate with this song on repeat for hours.

This album and the Leviathan album A Silhouette in Splinters go hand in hand even though the Lurker of Chalice album is a little more metal.

If you are looking for another The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide this is not it. But if you are in the mood for some misanthropic meditation, then Lucker of Chalice is your album.

Great interview of Fenriz from Darkthrone. I really like his view on underground metal today, Darkthrone not playing live shows, and bands defacing the value of black metal.

Black metal is thinking for yourself. That can be done with or without computer. Most importantly is to stay away from copying 90’s bm. I don’t play bm anymore because of all the trendys defacing the value of bm, and all the arty people into emperor and such… I didn’t sign up for that. I signed up for rebellion, and I do that the best with my own songs since 2005 which is a mix of NWOBHM-punk and speed metal.

via New Interview of Fenriz of Darkthrone Faithcraft Productions.

Great Video with Aaron Weaver of Wolves in the Throne Room by Hardtimes.ca. In the interview Aaron discusses he and his girlfriend’s organic farm, paying for their tour trailer with carrots, the occult, 9/11, and more.

I feel that Aaron shows great insight into today’s society. Great stuff!

Wolves in the Throne Room Interview HARDTIMES.CA

As most of you know by now, Hollywood has decided to do a movie on the book Lords of Chaos starring one of those teen age androgynous fellows from the Twilight movie, to play Varg Vikernes. Lords of Chaos is supposedly about the rise of the black metal underground in Norway. However, Vikernes made a statement in 2004 condemning the book:

…the vast majority of all the statements made in this book are either misinterpretations; taken out of context; misunderstandings; malicious lies made by enemies; a result of ignorance; extreme exaggerations; and/or third-hand information at best. This includes the statements attributed to me!…This book serves only one single purpose and that is to create a myth around my name and to mystify me. If that was their objective they have indeed succeeded with their work. Well, the book seems to have served one other purpose too. The authors have managed to fill the heads of a generation of metal fans with lies. What could have been a righteous revolt has been made into some pathetic, embarrassing, brain-dead, impotent and traditional poser-culture best exemplified by bands like DIMMU BORGIR — and indeed VENOM!”

After seeing the movie Until the Light Takes Us, I am inclined to think the same thing. Not so much that Varg is innocent, but that the black metal movement was something more than satanism if it was to begin with (was it? only they know). I am leaning towards the view that the book Lords of Chaos is more about hyping things up and making money than actual facts.

Look at the unauthorized Led Zeppelin biography, Hammer of the Gods, which was clearly a book that was made to make money and to idolize a group and make them more mysterious so the author can to sell more books. It is about making fucking money.

I think the movie “Until the Light Takes Us” is a little better representation.