Bear

Huawei Honor 5 (or something), and I own it because it was pretty cheap ($160) and a fairly good phone at that price. I use my phone for surfing the internet, spotify, netflix, messenger/whatsapp, dating apps, instagram, sending text messages and calling people, in that order. So it's more than good enough for what I'm using phones for, and I'll keep this until it stops working, just like I did with my previous phone which I had for 6-7 years or so. This one I've had for either 2 or 3 years. Still works perfectly fine, despite the fact that I don't have any protection on it or anything. 

By the motherfucking way, speaking of Paysage d'HIver:

 

Paysage d'Hiver - Im Wald

 

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21. february: We’re officially one step closer to the release of Paysage d'Hiver - Im Wald! The printing is done and everything is on its way for assembly.

 

13 tracks, 5 instrumentals, two fucking hours of music. They had a listening party for the album back in January, with exclusive Paysage d'Hiver beers and everything. But the physical release is right around the corner. Interestingly enough, this is actually considered an album, unlike the previous 10 which is counted as demos.

 

 

 

 

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For those lucky ones that will be able to come to the public listening of Im Wald, the new Paysage d'Hiver album: there will be 2 different BMOD brews available, both inspired by the new album.
The first one (Im Wald) is a gruit barleywine of 9,5%: sweet, warming and very herbal thanks to massive amounts of pinetips and heatherflowers. Coriander, juniperberries and cloves were also used to add another dimension to this already complex brew.
The 2nd BMOD brew (Eulengesang im Wald) is a kettle-soured gruit ale with only 7% alcohol. The same herbs were used, but only to complement the tartness of the lacto-fermentation. There is some residual sweetness, just enough to increase the mouthfeel.
Needless to say that I am extremely proud that I got the opportunity to create this beers for something that is completely out of this world. I cannot find the words to describe everything that I feel now, I will just let the beers express my inner self for now.

 

Fuck, I'd kill to be able to attend this. This surely is how you create a listening party that's interesting. Usually listening parties is just totally uninteresting, but this I'd kill to attend. Damn.

 

 

Edit: 

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I was there! It was interesting, it was in a cellar type of room beneath a castle in Burgdorf. Around 50 or so people attended. The room was a small hall with tables and seats. The event started around 14h and went on until about 23h. There wasn't any "program" for the event but rather just casual drinking and socializing with black metal playing in the background up until around 19h when the guy behind Paysage d'Hiver sat with us at the table and talked very briefly about the album. Then for the next two and a half hours we sat in darkness and listened to the album (2hr) and 30 more minutes of demo material that didn't make it onto the album. There were also original paintings hanged on the wall that were used as album covers for several albums in his discography (Schattengang, Die Festung, Das Tor) and another painting which I didn't recognize from any album (but I could swear I saw it somewhere before). The album itself sounds (to me) like a continuation of Das Tor, it's definitely much more black metal than ambient. The whole album flows together and breaks between songs are filled with snow crunching sound and windstorms. After the event everyone who attended received the album on a USB stick encased in wood and engraved with a forest landscape. It's only a matter of time before someone leaks it onto the web I think. The album should come out as soon as they finish printing it (so he said on facebook day after). There was also beer brewed specially for the event which was... alright I guess. Lots of people took them as souvenirs.

 

Sounds sweet as hell.

Naglfar - Cerecloth

 

 

I haven't been able to enjoy anything they released after the departure of Jens Rydén in 2005, with Sheol being their last good album IMO. But I'm still interested in hearing what they've come up with. Expectations is low tho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just came across this. Norwegian ambient black metal. 18 demos, four splits and four compilations gathering a couple of their demos on each is all they have so far (since 2017), but first impression is very good. Grim, cold and atmospheric, and quite obviously VERY inspired by Paysage d'Hiver. So if you're into Paysage d'Hiver, Vinterriket, Battle Dagorath etc. this is sure gonna please you. I only heard this compilation, but I will dig deeper into their discography for sure.

True Fiction - Slow-burning psychological horror movie that'll throw most people off, but for those into psychological weirdness this should be worth a look. Misery meets In the Mouth of Madness meets Peeping Tom? Or something along those lines. A bit confusing at times, but that did just add to the weirdness of it all. Very good film.

 

I Trapped the Devil - Another slow-burn, but very different from the above mentioned film. It's a different type of movie, but it was alright. Felt a bit messy tho. But good movie.

 

 

 

 

I can't believe how good this album is. It's been 14 years since his last album when this was released, and he's only released three full lenghts in 22(+?) years, but all three are absolute masterpieces of depressive black metal. And as far as I am concerned, they're 10/10 releases. Music wise this fits in-between the Burzum-esque depressive black metal of Hoffnungstod and his slower, more melancholic and Strid-esque Die Asche eines Lebens. Few bands within the subgenre og depressive black metal can be compared to Wigrid as far as quality goes.

The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil - South-Korean crime-thriller about a cop and gangster who joins forces to catch a badguy. Really, really good, gritty and intense movie, but it's got those witty comedic elements like a lot of South-Korean crime movies, but without ever entering comedy territory. Superb! Weird how Balboa Productions bought the rights to remake this the same fucking year as it was released.

 

The Flying Guillotine - After having watched Fatal Flying Guillotine I just knew I had to re-watch the other guillotine movies, starring with 1975's The Flying Guillotine and it's two sequels. Fantastic mid-70's exploitation martial arts where heads gets rolling pretty fast, and quite a lot. It has that raw, gritty feeling to it, and it's just really fun. Great martial arts scene, great violence etc. Super duper!

Sabotage - David Ayer has a few really good movies to his name such as End of Watch and Fury (latter one is really fucking good!), but he also has Suicide Squad, as well as Bright and Street Kings which is kinda in-between as far as quality goes. With Sabotage he went on creating a really brutal action-thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or, what we got to see was a nice, brutal and fast-paced action-thriller, but David Ayer action went out to create more of a slower paced crime mystery movie loosely based on And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, but the studios choose to cut it down (about an hour shorter than intended) and make something fast-paced and more action-oriented. Which I thought turned out well. I thought this was really cool, really intense and really fun. Arnold Schwarzenegger is superb in a role that's way darker than his usual stuff, and his somber acting is really well done. Super cool film, but I am really interested in the original cut.

 

Escape Plan 2: Hades - Confusing movie that's all over the place. It jumps from one scene to another without any reason whatsoever, and it's just too dumb and stupid. Sylvester Stallone and Dave Bautista are top-billed, but neither have any big roles at all. They shouldn't even have had their name on the poster. They couldn't even save this mess of a film, which would be hard considering Sly has about 15 minutes worth of screentime. Meh, what a mess of a movie.

 

Escape Plan: The Extractors - With Escape Plan: The Extractors we see Sylvester Stallone and Dave Bautista top-billed again, but this time for a reason as both have big parts in the movie. Both are fantastic, and the movie is pretty cool overall. And Daniel Bernhardt vs Max Zhang was surprisingly cool. Not as good as the first movie, but way, way, way better than the second film.

Watched The Expanse season 4 a while back. This series just keeps getting better and better, and I love how it drive forwards with ever season. It's deep, rich and complex, but fast-paced and with fantastic character development for the mains, superb bi-characters and amazing plots. Best sci-fi series ever? Most likely, at least it's up there with Firefly and a few other superb ones.

 

PS: I do NOT count Stranger Things as a sci-fi series. Horror all the way, baby.

Very cool. Banging indeed! And yeah, I can't believe Ice T is 62 either. Such a cool guy, albeit a low tier bad (but funny) actor.

The Fatal Flying Guillotine - Low-budget martial arts movie from 77 that KINDA rips off other movies. Back in 75 we got Flying Guillotine and in 76 we got the MEGA HIT Master of the Flying Guillotine, but there's films even before these that had a flying guillotine. But non as big as these. Anyway, The Fatal Flying Guillotine stars Carter Wong, best known as Thunder from Big Trouble in Little China, but he also appeared in movies like Born Invincible, When Taekwondo Strikes and 18 Bronzemen. He does a really good job. He's just born to be bad as he has the looks of someone incredibly badass. Anyway, routine movie, but really fun and silly exploitation martial arts movie.

Body at Brighton Rock - The debut feature of Roxanne Benjamin who previously had one short movie and one segment to the anthology movies Xx and Southbound. This was, for most part, pretty cool and well-directed, but it kinda lost me towards the end. Thought she took a few weird decisions, but it's fun enough tho. Not a bad debut.

 

The Odd Family: Zombie on Sale - People will argue about this not being a horror movie, but it definitely is. This is a weird, oddball horror comedy with loads of romance thrown in, and it's a very fun one and it gets kinda crazy towards the end. I thought this was very good, and I can see this go on to become a cult movie for sure. I think the only problem so far is that the promotion for the movie seems to suck. If that's the case, then that's a shame because this was very good and unique.

Color Out of Space - Richard Stanley isn't only back, but he's back with a motherfucking bang! It's been 23 years since he worked on 

The Island of Dr. Moreau, and 27 years since his last proper film, Dus Devil. Color Out of Space is a very colorful and very faithful, albeit slightly updated and modern, adaption of a classic Lovecraft story, and easily one of the most faithful adaptions thus far. Nicolas Cage delivers a very over the top and oddball performance, but it really fits the entire movie, the rest of the cast is superb, it is visually stunning and super interesting throughout. I'd love for Tommy Chong to have a much bigger role tho, because he is good as hell.

 

Anyway, this is nothing short but a masterpiece. Richard Stanley was one of the 90's most unique directors, and he's just returned without having lost any of his qualities at all. Really, really, really looking forward to The Dunwich Horror, and hopefully the third movie in his trilogy. After that I would kill for him to do more H.P. Lovecraft adaptions.

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SWEVEN - THE ETERNAL RESONANCE

When it was decided to put Morbus Chron to rest, I had begun working on what was originally supposed to be our third record. It has been a strenuous battle stretching from then to now. It is time to leave the trenches.

The Eternal Resonance is due to be released on March 20th by Ván Records. Cover artwork as always by the fantastic Raul Gonzalez. Track list as follows:

I. The Spark
II. By Virtue Of A Promise
III. Reduced To An Ember
IV. The Sole Importance
V. Mycelia
VI. Solemn Retreat
VII. Visceral Blight
VIII. Sanctum Sanctorum

More info to come.

/Robert on behalf of Sweven

 

 

So a new band featuring Robert Andersson of Morbus Chron with material he originally wrote for Morbus Chron. With him he's got Isak Koskinen Rosemarin (Conflagrator, Speglas) and Jesper Nyrelius (Speglas). I initially wasn't too big on Sweven when it was released, but it's gotten better with the years. It still ain't anywhere close to their debut album, first EP or demo. But I am looking forward to this. Gorgeous cover art.

 

Some other quite exciting news:

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Göden (ex-Winter) Sign to Svart Records; Debut Album Beyond Darkness Coming May 7

 

Göden – Beyond Darkness – Svart Records

 

Göden is the spiritual successor to Winter, a band that has been heavily influential and highly revered in the metal underground since its inception and treasured demos. A long-awaited continuation of what Winter would have been from co-founder Stephen Flam’s vision, the new album “Beyond Darkness” throws us into an existential voyage out of the past and into the future. A familiar yet distinctive new opus that expands the unmapped shadow world that Winter once opened in our nightmares.

A soundtrack that takes the listener on a dark and ominous journey, Beyond Darkness is a conceptual deep dive into wildly unexplored and unknown sonic territory. The story has three characters, each with different symbols: Stephen Flam as “Spacewinds”, the time and space in which these characters dwell; Vas Kallas as “NXYTA (Goddess of Night)”, lead vocalist and the darkness: Tony Pinnisi as “The Prophet of Göden”, who speaks in the name of Göden and is the light, plays keyboards and also played in Winter. Beyond Darkness is a tale of the dark and the light, set to a score of heavy music.

The artwork was conceived by Eva Petric, a Slovene multimedia artist based in Vienna, Austria and New York. Eva worked with Stephen Flam, creating a visual story book within the LP/CD booklet that the listener can look at while they are consumed by this heavy sound trip.

Stephen Flam leaves us in the outer blackness and inner gloom with these last words as ethereal guidance: “I hope you enjoy this endeavor. Listen with a free and open mind, and journey now Beyond Darkness.”

 

Interesting. For those not aware, Winter was a super influential death/doom band that released a demo, one full lenght and an EP from 89 to 94, then disbanded. The band is quite legendary and one of the darkest, grimmest and most crushing death/doom bands ever. Imagine if Celtic Frost's Morbid Tales and Emperor's Return had a baby with Amebix' Winter. That's Winter for you. Looking forward to this.

 

 

VFW - Holy shit! I finally got to see this, and what a motherfucking movie. Imagine Hobo With A Shotgun, Green Room and Mandy having a baby. 90 minutes of ultraviolent and fun action horror (splatter) grindhouse and 80's worship starring old heroes like Stephen Lang, Fred Williamson, Martin Kove, David Patrick Kelly and George Wendt. The story is thin and only a backdrop for director Joe Begos to unleash a cool set with stylish violence, blood and gore, but that's more than enough for me. I thought this was bloody brilliant and a MUST SEE for anyone into 80's splatter or grindhouse movies. 9,5/10

 

Btw: Did I see a guy wearing a Varathron t-shirt, or was I tripping like hell?

 

I have yet to see Joe Begos' movies Bliss, The Mind's Eye and Almost Human, but I have had them on my watchlist forever and this sure as fuck made me even more curious. Will see them within a few weeks for sure.

 

Without Warning - I was sure I had seen this before but I just couldn't remember anything from it upon (re-)watching it now. Damn, what a cool movie. Low-budget horror movie where half the budget went to two of the actors, but getting them just made it better. Really cool, and apparently a huge inspiration on the masterpiece that is Predator. Recommended.

 

Creature - This is considered a rip off of Alien, but is as much of a rip of as The Thing as it is Alien. Fuck, it even mentiones the original Thing movie. Which I found to be a cool touch. But I am a sucker for these movies and thought this was great. Easily as good as other "rip offs" like Forbidden World, Galaxy of Terror, The Rift and so on. Really cool.

 

The special effects guys actually went on to work on Aliens after this. How fucking cool is that? Well deserved.

 

 

 

 

Oh man, this album is a motherfucking banger from start to finish. 80% Bathory and 20% Discharge. So good!

 

 

 

 

Damn, this was awesome. The concept in itself is pretty cool, but the track turned out really fucking well too. Catchy as hell!

For a Few Bullets - Action adventure western that feels like Indiana Jones meets The Good, the Bad, the Weird. There is so much to love here, but director Anzi Pan tried to chew over way, way, way more than he can handle. The movie is too fast-paced, always jumping around from place to place, never quite gives the characters time to grow and lacks from some visually weak spots. Some of the CGI is way too weak too. It's about two hours long, but should probably have been nearly three hours. Would've done the movie some good for sure.

 

21 Bridges - Chadwick Boseman, Sienna Miller, the always superb J.K. Simmons and Stephan James teams up for a suspenseful and fast-paced action-thriller that's really cool. It's kinda predictable, but it's really fun and got some nice characters. Really enjoyed this.

Black Site - Director Tom Paton have done his best to make a movie that's a mix of John Carpenter, The Raid and Lovecraft, and in theory there's a lot to like here. But it's just not quite there. The action isn't quite good enough, the Lovecraftian elements are kinda too in the background and the John Carpenter-esqu feeling lacks the fun and creativity. It's not bad, just not quite good enough either.

I think Ready or Not was a complete and utter masterpiece. Incredible blend of comedy, horror mystery. And yes, Samara Weaving is one of my favourite actresses in Hollywood ATM. Less than 10 years ago she was a star in Home and Away, but since then she's been in Ash vs Evil Dead, Mayhem, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Babysitter and Ready or Not. That's kinda incredible tbh. And not only has she's been in these movies/series, but she's been superb in them.

 

She's also been in Picnic at Hanging Rock and SMILF, but I have not seen those yet. She's also in Guns Akimbo which I am really looking forward to. New movie directed by the guy behind Deathgasm. 

Silent Rage - Chuck Norris is best known for his different type of action movies (martial arts, adventure and war), but Silent Rage is something quite different. Silent Rage feels a bit like Walker Texas Ranger meets Halloween and Demolition Man. It's something like an action slasher, which in itself is kinda unique. I thought this was really good, and easily among the best Chuck Norris movies I've seen. Really cool and fun.

 

The Fury of the Demon - Some people seem to think this is a real documentary, however I think it's more of a mockumentary of some sorts. The film is about the topic of a lost film which is known to have been screened three times during history and caused a ruckus every time as people have gone crazy after watching it. People first thought it was a lost Georges Melies movie, but it's revealed that they think the movie is made by a copcycat named Victor Sicarius, who was Melies' occult protégé. In one way this is a homage and biography to one of the early masters of cinema and grandfather of horror, Georges Melies, in another way it's a documentary about lost movies and the importance of finding them. But on a third hand (for those who might have that) it's a John Carpenter-esque (think Cigarette Burns) type of movie. I thought this entire movie was spellbinding, and it's probably among my favourite movies of the previous decade. Unique, interesting, fun, suspenseful. Beautiful use of music, great interview objects (familiar directors, film historians, occultists and more) and just really well put together.

 

The Tag-Along - Pretty nice and atmospheric Taiwanese horror film. It's not flawless, and there's a few times it completely loses me (most of the time is when they use CGI. It both looks bad and feels like a dumb decision as it doesn't work within the context of the film), but it's pretty fun. A bit too slow maybe? Anyway, good stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIW3Qr7LbO0&feature=emb_err_watch_on_yt

 

 

 

 

New The Bishop of Hexen track. Sounds fucking amazing.

 

 

First track from the upcoming The Black Dahlia Murder album Verminous. Is it just me or is this surprisingly un-melodic? It does have a melodic death metal touch to it, but just not as melodic as before? The solo halfway into the track is fabolous. So simple, but so majestic and effective.

 

 

 

Sounds like more of the same tbh, albeit maybe a bit darker and heavier. It's interesting how they've found their by far most talented vocalist ever, and do not do anything to utilize her talent whatsoever here. This is some of the most boring vocal lines they've ever had. Sounds like the song was written for a straight up pop vocalist. Silly.

 

 

New Oranssi Pazuzu album coming and this trailer sure sounds interesting. Fantastic band, and one of those bands who really manages to take you on a journey through cosmos, space and time.

 

 

 

 

I'm not quite sure if I dig this or not. Hmm.

So I should give the new Kawir a fair chance?  Kawir is one of those bands that's always been super interesting and have never been boring, but aside from a few early releases I've never managed to quite get into them. Suicidogenic / Sinn (Sigh/Kawir split), Eumenides, To Cavirs, Epoptia and the Kawir / Nocternity split are all amazing, but aside from those I have not really managed to get into any of their albums or releases. They're not bad at all. In fact, they're pretty good and super interesting, and not to mention unique, but they kinda won't stick. I just can't fully get into them.

https://unceremonial.bandcamp.com/album/artes-aterrimus

 

This shit's so good. It has that early to mid-90's melodic black/death metal sound of bands like Sacramentum, Unanimated, Cardinal Sin and the likes. Really cool stuff.

 

https://blackreaper.bandcamp.com/album/celestial-descension

 

Much of the same as the above band, but with more black metal ala Dissection. Good shit!

The VelociPastor - Based on the poster I expected some cheap SyFy or The Asylum flick and I was close to skipping it, but I'm glad I decided to watch it because this was one wild 80's grindhouse worship. It's closer to movies like Manborg, Commando Ninja and Kung Fury than anything cheap SyFy or The Asylum related. A fucking VelociPastor, drug dealing ninjas and more. Awesome movie!

 

MacGruber - This movie is spun off from SNL and is spoofing all kinds of movies, most notably MacGyver, tons of James Bond movies, Die Hard and so on. It's easy to understand why it's gained cult status. Silly and over the top, and always funny as hell. Excellent!

 

Uncut Gems - Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie continue to create thrillers and cast against type. A few years ago it was Robert Patterson in Good Time, this time around it's Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems. And Adam Sandler is KILLING it! Easily his best performance ever, and a performance that proves that he belongs amongst the big names in Hollywood. Just a mindblowing performance, and the performance alone is well worth your time. Add that to the mix of a thrilling drama-thriller that'll stress you the fuck out and keep you on the edge of your seat, and there's no way you'll be disappointed. Superb!