Bear

I use a few foras do discuss music, films, TV-series and football, but I don't use anything like facebook, twitter, instragram and all that, which always come as a big surprise and disappointment to fellow workers. No idea why, though, as we wouldn't have any contact outside of job anyway.

Fantastic cover art. Thought the debut album was OK, but a bit lacking. It felt very rushed, and some parts came of as hastly thrown together with no thoughts behind it at all. This new song was a lot better. Airly, post-rockish Austere-esque depressive black metal with great drumming. And vocals. Those hyena cries have grown to become a pretty big part of the genre, so I'm very, very fine with those. Quite a big fan, and I think it's a style that reeks of desperation and pain. Some bands, like Silencer and Down in Solitude, took it way too far though. It just ended up being hilarious. A fine joke it was. Edit: You could also hear this type of painful and desperate creams as early as 93-94 with bands such as Forgotten Woods, Burzum, Nidhoggr, all bands who are considered the fathers of depressive black metal along with Strid, Bethlehem and Abyssic Hate. All these bands had a massive impact on the genre, but Forgotten Woods, Burzum and Nidhoggr started the crazy vocal-thing. Bethlehem took it all a massive step further with their fantastic Dictius Te Necare. Over the top and crazy vocals. A bit too much for many, but perfect to me. One of the best vocal performances of all time. So it's something that has a part of the music, even if a lot dislike it.

Oh fuck! Awesome!

One Missed Call - Rewatched this ilm with my girlfriend last night, and I have to say it did let me down a bit. It was good, but not as good as I remembered. A bit too long, and some of the special effects are rather poor. Especially the slime-woman who looks like she comes straight outta a 60's z-horror/sci-fi flick. Just doesn't fit the whole mood of the film. I think it actually ruins part od the atmosphere which is a shame. But all in all I like this film, but it is not on par with the best films of the new wave of japanese horror films. Not even close.

Goat Semen's debut album leaked yesterday too. Black/death metal band from Brazil that formed in 2000. It only took them 15 years to get their debut album out. Got massive expectations for it. Both Goat Semen and Holocausto are fantastic demos. Holocausto was a promo for the album, which was very promising.

The album leaked yesterday.

Thrash metal isn't exactly where I'd look to find my sinister-sounding music either. Sure, you'll find sinister thrash metal albums and both Hell Awaits and Hobbs' Angel of Death are among the most sinister and evil albums I've eve heard, but they are more the exception to the "rules" than the standard for the genre. And thrash metal bands don't really utilize melodies the same way as it's more or less all about the riffing. But hey yo, that's just me.

Not VK or modern jrock, but The 5.6.7.8’s deserves a mention in this thread just for being a japanese rock band and for being some of the coolest girls in music. The band have been active since 1986, but didn't get their "breakthrough" before they were included in Tarantino's 2003 masterpiece Kill Bill. Awesome surf/garage rock with lots of attitude and badassness. I get some Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!-vibes from the whole band, which to me is a huge plus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtuZeddLy-M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8qG4BiS6fI I'd kill to see these girls live around 92-94.

Why should somebody listen to thrash metal if they want sinister melodies? And maybe that person doesn't enjoy black metal? Black metal and pop/rock/heavy metal is quite different you see.

Yeah, it does. Nothing new, but it sounds awesome. Also, any other fans of Bal-Sagoth here? Since I mentioned them regarding the post up here I just had to re-discover them and got a massive kick. One of those odd bands that I really enjoy, yet isn't getting enough playtime. It's very, because I always enjoy all their albums a lot when I play them. Also, odd band musically. Their debut is a bit more death metal inspired and less power metal inspired, though it still does contain their trademark symphonic/epic black metal. With their second album, "Starfire Burning upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule", the band got a whole lot more cheesy and they went away from the death metal-inspired sound and towards a more cheesy power metal-inspired symphonic/epic black metal sound. Bal-Sagoth is basically blackened Disney metal. No kidding. Great lyrics too. Highly recommended band.

No. Simple as that.

A couple of songs can be heard here: http://gruesomedeathmetal.bandcamp.com/releases Basically an old school Death tribute band with Matt Harvey (Exhumed, Dekapitator) among others. Really loooking forward to this album. Just pure Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy worship - nothing more, nothing less. Awesome!

I recieved a package in the mail today which means I'll post a new picture and as always I'll go with awful quality: Sigh - Gallows Gallery (black vinyl) Sigh - Gallows Gallery (blue vinyl) Belated christmas present to myself.

Also, this looks fucking awesome: I'm gonna buy this. Should be awesome as fuck. I am especially looking forward to the writing of Byron, who is a most talented gentleman. Even if you're not a fan of the band I recommend you reading the lyrics. Great stuff. I also think Bal-Sagoth is a great band. Unique in so many ways.

The Shogun's Samurai aka Yagyu Clan Conspiracy - Historical action-drama by Kinji Fukasaku, with people like Kinnosuke Yorozuya, Sonny Chiba, Hiroki Matsukata, Etsuko Shihomi and Toshiro Mifune in some of the roles. How accurate this is I will not say anything about, but this is another phenomenal film by Fukasaku. It's epic and dramatic, well-directed and the action is amazing. It's 2 hours long, but very fast-paced and it never feels long or boring. Some amazing performances as well. Sonny Chiba is as always wonderful, Kinnosuke Yorozuya is stunning and everyone in a big role does amazing. Great cinematography as well. Makai tenshô: Samurai Reincarnation - This is somewhat a sequel to Shogun's Samurai, but it's something completely different and some of the details don't match. But who gives a fuck? This film isn't really a better film than Shogun's Samurai, but it's superior to it anyway IMO. Action-fantasy with lots of elements of horror. Sonny Chiba reprises his role as Jubei but is even better here, and we've got Tomisaburô Wakayama as well. Amazing. Well-directed and well-acted, amazing action and beautiful cinematography. This film is simply brilliant! These two films are directed by the same man and Samurai Reincarnation is considered a sequel, but both films stands fine on their own two feets and you do not need to watch one to watch another. But since both are amazing they are both recommended.

I see. I'd recommend you to try the albums I've come up with now because they're a lot better than newer Venom, but it's you choice brah. I expect the new album to be in the same vein as Metal Black, Hell and Fallen Angels. They sound the same and they all consist of good songs, but as albums they're not much more than a 3+/4- which should come as no surprise as they are all between 55 and 66 minutes long. Way too long with a lot of fillers. The new one has 14 songs and will probably be more of the same both musically and lenght-wise. Also, a few albums that's simply must-haves for fans of Venom: Bulldozer - The Day of Wrath Witchgrave - Witchgrave Warfare - Metal Anarchy Warfare - Mayhem, Fuckin' Mayhem NME - Unholy Death People need these albums in their life. Fucking twin leads with just bass and drums on the botton. Beautiful!

I'd give I Believe In Me a few more listens. It's a great poppy rock album IMO. Inferiority Complex and Gallows however I'd thrown in the garbage bin right away.

What have you heard by Venom? Have you checked out anything beside Welcome to Hell and Black Metal? I think At War With Satan is their best and is quite a different album. It's a lot more mature and well-written, and I also think it is their blackest album ever. This, for me at least, is proper black metal at its very, very best. I'm also a huge fan of Prime Evil which certainly is up there with the three mentioned albums. Not as black, mean and evil, but their most mature album ever IMO. I think Possessed is fantastic as well, but it's probably their rawest and meanest album ever. Sloppy as fuck. Not for everyone. Inbetween this they also released some fantastic non-album singles. I'm mainly thinking of of Bloodlust, Warhead, Die Hard and Manitou. All these singles contains soem of their best songs ever. Singles 80-86 got all of these. Love it! 1. At War With Satan (10/10) 2. Welcome to Hell (9,5/10) 3. Black Metal (9,5/10) 4. Prime Evil (9/10) 5. Possessed (8/10) These are the albums I tend to get back to very often.

Oi! This is a band people should catch live as well if they get the chance. Magnificent live band. Just to put that out there.

New Venom song. Pretty cool actually.

Right before christmas the 2nd graders where making light bulb santas and the guys went for short hair and beard, while the girl went for long hair and no beard. Well, except for one guy, he wanted long hair and long beard. The teacher asked him if he really wanted long hair and beard, and yeah he was sure because Bear had long hair and beard. Coolio yo.

Kagrra of course.

Yeah, I know. I actually talked to you once on here. Heh. Yeah, it's not that I mind CDON. I've bougt plenty from them over the years, but music and films, and never had any big problems. When I've had problems they've been solved immediately with no problems whatsoever. But I just feel that these small distros deserves my money way more than CDON or even Platekompaniet, and they're not any more expensive either. And they focus more on the kind of music I tend to spend my money on, which makes it more ideal for me. I'm very selective when it comes to buying music, and most of what I am willing to spend money on I won't find on PK or CDON. And I prefer stores like Tiger and Big Dipper to Platekompaniet. I feel like they're more into this for what I see as the right reasons. They're not big chain stores who earn lots of money and can start new stores all ove the country. Small stores who sells music they themself enjoy. My cup of tea. I like buying from the band, problems with that is that I'll only end up with one or two albums. When I buy from Unborn or Terratur I tell them to put stuff I want aside and when I fee they've got enough I buy. It's everything from 3-4 to 10 different albums/EPs/demos on vinyl/tape. It makes everything so easy, and easy is good.

My top 10 rock/metal releases of 2014 (for now): 1. Darkspace - Dark Space III I Darkspace returns with their fourth album after six year, and once again they give us pitch black cosmic mysticism wraped into musical form. The production is a tad cleaner and the music is a tad more melodic this time around, but it still sounds like Darkspace and it still sounds amazing. Album of the year! 10/10 2. Black Magic - Wizard's Spell Great heavy/black metal from Norway. These guys does it the old way. First half is pure black metal influenced heavy/speed metal madness, and the second half is their second demo, and black metal in an 80's fashion. This album is awesome! 9,5/10 3. Salem's Pot - ...Lurar ut dig på prärien There's not a hint of originality or distinctive stamp to be found anywhere on this album, but fuck me if this album isn't damn fine. Salem's Pot delivers 33 minutes of sleazy, occult doom metal of the purest kind. This album could've been used as the soundtrack to Vampyros Lesbos, or many of the other erotic horror films of the 70's. In other words, this is my type of doom metal. I dig! 9,5/10 4. Rude - Soul Recall This is what you get if you'd make a mix consisting of something like 50% Pestilence - Consuming Impulse, 20% Autopsy - Severed Survival, 10% Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness, 10% Obituary - Slowly We Rot and 10% Death - Leposy. Rude isn't original, but they've got more than enough character to sound unique, and believe it or not - the music is even better than the fantastic cover art. 9,5/10 5. Tarot - The Watcher's Dream / Dying Daze / Life and Death This isn't really metal, but it's three fantastic EPs. Semi-progressive 70's inspired rock. For soeme reason this makes me think of Uriah Heep meets Pagan Altar meets Rainbow. It's a very charming hard rock EPs with a very nice and epic feel to it. I'm digging this so much! 9,5/10 6. Funereal Presence - The Archer Takes Aim Fantastic black metal with lots of character. The closest you'll get to this album is Negative Plane (the sole member, Bestial Devotion, is the drummer of Negative Plane), but it's a lot different from that. 9/10 7. Hail Spirit Noir - Oi Magoi This isn't as good as their debut, but still a lovely album. HSN continues their unique brand of psychedelic/progressive rock and black metal. The production is richer than on the first, but I thought the debut had a better production. It was more laidback and less produced and polished really. The song writing was better to. It was more messy than this. On this album they've kinda tried to separate the black metal and prog/psychedelic rock, while on the first one these genres blended nicely thoughout the album. But that's not a problem, and this is a fantastic album. 8,5/10 8. Execration - Morbid Dimensions This isn't as dark as the fantastic Odes of the Occult, their previous album, but it's still a fantastic album. Well-written, semi-progressive death metal with thints of black, doom and thrash metal. The riffs found on this album isn't very original, but the way they're put together makes everything sound original. It's just odd. This album is almost on par with Odes of the Occult to be honest, and that says a lot. Great album! 8,5/10 9. Vintersorg - Naturbål With Cosmic Genesis, released in 2000, Vintersorg moved away from his well-known folk metal sound and stepped into progressive territory, and lyrically he moved from nature and paganism to cosmos. While there was still elements of both the folk and black metal sound in the music, it was a huge change and while a good album, it's inferior to the three albums relesed before it. With each album he got gradually worse and reached a low with the progressive The Focusing Blur. Not bad, just not very good either. Then came Solens rötter. We were promised an album that would be back to the roots with folky metal and lyrics in Swedish. Well, it was a bit folkier, and it had Swedish lyrics, but it wasn't much that reminded anyone about the good, ol' days. With that album I stopped checking out his new albums. He also got gradually more annoying vocal-wise, and went to become awful in both Vintersorg and Borknagar (both bands got worse with each release anyway, so it did not matter). I accidently came over his promo video for Lågornas rov and it was such a surprise. Once again he was playing around with folky black metal with a progressive and symphonic touch, and it was by far the best song he had done since Ödermarkens son. The album is amazing, and VIntersorg finally sings good again as well. The album feels like the natural follow-up to Ödermarkens son. Well-written and interesting songs with lots of catches, fantastic choruses, a production with a few, lovely faults and great vocals. His best album since Ödermarkens son, and perhaps even better than that, and a natural follow-up without him just copying himself. 8,5/10 10. Primordial - Where Greater Men Have Fallen Anothe fantastic release by Primordial. Not their best, and this time it basically feels like more of the same, but when you're as good at doing what you're doing as these guys there's no need to change whatsoever. Powerful celtic-folk influenced black/heavy metal with one of the very best metal vocalists of all time. A.A. Nemtheanga isn't the most talented vocalist ever, but only Quorthon comes close to the power and passion in his voice. To be fair, A.A. Nemtheanga alone makes this a superb album! That's how good he is. 8,5/10 Honorable mentions (albums that easily can get a spot on the list another day): Alcest, Death Vomit, Mysticum, Swallowed, The Deathtrip, Mortuary Drape, Portrait, Spell, Nunslaughter / Acid Witch, The Great Old Ones and Tusmørke (not metal, but fuck that!). Especially Alcest and Death Vomit are really close at getting a spot here.

Started on Orphan Black last friday and just watched the second episode of season 2 yesterday. I'm very impressed so far, and I thought season 1 was just great. It's a lot more mature and dark than what I'd expected, and Tatiana Maslany is fantastic. I do get a bit Alias/Dark Angel/Nikita-feeling of the whole show, but it comes of as more complex and better written, especially character-wise. I also like the fact that they don't go for the whole "one big plot for the whole season with a new subplot for every episode"-thing that way too many shows have used over the years, but rather have one big plot that they follow. Very happy about that. Exciting!