Bear

I'll just treat this as a regular Sigh thread.

 

 

Taken at London Dungeon in 1994. It was our first tour outside of Japan.

 

 

House on Haunted Hill - I've reviewed a couple of William Castle's films on here before (Homicidal, The Tingler, Straight-Jacket) and as I said back then, this guy is known as the king of gimmicks. This guy made low-budget films and earned a lot on them, much due to his genius gimmicks. But to me, this guy had a lot more to contribuate with than just silly, or in my eyes, awesome, gimmicks. To me, William Castle was a proper genius film maker. Even when he tries to cash in on other film makes' sucess, like he did with Homicidal, he hits bulls eye. House on Haunted Hill are probably the best William Castle film ever, and it offers a few proper scary and chilling scenes, like. Some will make you shiver and it'll put a proper scare down your spine.

 

Veincent Price is fantastic and Carol Ohmart, Richard Long and Carolyn Craig are all great as well. But Vincent Price, and even more so William Castle are the stsrs here. Great atmosphere, great mystery and great fun. One of the best haunted house films there is.

 

 However, Tatsu ensured everyone that the band will continue, as he is the sole writer of music/lyrics... and the band will hopefully have a new album out (plus tours) next year when new members are gathered.

 

And that's the thing. Church of Misery have had something like 7-8 guitarists, 4-5 vocalists and a few drummers. So Church of Misery losing a few members don't say much. It might take time to get the new members aboard, but that shouldn't be too hard for a band with Church of Misery's status. And throughout Church of Misery's history, there's never been a unique guitarist or drummer. They've all been replaceable. Tatsu's bassing however, it 70% of this band's sound. So as long as he stays, as we know he will, it won't be a problem.

Been spinning both Thou Shalt Suffer and Old Funeral on repeat since yesterday. Both are fantastic.

 

Thou Shalt Suffer is Samoth, Ihsahn and Ildjarn's first proper band, before Samoth and Ihsahn went on to form Emperor and Ildjarn formed Ildjarn. The album is way better than anything Emperor ever did to be honest, and on par with Ildjarn's best albums (Strength and Anger, Forest Poetry, Hardangervidda). This is one of themore unique death metal release of its time. Haunting and atmospheric with a bit of synth here and there which properly adds to the atmosphere. In many ways this is death metal with the atmosphere and feeling of black metal. Imagine old, old Emperor remade into death metal. Quite unique actually.

 

 

Old Funeral are more standard death metal in the vein of old Morbid Angel, but awesome as fuck. Abbath and Demonaz of Immortal, Varg Vikernes of Burzum and Jørn Inge Tunsberg of Hades played in this band before moving towards black metal with their other bands.

 

Both recommended for fans of old school death metal with great, lo-fi productions and lenty of charm.

 

This old picture of Varg Vikernes during his time in Old Funeral is also one of the coolest pictures ever:

 

Ryutaro Arimura. Because.

I've made a list with my favourite death metal releases for both the Swedish and Finnish scene, and even though Norway never had much of a death metal scene and more importantly not a specific sound, I thought it would suck not to do one anyway because there came some very good death metal releases from Norway in the early-mid 90's.

 

1. Darkthrone - Soulside Journey

2. Old Funeral - The Older Ones

3. Thou Shalt Suffer - Into the Woods of Belial

4. Mortem - Slow Death

5. Cadaver - Hallucinating Anxiety

6. Vomit - Rotting

7. Darkthrone - Goatlord

8. Molested - Blod-draum

9. Cadaver - ...in Pains

10. Amputation - Slaughtered in the Arms of God

 

Good stuff.

October might be over, but my love for horror is still present and I'm not gonna stop watching horror films just yet.

 

The Vampire Lovers - Erotic and extremely sexy vampire flick from 1970 with a stunning Ingrid Pitt in the lead, with suport from Peter Cushing, Madeline Smith, Kate O'Mara and more. Gothic Hammer horror with plenty of atmosphere and nudity. My kind of horror. It's pretty daring for its time, openly flirting with lesbian themes, and feels fresh because of its romance, without being anything like Twilight and such. Great atmosphere, beautiful girls, good acting and superb direction. I really liked this film!

 

Ingrid Pitt might not be Barbara Steele, but god she was fantastic. Great actress, beautiful and very seducing. She was made for this kind of roles.

 

 

Yeah, they're both very similar with Sunshine being the better film. Other similar films would be Sphere, Pandorum, Alien and THe Black Hole.

 

Especially The Black Hole. It's not horror, but Event Horizon seems to have gotten a lot of its ideas from the mentioned film. And I mean a lot.

Yeah, for some it might be a bit too much as Gallowbraid is nothing but an Agalloch clone, but I think Gallowbraid has got more than enough character to work very well. As for the album, no idea. It's more than a year since he last mentioned it I think. Hoping for some more news soon.

 

 

Yeah, you're right. They kinda left most of the extreme metal element behind and went in a doomier and more gothic direction with their fourth album. But Doombound is recommended for fans of the three first. They've gone back to the more extreme days of old, but perhaps a bit less folky than the two first. It's more in the vein of Third Age of the Sun.

Looks like you put a bit more effort into your costume than your friends.

Considering the dark tone that these recent superhero films have got I can understand why they want something darker than her most known, flashy uniform. If I were to choose I'd go with this one:

 

 

It screams Wonder Woman and it is sexy, but isn't very flashy, so it wouldn't look out of place or anything. Maybe with dark blue pants.

 

The new Wonder Woman costume looks like Xena to be honest.

I have no hopes for either to be honest. Zack Snyder haven't done anything good since 2009's Watchmen, and he's just getting worse with each film. He's lost his touch. I really like Wonder Woman, and I like Gal Gadot a lot. But judging from the pictures of her as Wonder Woman, she looks awful. Her clothing looks like some poor, teenage goth shit, and she just looks weak. Lynda Carter looked looks a bit weak as Wonder Woman in the series from the 70's, but it's a good-hearted, campy TV-series which doesn't take itself serious. That's why it works. It's the same as with Adam West's Batman. He's weak as fuck and doesn't look like Batman as far as his physique goes, but it's a campy series which is why it works so well.

 

So yeah, no, no expectations for me. I just don't see it work well, especially not Wonder Woman. But I hope I am mistaken. But she'l need to bulk up, or instead she won't pass as Wonder Woman.

 

Also, I expect both to be 110 minutes of CGI wanking. Ew.

Two. Ulver released Bergtatt, which is their folk-influenced black metal with a lighter approach to the genre, and Nattens Madrigal wich is a grim and ugly form of black metal.

 

But Gallowbraid should please you. Agalloch clone to 1000. Drudkh plays atmospheric black metal with some folk. I like all, but their first four and Microcosmos and Eternal Turn of the Wheel are masterpieces. Great, great band!

You could try bands such as Gallowbraid, Fen, first Ulver, Empyrium, Alcest, Drudkh and even Woods of Ypres and Falloch, even though I think they suck.

 

But especially Gallowbraid are close to Agalloch, and Fen too, but they're a bit more blackish and less folkish. But the bands mentioned should interest you.

I just saw a commercial and 2ne1's I am the Best were used as the music. That was weird.

Since I've been making some lists these past days I though I'd make a top 10 death metal albums of the year, in no order, while I am on it, because I think this year have seen a great amount of amazing death metal releases. The best year for death metal in a long, long time.

 

Rude - Soul Recall

A fantastic death metal album in the vein of Pestilence's classic death metal albums Consuming Impulse and Testimony of the Ancients. And this might be seen as blasphemy by a lot, but I actually think this album is on par with those two albums.  I hear a lot of Morbid Angel, Death, Obituary and Celtic Frost as well, but this is very much a Pestilence-esque album, and it's fantastic. 9/10

 

Swallowed - Lunarterial

Since their first demo in 07, this band has gotten a lot of well-deserved attention, and they've released some of the best death metal after the early to mid 90's. They've gone from a sound similar to Nihilist on the first demo to a more Autopsy-inspired sound on the second demo. Funnily enough the first demo has a Nihilist cover and the second an Autopsy cover. Yeah, to a more doomy, gritty and Disembowelment-inspired sound on their debut EP. With the bands first full lenght they've gone in new directions again. This album sounds pretty original to be honest, without being new in any way. I get some Disembowelment from the death/doom riffing, but I also hear a lot of Teitanblood in the chaotic parts of the album and some Cultes des Ghouls in the varied vocals. Massive, massive album. 9/10

 

 

Execration - Morbid Dimensions

Execration's previous album, Odes of the Occult, was a masterpiece within the genre, and sounded original without being original. Just like this. Morbid Dimensions isn't as dark and twisted as Odes of the Occult, but it's a more varied album. While the groundwork her eobviously is death metal, there's a lot of black and doom to be found here as well. There's close to no original riffing to be found on the album, but the way everything is put together makes it sound very, very unique and original. Fantastic album! 9/10

 

Death Vomit - Gutted by Horrors

Death Vomit hails from Peru and plays old school-sounding, dirty, cavernous and rotten to the core death metal of the purest kind. This is done many times before, but who gives a fuck when it's done as well as it is here? Originality: 0/10. Execution: 8/10. 8/10

 

Bölzer - Soma

Blackened death metal act that lives up to the hype. The sound is rather original to be honest, and the song writing is top notch. It's impressive how massive a band with a guitarist/vocalist and drummer can be, both on record and live. 8/10

 

Cauldron Black Ram - Stalagmire

I'll admit that I am a bit disappointed by this occult pirate-themed death metal band's third album. They've gotten gradiually worse with each album, and lost some of its power. But that's not to say that this is bad, because it really isn't. Black/death metal with lots of doom and sludge influences. With this album they've gone in a more atmospheric direction, instead of the more riff-oriented stuff they released before it. 7/10

 

 

Diskord - Oscillations

These guys plays a technical and progressive type of death metal that I'm usually not too fond of, but these guys pulls it off every single time. It's hard to actually describe the sound of this band. Just check it out. Oh, and listen to that bass sound. Daaaamn! 8/10

 

 

Teitanblood - Death

Dark, chaotic and twisted black/death metal in the vein of no-one. You can hear obvious influences here and there, but there's nothing out there that sounds like this. They've taken many step away from the likes or Blasphemy, Archgoat and Proclamation which seemed to be the inspiration for their previous efforts. Fantastic album! 8/10

 

 

Behemoth - The Satanist

Ever since the release of Demigod this band have just been one huge disappointment after another, but with this release they're finally back on track. With The Satanist Behemoth takes a trip back in time, in the time before they become just another modern death metal band. There's some death metal elements left in their sound, but this is way closer to black metal than death metal. Say 80% black metal and 20% death metal. Epic, crushing and really, eally well done. Probably their best album since Satanica. Not only is the music and production better than on their past five albums, Nergal sounds great again. He's not sounded this good since the mentioned Satanica. Sounds more powerful. This is the blackest this band has been since Grom, but it's a very majestic and epic form of black metal. 8/10

 

 

Possession - Anneliese

Possession impressed the underground with their 2013 demo His Best Deceit, a massive demo consisting of ugly and evil black/death metal. They continue that path with this EP and impress once again. Eerie, dark and crushing black metal with fantastic vocals. The production could've been better for the drums, but everything else is top notch. Think a mix of Blasphemy, old Sepultura and Celtic Frost. Such a promising band. 8/10

 

 

Here's my list of most disappointing death metal releasesthis year:

 

 

Vampire - Vampire

Vampire causted quite a stir in the underground with their 2012 demo, and I was among them who was damn impressed. But me, I wasn't just impressed. I was in shock over how amazing the demo was. Despite being just a demo, it was one of the best death metal releases ever made, and I even went as far as calling it a classic after listening to it just once, and that's something I still stand by. The songwriting was close to perfect and the production was perfect. Vampire is Vampire's first full lenght, and the songs are great. None of the new songs matches the four songs found on the demo, but they're still good. The production however, isn't. It's way too polished. It lacks the ugly rawness of the demo. It probably deserves a point more or so, but I just can't. I'm too disappointed. I don't get how a death metal band, especially considering how fucking 80's the music is, can be happy with a production like this. It doesn't make any sense at all. 6/10

 

 

Morbud Chron - Sweven

Good album, but a huge disappointment. This will be the disappointment of the year I think. Their demo, Splendour of Disease, first EP, Creepy Creeping Creeps, and debut album, Sleepers in the Rift, are some of the best death metal produced post 1989 IMO. Masterpieces! They were unoriginal, but so well-written and great I can't hail them enough. Then came A Saunter Through the Shroud, which is a solid EP, but a huge disappointment. They found a more original sound for themself and became a lot more progressive and playful. I was disappointed, but it was still a good progressive death metal album. Sweven however, is just... I don't know. Mediore? 80% of the album sounds the same and the songwriting is pretty boring and predictable. It's all the same. There's barely any death metal left, and they've gone all Opeth with this album. It's not a bad album, but it's not that good either. Amazing at its best, but it rarely hit the top and that's the problem.

 

 

 

And I have yet to hear the new releases from a lot of bands that I expect to be good. Necros Christos, Vader, Gluttony, Drowned, TrenchRot, Domains, Horrendous, Autopsy, Nunslaughter, Sabbatory, Skelethal, Crucifyre, Under the Church and Unaussprechlichen Kulten to mention a few, so I still have a lot to dig into later on.

Here's the full listfo the horror films I've seen this month, with scores:

 

October

 

1. John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns (9/10)

2. Event Horizon (7/10)

3. Stage Fright (2014) (7/10)

4. The Howling (9/10)

5. Ringu (9/10)

6. Ringu 2 (5/10)

7. Blood Feast (8/10)

8. Tremors (9/10)

9. Opera (8/10)

10. A Nightmare on Elm Street (10/10)

11. The Quiet Ones (2014) (7/10)

12. Deliver Us from Evil (6/10)

13. Poltergeist (8/10)

14. The Cat o' Nine Tails (8/10)

15. The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears (8/10)

16. The ABCs of Death (6/10)

17. V/H/S (8/10)

18. Oculus (4/10)

19. Shutter (8/10)

20. V/H/S/2 (8/10)

21. Witching & Bitching (6/10)

22. The Legend of Hell House (8/10)

23. The Woman in Black (8/10)

24. Grave Encounters (7/10)

25. Tenebre (9/10)

26. White Zombie (8/10)

27. The Black Sleep (8/10)

28. Witchfinder General (10/10)

29. A Field in England (8/10)

30. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (10/10) / Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (9/10)

31.  Madhouse (8/10) / The Asphyx (7/10) / Halloween (10/10)

 

 

This was a fun ride, and with the exception of a few films it's been a very good month for horror movies. Seen a bit over half of these from before, and the other half are new to me. I'm good at picking films, that for fucking sure.

Halloween - What other film than Halloween could have been giving the honor of ending my October-horror fest? None. The best slasher of all time, and one of the best horror films ever. It's just too fucking good, this. Everything is perfect here to be honest. Brilliant. A masterpiece beyond words.

 

It's interesting how this was Jamie Lee Curtis' first film, but also her best performance and her best film ever. The Fog is second, and she did well in many years after. But the purity just suited the role so well. It was a perfect match. And she was beyond beautiful back then.

 

And Donald Pleasence. Faaaaaan-fucking-tastic!

 

 

 

 

 

Good night!

Also, since it's October 31st I decided to watch a couple of extra horror films before I end it with THE halloween film.

 

Madhouse - Very fun mystery-horror with Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Robert Quarry and Adrienne Corri. Nice atmsphere and an interesting plot. It's a bit predictable, but I don't mind that, and there's a small subplot here which is awful. But that's it. The rest is great. It's not a masterpiece, but a very, veyr entertaining film. Phenomenal ending!

 

I love how Peter Cushign dress up as Dracula and Robert Quarry as Count Yorga. Peter Cushing played Van Helsing in a shitload of Dracula-films as we all know, and Rober Quarry played Count Yorga in a couple of films. I smiled.

 

 

The Asphyx - Great concept and good execution. It's got good atmosphere and entertained me a lot, so this is recommended. The subjects it deals with are awesome and it gets surprisingly grim and macabre towards the end. I liked it a lot.

 

Fuck yeah! Sextrash's debut album is great as well. The other stuff, not so much. Huge fan of Pentagram too, who released their first proper album this year. It's allright, but not anywhere close to the old demos and EPs.

 

 

Saw Absu live back in 2012. That was geat. Not a fan of their recent outputs myself, but I didn't mind them live. The band was amazing from A to Å. Was tight as fuck, and Proscriptor was immense. Imagine playing like that AND doing the vocals at the same time. Insane. He was unintentionally funny between the songs, though. Talking with his harsh vocals, which is always kinda stupid. But other than that, top notch gig. Black Witchery I got to see this year, and it was pretty fucking sweet.

Anyone watched The Taking of Deborah Logan? It looks good and what I need for Halloween! If not I guess I'm stuck with VHS Viral =(

 

 

A few found-footage movies I got into this past week, "The Taking of Deborah Logan" -- Interesting possession story centered around a film project on an Alzheimer's patient.

 

 

 

I've not seen it myself, but the poster catched my eye when I saw it on Netflix. Looks good judging from the poster.

For the South-American scene I've decided to only include death/black/thrash metal albums from the 80's. A bit easier than to include the early 90's as well. The most extreme "scene" of them all. Way, way ahead of everyone else as far as extreme music goes. Take Parabellum for instance. The two songs on Sacrilegio was pretty extreme when it was released in 87 and grindcoe and brutal crust punk were on the rise, but these songs were released already in 84, and they were performing them live around that time as well. That is absolutely insane. So, so, so many years ahead of its time.

 

1. Sepultura - Morbid Visions / Bestial Devestation

2. Vulcano - Bloody Vengeance

3. Sarcofago - INRI / Rotting

4. Mystifier - Tormenting the Holy Trinity

5. Pentagram - Pentagram

6. Mutilator - Immortal Force

7. Panic - Rotten Church

8. Holocausto - Campo de Extermínio

9.  Sextrash - XXX

10. Parabellum - Sacrilegio

 

 

Fantastic!

Yeah, I'll do a top 10 South American bands as well. The 80's scene there was pretty badass. Way too many great albums from that scene. I'll see if I can come up with a list after I get home from the store.

 

There's some amazing bands playing there. Mgla, Absu, Bölzer and Black Witchery are great live bands. Some other bands there I'd love to see as well. I'd go on the day Mgla plays, no matter what other bands play that night. One of the best bands I've seen live. They're one of the bands that realy lives up to the hype, both on record and live.

 

Most often it will come down to preference. While I do prefer De Mysteriis..., Live in Leipzig are one of the best live albums out there. Roughly produced that makes it sound as if the band is standing right in front of you when listening to it. Same with Krieg's Kill Yourself or Someone You Love and Iron Maiden's Live After Death. There's no overdubs or anything like that on these albums. These are pure live albums. This is how I prefer my live albums. "Live" albums such as Thin Lizzy's Live and Dangerous, Kiss' Alive II and Judas Priest's Unleashed In The East are fantastic albums, but they're not exactly live, are they? All have been fixed on in studio, some more than others. I want my live albums pure. I want them to give me an actual live feeling. Sadly, few live albums are capable of that.

 

Joined in Darkness is fantastic. You should check out Faustian Dawn / Within the Sylvan Realms of Frost as well. Just as good as Joined in Darkness IMO.

But that lineup is pretty awesome.

 

Bands I'd see for sure:

 

Dark Funeral playing Secrets of the Black Arts. Great album, and desite not being known as the best liveband around that must be awesome

Nokturnal Mortum

Melechesh

Sargeist

Cosmic Church

Demilich

Kawir

 

Bands I'd probably take a look at:

 

Asphyx

Temnozor

Ketzer

 

That's pretty awesome IMO.

 

 

 

Also, I can see you don't waste your time on mediocre music. Good shit. And the peel sessions are great. I think Bolt Thrower's The Peel Sessions 1988-90 are my favourite among all the peel sessions. Thin Lizzy's The Peel Sessions is also fantastic and among the best there is/was. Another bands I've really gotten into as of late. Got some free Thin Lizzy LPs and decided it was about time I actually checked them out properly. Great band! Really, really good.

 

 

And I prefer De Mysteriis... to Live in Leipzig.  Attila is so much better than Dead. I like Dead, but he lacks a bit of character IMO. Attila's ghastly vocals suited the De Mysteriis... songs better and have a lot more character as well, and the drum sound on De Mysteriis, especially the toms, sounds amazing. Best drum sound ever.

 

And Archgoat have released way better albums than Angelcunt.. Both full-lenghts are better IMO. More bestial and savage.