Bear

Bumblebee - It's a good thing this went as well as it did, and become a reboot rather than a prequel because this was MILES better than any of the Transformers movies directed by Michael Bay. But it's still incredibly flawed and more or less follows the same style as the Bay movies, and even makes some of the same mistakes. But overall it was a lot better, a lot funnier and a lot more charming.

 

Master Z : Ip Man Legacy - Spin-off from Ip Man 3 about the guy who challenged Ip Man and lost. This was flawed, but very entertaining with some really amazing fights. Max Zhang, Xing Yu and Dave Bautista were excellent, as were Michelle Yeoh and Tony Jaa but they didn't have nearly enough screen time. But when you decide to watch something like Ip Man or similar movies, you go there for the fights and this does deliver on that point.

 

Triple Threat - Were The Expendables gathered 80's and 90's action heroes, this gathers some of the best and coolest starts off the last 15 years and it does deliver one hell of a movie. The cast consists of Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Tiger Chen, Scott Adkins, Michael Jai White, Celina Jade, Yanin Vismitananda and more, and with a cast as fucking crazy as that there's just no way you can make a bad movie. And it truly wasn't. Slightly generic, but it still kicked major ass and was cool as fuck.

 

However, I ain't gonna lie. I was really disappointed by the movie. And it still got 8/10. That says all about my expectations. Hah! Hoping for a sequel.

 

Klovn Forever - Not quite as good as the first, but it's more of the same and it's beyond fucking hilarious. Amazing movie!

 

https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/paradox

 

 

Quote

Resurrected from the ashes of one of the most influential death metal bands of all time, Nocturnus, NOCTURNUS AD was initiated by Nocturnus founder/mastermind/death metal legend Mike Browning (also co-founder of Morbid Angel) to continue the path that was laid down, 28 years later, by the legendary Florida death metal band’s seminal 1990 album “The Key”. An album recognized as one of the most important death metal albums of all time. 

 

This came out of nowhere, and it sounds really fucking good. Sounds like classic Nocturnus, and as The Key is one of my favourite death metal albums ever I just can't complain. Really looking forward to this.

 

Mike Browning was a huge part of Nocturnus and his other band, After Death, also sounds a lot like Nocturnus, albeit not nearly as much as this. Recommended!

 

 

This album is a must-have for any fan of death metal. As classic and revolutionary as it gets.

I finished Kingdom yesterday and thought it was excellent. Really looking forward to the next season. By the way, the movie I mentioned was Rampant. Cool film with some fantastic zombies and action.

 think the albums from Total Death to Sardonic Wrath are fairly straight-forward black metal, with the exception of Goatlord which was recorded back in 91 but only released in 96.

 

But with The Cult Is Alive they obviously changed, and the easiest way to rreally understand them is to look at the inspirations for the album. And I'll keep this real simple, but what they've done is to take some classic styles form the past and spiced up their more modern sound.

 

The Cult Is Alive is obviously very punk inspired, and got plenty classic, 80's punk like The Exploited, GHB and so on, as well as some traits from crust punk like Skitsystem and Doom.

 

F.O.A.D. still has some punk traits, but are more heavy metal inspired. You can hear some Iron Maiden, Motorhead and stuff, but it's leaning more towards epic metal and UPS. Manilla Road is an obvious inspiration, but their epic heavy metal and more thrashy power metal style, but also Omen, Manowar, English Dogs, Savage Grace and similar bands.

 

Dark Thrones and Black Flags is pretty similar to F.O.A.D., but contains less punk, more epic metal and USPM. Pretty much the same inspirations as above.

 

Circle the Wagons is again same as above. No major changes.

 

The Underground Resistance however saw a pretty big change in that all the traits of punk, albeit the punk played a very small role on the recent albums, were gone. Hellhammer, Celtic Frost and Agent Steel comes off as huge inspirations. A very black 'n' speed metal album, with some traits of King Diamond, Mercyful Fate and Bathory, Manoway and Manilla Road.

 

Arctic Thunder again got a huge change in sound as it is more a modern take on Dream Death' unique brand of death/thrash/doom metal, with some black metal added to the mix.

 

Quote

Fenriz enthuses «Old star – again we are here with THE RIFFS! A while after our previous ARCTIC THUNDER album it became apparent that we would continue in that same style, BLACK OLD HEAVY METAL with slow thrash, classic doom and slow death metal.
As many have focussed on the 70s sound over the last 20 years, the mix on our new album has ended up being more 80s than ever. The songs are more metal than ever! Ted’s songs have alot of black metal in them, faster and slower but also doomier parts and reocurring parts. My songs are more linear written, it’s an ancient 80s underground trick, with breaks, all slow heavy or slow thrash, classic doom or slow death.»
He continues «All in all it is our most 80s album so far and our most metal one to date with drum sound typical for the 80s USA/German market and damned lyrics, which are all written by me. We feel that OLD STAR is the big brother of ARCTIC THUNDER. More solid and with even better riffs.»

This seems to be the track list:

 

1.) I Muffle Your Inner Choir
2.) The Hardship Of The Scots
3.) Old Star
4.) Alp Man
5.) Duke of Gloat
6.) The Key Is Inside The Wall

 

 

 

Really looking forward to this, and the cover art is terrific. Looks awesome! Interesting song titles too.

 

 

 

 

New Amon Amarth song. Sounds like it's super inspired by awful power metal and modern metalcore, more than actual death metal. Disgisting track, but that's as expected of course.

 

 

 

Finished Love, Death & Robots and thought it was exceptional. Like all anthology's it's a bit up and down, but most part it's really good. At its worst it's good. At its best it's brilliant.

 

Favourite episodes would be Sucker of Souls, Beyond the Aquila Rift, Good Hunting, Helping Hand, Fish Night and Zima Blue. Fish Night and Zima Blue are probably the very best.

 

Least favourite are Alternate Histories, Secret War, When The Yogurt Took Over and Three Robots.

I got one episode to go before I am finished with Kingdom. It's a zombie show and all, but the zombies are more of a backdrop than anything else. Really nice and well-written period drama with zombies as a certain spice. Really liking it.

 

I also watched a film from last year which was much of the samw, albeit more action-horror than drama. Also South Korean. Was cool, but not as good as Kingdom.

 

 

Netflix strikes again, so fuck the motherfucking haters.

 

I'm only 6 episodes into the series, but so far I'm extremely satisfied. Animated anthology series that so far has been horror, sci-fi, fantasy and comedy. Incredibly diverse, so you got no idea what the next episode is gonna be both story-wise and visually. Really cool stuff. Episodes so far has been between 5 and 20 minutes long.

New Martyrdöd is heavily awaited. Not long ago since I really started appreciating their more neo-crust inspired sound.

 

 

Some Blind Guardian news:

 

Quote

After all these years of guesses, prophecies and other confirming irritations we are happy to announce that „Legacy of the Dark Lands“ will be released on November 1, 2019. Yes, it is the ORCHESTRAL ALBUM and the release date is carved in stone …, we hope:-).To be prepared for this once in your lifetime experience you better get your version of „Die Dunklen Lande“ by our friend Markus Heitz, which is out now. „Die Dunklen Lande“ is closely connected to the orchestral album and features the prequel to „Legacy of the Dark Lands“. It might also help killing time, a little bit:-) Enjoy. 
You want to know more about the dark lands? Here is a link you then better do not ignore:

 

http://nblast.de/BGLegacyOfTheDarkLands

Produced by Beastwood Films, http://www.beastwoodfilms.com
Filmed & edited by Dirk Behlau, http://www.thepixeleye.com

 

I'm excited for this, and it's not long ago since I started appreciated their more symphonic and proggy Queen-inspired albums. But this will be something special I think. It's been in the works since 1997. 1997!!!

 

 

Wu Tang Clan, Public Enemy and De La Soul are playing in Oslo i May, as wellas DJ Premier. Crazy good line up. Gonna go for sure!

Been very much into a couple of Xülthys' projects lately. One-man black metal band that nailed the music, lyrics and imagine a lot. Great, dark and moody music and really cool pictures and cover arts. There's something really mystic about the pictures. Reminds me of old pictures of a secret cult of something.

 

Bašmu

https://basmu.bandcamp.com/

 

 

Girtablullû

https://girtablullu.bandcamp.com/releases

 

 

Flešš

https://rawflesh.bandcamp.com/releases

 

 

 

Really impressive stuff IMO. Dark, grim, atmospheric, raw. Really got everything.

 

 

Deafheaven goes more towards thrashy black metal without any post-rock influence at all, and it sounds awesome. By far the best thing they've done since their debut.

Idontknowjeffery is my new obsession. More often than not pretty lo-fi and chill beats with pretty slow but groovy rapping on top. Can't get enough of this guy.

 

 

 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse - 2018 was a fantastic year for animated superhero movies, and while not as good as or unique as Batman Ninja og Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, this is still very unique and different and a fan-fuckin-tastic movie. Superbly written, animated, voice acted and so on. Also, the coloring scheme throughout the movies are really sweet.

 

Spider-Man Noir deserves his own movie, and Nicolas Cage was beyond fucking brilliant. Like, he was THE star of the film. Holy shit! GOD!

 

The Equalizer - The type of badass action thriller you'd expect to see Liam Neeson star in 5-10 years ago, but it's a bit different and the biggest difference is that this carries a much warmer lead character played beautifully and amazingly badass by Denzel Washington. I would love to see less cut up and better choreographed action scenes, but the entie film is just sweet as candy. Completely awesome!

 

The Equalizer 2 - Lacks some of what made the first one THAT fucking good, but I don't think this is much worse at all. More of the same, but done way better than e.g Taken 2 was. Lovely stuff!

Maniac  - Exceptional sci-fi drama with with some truly stunning performances by Jonah Hill and Emma Stone. It's a remake of a Norwegian series I have not seen, but I might watch it out of curiosity. This was phenomenal! A must-see IMO.

 

The Umbrella Academy - Didn't except to like this much, but I actually did despite some major flaws. The overall tone is a bit inconsistent, the choices of music is so standard and boring that it almost seem parodying regular choices, and Luther turned out to be a poorly written cliche. But overall the series was cool. Like a mix of Watchmen and X-Men, but not nearly as good or interesting as either. But recommended if you're into atypical superhero shows.

Anyone knows any decent places to download or watch anime? Currently looking for Cyber City Oedo 808, but I can only find it on youtube with English language. But thought I'd pick up some anime again. Been a few years since I watched it regularly, but I need some place to get it from.

 

Buying is always an option, but a lot of it is so fucking expensive.

 

 

Edit: Forget about it!

Some more news:

 

 

Been listening to this track a lot in the past weeks since it was recommended to me on Spotify. And it has blown me away. It took me AGES to get into Helheim post Yersinia Pestis (14 years, and I gave ever album since Yersinia Pestis a lot of listens), but it wasn't until the release of landawarijaR in 2017 that I started enjoying newer Helheim and now I love it all, every single release from their 1993 demo Helheim to landawarijaR, and judging from this track I'll love this as well. This song is very different, carrying a rockish drive to it, while still keeping the recent touch of norse atmosphere to it. Brilliant, and one of Helheim's best tracks ever. Catchy as hell, while still giving you a lot to dig into and enjoy. Simple, but EXCEPTIONAL drumming. Love the changes around 2:14 and 2:44. They add so much to the track itself, despite being incredibly straight forward. Can't wait for the album to drop!

 

 

Teaser from an upcoming single by Vulture. They released a modern speed metal classic in 2017, so I can't wait for this. Should be awesome!

 

Stälker - Powermad

 

Nothing released from this two track EP yet, but if you've heard these guys you know this is gonna rule. Like Vulture they released a fantastic speed metal album in 2017, but this was, to everyone's big surprise, even better than Vulture. Furious speed metal!

 

Their demo is a must-have for any fan of speed metal. Well, so is their debut album. 

 

Sinmara - Hvísl stjarnanna

https://sinmara.bandcamp.com/album/hv-sl-stjarnanna

 

Two tracks from the upcoming album. One of the best out of the recent rise of bands on Iceland, and this sounds terrific.

 

 

New Bewitcher single on its way, and this is the teaser. Sounds exactly like you'd expect after the cool debut album. Black/speed metal in the vein of Venom, Bulldozer and Bathory.

 

 

A track from the upcoming Fen EP.  Fen's always good, but I don't really get why this has been releases. It's basically just a long interlude. Hope the two, longer tracks brings something better with them.

 

https://malignantvoices.bandcamp.com/album/citizenship-of-the-abyss

 

Two tracks from the upcoming Owls Woods Graves album. Black metal punk by two five Medico Peste members, as well as two of Mgla's live members. Sounds awesome!

 

https://katechon.bandcamp.com/album/sanger-fra-auschwitz

 

Not sure if I have posted any news about this, but the new Katechon album are right around the corner. Judging by the two tracks available, this is gonna be their best release so far.

 

 

Chrome Waves - A Grief Observed

https://chromewaves.bandcamp.com/album/a-grief-observed

 

Chrome Waves kinda blew a lot of us post-black metal fans away back in 2012 with their debut EP, but then they went silent for 6 years and everybody seemed to forget about them. But their debut album is right around the corner, and the two singles they released last year were very good. Recommended!

Yep, I know and it's really cool. I would also love to see Vintersorg get back with Vargher and release another Havayoth album, but that's not gonna happen for sure. Don't think either are interested. It's one of those really obscure bands that no one really seems to know, not even Vintersorg fans.

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTN1S1toaeM

 

Good news for fans of dark, filthy, disgusting and putrid death metal as Triumvir Foul are releasing a new EP called Urine of Abomination. This track sounds really cool.

 

Both albums are top notch btw but their first demo are still the best thing they've released. Both music and production are spot on. One of the coolest death metal releases of the 2010's for sure. But both albums are heavily recommended as well.

First that comes to my mind is Merry's two oldies covers from the Gekisei single.

 

Isezakicho Blues by Mina Aoe (1968) and Merry's cover

 

 

This is basically a new incantation of Bal-Sagoth with four of Bal-Sagoth's five members. Only one missing is Byron Roberts. Sounds like older Bal-Sagoth which is a great thing. The vocals isn't the best, but they sound much better on the track than they did on the previews we got a week ago which was completely and utter awful. And considering Byron are one of the best lyricists of metal I don't expect we'll get any concepts as great as his, but whatever. I can do without good lyrics anyway. Sounds cool tho.

 

 

https://frozendreams.bandcamp.com/album/voices-of-the-arctic-winter

 

Frozen Dreams, Summoning worship from Sweden. A bit more sugarcoated than Summoning is, but it's good, atmospheric/epic black metal. Released one album in 2017, two in 2018 and so far one in 2019. Effective and productive guy, and it doesn't seem to lower the quality of his releases which is sweet.

Hard to disagree with that, Jigsaw. X Japan and Toshi was always best when they went full speed/power metal, over the top symphonic speed/power metal or just catchy as fuck heavy metal. I actually think Toshi sounds a tad stupid when he sings ballads.

Not gonna lie, that's about time if you ask me. And hopefully he'll be able to put even more time and effort into Vintersorg and other projects again, which would be really great now that Vintersorg is on a proper high with some truly great releases, unlike what I think Borknagar has for the last 19 years. 

 

Alongside more work on Vintersorg it Would be cool if him and Øystein Garnes Brun of Borknagar got out another Cronian album, as well as getting out the damn Otyg already. Vintersorg and the rest of the band revived Otyg in 2012 and talked about an album being close to finished composing-wise in 2013-2014, but that they didn't have time to record it. Which is a massive shame as this is one of those truly classic folk metal bands that actually nailed that type of folk metal. They sound more folky than most folk metal bands, and they're way, way closer to folk rock than other bands in the genre which is really cool. The metal part doesn't play a big part of the sound at all, especially not on the debut album. Underrated band.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just discovered this album that was released late last year. It's a project between Azgorh (Drowning the Light) and Akhtya Nachttoter (Black Funeral). It kinds sounds like a mix of Drowning the Light, Black Funeral and Mortiis. Think vampiric black metal like Drowning the Light, Mütiilation, Vampyric Blood and Black Funeral, mixed with 90's (sounding) dungeon synth like Mortiis, Old Tower, Spectral Kingdom and Thangorodrim. Got a grim and medieval feeling to it. Sounds terrific!

 

 

If you're familiar with the group you know what to expect. If you're not (then fucking shame on you!!!), we're talking old school and familiar, yet fresh and new-sounding boom bap that'll make you think of the glory days of hip hop. This album is fucking FIRE! But we're used to that by now. These madmen just doesn't know how to make anything bad. Pure gold!