Bear

Eh, I don't know. It's not that I don't like any VK bands anymore and I still listen to much of what I was into 5-10 years ago (the "classics"), but with the huge flow of band's and releases it just gets harder and harder to find new bands I enjoy. Back in the day when I first got into VK I started with all the classic bands and big bands, making it easy to find quality bands. Nowadays it feels like everyone is releasing something and I have to go through 50 bands to find one I like. Not worth the time IMO. And the "recent" metalcore-esque tend really didn't do me any favors as I despise the sound of modern, 2000's metalcore. But this goes for every genre and scene. Like the depressive black metal boom, thrash metal boom, othrodox black metal boom and so on. I like all these subgenres a lot, but suddenly you had to listen to 50+ albums to find one decent within these styles because "everyone" did them. It was just too much shit getting released which made it hard to find something good, which again made me look for something else. Basically same with VK for me.

Didn't realise that Necrophobic released a new EP this year. One new song and a re-recorded version of a classic song off their classic Slow Asphyxiation demo. The new track, Pesta, sounds very Necrophobic-ish. They continue their very melodic style of black/death metal, and it's very catchy. Sounds like a track off Death to All. The re-recorded version of Slow Asphyxiation isn't bad, but comes off as pointless. Lacks the energy and atmosphere of the original track, which got a proper release in 2009 on the compilation Satanic Blasphemies which includes the two demos Slow Asphyxiation and Unholy Prophecies and the demo The Call. Superb release! If you're not familiar with the band but like bands such as Unanimated, Dissection, Sacramentum, Dismember, Grotesque, Dawn, Cardinal Sin and such it's totally recommended. Imagine a mix of Unanimated's In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead, Dissections Storm of the Light's bane, Dismember's Like an Everflowing Stream and Grotesque's In the Embrace of Evil. Not quite as melodic as Dissection, but more melodic than Dismember and Grotesque. The entire discography is good, but The Nocturnal Silence, Darkside and Satanic Blasphemies are must-haves. Classics!

You could say so, but it's actually been 4 years since their last album. 5 years when the new one comes out. But it doesn't feel that long at all. Time's running fast atm. But bands like Emyn Muil, Moongates Guardian, Elffor, Druadan Forest, and Ered Wethrin have made the wait a bit shorter with some Summoning-esque albums, especially Emyn Muil and the best of Moongates Guardian helped on the wait. The new Elffor is superb btw. It's not metal, but dungeon synth and medieval ambient. Probably the best I've ehard from Elffor till now. It's got a huge Summoning-vibe going on throughout the entire album too. Very The Lord of the Rings-esque. Could listen to this while reading the books for sure.

Best news since forever. One of the best and most consistent black metal bands out there if you ask me. I always know that when Summoning releases something I'll be more than pleased. And the teaser sounds super promising. Lugburz 7/10 Minas Morgul 9/10 Dol Guldur 10/10 Nightshade Forests 10/10 Stronghold 10/10 Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame 8/10 Lost Tales 7/10 Oath Bound 10/10 Old Mornings Dawn 10/10 Fun fact: the two members of Summoning does not rehears anything before recording, and their guitarist, Protector, does not own a guitar. He just borrows one for each recording process.

As far as Enslaved goes, I'd actually go as far as to say that their debut EP and four fitst albums are timeless classics, and Mardraum: Beyond the Within, Monumension and Below the Lights being great too. Every release is so different from the previous, yet so familiar in many ways. Then they decided they wanted to be the Pink Floyd of black metal and went to shit. And as far as Cradle of Filth goes, you should most certain give The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein, Dusk and Her Embrace, Dusk... and Her Embrace - The Original Sin, Cruelty and the Beast, Midian, Damnation and a Day and Hammer of the Witches a fair chance. These are all fantastic, with the 5 first being proper black metal classics. Original, unique and fantastic! And not to sound negative, but I don't get what's so great about newer Septicflesh. Nowadays the band sounds like a pseudo-death metal band who think their sound is flat and boring and add some symphonic parts to it all to add some depth, bot the problem is the riffs are godfuckingawful and the symphonic parts adds nothing to the music. Doesn't fit in at all and doesn't add anything to the music. Of all the classic Hellenic black/death metal bands out there, this is that one who's fucked up the worst. I'm not a big fan of Revolution DNA or Sumerian Daemons, in fact I despise both albums. But I respect them. They're unique, they're fresh and tey're original and they got plenty soul. Their newer stuff are among the most soulless metal albums I've ever heard. Also had the displeasure to see them live back in 2015 or something. One of the worst gigs ever. Even a 1/10 would sound positive comared to what it was like. Worst shit ever.

Just heard a track off the new Enslaved album and it's probably the worst I've ever heard them. It's like they wrote the song after listening to Lunar Force or Havenless on repeat for 24 hours straight. By far the worst song I've heard from them, and Grutle now sounds like a complete parody of himself. But on the brighter side, the new Cradle of Filth album sounds promising. Aside from the phenomenal idea of releasing the original Dusk... and her Embrace, getting rid of Paul Allender, James McIlroy Dave Pybus and Charles Hedger and getting Ashok (ex-Root), Rich Shaw, Daniel Firth and Lindsay Schoolcraft have done this band wonders. More varied and unpredictable riffing, longer songs with more unorthodox song structures and a different approach with the keyboard and choirs have really done the difference. It doesn't sound like it'll match Hammer of the Witches, but it soudns very good nonetheless.

Well, this sure was surprising. Well, it's more black 'n' roll, but I'm surprised by how melodic it sounds. By far their best track since Now, Diabolical, and I like th emore epic, hymn-esque moments of the track. I really, really dislike The Age of Nero and Satyricon, and ain't too big of a fan of Now, Diabolical. But this was interesting. Like it. Catchy tune. But ever since the release of Now, Diabolical I feel like Frost has been kept a fucking hostage in Satyricon. He's just doodling along to the guitars. While he didn't do much fancy work on Volcano, it still sounds like he let loose and just did whatever the fuck he wanted on the album. There was some power behind the drumming. But ever since he's seemed bored tbh. But I can still listen to Beyond the Apocalypse, Hellfire, Rebel Extravaganza, Antichrist, Reclaim, Blood Must Be Shed and WW and enjoy his mad skills there. Holy cow this man is a beast behind the kit whenever he's actually free to let the beast loose. Oooooh hell yeah! Last good Keep of Kalessin release too, and it's a fucking masterpiece. Best thing they ever did!

Universal Horror - A 90 minute long documentary about the glory days of Universal Studios and their Universal Monsters. It's a very good documentary that'll provide lots of fun and interesting info for people who aren't too familiar with the back stories and such, but if you are a horror maniac like myself you won't find much new info here. But it is a good documentary with lots of interesting and fun info/interviews. It is also superbly produced and crafted. I've seen quite a lot of criticism towards the documentary, but you should just ignore all that as all they complain about is how it involves non-Universal films too. However, a lot of the non-Universal films are included to show clear inspiration from other films and scenes, such as the european (GERMAN!) silent horror era, and other companies in the US who produced similar films in many ways. But it's a great one! Vincent Price's Dracula - An hour of Vincent Price hosting and narrating a documentary about Vlad Tepes/The Impaler/Dracula? Yeah, please! First off, he's got such an amazing voice and his way of telling things is incredible. Second off, he manage to make this documentary a bit campy, and he really uses himself for all its worth. He was once the master of campy horror, and he takes that with him into this documentary. You can break the film into three parts: 1. One which is all about facts and who Vlad Tepes/the Impaler/Dracula is. 2. The fictionized version of him, where he known as a vampire called Nosferatu/Dracula, and how the idea of that character came through. 3. And a look at rituals, superstitions and stuff from, what was back then in 1985, modern day Transylvanian villages. Are you interested in Vlad Tepes? Watch this! Interested in Dracula? Watch this! A fan of Vincent Price? Watch this! And as one who is interested in both the first and a huge, huge fanboy of Vincent Price, this was a real pleasure for me. Loved it!

For most part it is a huge puppet, but I know Haruo Nakajima portrayed Mothra in her larval form.

Haruo Nakajima passed away recently. If you mention the name Haruo Nakajima, or just show people a picture of his face, most people will shrug their head and ask you who it is. So who is he? Haruo Nakajima is the man who portrayed Godzilla 12 times between 1964 and 1972, and who have been other monsters such as Mothra, King Kong, Baragon, Rodan, Moguera, Varan, Gaira and more as well. He's not got a big name in the world of cinema and he's not got a face a lot of people will recognize, but a legend nonetheless. All hail!

Another Pagan Altar track: http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2017/08/07/pagan-altar-the-room-of-shadows-review-premiere/ It's Pagan Altar, so it's obviously amazing. Starts off slow with a real thick haunting atmosphere. But then the riff kicks inn and from there on it's a total banger, and the solos are of the very best quality as always. If you don't like Pagan Altar, you don't like heavy or doom metal.

You talking about Battle Dagorath, there? Never had any problem with the drums themself. Just the overall production. Yeah, Wode is very good. Very Dissection-esque, but without actually sounding like them. Midnight - Sweet Death and Ecstasy 1. Crushed By Demons 2. Penetratal Ecstasy 3. Here Comes Sweet Death 4. Melting Brain 5. Rabid! 6. Bitch Mongrel 7. Poison Trash 8. Before My Time In Hell Heeeeeel yeah! Really looking forward to this. I hope they go for a less polished sound this time around. The production of both full-lenghts ahave always bugged me a bit, while their older stuff is roduced sweetly as fuck. Complete and Total Hell is the shit!

It is that Vamps. Awful booking. The king himself should refuse to play alongside both bands tbh.

This is the definitions I've always come to know from I was young, and it's the definition that me, and more or less everyone I have discuss music with over the last 15 years, also use: And I know what a remix of a track is, but it's actually a word and an act with more than one meaning.

But that is basically what a remaster is. For a remix however they'll mix the individual tracks withon a song and so on.

If I had to choose I'd go with "remastered". I actually can't think of a single good example of a full re-recording that beats an already good/great/amazing album, nothing even comes close. For most part they've just slaughtered an album totally and made it unlistenable. But to add something positive to the discussion of remastered vs re-recorded vs nothing: Edit: just noticed this was about Mucc. Haven't heard the re-recorded versions, and most likely won't as I am already a huge fan of the originals. My bad.

Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film - Rewatched this as I was eating food last night, and this is still as good as it was years ago. It's not perfect and it's way too short, as it cover everything from the early 1900's to the first decade of the 2000's in 90 minutes. A documentary like this should've been 10+ hours long tbh, because you have to skip so much history when going this fast through it. But it does do a good job in covering the genre, even though it mainly focus on the bigger names of the genre as far as both films and directors goes. But it is what it is, and while it doesn't offer anything new to a horror nerd like me and barely scratches the surface of american horror cinema, it might offer a lot to you. Totally recommended! Among the people interviewed is John Carpenter, George A. Romero, Joe Dante, Brian Yuzna, Roger Corman and more. And as always, watching and hearing George A. Romenro and Roger Corman interviewed is always a pleasure, and they are woth the 90 minutes alone.

Yeah, the new Battle Dagorath is very good. But as always with this band, I wish the production was a bit rougher.They've always been a very nice mix of Paysage d'Hiver and Darkspace. Which totally works of course. But I wish it was more lo-fi sounding. And since you brought up an album released on Avantgarde Music, let's continue that trend: Selvans - Lupercalia Atmospheric black/folk metal with clear influences from acts such as Negură Bunget, Nokturnal Mortum, Kampfar and such. It's keyboard-heavy and folky, but it never gets jolly and happy and all that. Released in 2015, but it's only recently I've really gotten into it. Really, really good album.

I don't think anyone cares, but I sure as fuck do: That teaser sounds seriously good, and it's real nice to see Abigor somewhat return to their roots. Not as straight-forward as their first few albums and there is clearly elements of their newer albums as well, but it does have a lot of similarities with their oldies for sure. Their newer, more experimental albums have grown on me a lot over the last few years, but their first few releases are what I keep coming back to. Verwüstung – Invoke the Dark Age, Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom), Origo Regium 1993-1994, Opus IV, Supreme Immortal Art and are mustChanneling the Quintessence of Satan-haves for any fan of black metal. It was with Channeling the Quintessence of Satan they started to lean towards experimental black metal and avant-garde, but it is a supreme album nonetheless. One of the most overlooked and underrated black metal bands in the entire history of its genre. Totally recommended! And if you're fan of the more experimental works of Deathspell Omega, Blut aus Nord, Dødheimsgard, Dodecahedron and so on you might enjoy their newers releases too.

I know for a fact that the way people will look upon It Follows in about 20-30 years, is the same way my generation looks upon late 70's and 80's classics like Alien, Dawn of the Dead, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, Suspiria, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, An American Werewolf In London, Poltergeist and so on. While there are newer horror films I prefer over It Follows, I think few, if any of them, will manage to claim the same status and reputation in 20+ years as It Follows. It'll be remembered and gain status as a proper classic for sure. Just trust me on this, kids. And when you grow up you'll learn to like this film as well. The soundtrack slays by the way. Could listen to that shit all week long. I really like the recent trend of synthy soundtracks. Been some proper, proper good ones lately. It Follows, Stranger Things, Yellow, Maniac, Starry Eyes and more have top notch synthy soundtracks that can match the old classic ones.

How was it frustrating? An absolute masterpiece of chilling and interesting modern horror cinema. Almost perfection, and one of the most original horror films in ages.

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2017/07/27/track-premiere-pagan-altar-dance-of-the-vampires/ Here we actually got a track off the new Pagan Altar album. Production-wise it sounds a bit more modern, but it sounds really, really nice and far from over-produced. Terry is an amazing vocalist. He got a very unique touch to his voice, but his passion and devotion is fantastic. A bit like Quorthon, Mr. Doctor and A.A. Nemtheanga who are my three favourite vocalists of all time. And riff-wise it's brilliant too. Catchy as fuck, and the leads are, as expected from Pagan Altar, nothing short of exceptional.

While the new layout isn't perfect, at least MH isn't the slowest forum on the whole fucking internet anymore. That's clearly a step in the right direction if you ask me.

I love me some Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, and having Slayer playing an older, brutal track is unexpected, but awesome. Fucking Gary Holt, man. What a man! He really gets the job done. Amazing! Love me some Jimmy Fallon. Great guy!