Bear

“Mayhem In Blue”, the new album form Psychedelic Prog Black Metallers HAIL SPIRIT NOIR, is set for release on Dark Essence Records on the 14th October. The album will be the third full-length release for the Greek trio, whose debut album “Pneuma” appeared in 2012, followed by 2014’s “”Oi Magoi”. Commenting on what fans can expect from “Mayhem In Blue”, the band had this to say: “It’s been two and a half years since the release of our last album, and with “Mayhem In Blue” we have set out to express our more aggressive side, without sacrificing any of the psychedelic melodies that are an integral part of what we like to call HAIL SPIRIT NOIR’ s “weird black sound”. If anything, in fact, the sound is more enticing and trippy than ever. “Featuring the mixing talents of Dimitris Douvras (ROTTING CHRIST etc) and the exceptional mastering abilities of Alan Douches (CHELSEA WOLFE, MOTORHEAD etc), we feel that the result is an album that elevates our signature psychoprog black metal sound to new levels”. Artwork for the six-track album is by Olia Pishchanska. Fuck yeah! I'm so looking forward to this. Gonna be fantastic for sure.

Spell - For None and All http://spellofficial.bandcamp.com/album/for-none-and-all I loved Spell's debut album, The Full Moon Sessions, which I thought was a great, original and very unique heavy metal album, especially considering this was 2014. It's pure heavy metal, classic sounding and all, yet so very fresh and different. There's something about that riffing. My first impression is that this is just as good, and probably better than the debut album. Can't wait to give it a few more spins. The vocals will probably put a lot of people off, but I dig them and the music is fantastic.

Their last album was very disappointing, but other than that this band has been Close to flawless ever since their demo, so them splitting (not sure if they're actually split though, or if it's just that all the members except of John Haughm who's left?) sucks. From Which of This Oak, Pale Folklore, Marrow of the Spirit and Faustian Echoes are most excellent, and The Mantle, Ashes Against the Grain and the majority of the other releases are great too. The only release I don't listen to on a regular basis is The Serpent & the Sphere.

Hell yeah! They should be on everyone's list because of Satori alone. What an album! 45 years later and it still sounds innovative, original and unique. I've already posted in this but I want to do it again: Sigh Sabbat Framtid Gauze S.O.B. Mono Meiko Kaji Magnesium Boris Gallhammer Well, that's what it looks like today. Tomorrow it would look different again. THere's just too many good and even band to choose from, but Sigh, Sabbat, Framtid, Mono, Boris and Gauze would probably be on this list the next 50 times I make it too. The others however would probably be swapped.

Despite being one of my all time favourite bands, I am not too keen on that to be quite honest. Danzig sang a few Misfits songs a few years back and it was awful. His voice has just changed too much over the years and he's simply not able to nail those songs anymore. He can't sing like that. At least not if those videos are something to judge on, which I do believe. But nothing would make me happier than them proving me wrong.

I recently started a new save on Borderlands, playing with my brother and two friends. I liked its singleplayer, but this took the game to new heights. Fun alone, great with friends. Looking forward to finishing this game and start on Borderlands 2 with them.

The Witch: A New-England Folktale - I had huge expectations to this film and it surely didn't disappoint. It's a simple enough tale, but it's incredibly atmospheric and tense throughout the film, and it's beautifully shot, visually stunning and superbly acted. I thought the film was very haunting and unsettling, much because of its visuals, but also because first-time director Robert Eggers taunts us with certain elements a bit throughout the film, and makes some incredible choices both story-wise and in the way he's decided to tell this story. A brilliant debut!

I hate that übermodern looking cover, but god damn how I look forward to this. This is gonna be suge a huge moment for me.

THere's a new Forteresse-track streaming now, and as usual we get their ambient, trance-like Métal noir québécois - melodic and epic. Sounds a bit faster and heavier than previous albums, with a much cleaner production, but it still sounds great. Fantastic choice of melodies as usual. http://www.stereogum.com/1875864/forteresse-la-ou-nous-allons-stereogum-premiere/mp3s/

I don't think there's a single instrument that's more or less important than the others in general as it's all about how the band want to sound, how they write their music and so on.

The Hitcher is cult as fuck, Spy was surprisingly funny and Jason Statham WAS the film, and Visitor Q is so bisarre, and of course excellent.

Yes. Brilliant games with superb soundtracks. Huge fan!

I'm always sceptic about going to the cinema which is why I tend to wait until the film has run for a long time before I go, because it means less people in the audience. I'm a big fan of going to the cinema on big, red days when we're off work and most people celebrate. New years eve is a good day to go to the cinema. It's early, it's more or less free of other people and chances are big that you'll have a good time. Deadpool - I finally got to see this film and it actually lived up to my huge expectations, and went even further beyond those. To start off I have to admit that I always liked Ryan Reynolds despite many dogy choices of films to be in, but he's always got something about him. The second thing I need to say is that this is a really impressive debut by Tim Miller. It's not super original and he does rely on tricks used a lot before, but he's daring and he brings something to the superhero film that we haven't seen too much of. It's childish and silly with Ryan Reynolds delivering ridiculous one-liners from the begining to the end. But the character, the entire tone of the film and Ryan Reynolds' fantastic performance makes it work, as well as Tim Millers direction because he just knows what he wants this film to be. It's not uneven in tone at all. It's a known story, but it feels fresh. Yeah, fuck it! Let's just agree that this was exceptional! There's a few CGI problems during this film, but they're minor and this film was excellent aside from that. Now, this is a superhero film, but it's not a traditional one and it's more in the line of Kick-Ass, The Toxic Avenger and so on. And anyone expection something traditional will most likely be disappointed during the first watch, but most likely not the second or third. And quality-wise I think this is up there with the very best of superhero films. To me this film doesn't stand back to films such as Batman, Batman Returns, Watchmen, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Kick-Ass, The Toxic Avenger, Superman, Dredd, Swamp Thing and V for Vendetta which I consider the best of the best as far as superhero films goes.

Fuck yeah! It's a god damn beast of an album. It's so massive-sounding, and so god damn thrashy compared to their earlier album. A bit more easy-listening perhaps, but that only positive as far as Vektor goes. Also, how many riffs have they managed to squeeze into this album? Has to be a lot. Can this compare to Dark Angel's "9 songs, 67 minutes, 246 riffs!"?

Lovely!

The new Vektor is crazy good, guys. They've taken the best elements of their previous albums and mixed them with newer elements, making it miles better than previous releases. The riffs are better, the songs tighter and everything just flows better. The progressive elements are toned doqn quite a bit and feels much more natural and less forced. Easily their best album till now, and I will be surprised if this isn't among my top 10 at the end of the year. God damn, they finaly got their massive potential out. Brilliant!

This shit, man. That's blaspheme at its very worst. Heavy metal's the god damn shit, brah!

Jesus, that feeling when the clock hit 4:30 pm yesterday and I finished my 32,5 hour long work day was heavenly. Earned some great money during the shift, and that just felt even better. The stay-over at school with the 4th graders went a lot better than expected, though. Had lots of fun, and the night went rather fast. Didn't even bother going to sleep, so I stayed awake and played Nintendo DS, drank a shitload of coffee and double espresso's and talked to my co-workers, mainly one which I didn't know well at all. Barely talked to her before. But it was nice, the money will feel great and all that. Will do it again without hesitation if I get asked again, which I guess I will.

By the way, should we maybe remove the first rule? Instead of having to list three albums, let's make it minimum one album and at most five albums to see if more people join in? I like these threads a lot as long as people write something about the album(s) they've choose, and it doesn't matter if it's one, three or five albums posted really. Maybe that'll make the threads a bit more attractive to people and therefore a lot more active?

Like I said in my previous post I actually havea lot of albums to choose from this time around, and I've actually had a hard time picking out three of them. Ithaqua - The Black Mass Sabbath Pulse Graveyard - ...for Thine Is the Darkness Reptilian - Perennial Void Traverse Woman Is the Earth - Torch of Our Final Night Barbarian - Cult of the Empty Grave Blizaro - Cornucopia della morte Occult Burial - Hideous Obscure Desaster - The Oath of an Iron Ritual Moonsorrow - Jumalten aika Wytch Hazel - Prelude Uada - Devoid of Light All the five bolded out deserve a spot on my list I think, so choosing only three is hard. I'll just pick three releases now, but tomorrow the list would've been different. It's that close. Ithaqua - The Black Mass Sabbath Pulse These Greek black metallers released a demo in 2015 that ended on my top 10 for the year, and their follow-up EP isn't any worse. Like their demo this sounds like a lost release from 1993, and I am not even joking. If someone claimd it was no one would raise an eyebrow. It sounds that authentic. This is Hellenic black metal like it was played by classic black metal bands like Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia and Though Art Lord in the early-mid 90's. This is short two-track EP clocking in at only 16 minutes, but it's 16 brilliant minutes. The riffing, drums, synth, vocals, production - everything sounds like anicient Hellenic black metal. True to its spirit and classic in sound. If you like older Greek black metal bands like Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia, Though Art Lord, Kawir, Agatus, Zemial and so on, then this is for you. Listen Wytch Hazel - Prelude Uplifting, christian hard rocking heavy metal. I find this band hard to describe, but I guess we could say they sounds a bit like Pagan Altar and Angel Witch meets Thin Lizzy and Uriah Heep meets Jethro Tull and Wishbone Ash. Catchy and uplifting as hell, and I think this is an album that will gets the job done in the light of day and warmth of the sun with a six pack in hand. Great vocals, fantastic leads and just superb riffing and atmosphere. Listen Occult Burial - Hideous Obscure After a few truly great demos and a split Occult Burial finally gives us their debut album, and what an album it is! Thrashing black metal in the vein of old Bathory, Sodom, NME, Tormentor, Sabbat, Mefisto, Vulcano, Poison, Treblinka, Sarcofago, Bulldozer and so on. In other words, this sounds like a proper first wave of black metal release. This could easily have been released in 1985-86, and if anyone claimed it was in fact a release from 1986 no-one would raise an eyebrow. It sounds that authentic. The rawness is there, the occult feeling is there, the riffing is there and the production is there. Everything is there. A fantastic debut album! Listen Honorable mentions (the two other albums that should be a part of the list): Blizaro - Cornucopia della morte Blizaro mainman John Gallow is a huge fan of horror films, doom metal and progressive rock, and he mix the best qualities of all three things in to a fabolous mix of progressive rock and doom metal. While there's elements of classic doom metal like Black Sabbath and the likes, John Gallow's Blizaro have always been on the Italian side of things, and his music oozes of classic italian horror soundtracks (especially giallo soundtracks) and bands like Goblin, Paul Chain (Violet Theatre), Black Hole, The Black, Zess, Requiem, Arpia and so on. The debut album was great, but it's always the demo material I've listened the most to from these guys, as the debut album, City of the Living Nightmare, was a little unfocused in the way it was put together. A bit all over the place and more like a compilation. This however sounds more like a proper album. It should also be noted that this album leans more towards tradition doom and less towards progressive rock than before, but the proggy elements are still present. Listen Moonsorrow - Jumalten aika After a very good, yet disappointing album, Moonsorrow returns to form with an album that sounds like a natural follow-up to 2008's fantastic 30 minute song/EP Tulimyrsky. This is less folky than Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa that saw the band take a few step back towards their two first albums in sound, and instead continue the black, dark, epic and progressive path the band started to walk with the masterpiece that is Verisäkeet, and continued with the masterpieces V: Hävitetty and Tulimyrsky. This album sounds massive, it's challenging and it's bloody fantastic. Listen

I use discogs to keep a track of what I have and not have, to buy things cheaply and whenever I need to tag something not metal. There's a lot of people who (try to) sell their stuff for a lot more than it's worth, but you'll find those people everywhere where people can sell their stuff. I like discogs aa lot. My profil: https://www.discogs.com/user/boris./collection It's not quite up to date at the moment, though. I'm pretty sure I have a few releases I'v not added to my collection yet.

I'll join in later this week. I actually have no less than 11 contenders this time, which feels weird as I've struggled to get to 3 releases in the past months. Funny you'd mention Uada, Jiggy. I took notice of them some months ago because of their fantastic Kris Verwimp cover art, as well as cool band picture. I kinda get the feeling Verwimp has looked back at his classic 90's cover arts and found some sorely needed inspiration for that cover. As far as the music goes I've only spun it like 3-4 times, but it sounds very good. Kinda sounds like a mix of Dissection, Dawn, Mgla and Weakling or something in those lines. Looking forward to dig even deeper into the album.

Huset (The House) - A decent but very disappointing norwegian horror film. It's beautifully shot and visually stunning, well-acted and at times awfully effective, but director Reinert Kiil just doesn't seem to completely know what he wants this film to be and he steps in the salad a few times going for the cheap scare/thrill with cheap scares and loud music that's supossed to make you jump. The score basically screams "watch the fuck out", and it doesn't really work. It sounds massive and is well-composed, but doesn't do much more than that. The story isn't the best either. It's a bit too complicated for the director to fully grasp around and there's just too many elements thrown in, which is a shame. He don't quite seem to know what he wants to tell us with the story. The whole exorcist story could've been fully left out IMO. DOesn't add anything to the film, despite looking fantastic. They feel a bit out of place. But at its best Huset is a fine horror film, and it is at its best and most scary when it turns down the music and let the house, actors and story speak for itself. But Kiil show that he's got an eye for simple and effective atmosphere and that he's someone to keep and eye on.

Gonna help another class out after work today. Gonna be hard. I usually work with the 2nd graders in school and 1st graders after school, which I will do today as well, but 4th are gonna have a sleepover tonight (from 6pm till 8 am) and I'll be there because they needed a male. I'll get well-paid, free food and and all that, but it's gonna be hard. I'll leave at 7am today and work from 8 am till 4:30 pm as usual. When my regular work day ends at 4:30pm I'll go work with the 4th graders from 4:30 pm til 8 am. The kids will show up at 6 pm and the hour and half before that I'll help prepare food and shit And then tomorrow morning at 8 am I'll start my regular work day from 8 am till 4:30 pm Lots of work with a lot of overtime which will make my next payment look and feel great. It'll basically be a 32.5 hour work day (if my mind ain't fucking with me), but hopefully with a couple of hours of sleep. But it'll be paid sleep (and most likely series and film watching), so it's all good and well. Yeah, let's see how this shit goes.

Trippy in what way? I thought Ex-Machina was a fairly straight-forward and a great film. The Revenant - Great survival drama that's been talked about for a long time now, but I feel like it's a bit overrated to be honest. Alejandro González Iñárritu doesn't know how to disappoint and as far as Hollywood actors goes, they just doesn't get much better than DiCaprio. It's beautifully staged and shot, generally well-acted and the story is there, but it could easily have been 20 min shorter IMO. I just feel like there's a lot of scenes that's there just to show us the beautiful landscape, which I personally think is unnecessary as there's so much beautiful landscape otherwise. But other than that I truly did enjoy this film. But I'd still say that Amores perros is miles ahead of this film, and it isn't really better than 21 Grams, Babel or Biutiful either.