Merry Christmas

Hi all !! Have a merry Christmas under the Christmas tree, or the Christmas Cactus, or under no tree at all, in the freezing cold night, waiting to perform a dark unholy rite ;-)

And prepare for next year. You need preparation for the European Militant Antichrist tour 2008, in April / May 2008, with Angelcorpse, Revenge, and Arkhon Infaustus.



But also prepare yourself with the crazy Polysics, next 26th February in Paris (and in some others places in Europe around this date, check by yourself). If you can, you should be there.

Arnhem Metal Meeting (contd)

At least, the promised photos from Arnhem Metal Meeting... The best shows (at least for me):
Unleashed, powerful as ever !!



Asphyx, they were great, their set was awesome, as in London some months ago...


Marduk, bathed in blood


Nifelheim. I never saw them on stage, but I must admit that they deliver a very dark and powerful Black Metal...



Primordial


A lot of beer (REALLY A LOT) flowed too in the musis sacrum, but all that in a very good and friendly metal spirit.

And of course, the whole set is here.

Minesweeper, The Movie

No, I did not forgot the pictures of Arnhem. Be prepared for real Metal bands, folks...

But, All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy... I have important informations to give, they released the trailer for the ultimate war-splatter film: Minesweeper: The Movie.

Arnhem Metal Meeting

I'm just back home tonight from Arnhem Metal Meeting: One day of metal in this Dutch town, at one hour from Amsterdam by train. Believe me, it was not easy to get up this early one cold Saturday morning just to take the first Thalys train at 6h55 in the morning... But the festival was worth it...

Stay tuned with soon coming pictures of various Black, Death, Trash and Goregrind bands such as Unleashed, Asphyx, Marduk, Nifelheim, Primordial, Sodom, Panchrysia, Haemorrhage...

Gate of Death

No, this time it's not about Death Metal... Though I will soon go to Arnhem for the Metal meeting next Saturday:


No, this blog is for once about another style of music: I just stumbled on Unsraw, a rather new Visual kei Japanese band. This band is more metallic than others (maybe because of the "beyond the grave" voice of Yuuki, the singer).

If they ever come to Paris, I surely will go to see them on stage...

Don't you think that they have something more than Visual style (though I will never say than visual is not important for metal bands)?

However, I'm writing this while listening to Destroyer (Or About How To Philosophize With the Hammer), by Gorgoroth...

Sign of an Open Eye

OK, this is some sort of joke, as this post is about some pictures of the late (and great) Gorgoroth show.

Gaahl sometimes looked like a Patriarch from hell:


This man could lead his crowd right until Hell, it seems:


He is clearly inspired - the only problem is maybe WHAT inspires him ;)


These infernal forces had total support from King ov Hell:
,

Teloch,
,

and Sykelig


OK, the whole set is here

Untamed Forces

Despite French strikes in public transport, I still could arrive in time for the Gorgoroth / Enthroned / Tyrant gig. It was easier for me than for a LOT others, because I'm not far away from Pigalle (and for those who don't live in Paris, be aware that Pigalle is not only the famous Paris Red-light district, but also home of many of the best venues in Paris: La Loco, the Elysée Montmartre, The Cigale, the Divan du Monde, the smaller Boule Noire...).

I met some people that had to walk two hours under heavy rain to go the the venue !!! What would you have done ?

Let's say that despite the fact that Gorgoroth has split (Infernus and Gaahl / King ov Hell both going their own ways, and both claiming Gorgoroth band name), the gig was EXCELLENT EXTREME BLACK METAL. They were helped by Teloch (whom I saw when playing with 1349 in June for Hellfest) and Sykelig at guitars, and Nick Barker on drums.

I was just in front of the stage during Gorgoroth performance (in front means here a few centimeters, and yes it was really a performance !!), and I must say that being so close from King ov Hell or Gaahl makes you sometimes ill at ease, especially when Gaahl seems to look at you - not in a very friendly way, this is Black Metal, after all, not a f*** patronage show - with his dark-colored eye... And as Gorgoroth is not only about looks, their music was incredibly powerful.

OK, maybe Gaahl and King ov Hell are not exactly people you would like to socialize with, maybe they are a little crazy, maybe even a little (or more) dangerous, but you can't have everything at the same time folks... What would you think of a Gorgoroth lead singer being sympathetic on stage, talking with the fans, even yelling I love you to the crowd ? Hear me ? Trust me, they are much better that way...



For your information, I shot some pretty interesting pictures of the gig, so stay tuned for a next post about all this ;-)

Revelation of Doom

Tomorrow is the gig with Gorgoroth (hmm, one of the parts that split recently, Infernus have another Gorgoroth myspace page here) and Enthroned, with support of the Australian band Tyrant.

What will be Gorgoroth without Infernus ? More news in a few days it seems ;-) However, it seems that Gaahl and King (ov Hell) want to keep the name for themselves, and it's the same for Infernus. However, the two parts still are in Black Metal, maybe this will end with two Gorgoroth bands... No, that's not possible...

This is extreme metal

Some great quotes from members of 1349 and Neurosis. Here you are:

Frost (1349): "We are not a commercial band, which means that we are not creating music in order to entertain people, we are not creating music to please the record label, and we are not having sales figures in our head when we are making music".

Archaon (1349): "That would restrict the art. I mean we are under present focused on creating what we had a vision of creating, and there's no limits as such from a starting point".

If you think it's just show off, think about that: 1349 choose to play on the smallest stage at Hellfest instead of the main stage, as planned. And all of that because their set was in the middle of the afternoon...


Frost again: "This band is best suited for playing in the dark, so the solution we have found for these festivals, are to play in tent stages if it is during daytime"



Scott Kelly (Neurosis): "If they understood the sacrifice, the commitment, the dedication, our perception of what we’re doing in that like we are very much dedicated to sound"



Yes this is metal.

A different Hell

As you may already know, Gorgoroth has split: Gaahl and King ov Hell had seemingly fired Infernus, but Gaahl states that they will perform the 2007 European tour (which is cool, because I already have my ticket...). OK, this is not really a split.

I never saw Gorgoroth on stage, hope this set will be good despite of the fact that one the the last founder will not be there...

The cake is a lie

For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.
...
I'm not even angry.
I'm being so sincere right now.
Even though you broke my heart.
And killed me.
And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because I was so happy for you!

Portal is a masterpiece !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Enslaved show

Yes I said I would go back on this subject. Here we are !!

It was at La Locomotive, one of the main venues in Paris for extreme Metal shows. It's small compared to others (capacity: 300 people). These bands never make the big big venues in Paris: Le Zenith (6000), Bercy (17.000), or the Stade de France (80.000), hé hé... Which is maybe fortunate because then you can be close to the stage, shake hands with the bands, etc..., and the music is better...

However, the running order was:

• Impiety


• Watain


• Keep of Kalessin


• Enslaved

I am not a huge fan of Impiety, although I acknowledge their everlasting energy (they are from Singapore !!).

As for Watain, dead rats were hung on inverted crosses (typical) in front of the stage. Let me say that it smelled bad, very bad !!! And I was just in front of the stage...

And at the end of the set, they threw the rats to the public !!! hmm, the little things were more dead than my grand-grand-grand grandfather (what, I'm exaggerating ?), I was fortunate not to be on their course ;-)

Keep of Kalessin were great too !!

The main act was Enslaved , they played Path of Vanir, Ruun, all their classics from their last album and more...

A great night !!

This is Hardcore Death Metal

Lucky man as I am, I will see them in Arnhem on 1st December.

Together with such bands as (hold your breath !!):

• Satyricon


• Unleashed


• Marduk


• Sodom


• Cruachan

And also:

• Primordial


• Haemorrhage


• Vreid


• Nifelheim

them are Asphyx, of course !!

Such a long time ago

It was in 1995, in a Newsweek article: The Internet? Bah!.

Logged onto the World Wide Web, I hunt for the date of the Battle of Trafalgar. Hundreds of files show up, and it takes 15 minutes to unravel them -- one's a biography written by an eighth grader, the second is a computer game that doesn't work and the third is an image of a London monument. None answers my question, and my search is periodically interrupted by messages like, "Too many connections, try again later."

hmm, now you just have to go to wikipedia for the answer, it's one or two seconds away.

But OK, some of this old, old, old article is still very true. For example: No interactive multimedia display comes close to the excitement of a live concert ;-)



Thanks to Stephanie Booth

Martine in the country of Abdul Alhazred

Martine is an old set of naive illustrated books for little girls. Now, with Martine cover generator, you can put fake crazy titles to the existing book covers. Yes she can still be funny.
See the dogs eyes, the poor little creature is obviously scared to death. And never, NEVER trust books of unusual size, bound in leather, especially when they come with those crazy embroidered Gothic ornamentation.

And I like the idea that a book can be dangerous, ANY BOOK...

Thanks Magali

Light fails once and forever

Hmm, maybe I must get rid of this habit of quoting Extreme Metal songs (I started to do it to provide titles for my pics on my flickr site..). It started after this excellent gig in Paris (really a milepost in metal shows this year). I think my best was for this picture of Vivian Slaughter, frontwoman of the Japanese Black/ Doom Metal band Gallhammer (OK, this time, the quote was much more "classic").

As for the quote for today, it's from the French Black Metal band (yes, yes, Black again, and maybe satanist too this time, what is important after all is the music, and YES, this is music, and YES, we are some here to think that it is very good music ...) Arkhon Infaustus. It comes from Behind the Husk of Faith, one of the songs from their last album, Orthodoxyn. Try When They Have Called, on their myspace page...

Apart from that, it just happens that I was at the Enslaved / Keep of Kalessin / Watain / Impiety show in Paris last night. It was a great night, but I will go back on that subject later guys, i have things to do now ;-)

Update: the wikipedia entry for Arkhon Infaustus might disappear if we don't do anything about it. What can we do ? Simple, expand the article and add references to third-party sources to establish the band's notability. And don't laugh please. Notability is relative. Never expect Black Metal bands to have say the popularity of Korn, these suckers (not that I had any intention to see them at Hellfest).

Talking about superheros

hmm, try to use it the other way around

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 53% Apocalypse 42% Catwoman 37% Riddler 36% The Joker 36% Green Goblin 36% Lex Luthor 34% Mr. Freeze 33% Magneto 33% Mystique 32% Juggernaut 32% Kingpin 31% Dark Phoenix 29% Poison Ivy 29% Two-Face 28% Venom 27%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz


Seen (with superheros) on BlogRoyal

Death show us the way

OK, it's about Death Metal, not just Death, all right folks ?

This picture of the Dutch Metal band Asphyx says all:


They were great !! Plus they are cool guys too !!

Hmm, do you guess what show I will attend to next week ? I will sure bring my new Asphyx T-shirt there ;-)

Free Burma

Read more about this here: www.free-burma.org.

Look also here, for an inside view.

Insane Beautiful Sunnyday Slaughter

The Week-end in London was great !!

Friday was for resting before the storm... Just watched The Bourne Ultimatum in Leicester square. I always like movies by Paul Greengrass. OK, this movie is a blockbuster, but a blockbuster shot with style. Greengrass is the one who made Bloody Sunday and United 93, remember ? All his movies, even his two Bourne's installments, look as documentaries...

Saturday was the Asphyx show, with Unpure and Razor of Occam, in Brixton. It was great, but unfortunately I decided not to go to the after party show (which was not so close from there, in Camden), because I had the flu, and I had to attend to another gig the next night...).

The next day, it was Gallhammer with Unearthly Trance and Ramesses. The London trip was initially to see Gallhammer on stage, and I was not disappointed !! They are really wild and scary on stage. They are also wild when they are in the public, he he ;-)

Mika Penetrator:

Vivian Slaughter:


Gallhammer play Black Metal mixed with parts of Doom, and even Crust Punk, but mainly they sound Black. Sometimes critics say that their sound is overly simple, and that their growling vocals are to "growly". People do not know what they want !! They are great !!

I haven't uploaded the Asphyx pics, but I have some Gallhammer footage here.

Week-end in London

Starting tomorrow (hmm, no, today), I will be in London for four days (going back to Paris next Monday).

I will attend to my own little metal festival (Black and Death ONLY):

• Saturday 22: Asphyx + Unpure + Razor Of Occam


• Sunday 23: Unearthly Trance + Ramesses + Gallhammer

Asphyx:


FEAR Gallhammer:


Here listen to the first measures...


Unearthly Trance:

HA Ha Ha!!!! Death to you all !!!!

Team Fortress 2 Beta has gone Live. For those who bought the Orange Box online ;-)



I solve practical problems.
..and you best hope...not pointed at you...

The difference between...

This week-end was the European Heritage Days. For those of you who don't live in Europe, you can visit for free a lot of monuments and sites that are usually closed to the public.

I decided to visit the Musée Dupuytren, a little place full of specimens illustrating various malformations and diseases. It's really interesting, but don't go there if you're gone to have a baby, you will end having nightmares... Also now I know from were Chucky comes from ;-)

I also wanted to see the gardens of the French National Library. They are huge but closed to the public. Hmm, they are not opened on Heritage Days. But I saw these globes in the library (they were a gift to Louis XIV, their diameter is approx. 4 m, and they weight more than 2 tons):

Cool, uh ?

Let's say that I experienced one more time some of the difference between Japan and France:

First when entering the building, a woman with he stroller could not pass through the revolving doors. The Security guard proposed her to go through another door, and when she thanked him for that, he answered: "Oh, I'm not doing that for you, I'm doing that for us"

Then when trying to exit the huge Chatelet subway station. My subway pass (valid for one month), refused to let me go, and ticket booths with people were nowhere to be seen (in Japan, there's always somebody at every exit). I finally found a Ticket controller who was randomly checking people in the station. And he gave me this ticket to allow me to pass though the gates:

In French Voyageur en Infraction means Traveler in Infraction.

Great Orders of Sterile Lunacy

Revolving round Axis, Bathing in the Lymph of Absurd Deities,

Breathless, Soulless,

Choking on Psalms of Utter Uselessness,

Heretics among Heretics,

Fallen priests draw the pictures,

Of Insane Gods in Minds that are surely soon to be Fucking Dead.


Credits to Vorkreist

J-Horror

No, I did not wait to go to Japan to see a LOT of Japanese movies. Do you know Kurosawa ? No, not this one, though seeing Ran was sort of a life-defining experience for me: the world was not the same after.

Did you hear about know Kiyoshi Kurosawa ? Did you saw Cure ? Were you frightened by Kairo (the Japanese J-Horror masterpiece, not the bad BAD BAD American remake Pulse) ?

OK, I saw Retribution last week. As for a lot of Kurosawa's movies, there's not a lot of action, there's no gore effects, there are some ghosts (who-or which, do few, except stating that they will always be there), and finally there's Japan as an exhausted no-man's land. Unsettling, and a bit morbid, all right, but GREAT !!! And great low-key performance from Koji Yakusho; maybe you will remember him from his role in Babel, but he is a regular of Kurosawa's movies. This time, it is about a policeman, who lives with a strangely absent beautiful young woman. He starts to think that he is maybe the one who killed the woman in red who we see strangled just at the beginning of the movie. Except that he does not remember a thing about that. Except that the ghost of the woman (or is she ?) start to haunt him all the time (doing few, but being scary, because she-or it does not really express the reason why she-or it is here). It appears that just being alive also means being guilty.



The second J-Horror movie I saw just yesterday is Reincarnation, by Takashi Shimizu, who is the one who made the horror series The Grudge. In this movie, a mad professor kills eleven people in a small hotel (including his young daughter and son), while filming all during the killings with a small camera. A lot of years later, a film director starts to make a movie about this story. Apart from its great endings (right through the very last frame, which is very disturbing, though in a purely intellectual way), apart from the beginnings in modern Tokyo (I recognized some of the places they used), this is for me a movie that deals with the power of cinema (some evil power, because it is horror, remember). Needless to say, this film is also scary !!

English wikipedia reach 2 million articles

Maybe you did not see it, be it that you never go to one of wikipedia sites, or you only go to the one of your language.
The English wikipedia has reach 2 million articles some hours ago !!! Cheers !!

Pest Pandemic Contamination

I was yesterday evening at the Paris Le Nouveau Casino concert for the Pest Pandemic Contamination tour. Great unpure night (he he), with three excellent Black Metal bands: Blacklodge, Vorkreist, and Horna.
I took some pics of the show, not all of them are uploaded for now, but some are already there.
.
The full set will be there.

Cool people in Takeshita-dori

Takeshita-dori is a small winding street, parallel to Omotesandō, were you can also find a lot of fashion boutiques. The difference is that in Takeshita-dori, a LOT of boutiques sell destroy or extreme Japanese clothes, vaguely in punk or gothic style, but above all Japanese style -which does not need that they sell kimonos). You can see a lot of people going up and down this street: foreigners (though really few of them, as there seems to be NEVER a lot of tourists in Tokyo, except when they are themselves Japanese), women in kimonos, and even young Japanese who try, buy, and wear these strange apparels...

As for all things Japanese, it's not just black T-shirts with regular skulls, or worse exhibition of a red filled circle with a text written on it that says: My brother went to Tokyo and all he bought to me is this lousy T-shirt (this is shit, and for one, I saw no souvenir shops AT ALL in Tokyo). It's... sometimes clothes like this one, with FETISHISM written on it:

or these ones, in elegant destroy style (the term is my invention):

You can also find plenty of the gigantic shoes Gothic girls seem to affectionate here:


OK, I wanted to come back with a Tokyo-only shirt or T-shirt (beware of the Japanese sizes). I also bough a LOVELY necklace with skulls as beads, you should see it, it's cool ;-)
I went in one of these little shops. The woman in charge seemed to be 60 years old or so, with gray hair, and totally unremarkable clothes (I'm not saying they were ugly, they were just not at par with whatever was sold in the shop).
A Japanese punk girl with shaved head and with enormous platform shoes was just quitting the shop after trying some clothes. Conversation was at first entirely commercial and a bit dull, and when I was about to leave... she saw my own T-shirt (which I bought on sales in Paris some months ago, it is a Levi-s T-Shirt made by a Norwegian designer, if I remember well):

She was amazed by the drawings, the contrast between the skeleton at the left and the dark girl at the right. She said the drawing was beautiful ;-)
She tried to decipher the Land Of Dark text above, but it was difficult for her to even spell the letters (though she knew enough English to speak with me). I told her how I bought it, and then talk was on. I don't remember all of what we said, but we talked about Japan and Japanese culture, France, etc... At the end, she asked me to come back to see here in her shop if I come back to Tokyo ;-)
This could happen only in Japan ...

Japan Japan Japan

Eh, eh, I was in Japan from August 3rd to August 16. In fact, you need one day to go back there - 12 hours of direct flight, and more than one day to go there (7 time zones from Paris).

Japan is great, and it is very very different from any European country you can know of. I'm sure it is also very different from any other Asian country too... It is hyper-modern (sometimes extremely), and at the same time it retains a very particular culture and traditions.
For example... when you go to the toilets in Ryokans, or even in some museums, you must use specific slippers, because toilets are considered as a dirty room.


But Japan is much more than that:


You maybe have heard of CosPlay or Gothic Lolita girls. You will find a LOT of them in Japan, and not only in Tokyo Harajuku.

Here you will encounter people going to work in strict costume, people in kimonos,

(or even more traditional than that...)

young women wearing ultra-short skirts,

young boys and girls in school clothes,

and others in the Japanese version of Punk attire (which is not punk)

Here they seem to all live in harmony, as shrines can coexist with giant neon buildings.

No I'm not cheating

By the way, I've finished uploading my Japanese pics. More on Japan later... bet my friends and colleagues are fed up about Japan. I'm talking about it approx. 100 times a day ;-)