Last gigs of the year

I was able to go to some of the gigs planned for the last months of the year

• The Paris date of Heidenfest on November 9th, with Eluveitie and Primordial . Both were great (Alan of Primordial has an incredible impact on stage). I was less impressed by Finntroll, but maybe it is because it is too far the kind of music I like the most



• Enslaved on November 18th, very powerful as always, I really would have missed something great if I did not attend to their date in Paris. Plus they really master light effects in their shows... but the music would have been really excellent by itself, even without these light effects.



• The Satyricon show on November 23th. I must say that I needed several listenings of their new album to really appreciate it, but after that.. I must say it is really a great album, less accessible to their previous one maybe, but superior IMHO. However, the ultra-clean quality of the CD casing do not make it justice, the album is much much better than that. For the record, they began by Commando and ended by Mother North, of course.



• Morbid Angel + Keep of Kalessin + Marduk on November 28th: Marduk as powerful as ever; really I know a lot of people that were coming only for them. However Morbid were the main act of the night and they were very good too. Of course they ended by The God of Emptiness


• Cradle of Filth + Gorgoroth on December 2nd: It was the second time I saw Gorgoroth on stage, and they were as good and evil as the first. This time they put wooden crosses and crucified models on stage. It is a band that has no problem fulfilling what you light expect from their music after seeing this kind of props on stage. They are far, far from being ridiculous, trust me. Hmm it was not the case with Cradle of Filth (however I was not there for them but for Gorgoroth). Apart from the songs from their last album which I found very good on stage (as I felt also good on album), the rest was really ridiculous.

I was not able to see Asphyx and Hail of Bullets on 11th and 12th December near Amsterdam, too much work in Paris to be able to take some days of to Amsterdam. That's bad, because these are really two f*** great bands !! I hope to be able to see them next year !!!

And for next year ? There's Deicide / Samael / Vader on the 11th January. There's also a Shining tour around May (but not coming to Paris), and there's next Hellfest in June. And maybe a lot more ? Gorgoroth's Infernus side just anounced that Pest will return as vocalist, 1349 is recording a new album, Pantheon I will release a new album mid 2009, and maybe Carpathian Forest will tour before the release of their next album, in December 2009...

Bioshock: One hell of an overhyped game

I bought Bioshock at a discount price some months ago, and I did not install it before yesterday.

You now, I don't really play video games everyday, I have not finished Half Life 2 EP 2 yet. My hard drive crashed one year ago, I had to reinstall Steam, the video game, and begin from scratch.

As I bought Left 4 Dead recently and I'm enjoying every second of it, I wanted to try another video game to compare: maybe I was too much into this zombie stuff ? Bioshock was praised as one of the greatest video games ever made, with a very deep and convincing story, and I really anticipated to try it (zombie stories have to be simple, this is a rule of the genre).

Let's face it: I was very very disappointed with the video game so far, from its faulty installation to it's gameplay:

• Installation: I have a video card which does not handle Shaders 3.0, and this game will not work at all if you don't have a 3.0-capable card. Of course this mandatory requirement is not written at all on the retail box (they only mention DirectX 9.0), and browsing through a lot of threads on the subject, I feeled cheated. However, some good people were able to recompile the shaders provided in the games installation directory to make them work on 2.0 shaders-capable cards. By the way, it means that 2K could have done it before or after the initial release, but of course they did nothing.


• Graphics: Those I saw did not convince me, but I will put this under the fact that I don't have the required video card to play this game. Let's assume that they are good if you have a card that meets the requirements of the game


• Gameplay: It very much look like a child console game. I really, really don't like games were every things you must do are advertised with glowing colors and oversized objects in the game. For example, at the beginning, you need to break a lock; this lock is much oversized compared to the other objects in the area, and is in a glowing gold color. It's the same for all objects that you must use (even cigarettes). All that looks like Super Mario, not a FPS, and it drives me away from the story.


• Radio: During all the part of the game I played, I always had a radio on with a voice-over who explained everything to my character. Stop this !!! A video game is not a book, and this looks like a very bad movie. I don't need this. Are you convinced by your story ? Then you don't need to feed it to the player like baby milk, it's advertised as a mature game after all. With this over-present voice-over, I feel that the developers have not been able to really flesh this in the game. I may be spoiled by the Half-Life 2 way of telling stories, which is in the level-design itself, but it's easier to simply record tons of pre-recorded text. So much for the convincing story.


• Level-design: levels are not very interesting IMHO, again it looks like a platform game, not a shooter. All rooms pretty much looked the same to me, and I became bored of navigating through them after a while.


• Characters: There maybe are some strong characters in the game, but the average NPCs you encounter all look the same and act the same. The first encounter was great (the woman who carry a revolver installed of a baby in a stroller), but after that they all looked the same for me.


• Gameplay: That's nice to loot dead NPCs for money, Eve, or health, but after the second time you do it it does not look logical at all (and the three available slots are really plain ridiculous). Again this looks very much like a 2D platform game, not a shooter. Do you think it is logical that almost every NPC bring some handy health kits on his person ? I don't. There are other games which are very careful to put items where they are logical in the universe they have created. Half-Life was maybe the first to present a convincing universe, where for example health kits were only available in logical places. It was in 1998 guys !!


• Morals: Reviewers praised the moral choices that the game present to the player. I don't really see what is the moral choice between taking the ADAM of the Little Sisters (thus killing them) and rescue them. In short this is between being evil (which could be cool in a video game, I reckon), or good. Those who mistakingly take this cheap trick for an interesting moral choice should buy Deux Ex and play this fantastic (if old) video game. I still remember the moment in the game when my employers (a kind of Sci-Fi CIA government agency called UNATCO) assigned me to kill a terrorist called Juan Lebedev. When my character is in front of him, he asks "Do you know who you are, and who are your employers ?". You could assume before that he was the bad guy, and after that maybe he is the good guy, but the game does not let you to think so simply. It would now be very simple just to go away without killing him. But at this moment, your superior, a not very sympathetic woman called Anna Navarre arrives and urges you to do what you were assigned to do. OK, the game let you do what you want: killing Lebedev, killing your superior, or going away without killing anybody (but knowing too well that she will finish the job). You are free, but neither of your choices are simple, or "good", nor "bad", in a moral point of view (and the story will unfold, a bit differently, depending on what you choose to do). This is a game with morality choices, no a childish thing giving you a black a white illusion of a choice.

All in all, a very much overhyped game.

Beautiful freaks

From Left 4 Dead, of course...
As you see, there's not only one type of infected ;-)




And beware of the witch !!

Playing against the Living Dead

I just downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo yesterday evening (containing the first two maps of the first chapter of the video game), and started to play yesterday late in the evening, and also today. I did not look for online coop gaming yet, because I first wanted to better understand how the game was working for me (it is possible to play alone with internet switched-off, in that case the computer plays the 3 other characters in the game).

I had some framerate problems with my PC yesterday, just after I downloaded the game (especially when I fired, or when a lot of zombies rushed at once). I thought it could be due to my (now) aging laptop, even if it still handles Episode 2 without any apparent glitches. But it was probably just because some of the PC resources were not released after the (1 hour) download and install, because when I played it today none of these problems re-appeared.
Me and my AI mates were able to make it through the first map on advanced settings (after many trials though), but we were not able to finish the second map successfully - yet ;-). We were very close the last time, but I was insufficiently prepared to the never ending wave of zombies when I pulled the switch (I think it's at the end of the map, just before the safe zone, but I'm not sure..). I heard the sobbing of a witch, I knew the dreadful thing was close, so I switched off the flashlight to avoid to awaken it. The problem was that there were a LOT of other zombies rushing at us, and the last wave was fatal: witch awakened, character dead, mission failed ;-)


As of the game, it is very efficient to scare the player. I'm sure it is much better when really playing it coop, but even in standalone mode it's scary !!! Hearing the witch soft sobbing is really something for example... And they handle shadows very efficiently making you never fully at ease anywhere in the game. Art direction seems flawless when you are in the game. They say this on the L4D blog, and I really thing it examplifies the way the game was designed: we'll talk about our approach to lighting the dark and murky world of Left 4 Dead, with a focus on playable, stylized dark — namely, finding a balance that gives a player the illusion of darkness without getting frustrating.


You never know from were the things will arrive, even if you backtrack, you may encounter new waves of zombies. It never seems like the so-called "A.I. Director" is spawning just them just in front of your eyes, I played the same parts several times (after many deaths), and although encounters of zombies were always different, they never seemed random. I think it is partly due to the fact that all the level ambiance is consistent with the way and places they will appear. I would very much like to hear more about the director, because it seems to be very efficient with its purpose...

All in all, I'm 90% sure I will buy this game !!!

Update: I made it to the end of the two first maps after all... But I think I saw a zombie vomiting on the floor once. Disgusting !!

Update 2: The zombies are not generic at all. Apart from the 5 bosses, there is a LOT of different zombie faces, not only say one for zombie men, and one for zombie women. And even if you don't really have the time to enjoy the view, the graphics are really good, very good. During my nth trip through the two levels, I took a lot of screenshots - while endangering the life or my character, and believe me: they are really gorgeous. And even in the height of action (brains, brains !!!), zombies are, sort of, say, beautiful. hmm only as zombies, I agree, zombie women are really not my type, first they seem to never wash their teeth after eating raw meat ;-)

Merry Christmas

"we made it, WE MADE IT"

"son we just crossed the street"

Seems this game will be awesome, but son beware the cry of the Witch !!

HD in English here

Zombie Apocalypse

I read some reviews about Far Cry 2, and as I liked its predecessor (hmm may be not much the Sci-Fi part, the monsters were much less convincing that the humans), I began to be interested.

But although the game exteriors seem to be really gorgeous, it also seems to fail in a number of ways:

• Character models really look like some cheap plastic. This was not a problem in a game like Doom 3, because monsters were much more important than the (very) few humans, but here it seems odd in this recreation of Africa. Also Interiors impressed me much less than landscapes,


• No real story, enemies annoyingly respawning when you should have killed them minutes ago, and cheap tricks such as malaria bouts in the middle of action, or jeeps needing repair much too often to be real, enough to be annoying),


• Long, long trips without real action / story, save maybe (over and over) the same checkpoints, over and over,


• It seems you only see soldiers in the map, no villagers at all in 50 sq km ?


• Why having a real map in your hand if this is a magical map ?

This does not impress me at all. I don't mind not super-high realism (even if it was advertised), but I mind getting bored but a non-existent story and long minutes of nothing.

And now for something completely different: The game I'm eagerly waiting for now is: Left 4 Dead, from Valve, of course.



Being in the middle of a zombie movie as one survivor really seems to be a great idea, especially if the zombies are of the speedy kind as in 28 Days Later. Having the game deciding the mood and drama depending on how you are doing so far is a feat. If it works, it is really the beginning of a new era in gaming.

What Ubisoft seem not to have understand is the fact that a video game (or a movie) is not about reality, and the world it paints for us is only a prop. Wanting to have the maximum realism at all costs is a mistake (and especially in the case of this game, because it is hindered by many other bad game decisions). Players (or film viewers) don't want realism, they want the illusion of realism. This is not the same thing at all.

Shazam

I just tried the free Shazam application on the iPhone (available through the AppStore), and it's really really great (even if I don't know if it could be really useful). In case you don't already know what it does, here it is:
You point your iPhone microphone in the direction of any music playing, wait for approx. 10 seconds, and it gives the title of the track, album, and even the cover... Some people commented that it could only recognize mainstream, but it's not true: although it failed on Neurosis, Asphyx, and 1349, it had absolutely no problems with random songs of Emperor, Zyklon, Gorgoroth, Carpathian Forest, Marduk, Celtic Frost, or Arkhon Infaustus.

I don't think this list can count for only mainstream ;-)

Interesting times

I just bought the last Bloodbath album: The Fathomless Mastery , featuring the return of Mikael Åkerfeldt. For me, it is a really good Death album.
All this will be followed, by:

• Primordial on November 9th


• Enslaved on November 18th


• The last Satyricon album, The Age Of Nero, followed by the tour and the concert on November 23th


• Morbid Angel + Keep of Kalessin + Marduk on November 28th


• Cradle of Filth + Gorgoroth on December 2nd


• Asphyx and Hail of Bullets on 11th and 12th December near Amsterdam


• The Pagan fest (with Aes Dana, Eluveitie, etc...) in Paris on December 20th

Do I really have to choose ?
This was the good. And now the bad and the really really ugly: Vorkreist should have played near Plaisir this Week-end. But the sucker who is the director of the venue cancelled the gig because of possible troubles (sic) with Metalheads, whereas he organized another fucking French song concert took place near the venue the very same evening.

My new Phone

You already know of course, I could have titled this My New iPhone. I have the new iPhone 3G since Tuesday, and I have only one thing to say about it: This is really a killer. No need for a user manual, internet navigation and mails as simple as on PC - no much more simple in fact, SMS dangerously simple to write and send, google maps (even with satellite view, and very very fast !!!), plenty of cool apps for free or a few euros, and oh it can be used as a phone too.

How I was happy to click on the youtube icon, search for Emperor, and be able to watch almost immediately one Wacken video of Inno A Satana (among many others, of course).

1942

No I'm not blogging about WWII history. You just should check out Dead to this World, a really excellent Black / Death Metal band from Bergen, Norway (of course, what would you expect ?). And 1942, from their album First Strike For Spiritual Renewance is really a masterpiece (and it's available on streaming on their myspace page). Iscariah, the leader of the band, is a former member of Immortal.

And on WW II-related subjects, you should also check out the first album from Hail Of Bullets, a Dutch Death Metal band which shares a lot of members with Asphyx. They will tour in Europe and USA beginning on October, and I may go see them in London ;-)

As for my Scandinavian trip, it was very very very rainy but cool (and not only with the not-so-hot heat). I met the ultra-cool members from Blood Tsunami and saw them performing on the small but well-known Oslo venue Elm Street Bar. And talked with them, and shared a few beers - hmm more than a few, a Friday night in Oslo, just think about it !!!.


Also I was able to see the famous graffiti made by Euronymous, in the basement of the late Helvete record shop, which was in the 90s' one of the meeting places for the Black Metal scene in Norway (the so-called "Inner circle"). It has nothing to do with Black Metal anymore now, as it has become a bakery, amusingly called Var Daglige Brod (our daily bread). The owner was cool to allow me to see it, because of course normally you do NOT visit this place.


I also went to the Neseblöd records shop, which holds loads of extraordinary local or historic Black / Death Scandinavian metal stuff (which I'm sure you can only buy there), but unfortunately it did not accept credit card, and I did not have enough cash on me when I went there :-( I must go there another time (maybe for Inferno Festival, next April he he).

Of course as the average tourist I also visited some less-metal places like Fjords of course

BTW, you may be interested to know that the Bergen-Oslo railway line is a feast for the eyes for approx. 7 hours, so don't be afraid to take this by daylight if you are in Norway, and also it is not a tourist-specific line, you will not encounter a lot of tourists there).

But also random cool people, be it in Norway or Sweden.

Tattoed for ever

I bet you already know this, its everywhere on the web: A young Swiss sold a tattoo made on his back by a Belgian artist to a German art collector.

For 150 000 euros.

The owner has the right to exhibit this work of art three times a year, to sell it.

Oh and after the his death, the tattoo can be removed from his back and give back to its last owner. If I'm right, it is called a flayed ;-)

And yes I did not forget about my trip to Scandinavia, but all in due time ;-)

Off to Norway and Sweden

Yes, I'm going for vacations for two weeks in these countries of Northern Darkness, I name Sweden and Norway (hmm maybe more Norway than Sweden, but who knows ?).

I will land in Bergen, will most likely visit Oslo, and will take the plane back to Paris from Stockholm. And if I'm lucky I will maybe able to attend to the next Blood Tsunami show, he he.

Think that a lot of Norwegian Black Metal bands are heading from Bergen or Oslo, for example Gorgoroth (Gaahl lives in a small village in the north of Bergen), Immortal, 1349, Satyricon, Dimmu Borgir or Mayhem

Wow there's no way to be disappointed !!! The Converge show was really a killer !!







NO wonder that Jacob Bannon has to stretch himself before the show !! They are insanely fast and really, really "hard". Also it seems that they put all their life in the show. Of course they are not the only ones, but it's good to see that !!!

And it turns out that I will also see them Monday in Paris. Why ? Hmm, I had to go to the States by this time (for work), but it was canceled. The reason is entirely personal. I had problems with what could very much be a tampered cash machine on thursday. I then had no more credit card, no more cheques (what a coincidence), and approx. 20 euros of cash. Difficult to go to a country were you have to pay for your hotel, rental car, restaurants and stuff like that, considering that you can do nothing without a credit card, even if you had some cash...

However, I was able to secure some cash yesterday, but it was not easy... Enough to eat and drink for a few days, and even pay for the Converge show in Paris (which is not very expensive, as you could imagine).

Not failing

Tomorrow I'm off to London for the Converge show.

Why do you go to London to see them, when they are coming to Paris in one week ? No I'm not crazy (hmm maybe a little, but not so much). It turns out that I will be on a plane heading to the States on Monday 21st. And I only saw them on Hellfest last year. I want to see them performing once in a small venue, like the Underworld (Camden, of course). I want to see Jacob Bannon's Tattoos close. I want to go deaf by their raging hardcore (hmm no, maybe not this one).



More on that later folks.

Doomed to Walk the Earth as Slaves of the Living Dead

Last Saturday I came back home by foot, on a dark night, after having seen Night of the Living Dead, the matrix from where all horror films came out. There's funny stories about this movie. For example, their distributor forgot to put a copyright indication on the movie, and it soon fell in the public domain. You can download hordes of disgusting zombies for free, and more, you can do it legally !!! Or almost all the parts are played by pals of Romero. The little girl who (which ?) eat her father and stabs her mother to death was really their daughter in real-life. Some actors also were the producers of the movie, and they also performed the "special effects" (mortician wax for the zombies, etc...) themselves. etc...



Still... When returning home, I was listening to Carpathian Forest's Morbid Fascination of Death album. You already know the title of the song, and I swear it really was a coincidence.

Stop being so humble
Stop showing remorse
Cut it off
The hands that feed the blind
Can you move?
With those holy chains

Some Hellfest pictures

It was difficult to go back to reality after this ;-) Hope it was not too difficult for my Japanese (metalheads) friends Dai and Kyoko, who took the plane from Osaka to France (more than 12 hours, plus connexions) just for the festival (I don't forget Aki, who show me such evil pictures of her with Frost, Attila, Necrobutcher, or E). Dai also made amazing pictures from the main stage, he should put them on the net ;-) !!!!

Want some pictures now ?

Mortuus from Marduk, of course !! DOn't you think he announce times of Hell:

The duo with Allan from Primordial was amazing !!


Kvarforth (Shining) was scary !!

But as usual, the black legions of Watain spread so much evil.


(this is only some of the pictures I took there, the whole set is here)

Hellfest 2008

Yes this Mayhem had to come to an end. This was a great festival this year too !! My highlights (and biggest deceptions) are:

• The weather, no rain this time !!! And cold at night, so it was perfect to rest after one exhausting day !!


• The organization was flawless this year. Obviously the festival team did learn from their mistakes of last year

First day:

• Alchemist. This band build on atmosphere, and I don't always like that, because it sometime means weak, but not this time. Check them out !!


• Septic Flesh, excellent Greek black metal


• Job For a Cowboy. I like their albums, but I did not know how they were on stage. And I can tell you: They are not only buzz, their show was a killer !!!


• Rotting Christ. It was the second time I saw them, and I can't say they made a strong impression on me...


• Marduk did not disappoint me, and the duo with Mortuus and Alan (Primordial) was an excellent surprise !!!


• Testament were alive and kicking, hailz Trash metal !!!


• Carcass showed that they did not reformed only for money


• Venom were a big deception for me. How about kitsch ?

Second day:

• Legion of the Damned. Once more a Trash metal band, but I liked them !!


• Benighted, an excellent French Brutal Death band


• I really like Satyricon, and I liked very much this show, with insanely heavy drumming by Frost of course !!!


• Haemorrhage, funny but excellent Spanish grindcore !!! Are you a pathology ?


• Shining, this Swedish Black metal band really look dangerous on stage. The singer cut himself on stage, arms bleeding, he threw a cigarette in the middle of the public, he broke a bottle (of Jack Daniels ?) and cut himself with the remains... But they also have a very depressive but heavy sound. A discovery for me !!!


• The Watain show was just after Shining, but they really offered Black metal to remember (sorry no dead rats on stage this time)


• Ministry, the show (one the lasts) was excellent, with almost no blanks between the titles

Third day:

• Origin, insanely fast, insanely good Brutal Death. At one time, someone in the public shouted "faster !!", and the singer answered "faster ?". It was impossible.


• Primordial, I really like the Celtic / Folk Black metal of this band, and their singer really have an amazing presence on stage !!!


• Obituary, of course...


• Dying Fetus. speedy, heavy, full of integrity. And Sean Beasley had a Origin T-shirt ;-)


• Motörhead, they are always heavy, heavy, HEAVIER


• Morbid Angel show was faultless


• And finally, the Slayer show was a bit disappointing, probably because of Tom Araya's voice which seemed to never be really there (ill, maybe ?)

Pictures to come soon...

Hellfest

Hellfest looks to be really great this year:

• first the weather should be better than last year - not that it will be very difficult ;-)


• second it seems that the organization (camping sites, etc...), has been improved too - it was easy to improve too

... but what is the most important thing: the bands. Think about it:

• Satyricon. Frost, Frost, Frost !!!!


• Slayer


• Motörhead


• Marduk


• Morbid Angel


• Eluveitie


• Impaled Nazarene


• Primordial


• Dying Fetus


• Watain, beware of the dead rats ;-)


• Venom, this is history !!!


• Ministry, for one of their last shows


• The Dillinger Escape Plan


• Origin


• Job For a Cowboy


• Obituary


• Opeth


• Carcass


• Rotting Christ


• Anaal Nathrakh


• and so on...

You see the general idea...

Is it really Gaahl on Twitter ?

thanks Head Øv Metal ;-)

There's a Twitter account seemingly run by Gaahl himself. Is it a fake ?

However, these posts made my day:
Dear South American tour venues: just because we are all about satan and hell doesn't mean you shouldn't turn on the AC during our shows.

Packing for tour. I really should think of getting spiked armor and crosses made of a more lightweight material.. this shit is heavy

Lots of people staring at me today. it's like they have never seen a seven foot corpse-painted man with spiked shinguards buy groceries.

well, gorgoroth is hitting the road soon for a long euro tour. so, can anyone feed my cats, goats, pigs, cows & chickens while i am away?

Sorry i haven't twittered in a few days. a giant bear chewed through my generator lines and i could not fix it till he left. bears>satan

Canonisation of the Foul Spirit

You have the general idea here:

It seems that the gig with Hell Militia in Moscow (yes, for a French Black Metal band !!) was pure evil...

Remember the bloody rags, remember the sores...

Black Metal is Rising

This is the name of the next Black Metal gig in Paris, at La Locomotive. Half a 8 hours of Black Metal and dark movies ;-)

The bands (all Black, of course):

• Aosoth (France)


• Balrog (France)


• Blodsrit (Sweden)


• Farsot (Germany)


• Foscor (Spain)


• Nehemah (France)


• and Finis Gloria Dei (France)

Sorry, I could not resist... I'm not an Antichrist, I just don't think he existed at all. Or maybe in another dimension...

No matter what, never stop to shoot...

...until they have eaten you alive...



If you did not see REC before, you really should NOW.!!! Run to your nearest cinema. The less you will see on the screen, the more you will be scared he he !!

The scene in this trailer is not in the movie.

Update: I can't resists to quote This blog review: The best horror film of the year (along with The Orphanage) possesses the decadence of Baudelaire’s darkest poems, Edgar Poe’s morbid imaginings and H.P. Lovecraft’s nauseous world, its musty smell concealing decaying abominations.. Let's finish by saying that the end of the movie is really, really leaving to its promise, and does not suffer from the comparison with Lovecraft’s supernatural horrors !!

An interesting video

This is an interesting interview of Peter Beste, who photographed a lot the Norwegian Black Metal culture.
See here

The video shows some amazing pictures of Gaahl 1349, Frost, etc... Judging by this video, we can strongly link the Norwegian Black Metal scene to Norwegian nature and surroundings (For example, Gaahl seems to live in the small farm in the middle of nowhere in Norway).

Link found on King's myspace page

Militant Antrichrist Tour 2008

Yes I was there !!! It was the first time I could see Arkhon Infaustus live. They are really Black, really extreme !!!







The gig was with AngelCorpse, with support from the French Black Metal band Temple Of Baal and the Canadian band Revenge.



I'm very happy to be able to see them again at the next Hellfest, in June.

And my Friends, they are even better now than when this video was recorded, in 2006:


And now, a not entirely different subject: The French Death Metal band Eye of Emptiness released their first album (autoproduction): Insignificant Humanity. You should check their songs on their myspace page. There's really a lot of work in it and it's really, really good.

That was a long time ago

Look at this below. What is going on here? Who is speaking ?

Of course (just kidding), Andy Warhol and his one-time muse Edie Sedgwick. They were young, and Sedgwick was the Factory's superstar. In 1968, Warhol was shot, in 1971, Edie Sedgwick died (probably by intoxication).

The lesson is: don't try to extend your 15 minutes of fame too much, or be aware of the consequences.

Galhammer is "Being in a midday nightmare...

...under the scorching sunshine" as Vivian Slaughter said.



I saw Gallhammer, the all-female Black / Doom / Crust Japanese band, in London on March 12. As for the last time I saw them, it was great !!

Vivian Slaughter, Mika Penetrator, and Risa Reaper are two small Japanese girls. It was funny to see them among some giant Metalheads in the pub aside the venue, jut before the show. On stage, they look scary, with Vivian Slaughter and Risa Reaper slowly (it's part Doom, after all) singing (or more howling), with ultra-grave voices (apart from Risa, the drummer, who have a great ear-piercing voice) their dark songs of despair.



So Fresh and joyous vocals such as:
Suffocate in my hate. Vanish into far away oblivion.
I give you funeral words at the last.
Amen our Father. Death to our Father. May our Father die.

These three pretty girls even look like some sort of ghouls or specters on stage.



In fact... not unlike some old Japanese Ukiyo-e. Japanese artists did not only deal with Mount Fuji or the women of the Floating World. They also drew life into a whole population of monsters, ghosts, specters and ghouls.





And if you want to hear a good interview of Gallhammer, check this:



If you really want to know, apart from Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, and Amebix, Vivian is also a fan of Corrupted, the ultra-Doom band from Osaka.

NO GOD NO MASTERS !!!

Snape, Snape... Severus Snape

Dumbledore !!!



What's this mysterious ticking noise ?

Raise your Flag !!

This was Björk, in Shanghai, shouting "Tibet, Tibet" in front of thousands of Chinese fans.



Newspapers write that she upset Chinese fans, that people fled the area, shocked by what she said. They should know better than always following those who are in power. Look at the video: people are singing with her, and writing that they did not understand her words - simply the word "TIBET" shouted three times at the end of Declare Independence is ridiculous.

Of course, only those who wanted to criticize her act were allowed to express their opinion in China. China is not the land of free speech. Think of Hu Jia, and many others.

Coming from a Catholic household

It's not about me, I'm Protestant and very happy not to be Cat-holic ;-)
Still, here is an excerpt from an interview of Martin Eric Ain, bassist of the Swiss Black Metal band Celtic Frost:

My mother was a Catholic religion teacher. She taught the catechism. Most probably, the reason for me joining up with the arch rebel — Satan himself! — was because that was the most powerful force to oppose my mother. I remember that traumatic experience being in a church, and there was this life-sized cross with this tormented human figure nailed, its limbs twisted and turned. I must have been about 5 or 6. That was really bizarre, having all those people around me being solemn in a way, but then, on the other hand, really getting joyous toward the end of that ritual about this person dying. And then going to the front of the church and coming back having devoured part of the body of that person. As a child, you take something like that quite literally, you know? And it was never really explained to me in a way that seemed really logical. I had nightmares. For me, religion didn't have a redemptive quality. It didn't help me to have a more positive outlook on life. It was a negative, oppressive kind of thing. Christ was a symbol of utter failure and absolute totalitarian control.



Good interview, but too short, and unfortunately they manage to mistake Tom Gabriel Fisher for Martin Eric Ain.

Pure flame

This is the beginning of a verse from a Behemoth song:

none ov thy weak brothers, shalt ever share my blood
my awareness, catalyst, ov godhate I have spawned
in sinister ecstasy eternally I'm decomposed
I am the pure flame that burns



Now you know, I was at the Behemoth concert one week ago. Great black mass !!!



I call this the book of lies !!! said Nergal, and he teared the pages of a bible into pieces.



Nergal said in an interview: Of course, we use brutal forms to express that we're anti- religious, anti- political- any authorities that try to restrain you and put you in box.

She's f****** Matt Damon

Yes they ARE joking.

Seen on Slate

Christians Look Away !!

They are NOT joking ;-)

Smoking Kills Fest + Obituary

OK, this was too excellent nights !!

First the Smoking Kills Fest. I was there primarily to support Djabah, a Metal / Tribal band from the south of France (band of Greg, excellent drummer under the Black Sun of Death Metal !!).

I did not expect a lot for the set of Small, because the singer did not seem to be in a state to perform well, to say the least. But he managed, and those who where there after the last set said he was revived...

Then, the very catchy Tryskhell, a BigouDeath band ;-)

Last band was the headliner for the night, Royal Bubble Orchestra. "traditional" Rock / Heavy Metal is not my cup of tea, but I must admit that they had a very strong presence on stage. Check them out !!!


Two days later, it was the Obituary and Holy Moses show (still at La Loco), with support from Avatar, a Death metal band from Gothenburg (Sweden, of course). Lets say that the Obituary show was a killer, a bit dangerous when you are just in front of the stage. I don't know how my nose did not finish utterly broken. I was hit twice by slammers boots, one in the back of my head - all right, no problem - the second on the forehead ;-). OK, I'm still there, and my nose is still strongly fixed to my face !!

The ultimate hardcore gamer is dead

Endgame

Of Beatings and the Silence in Between

I just bought today the last album from a Norwegian Death Metal band called Chtonian, I must confess I never heard about them before. Did you ? Turned out that they started in 1999, but were for the main part comatose, as said on their web site, the three musicians playing separately in different projects. They went back to work in 2005, made a first demo in 2006, and then this first album in September 2006, which was distributed in the end of August of this year (!!) here.

This Death / Black album maybe short in length, (OK, more Death than Black, or maybe Black masked as Death, who knows), but still it is very good in my point of view. They obviously like speed but they don't always favor it over music, and this album remains extremely "catchy" (if not melodic).

Try it out (you have some samples on their website).

Hellhammer

From Delineation II, the blog of Tom Gabriel Fisher, front man of Celtic Frost, but also of the late famous band Hellhammer:
Following several months of concepts, research, re-mastering, and design, the Hellhammer demo retrospective, "Demon Entrails", has now reached the manufacturing stage, both in its CD and vinyl editions.

Just before the weekend, I was informed that the print shop usually supplying the album covers and inside sleeves to Century Media's vinyl manufacturing plant has refused to work on Hellhammer's "Demon Entrails" due to "the satanic content" of Hellhammer's work. Even in the year 2008, we are still dealing with pathetically medieval mindsets. I couldn't have hoped for a more appropriate confirmation of Hellhammer's raison d'être..

Diary of the Dead

I'm sure you already know that Diary of the Dead, George Romero's next Living Dead movie will be released in February.



Land of the Dead was very good !! I really look forward to this next movie !! Plus if you really, REALLY, REALLY wanted to shoot gory movies for a long, long time, now is your lucky day ;-) There's a contest on the myspace page for the movie for its future release on DVD (so you have time to apply !!): Shoot a short horror movie, send it to Romero, and if he appreciate it, it will maybe be on the DVD !! All this could be the beginning of an horror movie. I'm already seeing the script a la Ring ;-)

And now, in a (not) entirely new area: Metal.
Here are some interesting events in Paris in January (don't know if I will attend to ALL of them, but they all sound interesting):

• January 20: Djabah - a French local Death Metal band - at La Loco for the Smoking Kills Fest


• January 22: Obituary and Holy Moses


• February 17: Behemoth


• February 26: Polysics
  
• Sometime in April: Arkhon Infaustus

Food For The Ignorant

Two religions both so wrong
but both will preach they'll make you strong
one means evil, the other good
terms I never quite understood



From Last One On Earth by Asphyx

This man will become the next President of the United States

Hopefully.



In 2000, I was on holidays in California, and I stumbled upon the Clinton speech during the Democratic convention. Wow, this man was a fabulous orator !! I could not witch off the T.V. set until after he finished his speech. Even if I am French, even if knew so little about U.S. politics, even if the other orators were boring.

In 2004, I stumbled upon the Barack Obama speech during the subsequent Democratic convention (on internet). At that time, nobody in France knew anything about Obama, but I was so much impressed, that I told all my (French) friends about this man who spoke like a new Kennedy.



Now this man will maybe win the next United States presidential election. Wow !!

Something moody for a warm start

This won't be another Death Black / Trash metal clip... for once. Let's begin the new year with a clip by the French pop band AaRON, a song written for the movie Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas:



And Happy New Year !!!