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 !!!