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Spooky Fingers: Funny (Norwegian) Games

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 May 13 2009 at 08:21:54 AM



On May 1, Walpurgisnacht, Steingrim Torson, bassist for Norwegian Black Metal groups Kaosritual and Celestial Bloodshed was shot and killed inside an apartment in Trondheim. Details surrounding the incident are still unclear as the shooter, described in the Norwegian press as Torson’s “best friend,” maintains that the killing was accidental. Torson died from a single shot to the head.

Kaosritual’s only full-length, Svøpt Morgenrød (2007), is proof enough fires still burned within – if not atop the ruins of smoldering churches. A full, if devastatingly succinct set of four tracks that begin creaking and build into a barrage of appropriately low-fi discordance slavishly honoring tradition and yet not weakened by devotion, both to sound and sovereign:

And the one that worshippeth the Beast and Its image
And taketh Its name as a mark
Shalt gaze into the abyss
And see Its treasures

- "Djevelpakt og Trolldomsmakt" (Devil's Pact and Craft of Sorcery)

For the purist then, these are sounds you’d expect – even wish to hear mix and howl within the North wind, leading toward a vision of red candles blaring from some strange house out in the distance. On the other hand, such persons should also learn to become acquainted with silence.

We do not know what treasures, if any, Torson beheld through that black abyss hollowed in steel; nor is it certain he had even a moment to realize the doom about to strike before his blond locks and bits of skull splattered the room. The auspicious night of his death remains curious but unlikely to become the stuff of legend, as even a great number of those legends surrounding the birth of Black Metal in Norway seem today rather foolish, untrue or even mundane. Let this stand as warning at your next photo session...

Gazing toward another vastness is Blut Aus Nord’s latest, Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars – a gravid, hour-long detour away from their more pretentious efforts these last few years. Described since its release in both ecstatic hyperbole and more simply as good music to fuck to, the band’s sound is still soft as kittens, but at least they’ve written a more focused, coherent album. All told, the gentleness of the guitar and fake drums serves its theme well. A kind of “Hubble Metal” soundtrack. A bit new age, perhaps, but that’s no surprise. It can be quite beautiful, in the expected use of the term, but also far less emo than most of their audience.

Pretending toward a more smug, so enlightened view of the world than even the misnamed Frenchies could proffer is Razor of Occam. A Thrash Metal band from Australia inviting groans by basing their album, Homage to Martyrs, on theories “championed by the renowned zoologist Richard Dawkins who has spearheaded the fight against religion in response partly to the attack on his own field of science by creationists and partly to the attack on the World Trade Center by religious fundamentalists. Other notable intellectuals whose works have been a source of inspiration in this regard include Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Carl Sagan and Peter Atkins.”

Spare me, guys. This kind of “what are you currently reading?” teenage rager Metal BBS posturing would barely warrant mention if not for the band’s savior Shrapnel (Destroyer 666) on guitar. Yet despite some massive, even dramatic and savage riffing throughout there’s definitely a sameness to these tracks that reaches full-tilt boredom about halfway through, helped there by your standard “Blackened Thrash” generic rasping vox. Here’s hoping for a less monotonous return to form on Defiance.

Needing a quick fix of something slightly more dangerous I turned to Tribulation’s The Horror but came away similarly unafraid. Fast as you could fucking wish for, tight as teenage pucker, yes, but…too clean. Bland, even. Oh, we’ll bite, we’re hungry enough, but it’s still neo-Thrash dressed up as Death Metal. Opening slot material. Throw some Funebrarum, Necrovation, Dead Congregation, Negative Plane on the card. Make it fuckin’ happen. Why the fuck not?! We’ll be in NY this summer. Gonna feed Stosuy to the C.H.U.Ds. Join Us!

[Todd DePalma]

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