Doomsday Metal

Photo of sheep heads on Gorgoroth’s stage in Krakow, Poland by Peter Beste (www.peterbeste.com)

Here’s a beastly tale we heard recently; In Satan’s year 2004 Swedish Nifelheim were set to play Sweden Rock Festival. Like the True Black Metal soldiers they are, they had ordered a deluge of pig blood to pour over their audience. But the night before the concert the two brothers went out for a quiet night on the town, and when they woke up the next morning the blood was gone. Still to this day, no one knows the whereabouts of the 25 liters of fresh pig blood, and the band had to play their set with the traditional pig heads on poles instead. There were still a bit of vile drama when members of the audience jumped on stage, bit pieces of flesh from the carcasses and spat them back at the crowd. The audience started throwing the rotting and battered flesh back on stage and when one musician got a piece of it in his mouth by accident chaos engulfed the stage. Right now the band is recording a new album. Rumours say it’s not straying too far off the beaten path, which means we can expect good old brutal Black Metal with Venom roots. We hear that the band wish for the cover to communicate the feeling of a “really disgusting polish porno magazine that has been in the ditch for a few weeks of heavy rain.” 1349, the year a British ship with a cargo of nothing but dead plague victims floated to shore in Bergen and caused the death of up to 62% of the Norwegian population and took the life of all Norwegian bishops except one, has it’s 656th year anniversary this August. Right around the same time the fifth album (including demos and promos) by the band with the same name will be released. Coincidence? I think not. We haven’t heard any of it yet, but since superhuman drummer Frost has been taking his Black Metal insanity further away from the mainstream for each album 1349 has released, we’re expecting nothing less than an evil, chaotic, supersonic masterpiece. Since the US won’t allow Frost to play drums in their country because of a 13 year old violence sentence, he hasn’t been able to follow Satyricon on their US tour. Slipknot’s drummer (Joey) has been replacing him, and from what we’ve heard the band just ought to stay away from the States altogether in the future. Sure Slipknot sounds alright musically, but what’s with the youth demography bullshit? True Black Metal should never have anything to do with incomes or age groups. If you’re of the gothic persuasion you better not be wearing any Satyricon badges. Apparently Satyr has been warning goth rockers around the world that bad things will happen to them if he finds them wearing Satyricon symbols. This February Gorgoroth had some animal trouble as well. They were under suspicion of breaking Polish animal protection laws after decorating their stage with impaled sheep heads during a show in the country. That turned out ok, but singer Gaahl just got sentenced to 18 months in prison and about €1.200 in fines. He stood accused for tormenting and performing satanic rituals on his victim, and the sentence deems him guilty of assault on a 41-year-old man. We hear what happened was Gaahl jumped the guy, bit his neck and tried to suck his blood. Still, 18 months is way better than the nine years he was risking. After signing to Season of Mist, Gorgoroth has also been re-releasing their first three albums in grim looking digipacks. The debut album, Pentagram, is an unholy grail shining with black light in our hearts and we were so happy we were practically frothing at the mouth when we discovered a plectrum signed “Infernus” with our CD. Torbjørn Rødland have been taking some truly wicked photos of Infernus and most of our other long-term BM favourites. Suppose they’re not completely kosher, but we especially like the ones with Fenriz looking like a beautiful endangered, beer-drinking animal, right on the edge of the forest. Go to www.rodland.net to see more nature and Black Metal shots. More of the fist full of metal to the nuts kind of BM artwork has been made by Peter Beste. He has been shooting atrocious pictures of everyone from Taake to Mayhem, and has done sleeve photos for Darkthrone, 1349 and Nattefrost, amongst others. Beste was part of one-day group exhibition in New York in July, but contrary to what we’ve been hearing he tells us he isn’t involved in the making of a documentary on the same subject by Harmony Korine, which has been on the way for a few years now. Beste is also selling prints of his work, go to www.peterbeste.com to see and buy photos of a scarred Hoest, or Nattefrost covered in shit. Arckanum, Sweden’s number one worshipper of the he-goat god Pan, and master of primitive, unhinged and raw Metal, is being productive and set two release two new albums. One is Favnaz Samgang, which was supposed to be released in 98-99 but got delayed, and the other is Arckanum’s fourth album Antikosmos, which is in progress but hasn’t got a final release date yet. KAOS ULVEN