I am a happy metalhead…

Because I’m off to the Maryland Deathfest in May!!!

I am pretty much stoked to see every band on the bill (Pestilence! Aura Noir! Atheist!) but… OH MY GOD BOLT THROWER ARE PLAYING IN THE US!!!!

I’m so excited I can hardly breathe. And in turn I will probably be posting here a lot more, since I can’t afford to go out anymore after buying my festival and plane tickets! Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, you’ll have to decide for yourselves…

Question is, will I also be a happy vegan in Baltimore…? Hmmmm…

The Snow That Came To East London

It snowed really heavily here on Sunday night and consequently the place that I work at has been shut ever since – hurrah! It’s been pretty difficult to walk around given the icy conditions, so I’ve had lots of time to stay indoors, spin some records, and bake a cake and some pasties. And finally contribute to this blog after what seems like an age of not doing so.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been paying a lot of attention to US black metal. Not of the older, thrashing style (VON etc) or more recent Xasthur/Leviathan/Crebain-style approaches, but to bands like Fauna, Velvet Cacoon and Wolves in the Throne Room. Straying from the stereotypical depressive/satanic/nihilistic themes that most bands of the genre harness, the bands listed above are all linked by something more akin to an eco-spiritual vision. Which sounds a bit highfalutin, I know. As long as a band look and sound like they live in a cave or have recently been dug up from a graveyard I’m normally happy, but the fact that these bands are seemingly following a different path has made me pay more attention to the ‘black metal’ coming from a continent that I don’t normally pay too much attention to in relation to that style of music.

Maggie the Punk : not really feeling the frostbitten winter kingdom of London

Velvet Cacoon are a pretty mysterious band that seem to have dropped off the map and have/had a completely bizarre history that is funny, confusing and frustrating all the same time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Cacoon . One thing I am certain of is that their Genevieve album is incredible – hypnotic, droning, menacing. Wolves in the Throne Room remind me slightly of Burzum and are probably the least interesting (musically) of the three bands, although their first album Diadem of 12 Stars has really grown on me over the years – the songs flow really well and the sound is much more earthy and organic (to my ears) than the follow-up, Two Hunters. Fauna are a band that I am just discovering. I recently got hold of The Hunt and I’m keen to hear more. The album consists of one track lasting 79 minutes that is so dynamic and raw – if folk/black/forest/primitive/doom/beard/weird/trees are key words for you, I recommend checking it out.

Wolves in the Throne Room

Two bands removed from the themes of the above groups that I have been really getting into recently are lurker of Chalice and Brown Jenkins. LoC are Wrest from Leviathan’s side project, and while i never got into his main group, I really enjoy LoC; a mixture of early Christian Death, Bauhaus and black metal sounds good on paper and it sounds good in reality. Brown Jenkins are a kind of musical tribute to HP Lovecraft – really heavily distorted riffs, engulfed in feedback and mysterious muttering. Great stuff. I only have their Dagonite release but I am on the lookout for more.

Evil (but delicious!) pasties

Anyways, on to the cake. I found the recipe for this on a doom metal forum and it’s absolutely delicious. Chocolate and bananas always seem to go well and this is no different:

banana and chocolate cake
6 1/2 oz plain flour
2 tbsp cocoa
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
5 oz sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1/4 pint veg oil
1/4 pint soy milk
2 mashed bananas

mix it all together. bake at gm3/325f/160c in a greased tin for 30-35 minutes or until it springs back when you press it down. Enjoy!

I also made some pasties, using a recipe from the fantastic ‘Another Dinner is Possible’ vegan cookbook. PeteF.

Better late than never.

I’m finally done with papers for school. These past couple of months have been stressful and been keeping me busy. I got another job, which is helping somewhat although my bad habits of spending too much money on records and awesome vegan food is making me broke. Anyways, October was a great month for awesome shows. I saw Wolves in the Throne Room for free, saw Watain which ruled(and they really did smell like period blood), saw Sunn 0))) which at last minute got moved to a sketchy abandoned theater in L.A., and then i saw CORRUPTED! I went all the way to S.F. for the halloween show they did. Pranjal and Erika where nice enough to let me, my boyfriend and our friend stay at their place. It was nice to be in the bay area for the weekend. So the Corrupted show was so fucking amazing, and even though people where talking during corrupted’s slow parts, i still enjoyed their set a lot. So heavy and awesome. Ludicra and Asunder also played the halloween show. Good line up and didn’t have to sit through shitty bands, unlike at the l.a. show. But at the L.A. show there was some guy on E, who was dancing crazy and at one point got up on stage during intronaut’s set then he jumped into the crowd only to land on his face.

And here are some pictures from the halloween show and the L.A. (i know i’m so late with doing this.)

 

 

 

These aren’t all the pictures but they’re not that great, plus through out both the shows i really got over taking pictures.

I’m glad i got to see Corrupted, although i wish i would have been able to go to the Gilman show, since they played a 2hour long set, even though that wouldn of killed my legs, still would have been awesome.

 

Anyways i’m in the works of making a mole sauce since now i have more time since school is almost over. Oh and my boyfriend and i adopted a cat two weeks ago, her name is Aletheia, she is awesome. Oh and look at the line up for maryland deathfest next year(I want to go so bad but i doubt i can afford it.)  http://www.supremebrutality.com/

- Monica

The Donkey Sanctuary

As Pranjal pointed out below, it’s been a long time since we updated this page. Personally I’ve had a ridiculous amount of work-related stuff to deal with but I’m glad to say I’ve still been following the elevated path of vegan living and kvlt listening. My diet still causes weird sounds in my belly, my singing/screaming in the shower still causes the neighbours to howl in disgust. Anyway, you get the message.

At the end of the summer I spent some time in Ireland and was lucky enough to get to visit The Cork Donkey Sanctuary. The sanctuary has been around for 21 years and has been home to over 2,400 donkeys and was a real pleasure to experience. The terrible tales of abuse that many of the donkeys had endured was countered by the numerous stories of the mental and physical improvements that the animals made at the sanctuary. Understandably the donkeys were generally very nervous at the sight of humans, but I was able to stroke a couple of brave ones and I was touched by their gentleness (not to mention their manners in not chuckling at my awful and decidedly not ‘metal’ red jacket).

Recommended listening for leisurely walks in the woods

Whilst in Ireland I took the opportunity to go for long walks in the woods near where I was staying. I had my MP3 player to accompany me and spent a bit of time thinking about the ideal music to listen to ; living in an urban environment and being a big fan of black metal that is heavy on bucolic imagery has often felt a bit wrong. It’s pure escapism of course, but playing air drums along to Emperor’s In The Nightside Eclipse whilst on the London Undergroud has always felt a bit odd. So while in the woods I gave a spin to two albums that matched the environment perfectly – Carpathian Forest’s Through Chasm, Cave and Titan Woods and Ulver’s Kvelssanger. I’m not entirely sure what happened to Carpathian Forest after they released the aforementioned album, because they seem to have turned into some kind of joke band – the singer was on stage with no underpants on in the last pic I saw. Not good. Through Chasm…has a weird Celtic Frost/ pagan/ Edgar Allen Poe vibe going on, and in the inlay the band look like they genuinely live in a cave and survive purely on celery, which is much better (in my book, anyway). The Ulver album is incredible and has such a calm but powerful atmosphere…the a-capella singing sounds strange at first but kind of fits with the haunting tone.

So now I’m home, back to a place with no donkeys and certainly no forests to wander around in. Still, there were no places to get good vegan food or weird music nearby, and those two things go a long way in making up for the loss! PeteF.

Lost on Planet Metal (and my Swedish summer)

"I thought you brought the map..."

OK, so it’s been a while since any of us have written anything. Reports are sketchy, but suffice it to say that our myriad adventures around the Planet ov Metal have left us little pause for thought, reflection, and report backs of late. In the other-worldly language of black metal, time and space have truly been devoured as one, as our tortured souls toil in the constant struggle to wrest ourselves from the nauseating whirlwinds of anti-cosmic chaos. In the more realist lingo of thrash, we’ve all just been really fucking busy with a whole lot of shit.

Unleashed. Hanging out in a forest. You know.

Tell you what, though, it does actually feel like I’ve entered some kind of wormhole through space and time and ended up in Sweden for the summer, because we’ve had a few months of shows from some of the best Swedish bands ever. I’ve already posted about the At The Gates reunion tour, but since then we’ve had the likes of Unleashed and Watain grace our shores. Unleashed played a great show with Obituary in San Francisco last month, on my birthday actually! Their set was a bit too short to do them justice, but they still kicked some ass with tunes like Midvinterblot. It was worth it just to see Johnny Hedlund shout “I only fuck the dead.” Amazing. Turns out I share my birthday with their drummer too! And fittingly enough, we share our birthdays with the day the Battle of Stamford Bridge took place in 1066, marking the end of the Viking age in England…

OK, on to other topics before I reveal yet more of the inner nerd.

Norwegian black metal is, of course, legendary, but Swedish black metal doesn’t seem to get many props, eclipsed as it is by the x number of crappy Gothenburg-sound metalcore bands out there. But just last week we had one of the best Swedish black metal bands, Watain, play in what ended up being a warehouse show in Oakland… the show was epic in the true sense of the word- we had to wait like what seemed like a starless aeon before Watain hit the stage, which turned out to be just after 1am (I won’t go into the crazy organization of the show, or ponder why the hell a band like Book of Black Earth was on this

"You've got red on you..."

US tour with them). For the 200-odd people who stuck around for their set and the encore, it was not just worth the wait, but would have been worth another 10 hours of waiting just to see them destroy Oakland with enough dark energy invoke Leviathan itself. No goblets of blood and gore poured on the audience like the pre-tour marketing was suggesting (luckily, I’d say)… though a sickly-sweet garbage like smell (Monica described it as smelling like period blood) did kind of permeate the venue, gaining in pungency as the band came on to the upside down cross, candle, skull, and spinal cord-decked stage. The set list was mainly from Sworn to the Dark, though they did play some older stuff as well. The Serpent’s Chalice was more intense live than I could ever imagine, and you could actually feel the firmaments crumble as they went into Stellarvore. Some weird vibes at the show, and it seemed the band was pretty pissed off with the audience by the end (even beyond their usual grimness), but damn their set made for an amazing night.

And hey, speaking of Swedish black metal, I’m off to LA for the weekend to see Nifelheim, among many, many others…

Rest assured, the horde has not abandoned its post! Expect more very very soon… PranjalistKrieg

New Wave of British Heavy Trifles

A trifling matter

If you think back over the last 30 years, there have been so many great, classic bands from the UK, it’s near impossible to list them all… were you to list the bands that made up the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) movement in the late 70s/early 80s, it’d read like a roll call of metal’s most influential all-stars:

Venom in 1981... black metal is born!

bands like Venom, Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Diamond Head, and Angel Witch.

The UK Midlands, of course, are a kind of death metal/grindcore epicenter, having spawned bands like Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower (the latter being from the unlikely metal hub of Leamington Spa). And the doom genre would not even exist, nor be what it is today, without bands like Black Sabbath, Witchfinder General, Cathedral, and Electric Wizard.

As I write this, the names just keep on coming to mind… Carcass, Extreme Noise Terror, Godflesh, Discharge… it really is quite staggering.

So, as a salute to all these great UK bands, here is a veganized version of a very British dessert: the trifle!

This thing is basically like five desserts in one… the first layer is a sponge cake, followed by a layer of fresh fruit (I used strawberries, raspberries, and bananas). On to this you pour a layer of jelly (or ‘jello’), and on top of THAT you pour the final layer: custard!

Vegan jelly (i.e. without gelatin) and custard mixes are often available from Indian/Pakistani shops and markets, as many brands from that part of the world don’t use gelatin for religious reasons. The packets should say ’suitable for vegetarians’ on the front. And just to prove that point, here is Molly, providing examples of such jelly and custard-mix brands (poor Molly is also reluctantly modeling the Napalm Death and Electric Wizard albums I listened to while concocting this mammoth dessert…)

"And I'm not even going to get to eat any..."

The other metal thing that’s metal about a trifle is that once you start serving it up, it can start bearing an eerie resemblance to an operating table. Once you’ve piled some on your plate, top it off with a shot of vegan whipped cream, and try to wrap your head around the different flavours and textures that are coursing down your throat. Sweet, sweet gore indeed, and a worthy sacrifice to hail some of the true masters of metal! By Pranjalistkrieg

(S)cream bloody gore

When the Black wizard comes to the Gate of Nanna

just some quick quinoa for satisfying hunger when waiting my EW/RB-split

After lunch I usually just “chilling” and listening some nice tracks from different bands- scene of those tracks is usually depending which is my mood in that moment. Today I have this great mood for listen some doom/sludge/drone-bands. I guess this maybe have something to do with that thing I`m now waiting my latest music order for arriving to my nearest post office.

This is it! Long waited Electric Wizard/Reverend Bizarre-split 12″! Two of my MOST favourite bands had been published this package of goodnes and I`m ordered it via one web-store. Now I`m still waiting my order for arriving because that 12″ is released in 5.9 there Finland… NEXT WEEK!

Today I have listened some Dopethrone-tracks.. That low,bass-toned leading tracks of this GREAT album is something what I love. I`m also expecting that forthcoming 12″ because Reverend Bizarre`s side is filled with great Beherit cover version “The Gate of Nanna”. That means this great package includes music orginally from 3 of my favourite bands(in spite of that Beherit`s part is only to be covered…)! Great!

Because I`m being exepting this split to be carried in post office, I haven`t had great inspiration for cooking anything “special” or “gourme”. So, I just quickly cooked some quinoa, roasted tofu cubes+carrots seasoned with some soy sauce and garlig powder for owen, chopped some zucchini in tiny pieces and mixed those all together with some sundried tomatoes and fresh parsley(there was also some green peas & broccolis). Yum! That is really “quick & easy” and enough metal in this blog…I think? Now I`m still listening some doom-tracks and waiting my split to come.

by. Iron Goat a.k.a Rauta Vuohi

Black Arts with Blackcurrants..

Beherit & Kiisseli=cvlt

First: if you don`t Know anything about BEHERIT check this:http://www.myspace.com/beheritfanpage & if you haven`t never-ever heard about that slimy dessert which Finn`s are calling in name”Kiisseli” check that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kissel .

OK! Now you must be little familiar with some of my favourite things! But really, today is my birthday and because I`m day to day getting older I must remember listen lots of music that helps my mind staying young! But really… I was making this tasty dessert because I noticed the huge craving of something like that vanilla-redcurrant Kiisseli which I used to eat with love when I was smaller child than now

Because I want to celebrite my “getting older day” with everyone who are reading this blog, I decided to post my first “real” recipe in there. That`s good as BEHERIT and must be enjoyed when listening some Beherit`s tracks like “Sadomatic Rites”,”salmon`s Gate” or “The Gate of Nanna”. All those can find in album “Drawing down the Moon” which is published orginally in 1993. I have that remastered version which you can try to find in some good distro`s or record stores. That`s a classic!

But now, the recipe: “Black Arts with white Fames”- Blackcurrant-vanilla Kiisseli devoted to Beherit

you need to make 2 different Kiisselis:

Black one:

• 1/2 lb blackcurrants
• 1 quart water
• sugar
• 2 tablespoons potato flour
• Rinse cranberries and put to boil in water.Retain the liquid and pulp; discard the skins.Reheat the juice while mixing in the sugar to taste.Mix the potato starch with cold water and slowly stir into the juice until thickened. It should be the consistency of thick syrup.Pour the hot kissel in to a serving dish and sprinkle the top with sugar to avoid forming a skin on top.Cover and cool.

White(vanilla) One…

• 2 cups vanilla soymilk
• 1-2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp potato flour (starch), or
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tsp vanilla sugar (or vanilla powder, or extract)

Add the milk, sugar and potato flour or cornstarch in pott. Heat the mixture, stirring constantly.If you are using potato flour, just bring the sauce to the boil; when using cornstarch, let the sauce boil for approximately 5 minutes.Remove the pan from the stove and let it cool in cold water. Season the sauce with vanilla.

Then you just take some satanic bowl and first pour some blaccurrant kiisseli in it and then layer with that vanilla one like pictured above. Then just sink in that divine delightfullnes and turn the music loud volume!

by: Iron Goat a.k.a Rauta Vuohi

Dead and Berry’d

Here’s a complex equation for you…

Raspberries +

Axegrinder’s ‘Rise of the Serpent Men’ = ?

Here’s a hint…

Now, is the above a stake through the rotten hearts of your enemies, or a mini-pot bubbling with raspberry crisp goodness? Whatever the correct answer may be, the result is definitely a berry bloody mess to satisfy your most Transylvanian of Hungers.

(The above pic is the handiwork of Isa, who insisted that her latest concoction was gory enough for us to post on our blog, and who is more metal than she thinks because she actually does love that Axegrinder album- thanks for the pic!)

Nocturnal Wandering and The Fajita Hunger Buster

When meeting up with friends at the weekend, I normally go to a pub that takes about 30 minutes to get to on foot. Naturally I play some music both to and from there; on the way it’s normally something fairly upbeat and catchy (I was bopping along the road to The Ronettes on Friday..not very metal, I know). When I leave though it’s a different story and there’s one album I always, always play to keep me company on the way home: Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.

Creator of chilling riffs and an inspiration for my expression when offered a cheese sandwich

I’m sure there’s been enough discussion already about the band’s bizarre history (and it is certainly weird…I doubt there’s too many groups out there that have been associated with suicide, murder and er, cannibalism), and anyway, it’s the music that amazes me the most. Until I heard this album about 8 years ago, I was under the impression that keyboard or organ was needed to give black metal albums a weird and unsettling atmosphere – I didn’t realise that such an ominous and eerie sound could be created purely through the use of guitar, bass, voice and drums. I read years ago that Euronymous spent hour upon hour layering each song with hundreds of guitar tracks. I’m not sure if that’s true but I do know that I haven’t heard another album with the same kind of aura. I’d avoid everything the band released after this album just as I would a boiled egg, but this is easily one my favourite lp’s in the genre.

Walking home with this playing in my ear, it often strikes me as strange that I rarely pass another person; it’s a good thing I guess as I sometimes sing along and try and match the vocalist’s ‘vampire gargling some ultra-strong mouthwash’ voice. As it is, it’s only the urban foxes that are parley to my bad crooning. The bit where he wails ‘the cemetery lights up again..as…in…ancient…times‘ still sends a chill up my spine and makes me glad that I don’t pass any churchyards on the way home.

When I make it home I normally have the post-pub munchies, often eating the first thing I find. This has led to me eating four packets of Hula-Hoops in the space of 20 minutes before and dangerously approaching a salt overload, but this weekend I had some fajitas left over that I had made earlier. Lightly seasoned tofu, guacamole, salsa and loads of salad…it’s a messy eat for me at the best of times, but after a few beers it borders on the ridiculous. I woke up on Saturday with salsa all over my face but it didn’t stop me, I made some more today in preparation for impending night strolls. By PeteF

These poor creatures have enough troubles without having to hear my crooning. Must stop.