Into infinite obscurity

M: SATURDAY MORNING DOUBLE FEATURE: THE EXCEPTION THAT PROVES THE RULE - .....Quite simply, The Somberlain and Storm of the Light's Bane are two of the best fucking black metal albums ever made, packed with equal amounts of both demonic hatred and epic, Wagnerian bombast.
these 2 albums DO rule (was listening to one the other day when you came over i think) but i don't like black metal :/ i always forget that these are, they're quite melodic in bits. you know the kind of crap i like ;D

J: yeah, you were listening to them :)
i always think they're a DM band :3

M: me too! always so surprised when people say they're bm :O

J: their name isn't really BM :)

M: yeah, even that's more dm :) and they're from sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeden i think :?

J: they obviously got death threats from euronymous at some point :3

M: the dude in it is a murderer or something anyways :/

J: srsly :/
LOL, that always helps album sales, unless you're in emperor, it just makes you look like a poser fag because you only burned a church or two and the only killer in your band fagged out when arrested :D

M: ooooops :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_N%C3%B6dtveidt
ohh, he was accessory to murder, then formed the band, then killed himself :/

J: > self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a circle of lit candles
what a way to go ;O

M: :O
wow thats pretty fucking mental :/
no wonder people assocate them with bm ;D

J: wiki says they're blackened death, dunno what marchives say :)

M: >Melodic Black/Death Metal (early), Melodic Death Metal (later)
yeah not really black metal then :)))

J: it didn't sound like DM when i heard them at yours :)

M: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZZq37WRKyg
here tis. umm no, not so much death.....i guess blackened death (maybe more black than death tho?) more along the lines of....i dunno

J: i think the DM comes into the fact it sounds kinda clean. my idea of BM differs to most, but this is pretty polished BM if anything... with melodic bits :)

M: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvQMmh3BHqc
stuff like this one is 100% melodicy stuff - yeah, it's clean and singy and...yeah, doesn't fit with the death metal sound (although if you changed the vocals it would) but doesn't fit with black either

That was as far as we got in figuring out exactly where Dissection fit into the metal world. What do you guys think? Black metal? Death metal? Blackened death? Deathened black isn't a category, but should we invent it (or one to that effect but with a better name) for this? All of the above?

SERJ TANKIAN: 'Elect The Dead' Symphony Sample Clip Available

M: SERJ TANKIAN: 'Elect The Dead' Symphony Sample Clip Available - what's the betting that title has some kind of political message? D:

J: he should team up with ratm - they can all then wank each other off over pictures of che and karl marx

M: LOL :D don't push your political opinions on me, just sing about werewolves and satan like everyone else >:(

J: or indians and being caught in a mosh :P

M: :P

J: i'm sure scott'll claim soon that he and charlie invented indians :)

M: they did, did you not know? when iron maiden wrote run to the hills, they went forward in time, met up with scott and charlene and stole their idea! :D

J: nothing really surprises me with them clowns. i hate them almost onthe saME LEVEL AS I DO EMPEROR AND NAPALM DEATH ;(

ooops :) not shouting

M: haha i thought the hate was just getting too much halfway through that sentence, the rage rising.... :) oh i didn't know you felt that way about napalm death :O

J: i fucking hate that band - "oh, we're the first grindcore band, blahblah blah" - and then you get carcass come along with the same thing. i don't like either band, especially ND, who were a crusty punk band that came along too late but thought we'd get with the trend of metal and do that. :////

M: ohhh :/ don't really know anything about napalm death really, can't stand them, so have ignored everything since i first heard them D:

J: i saw them twice unfortunately (supporting machine head both times), maybe more, who knows. they just came along too late and realised that punk was on its way out, so since we're completely untalented we'll record one second songs. that aint grindcore, that's shit.
one of their first vocalists on album was lee dorian, who went on to be in that cathedral band. hes a loser :)

M: supporting machine head?! that seems kinda weird.

LOL, cathedral. HA :)

J: yeah, was in 97 or 98, MH did a two night slot at the astoria, the first night the power failed, and the second night they said the same shit in between songs as if they were on a script of sorts. the only thing that differed was the lack of a power cut and they played a different cover song instead of negative creep by nirvana the night before. this was pretty much when i started hating them since they were not natural in the respect that they had to repeat all the shit in between songs from the night. it wasn't natural. plus also their second album was bordering hip hop with only two decent songs on it

M: yeah, machine head always do exactly the same sets, i've seen them say the same stuff before too - when i saw them at download and then a bit later, he repeated himself too :(

J: but people still eat up what they do. machine head fans are blind to it all :)

M: metal is full of people like that. all the people that like hellyeah, for instance. OPEN YOUR EARS!!! THEY SUCK!!! just because you liked pantera and you can't get over the fact that dimebag is dead, doesn't mean you have to go support one of the worst bands in the world D: people just fucking carry on, without a mind of their own

J: you've just described nu metal there :)

M: true dat. you may as well listen to fucking chart music, for all the thought thats involved. well, chart music here. chart music in sweden rules!!

J: and maybe finland, if you like cob

M: oops, that's what i was thinking of actually :) but i bet sweden's isn't bad either* :D

J: dead was swedish :)

*On closer inspection, the Swedish charts are actually still probably a lot worse than they are here in the UK. I was living in a happy fantasy world when I first wrote the above...those dreams are now shattered.

Tattoosday Goes to Sweden, or Sweden Comes to Tattoosday

Walking down 7th Avenue on Friday, October 19, I spotted a sleeved arm approaching, Sorry, it was a couple. Man and a woman, young, in their mid to late 20's...(apologies if you are reading this and are younger).

Behold, the guy was game for talking tattoos. In fact, Jörgen Wiklund, visiting from Sweden, was extremely cool and patiently indulged me as I tried to write down names in his native tongue.

Jörgen wasn't sure how many tattoos he had...he guessed around 15 or so. I snapped two. First, since we are in New York City, this seemed apropos:


Jörgen characterized all his tattoos as whimsical, fun, spur of the moment decisions. This is a tattoo representing Dee Dee Ramone, as a duck. He elaborated that his girlfriend had a duck-like haircut and earned the nickname "Ducky," so this piece was a tribute to her.

The Ducky Ramone was inked at Evil Eye Tattoo in Stockholm.

Jörgen also let me take a picture of this interesting piece, which he says is an homage to the musician Roky Erickson:


It took some searching, but this tattoo is based on what I'm guessing is an out-of-print or special edition cover of Roky Erickson and the Aliens CD I Dream of Demons :

When I asked who Roky Erickson was, thinking he was perhaps a Swedish musician, he enlightened me, saying he was from Texas and that he was "the greatest musician that ever lived."

When he asked if I had heard of the 13th Floor Elevators, I said sure (one song on my BilliPod, "You're Gonna Miss Me," from the High Fidelity soundtrack. You can hear the song here, streaming on Erickson's website.

The whole demon motif ties into the storied history of Erickson and his past with drug use, electro-shock therapy, and mental illness.

Jörgen had this tattoo done in his home town of Härnösand, in northern Sweden, at a shop called Paul's Custom Tattooing.

Jörgen was a real treat to meet. He and his girlfriend (who is tattoo-less) are/were in town for a week. I suggested she get her first tattoo in New York to commemorate her trip here. The were both good sports and I want to thank Jörgen and his significant other for their participation in Tattoosday and the contribution of the first international contribution to the blog.