Interview with Mika (Impaled Nazarene), featured on Putrefying Mass from the Netherlands (2nd issue, circulated in 1993).
Showing posts with label 1993. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1993. Show all posts
Mar 17, 2024
Black metal documentation: 1993
Interview with Mika (Impaled Nazarene), featured on Putrefying Mass from the Netherlands (2nd issue, circulated in 1993).
Jan 26, 2014
Beherit - Drawing Down the Moon (1993) Review
Album | Drawing Down the Moon
Country | Finland
Genre | Black Metal
Label | Spinefarm Records
| Black haired witches |
Country | Finland
Genre | Black Metal
Label | Spinefarm Records
| Black haired witches |
It's often hard to point out the difference between hard working, serious musicians and a bunch of anxious teenagers experimenting with extreme subjects, especially when sound as primitive as can be is easy to make and doesn't require that much music knowledge or technique. I almost can see the guys from Beherit jamming around as kids, back in the early nineties, when the band started it's infamous path. This band always comes second to mind when talking about Finnish black metal of that specific period, right after Impaled Nazarene, when third goes Archgoat and Barathrum (there wasn't a big movement over there, as it was in the neighbor countries).
A common characteristic of these bands and almost any other Finnish one back then, is the complete lack of melody or rhythm in their music. The bands there preffered to create dismal and blasphemous material, draining their music from any radio friendly elements, so Beherit is no exception. That's why one can relate them more with bands on the other side of the planet, like the Canadian Blasphemy, or Von / Profanatica and so to say. All these bands never made the way to my top favorites, even though it's fun to listen to them, but as Drawing Down the Moon is widely regarded as a masterwork, I thought deeper insight would be useful. Inside my head, I was hoping that this would last around half an hour and I really wanted to dig it as much everyone does.
It has come to my understanding that the record is a love it or hate it issue, since it's up to the fan's tastes and patience in cases like this. I probably lean towards the second group and even if I don't think this is extremely bad, it is surely way overrated for it's kind. If you have listened to any of the aforementioned bands above, you will know that bestiality is the key element and Drawing Down the Moon has plenty of it. Not only the guitars but the sound itself is raw and distorted, keeping the recording as authentic as possible. The album mostly moves in an oppressive, middle paced tempo and it presents it's monotonous, droning buzz in a way that's not the easiest to follow.
If anything needs to be said about the production, it's dirty and focuses bass tones in every one of it's instruments. To me, each one of them sounds neat by itself, but the mixing and the balance of them all together lacks the expected power. The guitars seem to have a distance from the drums and the vocals, creating holes in the overall sound, making it significantly weaker than it would probably go. I know it's not even the first priority here, but still I wanted to be overthrown by it's blasphemous strength and I wasn't, so it was kind of a let down there. Drawing Down the Moon lasts forty minutes and it included thirteen 1-4 minute compositions, which are more than needed in my opinion. Filler tracks make the album even more fragile.
There are a few signs that give away the band's later efforts with peculiar electronic music, and these are mainly the instrumental tracks and the track "Summerlands". I can't blame them for liking other genres that include more electronics (in fact, Holocausto is DJing trance these days and has come to Greece for shows too) but I can't help but blame them for mixing them with this black metal. Even if one is fully enjoying it's raw brutality, one get's frustrated when these funky space sounds arive, like that track "Nuclear Girl" which is one of the weakest moments of the album, and it would be better if it was not included. With kick ass titles like "Salomon's Gate", "Nocturnal Evil" and "Sadomatic Rites", which in fact make good tracks as well, there should be no place for this child synth playing.
Musically, the album has a simplistic and typical structure, with the songs built around common riffs and repetitive drums. The sure thing is that Necroperversor could do more in the drum post and that is obvious in faster tracks like "Thou Angel of the Gods" and "Werewolf, Semen and Blood" where he doesn't really follow properly at all. The guitar work is average too but fairly enjoyable, being the memorable element of album, along with the vocals. They might be one part of the album I had no problem with, the nightmarish and diverse vocals and chanting in the songs, a little above the overall mediocrity. From the lyrics I caught, there are references to occultism and Satan, the latter being the band's name in Syriac too.
"Gate of Nanna" is a bad example of the album, for it's boring rhythm and dull, frustrating drumming / riffing and "Black Arts" is a good one, since the power of Holocausto as a singer and composer is shown there. Drawing Down the Moon is not the worst stuff I have listened but don't flatter yourselves with overwhelming comments about them either. The first Impaled Nazarene albums are equally raw and way richer and more interesting than this, if there should be a comparison. I don't think Beherit managed to overcome the barrier of Von's sluggish level and since I don't enjoy them either, I can't say much about this. I get why the fans consider it a gem and it might be one, but I was completely turned off in some points, in a way that the couple of solid moments could not save the day.
A common characteristic of these bands and almost any other Finnish one back then, is the complete lack of melody or rhythm in their music. The bands there preffered to create dismal and blasphemous material, draining their music from any radio friendly elements, so Beherit is no exception. That's why one can relate them more with bands on the other side of the planet, like the Canadian Blasphemy, or Von / Profanatica and so to say. All these bands never made the way to my top favorites, even though it's fun to listen to them, but as Drawing Down the Moon is widely regarded as a masterwork, I thought deeper insight would be useful. Inside my head, I was hoping that this would last around half an hour and I really wanted to dig it as much everyone does.
It has come to my understanding that the record is a love it or hate it issue, since it's up to the fan's tastes and patience in cases like this. I probably lean towards the second group and even if I don't think this is extremely bad, it is surely way overrated for it's kind. If you have listened to any of the aforementioned bands above, you will know that bestiality is the key element and Drawing Down the Moon has plenty of it. Not only the guitars but the sound itself is raw and distorted, keeping the recording as authentic as possible. The album mostly moves in an oppressive, middle paced tempo and it presents it's monotonous, droning buzz in a way that's not the easiest to follow.
If anything needs to be said about the production, it's dirty and focuses bass tones in every one of it's instruments. To me, each one of them sounds neat by itself, but the mixing and the balance of them all together lacks the expected power. The guitars seem to have a distance from the drums and the vocals, creating holes in the overall sound, making it significantly weaker than it would probably go. I know it's not even the first priority here, but still I wanted to be overthrown by it's blasphemous strength and I wasn't, so it was kind of a let down there. Drawing Down the Moon lasts forty minutes and it included thirteen 1-4 minute compositions, which are more than needed in my opinion. Filler tracks make the album even more fragile.
There are a few signs that give away the band's later efforts with peculiar electronic music, and these are mainly the instrumental tracks and the track "Summerlands". I can't blame them for liking other genres that include more electronics (in fact, Holocausto is DJing trance these days and has come to Greece for shows too) but I can't help but blame them for mixing them with this black metal. Even if one is fully enjoying it's raw brutality, one get's frustrated when these funky space sounds arive, like that track "Nuclear Girl" which is one of the weakest moments of the album, and it would be better if it was not included. With kick ass titles like "Salomon's Gate", "Nocturnal Evil" and "Sadomatic Rites", which in fact make good tracks as well, there should be no place for this child synth playing.
Musically, the album has a simplistic and typical structure, with the songs built around common riffs and repetitive drums. The sure thing is that Necroperversor could do more in the drum post and that is obvious in faster tracks like "Thou Angel of the Gods" and "Werewolf, Semen and Blood" where he doesn't really follow properly at all. The guitar work is average too but fairly enjoyable, being the memorable element of album, along with the vocals. They might be one part of the album I had no problem with, the nightmarish and diverse vocals and chanting in the songs, a little above the overall mediocrity. From the lyrics I caught, there are references to occultism and Satan, the latter being the band's name in Syriac too.
"Gate of Nanna" is a bad example of the album, for it's boring rhythm and dull, frustrating drumming / riffing and "Black Arts" is a good one, since the power of Holocausto as a singer and composer is shown there. Drawing Down the Moon is not the worst stuff I have listened but don't flatter yourselves with overwhelming comments about them either. The first Impaled Nazarene albums are equally raw and way richer and more interesting than this, if there should be a comparison. I don't think Beherit managed to overcome the barrier of Von's sluggish level and since I don't enjoy them either, I can't say much about this. I get why the fans consider it a gem and it might be one, but I was completely turned off in some points, in a way that the couple of solid moments could not save the day.
Sep 7, 2013
Havohej - Dethrone the Son of God (1993) Review
Havohej "Dethrone the Son of God"
Spring 1993, Candlelight Records
Spring 1993, Candlelight Records
Are you familiar with that type of black or blackened death metal, where being disgustingly blasphemic is a key aspect to the band's attitude? This dirty and unimpressive side of the genre with daring lyrics about anything holy or religious, most of the time just a facete that covers the inability of the bands to play some actual music. Well, Havohej might be one of the most important acts of that area that contributed hell of a lot to its creation.
The band is Paul Ledney's project, who was also involved in Profanatica, if that gives you an idea. Von were around at the time, as well as Blasphemy, but Havohej was something like an unintentional prodigy among them, especially after the release of this album, which is considered and ubercult release by the black metal community. I don't think Paul realized that he put out something that would have such an impact in the underground, at first glance, it seems generic (sloppy front cover, short songs, USBM, hey...). The album has 15 songs and its length is a little below half an hour, which is not that much, especially for this many songs. Albums like this gave the green light to all kinds of hateful youngsters to exploit their puberty by cursing the religion of their annoying parents, it did set the bar low for a shitload of worthless bands to crawl out of their holes release noise, despite the fact that this particularly, is not that easy to reproduce if you listen to it closely. The album is split into two pieces, "Christ Dethroned" which contains the first 5 tracks, and "Burning Paradise" which goes through the rest until the end. The tracks of the first side are Profanatica unreleased/rehearsal tracks, which doesn't matter that much because the two bands had a very similar sound at the time.
These guys are really angry with christianity and you can feel that from the graphic lyrics of the self-titled spoken song, as well as the rest of the tracks and that epic moment when he screams "I vomit on God's child" loudly and clearly, in Weeping In Heaven. The album is famous for it's subject, which is plain and simple, nothing less and nothing more. There is no depth, sophistication or enigmatic concept behind the songs, it was meant to be dirty and it sure is. Of course, the raw production and sound helps a lot to that. There are a lot of catchy riffs in almost every song and they have been mutated with an injection of death metal to sound straight forward and unforgiving. With a bit different vocals and general arrangement, this could be an underground death metal album, but that's just an assumption. Paul Ledney's drumming has a lot of fills between the fast black metal parts and the blastbeats and you can hear some uncommon lines here and there, even though it is high in volume and did blow the rest of the instruments out a couple of times. Some doomier elements can be recognized in songs like "I Arose" too. The vocals are trembling screams, relentless, high pitched yells with a clear sound in terms of how distinguishable the lyrics are, you can actually catch up with the poetic words everywhere.
Only a few tracks reach 2-3 minutes in length. The album's longest track "Once Removed Savior" is one of my favourite in the album since it has all the characteristic of the album, from fast, spitting black metal, to a doomy passage and then a middle paced part. Combined, they describe the whole album. I can't get into the tracks that last less than a minute, as they do sound the same and i would prefer all of them to be full songs or one full song. Other standout tracks are Weeping In Heaven, Heavenly Father, Spilling Holy Blood (which has some killer guitar melodies) and of course, Dethrone the Son of God. I'm questioning the skills of Paul Ledney and the session guitarist John Gelso, because it's not a priority, but they did compose a tight album. I don't see is as a masterpiece as everybody else thinks, it has its imperfections, like the short tracks that are not unique or interesting, as well as the poor production in terms of mixing, not the sound itself. However, there are some notable moments that influenced the scene very much, Havohej have earned the respect of the fans on some level. The guys dressings and lyrics were almost ridiculous, but he made it. Candlelight Records was a success at the time and looking at it today, 20 years later, it looks like a dusty gem of the underground.
The band is Paul Ledney's project, who was also involved in Profanatica, if that gives you an idea. Von were around at the time, as well as Blasphemy, but Havohej was something like an unintentional prodigy among them, especially after the release of this album, which is considered and ubercult release by the black metal community. I don't think Paul realized that he put out something that would have such an impact in the underground, at first glance, it seems generic (sloppy front cover, short songs, USBM, hey...). The album has 15 songs and its length is a little below half an hour, which is not that much, especially for this many songs. Albums like this gave the green light to all kinds of hateful youngsters to exploit their puberty by cursing the religion of their annoying parents, it did set the bar low for a shitload of worthless bands to crawl out of their holes release noise, despite the fact that this particularly, is not that easy to reproduce if you listen to it closely. The album is split into two pieces, "Christ Dethroned" which contains the first 5 tracks, and "Burning Paradise" which goes through the rest until the end. The tracks of the first side are Profanatica unreleased/rehearsal tracks, which doesn't matter that much because the two bands had a very similar sound at the time.
These guys are really angry with christianity and you can feel that from the graphic lyrics of the self-titled spoken song, as well as the rest of the tracks and that epic moment when he screams "I vomit on God's child" loudly and clearly, in Weeping In Heaven. The album is famous for it's subject, which is plain and simple, nothing less and nothing more. There is no depth, sophistication or enigmatic concept behind the songs, it was meant to be dirty and it sure is. Of course, the raw production and sound helps a lot to that. There are a lot of catchy riffs in almost every song and they have been mutated with an injection of death metal to sound straight forward and unforgiving. With a bit different vocals and general arrangement, this could be an underground death metal album, but that's just an assumption. Paul Ledney's drumming has a lot of fills between the fast black metal parts and the blastbeats and you can hear some uncommon lines here and there, even though it is high in volume and did blow the rest of the instruments out a couple of times. Some doomier elements can be recognized in songs like "I Arose" too. The vocals are trembling screams, relentless, high pitched yells with a clear sound in terms of how distinguishable the lyrics are, you can actually catch up with the poetic words everywhere.
Only a few tracks reach 2-3 minutes in length. The album's longest track "Once Removed Savior" is one of my favourite in the album since it has all the characteristic of the album, from fast, spitting black metal, to a doomy passage and then a middle paced part. Combined, they describe the whole album. I can't get into the tracks that last less than a minute, as they do sound the same and i would prefer all of them to be full songs or one full song. Other standout tracks are Weeping In Heaven, Heavenly Father, Spilling Holy Blood (which has some killer guitar melodies) and of course, Dethrone the Son of God. I'm questioning the skills of Paul Ledney and the session guitarist John Gelso, because it's not a priority, but they did compose a tight album. I don't see is as a masterpiece as everybody else thinks, it has its imperfections, like the short tracks that are not unique or interesting, as well as the poor production in terms of mixing, not the sound itself. However, there are some notable moments that influenced the scene very much, Havohej have earned the respect of the fans on some level. The guys dressings and lyrics were almost ridiculous, but he made it. Candlelight Records was a success at the time and looking at it today, 20 years later, it looks like a dusty gem of the underground.
Track listing:
1. Spilling Holy Blood
2. Final Hour of Christ
3. Weeping in Heaven
4. I Arose, Part 1
5. I Arose, Part 2
6. Heavenly Fathes
7. Once Removed Savior
8. Raping of Angels, Part 1
9. Raping of Angels, Part 2
10. The King of the Jews
11. Behold the Prince of Peace
12. Holy Blood Holy Grail
13. Fucking of Sacred Assholes
14. Nazarene Decomposing
15. Dethrone the Son of God
DAMAGE: 7.0/10
1. Spilling Holy Blood
2. Final Hour of Christ
3. Weeping in Heaven
4. I Arose, Part 1
5. I Arose, Part 2
6. Heavenly Fathes
7. Once Removed Savior
8. Raping of Angels, Part 1
9. Raping of Angels, Part 2
10. The King of the Jews
11. Behold the Prince of Peace
12. Holy Blood Holy Grail
13. Fucking of Sacred Assholes
14. Nazarene Decomposing
15. Dethrone the Son of God
DAMAGE: 7.0/10
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