All posts by Indy

>SRM Reviews (#67 December 2009)

>Pulished in Sweden Rock Magazine #67 December 2009.

Urgehal
Ikonoklast4/10
Season of Mist (Sound Pollution)

Band, skivbolag och konsumenter måste inse att fullängdsformatet i många fall är överskattat. Att införliva slarv och trams bara för att fylla ut speltiden är inget annat än musikbyråkratisk idioti. Om norska Urgehal på sitt sjätte album hade anammat devisen kvalitet framför kvantitet hade vi sluppit bottennapp som Kniven rider dypt i natt (något slags ölstint punkrocktjosan) och i stället kunnat mässa i lugn och ro till Cut Their Tounge Shut Their Prayer. I sistnämnda spår är norrmännen som vassast; klassiskt norska black metal-slingor av det finstämda snittet, härligt antikristen lyrik och rejäla hooks. Men då och då försöker de sig på samhällskritik och metallisk punkrock. Man tar sig för pannan! Vem i bandet bör knivhuggas för dessa tilltag? Säg mig och jag anlitar närmaste torped. Jag kan inte ta bandet på allvar.
Urgehal påminner stundtals om tidiga Khold, men snabbare och brutalare. Mer thrash. Inget groove att tala om. Långtifrån lika skitigt. Det är dock deras bleka black metal jag vill åt. Den glimrar till emellanåt, men alldeles för sällan. En EP med de bästa svartmetallstyckena hade känts mer relevant än det här.

V/A
Grind Madness at the BBC – The Earache Peel Sessions7/10
Earache (Sound Pollution)

I en tid när mp3-bloggar och YouTube var så mycket framtid att Saida inte ens kunde förvarna om det vanvettiga som är crabcore (googla, gubbe!) i sin kristallkula så förlitade sig ungdomen på radio. Lars Aldman var väl den svensk som presenterade alternativ musik på bästa sätt i sina Bommen-program. England hade John Peel, och till skillnad från Aldman var Peel en levande legend. Hans inflytande i underjorden går inte att ta miste på. Han spelade vad helst han ville, och struntade kraftigt i vad pöbeln krävde. Det är bland annat sådant som skapar en legend värd namnet.
The Peel Sessions-plattorna fångar magin som uppstår i replokalen och under konserten, men som är så svårfångad i studion. Detta för att John Peel tillät banden att vara sig själva. Här finns ingen studiokonstlad stelhet.
Denna samling handlar dock bara om ett enda band.

Om The Beatles lade grunden för popmusik och Black Sabbath för hårdrock, så lade Napalm Death definitivt grunden för extrem metal. I min värld finns inget brutalare än när Mick Harris går loss på skinnen i The Kill. Dagens Nasum-grindare har inte en chans och har inte fattat ett smack. Grindcore handlar om kaos, inte om perfektion. Grindcore handlar om punk, inte om metal.
Napalm Deaths debut i John Peels radioprogram är det bästa de någonsin spelat in. Det är också den bästa grindcore som någonsin framförts – och detta var 1987! Begrunda faktum i någon minut, tack.
Deras två första inspelningar definierade och definierar fortfarande vad som är grindcore i min värld. Antimusik när den är som mest råbarkad och meningsfull. Enkom dessa tjugo minuter gör denna samling värd sitt pris.
Som bonus får man ytterligare över tre timmars musik.

Men märk väl att det enbart är Napalm Death och i viss mån Unseen Terror som står för renrasig grindcore på den här samlingen.  Extreme Noise Terror är namnet till trots ganska variationsfattig crust. Snabbfotad sådan, men sällan i grindcoretempo. Carcass, även de pionjärer i sin goregrind-genre, är ganska såsiga och deras extremt vansinniga Reek of Putrefaction– och Symphonies of Sickness-låtar kommer inte riktigt till sin rätt här. Bolt Thrower bidrar med murken death metal och låter kanske inte som allra bäst – men definitivt råast. Unseen Terrors låtar är däremot att föredra framför deras enda knepigt producerade fullängdare Human Error. Heresy och Intense Degree definierar egensinnig hardcore. Och Godflesh är som alltid det svarta fåret med sin monotona industrimetal.
Men som ni märker är det Napalm Death som gäller här. Total dyrkan på alla plan.
Vi tackar John Peel för kulturgärningen och låter honom nu vila i frid.

I also did an interview with Die Hard in this issue.

>The Israel Lobby 2009 – Part Two

>

CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE

The Zionist cause becomes quite obvious when looking at this map. As I’ve stated here, the essence of Zionism is Jewish ethnic domination over Palestine, and by looking at this map you’ll see that the future of a two-state solution is virtually non-existent. Israel keeps expanding its settlements, no matter what the rest of the world thinks about such criminal behaviour.
As a reminder of the ugliness and stupidity of religion (read more about that herehere, here and here), the Christian Zionists, who are a significant political force in America, oppose the two-state solution, because they believe total Israeli control over Palestine will make it easier for Christ’s “Second Coming”… Holy fuck!

In short, there are three alternatives to a two-state solution. Each will be disastrous – for Israel, that is.

One: Abandon the Zionist vision of a Jewish state and let Palestinians and Jews enjoy equal political rights. This will never happen. There is no way that the Jewish people will agree to live as a minority in a state dominated by an Arab majority. Israel’s supporters in America will have no interest in this outcome.

Two: Israel expels all Palestinians in an act of ethnic cleansing, pretty much like what they did in 1948. This might actually happen, considering the recent Gaza massacre. They are so concerned about the survival of this Jewish state they’re capable of doing just such a sickening thing. However, the Palestinians will put up brutal resistance. There will be lots of blood. Will the West sit back once again? Probably so. This will be the absolute beginning of the end.

Three: Apartheid. This is the most likely outcome. The Arabs will be forced to live in small enclaves with limited autonomy, economically crippled and with no part in the political process. This is pretty much how things are right now.

Democracy in Israel won’t be tolerated, since the Arabs, who are the majority, would dominate its politics.

John Mearsheimer:
Imagine if the roles were reversed and a powerful Palestinian state was taking land away from Jewish inhabitants and brutalizing them in the process. There would rightfully be a storm of protest in the US and across Europe and tremendous pressure would be brought to bear on that Palestinian state to immediately cease exploiting the Jews and permit them to have a state of their own. But when Israelis colonize the West Bank and effectively turn Gaza into a giant prison for the Palestinians who live there, the US government not only does not protest, it backs Israel to the hilt. And that includes Barack Obama.

This article is based on John Mearsheimer‘s talk in Oslo, October 5th 2009. The personal rants are all mine, though. John doesn’t seem to be a man of swear words…
Huge thanks to John for sending me the speech, both in English and in Norwegian.

Yesterday, Antiwar.com published the article The Israel Lobby, the Neocons, and the Iranian-American Community. It’s well worth reading.

>Art Crime: How to…

>Some of Sweden’s top writers demonstrate their style. Everything in this post is stolen without kind permission from the Highlights blog.


Erse, Bruce, Ance and Crack from The Pricks.

Abyss, Assma, Dire, Gauge, Ikaroz, Italy, Kaos, Polar, Pomac, Skil and Tiff2.

Abyss burning a black book.

More Erse stuff here.
Abyss and Bruce here.
Stay clean!

>The Israel Lobby 2009

>

This article is based on John Mearsheimer‘s talk in Oslo, October 5th 2009. The personal rants are all mine, though. John doesn’t seem to be a man of swear words…
Huge thanks to John for sending me the speech, both in English and in Norwegian.

President Obama is a man of words, but is he a man of action? During his presidential campaign 2008 and since taking office, he made – and still makes – a lot of promises. Regarding U.S. policy in the Middle East he made it very clear that he was committed to settling the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. To do this he would get Israel to stop expanding its settlements in the occupied territories and – in the future – allow the Palestinians to have their own state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Also, he said that he – as opposed to George W. Bush – believed in diplomatic, serious negotiations with Iran, instead of military attacks and threats of economic sanctions.

However, this will probably never happen, since the Israel Lobby simply won’t allow such humane behaviour.

The Netanyahu government in Israel is opposed to giving the Palestinians their own state, and it is also deeply committed to expanding the settlements. No president will be allowed to play the hardball game with Israel, because the goal is to control the whole West Bank and the Gaza Strip, leaving the Arabs with small enclaves inside Israel – pretty much like a white-ruled South Africa. Read more about zionism here.

As for Iran, it is looked upon as an existential threat to the Jewish state, and the Israel Lobby and its supporters have no interest in talking to a regime who, they believe, wants to ”wipe Israel off the map” (fact is, Ahmadinejad never said that, read more about that in the Propaganda for war article).
Note that Israel is the only country in the world advocating war against Iran. Inside the U.S., there are only pro-Israel individuals and dito organizations who support using force in this case. In fact, there would be little talk about attacking Iran if Israel and the Lobby were not bitching about war all the time. And again: who are the ones in possession of nuclear weapons? Also read this article in The Economist.

Even though Israel constantly do things that the U.S. opposes, they still get more foreign aid – billions of dollars each year – than any other country. Every goddamn American president since 1967 has – in theory, in meek words – opposed settlement-building in the occupied territories, still Israel continues to break the rules. And they’re not being punished – they’re constantly being rewarded. Why is that? The answer: the enormous power of the Israel Lobby. America is completely impotent when it comes to dealing with Israel. Serious criticism of Israel is never heard of from American officials. It’s a joke, really.
Ok, Obama made it very clear that he would like to see a stop of any settlement activity, and that he’d like a Palestinian state. However, Netanyahu also made it very clear that he would not stop, and that he didn’t like the idea of a two-state solution. Who won? Israel, of course. This tiny country in a distant region continue to rule the giant U.S. colossus. Isn’t that strange?

John Mearsheimer:
Netanyahu not only refused to stop building 2500 housing units in the West Bank, but just to make it clear to Obama who was boss, in late June, he authorized the building of 300 new homes in the West Bank. Netanyahu refused to even countenance any limits on settlement building in East Jerusalem, which is supposed to be the capitol of a Palestinian state. In fact, Israel went ahead, despite American protests, and converted an old Arab hotel in East Jerusalem into a Jewish apartment building. The Israelis also expelled two Arab families from their homes that they had lived in for 50 years and issued tenders for 468 new apartments in East Jerusalem.

Obama meekly asked Israel to please ”restrain” itself while it continued colonizing the West Bank.

Talk is cheap.
Change?
Hope?
Yes we can?
No, you can’t. Not when it comes to Israel and the lobby.

The Israel Lobby’s influence is at its peak during the presidential campaigns. You won’t ever witness such a campaign without the mentioning if this tiny but powerful country. 
After Obama had won the election he remained perfectly silent during the recent Gaza massacre. The whole world stood up and criticized Israel for its brutal assault, but Obama kept quiet. A few months later he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize…
I still wonder about all you naïve Obama worshippers who cried during his inaugural speech: when are you going to wake the fuck up?

When reading this, and since it’s such a sensitive subject just mentioning Jews, I think it’s of great importance that you recognize this: the Lobby is defined by its political agenda, not by ethnicity or religion. The Israel Lobby is not necessarily synonymous with Jewish-Americans. The Christian Zionists, for example, that work on Israel’s behalf, are not Jewish.
In other words: your shallow hate mongering about anti-Semitism does not compute.

To be continued…

EDIT:
Monday, 16 november 2009, The Independent publishes an interesting article entitled “Palestinian push for an independent state causes Israeli alarm“. Pretty much says it all…

>The Road – A neverending well of bliss

>

Since I like photos of endless, desolate roads and The Road so much, I once again give you a grim motherfucker of a Cormac McCarthy quote from hell. Or something like that.
I just got a hold of some of the songs from the soundtrack composed by the master duo Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, and I’ll be damned if this film won’t do it for me. The songs are close to perfection. The book is close to perfection. But the trailer is not that good, actually. Hopefully there’ll be a lot more mysticism, ashes, darkness and melancholy involved. As for the mysticism aspect, one of the great things about the book is that you never know what really happened, what caused the apocalypse.
The horror! The horror!

 When your dreams are of some world that never was or of some world that will never be and you are happy again then you will have given up. Do you understand? And you cant give up. I wont let you. 

[…]

Things will be better when everybody’s gone.
They will?
Sure they will.
Better for who?
Everybody.
Everybody.
Sure. We’ll all be better off. We’ll all breathe easier.
That’s good to know.
Yes it is. When we’re all gone at last then there’ll be nobody here but death and his days will be numbered too. He’ll be out in the road with nothing to do and nobody to do it to. He’ll say: Where did everybody go? And that’s how it will be be. What’s wrong with that?

[…]

Do you think that your fathers are watching? That they weigh you in their ledgerbook? Against what? There is no book and your fathers are dead in the ground.

[…]
 
Everything was covered in ash.

>The Road

>

I still return to The Road, now probably because the movie is just around the corner, but ever since I first read it in December 2006 (read more here) I’ve been reading bits and pieces over and over again. Just like one does with good poetry. The way that Cormac McCarthy deals with the love and the darkness of mankind just overwhelms me every time. There are many passages where the dialogue between the man and the boy is so sparse, yet so very tense. There is all the room in the world for long and intricate conversations, but there are none. Simply because they are getting ready to die in a world where everything is lost, where everything is ashes and darkness and hopelessness.
The mother of the boy chose suicide when she realized that this was the end, when she watched distant cities burn. This makes the tenderness and the love shared between father and son even more heartwrenching. The post apocalypse has never been better.

This excerpt, where the man and the boy meet up with a lone traveller, a very old and torn man, is a good example of how the atmosphere, the cold, wet, ashen landscape, slowly devours the human bodies, but cannot fully erase the human emotions. Mind over matter.

 How long have you been on the road?
 I was always on the road. You cant stay in one place.
 How do you live?
 I just keep going. I knew this was coming.
 You knew it was coming?
 Yeah. This or something like it. I always believed in it.
 Did you try to get ready for it?
 No. What would you do?
 I dont know.
 People were always getting ready for tomorrow. I didnt believe in that. Tomorrow wasnt getting ready for them. It didnt even know they were there.
 I guess not.
 Even if you knew what to do you wouldnt know what to do. You wouldnt know if you wanted to do it or not. Suppose you were the last one left? Suppose you did that to yourself?
 Do you wish you would die?
 No. But I might wish I had died. When you’re alive you’ve always got that ahead of you.
 Or you might wish you’d never been born.
 Well. Beggars cant be choosers.
 You think that would be asking too much.
 What’s done is done. Anyway, it’s foolish to ask for luxuries in times like these.
 I guess so.
 Nobody wants to be here and nobody wants to leave. He lifted his head and looked across the fire at the boy. Then he looked at the man. The man could see his small eyes watching him in the firelight. God knows what those eyes saw. He got up to pile more wood on the fire and he raked the coals back from the dead leaves. The red sparks rose in a shudder and died in the blackness overhead. The old man drank the last of his coffee and set the bowl before him and leaned toward the heat with his hands out. The man watched him. How would you know if you were the last man on earth? he said.
 I don’t guess you would know it. You’d just be it.
 Nobody would know it.
 It wouldnt make any difference. When you die it’s the same as if everybody else did too.
 I guess God would know it. Is that it?
 There is no God.
 No?
 There is no God and we are his prophets.