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I’m getting old. It’s either that, or music is getting boring. Just like last year I feel I haven’t been catching up with what the hell is going on in this shithole filled with music. In my mind, the very best albums of 2010 were all black metal albums: Lawless Darkness, Paracletus, Stained Glass Revelations, Belus and Ominous Doctrines of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm.
Last year I was complaining about how shitty the rap scene really is. Same thing this year. Until yesterday I had only one rap record on the list, but then Master Skråd posted a video with one helluva good dude named Roc Marciano. I haven’t even heard his name before, but Marcberg is insanely good! This is like the perfect blend of Raekwon, Mobb Deep and Madlib. I’ve only listened to the album six times (since yesterday…), but it feels like a true rap classic already. We’ll see about that in a year or two.
Still, lots of really good releases, of course. Here’s the stuff I’ve enjoyed during the year, stuff that’s definitely worthy of your attention. Hopefully you’ll discover something new.
Click on the band name for GaySpace.
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| Arckanum – Sviga Lae |
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| Autopsy – The Tomb Within |
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| Bloody Phoenix – Death To Everyone |
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| Bombs of Hades – Chambers of Abominations |
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| Bonnie Prince Billy – The Wonder Show of The World |
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| Burzum – Belus |
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| Celph Titled & Buckwild – Nineteen Ninety Now |
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| Circle – Rautatie |
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| Counterblast – Faceless |
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| Deathspell Omega – Paracletus |
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| Electric Wizard – Black Masses |
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| Ghost – Opus Eponymous |
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| Grand Magus – Hammer of The North |
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| High On Fire – Snakes For The Divine |
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| Hofmästarn med Roffe Ruff – Panterparken FREE DOWNLOAD HERE! |
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| Hour of 13 – The Ritualist |
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| Inquisition – Ominous Doctrines of The Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm |
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| Interment – Into The Crypts of Blasphemy |
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| Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier |
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| Massgrav / Blood I Bleed – SPLIT |
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| Melvins – The Bride Screamed Murder |
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| Modorra – The Putrid |
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| Motorpsycho – Heavy Metal Fruit |
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| Nominon – Monumentomb |
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| Okkultokrati – No Light For Mass |
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| PP7 Gaftzeb And The Tormentors of 1984 – Preaching The Gospel To The Non-Believers |
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| Profanatica – Disgusting Blasphemies Against God |
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| Pyramido / Suma – SPLIT |
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| Ramesses – Take The Curse |
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| Roc Marciano – Marcberg |
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| Stench – In Putrescence |
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| Suma – Ashes |
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| Svarte Greiner – Penpals Forever (And Ever) |
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| Swans – My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky |
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| Tid – Giv Akt FREE DOWNLOAD HERE! |
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| Triptykon – Eparistera Daimones |
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| Ufomammut – Eve |
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| U.S. Christmas – Run Thick In The Night |
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| Watain – Lawless Darkness |
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| White Hills – White Hills |
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| Wildbirds & Peacedrums – Rivers |
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| Ättestupa – Begraven Mot Norr |
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Roadburn – the best festival I’ve ever been to – just announced that Godflesh are set to perform the legendary Streetcleaner album in its entirety! That sure deserves a whole bunch of exclamation marks!
This is one of the heaviest, dirtiest albums ever to grace this wicked Earth, and to be able to witness this at Roadburn is nothing but amazing. Streetcleaner was released in 1989, but still crushes most of what you’d call heavy these days. In a way, these recordings preceded the whole drone/sludge genre, and did so 22 years ago. Exclamation mark!
If you find it strange having a band playing the record just as it is when you might as well sit at home listening, you probably won’t ever understand the magick that occurs during a mighty fine concert – and Roadburn always delivers amazing gigs.
Compare listening to Through Silver In Blood at home with the onslaught that follows below:
Now worship Godflesh.
Bonus goodness:
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This fear is only the beginning
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There is a sorrow to be desired
To be sorrows desire
What they say is true
It is a dirty blue
This color around you
You’re curled up warm
In your own little corners of Sodom
Did you agree to believe
This fall has no bottom
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Fear not the faces of brothers
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Even though the gameplay is very basic and straight forward, and your only real gaming input is strictly limited, Heavy Rain is a fantastic experience.
Gameplay is all about choosing between different options and pressing the correct button in time. That’s pretty much it. And there are some minor flaws: Some puzzles and ways of getting information are just plain stupid and tiresome (the Ann Sheppard scene, for example). Also, sometimes the choices you make really don’t make a difference, which is quite annoying. As is the fact that all teeth look like rubbish, which is a mystery since the graphics overall are just stunning. People walk around looking like Method Man with braces. But then again, this is the American future. Too much Coke, I guess.
If you’ve seen a couple of American movies in your lifetime, you’ll recognize the way this story moves. It plays just like a movie, and therefore it is – in many ways – more than a game. A lot of the scenes are very predictable (even though I have to admit that I didn’t know who the killer was until the very end. One thing you’ll always know with generic scripts is that whatever person they want you to recognize as the bad guy, it sure as hell never is him in the end), but since the atmosphere rule, you tend to forget that. Same thing with the simplicity of the gameplay.
Because what makes Heavy Rain such an awesome experience is the atmosphere. If this is your type of game, you’ll be totally hooked. Because it’s not how you do things, but what you do that really matters and makes this game stand out. It’s all those tiny details, like changing a baby’s diapers and then rocking her to sleep, brushing your teeth and making sure your boy gets his medicine in time; those are the moments that strenghtens the ties of blood, for they depict real life.
The choices we make shape our lives, and there are many choices to be made in Heavy Rain. For the first time in gaming history, here is a game that actually capitalize on the moral decision concept. This is way beyond choosing between a good or bad ending.
How far would you go to save someone you love?
At one point there are five different choices with various outcomes, depending on what you did earlier in the game, and I think there are at least seven different endings with 18 different epilogues. If one of your characters faces an early death, you’ll miss out on a lot of chapters that would’ve appeared hadn’t she died. When finishing the game for the first time you’ll almost immediately need to replay some chapters to see how the story would unfold had you chosen another direction.
Adding to the atmosphere is of course the music. And it’s out there! Not just the official soundtrack, but a lot of the cues and songs that didn’t appear on the official release. I found this link:
http://www.zshare.net/download/784372202efa351f/
Sharing is caring.
And caring is pretty much what Heavy Rain is all about.
>Published in Sweden Rock Magazine #72 June 2010.
Here’s the unabridged version.
Watain
Lawless Darkness – 9/10
Season of Mist (Sound Pollution)
Det här är ett storslaget verk sprunget ur mörkermagiskt vansinne. Mäktigt och komplext, men ändå med ett helvetes driv. En episk tripp som går på djupet, men ändå bara skummar på ytan. Jag tror nämligen att Watain har ännu mer att ge, hur märkligt det än må låta.
Men jag var skeptisk. Hur kan man tio år efter den fullkomligt fanatiska debuten Rabid Death’s Curse utveckla och förnya en hel genre – till det bättre? Vad kan man göra efter Casus Luciferi och Sworn to the Dark utan att totalt tappa fotfästet eller upprepa sig? Jag trodde inte att Watain hade så mycket mer att ge, men efter tjugo intensiva genomlyssningar är jag överbevisad och sitter här med kalsongerna på huvudet. Den entitet som är Watain tar nu black metal vidare på allvar.
Samtidigt är detta en återgång, flera steg tillbaka bortom det tidiga raseriet. En hyllning till de klassiska album som släpptes på åttiotalet där varje låt var något av det bästa som gjorts; mästerverken som för alltid kommer att finnas i våra själar. Känslan framträder tydligast i Kiss of Death, ett lapptäcke av tvära kast som bara växer och växer. Överlag dryper plattan av allsångsvänliga slagdängor (Quorthons ande är allestädes närvarande) som till en början må framstå som primitiva, men som är ruskigt effektiva. Du lär komma ihåg de här låtarna. Och här finns skivans styrka: det enkla vävs samman med det komplexa, och balansen däremellan är perfekt, vilket även kan sägas om produktionen. Tore Stjerna har överträffat sig själv i den anrika Necromorbus-studion. Skivan kunde inte ha låtit annorlunda.
Enkelheten återkommer även i texterna. Det är slagkraftig lyrik, men ganska långt ifrån de komplexa sjoken på de två första skivorna. Även här en återgång alltså, som egentligen började redan på Sworn to the Dark. Jag gissar på en vilja till makt, att hitta urkraftkällorna. Ibland slår det enkla hårdare än det svåra.
Att kalla detta ett mästerverk är dock omöjligt. Det återstår att se om tio år. Men ändå: Waters of Ain. Carl McCoy. Herrejävlar.
Fields of the Nephilim-sångaren medverkar blott med tjugosju ord i detta avslutande stycke, men stämningen – som redan är magisk – höjs ytterligare några snäpp när karln börjar mässa. Just Waters of Ain (jag antar att ordleken ”Wat” och ”Ain” är medveten) blir smältdegeln där allt som byggts upp under resans gång faller på plats. Epik i kubik, men enbart på ett självklart och upphöjande vis, aldrig patetiskt.
Varje spår är värt sin vikt i guld, men d-taktsröjet i Malfeitor och Total Funeral måste framhävas, liksom den mäktiga refrängen i Wolves Curse. Här finns så mycket att ta av att en viss yrsel infinner sig när reptilhjärnan försöker bearbeta materialet, och ändå är det så snyggt sammanhållet – och alltid omisskännligt Watain. Paketeringen, där den hittills relativt okände Zbigniew M. Bielak står för all konst, sluter cirkeln. Total perfektion.
Även om tio år lär jag bocka och buga inför Lawless Darkness. Kanske har jag även då kommit överens med albumtiteln…
