Week Of Evil Day 7: Nekromantix - Trick or Treat

Band:  Nekromantix
Song:  Trick or Treat
Album:  Return Of The Loving Dead (2002)
Genre:  Psychobilly

As has become tradition, I like to resolve on Halloween itself with a little more light hearted music.  Maybe next time I should start the week 1 day earlier so I can still get 7 bands in.  On the other hand, unless I step my game up from the beginning of this year I dunno, haha

But come on now, these guys are hands down the best thing for Halloween I think I could have found.  Rockabilly is generally a good time, and I feel like this nifty death themed band is just the best.  I checked out some songs from across their discography and I haven't found much of a complaint yet honestly, it's a good time.

Happy Halloween all, have a safe day.

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Week Of Evil Day 6: Marduk - Frontschwein

Band:  Marduk
Song:  Frontschwein
Album:  Frontschwein (2015)
Genre:  Black Metal

Honestly, I wasn't super sure how I was gonna beat the lineup from last year's week, but I think we've managed to equal the quality of bands once again this time around.

Cause really, what's more evil than a band that sings about not only Satan, but nazis too?

Meet Marduk.  A little trivia on them, Marduk is the name of an ancient Babylonian god, associated with water, vegetation, judgement, and magic.  Mythologically, it seems like Marduk wasn't a very nice person.

The band are, unsurprisingly, also not nice people, actually setting out to be "the most blasphemous band in the world" according to founding member Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson.  With heavily anti religious themes to their music in addition to the traditional satanic swing most Black Metal bands fall on, we get a little something special with Marduk.  That something special is support of the Third Reich.

I suppose you could kinda look at it from the light of Slayer's Angel Of Death in which it's a tale of horrific things but it doesn't endorse it, but that'd be inaccurate in this case.  Various members of the band are annoyed about the Nazi allegations, but the founder of the band has also said that he's proud his grandfather served in the German military in WWII.  It's little things here and there that just open up a lot of what they say to some scrutiny.  Check out this interview if you're interested in digging a little more into the mind of Morgan.  It's a good read, but outside of him saying things about being annoyed about being associated with racism and such, not straight up disavowing connection.

But the main takeaway from the interview you should get is their devoutness to the Black Metal scene.

Morgan has a lot of thoughts about bands who call themselves Black Metal but don't deal directly with Satan and anti-religious themes.  "It should be, otherwise it isn’t black metal. For me it’s strange to see all these bands that say that “Oh, we are kind of black metal” just because they sound in a specific way or have a specific type of vocals while singing about dragons or whatever; for me that is not black metal. I don’t judge it, I just don’t care about it, it’s not part of my scene."  Metal Blast Article By J Salmeron - July 15, 2013

As you can see, Morgan really couldn't care less about the vocal style, music style, or anything like that, as long as they deal with Satanism as a whole.  He's fine with direct or philosophical connection, it just has to be there.  Somewhere in that interview he even mentions that even lighter Psychedelic Rock stuff can be Black Metal associated as long as it has the central theme.

Fascination with dark points of history or not, these are some nasty people.  They do make a heavy commitment to quality music, insane amounts of energy, and staying true to their message.  Kinda like Watain last year actually.  So yeah, here's Watain's equal in my mind, have fun with it.

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Week Of Evil Day 5: Behemoth - Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer

Band:  Behemoth
Song:  Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer
Album:  The Satanist (2014)
Genre:  Blackened Death Metal

Honestly, I love quotable people who commit to their art.  If the frontman of Behemoth, Nergal, is anything, he is quotable.  Other than getting me in some trouble with people who need to mind their own business, the man has done a pile of interesting things.  Unlike Watain who actually spray pigs blood on people as their shows go on, Behemoth takes a more artistic step.

Full costume is one thing they manage to do well.  While corpse paint is a very traditional move in the Black Metal community, other things are not so much.  Robes, face paint, and stage names?  Good deal Behemoth.

Then there's the stage show.  While they may not have crucified people on stage like Gorgoroth, and they don't douse the crowd with blood, they have ripped up a bible on stage while on stage in Poland while calling the catholic church "The most murderous cult on the planet".  So yeah, not too cool, eh?

Firstly, I wanna point out that this is a free speech thing.  I feel it was in poor taste, but I don't feel it should have hit courts like it did.  That's just me though, feel free to hold your own opinion.

But yeah, that's the tip of the iceberg for our good buddy Nergal.  Outside of saying things like "Satan is the only important thing in my life (paraphrased)" and other such things, he's actually a cancer survivor as well.  You know how some people get cured from some horrific disease and they find faith or something?  Well Nergal doesn't seem to feel that way.

"Satanism is about life and liberation and love for freedom. I have Satan in me, flowing through my veins and through my music." - Nergal

Enough of me making assumptions about people's personal life, let's stick to the music.

Behemoth started out as a heavily pagan metal band.  That was their thing, and honestly I don't really care for the sound of their old music.  Thing is though, they switched over to a satanic theme and I can't be sure that they didn't switch it up because of money.  Satan is huge in Metal, not so much general paganism.

I dunno, maybe I'm off there too.  Regardless, they talk a good game, so I hope you dig the song.  The title is Latin for "Pray For Us Lucifer", cause everything is more evil if you say it in Latin.

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Week Of Evil Day 4: Dark Funeral - Unchain My Soul

Band:  Dark Funeral
Song:  Unchain My Soul
Album:  Where Shadows Forever Reign (2016)
Genre:  Black Metal

Well first off, can we appreciate how solid the intro to this song is?  It's a really good combination of a rather classic sounding Black Metal riff, while simultaneously being rather modern.  It's why I chose this song honestly, to show that these guys (though massive lineup changes) have kept a very nice fresh and traditional sound.

With lyrics leaning heavily on Satanism, Anti-Christianity, Death, and Armageddon, it should be easy enough to see why Dark Funeral landed this list.

Actually the original reason they hit this list is cause I confused them with Darkthrone, who I'm more aware of.  My bad.

With such cheery songs as "Nail Them To The Cross" and a mountain of Latin in their album titles, one can only assume that Dark Funeral must be the Real Deal™.  To be totally honest though, I'm not sure.  It seems so over the top I feel like I can't be sure where they actually stand.  They're plenty dark for sure though, and really that's what counts.  The message of their music is far from positive, and while I'm a person who loves dark art, it's not like I can't admit that these dudes are a little...  Off.

Lord Ahriman (guitarist) on Satanism - “I've always been drawn to the dark side of nature”.

I dunno, ya feel me?  Dark stuff.  Love the visuals in the video though, those are straight fantastic.

I dig it, I'll probably listen to these guys a little bit after this if we're being honest.

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Week Of Evil Day 3: Bathory - Hades

Band:  Bathory
Song:  Hades
Album:  Bathory (1984)
Genre:  Black Metal

It's really a travesty that, with how this is mostly a Black Metal highlight event, that I haven't touched some of the founders of Black Metal, Bathory.

I'm honestly not as versed in the history of Bathory as I really wish I was, cause they were immensely influential in a style of music that I've recently been getting into a little bit.

As you'll hear in the song (if you choose to listen), these guys had a level of aggression that really wasn't nearly as common in the 80s as it is now.  In fact, with some basic research the main acts that were doing stuff before Bathory were Motörhead, Venom, Black Sabbath, and some others.  Also if memory serves, Bathory credits Motörhead with some heavy inspiration in their early sound formation.  Venom did this as well, so if you're a fan of that vein of Black Metal you need to do yourself a favor and actually check out Motörhead's work.  At least the early stuff.

But anyway, Bathory, as one of the founders essentially of the modern Black Metal sound, they deserve a wee bit of respect.

As I'm sure you can see from the attached image, Bathory started out with a lot of heavy religious imagery at play.  As time went on, they moved much more in the direction of Viking Metal, but from the get go they filled all the traditional European Metal band boxes.

I had planned on talking to some friends of mine about Bathory since they're a week bit more informed than I am on the group, but unfortunately that fell through on me.  They've got a lot of interesting music stuff going on though, so at least take the time to listen to this song, eh?

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Week Of Evil Day 2: Carpathian Forest - Submit To Satan!!!

Band:  Carpathian Forest
Song:  Submit To Satan!!!
Album:  F*ck You All (2006)
Genre:  Black Metal
Language:  Strong
Bandcamp:  carpathianforest.bandcamp.com

So I mean, I only heard about these guys last year while I was doing that week, but that's totally ok, cause even though I don't really know about them, they still have a really...  Interesting reputation.

Most of what I know about them is that they're really freaking angry.  I mean, look at the album title here, that gives you a lot of what you need to know about them.

Lyrically they come across much like a really edgy angry teenager.  The only real reason they rank on the Week is because they have some heavy Satan aesthetic going on.  It's actually like, all they know how to sing about.

I've gotta apologize, this post got a little away from me and now I'm out of time to write more.  Tomorrow will be a cool history lesson in Black Metal though, so that'll totally make up for it.

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Week Of Evil Day 1: Dimmu Borgir - Mourning Palace

Band:  Dimmu Borgir
Song:  Mourning Palace
Album:  Enthrone Darkness (1997)
Genre:  Symphonic Death Metal

Welcome to the best part of the year, the Week of Evil!  Freaking pumped at what I can bring you this time around, so let's just launch right into it, eh?

As usual, we're gonna start out a little on the lighter side, since we need to kinda ease into stuff like this, amirite?

While Dimmu may look scary and some of their album titles look a little rough, on the whole they aren't too terrible.  Their first 2 albums were decent additions to the world of Black Metal, but after that, starting with the album this track is from, they started to lean much more toward the Symphonic Metal field.  That's not a bad thing at all, I actually find a lot of their music to be rather solid symphonic work.  Not too bad really.

But the reason they made this list is, of course, cause they sing about Satan.

The place they seem to sit in though is why I can't take what they're doing seriously.  They're lyrically so overly dramatic it's hard to take it with anything more than a grain of salt.  I seem to remember a friend of mine say he stopped listening to them because one of their songs started out with "Darkness falls, and everyone dies!" as an opening line.  I couldn't find that song, but it's possible he was quoting incorrectly.

As such though, while they have the imagery and everything, I'm going to have to leave Dimmu Borgir as the gatekeeper for the week.  Hope ya like it, tomorrow will come out swinging.

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Interview with Jess Scutella: Deadhorse - Crescendo

Band: Deadhorse
Album: Crescendo
Release Date: August 28th, 2017
Genre: Post Rock, Punk Rock
Rating: 8.5/10
Bandcamp: deadhorse.bandcamp.com

We’re about to kick off the “Week Of Evil” tomorrow, but I didn’t want to slam right into that this year. Instead I want to give us a calm before the storm, and for that I can’t think of a better album that Crescendo by Deadhorse.

See, we’re not just gonna review it though, we’re gonna have an interview with one of the band members. You may or may not remember him as the artist of literally all of my tattoos, the one and only Jess Scutella.


Noah: Jess, how’re you doing today?

Jess: I am feeling creepy. I am feeling long. I am feeling wild and driven, depressed and annoyed. A lot of things on my plate and a lot more to come, but I am doing well. How are you?!

N: Not too bad at all man. So tell us a little about yourself, what do you do?

J: I found it is easiest to just rattle crap off like a grocery list:

• Tattooist at Steadfast Tattoo Parlour 
• Write and author of Reflections from Waterford’s Woods and The Heat of High Noon.
• Touring and studio percussionist
• Comic-con artist and guest
• Philanthropist 
• Actor
• Activist
• Asshat

I just love life and chase it to all ends of the Earth. I know that sounds egotistical, but it is what it is.

N: Nah man, that's the best way to list off what you're up to at this point, and that's a solid mission of sorts as well.  So after we talked a couple weeks ago I finally checked out Deadhorse’s album. Gotta say, it wasn’t really what I was expecting from you with that Punk Rock background you have going on. What’s the inspiration behind Crescendo?

J: Now, to be honest, I didn’t do any of the writing for this album, but this album was meant to be the antithesis to the wall of sound out right now. The calm before the storm...but it is the storm, too. All previous albums were action and movement, loud statements. This one we wanted to be a whisper to a god. Now, I get poetic too easily, but truly the album is a collection of a lot emotions and years of repose. This is our first album in some time, my friend.

Further, we wanted to redefine punk-rock, even post-rock. Listen to the album. It is meant to be listened to loudly.

N: It was super freaking chill, not gonna lie. I was expecting some drums to kick in at some point, but the whole thing was just really floaty. With my prior expectations it made it a borderline tense experience.

J: Honestly, there is rage. There is hurt and confusion. There are upturns and chaos, but you have to listen to it fully. Sometimes, full-bodied albums can miss the target. We wanted something with no ego, just bare bones. When you listen to Satie, Bach, and Beethoven you feel a flurry of emotions, no? Surely, these are the gods of classical, but they were punks, they were revolutionary and wanted change to be heard in their music. We wanted to emulate that, in the smallest form. We believe this was achieved. We believe Crescendo is a punk album. We want you to feel the world change as you listen.

N: One of those times when it’s like, punk in attitude, even if not in conventional style? Love it. So you guys were supposed to tour China for a few months. Actually you were supposed to be gone right now, what ended up happening there?

J: Ah, yes. This was a huge upset for not only us, but our fans and the company we were working with. It was a very convoluted arrangement, but I will try my best to simplify it here. We haven’t toured professionally in nearly 5 years. So the tour offer from China was huge for us. We spent months rewriting songs, prepping a long, live performance, and organizing the tour itself. However, there was communication problems with the manager in China. Be it language barriers or cultural differences, we just couldn’t get the necessary info we needed at the appropriate times. It was frustrating and scary. China is an extremely bureaucratic country, it requires detailed personal information, trackable travel itinerary, and evidence of housing just to visit the place. It was that exact information that we required to get the proper visas and we did not get it in time, sadly.

I say these things while not blaming the manager, but just drawing attention to the fact that tours, especially internationally, can be extremely stressful, difficult, and expensive for both bands and managers.

N: That sucks man, that would have been a fantastic experience. On the plus side though, you guys still have this the full rework you’ve put together, in addition to an emotionally powerful album. As a heads up to anybody interested, you can buy this album on Bandcamp at the link provided in a name your price fashion. It’s worth at least a listen, but please consider supporting local music and buying it.

Jess, you have anything you want to close with?

J: Life is Beautiful. Watch that movie.

Check out and support your damn local scene. Appreciate and love the bands that bring you the music they do. Often times it is the only thing keeping them going in their lives.

Also, be active politically. Vote locally, write to your representatives and realize your dollar is a voting system. Be aware of what you buy.

Lastly, listen to more XTC, Johnny Cash, and Bowie.

N: Thanks man, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me here.

You can find Jess, his tattoos and his ramblings, on instagram as @MrScutella or online at strangeoperators.com. Take some time to treat yourself to his poetry and art, it’s worth your time.

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Lich King - Combat Mosh

Band:  Lich King
Song:  Combat Mosh
Album:  Born Of The Bomb (2014)
Genre:  Thrash Metal, Pizza Thrash
Bandcamp:  music.lichkingmetal.com

Pizza Thrash.  This is a term that refers to Thrash bands that are just...  Not great.  Much like pizza, even a bad pizza is ok.

Now I personally really enjoy these guys.  As somebody who enjoys bad music and humorous stuff these guys just happen to be right up my alley.

Imma be honest, I'm more excited about tomorrow being the last day before the best week of the year.  But Combat Mosh is a fun song, so we'll say that'll tide me over, yeah?

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High On Fire - Fury Whip

Band:  High On Fire
Song:  Fury Whip
Album:  Death Is This Communion (2007)
Genre:  Sludge Metal, Thrash Metal

We're down to the last 3 days y'all and I, as you may expect, am quite excited.  As I've mentioned, this is hands down my favorite set of posts for the year.  I put research into the artists, I care way more about the posts than I should, it's just a grand time.

But that's not the case now, and as such I have put no research into High On Fire.  They turned up in my suggested album list, and that's how I found this song.

It's a solid song though, so I'd say check it out.

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Woods Of Ypres - Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)

Band:  Woods Of Ypres
Song:  Suicide Cargoload (Drag That Weight)
Album:  Woods 4: The Green Album (2009)
Genre:  Doom Metal
Language:  Strong

Woods Of Ypres are a band I really need to take the time to listen to more.  When I posted "Mount Pleasant Cemetery" a rather long while back I remember thinking that is was something I felt I really needed to look into later, but I can't say I did.  Then I was listening to some songs in Spotify's suggested section on my Metal playlist and they surfaced again for me with this song.  My goodness, it's an amazing song.

And the best part is that you get this fun questionable title in the leadup week, so that's a blast.

But for real, these guys are gonna become one of my favorite bands if I'm not careful, so score there.  Take a listen, you might like them too.

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DevilDriver - Clouds Over California

Band:  DevilDriver
Song:  Clouds Over California
Album:  The Last Kind Words (2007)
Genre:  Groove Metal
Language:  Strong

As we count down to the best week of the year, we're gonna hit DevilDriver.

I'd heard these guys cover of Sail and had kinda written them off.  I knew the singer came from Coal Chamber and, while I like a lot of what they have going on, I didn't feel like trawling through DevilDriver simple because of the Sail cover.

Apparently I was wrong though, cause I really love this song a lot.  Maybe I'll take the time to check out more of their stuff, eh?

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Job For A Cowboy - Sun Of Nihility

Band:  Job For A Cowboy
Song:  Sun Of Nihility
Album:  Sun Eater (2014)
Genre:  Death Metal

Hey hey, let's have some fun with this fall down toward the Week of Evil, yeah?  Some good old Job For A Cowboy.

I'll be honest, a lot of what picked this song for me was the title, because nihilism and October and stuff.  But these guys are really nailed the Tech Death aspect of their sound, so it's not like they don't deserve attention.  Even though they were formative of the early Deathcore movement, they've hit their stride with this new era of their music.

Even if you don't like Metal you'll probably enjoy the intro of this song up till about the 1 minute mark, it's all light and clean.

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Slipknot - Wait And Bleed

Band:  Slipknot
Song:  Wait and Bleed
Album:  Slipknot (1999)
Genre:  Nu-Metal

One of my favorite times of the year for this blog is Halloween.  I hate Christmas music, and the aesthetic of fall and horror fits a lot better with my general style and music tastes.

But the thing I'm most excited about it though is that my personal favorite theme I run of the whole year is here.  The Week Of Evil.

The Week Of Evil is where I dredge up some of my favorite bands with nasty reputations or just bands I know of from how they're talked about.  I really enjoy searching through some Black Metal playlists to find stuff that's way off from what I'm familiar with to introduce you to them.

I mean, I know you won't like them, but I like the process, so like, appreciate that and the fun I have.

So yeah, let's ramp up the energy and darkness for the rest of the month, it's gonna be a great time.  Here's Slipknot.

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Die Antwoord - Banana Brain

Band:  Die Antwoord
Song:  Banana Brain
Album:  Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid
Genre:  Rap Rave
Language:  Strong

So first things first, I was on the radio yesterday.  This was honestly one of my life goals, and the fact that I got to do it with two good friends of mine just made it all the better.  Ideally I'll even be able to get in on some more of these.  My friend has her show every monday at 4 and really it's something I feel like I could get used to being a part of, ya know?  She did invite me back, so I plan to take her up on that offer whenever I can manage to.

But yeah, here's some music, eh?

Once again, one of my favorite art acts.  Everything these guys do just is so well performed I don't even know what to say.  Like, this video is a beautiful bad trip going on with all the black lights and stuff, there's nothing I don't like about it.

And musically it's nice and braindead for me to listen to.  These guys make some of my favorite music to keep me active while simultaneously having zero content to it.  It's gorgeous.

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Fractionally Human - Oh, The Places You'll Die

Band:  Fractionally Human
Song:  Oh, The Places You'll Die
Album:  Oh, The Places You'll Die (single, 2017)
Genre:  Grind
Bandcamp:  Fractionally Human

So I really don't like going too deep on this blog, so I figured I'd swing it way back around and post a very special band that I love a lot.

My band.

Fractionally Human is a project of myself and my brother that is intentionally sloppy dumb fun Grind music.  Some tracks are more "grindy" than others and others touch in the Deathcore field, but all in all it's a theme we try to stick with.  I'm vocalist, bassist, and drum programer, and Jeff plays all the guitars and sometimes bass as well, in addition to the higher vocals.

Now while I talked yesterday about paying attention to lyrics in case it's somebody trying to reach out for help, I assure you there is absolutely zero substance to the lyrics of Fractionally Human.  In fact, we intentionally make everything as gibberish as possible.  Example, right now we're working on a couple songs about a walrus with a god complex.

This song though is all from Dr Seuss.  I don't remember what we were going to do initially, but over the course of an afternoon we knocked out this song with only very minor changes to the original text.

For real, I love this noise so much.  It's all fun to make, it burns out in less than 2 minutes on the average, and in my mind even if you hate a style of music that's short enough to listen a little, right?

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Linkin Park - One More Light

Band:  Linkin Park
Song:  On More Light
Album:  One More Light
Genre:  Rock

I've been wanting to touch on this topic for a little while now, and since a lot of people in my newsfeed have been talking about mental health recently I figured now's as good a time as any.

I feel like I touched on people who sing about mad drug usage in the past.  Like back when I last posted Alice In Chains maybe.  Anyway, what I had said then is basically people really have no right to be shocked when somebody dies from drug use when half their music is about how, in the case of Layne Staley, they do heroine and they are depressed.  Not that people who sing about drugs and depression are always consciously asking for help, but there's something about what they're doing that makes them write lyrics about that, right?

Chester Bennington is a victim of the same kind of mentality.

For years he'd been singing progressively more subdued manner.  I mean obviously in interviews he said he was doing better, and I honestly believe that's what he thought too.  I don't think he was lying or anything, but at the same time I think he knew he wasn't as good as he needed to be.  I'm thinking though that he was committed to trying to help people, and that's what makes it rougher.  Songs like One More Light here give the dialogue of him saying he cares about your problems and wants to help you.  Right?  But then same album, you have songs like Heavy that are not only really heavy songs (no pun intended), but also have a really intense video.

This is a guy who was really trying to hold it all together for both his friends, fans, and family, but still gave in.  A man with the entire world to live for, who was tricked by his head into thinking that he had nothing left.  A man committed to bettering his own life and the lives of others and was, by all outward appearances, doing fine.

Stuff like this makes me wonder what I can do to help people cause in their own heads like this.  Like, it's way outside my comfort zone to do literally anything that talks about it, but this is a problem that needs to be addressed more than people just saying "oh, it's all just in your head, you need to get over it."  Things are a lot more open than they used to be with both the internet age making everything much more easy to access, but there's still this stigma about not talking about depression openly because, frankly, it's awkward and uncomfortable.  Depressed people don't want to be judged by friends and family and the average bystander doesn't want to be reminded that 11% of people under the age of 18 and 10% of people 65+ suffer from some sort of depression.

Just think about it from time to time.  Be less of a shit person to retail workers and people who work with and for you.  Don't be a dick in traffic.  Just do some sort of thing to make the world less of a trash place and, if you find somebody who needs help getting out of their head, don't put them down.  Just listen and help.

There, I'm off my high horse for a bit, we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

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