Le cléricalisme, voilà l'ennemi

When do music journalists grow a brain?

2011-11-22T14:46:00.001-08:00

When Hell freezes over. Most of these culture critics and " music journalists" rarely show any quality. Mostly they just defile paper editions and net 'zines with pseudo intellectual ideas, wishful-thinkings and pure garbage of opinions. They have no insight in music (or they choose not to reveal it, which is unreasonable) and they don't contribute to anything in the discursive agenda of musical development, except drawing gullible people into self-exploiting bands with shitty images, which is stupefying the individual.

If you come from Stockholm and play death metal, does that automatically make you sound like Entombed? No. If you come from Norrköping and play black metal, does that automatically make you sound like Marduk? No. If you come from Gothenburg and play melodic death metal, does that automatically make you sound like At The Gates? No. When do journalists grow a brain and realize that many times there is nothing in common between two bands, except their localisation. I wonder how many times hardcore bands from Umeå were compared with Refused, how punk bands from Piteå were compared with Randy, and how many times an experimental rock band from LA were compared with Tool or System Of A Down. It seems very likely that as soon as there's a new scene growing and there's some artists gaining reputation in that scene, the "music journalists" stick to these names and use them as reference out of sheer laziness, stupidity, or both.

The only music mag' worthy of reading in Scandinavia was Slayer Mag, which contributed to a small scene, and fanzines during the 1990s. Nowadays you only have Sweden Rock Magazine, who still have these fat douche bags who interviews and listens to Dokken, Def Leppard and Stratovarious (for fucks sake, can't they just die of bad pyrotech'), and Close-Up, which, to a smaller degree, exhibits the same kind of people (the idiots who listens to prog metal but tries to review something entirely different, or the shallow listeners who always sings the high-praise of their favourites, without a glimpse of self-awareness or broader perspective of the work). These have something tangible to interesting reading, but it's mostly the same questions, the unmoving goals of interviews and the superficial idea behind the business as a whole.

When has crust gigs ever been good?

2011-11-16T16:41:00.000-08:00

I've probably heard over thirty crust albums now and about fifteen crust bands live, and none of them resembled anything like a real band.

On stage, everything seemed like a fucking joke. No serious performance, no band coordination, no craftsmanship whatsoever. In short: nothing even remotely close to professionalism in music. They all suck big hairy balls, music wise, mentally and aesthetically. They're attitude is brain-dead, they're instrumental handling is even worse than a twelve year old (some couldn't even tune their guitars properly). I smelled clams all over the fucking place, not to mention the stench of rotten people. It is a rare thing to meet so many zombies and clueless morons at the same time and at the same place. Imagining diving into a big cesspool of vermin, and there you have a crust festival.

On albums, most of them resembles older hardcorepunk bands from the 1980s and 1990s, but with less craftsmanship than the originals (the old hacks-and-copycats story). Not all of them are utterly pointless though - some even have the personal conviction and seriousness in the music that makes you regard them as a decent or really good band (for example Driller Killer, Doom and Wolfbrigade).

But without those few shining representatives, this scene is useless. The motives of the bands are scattered by their confused, childish and hack performance. Why on earth do you want to play and act like a fucking idiot piece of shit, when you can invest time and effort in creating a musical imprint that is truly personal and demands brains and patience? This looser attitude, this I-want-to-look-and-behave-like-a-fucking-hobo act, is really beyond my comprehension.

Opeth goes retro

2011-10-14T16:40:00.001-07:00

Basically Opeth's new album, Heritage, is a retro album. Mix together the influences of 20 or 30 prog-rock bands from the 1970s, like King Crimson, Yes, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Rush, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Van Der Graaf Generator and a couple of dozen other bands in the same vein, and there you have the Heritage result.

I don't find it bad, nor really interesting. This is a retro album. It's both produced and feels like a mimic of the old progressive/experimental rock sound of the 1970s. If I want prog-rock, with moog, hammond and mellotron, then I can pick up the classics. They're always better than the retro bands out there today.

A big surprise was that Martin Axenrot could play convincingly enough in a prog-rock atmosphere. It doesn't sound like a stiff metal drummer is behind the cymbal front, but someone who has the inspiration and groove for this kind of genre. Especially the aesthetics of jazz and fusion beats slips through the rhythms in a convincing manner. I've found myself respecting Axenrot far more for this contribution than anything else he's done before.

I don't mind change of direction, but I find it sad that they just copy the old ideas of production, arrangements and musicality of Mikael Åkerfeldts old favourites. If I had the chance to play in, let's say Änglagård or Anekdoten, I would try my best to influence the sound to move away from the expected sound of the bands that everyone in this kind of genre listens to. It's one thing to be influenced and adapting a genre in a broader point of view, music wise. But to simply throw away the sound that made your band unique and go back to the roots of your musical upbringing and just copy that musical entity feels a bit too "easy" for my taste. Still, I respect Opeth for changing up, just not their direction.

Bill Hicks had the right idea, he was just too early

2011-09-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

So, amidst the darkness and despair of human devolution I've fully embraced Bill Hicks.
- Man, you're like 20 years behind the rest of us.
I know, and that bugs me, but for those who wait for something good... Some artists, musicians, politicians, philosophers and those in-between the seats of contemporary idiocy with labelling work, have over the years touched some part of me, projecting different understandings of the world we live in and how our actions affects us all. The sceptic in me, however, often hinders my fascination of ideas alien to me, and lets it sink in over a long incubation period. So, it's a rare thing when an individual comes out and wins me over, instantly.

I've tried to maintain a somewhat positive view on humanity, or at least acknowledge that I was ambivalent towards human society. But over the years, when you encounter the douche bags, the idiots and feeble minded turds, who believe they can behave like kings, treat others like slaves, and who always craves the centre of attention, that's when you start to wonder how this kind of human garbage can pollute the media, the production circles and the different platforms for performance, where honest people have to endure the sight of their donkey-headed faces. How can we change the world to something better, when we allow these idiots to ruin it with their short-sighted minds on exposure and personal gain?

I imagine a world without them, without their superficial personalities, their useless "ideas" and their masculine insecurity, and I find myself in the deepest respect of Bill Hicks' sincerity and willpower to address the commercial world in Western society that lobbies for human mediocrity, human shallowness and how he makes no discrimination when he challenges an asshole in the audience.

Now, for some reasons, some feminists have found Hicks' approach to simple-minded idiots to be sexist and abusive. This is bizarre, if not plain stupid. Have they even understood the broader view Hicks introduced during his sets? Or that Hicks' had a calm and loose approach on sex? Not everything is about your fucking body, you self-centered attention idiots.

Thalamus' Mr Avenson reviewed

2011-06-21T03:29:00.000-07:00

What first pops to mind when listening to Thalamus' Mr Avenson is change. Change of time, structure and beat. In short, change of expectations. It keeps your ear twitched, your mind set on awareness. This album you have to really listen to. It's not something you can play on the background while doing your morning sit-ups.

I had the good luck of seeing these guys down in Mönchengladbach almost three years ago, and they were smoking hot at that time. Especially the drummer, Roland Kozubek, performed very well. He's versatile, hard-hitting and into the music on-stage. When it comes to Metal bands, a lot of drummers look like robots, not feeling the music, not letting loose, and the biggest failure is that they hit like pussies. Even on a small stage technicians have to mike their whole kits because they can't play hard enough for that small room. It's pathetic and it destroys the sound. Not Mr Kozubek, no sir. He's fucking hammering on that poor kit on this album.

Imagine you're aboard a commercial vessel going west towards N.Y. and you have to share bunks with Dead Soul Tribe, Mastodon and Tool. Occasionally some passengers stroll by and mistake your bunk as their own, like a well-dressed version of Nirvana and some easterners, resembling Indukti. Even a discreet Metalcore fan shows up and presents himself before he walks away. Other than that, it's just you and your room-mates, which doesn't make much noise but let you do all the talking.

This pretty much surmises my experience of the album: It has a lot of obvious influences, as with truckloads of other bands. Fortunately for Thalamus, they manage an unique way, between the trodden paths of the above mentioned artists. It's rock, progressive in its texture and structure. Sure, they're dabbling with Metal - and punk-influences, but ultimately it's rock they master.

The acoustical production has brought out the dynamics of the drums pretty good. You can clearly hear the nuances and the small chops going on there. Occasionally you can hear that it's fairly processed through compressor and equalizer. Minor tweaks, so to speak, but that doesn't alter the overall experience of this most vital part of a progressive rock ensemble.
The guitars have a somewhat dry, middle frequency based rock sound, which works fine, both into the Metal parts and the softer passages in the songs.
It's like Justin Chamberlain rears its head when I think of the bass sound, not that that's bad thing. And what encapsulates the performance is the vocals. Dave Müller's voice moves from being melodic, smooth and fragile to be harsh and raw, which is what I like about this album, since the whole band sounds way more aggressive than I remember them to be on stage. To be honest, I'm always more keen on brutal music, be it fast, middle, or slow.

This is a progressive music album, hence I am not surprised at the changes of time, beats and arrangement that's typical for progression. My mind keeps measuring the odd beats, doing everything the trained ear is supposed to hear, a 6/4 equals an 8/4 with triplets as the original 8th notes, or how a 13/8 straightens out to a regular 4/4. But what made me listen to it again and again is the groove they manage to create. It's not a stiff showdown with music school kids trying to play their asses off, or twirl around in complicated beats written on a computer. This has soul.
Sometimes they take a bite at the darker levels of music, like the song Oleander, and I come to think off Alice In Chains. But mostly they tend to rely on force, groove and melodic patterns belonging to the West rather than the East, if you catch my drift.

But let's get to the down-side of things: There's many things I hate in this world, Metalcore being one of them. So, one of the things that keeps bugging me on Mr Avenson is some of the Metalcore influenced choruses. Not only because they smell Metalcore, but because they don't have the same vibe as with the rest of the material. They divert too much from the initial feeling of the song. Thalamus never do this kind of musical abortion as blatantly as Slayer did on Reign In Blood or Megadeth on Peace Sells..., they're beyond that pubertal mess-up on arrangements. But the core of the song is sometimes lost, misplaced, and that's what I'm missing. Given that these misplacements is only a small fraction of whole songs, it's a forgiveable mistake though.

Another thing I hate, or should I say strongly dislike, is smooth music. Be it soft, calm or whatnot crappy Indie bands try to play. Now, at first glance, I could've been annoyed by Thalamus' smooth parts of the songs, but they're so well directed and applied in the context that it doesn't bother me. They have a essential slot to fill in the arrangement, and they make the songs complete. Without them there's something missing.

That's basically it, these reflections that comes to mind after a couple of times listening to Mr Avenson.

Hypochondriasis and self diagnosis

2011-06-13T14:33:00.000-07:00

As my Summers' spare time start to shrink down to a week before work comes back with a light tap on my shoulder come next Monday morning, I've started to reflect upon issues that some people around me, and non-relatives have. It is with a mixed feeling of both amusement and sadness I think upon the problems of hypochondria and the need to diagnose one's own health.

I have people close to me that clearly have health anxieties, to various degrees. Usually they're just over-zealous when it comes to staying healthy, plus some of them aren't in their twenties anymore and can take a keg of beer and expect to feel like a king the day after, if you catch my drift. But besides the somewhat normal jitters, heebie jeebies or whatever people call it nowadays - with regular complaints of them having a hoarse voice yet again or showing signs of a cold or something as mundane - they basically live their lives without having to structure everything around health checks or becoming neurotic fruitcakes.

What can be more problematic is the loneliness of your own mind. In your own fantasy you can be a king, an emperor of the world, a villain or just a schmuck with an incredible luck of jumping danger at every turn. This is the egoistic, narcissistic part of yourself that usually rears its ugly head only in the shadows, stay away from the light of society. And if you want to, you can keep it company long enough to develop some really fucked up version of reality, including your own. Cabin fever can do this to you, if you stay in-doors long enough, devoid of other people.

On the other hand, loneliness, in different forms, might work the other way around. It is easy to assume that, given that you have an empathic individual that desperately searches for human companionship, be it sexual, relational or strictly platonic, this person can as easily develop some strange sensation of make-believe connection to other people, or moreover ones own mental health. That would be a deceiving way of dealing with ones own feelings. Robinson Crusoe comes to mind, when you think about it, for who can truly say that fictional literature can't tap the fabrics of truth and wisdom? Also, it is one thing to know the truth, and it's another thing to know what to do with it.

When it comes to psychological issues, the human brain is a complex piece of machinery. You can't simply relocate a wire and hope that'll fix it. The pathology of mental illness can be messed up in more than one way, for example trying to diagnose yourself, without the input of a professional. A soul sickness, as the Good Book calls it, is an imbalance of the four fluids, or so they thought, back in the day. Nowadays it's commonly referred to the social and medical factors of childhood development, genetical inheritance and the general environment of society the subject lives in. A self-diagnose can create many misconceptions, build a wall of disinformation and lead the troubled mind into narrow paths of dubious treatment, or worse, into harms way. One example I noticed a couple of months ago, was this confused person. It was well over six months since I read her blog, but these last days I remembered her when I started to think about hypochondria and peoples need to self-diagnose. I feel sorry for her frustration and urge to certify the symptoms of her problems, mainly because she might not even have a clue what the real cause of her problems are, only that she's not feeling well and don't know what to do about it. In the Swedish rehabilitation system, there's an informal term for people with multiple diagnosis as "double-diagnosis", meaning someone with both drug - and mental problems. An easy example is a drug addict with a depression. Question here is, what came first, the depression or the drugs? Laymen can debate this amongst themselves for countless hours and still don't get any smarter, except that one got a gut feeling about how things are supposed to be done, which doesn't help anyone practically. Therapy, be it cognitive or conversational, can at least narrow down all the bullshit that can cluster up in a monkey-ridden head. To minimize the damage, so to speak, and hopefully change the path of mental progression.

Umeå Kulturnatta with Death Maze, Spazmosity

2011-05-22T04:07:00.000-07:00

Umeå's Kulturnatta has been, from the start, about quantity and variety: have a truck load of bands and artists on stages around the center of Umeå and make it happen all at once.

Unfortunately, there's a big downside to that. The extended opportunities the audience is exposed to is also a limitation. A city-wide performance with a broad selection of artists is a Leviathan on more than two legs, and it barely manages to take one step at a time. The artists, more or less, have to rely on themselves in order to be properly marketed for the shows, and the uneasy fluctuation in the audience at each scene leaves a sour taste. Since all performance is for free, and a lot of times outdoors, it will create a flow of people, moving from one gig to another. But when each scene is not balanced between the artists then the flow becomes asymmetrical. Like when I saw Spazmosity, right after Death Maze. There were like ten people in the crowd, compromising mostly of drunken white trash.

Death Maze performed average. They were decently tight as a group, they had some energy expressed on stage and they were pretty professional in their overall appearance. The major annoyance, or should we say amusement? was the male guitarists constant grimacing. He couldn't keep his yap shut even if his life depended on it. In a funny way, he resembles Chris Barnes when he looks like a screaming monkey. And what was that toy he had instead of a guitar?
Given the circumstances, the rest did an OK job. The female guitarist and bassplayer looked really stiff though. It was as if they didn't know how to relax and enjoy themselves. The drummer had the same approach (or lack of) as many other metal drummers: a big fluctuation in attack, nuance and speed when playing straight forward beats. One could imagine the level of frustration behind the mixing console. But, if they're given the right amount of time and devotion they could develop to become something really awesome.

Something that has had plenty of time and devotion and still hasn't gotten anywhere is Spazmosity. Before I decided to stay and listen to them I've heard some people saying that they sucked hairy balls, bigtime. But when the criticism comes from persons who usually has an act for hating things intensely, I ignored the rumours. Sadly, I lost almost an hour of my life due to that error of judgement. I want that hour back, please. The band itself has commented in an interview that they sound like Naglfar, but they're not tight and they're pretty bad. That really sums up their performance yesterday.
First off: I don't care much for the Naglfar style. It's boring and has been done much better in the past.
Second: Wearing Pinhead alike outfit is not cool. Trust me, it's not.
Third: Like all other metal bands, you need a really good drummer, or at least a decent one who know how to mask his weak performance. It's not like a bassplayer, who can make it easy for himself and stick to the chord tunes and avoid anything "radical" in the metal way of thinking. But when the drum sound is in your face, it's hard to ignore the clumsy fills, the stumbling bass drums and the predictable tempo changes when someone is too tired behind the cymbals.
For the first time I've seen a really bad Swedish black metal band. Usually they're boring, if nothing else, but this was something else for sure.

Stupidity nailed to the floor

2011-05-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the jokes about the stupidity about drummers are true.

Imagine that you in nine times out of ten never get the kind of instrumental rig you want on the stage. Very often you loose the relaxed approach, which should be there naturally. While playing you constantly go through the upcoming bars and the future arrangements in the songs, even though you’ve rehearsed and played them live tons of times. At the same time you also have to watch over the drum kit itself, just to make sure nothing has broken or is out of place due to bad stands or something else you can't control.

This is a typical situation for a live drummer. You didn’t want the crappy stands or the crappy instrumental rigs but you adapt to it, and try to make the best out of it. Any rational and flexible musician realise that. There’s always a limit to how much you’re willing to compromise on the precious rig of your drum kit or what you’re willing to help others with. But you can’t expect to be treated like a prince if you treat people like shit. That’s simple logic.

And of course you’re not a particularly flexible musician if you refuse to move any of your stands before your own show, not even when it’s just one stand that’s easily moved. Given the fact that the stage is very small, and there’s two other bands playing at the gig besides yours, the most practical solution is obvious. All you have to do is to move your fat ass a couple of feet and use those muscles you try to flex in front of a camera. Oh, didn’t I mention that it’s not so smart to also nail the stands of the drum kit to the stage floor, so it’s impossible to move anything?

The grade of stupidity and arrogance is striking, but hey, what can you expect from a fat, bald metal dude with a bad spider tattoo on his sweaty forehead.

Surkukens kommentarer om Nile

2011-04-30T04:21:00.000-07:00

Efter att ha lyssnat på Black Seeds Of Vengeance (2000), In Their Darkened Shrines (2002), Annihiliation of The Wicked (2005), Ithyphallic (2007) och Those Whom The Gods Detest (2009) så kan jag konstatera att Nile är överskattade, givet då att man tar med både Close-Up, Sweden Rocks och enskilda personers lovprisningar av dem under 2000-talet.

Det främsta hindret för att kunna uppskatta Nile är deras urusla produktioner. Jag har ingen som helst förståelse för hur recensenter kan undgå att notera detta. Efter att ha jämfört med att lyssna separat på dessa plattor med hörlurar och sedan stereohögtalare är uppfattningen klar: De har sjabblat bort gitarrljudet och mixningen helt, något som jag finner oförklarligt, med tanke på deras långa repertoar och erfarenhet. Detta ska tydligen vara musiker som vet hur man får en stabil och lyssningsbar mangelplatta, men istället för att leverera får man en produkt som på sin höjd får simulera popcornsknaster eller handelsvapen i en film.

Gitarrerna är nedstämda, muddiga, instängda och diskantrika så det förslår, vilket naturligtvis leder till att man knappt hör vad dem spelar, för 75 % av allt Nile gör är konstant mangel, och då gräver gitarrerna sina egna gravar. Förutom själva gitarrernas ljudbild är det också deras val av stämföring och ackordbyggande som ligger till grund för det extremt grötiga ljudet. När dem spelar så snabbt, så intensivt och flerstämmigt så är det en fördel att vara sparsam med X antal toner per stränginstrument, SÄRSKILT när dem har ett sådant kasst gitarrljud. Istället väljer dem att fläska på på gitarrstämmorna, vilket på vissa låtpartier, när dem kan ha uppemot fyra (!) gitarrstämmor samtidigt, blir knappt hörbart. För ett tränat öra kan man höra nyanserna, färgningarna i ackorden, och då efter en gedigen lyssning, men för Svenne Banan blir detta en ljudmassa som väller över en som den vidriga stanken av surströmming under en hemsk sommarfest. Men kanske det inte spelar någon roll för gemene lyssnare? Kanske de är lyckligt ovetande om detta, och glatt nickar i takt till Lashed To The Slave Stick och Kafir!, fullt ut nöjda med att höra de smattrande trummorna...

... vilket leder till trummornas positionering i mixen: De dominerar ljudbilden, förutom då det är midtempo eller långsammare partier i låtarna, vilket händer sällan. Är det inte mangel/grind så är det bråttomdelar på kaggarna och en högt stämd virvel som upptar lejonparten av ljudbilden på de tre senaste albumen ... man hör i alla fall exakt vad George Kollias spelar på virveln, hihaten och kaggarna, bra! om du vill studera uthållighet i death metal. De tidigare albumen hade en ännu mer grötigare ljudbild, även för trummornas del (!), så där spelade det mindre roll om någon åt upp för stor del av mixen, det gick som på ett ut, då gitarristerna också spelade ganska slarvigt under sina eskapader i komplicerat gitarrspel. För att kunna uppskatta dessa äldre alster blir man tvungen att försöka insupa helheten av musiken som ett odefinierbart utrop av aggression och mörker. Detta passar mig bättre, då själva effekten av okontrollerat kaos blir mer tilltalande, mer som grind/käng, än när Nile, som enligt recensenter ska vara sådana supermusiker (?!), försöker spela "korrekt" och ha en "perfekt ljudbild", vilket dem helt enkelt inte har. Det låter skit på flera sätt, och det finns ingen ursäkt, särskilt när Karl Sanders betygar att dem jobbat hårt på att få en bra slutproduktion på till ex. Those Whom The Gods Detest.

Därefter gäller det de hyllade introduktionerna, som tydligen ska efterskapa genuina egyptiska teman, vilket jag finner irrelevant i helheten. Det är upplevelsen jag är ute efter - aggressionen, frustrationen och mörkret som finns i varje människa, och flyter runt i våran värld med eller utan vår vetskap - och för det ändamålet måste jag som lyssnare uppdatera mina örons erfarenhet emellanåt. Jag kan inte nöja mig med att smälla på Morbid Angels Domination (1995), Cannibal Corpses Gallery Of Suicide (1998) eller Deicides Legion (1992) och vara fullt ut nöjd med att ingenting annat existerar inom samma genre årtionden efter att albumen släppts. Visst, Niles introduktioner fyller helt klart en funktion, men vad händer så fort de slutat? Självklart bunkrar Nile upp för en exercis i långdistansmangel, vilket förtar ett intro enormt. Varför ens ha ett intro om man ändå bara ska grinda på som vanligt? En vän påstår ideligen att början och slutet på en låt är A och O för lyssnarens helhetsupplevelse av musiken, och på ett sätt kan jag hålla med där. På konserter kommer man sällan ihåg mittenpartier eller knasiga sångmelodier som kommer helt oväntat, när musiken har en stark inledning och slut på stycket. Men det är ÖVERGÅNGEN från inledningen/introduktionen över till nästa parti som blir avgörande för hur pass väl man utvecklat sin helhetsuppfattning om ackompanjemang och stämföring. De flesta death metalband som finns/funnits ute på scenerna reagerar nästan alltid likadant på vad som ska komma efter ett intro: sinnesslött mangel! Det är som Slayers Reign In Blood (1986) all over again. Reign In Blood är en bra platta, men många gånger irriteras jag av deras slappa hantering av låtarnas inledningar - de bygger aldrig vidare på den initiala känslan av introt, utan går mekaniskt över till snabb tvåtakt, vilket är fantasilöst. De hade kunnat göra så mycket mer med ett intro än enbart ha det som ett "nu-ska-vi-ha-ett-koolt-skräckfilmsinspirerat-intro" och sen kasta bort den inneboende kraften och dynamiken som introt kan ha och vad den kan betyda för resten av en låt.

Några ljuspunkter finns det ändå i Niles repertoar: Ovannämnda Lashed To The Slave Stick, Kafir!, titelspåret Those Whom The Gods Detest och Even The Gods Must Die är riktigt bra stycken från de tre senaste albumen. Jag förvånades faktiskt av att Those Whom The Gods Detest och Even The Gods Must Die fakiskt byggde vidare på låtarnas inledande känsla och utvecklade styckerna utifrån det. Väldigt sällsynt för att vara ett death metalband!

Men jag har svårt att förbise den kollektiva dövhet som måste hemsöka svenska metalrecensenter när det gäller Niles produktioner. Inte heller förstår jag varför samma recensenter påstår att Nile är nyskapande. På vilket sätt då? Deras användning av ideliga Mellanösternteman, sporadiskt olycksbådande och mullrande doomflörtar, eller intensivt, komplicerat mangel är inget genuint inom death metal. Hur många gånger har man inte hört ett dussinband radda upp frygiska eller harmoniska skalor med dominanten i basen i riff efter riff och höra hur folk förundras över deras val av tonmönster? Och tittar man på hur de hanterar basens ansvar i stämföringen så är det ingenting annat vad alla andra metalband nästan alltid brukar göra: sätta basisten på det enformiga jobbet med att fylla ut riffen med att spela bastonerna i riffen. Folk är i regel lika obildade och döva som guldfisken i sin lilla glasvärld.

När en recension saknar värde

2011-04-07T05:01:00.000-07:00

När blir en albumrecension värdelös? När den inte ger en rättvis skildring av musiken, inte lyfter fram recensentens utgångspunkt och har ingen konstruktiv kritik att tillföra.

Exempel på en sån recension är Mikael Mjörnbergs bedömning av Andromedas II = I. Läser man texten rakt av så får man en väldigt skev bild av vad musiken handlar om, och tänker man efter så speglar själva framförandet mer dennes musiksmak.

Mina tidigaste musikminnen är när brorsan någon gång under hemska 80-talet spisade Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning och Master Of Puppets. Därefter inköptes en respektabel mängd vinyler och CD:s med akter från alla metalscener, med fokus på death och black, och i tredje hand, trash, punk och grind. Heavy metal var aldrig riktigt min grej. På sin höjd kan jag sträcka mig till att erkänna Iron Maidens storhet, men längre än så går jag nog inte. Jag har aldrig fastnat för power metal, pudel, glam eller AOR-band. Dokken, Poison, Great White, Warrant, Winger, Vixen är bland det värsta jag tänkas utsätta mina öron för. Manowar har sina stunder, men i regel tycker jag det är musik för neandertalare, framfört av neandertalare. En höjdpunkt var nog när Mayhem lirade på Fryshuset 2002, At The Gates spelning på Ungdomens Hus 1994, och Entombeds spelning på samma ställe 1993.

Efter allt vältrande i extrem metal växer man ur sig fascinationen och börjar utforska andra musikstilar, som 70-tals hårdrock/rock, doom, hardcore, experimentell/progressiv rock, jazz, fusion, funk, Motown och i slutändan progressiv metal. Band som Dream Theater, Symphony X, Pain Of Salvation och Trent Gardners olika projekt har nog varit limmet som bundit fast mig till denna sistnämnda genre, för annars har jag ratat det mesta som kommit min väg, som Shadow Gallery, Pagans Mind och Arjen Lucassens flertaliga band.

Märk väl: Vi pratar om progressiv metal, och ingenting annat. När Mjörnberg menar att "Andromeda spelar en extremt proggig variant av pudelmetal någonstans i gränslandet mellan de två genres som brukar kallas power och heavy" så är det alltså en form av pudelmetal? Vad är det?
När han sen i nästa meningar anser att det är för mycket solon så avslöjar han sin okunnighet: "Skalorna haglar åt alla håll och det handlar inte om futtiga solon, utan snarare hela låtar som byggs på onani." Han har alltså inte lyssnat igenom plattan.
När han slutligen försöker sammanfatta sin recension med att Andromeda "söker uppskattning mer på grund av sin tekniska skicklighet än för musiken" förstör han än mer för sig. Att det är tekniskt är en självklarhet, det är en väsentlig del av vad som definierar progressiv metal! Tyvärr, kan jag tillägga, för progressiv för mig borde mena någonting som hela tiden utvecklas, någonting som har en experimentell ådra. Men... progressiv metal har idag utvecklats till att sammanfatta metal som inkorporerar flera olika musikstilar, arbetar mycket med speltekniker, jobbar med långa arrangemang och har sina rötter i heavy metal, power metal och symfonisk rock.

Jag kan tycka att II = I är alltför lågmäld och långrandig mot slutet av plattan. Jag är ute efter energi och oväntade vändningar i progressiv metal, så One In My Head och This Fragile Surface är rena sömnpillret för mig. Och ibland kan jag tycka att David Frembergs sång är alltför len i sammanhanget. Jag hade föredragit lite mera svärta på vissa ställen, som Parasite. Men då är jag också av den meningen att råhet och tyngd är nästan alltid bättre än smöriga balladpartier. Annars tycker jag att Thomas Lejons truminsats är exemplarisk. Jag har nog aldrig hört en metaltrummis spela så innovativt. Det sprutar uppfinningsrikedom från den karlen.

Slutsats: Lyssnar man inte på genren är man fel person att recensera en Andromedaplatta.
Ska man göra en recension bör man lyfta fram någonting som rättvist beskriver själva musikens innehåll. Har man inte den kunskapen eller en tillräcklig god vokabulär bör man undvika att kritisera något som man inte förstår sig på och, framförallt, inte gillar.
Har man inte lyssnat igenom plattan ska man poängtera det klart och tydligt, för att inte missleda läsaren, såsom Mjörnberg uppenbarligen gör. Är man för lat för att orka sig igenom materialet har man förverkat sin rätt att fälla summariska omdömen.
Med andra ord, är man inte insatt i genren och har knappt lyssnat på plattan, men ger sig fan på att såga den ändå, håll då mun.

När en dialog blir en monolog

2011-03-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

Vad man kan fastslå på rak arm, efter att ha dragits ofrivilligt in i en diskussion med passion och bias som alarmerande förtecken, är att det är omöjligt att bearbeta eller ens undvika diskussionen ifråga utan att få en verbal knogmacka på sig. Givet då att man invänder mot motpartens mest basiska påstående, vilket presenteras nedan.

Frågan om Jerusalems framtid togs fram, fråga mig inte hur, någon gång under kvällen för en annars fryntlig tillställning. En person började ställa mig mot väggen vad jag skulle göra om jag hade det politiska rodret i Israel, och som vanligt sa jag att en rättvis tudelning av staden och full access för alla samfund och rörelser till de religiösa monumenten är det logiska valet. Allting utifrån min förståelse av dilemmat och vad kompromissernas föränderliga regler påstås innehålla eller icke innehålla. Som motsvar får jag frågan:

1. Är du israel?
2. Är du jude?
3. Har du varit i Israel?

Eftersom jag svarade nej på samtliga fick jag, efter en dos av sludder och irrande blick, klart för mig att jag skulle enbart hålla käft och istället lyssna på denne mästare av Sanningen och Lösningen. Summa summarum: Vilket idiot till människa. Jag tror hon är en lovande kandidat till 10-toppen av de största arslen jag stött på i min lilla existens. En riktig bubblare med andra ord.

Det är sällan man stöter på en sådan grad av arrogans, nedlåtande ton och ignorans att man först blir helt ställd av personens resonemangsförmåga och kommunicerande möjligheter, att man i slutändan lämnar platsen och undrar: vad hände egentligen, missade jag någonting eller var det bara ännu en i raden av helt irrelevanta diskussioner i världen?
Ett tillägg: en diskussion brukar oftast innefatta en dialog, och i det här fallet var det mer som att jag skulle lyssna, och den andra skulle bemästra omgivning, inräknat mig såklart. Jag tror jag hittar en motsvarande grad av bekräftelsebehov i mina tonår, när en jämnårig gjorde vad som helst för bli coola killen men bemöttes mer med förakt.

Moloken's European tour 2009 II

2009-12-18T03:02:00.000-08:00

Part II of the tour diary, 22 October - 31 October:

Seventh day and fifth gig: 23 October, Kaktus Rockbar, Mönchengladbach, Germany

Germany certainly has some funny characteristics in urban planning (or lack of it). For example, in Mönchengladbach, a four star hotel placed alongside family flats with the red light district just fifty meters away on the same street.

Another example: something like twenty to thirty pubs and discothèques on a small cobblestone street no bigger than two hundred meters long. The only thing you could do on that street was, simply put it, drink and have fun. And people were packing the place during the entire nights up till sunrise.

Since we arrived at Mönchengladbach pretty late the 22 October we searched for a hostel, but had to settle with a hotel when nothing else was still open in the vicinity. This was supposed to be a four star hotel, and off-course some of us doubted that, but we loosened up as soon as we saw chocolate bars on the bed pillows and entered their sauna with the exquisite tastes from Belgian breweries. Yes sir, we sure lived like kings on this tour, and why shouldn’t we? We fucking kick ass and deserves only the best of the best. Period.

Another thing that struck us is that German clubs and discothèques are open until the owner wants to close it, unlike in Sweden where you have to close at 1 o’clock on a working day, and 2 or 3 o’clock for Fridays and Saturdays, given that the club have a special permit. In Mönchengladbach the places could close at 5 o’clock or even later than that, as long as the place had customers or the owner wanted it open. This proved to be a bit of a trial, especially when you’ve dedicated tons of energy on a gig, the sleeping quarters (which was inside the club) are covered in cigarette smoke, you’ve been active for over twenty hours and barely have anything in your stomach, besides some of the local liquid pleasures.

Besides this we had a wonderful time there, our gig was really good, the owner was a generous and cool character, the audience was very positive, plus that we got the chance to see a really cool band from Germany, Thalamus, and hang out some afterwards. Also we met this dubious guy, who insisted that a mere glance at you is a reason for a fight, which should require one knockdown and five stomps on their face, just to be sure they’re really downed. With this destructive principle he’d broken his both arms at least twice, and was a regular guest at the police station. As a peak of the moment he left us with the words “But I don’t wanna fight, and I have to leave you now, to pick up my younger brother, who always gets too drunk”. I wonder what kind of brother he is.

Eight day and sixth gig: 24 October, Poetic Doomsday II, FZN, Wilhelmshaven, Germany
The next day when we were about to leave the club through the backdoor we met this old fellow who looked like a mixture of a hippie and a hobo (maybe he was both) who insisted we should scram immediately, ‘cause we were trespassing his property. As we couldn’t understand where his property was or why we should run off when we hadn’t done anything wrong we looked stupefied back at him and mentioned the club owner’s name, which was met with silence.

According to the locals, Mönchengladbach had some huge soccer game that evening, which was why we wanted to leave the city before all the fan buses for the game would clout the roads and five thousands cops would litter the streets. Luckily we got out of the city before all this started getting messy.

At first we thought that the GPS might be wrong (again) or that we’d missed some road into Wilhelmshaven, ‘cause we got into this really small neighbourhood and everything looked so hi-we-live-on-the-countryside. We just didn’t know that this actually was a part of the town itself, since it was in the outskirts and all you could see was villas and big houses with lawns. The “venue” was some kind of recreational house for kids, and the “arranger” of the festival was some kind of school consultant in his mid thirties who just wanted the kids to have some fun.

Now, if you arrange a festival, make sure you have a sound technician that actually knows what he’s doing. If he doesn’t, or if he doesn’t care, do it yourself. Because a couple of minutes before it was our turn to play we’d putted our stuff on stage and powered the amplifiers on standby mode, but suddenly two of the amps lost their power. When we alerted this problem to the sound technician he just nodded and walked up to the amps and gave it a glance before he left the place (where the fuck was he going?). Right… The power for these two amps were directed to a portable power box, so we switched the power cables to another input in the box and turned the amps on standby once more. Like a minute before we were supposed to play the amps lost power once again, and we asked around for the sound moron, and this time we found him outside the place, sipping some drink and smoking with his chick, which seemed half of his age. We told him about the problem, and for the first time he actually did something, well at least he tried to do something, which was doing the very same thing we’d already done, which we explained to him, although I doubt he understood a word of it. In the end we started playing anyway – and wouldn’t you know – the amps died like three minutes in the first song. We restarted the song after the amps were on standby for some time, and then amps died again. Ha! This time Kristoffer saw the problem clear: the sound guy had directed a lot of the electricity (monitors, amps and speakers) through a single power circuit with the portable power box, and off-course that’s way too much for a single input to handle. After this funny discovery we managed to do the whole gig without any more incident and the kids loved us. I actually got to sign my first drum sticks, haha!

After our performance we longed to see Nailed To Obscurity, which we’d we hooked up with on Myspace, and some passages in their songs brought back memories of old Swedish death bands like Katatonia and Opeth but also the old British band Anathema. Sweet!

When it comes to drinking, Swedes have had a reputation for consuming alcohol in a gluttonous way, to the point where they even don’t remember their name and defile themselves all over the place. Now, we wouldn’t consider ourselves as one of these stereotypes, but if you put up a truckload of beer and drinks, the chances of falling down into a Neanderthal-mentality isn’t that far fetched. And this was indeed the risk when the guys in Nailed To Obscurity invited us to a local nightclub in Esens, not far from the place were one of NTO:s guitarists, Jan-Ole, had his parent’s house and their Bed and Breakfast (which is where we slept). On the outside it looked like a normal pub, except it was called Whiskey. Just the mere name gave us a warning clock, and the first thing I noticed when I entered the place was an older guy with two pints in each hand, exceedingly drunk, shouting hoarsely to some German pop tune with an equally old and drunk lady doing a jitterbug beside him. And since there was some kind of special price for the evening (buy anything and you’ll get two for the price of one), plates after plates with Jim Beam & Coke and beer kept coming. Amazingly no one got shit-faced, and we slept like babies.

Eight day: 25 October, Esens, Germany

Seeing the Atlantic Ocean, with its calm and silent waters beneath a dusky sky and herds of sheep’s sitting and shitting on the grassy hills besides the clam-covered shore, gives you a sense of surrealism. Like H.P. Lovecraft meets cheap entertainment, or maybe I’m just talking out of my ass.

Anyway, this was another day off, and we took our time exploring rural commodities, sightseeing and frowned at all the dubbed series and movies on German TV.

Ninth day and seventh gig: 26 October, Rote Flora, Hamburg, Germany

A few misconception of squats may be that A) there’s no organisation going on (as a non-party political statement), B) the place looks like it’s gonna fall apart at any time and C) there’s a strict approach to what kind of band may play there. Once again I found my prejudices burned like a slug in the sun. For starters, these people really were good at what they did, and they were serious about it. Not like tight-ass serious but rather confident albeit serious. Secondly, the place had fallen into decline, no question about it, but it wasn’t creepy. It hadn’t gone to the point where you’d avoid sleeping on a couch in risk of getting rat food. Third, the venue didn’t have the unitary looks and attitude you’d might expect. All kinds of bands played there, and nothing seemed taboo. Great place and great people.

The only depressing thing that day was when we drove into the Hamburg area and saw see these huge factory complexes, refineries and old concrete buildings with their facades covered with smog along the highway. Pretty dismal things, reminding me of an old trip I once did in Estonia and Russia.

Since a lot of people smoked pot at the venue (which was kind of irritating since none of us smoke anything), there was a thick haze covering the higher space of the scene. We all got high on passive smoking when we were supposed to play, fortunately without any incidents and everyone seemed to enjoy us highly, although some sat in the corner with their bumps and blood-red eyes. Later on we got to the arrangers apartment and listened to old death vinyls. All in all it was a good gig, excellent people working there, and a good experience.

Tenth day and eight gig: 27 October, Meisenfrei, Bremen, Germany

Another prejudice you might have is the German discipline, alongside the long tradition of civic respect for authorities and a sense of order. German discipline means you come six pm sharp and not a minute too late; you do exactly what the boss tells you to do, even if it seems utterly stupid or unnecessary complicated and so forth. You get the general idea. So far I haven’t seen a single one with real German discipline, except the sound technician at the Meisenfrei club. Everything had to be done his way, a very methodological and precise walkthrough of the sound with nothing left to coincidence. Besides that he really was an effective professional, although our low humour gratefully took advantage of his job mentality.

Another thing that you might expect is that when you’re playing in front of people sitting down at chairs, like a jazzy house band at a club venue, is that the performance’s supposed to be strictly formal and sterile, no improvisations allowed and between the songs there’s the compulsory dry hand-claps by people in tuxedos and Cabernet Sauvignon in their 20 Euro glasses. Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, again, but you get the picture. Again this was not the case. The crowd were cheering us as if we were a revelation of some sort. We had an excellent gig and afterwards we got the chance to see the infamous crab-pose, which everyone seemed to know about, except me. Now that I’ve seen it up-close, I admit it do resembles crabs crouching threatening with their short legs astride. Just before we left Bremen that night we were able to participate in a local ball game, which took us one beer each and a smashed apple to fully enjoy. We drove half of the night through Germany and Denmark back to Malmö, Sweden, before we crashed in a friend’s flat.

Eleventh day: 28 October, Malmö, Sweden

This was another day off, and we took upon ourselves the civic duty of investigating the local cuisine, such as Falafel. The vegetables were rough but the gooey sauce was intoxicating to the brink of madness. Sadly I forgot to glutton on the Lebanese baklava I found downtown last year. We also had to bid Mr John Palm farewell, since our deal was to have him start driving us from Malmö, on the way to Europe, and end when we came back to Malmö. The next day it felt as if we were missing someone in the bus.

Twelfth day and ninth gig: 29 October, Café Mic, Vänersborg, Sweden

When it comes to playing on a stage far from home, there are some things you generally take for granted. First, if you ask the local arranger if the crowd is sympathetic to outside bands, then he/she will most definitely say yes. Now, if you ask the bands playing there if the crowd will leave as soon as the local heroes walk off stage, then they will surely say yes. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it’s safer to trust the local bands rather than the arrangers, something we didn’t considered this time.

Secondly, there are some things you also take for granted when interacting with other bands. Good manners are one. For some this isn’t so important, for example those who borrow several cymbals, hi-hats and pedals on a gig without a simple thank you, not even when you take their snare drum and tune it after being asked to do so five minutes before they go on stage. Ungrateful douchebag are just a few of the vocabulary alternatives I’d choose, but let’s leave it there.

Off course the PA had to die when the second band, Hope Over Fear (awesome band), got up on stage. But besides this annoying incidents, and the fact that the arranger hadn’t put up any posters about the gig (what did you expect?), we got a warm greeting from the crowd that were there, and the show went pretty well.

Thirteenth day and tenth gig: 30 October, Underjorden, Göteborg, Sweden

This was the day we’ve all been looking forward to. It seemed that many people would be going to the gig, and the feeling was that this would turn out to be a really great show, even better than Bremen or Hamburg. We had our deadline to reach the venue, Underjorden, and we barely made it in time (although there wasn’t like a fire to put out, but hey).

If there something really annoying when it comes to big cities, then it’s those that lack urban planning. I bet if you look at the road system in Göteborg from a satellite photo you’d think it was a huge fucking pit of worms crawling over a city, because that’s how it felt like when we tried to find that little exit to the venue on the highway. But the roads were intersecting each other all over the place and off course the GPS went nuts over every little turn and zigzag. Luckily we found the exit, like the fourth time we turned around on the highway and got to the venue and rigged up our gear.

If you look at an old theatre venue you’d think: this is too big for this crowd, they’ll be spread out. But somehow the whole place was nicely filled and when we got up on stage and did our thing it was magic. One of our best gigs ever took place here and the response was totally awesome. We’ve never had this good performance so far, maybe in Trondheim last year, but that gig wasn’t even close to this crowd’s reaction.

Afterwards we mingled around and met interesting people. One person, a subject of the special substance usually found in places like Christiania or Amsterdam, seemed to be in a state of crisis and needed explanation why everyone was alive. Ultimately this strange exhibitionist found his nihilistic superior and imploded in an outburst of what seemed like rapture and began speaking in tongues, which was when we left him to his own devices and evacuated the premises.

The day after we began the long way home to the northern regions of the brake tracks in the britches called Sweden. It was depressing going back to the routines of ordinary life, but hey, that makes the return to the roads much more fun!

Moloken's European tour 2009

2009-12-18T02:59:00.000-08:00

Here is the tour dairy of our European tour october 17 to 21:th October (part I):

First day and gig: 17 October, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Söderhanm, Sweden

On the late evening we embarked on a smooth and relaxing trip southwards. Before we left Umeå there was the typical matter of packing everything smart, since we brought all of our gear, except the PA-speakers. Luckily we didn’t have to resolve to Tetris.

After hours in the van exploiting toilet humour and bizarre remarks about trivial matters, we arrived at Söderhamn, our first venue, and started unloading all of our equipment on stage, and asked the club where the sound technician was. As it turned out, there was no technician around and no one there had a clue about sound engineering (!), which is why Kristoffer took upon himself to do two jobs at a time: live engineering and playing. Luckily he didn’t have to grow four arms or mutate into Mr Fantastic to manage this task, since it was a small stage and we could place everything as if we we’re rehearsing. We did a good gig, had great live sound, the food the club served was awesome, and not only the drunkards in the front of the stage were enjoying themselves. And as it turned out, our sleeping quarters were two rooms in the hotel above the club. Sweet!

Second day and gig: 18 October, Oden, Karlskrona, Sweden

We woke around 8 o’clock, loaded all our stuff in the van and drove off towards Karlskrona, 800 km south of Söderhamn.

After we’ve been driving several hours on the E4 motorway along the east coast and through the Stockholm area we began to think that we would be at our designation in no time. Sadly, when we got through Linköping we only found smaller roads towards Karlskrona, going zigzags through places no one’s ever heard of. It took us over two hours of long monologues why Gehenna’s last three albums is the crème de la crème, cursing, and human errors regarding the GPS due to above mentioned factors, plus low sugar level, to reach the venue, Oden, in Karlskrona.

The people at the venue were very friendly, efficient and knew what they were doing, plus they made a tasty vegan soup, although some of them looked like they had woken up in a dumpster. After the first band had done their show (a surprisingly good crust band by the way, given that I normally never listen to crust) we got up on stage and delivered an awesome gig. Even our bed benefactor for the evening, who has a keen (or shall I say picky) eye (and ear) for musical errors, couldn’t find anything special to complain about. The last band was a hardcore band, Trophies, and they delivered some pretty good tunes that night. That night we ate Brie cheese and tasted some exotic, dark beer from a small brewery in the US before we went to sleep in a cosy house in Malmö. Sounds like luxury, doesn’t it?

Third day and gig: 19 October, Martha, Kiel, Germany

With our bellies filled with sandwiches, yoghurt and off-course the compulsory morning coffee (well, at least I’m obliged to do so, everyone else is into that whole oh-we’re-so-aware-of-what-we-eat-thing, except when they stuff themselves with candy), we headed south towards our home country’s old enemy, Denmark. Apart from my weak mimics of the Danish language and the usual jokes about Danes, nothing special occurred. We drove through Denmark within an hour or so – it went so fucking fast that we barely saw anything of the country.

On the autobahn, all we saw was the road, landmarks, fields after fields with barley and wheat, and occasionally the outskirts of some small town or shithole. It was a bit dismal. It took us about two hours to reach Kiel.

When you’re going to a place, and have sent advertising stuff to the arranger, like the whole layout for a poster, you could assume they just print it and place it on boards, right? Wrong. Many times, you can be sure these so-called “arrangers” haven’t done jackshit to let the people know you’re coming to town. No posters, no advertisers in magazines, no nothing…fucking hacks. Not this time though, no sir. Whoever put up all these posters for the gig did a helluva job, as the streets were littered with them all over Kiel.

Although we had a somewhat hazy conception on how we’re supposed to get to the venue we reached the place after a phone call with the mysterious arranger for the evening gig, whom we only have had a brief contact through e-mail before. For all we knew he could actually be a she. We parked our car outside the designated street number, but something was very wrong with this picture. There we stood, with our parked van right in front of an old car shop, at the end of a small street intersecting a bigger one. Neighbouring the car shop stood some poor remains of what seemed to have been old work shops and garages with gates nearly falling down from its hinges, and all the buildings in the vicinity had lost their paint a long time ago. Seemed like a nice place, right? In like five minutes the enigmatic arranger arrived. He had all the visual qualities resembling an old biker, but he was a really nice guy.

Now, this isn’t a joke, but the venue was actually below the car shop, and you could enter the club by walking down a ramp inside the car shop! That was the most bizarre thing I’ve ever come across. Imagine playing in like a bomb-shelter below a car shop. We became most anxious to see if this club would live up to our growing fantasies about a REAL underground gig.

Some confusion arose however when the badass-look-alike arranger informed us that the venue was being cancelled due to some sketchy reasons, and by that time all the bands had already arrived at the car shop. He promised us however to try and arrange something else the very same night. Yeah right! So we waited and hanged out with the other bands at the spot, among them the dudes from Geisha for a half-hour or so before Mr. Arranger phoned us that he’d gotten us and Geisha another gig. If it were in Sweden, getting us inside another venue the same date would never have happened for sure, so we were very grateful for that turn of events.

Thanks to a lying and confused GPS we drove wrong for some time and had started asking the locals before we reached the right club, and since this venue looked nice, was above ground and didn’t have somewhat dubious neighbours we felt more secure. Now, originally the venue was only supposed to have one band playing that night, and now there were three bands the same night. The first band didn’t seem very happy with this, which is maybe why they sat in the backstage with sulky faces and drank beer for themselves. As usual there’s a tiresome wait before going up on stage, which is why some alcoholic beverages and small-talk is the best way to kill some time. When Geisha got up on stage we became witnesses to the controlled chaos they manifested. With every inch of the stage packed with pedals and effects, they certainly created an interesting atmosphere of sounds. When it was our time to play we noticed how small the stage actually was, and once again I felt like being packed inside a sardine jar. The gig itself went really good and the response was indeed positive, and we finished off with an extra number. Our main contact in Germany, Thomas, took us after the gig to his friend’s flat to eat some veggie food (what else?) before going to his own apartment. That night we slept on the floor. Not so comfortable, but at least my head was lying on the belly of a huge teddy bear, hence why I felt like a prince when I awoke the day after.

Fourth day: 20 October, Kiel, Germany

If there’s anything we might take for granted, coming from a pretty high standard of living in Sweden, then it’s hot water and electricity. In lack of both those luxuries we searched for a public bath and got to this swimming hall, but the whole place were booked for some swimming school or some kind of shit and the freaking cashier had closed for the day, so we said fuck that shit and committed our first crime in Germany, non-paid public showering. When we left the swimming hall we must’ve looked like five hooligans, ‘cause some retired folks passed us by and murmured that the swimming hall must’ve been robbed.

If there’s anything else you might take for granted in Sweden, then there are high prices on alternative food, and if the prices are actually low on an alternative restaurant, then the place is usually pretty filthy and worn-down. That’s why at least I got surprised when we found this nice place in Kiel which was fresh, served really good stuff and had pretty low prices.

Since we didn’t have a gig for the evening we just hanged out the remaining of the day with our host, inspected some pubs and the local beverages before getting some shut-eye.

Fifth and Sixth day and fourth gig: 21 – 22 October, De Rots, Antwerp, Belgium

First: If there’s anything you’d expect from arrangers and the personnel at a venue then it’s the simple gestures of social competence, you know, greeting you when you arrive, recognizing you’re here to do a job, maybe lend a helping hand in-case you might need it, and afterwards bid you farewell and so forth. You know, freaking normal manners.

When we arrived we barely were noticed by the club. It was as if we weren’t there, or maybe we were something tiresome, something the personnel had to endure for the time being. Or maybe the club people could only see things in a five-dimensional way and we had to wear special masks in order to be recognized, who knows? I’ve never seen this level of indifference towards a band before, like they didn’t care at all if we’d play or not. Okay, since I come from Uppsala I do know another place which has the same low social quality towards bands, but that’s a story to cry about some other time.

Second: If there’s anything you’d expect from the audience then it’s that they actually watch the show, and not sit at the bar with their back against us. It was as if we were the same old boring house band, playing the same old tunes for the five hundredth time, and the morons sipping their beers at the bar just want to be left alone in their own misery, now that the wife has left them and taken the kids along with the house and the car, but left them the mortgage, the insurances and the kids’ welfare to pay. I’m exaggerating, but you get the general picture of the whole scenario.

This was the worst gig we’ve ever done. We could have more fun playing at a coal power plant for Mr Whoever’s retirement party as far as I’m concerned. Playing in front of robots (or more like playing behind them) isn’t so exciting and talking to robots is not so funny in the long run. But what a heck, you can only try and do the best out of the whole mess. To outweigh this debacle we left the venue after the gig to spend the night inspecting Antwerp’s pubs and found some good Trappist beer and nice company along the way.

When we were about to leave the venue and their hostel the day after it took us three hello and good morning before Mr Record guy, with the shop inside the venue, to greet us. Maybe this place was uniquely packed with real misanthropes, but I doubt that since he jumped from whatever he was doing when I shouted at him. Anyway, our mood was boosted by the last night, plus we had time to walk around in Antwerp like hello-I’m-a-tourist-poster stamped on our foreheads. While Patrick and I cultivated our sophisticated taste for the fine arts, the brothers and John did their best to equal that in the somewhat trashy cultural sphere.

Oh, I nearly forgot: When we entered Antwerp we saw lots of these orthodox Jews bicycling around the streets with their big beards, Mormon clothes and Babylonian haircuts, so we assumed there had to be a temple nearby, but then we started seeing them everywhere, for only that day. The day after no one was around. Funny, since you never see them in Sweden, only on TV and usually it’s something about the settlements in Israel and fanatic Zionists.

Moloken on tour, day 1

2009-11-09T13:28:00.001-08:00

First, this was my first visit outside of Scandinavia with a band (unless you wanna count my service in the Royal Army Drum Corps), so off-course you're supposed to loose something or mess something up on the way. And what was the first thing I noticed when leaving our hometown, Umeå? I forgot mine and Patricks stored breakfast and noodles for the road, plus my sleeping attires for the nights we hadn't been promised beds after gigs. This was nothing to hassle about really, as I can always buy it on the road, but I hate to forget small stuff. It makes me wonder whether I'm really getting senile, 'cause I've been having problems remembering names for years, and in the past I always remembered that kind of stuff and details in complex situations.

Second, if your band are well prepared for the gig, you can damn well assume that the other bands aren't, and sometimes not even the arrangers are. After six-seven hours of driving south we arrived at the venue, Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, only to find that they didn't have a sound technician and that the club owner (supposedly the only one working there that night) hadn't a clue about live engineering. Smart move, ey? "Let's start a club, have a PA, some Amps and a stage, but no technician!" After a short discussion Koffe took upon himself to solve the issue by working as engineer and guitarist/singer at the same time, since the chances of getting in touch with a local technician that night was minimal. Giant kudos for him. The gig went well, and not only the drunkards in the front were enjoying themselves. That night we slept like babies. Except me off-course. My neck and back were stiff and I couldn't sleep for some reason. Oh well...

"The arrogance of clergy"

2009-10-13T08:18:00.000-07:00

A much appreciated speech from the ranting comedian Pat Condell, a man I seldom agrees with, but in this case, he definitely has a point:

"Public religion exist for the sole benefit of clergy, and clergy exist for the sole benefit of clergy". Priceless.

Arrogance in the metal scene

2009-10-13T05:35:00.000-07:00

Obituary Interview HARDTIMES.CA

HARDTIMES.CA|MySpace Videos

Obituary is one of the classic death bands I used to adore, alongside Carcass, Death, Dismember, Entombed and Morbid Angel. They've done excellent music and their approach to death metal is unique.

Sadly mr. Ralph Santolla, guitarist in Obituary, seem to think that militant islamist (in general i assume) is determined purely to destroy the U.S. This sounds more like arrogance, and those who propagate it haven't much clue on the political islamist culture (both the peaceful movements and the militant ones) and how the West has influenced it. Next time these xenophobics stop by the library, they should visit the History and Religion - sections. Maybe it'll help them develop a broader sense on cultures other than their own. Militant islamistic movements, as an example, has been created over a long period of time. Mainly outside (West) extortion on sitting governments in the Middle East and North Africa thru military invasion and occupations but also grave cultural offence (such as U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia), Western economic exploitation of these countries' resources and labor, Western colonialism and political manipulations of elections, and their support to antidemocratic factions and assassinations of officials opposed to the Western states is some of the factors that have influenced the re-growth of radical Islamic movements and the military side of them.

Also very disturbing is Ralph Santolla's view on the U.S. political power structure and their political tradition: "That's because in America the power really flows upwards from the people to the top, rather than downwards, and people don't want to turn the United States into a socialistic country, period", as in response to the reporter's notion: "...now it has been revealed that, in fact, he [President Barack Obama] doesn't have as much power as everyone hoped he'd had".

First: The U.S. has had a long tradition of segmented corporate lobbyism in politics, directly affecting the agendas and policies of ordinary day-to-day legislation and administration. On the surface it might resemble other state-institutional traditions of the Western countries. But in reality U.S-lobbyism is a big client-based organisational system, which influences judicial and administrative praxis and also operates a lot with unofficial handshakes, and that's why some honest politicians for once legislated against it, in order to make the government and the Congress a more transparent, consistent and reliable institutional foundation. To believe that the U.S. politics (in general) is incentive for grass-root movements is therefore false and wishful-thinking. Especially when the U.S. has always been advocating the individual as the main player in ordinary life and example of consideration in law decision, therefore creating obstacles for collective groups in society to influence the government and the parliamentary work.

Second: Barack Obama and his government doesn't act socialistic. He/their ideas does not originate from that ideological tree at all. He/they may talk in socialistic terms sometimes but their idealistic background and actions are based upon the same political realism and liberal ideas that Carter, Clinton, Johnson, Roosevelt and Truman embraced, especially when it comes to foreign policy and U.S. domestic security, which is based upon strategic thinking and pragmatic decision over most moral codexs.

Third: Robert Dahl, Professor in Political science at Yale University, U.S., noted that "...democracy provides opportunities for: 1. Effective participation...[] 3. Gaining enlighted understanding, 4. Excercising final control over the agenda..." (note).
Now, how many citizens can actually participate in U.S. legislation, how many citizens actually vote, and moreover, which kind of citizens do vote? We know from statistics that the U.S. has had a long history of pretty low voting participation, sometimes under 50%, which is demoralising for a constitutional body and its mandate ability to wield power. Moreover, how easy is it as a private person to try and influence the legislation, whether it's on federal level or in a member-state, when you're competing with institutions and organisations (=lobbyists) who have a network of intelligence and partners to halt your efforts, resources that easily outmatches your own when it comes to marketing your ideas to the legislators, and a decisive position in the labor market, a crucial part of the society, influencing a lot of the workers political ideas thru labor-producing campaigns or indirect extortion with pressure on labor unions?

Summary: It's always easier to fear what you don't know anything about, especially when it comes to foreigners and their "strange" cultures. Unfortunately that's a very destructive behaviour and has been a contributing factor to many wars.
It's also very destructive to believe a political system is constituted from the people, when in fact the political participation doesn't have full inclusion, for example the leftovers of McCarthyism, which hinders all real socialistic ideas to come forward in U.S. legislation and bureaucracy.
Many people in the U.S. still seem to think that socialism automatically equals communism, which of course is false. Communism is a derivation of Marxs ideas. Communism propagates public right over both produced goods and services and private property, while socialism only propagates the workers rights over their own produced goods and services. This crucial difference is something that people, sadly, tend to forget, or ignore.

Note: Page 38, Dahl, Robert, On Democracy, Yale University (ISBN 0-300-08455-2)

Pinsam version av feminism

2009-09-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

Vilken jävla planet kommer vissa människor ifrån, Mars eller? De verkar tala ur arslet när de egentligen borde använda den där slemhögen i kraniet som insamlar information. Och denna paranoida übermenschen-feminism finns alltså i Umeå. Undrar hur många män dessa så fina och ädla kvinnor egentligen har träffat i sitt liv. Kanske en, vilket var ett rötägg. Eller? Tiina Rosenbergs välpolerade ridstövlar och läderpiska gör återigen entré i folks tankegångar.

Frågan är om man ska skratta eller gråta över detta. Jag är fortfarande häpen över graden av inskränkthet och hur korkade vissa människor kan bli i en viss miljö. Kanske man behöver uppfinna ett helt nytt språk för att förstå sån här goja, där Män blir lika med Ondska och Kvinnor synonymt med Godhet, eller Heterosexuellt sex översätts till Våldtäkt och Hat lika med Frihet. Du är stark och modig om du hatar, och du är fri om du yppar ditt hat mot någon. I och för sig låter det inte så tokigt, eller hur? Vi vill ju alla lufta våra personliga fördomar och oförrätter för någon, men det är ju oerhört fult att säga det i öppen debatt. Bättre då att maskera all denna bitterhet och missriktade frustrationer i en hafsigt paketerat version av en ideologi.

Skräcken när den är som bäst

2009-09-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

Fick tag på två samlingar med HP Lovecrafts verk, däribland mästerverket The Outsider. Denna scen är lysande. Den lyckas på något sätt förmedla den annars obeskrivbara skräcken över psykets mörker och det mänskligt depraverade:

"I cannot even hint what it was like, for it was a compound of all that is unclean, uncanny, unwelcome, abnormal, and detestable. It was the ghoulish shade of decay, antiquity, and dissolution; the putrid dripping eidolon of unwholesome revelation, the awful baring of that which the merciful earth should always hide. God knows it was not of this world - or no longer of this world - yet to my horror I saw in its eaten-away and bone-revealing outlines a leering, abhorrent travesty of the human shape; and in its mouldy, disintegrating apparel an unspeakable quality that chilled me even more."

Dokumentär fler borde se

2009-08-29T16:01:00.000-07:00

En klart sevärd dokumentär visades på Kunskapskanalen lördagen den 29 augusti, Männen Bakom Det Heliga Kriget. Dokumentären försöker förklara hur radikala militanta islamismer (al-Jihad) formades.

Den tar upp en intressant vinkel (fokusen på den islamiska radikaliseringen i Egypten), hur medlemmar och sympatisörer av Det Muslimska Brödraskapet utsattes för summariska fängelseinrättningar och dess tortyr det medförde till små glimtar av Nasserismen i Egypten och dess sociala och ekonomiska problem, som frånvaron av många politiska och medborgerliga fri - och rättigheter, inga sociala skyddsnät, och avsaknad av rättssäkerhet som befolkningen fick utstå. Ändå undviker dokumentären att infoga Västs påverkan i Mellanösterns historia och det missnöje som växte ur inhemsk despoti, korruption, påtvingad sekularisering (kulturimperialism) och förödmjukande behandling av oliktänkande och den bristande människosynen som rådde i många muslimska stater (och i många fall fortfarande gör) under Kalla Kriget och dessförinnan.

Moloken's full album on streaming

2009-08-24T16:16:00.000-07:00

All the tracks of Moloken's first album debut, Our Astral Circle, is now on streaming. So check out our website to hear the songs and comment if you feel like it.

Also, all kinds of tips or ideas on where we can play in Europe during our planned tour during this fall is welcomed; we need all the help and input we can get =)

Addendum: We have also four songs from the House of Metal-festival 2009 uploaded on youtube. Listen and enjoy - we had a blast playing on that show!

No offence, men du ser ju ut som ett jävla elefantollon

2009-07-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

Fantasier såhär mitt på dagen

2009-07-29T05:16:00.000-07:00

Ännu en text på lager:

Still lingering in the clouded acts

Of mutually undone pacts

Being drawn to the inner tyranny

Splintered parts of the one and the many

There’s always been this whisper

Chanting all the possibilities

Enticing as a sharp razor

Promising indefinite atrocities

Still asking the same questions

Which started this journey

Only to come up with vague suggestions

To reach the longing atrophy

Long is the wait to oblivion

But the greater the reward

To bond with the alien

The strange tension unbarred

Fantasier såhär sent på kvällen

2009-07-28T14:28:00.001-07:00

Skrev en obehaglig text. Undrar vad den betyder:

I Wish there was another way
To release you from the pain
Maybe we'll progress, someday
From all this work disdained...

...By those unwilling to accept
Your unbearable plight
Still cowering in disgust
Of your essential right

So open up and let me in
To every known sickness
I'll carve out the tragic history
Harbouring in darkness

Don't despair at the stakes
Contributions has been made
Don't heed to words of mistakes
You've not been betrayed

Your disease eludes me
It's a unique example
However, I fail to see
Your humanity's tangible
So let's descend together
Me and you and the tether

Flashback och Islam

2009-07-27T17:56:00.000-07:00

Nu har jag aldrig antagit att Flashback var annat än ett fjortistillhåll, men vissa trådar är rent utsagt patetiska och kontraproduktiva.

*suck*

Det tragiska är att islamofoberna tenderar att per automatik associera enskilda individer med en religion. Mer obehagligt dock är att samma sorts tänkande överensstämmer med ZOG-idioternas logik.

Själv var jag grymt skeptisk mot den muslimska världen i tonåren, men det berodde framförallt på okunnighet och en barnslig vilja att förenkla olika destruktiva företeelser från de religiösa utövarna till den graden att man kunde dra allting över en kam. Det tillhör den ungdomliga romantiken att söka sig efter ultimata sanningar och löjligt simpla maximer, som låter slagkraftiga och "hederliga", men egentligen är i samma retorikspår som de mest mörkbruna eller vinröda ideologierna.

Även om man som jag är emot det mesta inom organiserad religion så måste man ändå ställa sig frågan hur långt man ska gå för att försvara det sekulära samhället, och framförallt vilken sorts polemik och moralisk ställning man ska ta när man kämpar för det. Är det en överlägsen och chauvinistisk hållning, och ett aggressivt dikotomiserande av Dem (muslimer) och Vi (icke-muslimer) så löper man risk att ge medvind åt politiska rörelser som kanske inte alls var ens mening från början. Ungefär som Göran Hägglund nyligen gjorde i Almedalen.

Irriterande upplevelse

2009-07-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

En sak som återkommer när jag suttit och läst en bok i timmar eller arbetat med något en längre tid är att det börjar vandra små ljusglimtar, som vita dioder eller avlägsna stjärnor på natthimlen, i centrumdelen av synfältet, oftast i horisontell riktning. Om jag försöker följa dem med blicken så ändrar dem riktning.

Det irriterande är att jag inte känner mig trött fastän detta tydligen brukar inträffa när man antas vara trött eller överansträngt ögonen, vilket jag inte upplever.

Och nu sen fyra fem år tillbaks har jag haft en konstig känsla som återkommer sporadiskt. Det är som om att plötsligt ser någon annan min omgivning med mina ögon, tar in alla intryck från hörsel, känsel och lukt medan jag är i bakgrunden och väntar på att vad det än är som ser allting genom mina ögon ska försvinna. Det irriterande är att ingenting händer, utan det försvinner efter en stund och jag känner mig desorienterad.

Jag är inte intresserad av definitioner på det här, för jag antar att det förekommer hos många andra människor som lever ett normalt liv. Men det är förbannat irriterande när man till ex. var just uppe i ett intressant tankespår eller skulle just göra något viktigt som det här inträffar och man blir som helt borta och glömmer bort vad man tänkt göra.

Det gamla gardet II

2009-07-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

Nedan finns en gammal intervju med hjärnan i Emperor från 1994:

Också intressant intervju från 2008.

Likt Masse Broberg ser Ihshahn (Vegard Sverre Tveitan) tillbaks på nittiotalet med ånger, självdistans, ödmjuket och en smutta klokhet. Även om han inte uttalat sig längre som satanist (såvitt jag vet) så tvekar han inte att lufta samma tankegångar i lyrik och intervjuer som för femton år sen. Det är återkommande teman om det ständiga sökandet efter en ny andlig sanning i det dolda mörkret och polemiken mot den kristna kulturens intrång på uråldriga mytologier.

Bland det bästa jag läst med Ihsahn på senare år är en intervju från 2005/2006 (Close-Up #79) där han irriterar sig på de folk som förpestar black metal scenen nu på 2000-talet. Det är folk som gör scenen antiindividualistisk och kollektivt intolerant mot avvikande beteenden, kritisk mot vad en enskild tycker och tänker, hur man klär sig och vilken banduppsättning och musikinriktning man tar. Det komiska, såsom Ihsahn också menar, är att black metal startades en gång i tiden för att bryta sig ur gamla mönster i kollektivt tänkande och låta alla göra vafan dem vill utan massa sociala normer som hämsko. Men nu har scenen gått åt den riktning punkscenen gjorde på åttio - och nittiotalet. Det har blivit en institution som allt annat skit.

Med tanke på att det är MTV av allt kommersiellt skräp som sände den här dokumentären (vilket youtube-klippet är saxat ifrån) så håller den högre kvalité vad gäller saklighet och stil jämfört med de svenska mediafadäserna inom ämnet (skandinavisk) black metal och satanism. Tur då att detta var bland det första en fjunig tonåring fick se av black metalbanden på TV-rutan, annars hade man lika gärna löpt risken att få en helt skev bild av denna scen från att se till ex. TAXI eller någon patetisk dokumentär eller reportage från frikyrkliga USA-bältet.

Tillägg:

Har lyssnat på Emperor ända sen spliten med Enslaved, och det har alltid varit något fascinerande med deras stil. Det är symfonisk fast inte pompöst som något Cradle of Filth eller Dimmu Borgir skitit ur sig. De spelar inte särskilt tekniskt men inte heller tattigt som ett högstadieband i stil med gamla Hecate Enthroned. De var hyfsat råa men inte så punkiga som Dark Throne med sina 12-timmars inspelningar. Det bästa av allt man velat ha i ett band!

Det gamla gardet idag

2009-07-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Taxi - [gammal] dokumentär om satanism:

Så kul ibland att stöta på såna där kultdokumentärer. Det är felriktade frågeställningar, fyllda av fördomar och missuppfattningar om ockultism, satanism och djävulsdyrkan. Lotta Bromé, Erik Rodenborg och Mattias Gardell faller alla offer för den konservativt kristna kulturen (märk väl: konservativt) som formade vårat samhälle. Som tur är verkar inte dagens svenska media jaga religiösa avvikare med blåslampa, utan blivit införstådd att dess existensberättigande är självklart legitim och en naturlig del i vårat land.

Och vad hände med Dragon Rouge och Magus Caligula ("Masse" Broberg)?

Caligula är fortfarande med i Dark Funeral. Satanismen verkar han lagt på hyllan och ser tillbaks på ungdomen med en ganska ödmjuk ton. Även gruppen Dragon Rouge existerar fortfarande, men de har indirekt genom en gruppmedlems aktivitiet i Sverigedemokraterna blivit anklagade för det ena befängda efter det andra löjliga utpekandet från gamla liggsår inom nationalismen.

Så vad har hänt de senaste femton åren? Den svenska satanistiska rörelsen såsom den var är död. Ingen av de gamla banden utger sig för att vara satanister längre, utan snarare ateister, agnostiker eller bara allmänt intresserade av ockulta och mystiska idéer.

Återkommer om en annan gammal dokumentär värt att nämna.

Demirbag-Sten och Mohammed Omar

2009-07-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

Så tar Demirbag-Sten ännu ett steg i sin kamp mot muslimer. Frågan är om det var rätt steg, eller om hon egentligen vet vad hon kämpar emot (annat än de som säger emot henne).

I detta fall förstår jag inte hennes tillvägagångssätt; är det ens behövligt att skriva en artikel om Mohammed Omar, där kärnan snarare verkar ligga i smädelser och gamla klyschor, och inte ifrågasättandet av hans resonemang i TV-soffan eller vad han grundar sina idéer på?

Vilken vettig människa som helst med internetuppkoppling kan ta sig en titt på Mohammed Omars blogg och göra sin egen bedömning vilken sorts person han är. Som exempel intervjun han hade med Ahmed Rami.

Det är lite synd att Mohammed Omar har brukat en enorm kvantitet på sina tankespår, då det i slutändan blir på samma sätt som muslimhatarna, alltså att man associerar en religion med enskilda individer. Till ex. det befängda påståendet i att judar är ansvariga för hela bankväsendet, för de grundade utlåningssystemet. Eller att sionister är lika med alla världens judar. Det är otroligt naivt och rent ut sagt förbannat korkat.

Synd också att även om Omar och Ahmed Rami faktiskt hade en del goda poänger i intervjun angående specifikt israelernas behandlingar av palestinier och sionismens rörelse så förlorar båda två all trovärdighet när Rami börjar raljera i sin barnsligt förenklade värld. Han förvanskar budskap i Gamla Testamentet, strör uttalanden om att Hitler var mer humanare mot judarna än fransmännen var mot berberna i Algeriet, att nazisterna bara kämpade för tyska folkets värdighet samt att hela Förintelsen kanske var en bluff, iscensatt av den sionistiska imperialismen. Detta publicerar Omar utan att ens analysera påståendena, fråga om källor eller göra uppföljningsfrågan: hur kom han fram till allt det här om judarna/sionisterna (både Omar och Rami blandar ihop begreppen ideligen)? Det hela är så tragiskt och hatiskt betungat att man kan bara hoppas att ingen person med hjärna sväljer deras Nyspråk i denna historiska sandlåda.

Arbetsvisum i USA och managers

2009-07-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Alltså, vissa kostnader är fan sanslösa:

"...the H-1 to green card will cost between $2,500 and $3,500."

Huruvida detta är sant för stunden låter jag vara osagt. Men H-1 är alltså tillfälligt arbetsvisum/arbetstillstånd i USA, vilket de flesta icke-amerikanska artisterna väljer att ta. För att runda av blir 3000 USD 23460 SEK i dagens valuta, och det är per skalle. Då kan du tänka dig ett band på typ fyra medlemmar = 93840 SEK. Ganska mycket pengar att krafsa ihop, bortsett från alla passuppare, managers och diverse skivbolagsfolk som ska ha en summa från gigen.

Risken är också att arrangörer kan lätt bli blåsta av bandmanagers eller anställda bokare om de inte vet bandens egentliga gage, alltså deras proportionellt rimliga gage. Med det menar jag att managers och turnébokare kan ta en överdriven summa i gage av ren girighet, bara för att den nykläckta och blåögda arrangören på den där lilla festivalen eller kanske större tillställningen är för okunnig för att förstå att denne blir utnyttjad. På så sätt kan många festivaler utarmas och folk kan lägga av då de blir less på att bli blåsta och sen se hur festivalen/spelningen går tokback när bandet vars manager som tog den hiskeliga summan inte alls drar den publik de hade förväntats göra.

Om det ligger någon sanning i det här så är det rent ut sagt förjävligt. Hoppas bara att folk i gemen är mer hederliga än att de försöker suga ut de festivaler som ibland kan vara bland de roligaste scenupplevelserna i ens liv.

Bland det bästa som gjorts

2009-07-15T11:18:00.001-07:00

De här verken ger mig alltid gåshud:

Virus - Lost Peacocks (The Black Flux 2008)

Virus - The Shame Eclipse (The Black Flux 2008)

Sprungen ur askan från det som en gång var Ved Buens Ende, och efter flerårig behandling för bruten ryggrad och nacke efter ett svandopp från ett tak, reser sig Carl-Michael Eide från sina psykiska besvär av ett mångårigt drogberoende och depression. Beundransvärt levererar han ett mästerverk som helhjärtat omfamnar galenskapens, vansinnet och det andliga mörkrets toner. Varje gång jag hör de låtarna och hela den här plattan får jag intrycket av att stirra in i en vägg borde underlätta upplevelsen av denna musikaliska upptäcktsfärd i människans svarta inre.

Origin - Finite (Antithesis 2008)

För första gången har ett "nytt" band inom brutal döds fått mig att uppskatta just det kompromisslösa renset. Inga midtempos, inga utsvävningar, ingenting, bara tokmangel tills man svettas av att bara höra det. Innan det här "nya" bandet fick min uppmärksamhet var jag hyfsat ambivalent inför Nile, Behemoth, Krisiun, de senare alstren med Cannibal Corpse, och fan till och med Deflesheds sista plattor. Allt kändes så utnött, totalkross bara för sakens skull, en scenattityd som var lika konservativ som produktionen började bli alltmer likriktad. Tack vare Origins platta Antithesis kommer jag spisa mer brutal döds.

Stravinskij - Finale (Eldfågel 1919; uppfört 2000 av Valerius Gergiev och Wiens filharmoniker på Salzburger Festspiele)

Stravinskij - Psalmsymfonin (= Symphony of Psalms 1930)

Aldrig har jag haft något särskilt intresse för klassisk musik, annat än dödsmässorna av Mozart och Verdi, orgelverk av Bach, samt Rachmanninovs tredje och fjärde movement. Men när jag hörde Våroffer blev jag hänförd. Aldrig någonsin har jag uppfattat klassisk musik som något utmanande och våldsamt - jag antog naivt att aggressiviteten var förbehållen populärmusikens tradition - så här fick man en smäll på käften! Senare, när jag slukat Våroffer med hull och hår var Eldfågel inte svår att smälta in, särskilt inte när sista temat är så förbannat vackert, medryckande, mäktigt men samtidigt vemodigt på grund av den enkla melodin i dur (!) som hornet har; det ger ett intryck av ett sentimentalt farväl eller hyllning till det förlorade och den nya dagen. Ungefär som militärmusikens flöjttradition i Västvärlden tenderat till att endast använda grundton, durters och kvint i sina marschmelodier, men använder intervallen på ett sätt som maximerar alla toners potential för varje sekvens, tema och stycke.
Ur en annan infallsvinkel valde Stravinskij att närma sig idén om Psalmsymfonin: här spelar kören en annorlunda roll som för en till tankar om rituell undergång och förbjuden frukt. Textmässigt behandlas psalm 38, 39 och 150, vilket alla beskriver en persons väntan på Gud, på dennes mänskliga förfall samt dennes frälsning från evig dom. Om man tänker efter så avbildar stycket väldigt bra textinnehållet, med i åtanke att Stravinskij inte var en praktiserande ortodox precis. Det intressanta är hur enkla stämmorna är; ibland rör de sig inte mer än ett halvtonsteg runtomkring grundtonen eller kvinten. Stravinskij visste verkligen hur man använde toner på ett sånt skrämmande sätt som möjligt.

Till sist, men inte minst, mina favoriter:

Gehenna - New Blood (WW 2005)

Gehenna - Grenade Prayer (WW 2005)

Det här bandet har... förvirrat, ignorerats och slutligen älskats av mig och min äldsta vän. Aldrig någonsin har jag sett ett black metal band gå från synthbaserad black till någon hybrid av black, trash och death (Admirion Black 1998 samt Murder 2000) till att sen göra omvändning ännu en gång och till sist anammat en hänsynslös mangelkombination av högsta kvalitéstämpel inom black metal (WW 2005), som inte sviker sin egen intuition för helt underbara riff. Inga söta melodier som prettobanden vill spela, ingen synth annat än ytterst sparsmakat som en effekt, och inga förbannade tonårsfasoner med ett rockigt trumkomp till ett diaboliskt vässande, som de förhatliga emo-black banden sysslar med. Att lyssna på New Blood och hela WW-plattan är som att beträda ett totalt jävla mörker (också ett bra band) som vägrar släppa taget om en. Allting känns förjävligt fördömt och förstört bortom allt liv. Detta är en nihilistisk platta som man insuper genom att bita ihop tänderna tills det gnisslar, önskande att man inte var en människa utan ett primitiv rovdjur som älskade ingenting annat än att jaga villebråd för sitt eget höja nöjes skull. Synd bara att Gehennas konstellation väljer att förströ sig med allehanda sidoprojekt som blir tidsödande, inkonsekvent, frustrerande för lyssnarna. Hoppas på en ny platta innan de gråa hårtestarna börjar ansamlas!

Hatbrott, debatter och religion

2009-07-14T16:01:00.001-07:00

Har läst två exempel av svenska muslimers kritik och invändningar av Gulan Avcis syn på Angela Merkels respons till hatmordet på den muslimska kvinnan i Tyskland.

Detta ger vid hand en ton som är tärd och bitter av de politiska utspel som går dem emot, eller åtminstone de tros gå dem emot. Svar på tal kommer i form av genomtänkta och välskrivna texter, men också vars kvantitet lyser igenom.

När det gäller svenska debatter om integration, hatbrott och polariseringen mellan kulturer och människor har jag i åratal saknat en sansad, rättvis och analytisk dialog. Ingen pajkastning, inga schabloner som dras upp i cirkelresonemang, och inte samma käbbel om kränkningar hit och dit. Det är så många ord och stäv som hamnar i inflation och jag har den fräcka tanken att svenska samhället behöver en ofantligt mer genuint öppen och framförallt ödmjuk diskussion. Aggressiv politik har sin användning, men inte i sakfrågor som centralt behandlar människovärdet och institutionell demokrati. Vi behöver verkligen börja om på nytt i de här sakfrågorna. Och då måste alla få vara med, även de ”förkastligas” åsikter. Jag vet att det låter som en Hem-och-skola predikan, men i grund och botten är det enda rimliga alternativet framför det som politiker, talesmän och ”debattörer” hittills har gjort i åratal: att frysa ut, nonchalera/ignorera, smutskasta och överlägset bemästra meningsmotståndare (De ska ”lyda”), och då syftar jag inte enbart på t.ex. Nationaldemokrater, Sverigedemokrater, AFA, Kommunistpartiet och gud(ar) vet vad.

Det lustiga är att både Avci och Demirbag-Sten tidigare ställt sig kritiska mot något som media omfamnat som ett politiskt upplysande verk: Ingmar Karlssons bok "Landet som icke är". Detta ledde till de två kurdiska politikerna omgående skulle rätta sig in i ledet, informellt uttryckt av den forne UD-byråkraten Karlsson själv.

Som tur är har den politiska korrektheten i Sverige även sina gränser.

I övrigt önskade jag att fler svenskar såg det här:

Det visar en persons syn på sin religion på ett väldigt befriande sätt, med självdistans, humor och klartänkthet. Alltså inte den rigida, traditionalistiska tolkningen av Koranen som nog farligt många människor tror att imamer vanligtvis gör.

Casteschism

2009-07-13T15:34:00.000-07:00

Först ordet: Casteschism. Vad betyder det? Vad tror du det betyder för dig? Vad tror du det betyder för mig? Har det någon relevans i dagens samhälle?

För er som är något bevandrade inom religion (och förmodligen har en religiös övertygelse) finner kanske denna ordlek samt detta hopplock av begrepp absurd och provocerande bara för sakens skull. Men är det bara det? Betänk detta: vad är den mest grundläggande ordningen inom de ambrahamitiska religionerna i världen idag? En väloljad hierarki, och i ett fall en vertikal tunnel mellan den troende och det gudomliga, där en mellanhand hjälpsamt spelar den saktmodiga fårherden som vägleder den okunnige själen åt rätt håll i sökandet efter sin gud. Behöver vi verkligen denna institution, eller kan vi söka Gud, gudar, det gudomliga på andra sätt, fri från en egensinnig maktordning och föråldrade processer som hämnar självständigt tänkande och kritik riktad mot systemets mest fundamentala verksamhet, vilket är främst sin egen självbevarelsedrift.