BRB, IRL Drama

For those of you who are fortunate enough not to speak internet, allow me to translate the title into a real language. There's been a death in my family, which necessitates that I return to the fatherland that is New Jersey in order to pay my respects (and on particularly short notice). As they have a nasty habit of doing, a lot of things--good and bad--have happened in a short time, and I find myself a bit disoriented. I like to think that I've taken it with dignity and grace (at least so far).

I'm going to be out of the loop until Thursday night (local time, anyway), at which point I will return, no doubt after a fair bit of introspection and pondering, two pastimes to which I am particularly given.

On a thoroughly unrelated note, I didn't like the new layout nearly as much as I did when I first put it in place, and I'm probably going to try out some new ones. In the meantime, I've reverted to the good old classic layout. Like stockings in a department store, so too are the layouts of our blogs.

Non Sequiturs, Ep. 3

I think that a large part of the the reason that I like cloche hats so much is that they remind me of helmets. They appeal to my inner fascist. Just think of it--an unstoppable army of iron-disciplined flappers, conquering the farthest corners of the earth, crushing all resistance (and looking damned good doing it, too)!

The Rule of Thirds

March 17 saw the release of The Rule of Thirds, the latest LP from England's Death in June, the brainchild of Douglas Pearce (alias Douglas P). As I continue to delve into the Neofolk genre, I have learned that Death in June is one of the pillars of the style. Along with Current 93 (a project in which Douglas Pearce is also heavily involved), Death in June was a pioneering Neofolk act, helping to define the genre in much the same way that Bathory helped to define Black Metal (and Viking Metal, for that matter, but I digress).

A bit of a disclaimer is in order: when it comes to Death in June (and Neofolk in general), I am an unmitigated neophyte. From what I have read, longtime fans of Death in June have given The Rule of Thirds a notably lukewarm reception. It's entirely possible that D.I.J. veterans know many things that I don't, but I found The Rule of Thirds to be an engaging and enjoyable listen. It's been on heavy rotation over the past several days.

Each song consists entirely of three elements--acoustic guitar, Douglas Pearce's subdued vocals and an unobtrusive blend of sampled bits of dialogue. Where some have criticized the vocals for sounding as though Pearce is bored, I find them not in the least bit so--subdued, certainly, and detached, but in a way that fits the emotional tone of the music. This brings me to the second major complaint I have happened across: as the have for his vocals, some have chided Pearce for dull and repetitive guitar techniques (too much strum, they say). Far be it from me to be a qualified judge of guitar techniques, but here too I find that the criticisms are vastly exaggerated. Pearce may not be on par with David Gilmour, but he is a perfectly good guitarist in his own right.

The Rule of Thirds is a solid album. I might become more critical of the album as I become more enlightened through exposure to Pearce's older and more esteemed releases, but I can't really see how that would be the case.

Ave Ioanna, Imperatrix Totius Mundi!

Today is the birthday of no less a personage than the inimitable Joan Crawford (née Lucille LeSeuer). By way of celebration, I've whipped up a bit of pro-Joan propaganda. There's not much I can say about the occasion or Joan herself that hasn't already been said by others more knowledgeable and more eloquent than I am, so rather than make small talk let's all pour one out for our dead homie.

As an aside, here's what the Blue Öyster Cult has to say about the matter.

Album of the Week: Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)

Today is the 40th anniversary of the birth of Øystein Aarseth (more widely known as Euronymous). To celebrate, this week's featured album is the final album on which Euronymous worked before his rather unpleasant murder.

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas may be the most infamous Black Metal album ever recorded. By the time of the album's release, Mayhem had become quite notorious--vocalist Dead had already committed a gruesome suicide in 1991, and Varg Vikernes (who had played bass on the album) had murdered Euronymous shortly after the band had finished recording the album. Furthermore, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas has also been the source of much debate among connoisseurs of Metal--some consider the album to be the quintessential Black Metal album, while on the other hand iconoclasts (of whom there are many among Black Metallers) consider it highly overrated and thus think less of it. Still others argue that the album is not a product of the "true" Mayhem, as Dead and Necrobutcher (two members of the so-called Classic lineup) were not involved in recording the album. Personally, I count myself among this album's proponents.

The production values of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas are top-notch (at least by Black Metal standars), with rawness and clarity balancing one another out quite well. To put it another way, the instruments are distorted (as is to be expected), but each one is clearly audible in the mix. Where musicianship is concerned, the band is at the top of their game.

The atmosphere of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is also impeccable, which are quite befitting of the lyrics (which were, by the way, composed by Dead prior to his death). The music here achieves a sense of darkness and menace that is nigh on unrivaled. Some songs are certainly better than others, but all are worth listening to. Not surprisingly, "Funeral Fog" and "Freezing Moon" are easily the best of the lot.

This isn't to say that that De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas is by any means a perfect album; it does have it's fair share of drawbacks. Some listeners are likely to find Hellhammer's habitual blastbeats a bit grating, and Atila Csihar's vocals take some getting used to--he sounds a bit like Bela Lugosi, and to be honest I really didn't like the vocals at all the first few times I listened to the album. They have since grown on me, needless to say.

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas has an impressive reputation, but for the most part it lives up to the hype. It's influence on Black Metal is so profound as to qualify the album as a classic that is definitive of Black Metal as a genre. It is a necessary purchase for anyone who is interested in Black Metal music. Quite an achievement, considering it was the band's first full-length album.