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Archive for the ‘Mayhem’ Category

Mindrazer (Dingbatz, Clifton, NJ, February 25, 2026) [ARKONA]

Posted in Ametropia, Arkona, Clifton NJ, Dingbatz, Malphas, Mayhem, Mindrazer on February 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2026] Mindrazer

I saw Arkona open for Korpiklanni back in 2018.  When they announced a show in Clifton,I just had to go. It was my first time going to Dingbatz, a (mostly) heavy metal club. The place is really small (200 people) and the show was not sold out (yikes).

I was wondering how come I never went to Dingbatz if it was 20 minutes from where I grew up.  I found out it opened in 2004, the year I moved away from the area.  How about that.

So the secondband up was from Hackettstown (which the singer pointed out was only known for making M&Ms (it’s the headquarters of Mars candy).

Unlike the rest of the lineup, Mindrazer plays mostly thrash metal–clean vocals (soaring vocals like the guy from Helloween).  Both guitarists played excellent solos–some serious skills on stage there.

But as with the first band, I felt like they were demanding a lot from the audience since no one knew them. The singer insisted that everyone there get on the floor and row.  I’m not exactly sure when or where this trend started–I assume with Amon Amarth, bit I could be wrong.  I’m all for it because I think it’s hilarious and is probably a lot of fun.

A song or two later, the singer jumped onto the floor and tried to get a circle pit started while he played and soloed.  No one was really into it, I think everyone was more intrigued that he was on the floor.  I know someone took a really close up video of him shredding which was pretty cool.

Again, demanding a lot for a band no one’s heard of.  I found them a little hard to take seriously because they looked really young and earnest.  There was a part where he told us they were taking us on a journey through the history of horror and the horror of history.  But they were a lot of fun and captured the sound of 80s/90s thrash really well.

After a couple of songs he asked if the crowd thought they were a thrash band.  Weird, but yes.  Did we think they could do death metal too?  Who knows, we’ve only hard three songs by you.  Anyhow, the bassist then stepped up and did growling vocals as they did a cover of the Mayhem song Freezing Moon.

The best part was when they played Crusader.  They had someone dressed like a crusader, complete with sword and skull mask (with snakes dangling from its mouth).  He wandered the stage threatening the band and then he jumped down onto the floor and started a circle pit.  This was easily my favorite circle pit ever–a guy with a sword as the central focus of the pit.

It was nice to have a different style of music since the other three were pretty much all death metal.

SETLIST
1453 (Doom of the Eastern Crown)
Seeker
Unnatural Rebirth
Freezing Moon (Mayhem cover)
Crusader ♠

♠ A Thing of Nightmares (2023)

 

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Until the Light Takes Us (2010)

Posted in Boards of Canada, Burzum, Death, Enslaved, Mayhem, Neptune Towers, Religion, Satyricon, Suicide, Sunn O))), Ulver, Until the Light Takes Us, Violence, Yuck! on April 10, 2011| 8 Comments »

[WATCHED: March 19, 2011] Until the Light Takes Us

Soon after finishing Lords of Chaos, I heard a radio interview on the Sound of Young America with the directors of this movie (which is about the same black metal scene in Norway).  I finally got around to watching the film, and I’m really glad I did.

It covers much of the same terrain as Lords of Chaos (although the book covers much more stuff), but what’s cooler about the movie is actually seeing these guys talk to you.  And seeing how “normal these guys are.”  The two “stars” of the movie are Fenriz from Darkthrone and the main man in the scene, Varg Vikerens.

In the radio interview, the directors talked about the way they structured the film. And, I’ll reveal a bit of that.  So if you don’t know this particular fact, I’ll give the next line as a spoiler alert:

SPOILER ALERT: (Highlight the blank space to read it) Varg is in jail for murder and for the burning of several churches and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

They don’t reveal this information until very late in the film.  So when we first meet Varg, he is a clean cut, handsome man in his late 30s.  He is in jail (although not explicitly stated, it is clear he is in jail).  And he is talking about the Norwegian black metal scene.  Vikerens formed the band Burzum in 1991.  He later joined the band Mayhem.

Mayhem is at the center of the black metal controversy.  The singer of Mayhem, Dead, killed himself with a shotgun.  The guitarist Euronymous found him and took pictures of him (one of which was used as a bootleg album cover–ewww) before calling the police (and it is believed he took some “souvenirs” from the scene).

Vikerens talks about growing up in idyllic Norway, which is peaceful and beautiful–but he undermines all of that by talking about the fairly typical suburban ennui that kids face.  Of course, in Norway it surfaced in violence and death.   Later, he talks about Christianity and how when it came into Norway there was no respect for the Norwegian culture.  Christians built churches on top of ceremonial grounds.  And it seems that he and his mates became very interested in Norwegian folklore and avenging the wrongs done to it. (more…)

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Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind–Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Undergound [New Edition] (2003)

Posted in Anarchy, Anton LaVey, Bathory, Big Books, Black Sabbath, Books about music, Death, Deicide, Depression, Didrik Søderlind, End of the World, Kerrang, King Diamond, Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Mayhem, Mercyful Fate, Michael Moynihan, Nazis, Ozzy Osbourne, Possessed, Racism, Religion, Suicide, Supernatural, Swedish Music, The Electric Hellfire Club, The Exorcist, Therion, Threats, Venom, Violence, Wikipedia, Yuck! on December 26, 2010| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: THERION-Theli (1997).

I bought this disc when I was living in Boston and I immediately fell for it.  I seem to recall I was doing a lot of driving at the time, and this mix of extreme metal, orchestral accompaniment and twinned vocals was very captivating.  It was also really fun to play very loud on a dark highway.

I’d read a very good review of this disc that claimed it was a big step forward in styles of thrash/black metal (and if you Google reviews for this album they are pretty universally great).  The disc is exemplified by the track “To Mega Therion” which is almost entirely a full choir singing what I guess is the chorus.  The verses are populated by a guy screaming in a guttural voice who is answered by an almost mechanically twinned voice which sounds great but is even harder to understand.  Follow this with a beautiful piano (!) solo not unlike something Randy Rhoads put together for Blizzard of Oz, and add a pounding double bass drum all the way through (truth be told the album could be a little heavier in the bass) and you get a crazy mix of styles which is catchy and creepy at the same time.

It’s hard to match a song like that.  And, admittedly, the band doesn’t quite manage to do so, but the rest of the album keeps up this orchestral death metal throughout.

Reading about Therion has taught me that this album is something of  touchstone for a new genre of metal, called variously symphonic or operatic metal (I suppose we have this to blame for the Trans Siberian Orchestra?).

In addition to the choirs and guitars there are a lot of keyboards. They are disconcerting when you’re thinking death metal and yet really they add an even fuller sound, even if at times they are not as grand or powerful as anything else.  At times the album seems cheesey, but that may have more to do with thirteen years distance than the music itself.

Anyone who has seen The Exorcist knows that choirs can be spooky.  And when you mix it with the heavy guitars and guttural vocals, you get a really cool sinister yet catchy (and possibly uplifting) album.  There are certainly a lot heavier albums, but this one is pretty stellar.

[READ: Summer of 2010, finished December 12, 2010] Lords of Chaos

My brother-in-law gave me this book for my birthday this year.  I was familiar with it as it is fairly well-known in heavy metal circles as a fascinating read.  And so it was.

This book is basically a history of black metal in Norway and how some bands’ antics went beyond music into burning churches and even murder.  The authors present a pretty neutral account of the story.  They let the main participants (criminals) have their say and the interviews don’t comment on their answers, they just let them tell their side of the story.  The authors also know a lot about the music scene.  Of course, in the end, the authors (thankfully) disapprove of the violence.  It makes for an interesting and somewhat conflicting read. (more…)

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