Inferno Fest 2024 - ICS Vortex, Tjodalv and Mustis playing one song with Dimmu LOLZ

[Sermo Lupi]

Real black metal sucks ass, and it never progressed to a point where it was listenable, it's all just a pretty boring race to the bottom in the search of "trve kvlt-ness"; MetalSucks put out a list of like, 10 or maybe 20 of the best new black metal albums and I think of them, one of them would've been worth adding to a library.

Well if you were a real black metal fan, you'd know it's not about the music but the kvlture. And nothing speaks to the superior pagan heritage of Scandinavia better than...uhh...Tolkien's fiction?

 

[works0fheart]

Real black metal sucks ass, and it never progressed to a point where it was listenable, it's all just a pretty boring race to the bottom in the search of "trve kvlt-ness"; MetalSucks put out a list of like, 10 or maybe 20 of the best new black metal albums and I think of them, one of them would've been worth adding to a library.

I dig some of it, like this song.



Otherwise I think some of the modern bands have done it pretty well. This album was pretty great for its time.



Even Immortal has some pretty cool songs.



I just think most of the more popular ones like Mayhem and shit are pretty overrated and boring. Never could get into them or Burzum. I feel like a lot of the fanbase just enjoyed these bands for the shock value. The moment anyone tries to tell me they were interested in what they were doing musically I'm already a little less interested in conversing with them because they probably can't hear what I'm saying properly anyways.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

I dig some of it, like this song.



Otherwise I think some of the modern bands have done it pretty well. This album was pretty great for its time.



Even Immortal has some pretty cool songs.



I just think most of the more popular ones like Mayhem and shit are pretty overrated and boring. Never could get into them or Burzum. I feel like a lot of the fanbase just enjoyed these bands for the shock value. The moment anyone tries to tell me they were interested in what they were doing musically I'm already a little less interested in conversing with them because they probably can't hear what I'm saying properly anyways.

Can I suggest you some Borknagar?
Early and quite latest

 

[Randy]

Real black metal sucks ass, and it never progressed to a point where it was listenable, it's all just a pretty boring race to the bottom in the search of "trve kvlt-ness"; MetalSucks put out a list of like, 10 or maybe 20 of the best new black metal albums and I think of them, one of them would've been worth adding to a library.

This is true with regard to the awful production but there was some decent writing and really great guitar riffs in those early releases.

A lot of those bands had some death metal, thrash and even prog roots prior to getting into the black metal stuff. Darkthrone is a good example of that.

Check out some top black metal riffs videos on YouTube. The suffocator has a pretty good one. It was actually surprising how many decent riffs Varg wrote.

 

[nightsprinter]

Dissection had a lot of nice riffs too fwiw. And while not a trve band, I will always get pumped when I hear the first riff of "The Eternal Eclipse" by Dark Funeral.

 

[works0fheart]

Dissection had a lot of nice riffs too fwiw. And while not a trve band, I will always get pumped when I hear the first riff of "The Eternal Eclipse" by Dark Funeral.

I notice that a lot of the bands that people seem to like break away from the rudimentary black metal sound.

Black metal is like the pepper of subgenres. You don't want it by itself but it's nice sprinkled onto some other stuff.

 

[nightsprinter]

I notice that a lot of the bands that people seem to like break away from the rudimentary black metal sound.

Black metal is like the pepper of subgenres. You don't want it by itself but it's nice sprinkled onto some other stuff.

All I know is, I thought the cold stuff was sick in the 90s when my friends dad gave me a mixtape cassette with 1 side of A Blaze In The Northern Sky and 1 side of Det Som Engang Var and said "check this out- 1 of these guys killed someone. don't tell your mom you got this from me"

Bad production wore thin on me over time. As an adult, I don't have any interest in listening to stuff that was recorded in a half-ass lazy way for street cred. There are some real good riffs buried in layers of ear piercing hiss and distortion in some cases (Nattens Madrigal), but it's just not enjoyable any longer.

 

[KailM]

Plenty of black metal bands releasing amazing stuff these days, with excellent production. You just have to explore.

 

[TheBlackBard]

As older black metal goes, Emperor was at the top. They were the very best of them all, and I will fight anyone saying otherwise. You could honestly say that Emperor was the precursor for bands like Cradle of Filth (early Cradle) and Dimmu Borgir with the more symphonic elements.

 

[Emperor Guillotine]

And nothing speaks to the superior pagan heritage of Scandinavia better than...uhh...Tolkien's fiction?

Ah, yes. A writer who was a devout Roman Catholic and whose work was blatantly influenced by Catholicism (while his Lord of the Rings series also contained numerous themes from Christian theology) inspiring bands who are so over-the-top explicitly anti-Christian or anti-religious to the point that it is a gag for attention and nothing else.

Quite ironic, eh?

 

[Sermo Lupi]

Ah, yes. A writer who was a devout Roman Catholic and whose work was blatantly influenced by Catholicism (while his Lord of the Rings series also contained numerous themes from Christian theology) inspiring bands who are so over-the-top explicitly anti-Christian or anti-religious to the point that it is a gag for attention and nothing else.

Quite ironic, eh?

You mean have a laugh at the expense of the oxymoronic hippy-fascists who loved to dress up and LARP in the woods like Efteling superfans? I would never

 

[OmegaSlayer]

As older black metal goes, Emperor was at the top. They were the very best of them all, and I will fight anyone saying otherwise. You could honestly say that Emperor was the precursor for bands like Cradle of Filth (early Cradle) and Dimmu Borgir with the more symphonic elements.

While I generally agree on Emperor, I think the record that is the essence of early black metal is Satyricon's Nemesis Divina


About the recordings...many of these guys were 16 when they recorded their first stuff
On the first Enslaved demo, Ivar Bjornson was 13...

 

[p0ke]

The drummer who played on the band on Stormblast, Enthrone Darkness and Spiritual

I know, I just meant that I don't really care who's on the drums (well, I'd prefer Nick Barker, but don't think it'd make much of a difference).

Here's one of my favorite live clips of theirs, Vortex is not there yet but not sure about who else is there:


Funny thing about Mustis by the way. Apparently his real surname is Mustaparta, which is Finnish and means Blackbeard

 

[OmegaSlayer]

I know, I just meant that I don't really care who's on the drums (well, I'd prefer Nick Barker, but don't think it'd make much of a difference).

Here's one of my favorite live clips of theirs, Vortex is not there yet but not sure about who else is there:


Funny thing about Mustis by the way. Apparently his real surname is Mustaparta, which is Finnish and means Blackbeard

That's Nagash on bass
Another one of those guys that got ripped off by Shagrath and Silenoz
I happened to be quite in the know of the early 90s black metal scene, as I had friends who were journalists and/or pen pals with some of the guys of the 90s wave of Norwegian BM
So I happened to spend some time with some of those guys who came to visit Roma on vacation or had some time with them before/after gigs

The Dimmu Borgir situation was a "funny" one...
Enthrone Darkness broke the previous highest selling BM record, which was 70k copies, of Immortal's Battle In The North record
Enthrone Darkness went above and beyond the 100k copies, and they were big numbers for estreme music...
But unfortunately Dimmu had a poor contract with Nuclear Blast, so they were paid with "Tattoo tickets" and it's fun to see how many tattoos Shagrath and Silenoz got between Enthrone and Spiritual

Nagash, the bass player, had already 2 bands (Troll and Covenant) before joining Dimmu, and also got a record deal for Covenant's second album (Covenant line-up including former Dimmu's guitarist Astennu and Arcturus' Sverd on keyboard, not to mention Hellammer on drums)...
Eventually Nagash too got tattoo tickets...

 

[p0ke]

That's Nagash on bass
Another one of those guys that got ripped off by Shagrath and Silenoz
I happened to be quite in the know of the early 90s black metal scene, as I had friends who were journalists and/or pen pals with some of the guys of the 90s wave of Norwegian BM
So I happened to spend some time with some of those guys who came to visit Roma on vacation or had some time with them before/after gigs

The Dimmu Borgir situation was a "funny" one...
Enthrone Darkness broke the previous highest selling BM record, which was 70k copies, of Immortal's Battle In The North record
Enthrone Darkness went above and beyond the 100k copies, and they were big numbers for estreme music...
But unfortunately Dimmu had a poor contract with Nuclear Blast, so they were paid with "Tattoo tickets" and it's fun to see how many tattoos Shagrath and Silenoz got between Enthrone and Spiritual

Nagash, the bass player, had already 2 bands (Troll and Covenant) before joining Dimmu, and also got a record deal for Covenant's second album (Covenant line-up including former Dimmu's guitarist Astennu and Arcturus' Sverd on keyboard, not to mention Hellammer on drums)...
Eventually Nagash too got tattoo tickets...

Yeah, I was never that into bm in general, but Dimmu Borgir played a huge part in me getting into heavier music. Anyway, I was always a bit of a fanboy-nerd kind of thing, so I did look up who was in what band... So I did know about Astennu, Nagash, Tjodalv, that keyboard player guy before Mustis who stole a song from a video game soundtrack and so on. I just don't really remember anymore because it's been almost 20 years since I was that interested.

My favorites were Puritanical... and Death Cult Armageddon, but in the end I think the one I listened to the most was Spiritual Black Dimensions (it was the only one I had on CD for whatever reason, now I also have the Puritanical... 20th anniversary version). And then later I discovered Enthrone Darkness Triumphant which obviously has some of their greatest hits. I couldn't care much less for their later material, but I gotta say, on In Sorte Diaboli I really dig the opening track, The Serpentine Offering.

I had a Dimmu Borgir hoodie that I bought in a little shop in Stockholm (probably counterfeit, the logo was embroided, not printed) that I wore almost every day from when I was something like 14 until I was 25. The sleeves were absolutely torn and it had various holes all over because people had stumped cigarettes on it and one time it got stuck a bit on a barb wire etc... I wore that to many festivals and other events, and people who didn't know my name just called me "Dimmu-man"

 

[TheBloodstained]

I notice that a lot of the bands that people seem to like break away from the rudimentary black metal sound.

Black metal is like the pepper of subgenres. You don't want it by itself but it's nice sprinkled onto some other stuff.

This is SO trve for me. I've never been into the hardcore/oldschool black metal stuff. Dimmu Borgir is the closest I get to listen to straight up black metal. I do however super enjoy when other genres use black metal elements. Blackened death metal, blackened deathcore, black gaze etc. etc. etc.

I did however have a fantastic live experience with Lamentari last year, but I guess you wouldn't count them as "real" black metal either?

 

[Crungy]

But unfortunately Dimmu had a poor contract with Nuclear Blast, so they were paid with "Tattoo tickets" and it's fun to see how many tattoos Shagrath and Silenoz got between Enthrone and Spiritual

Paid in tattoos? That's crazy lmao

 

[p0ke]

In Death's Embrace is pure Nagash stuff
Pick this record and you find out that kind of vibe throughout

Thanks for posting this! I guess I only heard their later material because I pictured Covenant/Kovenant/The Kovenant being more industrial, which I didn't really like. I guess they changed C -> K when they went in that industrial direction...?
[EDIT] Ah never mind, it was some copyright thing, since there was already another more established band called Covenant.

But this album is really nice, similar vibes like you said. I think I'd still rather listen to those Dimmu albums, but this'll make a nice addition once I've had enough of them.

 

[OmegaSlayer]

Paid in tattoos? That's crazy lmao

Better to have a deal with Nuclear Blast giving you the chance to record in a reknown studio but paying in tattoos (as an afterthought, it wasn't in the deal, but a "gift" for the success of the record), than being the first record of a label promising you money, but making you record in a dampy basement with poor equipment and not giving you any money in the end...and I say it on a personal level

 

[Xaios]

Black metal is like the pepper of subgenres. You don't want it by itself but it's nice sprinkled onto some other stuff.

(This is the AI-powered future I was promised.)