So I picked up the semi-recent re-release of Isengard's Vinterskugge, which included a commentary disc with Fenriz talking over the tracks in his lovely thick accent. It was actually quite entertaining and informative, among the notable things I learned:
- One of the Folk Metal tracks that is most closely associated with Isengard and helped launch the popularity of the sub-genre, Fanden Lokker til Stupet (Nytrad)
, Fenriz claimed was one of the worst songs on the album and that he felt sorry for any bands who were inspired by it since it was a crap song.
- Fenriz said (possibly facetiously) that his heavily Burzum-inspired synth track In the Halls and Chambers of Stardust the Crystallic Heavens Open
, is one of the best things he has ever made, and that it was essentially an early early experiment with a synthesizer that he didn't know how to play.
- He can't remember any of the lyrics and never wrote them down. He suspects many of them may be gibberish. When people who cover songs off the album ask him for lyrics, he says he just writes them down as best he can and sends them to the band in question.
- Storm of Evil
was indeed meant to be a tribute to The Sisters of Mercy, however Fenriz has never owned a single Sisters of Mercy album. He is incredibly proud of these riffs
(starting at 2:50).
- He hasn't listened to Bergtrollets Gravferd
more than a few times since the album was released, says it's probably the worst track on the album, so boring that he'd rather listen to Rammstein "and that's saying a lot!"
- The synth on Naglfar
is awful and you should never ever use it, though he admits that Enslaved used it to much greater effect than he did.
- Our Lord Will Come
is blatantly influenced by Pentagram.
edited 28th May '12 2:39:07 PM by xexyzl
Am I the only one who thinks the reason why he renounced his past works is because he's grown old, bitter, and disillusioned? He seems to be trying to distance himself from it all by saying it was all just a joke. Not that I'm a fan of their classic BM material but he honestly sounds like such a big sore loser now.
But oh god, ''Soulside Journey'' kills so hard
. There's a compilation of all their pre-debut material that was pressed onto CD this year
. It's pretty sweet.
edited 28th May '12 9:37:27 PM by StillbirthMachine
Only Death Is RealI mean he had plenty of nice things to say about Vinterskugge, the overall impression I got was that he considered it a mixed bag of experimental ideas, some of which panned out and some of which didn't. I'd agree with him too.
I've listened to that demo collection, great stuff if you're in the mood for garage production Death Metal. I too prefer most everything else Fenriz has done to Darkthrone's "Black Metal Trilogy" (although Transylvanian Hunger's title track is still pretty great).
edited 28th May '12 10:04:22 PM by xexyzl
Flicking a few pages back to make sure one's response is justified isn't really 'post stalking'.
Me and xexyzl both blatantly did. I even gave a positive response.
This is true, but even before your post Eluveitie came up a couple of times earlier in the thread so I think we'd like to start revisiting different topics by now
Attention metalheads! There's currently a TRS thread
open about how to fix the Metal Scream page and it's had barely any activity since it was created. We could use your input to help get the thread moving again.
So OCR
released a new remix album, gave it a download yesterday and... well it's not bad!
Also: track 8 of the second CD - give it a listen
EDIT: Manowar's Lord of Steel is good as background noise.
EDIT 2: what in all of the possible fucks is wrong with the bass on this album?, it sounds like static distortion at worse.
edited 19th Jun '12 9:05:40 AM by Rareitor
OH GOD WHY AM I A CAR!? - ForzareOh great and hardcore Sages of Metal! I need your guidance! I want to show my girlfriend the evolution of metal. . . Chronologically. I need a song from every year since the very beginning of metal that demonstrates the progression of metal. And then several songs for each subgenre of metal- NOT any bullshit Nu Metal or Whatevercore or other bullshit.
THROW ME YOUR BEST!
Mura: -flips the bird to veterinary science with one hand and Euclidean geometry with the other-Not sure why I didn't appreciate Akercocke before (vocals, maybe; I'm not too keen on either really low-pitched growling or black metal style shrieking), but Antichrist is a superb album. This is probably my favourite song off it.
@Exelixi: Tbqh, you're better off just using the latter idea. If you want to know the history of metal, it's going to take a while and just listening to a few select songs won't give you that much of a clear picture.
@Demon Shark Kirisame: This is actually pretty neat. They've modernized a bit but as long as they don't turn into that pants-on-head retarded djent bullshit, I'm fine.
Only Death Is RealWhat would "melodic dronecore" sound like? ^_^
I'm not particularly fond of a lot of the silly nomenclature surrounding metal fusion genres, but I gather that what you're trying to describe here is drone metal with an emphasis on melody. Maybe Earth circa Pentastar would foot the bill...?
edited 21st Jun '12 2:00:22 PM by JHM
I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.@Exelixi: http://mapofmetal.com
Many subgenres filled with examples here. Yeah, there's those what you call "bullshit" subgenres there, but it's easy to filter out.
No regret shall pass over the threshold!

There was nothing "heavy" about either song as much as it simply being fast paced and having a "loud" modern production set at a fairly high speed. Same with Golem. Aggression/speed/having a louder production =/= heaviness. Perhaps if the heaviest thing you've heard is a Slipknot album it's understandable, but after a certain point, a lot of so-called heaviness becomes empty and illusion-like as after a while, you realize there's nothing behind it aside from cheap parlour tricks with nothing very concrete to hold it up.
Atmosphere is just a fancier way of saying "what mental image this songs puts in my head" or alternatively "lots and lots of open tonal space".
I can agree with this in the general sense that there's no real specific way to create something heavy and it just happens sort of sporadically or naturally.
I had said before these were for the most part, aesthetic and surface-level qualities. Cool but not necessarily unique to metal in that heaviness has existed before it. Metal has a particular way of doing it but so do a lot of other forms of music.
edited 28th May '12 1:43:51 AM by StillbirthMachine
Only Death Is Real