The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Virgin, 1995)

My wife recently surprised me with tickets to the Smashing Pumpkins reunion tour, and as such I’ve naturally been compelled to revisit their catalog.  For the longest time I’ve proclaimed that the band’s 1993 breakthrough Siamese Dream was my favorite Pumpkins album, but right now I’m thinking it might actually be Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

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Harm’s Way – Posthuman (Metal Blade Records, 2018)

I wasn’t terribly familiar with Harm’s Way prior to getting the promo for Posthuman, but I was somewhat aware of the buzz their previous album Rust had garnered, so I decided to give them a try.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Posthuman is a burly-as-fuck collection of non-stop mosh riffs mixed with electronic elements that wouldn’t be out of place on a late-nineties Godflesh record.  It’s an odd combination to be sure, but I’ll be damned if Harm’s Way doesn’t make it work.

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Sons of Famine – Alcohol and Razor Blades (self-released, 2013)

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Just as I’ve started to settle into life on the West Coast, along comes a band from the Midwest to remind me that my home region can kick serious ass when it wants to.  That band is Chicago’s Sons of Famine, who’s stock-in-trade is pummeling oldschool death metal with a blackened edge.  Their debut demo, Alcohol and Razor Blades, is a musical battering ram of ungodly filth and fury that beats and bludgeons the living hell out of just about every other demo I’ve heard of late.

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Imperial Savagery – s/t (self-released, 2014)

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Remember when death metal was legitimately ugly music that could scare the shit out of the average Joe?  If their self-released, self-titled debut album is anything to go on, Chicago’s Imperial Savagery sure do; they’re looking to drag the genre back into the primordial ooze from whence it came and take you down with it.  It’s a twenty-six minute beating that’s completely unrelenting in its feral viciousness.

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Sun Splitter – Live on WFMU (Sol y Nieve, 2014)

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Longtime readers of THKD know that I’m typically not big on live recordings. But, I am big on Sol y Nieve; the upstart Idaho-based label has already released two of this year’s finest slabs of black metal in the form of Nemorensis’ The Lady in the Lake and Hellebore’s Anouof Thwo, so if they deem a live release to be worthy of the same treatment, then I’ll sure as hell give it a listen.  I’m glad I did, because Sun Splitter’s Live on WFMU is a sonic nightmare of ultra-corrosive industrial metal that’s more than managed to win me over in spite of my admitted prejudice towards live material.

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Broken Hope @ Vaudeville Mews, 04/03/2014

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Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to finally check a few bands off my old school death metal bucket list.  The likes of Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Grave (I sadly missed Deicide and Suffocation when they were here 😦 ) have violated the asshole of the Midwest with their unholy presence, and it’s always gratifying to finally experience these bands in the live setting after having coveted their studio albums for all this time.  On a cold, rainy Thursday night in Des Moines, I was happy to add Chicago’s original overlords of brutal death metal Broken Hope to that list, and goddamn if they didn’t deliver the goods and then some.

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Murmur – s/t (Season of Mist, 2014)

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Black metal is getting weirder.  From Aluk Todolo’s blackened krautrock to Oranssi Pazuzu’s astral psych attack and beyond, the genre has decidedly taken a turn towards the freaky and far-out, and even though it’s only January, it’s hard to imagine another BM band in 2014 getting freakier or more far-out than Murmur have with their self-titled second album.  The Chicago band’s debut for the resurgent Season of Mist label appears poised to kick black metal into interstellar overdrive with a singularly intricate yet highly atmospheric sound that must be heard to be believed.
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Avichi – Catharsis Absolute (Profound Lore, 2014)

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Chicago’s Avichi impressed the hell out of me with their 2011 release, The Devil’s Fractal, so much so that I interrogated guitarist/vocalist/mastermind Andrew Markuszewski at length about the album, and it came in just shy of making my top ten metal albums list for the year (which says more about what a strong year 2011 was for metal than it does about any short-comings on the album’s part).  After three years of silence, Avichi is back with Catharsis Absolute, which sees Markuszewski continuing to refine his compelling approach to black metal.

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Broken Hope – Omen of Disease (Century Media, 2013)

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In spite of kicking around the death metal scene since 1988, Chicago’s Broken Hope rarely get their due in underground circles.  These wholesome, well-mannered Midwestern boys made good have often been unfairly labelled a lower-level band; granted, metal acts from this neck of the woods are often denied the props they deserve, but whether you like it or not, there’s no doubt that legions of brutal death metal, slam and goregrind practitioners owe something to Broken Hope’s lethal combination of ultra-guttural vocals, beyond gross-out lyrics and thick, bone-crunching grooves.  Now, after almost a decade-and-a-half of silence, the influential quintet have returned with a rejuvenated lineup and a flesh-ripping album in the form of Omen of Disease.
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DeathCult – The Test of Time (Caligari Records, 2013)

533690_498822426845855_397733024_nBeing a one-man project released on cassette, you’d probably be expecting DeathCult’s The Test of Time to be some kind of depressive/suicidal/ambient black metal clusterfuck.  Fortunately you couldn’t be more wrong, because this Chicago-based maniac’s stock-in-trade is ripping, heavily blackened thrash that as expected pays its grim respects to the unholy trinity (Venom/Bathory/Celtic Frost), while at the same time putting its own nasty-ass stamp on one of metal’s gnarliest subgenres.
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Nachtmystium – Silencing Machine (Century Media, 2012)

Over the past several years, Chicago black metallers Nachtmystium have made a career out of throwing musical curveballs.  It all started with the USBM acid trip that was 2006’s Instinct: Decay, followed by 2008’s Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1, a blackened psych rock odyssey with hints of punk, and finally culminating in the disco-damaged cocaine rodeo of 2010’s Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. 2.  They are among the most wildly unpredictable bands  in the scene, and although their experimentation occasionally falls a little short of the mark, it is always made up for by the sheer enthusiasm they exude while fucking with the black metal program; one can easily imagine Nachtmystium’s instruments being powered by the tears of tr00 kvlt internet message board warriors.
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Leviathan – True Traitor, True Whore (Profound Lore, 2011)

Utterly embarrassed as I am to admit it, I’m no stranger to bouts of misogyny.  Prior to meeting my phenomenal wife, my romantic dealings with the opposite sex were, to put it mildly, less than stellar (I’m sure this surprises no one).  From my first “real” girlfriend breaking my heart over a decade ago, to the woman I let repeatedly grind my soul to dust my senior year of college, to countless instances of rejection and other assorted shittiness that would take ages to properly recount, I had been left with a bad taste in my mouth and a fuckload of bitterness before a raven-haired goddess rescued me from the rut I was in.  As a result, I treated the few women that dared to try to get close to me like complete shit (this was totally undeserved and my petty way of getting back at the fairer sex as a whole, I reckon) and was generally distrustful and disrespectful towards any woman who wasn’t a blood relative or counted among my inner circle.
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Interview: AVICHI

Avichi’s The Devil’s Fractal is a fierce yet seductive beast.  The album is an exercise in scathing yet hypnotic orthodoxy, a musical dialogue between man and Satan.  It is infused with a frightening level of conceptual complexity rarely seen in American black metal.  With the help of Profound Lore’s Chris Bruni, I contacted Avichi mastermind Andrew Markuszewski in order to delve into his head full of hate.

THKD: What is The Devil’s Fractal? Where did the term come from and how does it fit into the overall concept of Avichi?

Andrew Markuszewski: The Devil’s Fractal is a reflection of my own innate understanding to and resonance with the dark. His fractal is an equation revealing his immaculate aspect in me and furthermore his manifestation here in the physical reality and beyond. The title came to me while I was observing fractal geometry and reflecting upon the whole world and my life in general. It describes how the will to fashion the world in one’s very own image (an inherently satanic attribute) is a continuous yearning and unavoidable effect of all things.

THKD: The album’s lyrics appear to be a dialogue between mankind and Satan. Can you elaborate on this and what inspired it? Is The Devil’s Fractal a concept album?

AM: It is very much a dialogue. I’ve always flirted with the idea of writing for the screen or even a play, so I set out to experiment with this desire while writing lyrics for the record. I remember seeing Homer’s Odyssey in a beautiful theater in downtown Chicago once when I was a young adult, and it’s interesting to notice how such an experience can invoke inspiration many years later. I’m sure the plays of Faust also had their influence. Writing in dialogue form has a different energy to it especially when focused on monumental and grandiose themes. Even now I have some ideas in mind for further continuing such writing.

As for The Devil’s Fractal being a concept album – it is and it isn’t. I’ve always admired and sympathized with the romantic Satan of writers such as John Milton and Charles Baudelaire, so I weaved my own tale with this character since I feel his own lines drawn upon my face. It isn’t so much a tale as it is a collection of short dialogues with different aspects of the same being. It is my tribute to the devil.

THKD: Is black metal an inherently Satanic form of music? What does Satan mean to you on a personal/spiritual level, and how does your concept of Satan inform your work in Avichi?

AM: Black metal is absolutely influenced by satanic themes, but it is in no way limited by them. Sometimes it may even find such themes completely unnecessary. That is all fine and ok. Whatever inspires to create something powerful ought to be used. Whatever stagnates should be discarded.

Satan on its highest level is a symbol foreboding by might and empowering to souls of elite temperament. As a deity Satan is limited by his own attributes – however strong they may be. To quote Milton, I feel more akin to the phrase “All deities reside in the human breast”. Yet in moving beyond this quote, I would like to see my spirit trample all deities towards establishing my own unequivocal radiance. If this is the essence of Satan, then call me Satanic. Avichi was born of this essence, but if the spirit of self-rediscovery dictates I am to draw inspiration elsewhere then elsewhere shall the music progress. Avichi is the projection of me, but maybe it’s the other way around.

THKD: What inspires you to create this music and what is it about black metal that you find appealing? Also, can you tell us a little about the genesis of Avichi and how the project has evolved?

AM: Hate. I am mostly inspired by just pure hatred. Sometimes I am able to move beyond it after a certain satisfaction of release, and I enter a state of tranquility and peace. Sometimes it is just the void itself which inspires, and I let myself go to give birth to free expression. This is felt by proficient composers of all mediums, and tapping into this stream is a very rewarding and beautiful feeling.

In many ways I’ve reached a stage where I am at peace in hate. I meditate in it, and I weave black rituals underneath Hate’s altar. Hate is my savior, and it is he who watches over me. He kept me from killing myself when I was younger. He was defiance in the face of despair and my strength against America’s system of social conditioning. Black Metal is Hate’s direct conduit; hence, as a musician, it’s in my blood.

Sex and the energies of the released serpent also inspire me, although I can be likened more to a sinister monk. I’m delving more into kundalini yoga now, but not just the version of white light ideology. Sexual energy is now used for more refined purposes taking precedence over your typical bang and shoot. Of course, as anyone who knows me personally would know, I am not without my instances of debauchery.

I would personally like to see Avichi move beyond just hate and see it become more passionate at every level. As a recording artist I don’t want to be limited and stagnate within one emotion although I probably have a lot to offer in that area and continue to do so. There will be an ever more defining and open sound with this band.

THKD: How did you hook up with Profound Lore for the release of The Devil’s Fractal? What is it about the label that makes it a good home for Avichi?

AM: I met Chris Bruni at a few shows while touring with Nachtmystium, and I gave him a copy of the unmixed Avichi record during one of those meetings. Things took off from there, and Chris gave me free reign to get things done as I so envisioned. Profound Lore cares about its releases and has a highly refined sense of aesthetics. It’s also a label able to stay ahead of what people want to hear. I think that’s what sets them apart from other indie labels and is putting them next to the more major players in the business.

THKD: What does Benjamin Vierling’s artwork bring to The Devil’s Fractal? What made you decide to enlist him to create the artwork and how important to you is the visual aspect of Avichi?

AM: It complements the album beautifully. I got in touch with Benjamin through Tyler at AJNA after inquiring about who was doing all the killer oil painting work for his front.

Benjamin has more than met my expectations. Not only did I get the artwork and everything that I asked for, but I also got a handwritten letter on parchment and a sketch of the interior meditative monk piece that’s in the layout. I mean, he’s a professional artist, and his pieces can be found in galleries on both continents.

(As a side note, the art that’s in the interior of the layout was actually commissioned for some songs I recorded for a 7” and for a compilation before I even started on The Devil’s Fractal. They never were released. I’m really critical of what is released, and I was almost at a point where I didn’t want The Devil’s Fractal released in its current recorded state. However, something had to be released. I plan on re-recording a track or two of the unreleased material when I’m back in the studio, but that won’t happen until I am confident in my drumming.)

Of course the visual aspect is important. Everything is. Most refined black metal bands would tell you this. This music is very personal to both the artist and listener. When I’m holding a release, I want to feel like I’m holding a Beksinski.

THKD: Does Avichi play live or are there plans for any live rituals in the future? What would the ideal live Avichi experience entail?

AM: Avichi doesn’t play live and most assuredly never will. There was a moment a year after The Divine Tragedy where I almost had a full line-up, and it started to look and sound like a proper band. We almost even flew to Rotterdam to play some festival from what I remember. Things didn’t turn out that way. Devotion from others was lacking as was skill, and I was not about to put on a performance I was not completely confident in.

After that experience and all the wasted energy trying to play with others, I buried the idea and threw a rock over it. Right now I’ve been getting my live shits and kicks in Nachtmystium and Lord Mantis.

THKD: Avichi hails from the Chicago area. How do your surroundings, and specifically an urban environment influence Avichi?

AM: I live in Chicago, and I’ve seen most of its parts. I’ve seen everything from its immaculate and divine neighborhoods to its dilapidating infrastructure and depressed ghettos that look more like the set for a post apocalyptic horror movie. If you stick to its more admirable areas, it can be a great place to live and indulge in, but it can also be dangerous. There’s not a day that goes by where I am not astonished by a new level of human filth walking on the street, whether it’s some fat ugly American with diabetes spewing out of its pores, or a crackhead bum begging me to give him my hard earned money so he can stay a crackhead. I just saw this black prostitute the other day who looked like she was three years pregnant and about to shoot out some glassy-eyed maggot on my boot holding a crack rock, astroglide, and a welfare check. Sometimes it’s just the twilight zone of shit.

My daily life is mostly spent in a three mile radius around Wicker Park – hipster capital of the world. It’s where you’ll find the majority of artists and musicians in Chicago, and it’s generally pretty nice. I am here because here is where my current state of opportunity as a recording artist exists. I’d enjoy living in an unholy temple up in the mountains somewhere, but sometimes you just have to live where the action is. I can see my life slowly leaning towards the other direction though as I get older. That is if I do get older.

The world one experiences has a direct affect on who you are, but only to the extent that you let it. It never dictates how you must react and choose to live. Writing for Avichi is about writing for myself. No one and no world can tell me how I should write for it.

THKD: What do you think sets American black metal apart? What makes USBM unique amidst the international black metal scene?

AM: I don’t see anything as necessarily apart from one another. I also don’t consider Avichi a USBM band. Avichi doesn’t belong to any territory. These are labels from critics, and critics are just critics. Perhaps USBM bands tend to be a cunt-hair more rebellious and experimental, but I think you only hear people saying that because here you have hipsters, hippies, even probably a few hip hop people listening to bands you would only find black leather-clad thrashers in Europe listening to. I’m one of the black leather-clad guys. I don’t see us as anymore unique than what’s created internationally. Every country has their talented and dedicated musicians and their not so good weekend warrior musicians.

A lot of USBM probably sucks for sure, but a lot of it also sucks everywhere else. I don’t really care. I usually just come across a killer record or band and absorb it for a few months. Right now all I’ve been listening to is Necros Christos everyday, but Thorns has been making its way into the player recently along with some Skinny Puppy.

THKD: With that said, what do you personally want to add or contribute to black metal with Avichi? What are your aspirations for the work?

AM: I just want to make meaningful records – whatever musical state they make take. If my work is recognized and praised by anyone of the black metal community then I am honored for I am of the same army.

My personal aspiration is to be a complete and well-rounded musician able to go into a studio with just myself and an engineer and leave with a great record. I know I can write. I am confident in my ability to write and compose. I’m doing it constantly with all the bands I play in. I wrote more than half a record for Avichi in 24 hours when I got back from the last Nachtmystium tour. Right now my main focus is playing the drums whenever I can. The next time I go in to record for Avichi it will be alone. Expect something daring.

THKD: What is your take on the current state of black metal and how do you foresee the genre growing/evolving in the future?

AM: It’s fine. Breathes of fresh air continue to enter the scene and that’s all it needs. Plus you can never go wrong listening to the fundamental originators. There’s plenty out there and many classics that bear repeated listening ad infinitum. It’ll continue to grow and new beasts will take shape as long as some of us are here and we have our instruments. I plan on becoming one of those beasts.

THKD: You’re involved in several other projects, such as Nachtmystium and Lord Mantis. How does your work with these other bands inform what you do in Avichi? Is it an entirely separate entity, or do elements of one occasionally spill into another?

AM: Avichi is of course an entirely separate entity, but it’s true when you learn to write new rhythms and grow with another band, it does in turn spill its knowledge into whatever you do. Not a bad thing. I try to utilize my complete bag of arsenal yet keep things in with the spirit of the band I’m writing for or contributing to.

THKD: What is your take on the so-called “hipster” black metal phenomenon being spearheaded by the likes of Liturgy? Does it matter what other bands are doing?

AM: There is no “phenomenon”. What we have here is only music for the weak and non-threatening. I’m not a hipster. I’m a fucking warrior. Black Metal at the end of every day is a dangerous and uneasy art. It is hard on the spirit and requires an unwavering will. Even when not dangerous and hateful, these capabilities can still be sensed through the artist. Hipsters financed by people with money who see a temporary window of opportunity to capitalize on what these dregs see as ‘cool’ will never come close to the essence of the craft. Just because one has found a way to transcend something, even black metal, does not mean a pinnacle has been reached. Transcendence has been an important theme in Avichi as well, but I stand against the thought black metal has seen its end and its ‘theories’ have all been laid out capable of being taught to anyone wishing to enroll in its train of thought. Perhaps the hipsters are on to something which I am blind to; however, I can’t help but sense a smug piousness in their lofty attitudes which fills my abdomen with hate – the same hate I’ve always felt towards sheep and white light ideology. I myself have many refined tastes corresponding to my own vanity and could even be seen as hypocritical at times, but for fuck’s sake – burrow your roots deeper into hell before you attempt to dwell amongst the stars. As it was once said by a great band, “I transcend with blood on my hands”.

It only matters what other bands are doing if you let it matter. All things are empowered by attention. Remove your attention, and they cease to be relevant.

THKD: Are there any final thoughts you’d like to add?

AM: No. I’ve answered enough questions for now, but thank you.

http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/

Band of the Month: YAKUZA

When I first heard Chicago’s Yakuza way back on 2002’s Way of the Dead, I didn’t quite know what to make them.  I remember thinking they seemed confused about what kind of band they wanted to be.  Now that I’m older and wiser, I realize the truth is that I was confused about what sort of band I wanted them to be.  Hindsight is always 20/20, but my inability to wrap my head around them at the time means that I unfortunately hadn’t kept up with Yakuza until Of Seismic Consequence showed up in my mailbox.

As I’ve said many times, I love it when an album takes me by surprise, and that is exactly what happened when I sat down and listened to Of Seismic Consequence.  Yakuza are a progressive metal band and a doom band and a tech metal band and a world music band and many, many other things; this is what makes them so great.  Their ability to synthesize so many seemingly disparate ideas into a cohesive whole and subsequently create something so far beyond what we typically think of and perceive when it comes to extreme music is simply mindblowing.

Listen to “Stones and Bones”

Of course, no write-up on Yakuza would be complete without mentioning the saxophone.  Vocalist Bruce Lamont’s command of the brass is no mere gimmick; he uses the instrument to add mesmerizing textures, coloring the edges of Yakuza’s already complex musical approach with a tonal palette that simply can’t be coaxed out of a standard guitar/bass/drums setup.  His playing is used sparingly, coming in at all the right moments to infuse Of Seismic Consequence with a sense of real gravitas.

The other musicians that comprise Yakuza are no slouches either.  Matt McClelland just might be one of the most tasteful guitarists in all of extreme metal right now, his knack for utilizing a wide array of dynamics to create a sense of tension and release within the music boarders on the uncanny.  Bassist Ivan Cruz and drummer James Staffel lay down a brilliant rhythmic foundation that ranges from skull crushing to jazzy to tribal, often all within the course of the same song.  In the hands of lesser musicians, Of Seismic Consequence would be a trainwreck of influences, but the members of Yakuza are clearly masters of their respective crafts.

Mere words just can’t do Yakuza justice.  They’re one of those bands that is quietly changing the face of metal, and Of Seismic Consequence will undoubtedly be the album that sees them finally getting the attention they deserve. It has been the album I’ve listened to the most for about the past month or so and a strong early contender for my end of the year list.  I can’t think of a better or more deserving  band to be THKD’s first ever Band of the Month.

… the fact that they’re White Sox fans certainly doesn’t hurt either.  That’s Bruce Lamont to the left of the “L”.

Official Yakuza Myspace Page

Buy Of Seismic Consequence direct from Profound Lore