Photo © Metal Chris
You may have noticed that I haven’t written anything for our site for a few days. I’ve been hanging out with family and friends in Austin, Texas, the hallowed place of my birth. There has been much eating, drinking, and merriment, but almost no time for metal. I’m thinking I can get back to my normal routine after getting back to Seattle tonight. But although I haven’t been listening to much music, I do have a few things to spread around today.
SÓLSTAFIR
Today is the last day of HELLFEST in Clisson, France. The French site Arte.tv has been webcasting performances from the festival, and I thought I’d mention that Iceland’s Sólstafir will be performing today. As best I can figure, their set will start at 1:00 pm Pacific Time and 10:00 pm local time in Clisson.
I’ve seen Sólstafir perform live on a grand total of one occasion, but based on that experience I highly recommend you watch this. I’ve embedded the stream player after the jump, but in case that doesn’t work for you, go HERE.
UPDATE: Sólstafir’s set has obviously now been completed, but I’ve substituted the archived footage of the show after the jump.
I enjoyed the blurb about the band at Arte.tv. I don’t speak French, but I think this all sounds better than it would have if I had gotten a translation:
“Les cowboys islandais de Sólstafir distillent depuis 1994 un metal batifolant avec le post-rock, le hardcore et le rock progressif.”
Forever after, “Les cowboys islandais de Sólstafir…”
Photo © Francis Bijl
WATAIN
That same Arte.tv site has archived other HELLFEST performances that have already occurred. For example, Sweden’s Watain performed yesterday. Watain have been in the news lately as a result of the unintentionally hilarious coverage the band’s blood-throwing Brooklyn show received last week (here) on the meaningless TMZ web site. I don’t know if they sprayed the Clisson audience with any pig’s blood yesterday, but my comrade Andy Synn seems to think the 68-minute video of their set is worth seeing, so I’m embedding it here:
AN SBM COMPILATION
SBM is a web site whose initials stand for Support Black Metal. I’m not familiar with the site, but thanks to a tip from Raven S., I learned today that SBM has released a compilation for FREE download that looks damned interesting. It includes 20 songs by these 20 bands, and it appears some of these songs aren’t available anywhere else:
Ablepsia
BlackShore
Blodsgard
Ceremonial Castings
Djevel
Enshadowed
Human Serpent
Kirkebrann
Loits
Lugnasad
Mourning Soul
Nazghor
Norse
Profundis Tenebrarum
Sado Sathanas
Sammath
Sarkrista
Thorngoth
Walpurgisnacht
Wolves Den
Wrong
There are a lot of excellent bands on that list, which makes me even more interested in hearing the ones whose names I don’t know. To download the comp, visit the SBM site via this link.
NACHTMYSTIUM
If left to my own devices, I probably wouldn’t be writing about this next item, but a couple of my co-writers felt this was worth reporting, and so I’m being charitable. This explains why I’m days late posting this.
Nachtmystium have a new album named The World We Left Behind, and last week the cover art was revealed (above) along with this track list:
01 – “Intrusion”
02 – “Fireheart”
03 – “Voyager”
04 – “Into The Endless Abyss”
05 – “The World We Left Behind”
06 – “In The Absence Of Existence”
07 – “Tear You Down”
08 – “On The Other Side”
09 – “Epitaph For A Dying Star“
This was recorded in March and is scheduled for release on August 5 by Century Media. It’s supposed to be Nachtmystium’s final album, but who the hell knows. Apparently, we will be reviewing it.
10 Responses to “SEEN AND HEARD: SÓLSTAFIR, WATAIN, AN SBM COMPILATION, NACHTMYSTIUM”
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Speaking of Watain and Nachtmystium, the album art for _The World We Left Behind_ bears more than a passing resemblance to the cover of _Lawless Darkness_. I guess ripping off other black metal bands is a step up from ripping off your fans though.
Yeah, but it also bears a similarity to Enthroned’s “Obsidium” in that regard.
And particularly The Howling Wind’s “Vortex”.
Though I would imagine any sort of central “void” style design is going to recall others. I doubt Watain were the first, and they certainly won’t be the last.
True enough. More importantly, thanks for reminding me that I need to listen to the howling wind. The new serpentine path is a little too monolithic for me, but the howling wind does the trick.
The Howling Wind are awesome. And I guess if you buy this Nachtmystium album from Century Media, the odds are improved that you will actually get what you’ve paid for. But yeah, I get what you’re saying.
That’s literally the same vortex from lawless darkness, only reversed and without the artwork.
Can’t say I’m particularly stoked for anything from Nachtmystium. This band lost me completely with “Addicts”, which was an unmitigated disaster of an album, in my opinion. Toss on all of the bad press that Blake Judd has apparently earned and any remaining motivation I had to give them a second chance is all but gone.
“Silencing Machine” was/is fantastic though.
+1. I also felt like Addicts was a disappointment, and I love Assassins. I hope the band goes out on a high note, and I hope Judd gets cleaned up and that his future dealings are decidedly less shady than the ones in his past.
i’ve been watching Hellfest performances on Youtube the last couple days, looks like a lot of fun. Death Angel and Sepultura’s sets were particularly awesome 🙂
I am watching Emperor right now.
Watain’s appearance on TMZ might be one of the funniest penetrations of metal into mainstream media I’ve seen in a while. Guess they better watch out for the ever-watchful eye of Tipper Gore now.