Episode 2 – The Black Dog Runs At Night (right click to download)

This is where we start to separate the men (and girls with great attitude) from the boys. The first episode was hard but this one is plain evil. Don’t get fooled by the ground zero, doomy beginning. It will weigh like a planet on your shoulders, sure, but what follows is nothing less than demonic. We mean, really scary. Maybe you’ll want to leave the lights on for this one.

We’re proud of it, but we’ll only ask you two things. Play it LOUD. And share it with your friends, especially the gutless ones.

See you on March 31^st for more. Watch your backs.

Click for show notes and a complete tracklist.

Episode 2 – The Black Dog Runs At Night

Transylvanian born Gyorgy Ligeti sets the mood for this episode with the intro for his “Requiem, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, 2 choruses & orchestra”. It’s one of the darkest, most claustrophobic, haunting, unearthly pieces of music you will ever listen to, making you feel adrift in a never-ending cosmic void (no wonder this has been used on “2001: A Space Odyssey” soundtrack) or recalling childhood fears from the dark.

It makes perfect sense to go from here to “Etna”. In a way, what Ligeti achieved with pure layers of rich acoustic sound, Sunn 0))) & Boris, teaming up under the Doom masterpiece “Altar” album, made it with thick crushing waves of electricity expanding into space. Both compositions are tense, ghostly nocturnal visions in their own terms, albeit with some restrained sprays of magma being released here (this track is, after all, named after the Italian volcano Mount Etna).

The world would be a much prettier place without Blasphemy. It’s funny, actually. Canada, a country famous for its highly respectable and educated people, was the one to give birth to one of the filthiest acts of all time. In a period where death metal started to go down the shitter thanks to musicians (specifically drummers) wanting to hear every single goddamn fucking note in their recordings, Blasphemy combined early black metal and early death metal to create a spectacular unrefined chaos that influences bands to this day. Thanks, Canada! We’ll be covering you often.

Not much to say about Sarcófago. They kill, and you should worship them every day of your puny little lives. Still hard to believe “I.N.R.I.” is from 1987! If you want to start an “extreme” metal band listen to these dudes before drawing influences from 90s black or death metal “zzzZZZzzz” records. Pretty please, with sugar on top.

We hear you: why oh WHY you guys picked this version over Bathory’s original and fucking great “A Fine Day To Die”? Well, because this is a fucking good version by Emperor (released as a bonus track for the 1999 version of “In the Nightside Eclipse”), that’s why, and it’s not like they had something to prove anyway (except their innocence in court, that is), so why hide it? The production is clearer but punchy, and not one ounce of the power and intensity of the master’s vision is lost.

Talking about paying tribute to the masters of metal, it’s pretty hard to overlook Tom Gabriel Fischer’s looming influence over on 1349’s “Revelations of the Black Flame”. In fact, Tom co-mixed this album, but it sounds like he had a much bigger role. You can hear it on Ravn’s voice; you can hear it on the slower, minimalist and almost industrial-tinged dynamics akin to Celtic Frost’s “Monotheist”. A lot of 1349’s fans seem to hate the new direction. It has not come up perfectly, but it does have some moments of brilliance. We picked “Serpentine Sibilance” as a brave example.

All right, confession time: we pretty much hate every single “third wave black metal” band, blackgaze whatever and avant-garde/experimental crap. And it’s not because they are mostly lacking on the corpse paint/satanic act area. We don’t give two shits about that anyway. There are WAY too many bands out there taking themselves too seriously and ruining what used to be a perfectly fun party. But we digress. The reason why we can’t stand the USBM “thing” is because we find it, well, boring. Supremely weak as well. So why did we decided to use a Leviathan track? Well, because, while we don’t like everything Wrest has put out, “Vesture Dipped in the Blood of Morning” is honestly one of the scariest things we have ever heard.

Hear that? Yeah, we know. It’s fucking great. It’s fucking Burzum. Try not to go TOO wild listening to this one, especially if you’re doing it at work or… you know what? Scratch that! Get up and punch your boss in the nose or something dumb like that. You’ve come this far; you deserve it.

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Tracklist

1. Requiem | Gyorgy Ligeti (HUN) | 2001: A Space Odyssey OST, 1968
2. Etna | Sunn 0))) (USA) & Boris (JAP) | Altar, 2006 http://sunn.bandcamp.com/ http://borisheavyrocks.com/
3. Ritual | Blasphemy (CAN) | Blood Upon the Altar, 1989 https://www.facebook.com/OfficialBlasphemy
4. Satanic Lust | Sarcófago (BRA) | I.N.R.I., 1987 https://myspace.com/sarcofagoband
5. A Fine Day To Die | Emperor (NOR) | In the Nightside Eclipse, 1994 http://www.emperorhorde.com/
6. Serpentine Sibilance | 1349 (NOR) | Revelations of the Black Flame, 2009 http://www.legion1349.com/
7. Vesture Dipped in the Blood of Morning | Leviathan (USA) | Massive Conspiracy Against All Life, 2008 http://shop-hellsheadbangers.com/leviathan.asp
8. Jesus død | Burzum (NOR) | Filosofem, 1996 http://www.burzum.org/