My 20 Favorite Black Metal Songs (in order)

I was pretty excited about making this list, and even though I'm sure I will want to alter it, this is as accurate as I can be presently. This list is strictly black metal, no fringe bands (Bethlehem, Katatonia, etc.) are included.

20. Graveland - In the Northern Carpathians



A cheesy yet entertaining intro full church bells and crying babies begins this epic. Solid, raw, and classic, very atmospheric. 1994. Poland.

19. Velvet Cacoon - Avalon Polo




Publicity stunts aside, Velvet Cacoon created some serious atmospheric drone on Genevieve, and this track takes the cake for me. 2004. USA.

18. Summoning - The Rotting Horse on the Deadly Ground


My favorite by Summoning, total Tolkien worship, but great melodies abound. 1999. Austria.


17. Gorgorth - Gorgoroth



The intro is what makes this song so great. Layer upon layer of harmonized guitar trem-picked goodness. 1996. Norway.


16. Dimmu Borgir - Stormblast


Before they got terrible, Dimmu Borgir released an atmospheric masterpiece with the outro of this particular song being the climax. 1996. Norway.


15. Cradle of Filth - A Gothic Romance (Red Roses for the Devil's Whore)



Before you decide this list has lost all credibility, put your bias against this band aside and listen to this. Vampyric atmosphere at its best. 1996. England.


14. Walknut - Grim Woods



Not very well known. Atmospheric, hypnotic. 2007. Russia.


13. Ulver - Capitel II: Soelen gaaer bag aase need



Everything about this song is pretty much perfect, especially the chorus section with the clean vocals. 1995. Norway.


12. Blut Aus Nord - From Hlidskjalf



Icy and otherworldly. 1995. France.


11. Satyricon - King of the Shadowthrone



I could have just as easily picked Dominions of Satyricon, but decided on this one instead. Classic 2nd wave from Norway. 1994.


10. Darkthrone - A Blaze in the Northern Sky


The aggression to this album is insane, and something appalling was brewing within these guys back in the day. 1992. Norway.


9. Forest Silence - I Feel the Claws of Darkness



The least well known on this list (shame). Thick synth-laden atmosphere with razor riffage. 2002. Hungary.


8. Drudkh - The Eternal Turn of the Wheel



Many would pick False Dawn instead, but I prefer this one. Hypnotic and repetitive with brilliant harmonized riffs, just how I like it. Too bad this band only has 2 solid albums before becoming mediocre. 2002. Ukraine.


7. Vlad Tepes - Under the Carpathian Yoke



The definition of kvlt. Absolutely insane in a great way. 1995. France.


6. Nokturnal Mortum - Kolyada



Essential listening, especially the 2nd half. Folky goodness. 1997. Ukraine.


5. Windir - Saknet



Valfar (R.I.P.) was a true composer. Saknet is his finest work. 1999. Norway.


4. Nokturnal Mortum (again) Tears of Paganism/Lunar Poetry



Pure atmospheric aggressive black metal at its absolute finest. The horrible sound quality just adds to the fun. 1996. Ukraine.


3. Paysage d'Hiver - Der Weg




Listen to believe. The only black metal album as a whole that can compete with Burzum's Hvis Lyset tar Oss. Summed up best from some dude at surrealdocuments.blogspot.com

"The music of Paysage D'Hiver is used as a monomanic, minimalist musical mantra. This mantra is supposed to help the listener to visualize Alpine winter landscapes, and to experience this landscape as sublime, an aesthetic emotion of simultaneous attraction and fear, an emotion which finds its origin in Romanticism. Listening to Paysage D'Hiver is a phantasmatic practice."

2000. Switzerland.

2. Xasthur - In the Hate of Battle



The first Xasthur song I ever heard, and still by a landslide my favorite. I rarely listen to this (once every 2-3 years) to savor it all the more when I do. Depressive black metal at its best.

2002. USA.

1. Burzum - Det Some En Gang Var



No surprise here. Det Som En Gang Var will probably will be the best black metal song ever recorded, past and future. 1994. Norway.

A few notes:

For someone just entering the black metal world, many of these songs, particularly the depressive and minimalist ones, will seem like no big thing. They take many many listens to appreciate fully.

Also, no Emperor, Immortal, Mayhem, or Enslaved made the list, which even surprised me.

You probably think I'm a big nerd now, but I think you are missing out on some of the best music ever recorded.

Crazy Saturday

Extreme Strings

Thought I'd start with another strings thingy I just wrote. Not epic by any means, pretty simple and driving.

This weekend was pretty wild. Yesterday I decided to dye my hair on the spot, and right after that task was completed we went apple picking at McDougals near Sanford, Maine.
http://www.mcdougalorchards.com/lfmf.htm

We got some HUUUGE crispins, which would be a chore to eat on your own, and also some honeycrisp, macoun, cortland, and some other obscure brands I don't remember. Of course we avoided the red delicious, the image everyone envisions when picturing an apple, and surely the worst kind by far.

After we picked our apples and I was lugging this massive bag we took a little hay ride around the place. Then we got some homemade apple cinnamon donut munchkins and hot cider and ate a crispin with those at a picnic table. I thought it was so cool that this place was a short 20 minute country drive from our place, whereas in VA it would be an all-day event.

Last night we went to the abandoned Scenic Theater in Rochester, NH for a mock paranormal investigation and training session. I learned all about the different types of equipment used, how to use them and hook them up, basic electrical theory, informative tidbits on how to conduct different aspects of an investigation, etc. etc. Basically, I have the knowledge now to start buying my own equipment and conduct my own investigations!

We spent about 2 hours investigating the theater which had 4 floors. We got a spike in our EMF and K2 simultaneously in one room, but theorized it was an electrical source in the wall or from directly in the building next door. Also, in the 3rd floor theater, one girl got a bad vibe and needed to leave, but upon further investigation by the rest of us, no strange activity was found besides a slight increase in EMF in one doorway. The basement proved to be rather creepy, with a vent of doom that disappeared into darkness. No one entered that. The first floor ballroom was the main area of the venue, and was filled with lots of clutter seemingly from 50 years ago.

The likelihood is that this theater was not haunted, despite previous reports of an investigator following an EMF reading in the 2nd floor bathroom, and an extreme sensation of feeling unwanted and needing to leave a room in the basement. However, nothing happened last night, and the experience simply served as a venue to experiment and learn about the different types of equipment, as well as a way to figure out how I can become an investigator myself.

Today its rainy, and I have lots of laundry to do. Maybe I'll spice it up with some Dino Crisis later...

New Hair Color

So I dyed my hair malaysian cherry! Its the first time I've done anything drastic since actually growing it out in the first place. It was a pretty quick decision and I didn't look back. I'm very happy with the results (good job Christine).















I think it fits the upcoming fall atmosphere pretty well.


The bball hoop there is the one I get to play at, double rims and all hehe.


Tonight I have my first paranormal investigation in an abandoned theater in Rochester, NH. I'll learn all about the ghost gadgets so I can have investigations on my own eventually! I'll post all about it soon.

Better MIDI

So I just download a direct Midi to Mp3 converter because doing it through I-Tunes was lame and crashing my computer half the time. I am really happy too because this converter makes the MIDI quality better than it was before... I guess it uses a better sound engine (well it couldn't get any worse....)

I've reuploaded the new slightly better sounding version if Bambi and a new one Nightmare.

Bambi

Nightmare

Enjoy! :O)

Bambi

That song is kind of all over the place. Lots of augmented and 7th chords. 3 minutes of schizophrenic midi abuse.

So I have been thinking a lot about the future of the world lately and my outlook is pretty grim. I don't like to spread negativity and that is not my intention. I just think things are worse off than the masses realize, and that life as we know it must change drastically in order for us to live in the same comfort that we have been so used to. The intensity of the matter has not sunk in, and unfortunately time is against us. The state of worldly affairs is beyond sub-par, but many would argue that that has always been the case. With technology, specifically the ease at which we can communicate in which distance is no longer a factor, as well as the atrocious destructive weapons that have been created, rash and devastating decisions can have apocalyptic consequences that can happen pretty much overnight. We have no idea what our government is up to, and if there is any information at all that would be too dangerous for the public to handle, there is no way they would disclose it. As far as wild people in the world, for starters, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, recently called the Holocaust a "lie." Thank God he does not have the power to launch nuclear action (he isn't the supreme leader). There are millions of people out there suffering that are angry at the United States, envious of our quality of life, disgusted with our overuse of the resources, appalling consumerism and over-abundance of things we do not need, and inability to truly recognize how our ways of life are not sustainable and will ultimately fail if drastic change is not achieved. We must change our fuel consumption, not only because oil will eventually run out and become much more expensive to acquire, but because we are putting the natural climate cycle out of whack, and while the earth is in a thousand year cycle of cooling presently and the current sub-cycle within is one of warming, we are increasing that warming to unprecedented and unnatural rates, with consequences the earth itself has never experienced before. What it all comes down to is that our way of life is unnatural. There is impending doom.

We have to do more than just pray. Unfortunately, we as basic citizens have little power besides what we alter in our own lives to help cause change. Yet, because humans are naturally herd-like and enjoy being accepted by others, unless it becomes cool to recycle and revolt, most people will enjoy life as they know it. It is easy to ignore and forget, especially "bad" things, and humans are forgetful by nature, making it all the easier.

We cannot afford to be conservative, but neither can we afford to be too liberal, to the point where actions have not been thought out completely, or studied to see if they will be in harmony with nature. Old fashioned mass-culture views need serious upending, and thankfully we have won that battle slightly, but much more work needs to be done.

In the future I can see children not being raised in families, but in almost orphanage type situations where "mothers" have been appointed by the government because of their natural urges and desires. The other women, due to the equality of men and women, will pursue independent lives with no worries of unwanted preganancy due to a revoultionary type of birth control. Marriage and the family as we know it will be no longer necessary social customs because of the level of technology that will be in existence. Much of the world will be built underground, where artifical means of sunlight and other natural phenomena will keep those that "remember how things were" satisifed. Death as we know and understand it may not even exist. Communication will be telepathic and much less emphasis will be on what you can do with your physical self, meaning sports will be nearly nonexistent.

These are merely personal ideas, comment or attack if you wish.

Goofy Spyro songs, life...

So I started my job yesterday and I am pretty wiped. I've gotta get use to this massive commute and serious lack of free time. But at least some $$ is comin in...So far it's ok, not too exciting, learning some stuff, hanging out in a jungle in Asia, ya know the usual. The breaks are nice though.

This past weekend was a lot of fun. I went to the UFO festival on saturday and heard a bunch of lectures by professionals on the matter. I'm too exhausted right now to get into it, but it was very entertaining and intriguing. They pretty much said we've been "had" by the U.S. government and the reasoning that they refuse to disclose any information is because it would change the very nature of our life and cause mass chaos. The technology they claimed to have found allows travel in anti-gravity, basically warping, and therefore would leave no need for cars, etc. causing a mass collapse in the economy, as well as general paranoia. But apparently the aliens love us very much but find us really amusing. The reason they came in the first place was because of our extreme violent tendencies, and the H-Bomb explosions gathered their attention. They would like us to join the galactic community, but not until we have progressed to the point where we are peaceful and calm. Bleh, that's enough for now, take it with a grain of salt.

The songs posted here are strange compositions utilizing a lot of odd chords. They remind me of music from the video game Spyro the Dragon. I wrote them last week and got pretty excited because they are a little different than what I usually do. The first one repeats the same thing 4 times, because ina video game the song would be on repeat anyway....but just so you are aware it ends abruptly at the end of the 4th cycle.

Spyro Hectic Village

Spyro Icy Night

Dreams...2012...

The last three nights I have had very violent dreams. It's pretty weird because I don't do anything violent during the day and I don't believe I have any bottled up feelings against anyone. I have also been waking up very often between 3-4. Christine says this is because I sleep in so late in the morning. I am not so sure myself but I will monitor it. My theory about dreams is that they are illogical and just the brain's way of trying to learn and process information from life, especially the most recent day or days, and it is an essential part of living. I read a theory yesterday that we all have an astral body that visits other worlds as we dream. Seems pretty out there, but who knows.

Regarding 2012, the theme is going to be completely over-exposed in the media to the point that it will become a mockery and not taken seriously. Already, there are a few movies coming out within 6 months about 2012 and the end of the world, what you must do to survive, and how life will be on the other side. And this is only 2009. Imagine the sensationalism that will occur in 2010 and 11! I think I am one of the few that honestly believes something major is going to happen on Dec. 21, 2012, but I also think that there will be warning and/or a build-up. I have been into this date for years and have predicted that the media would catch on. I feel humorous views on this date are totally wrong, almost ignorant, and just another example of our world, especially our spoiled U.S. culture, believing nothing they can imagine could possibly ever happen that would mess up their perfect lives. People will have their reasons and I would love to hear them, and I will respect those that have substance and are well thought out. But to just laugh it off is a big mistake, giving all the data and synchronicity that points to this date as a major climax of some sort.

I suppose one of the major reasons I have firm belief in this date is the synchronicity I have personally experienced, regarding the time 11:11. I'm not going to explain what happened back in 2005 here, but those who know me well have probably heard me tell the tale. Well, basically I look at that experience as an Awakening. It has taken me a long while to get that far but I am confident in that assessment. Even more evidence is that on December 21, 2012, the winter solstice occurs in the Northern Hemisphere at precisely 11:11. Is that just a coincidence too?

Anyway, hope I didn't scare some of you off.

The song I am posting today was written in Fall 2007 and was inspired by some keyboard passages off of Dimmu Borgir's first two cds, For All Tid and Stormblast. It's a bit melancholic but rather soothing in a way too. This song is an example of a "round" song in the sense that instruments keep adding and adding. I tend to do that a lot as I always have more ideas of what would sound good on top. Hope you enjoy.

Dark Lonely Sorrow