As years pass by, the aura drops …
As the Winter finally begins to fade at the 45th parallel and the Sun strikes through clouds of gray, as always in the underground Worm Gear bunker we pick through the deluge to bring you the goods. This week we are proud to present an interview with seminal NWOBHM band Satan, and direct from Satan guitarist Steve Ramsey we have candid views and memories from this founding member on albums old and new, and thoughts on Satan’s heightened presence in the scene. Along with that coup, new blood Jake Moran pens ruminations on Anciients, Marty discusses the dichotomies on the new Darkthrone, and Jim covers the highly original new Tribulation; Stilla, Swazafix (Theo Loomans, R.I.P), and jawings about Joel Grind also rise to the surface. So prepare your aged eyes for many words, and if you haven’t already checked out that Arckanum song stream, do so today, it destroys! Oh yeah – as always, post your comments and playlists, fellow pundits… -Jim
Marty Rytkonen Playlist
Omen – The Curse
Warlord – Deliver Us
Tension – Breaking Point
Windir – Arntor
Graveland – Immortal Pride
Graveland – Impaler’s Wolves
Miscreant – Dreaming Ice
Darkthrone – Hate Them
Vex – Memorious
Stilla – Till Stilla Falla
Afflicted – Prodigal Sun
Jim Clifton Playlist
Aosoth – IV: Arrow In Heart (absolutely amazing/confounding Black Metal!)
Battle Dagorath – Cursed Storm of Ages
Blasphemy – Gods of War
Cenotaph – The Gloomy Reflection of Our Hidden Sorrows
Dark Funeral – The Secrets of the Black
Kroda – Fimbulvinter
Satan – Court In The Act
Stargazer – A Great Work of Ages
VHÖL – s/t
Zombiefication – At the Caves of Eternal
Jake Moran Playlist
Ceremonium – No Longer Silent
Midnight Odyssey – Funerals from the Astral Sphere
Tempestuous Fall – The Stars Would Not Awake You
Blood of the Black Owl / At the Head of the Woods – Split
Alda – Tahoma
Eitarnora – Tall Grasses and Black Ash
Preterite – Pillar of Winds
The Caretaker – Patience (After Sebald)
Bvdub – Serenity
The spring birds. I’ve been especially conscious of the common grackles this year. A group of grackles is sometimes called a plague… Fairly metal.
Worm Gear 
Let’s see…
new Summoning of course
Sodom – Obsessed by Cruelty
Obscenity – Atrophied In Anguish
Destruction – Release From Agony
Destruction – Sentence Of Death & Infernal Overkill
Fell Voices – all
Rhinocervs – RH-15
Wormlust – The Wormlust Collective
Merzbow vs. Nordvargr – Partikel II
Merzbow – Kibako
Merzbow and Oren Ambarchi – Cat’s Squirrel
Sacriphyx – The Western Front
Spawn of Possession – all
SVN OKKLT 2xCS
Urfaust – Der freiwillige Bettler
Visceral Bleeding – Transcend into Ferocity
first Hate Eternal
Parhelion – Temples In Ice
UA : ‘Obsessed By Cruelty’ – Now that is a great old school raw album!! I haven’t listend to that in ages. Gotta change that.
got the new Vhol last night. That has been seriously none stop since last night till now. Shit, a ton of fun and my fee can’t stop playing the imaginary double bass the whole time.
What else?
Rotor – Festsaal Kreuzberb Live
Dead Empires – Monuments
The ultra Electric Mega Galatic – Self Titled LP
Kult Death Compilation
Timeghoul – Demo LP
Terra Tenebrosa – The Purging
Did I say the new Vhol?
Ghoul – We Came of the Dead!!
Nocte Obducta – Umbirel
Tsjunder – the Dessert hell one??
Can’t wait to get the Alter of Plague and Aosoth IV in the mail! Other than, there ain’t shit out there and the new Dark Throne sucks my nuts, as do all their albums after ‘A Blaze..’! hehe…
oh, and their first DM album sucked ass too! hug anyone?
Testament – The Legacy
Testament – Practice What You Preach
Testament – Souls of Black
Dissection – The Somberlain
Abscess – Seminal Vampires and Maggot Men (ah, that Chris Reifert insanity…)
Darkthrone – The Underground Resistance (quite pleasantly sucking my nuts ànd ass)
Forbidden – Omega Wave (Russ Anderson is still one of my favorite thrash vocalists)
Krypts – Unending Degradation
Maveth – Coils of the Black Earth
Abominant – Upon Black Horizons
Abysme – Strange Rites
Benediction – Killing Music
Coffins – Ancient Torture
Dead Congregation – Graves of the Archangels
Death – Individual Thought Patterns
Humiliation – From Strength to Strength (their new one is up for pre-order on Deepsend!)
Resurgency – False Enlightenment
Gortal – Deamonolith
Undergang – Til Døden Os Skiller
…looking forward to Vhöl and the new Altar of Plagues…
Saw Forbidden at their practice space last year prepping for shows. The drummer is a friend of mine. Russ was singing better than I have ever heard in my life. Too bad he dropped out and Forbidden went their ways. the new album was going to be fucking great.
How’s that new Summoning? Been meaning to re-visit their catalog, always liked their unique sound. And who doesn’t like orcs? 🙂
Nice SATAN interview. Though I love a lot of NWOBHM bands, I never got into ‘Court in the Act’. The tinny production always bugged me, as did the back-to-back instrumentals. Some good songs on it for sure, but I never felt it was a classic the way many folks do. Love their 7″ and the Roxcalibur comp tracks, but that’s all that’s essential for me.
Playlist- been jumping from album to album a lot lately:
Liquid Earth- L-E
Iggy & the Stooges- Raw Power
Megadeth- Peace Sells & Rust in Peace
Mayhem- Ordo ad chao
Labyrinth- return denied pt 2
High Priest of Saturn- s/t
Victor Griffin’s In-Graved- s/t
Mayhem- bloodrush (the early 80s UK punk-metal band, not the one from somewhere in northern Europe 🙂 )
Orcs rule but I never got into Summoning. And man I’ve tried… I mean in theory, what’s not to love? The artwork, lyrical matter, the black-metal-with-symphonic-keys, the Tolkien vibes… But when I hear the music it all falls flat for me. Ah well… I’ll just play those Emperor and Saryricon classics once more. \m/
I have Stronghold by Summoning that I found used many years ago. I will occasionally listen too and enjoy that record. I’ve never been motivated however, to find any of their other other stuff. It’s almost as that’s all the Summoning I’ll ever need.
Been listening to a lot of,
Inquisition, Into the Infernal Regions… and Invoking the Majestic Throne… One of the best black metal bands ever.
Also,
Immortal, Blizzard Beasts
Genesis, Trick of the Tail
No One Gets Out Alive, Like a Lamb to the Slaughter
Jess and the Ancient Ones, s/t
Rush, Clockwork Angels
I LOVE the new Summoning. More of all that is great about them, with a tad cleaner production this time around IMO \m/
Cirkus-Lizard> Hats of to you sir; Inquisition (Hails!! Indeed one of the Dark Lords most evil!) and Rush (unbelievable how great these guys still are) on the same playlist!
Jim> oh man, now you’re gonna make me try to like them again…
Thanks for the inclusion!
i heard the summoning. couldnt really even remotely pretend to like it. i tried…
Freek,
Thanks man! Rush has been one of my favorites for a very long time. Although I’ve never agreed with the concept of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, it was pretty cool to see them get their just due. Plus Rush fans showed up and kind of took over the place.
Alan (Nightsblood)>>> New Summoning is amazing. I could go on about it here, but I need to save the verbage for the review which i hope to complete tomorrow night in time for the next update. But yes… been spinning it incessantly since it arrived in the promo email.
Regarding Summoning… this is one of those special musical projects that nails it on all fronts. Typically I come from the school of thought that everyone hears music differently an I tend to let differing opinions roll off. I understand everyone has different tastes. BUT, those out there that say that they don’t get Summoning, just think they are “ok”, or dislike them… sorry… that’s crazy talk that makes no sense to me. 😉 Haha. It is world building music that takes you “somewhere” other than reality. Very few bands can achieve this once, let alone for an entire catalog. I think it’s just slow moving music that takes a bit to develop and in this fast paced world, maybe people don’t take the time to sit with albums that need the time to open up.
Forbidden… Loved their old stuff, saw them on the Twisted into Form tour with Realm and Death Angel. They sounded great. I actually liked and bought their comeback album. They kept their original sound while tastefully modernizing. Sucks to hear they have disbanded. Regarding Russ… before their last album came out I watched a couple of live clips from fest appearances…. the band sounded good, but Russ sounded like he had some left over pork chop in his throat. Was singing off key, seemed more comfortable with the heavier vocal lines. I thought he lost his edge/voice and was surprised at how good his performance was on the CD. It actually made me wonder how much studio wizardry was going on. Hello auto tune!
Lastly… great to see some new people stopping by to post their comments. the more the merrier!
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to contribute…
I understand what you say about world building music Marty, I can imagine the music of Summoning having that effect. After Jim’s comment I have been listening to Oath Bound and Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame (now playing) and it’s growing on me… Must be all the fantasy stuff I’ve been reading lately. Still having some trouble with the synthetic drums though. Maybe that’s the thing; I like their musical ideas but the execution sounds a bit artificial and cheap to me sometimes.
Regarding Forbidden/Russ Anderson; that’s too bad. The last album was really good, would be nice to have them around some more (to tour with Exodus and Testament hahaha). I can’t imagine Russ using autotune though. I guess all singers have good and bad days (Tails commented he heard Russ in fine shape). The last time I saw them (which was in I guess ’94) they kicked ass. Really liked Distortion and Green too by the way.
Eitranora: Thanks for the brilliant album!
ikbenfreek: Make sure you check out Minas Morgul and Dol Guldur; their ‘classic’ albums and the height of Summoning in my estimation (excluding the absolutely brilliant ‘A Distant Flame Before The Sun’), though everything they released is great by me. For me, the artificial sound of the synth and drums is just one more important shade of the tapestry that is Summoning. I’d recommend learning to embrace it!
Thanks for the info on the new Summoning folks, I look forward to the pending WG review.
Marty- I sent you a pm over at lapland regarding an article that may interest you. No rush at all, just mentioning it b/c neither you nor I check in on that site very often since it’s pretty dead thereabouts.
Re: Forbidden, what you saw of Russ was early reunion shows and yes, he was super rusty. they all admitted he didn’t sound good. He hadn’t sung in a long time. But as I said, during their practices and shows in the bay area last year, he sounded phenomenal. there was zero autotune on that last album. Omega was what got him back to tune so to speak.
also, not ‘getting’ Summoning and not ‘liking’ Summoning are too different things. i get Summoning, I just don’t like it.
Freak…. i like the synthetic drum sound as it sets them apart and allows them to layer more effectively. Perhaps if you look at it as their martial industrial foundation, it’ll be easier to stomach.
The drums don’t bother me. In fact, I like them. What bothers me are the keyboards. It sounds exactly like the music of Warcraft (when I played long ago). That is what bothers me. I am as much a nerd as anyone, but this music has one too many pens in the pocket protector for me. There is enough fantasy in black and death metal as it is, and they all sound like orcs for christs sake. having fake horns blasting off in dungeons and dragons land doesn’t hit me right.