Tag: Black Metal

Darkthrone Or Metallica: Which Training Are You? By Jim Wendler

Posted on by Mike

Here’s my first blog of the year.  Haven’t been free to write sooner.  So if you follow me on Instagran @confessionsofanangrymetalhead you’ll most likely also see the hashtag #jimwendlerisgod underneath most of my lifting related posts.  Well, he is; and here’s one of many reasons why!

Underneath this is the link to a blog piece I just discovered on his website which pretty much sums of his training philosophy along with that of most real lifters using two very extremely different musical styles.  So click down below, read, enjoy, and ask yourself this: Are you real?  Or are you just a phony?

https://jimwendler.com/blogs/jimwendler-com/101066310-darkthrone-or-metallica-which-training-are-you

Quick Powerlifting Update

REvPS

I recently signed up for my second powerlifting competition, The RPS Jersey Rumble, happening on Saturday, May 20th at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Newark, NJ.  Unlike last year, where I competed in the 198lb weight class I’ll be in the 181lb class this time, since I dropped down to 172lbs since last May.  I’m still undecided on all my lifts.  I’m pretty sure I’m going for a 400lbs Deadlift.  I’ll either go for a 300lbs squat or I’ll go a bit higher.  My Bench Press?  QDisgraceful.  I might keep that real low.

I hope to start recording my meet prep soon.  It’s been so hard because while my new gym is surprisingly really good there are nights were it’s just so fucking overcrowded with college kids.  Fuck, I had to foam roll by the outside locker area just two nights ago because the entire designated stretching area was crowded.  A stretching area!  Oh yeah, since I last wrote in here I had to leave Sports Club because they increased my monthly payments without warning me.  Unacceptable.  I’m now at Blink Fitness, which surprising has five Hammer Strength power racks and Olympic bars with knurling so deep and juicy, as one of my Instagram followers put it, that it WILL rip up your shins during deadlifts and WILL rip the skin off your hands if your grip isn’t there.  I just wish it wasn’t so crowded at night!

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Sorrow Plagues – Self Titled

Posted on by Mike

For my latest underground review I was recently approached by one man black metal band Sorrow Plagues from the UK on my Instagram account about reviewing it’s debut self titled album.  While this kind of Black Metal is not really what I’m looking for, I was taken back by the song structures on some of these tracks – although I do have one major complaint.

“Fade” opens the album up, kicking in right away.  Upon first listen it almost sounds like your usual symphonic black metal.  You know type, the lush keyboard arrangements, the blast beats that may never end.  But as the song progresses it becomes more than that.  From an atmospheric standpoint this will undoubtedly come off more like Bathory’s landmark Sign Under The Black Mark than Emperor’s Into The Nightside Eclipse.  It’s all about the aura and everything else is literally just a soft bed for the vibe.

Upon hearing the piano piece that opens up “Aspirations” I was very surprised to hear what sounded like the drums being played far away.  It’s that effect you might hear in other styles of music, maybe pop music, or even dubstep – but not Black Metal!  So I’m taking points off for that alone.  Remember, I’m not the biggest fan of this style of Black Metal, so while I’m in fact listening to this with an open mind I’m still a bit biased.

In fact, you hear it again in the intro to the next track, “Awaken”.  In fact, I wondered for a bit if it would evolve into something else at all.  And, while it did, there’s one thing I have to give credit for and it’s that for once I’m not really sure what emotion I’m supposed to feel.  It all feels a bit cinematic for me.

As I get to “Twilight” I realize that most of these tracks are just as piano based as they are atmospheric.  With “Twilight”thing also begin to get a bit heavier again.  But just as I think things can’t get any more experimental, the fuzzy guitars that open up “Surrender” sound very…happy.  Very unusual for most Black Metal, as most songs are almost never NOT written in all minor keys.  “surrender” also features one of the albums most luscious arrangements, including a calming piano break that lasts a good two minutes before it all comes crashing down again.  Again, very cinematic.

Do yourselves a favor and get comfortable before listening to “Redemption”, the album’s 10-plus minute closer.  Sorrow Plagues really like their pretty passages because that opening guitar line just twinkles.  From there it builds up nice and slow, until it becomes something that’s more worthy of being an 80’s-era arena rock song than a Black Metal song – all while still hearing that twinkling guitar the entire time.  But this track in particular is reminder of the big problem I have with Sorrow Plagues’ debut album.  It really is nicely done.  It’s very well written and arrangement, such a ballsy experimental piece, very ambitious.  I understand that the guitars in Black Metal are not really supposed to be so loud in the mix but the least that could’ve been done was to bring up the vocals much more because I can barely hear anything!  And by the way, yeah, the guitar could have been mixed at least a little bit louder.

Here’s the link to Sorrow Plagues’ Bandcamp site:

http://sorrowplagues.bandcamp.com/album/sorrow-plagues

Thanks to Sorrow Plague for contacting me.  Be sure to check out the site, more reviews to come soon.

Giving The Devil His Good Name Back – The Metal Mike Show, September 9th 2004

Posted on by Mike

In my very first post here I briefly mentioned that I used to DJ for my college radio station.  Hell, that show, without question is the precursor to this blog because it gradually became my first platform to just talk shit AND not get in trouble for it.  But that’s a story for another time because how I got this fucking show so easily requires a bit of a back story anyway.  Oh, by the way, I won’t be mentioning which station it is because I don’t feel like giving anyone any undeserved attention.

So, I decided to give my station a shot in April, 2004, thinking I wanted to be a DJ.  I liked the idea of being able to play music and not be seen.  To this day it’s amazing how UGLY some of the top DJ’s in the country really are.  But since they sound great who the fuck cares?  I went through two meetings, one with the personnel director and the second with the station’s chief engineer…part super genius…part angry, bitter, and an all around asshole.  If Gregory House was a real person he’d be this guy! What made me laugh inside was in despite only being in his mid-30’s, the combination of his skullet and his awful 70’s looking moustache made this fucker look like an ex-member of the Doobie Brothers.

If I’m not mistaken I took the test a good week later and passed with just two wrong answers.  I originally chose to join the Music Department because that meant I could review records for play as well as maybe even dictate what got played at all, the first CD I ever reviewed being Black Label Society’s low key masterpiece, Hangover Music, Vol.6, which I was also able to burn and leave at the station while I took the original copy home.   But long story short the director at the time let no one do anything with her, frustrating me, so I joined the Engineering Department.  I had wanted to join Production but, at the time, it was mandated that you couldn’t do shit in production unless you knew how to run the board properly.

Some time goes by, the middle of summer arrives, and I was approached by the newly appointed engineering director about being his assistant.  Why?  Neither he or anyone else wanted the only other person around to be involved because that’s how lowly they all thought of him.  We’re talking a really nice guy too.  And there you have it, proof that even college radio isn’t clean of slimy politics!  So, from then on until I left for good in early 2007 I was the Assistant Engineering Director of my station.  But of course there was something else I wanted, and part of the process I didn’t even have to go through.

While I had applied for a show to start in the fall semester, I didn’t have to make an audition tape, and all because I was an engineer.  In other words, I already knew how to operate the board.  Before I was told that was even getting my first show I was approached by another DJ from the Production Department about covering him because he wasn’t able to get out of work.  It was easy enough, his show had a specific format which he wrote down for me – all I had to do was follow the bullet points.  So there I was, fresh from sitting in with the two BEST DJs in the whole station at that time – both actually being alumni volunteers at that point – and DJing my first show.

It was a little nerve wracking, I was already engineering and cohosting someone else’s public service show on Mondays for a month at this point, but this was the first time I was on my own.  After reading off the most important bullet point of this guy’s show he surprised me by calling me up.  I didn’t think he was listening but here this guy was telling me that I “rock”, and even complimenting my voice.  And after I finished up, that angry chief engineer – who can still go suck a dick and die – even told me he liked my voice.

Thursday, September 9th, 2004.  This day would see the launch of the Metal Mike Show at 4pm.  My then guitarist, Chad, jokingly suggested I call myself Metal Mike.  A manager of mine at work suggested Iron Mike, but some at the station just didn’t like it.  For a few weeks prior to this I had hand drawn ads and plastered them all over the walls of every single building on campus, as well as on the walls of music stores where I lived and even in places in Manhattan, especially the now defunct Manny’s Music on w 47th St.  The guy whose show I covered for read the script for my station promo and immediately asked if he could read it on mic.  It was hysterical hearing him read “It’s time to give the devil his good name back…Hell never sounded so good!”, with as much bass as he could get out of his voice.

With two hours to go I began writing down my playlist for the next three hours, trying to find a balance between the music I wanted to play and the music I’d be required to play.  There were two other metal DJ’s who happily pigeonholed themselves to two extremes, one to Black Metal so underground the bands themselves don’t even know if their demo tape is even circulating, and another guy that loved to cater to his drunk following in England, playing nothing but Swedish Melodic Metal and Power Metal.  Power Metal…GAY.  I wanted to be the balance between those two guys, being a fan of almost all types of Metal…expect Power Metal or anything related to it.  I’d like to think I did a good job with that over the next two plus years.

Ten minutes to go.  I walked in to the On-Air room where another DJ was getting ready to wrap things up, this was on of the two people I sat in with.  Now this woman had an incredible radio voice.  She’ll be oh so shy talking to you but when she’s on air she gets so sensual to the point that you’d think it was a different person.  Looking on the instant messenger on the computer screen I already had to messages.  One was from my dad, who had tuned in on his office computer to hear me, the other being some jackass in the station busting my balls “I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY ACTUALLY GAVE YOU A SHOW!”  I think I know who it was.   She left, I played a few PSA’s to get settled in, my show’s promo, followed by my favorite station ID track…and off we go!

I had Ozzy open up my show with “Miracle Man” off his classic 1988 album, No Rest For The Wicked.  This was Zakk Wylde’s recording debut with him and I was such a Zakk fanboy at the time.  Also, that opening riff is just huge!  Nerves hitting me so hard, I couldn’t help but practically scream right into the mic once the song ended.  I knew I needed to calm down but I was so nervous I just couldn’t stop myself!  After screaming out the station’s phone number for requests I immediately but on Death’s “Bite The Pain”, a request for one of those two metal DJ’s I mentioned before.  I tried to do everything I could to calm myself down.  It took awhile but as time went on I got a bit more comfortable…until someone came to check on me.

It was 6pm, two hours down, one to go.  Someone asked me how I was doing and as soon as I said ok it went downhill.  I put on Black Sabbath’s “Fairies Wear Boots”, only for it to start skipping.  So I quickly put “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” on the second CD player…and THAT started skipping.  So I pulled out Metallica’s …And Justice For All CD, put on “To Live Is To Die”…and THAT began skipping.  FUCK!  I had no choice but I go back on air and try to save myself.  Luckily for me, the rest of the show went off without a hitch before the next DJ came to relieve me.  All in all I had fun; I clearly had a lot of work to do as far as calming my nerves so I don’t scream into the mic, but this was the beginning of a time that would consume the next two years of my life.

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Looking For Underground Bands to Review!

Posted on by Mike

I want to start reviewing EPs, albums and demos from new and upcoming metal bands for my blog. I’ve reviewed CDs in the past for my college radio station and have even conducted interviews for my old show including L.A. band Cerberus (I’m mentioned in the thank you credits of their 2007 release Dispute The Truth, great album!)and ex-Venom guitarist Mykus; I want to start doing that again and just maybe help out some real good bands. Are you out there?

If you are reading this and know of any good underground bands worth listening to or are in a band and want me to check you guys out hit me up! I’m looking for anyone playing Death Metal(especially the really brutal shit!), Black Metal (nothing symphonic or with any keyboards please!), Thrash, Sludge, Grindcore or anything with a crust influence.  Bottom line:  I want it Extreme.

I’ll also need whatever links you can give me so I can use them to promote the bands, should I choose to review them.

Hope to hear from you!

Fucked By Satan: Goatwhore Live and Sold Out at Saint Vitus Bar 7/6/15

Posted on by Mike

It’s been a few weeks since this show happened but I took awhile to finally do this blog partially because of time constraints, partially because of the fact that a lot of things happened at this show, partially because I was sure some drunk piece of shit blatantly sabotaged one of my video of the Black Breath set but as I now know she failed.  But I’ll get to her.  I’m doing this post a little differently than my other posts because there was a lot to cover so I’m going to recap this as quick as I can and then list the bands and I’ll add their pictures and videos that way.

So I arrived at the bar a good half an hour before the show was supposed to start and within maybe ten minutes of my being there I recognized the woman I was standing next to during the Crowbar show just a week earlier.  She had checked on me after the psycho fanboy kicked me in the back of the head and she now revealed to me that her legs at that moment we were talking were still bruised all over from that night.  We both spoke for a bit about the crowd as a whole that night, how brutal that show in general was because that pit wasn’t really a mosh pit – it was one big fucking fight!  See the video on my post about that night see what I’m talking about!

The first band of the night was a band called Theories, who are out promoting their latest album, Regressions.  I recorded the first few songs of their set which I will post.  They weren’t bad.  I don’t know that I’d buy their stuff but but I’d definitely see them again.  I’d say that their singer should definitely work a little more on coming out of his shell with his stage presence.  I imagine it will happen over time.

Ringworm were next and all I can say is…OW!!  There’s a reason James Bulloch is the “Human Furnace”.  Damn.  The band as a whole were absolutely brutal…so much so that that this where the circle pits and even some idiotic dancing began!  I stood to the side of the room while filming to avoid getting hit but some retard who was dancing around like a spaz  threw himself in to the guy next to me, who obviously bumped in me, hitting me right in the ribs and forcing my thumb to turn the camera off.  Within a minute or two of starting over I knocked into again twice, tailbone first in to the wall both times so this time I just got out until the band finished.  Again…OW!!!  By the way as of this writing my tailbone STILL hurts.

Black Breath…where shit went down.  What’s in a name?  That’s what I need to remember when it comes to Metal bands because these guys shattered all my expectations and fucking killed it! I couldn’t even use the word brutal to describe their intensity on stage.  They were PERFECT!!  So what was the problem?  I had gotten a brand new Droid Maxx just a few days earlier so I was unaware when filming that there was an automatic light that I had to remove.  So while I was filming there was a light on the whole time so I was a little confused when the woman in front of me began giving my phone the finger and then gave me the finger.  Of course I gave her the finger back.  She then turned to me and told me that the light on my phone was really bothering her and I was “making everything suck”.  I understood and kindly asked her to give me a minute so I could find a place to move and I guess that wasn’t good enough for her so she pushed me.

I didn’t do anything only because I assumed she was a bit drunk but the fucking bitch did it again!  When I was done filming she and her much calmer boyfriend thanked me.  I politely approached her and told her that there was no reason to push me.  “Well I tried to reason with you and you wouldn’t listen so I’ll push you all I want!” was her immature reply.  I called her out on it and she declared “I’m not afraid of you!”.  I never threatened her.  She then tried to insult me again and gave up.  It’s incredible, how tough women act when their boyfriends/husbands are around, although part of me thinks that this drunk bitch wears the pants in the couple.  And by the way you dumb twat, if you’re reading this I hope you get shot repeatedly in your fuckin’ head!  I do have to acknowledge the guy behind me, who saw everything and offered to lend me his spot so I could continue filming, but I was already finished at that point.  If you happen to be reading this, thank you bro, it obviously wasn’t forgotten.

After I took a few deep breaths in amazement that I didn’t punch the drunk bitch in her throat I got ready for Goatwhore.  I slowly got more in the mood the longer I heard Venom’s song “In League With Satan” blasting through the speakers…so bad but so good!  I was getting ready to film again and when I saw the guy in front of me looking up at my phone I decided to stop and look at the problem.  That’s when I discovered the light and turned it off – it still doesn’t justify some dumb bitch pushing me.

Goatwhore got on and they fucking tore it up!  I personally feel that leaving Crowbar was the smartest move Sammy Duet ever made; he’s a totally brutal, loud, heavy guitarist.  Let’s face it – he never would’ve been able to truly express himself had he stayed.  That’s no disrespect to Kirk Windstein, but when the band you’re in is the product of one guy’s sole vision you’re not going to have an easy time getting your ideas out there.  The good news here was I was in a spot were I was able to avoid injuries this time and STILL see the band!

This is actually the third time I’ve seen them in the last eight years and the second time I saw them while on tour for their latest album, Constricting Rage of The Merciless, an album I recommend HIGHLY.  Someone once said that Goatwhore is exactly what Venom would have sounded like if they weren’t such a joke and I couldn’t agree more.  The place really came apart near the end when the began their song “FBS” (right….I don’t know why they didn’t just label it what it is.), of the new CD.  At the end of the night everyone knew what is was to get Fucked By Satan…and they loved it.

Theories:

Ringworm:

Black Breath:

Goatwhore: