Darkthrone Darkthrones and Black Flags

I guess this has made the rounds, but much like the the new "darkthrones and black flags" cd which snuck out last week,it was new to me. Fenriz is the real deal. Long Version of interview here-long but worth it.

The woodland metal posing on the booklet for the new record is worth the purchase. Getting to see Fenriz's epic Speed Metal tat is a highlight. Imagine black metal woodland posing, but in focus, in color, and in daylight. Too Good.

The music on here is way more rock. Not D-Beat, but Motorhead is an obvious influence. Super dirty and primitive metal. Demo quality recording (in a good way not a scuzzy black metal side projectway) I was kinda hoping that the black flags in question might hint at some greg ginn level shredding, but I think it is more like black flags of pirates or orcs or something.
Song titles are killer.

These guys have gone from tech death metal to the architects for the blueprint of black metal ( the black print?) to know scummy rock and roll/thrash. What next?

Not everyone is a fan though. Check this post on the Klaxon blog. Darkthrone may not keep it true but Klaxon and Bone Awl do. In some ways I agree, Transylvanian Hunger is some life changing, next level shit. But once you have defined a genre and not died(a la Euronymous or the Big Bopper) what do you do? It would be equally as lame if the Throne kept pumping out Under a Funeral Moon copies or tried to polish it up to Satryicon levels. So given the choice of A.No Darkthrone, B.Transylvanian Hunger Redux, or C.Whatever they come up with. I will go with C

Boot Camp?

Bjarne puts the drug sniffing dogs on the Schleck's.

Integrity and Bikes? This Blog Rules

Stumbled across this post on the Slow Your Roll blog. Gotta email him to find out if he ever road to see Face Value,Confront, Outface, or OLC.

Enforcer Into the Night

In the age of the retro throwback metal, I was expecting a more straight ahead thrash attack from Enforcer. It looked like they got hold of most of Megaforce's fonts for the layout. I was suprised to see them mining a different vein of music. Metallica, Maiden, Diamondhead and NWOBHM seem to be the reason d'etre for enforcer. They also pulled out all the stops on the group photo shoot in the booklet. Cover kind of reminds me of Exciter but it is more pro than what Exciter used to put together. I think HA jacked some Exciter art for their site. Way better than the Century Media power metal BS, this is some crucial metal.
9 songs of classic NWOBHM. Even the song titles have that feel. So does this make this the New New wave of Retro-British Heavy Metal (NNWORBHM)?
Heavy Artillery is the label. They are pretty reliable for metal these days.

Walton

I was never a big Bill Walton fan. He sucked(sucks) as a commentator and if I am going to be a fan of a drugged out Dead fan, I'm going with Bill Lee. Regardless Bobke Strut dropped this nugget last month.
There are some pretty cool links at the end of the article for Walton fanatics.

3rd time not the charm

So they say your first season of cross is a learning experience-more like a series of dope slaps. Headed down to Chesire CT for a race. Cold! The couse was infamous for some gnarly run ups. Video here.
Got my shit packed with multiple layers and back up clothes etc. Felt pretty good. Got to the course and got in one lap between races. It was a combination of frozen grass, off camber normal cross in the park conditions and then rocky, rooted, rutted single track with 2 run ups that were pretty long-as tough as advertised. Both run ups could be ridden the full distance if you had a clear shot and that is pretty much what got the winners to the top.
As for me, I wasn't sure how to run the tire pressure. Dan said a lot lower than I had been, and based on the half thawed grass/mud/pine needles/leaves the lower the better, but with the rocky single track too low might mean a flat. Got it another practice lap and decided to go lower. The sand pit was thankfully frozen, short, and fairly easy to negotiate.
Almost missed the start of my race trying to squeeze in another practice lap. Tire pressure felt right.
1st lap was fast, but not bad from the back. Squealing brakes was the order of the day as people were full gas trying to close gaps on the single track and or pass where you could. Run ups were hairy. I made up ground on the lst two laps and was feeling pretty good. Hit the gas again towards the end of lap two and that might have been a little too ambitious. Died going into the barriers. There were two corners that you could almost pump like a snake run and I was thankful for that. Crashed in a slick right downhill S turn in the mud. Redlined it to get back ground before the singletrack. This is where the trouble starts. I clipped a rock pretty hard before the run up and again before a little bridge. Hopped off for the run up and when I jumped back on at the top, I felt the rim hit the ground. Pinch flat. FUCK! Now if I had spare wheels, I could have run or rode it to the pits, but I had spare clothes, not spare wheels. Thus my day was done.
Still battling with the tire pressure issue, but felt stoked on this race. Rode pretty good in the cold which gives me hope for Warwick. Next time I will have pit wheels. The good news is every weekend is another chance and I can work it out again in Sterling next weekend. I will miss the Andover XC 3.5 miler which was a highlight of my 5K campaign last year. Damn.

How much Art?

Can you take? Apparently a lot. Rule of Thirds is the new one from Death in June. Like a black metal band, I anxioulsy await their new records as much for the art and imagery as the music. This one lays out some very straight ahead acoustic folk. (neo-folk?, pagan-folk?, post-folk? creepy Waterboys?) Sounds like the most straight forward record they have done in ages. Obtuse lyrics. Wickerman and grapevines. Tight.
You already know if you are going to get this.
The usual word play, allusions, and obscure refereneces. Do the work and the lyrics are hiding a lot of cool things-and you can feel like a smug smart asshole.
"My Last Europa Kiss" is one of the standout tracks for me.

One thing I always appreciate about DIJ is that they pay attention to detail, present things as they want, and don't seem at all pressured on concerned with the usual BS around the "music business". Not unlike Mr.Fenriz from an upcoming Darkthrone post. They do it for themselves and don't compromise the presentation.