Origin - Antithesis

A brutal album, period. It culls together the best of blast-beaty, chromatic grindcore in certain passages and then emerges into a groovy wash of the classic “riff,” something not often seen anymore in the majority of metal. Nothing technically complicated always, but carries the point across with no frills and without mathcore-y noodling. The highlight track on this album is “Antithesis” with the classic Robert Oppenheimer sample (quoting the Bhagavad Gita) at the beginning as well in the lyrics of the song:

I am become death

The destroyer of worlds

The most apt description of this album I can give is: a wall closing in on you. Just when you think Antithesis can’t get any closer to crushing you, it lets up and then hits back farther than it initially reached. From the beginning track “The Aftermath” to the aforementioned title track at the end of the CD, the themes of the eschaton meshing with ideas of Hindu gods. This album is a celebration of the grandeur of mastery and power and what may be called a prayer to the gods of destruction and dominance. The track aftermath sets the stage for the good to come from our destruction:

Now life exists, without humans
New life unfolds, unimpeded
See new days, Earth will flourish
Worlds bane dead, free of cancer
Pollution, will diminish
Our plague ends, we won't return
The sixth wave, of extinction
Self destruct, we killed ourselves
Horizon, sights still unseen
Aftermath
Aftermath of our extinction

Among the songs dealing with death in inventive ways, the most stunning tracks have the themes of Hindu mythology in them which add a more sinister and epic sense to the album – they are not only dealing with death, but death on a complete scale anticipating annihilation; the only suitable term is the German Vernichtung which connotes not only death but removal from history and time. In Wrath of Vishnu, Origin states:

All Pervading - Destroyer of all existence
Past and future - Created and then erased
The universe - Sustained by the will of Vishnu
Incarnation - Mortals are dehumanized
Desolation - Immortals now isolated
Termination - Expiration of eons
Eradicate - Souls and lives that have existed
Cessation of - All solar proclivities

Furthermore, they appear to be seeking

The antithesis of life and dying
Screaming through the skies
The antithesis of life or death
Leaves us vaporized

Between the annihilation and nothingness is a worship of pure power in the Eternal Return, the power of the cosmos to create from nothing and return to nothing:

Ubiquitous beings, unnamed lords
That watch over our lives, and all worlds that
Exist, through their blessings of life and death
Behold the universe, take and give from
Matter that builds over time, from nothingness
Chemical reactions, not random lost
Building blocks, infinite, ways to create
Compelled to conjure us, and our worlds - End our worlds

Definitely pick up this album and check them out on their tour this summer – http://www.relapse.com. Up next, live from London 3/2/2007 and a beer review:

Flying Dog - Gonzo Imperial Porter

Appearance - Chocolate brown with significant lacing. Coffee head.
Smell - Strong red grape hints with chocolate and nutmeg. Very holiday-like and reminds me of a winter ale.
Mouthfeel - Milkshake-thick with minimal carbonation.
Taste - Chocolate with a LOT of hops, but very tangy (rather than bitter) hops. Smooth and creamy finish like a bitter cream soda.
Drinkability - Would drink many times over, but more than one a sitting would be overkill. A great stout that reminds me of arrogant bastard with less bitter hops. I will revisit this one frequently as it stands as a fine example from my prefered brewery, Flying Dog.

Voting, Idealism, Cynicism, and the Jaded

I suppose you could call me an idealist. I'd like to find another term, because I think that word has too many connotations of naiveté and unattainable goals. I don't think there is anything naive about expecting the best out of myself, and others (including my government). In fact, I would consider it practical to be an "idealist". If you expect the best, you're more likely to get the better. If you expect the worst, you'll most likely get it.

I started thinking about this after I read this article:

Obama woos blue collar voters with beer taste

Oooh look! Beer and politics in the same post! And I haven't even gotten to the beer review! I'll quote the bit that irked me:

"Where's my beer?" he asked, loud enough for the reporters to hear.

He eyed an array of fine micro brews on tap, from the amber Maharaja IPA to the "naturally cloudy" Blanche Bruxelles. He zeroed in on the mass market.

"PBR," he said, choosing Pabst Blue Ribbon, an inexpensive lager, before working the crowd.

Last week the 46-year-old senator visited a Veterans For America clubhouse, and ordered a Budweiser, while in Pennsylvania, where his campaign beer-drinking began, he found himself drinking Yuengling, a popular local brew, but had to double-check the name of the beer, anxious that “it’s not some designer beer or something”.

OK, I don't really give two shits about what kind of beer he really drinks. I mean, sure, my beer geekiness was kind of offended, but not that much. It's just that this was so obviously a calculated move. Frankly, I am fucking tired of this stuff. Almost everybody I know talks about Obama like a fat kid talks about a ham sandwich. But you know what? He's just as much a typical politician as the rest of them. He'll do and say whatever it takes to get elected. Shouldn't we hold our "leaders" to higher standards than that?

I made that point to someone last weekend, and she said something to the tune of "Well, everybody in politics does it. That's just the way things are. If he wants to make changes, he has to play the game."

That is so much bullshit it makes me sick to my stomach. If you believe that our democracy works the way they want us to think it works (highly debatable) then the people have the power. If politics is a game, we make the rules!

If you take her argument to its logical conclusion, the reason we have a two party system is because third party candidates stick to their convictions and don't pretend to be something they are not! Wow. Those foolish, naive idealists.

The way I see it, people choose to vote the two-party line because voting third party is throwing your vote away. Third party candidates can never win. Well that's because everyone votes the two-party line!

It's so unbelievably obvious, it blows my mind that few people can see it. If we were to vote for candidates we actually believed in and not just those who had a chance of winning, I have no doubt in my mind we would have a much more honest political discourse.

For example; I voted for Ron Paul in the Virginia primary, not because he represents everything I believe, not because I thought he has any chance of winning, but because he speaks honestly. I will support anybody who says what they believe, and stays true to themselves despite how the "game" works. If everyone were to do that, we would have many more options, and a system based on IDEALS and getting things done, not a government based on games and lies.

I'll get into what I think about government another time. I'm spent for now. Just remember one thing: People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Thank you Alan Moore.

I'll add a beer review some time later this week.

On a different note, Dickie and I just bought tickets to Boston for the


June 20-21
Click on the pic to buy your own tix!
(See what I did there?)

Expect a full report from one or both of us on the drunkenness and blasphemy that is sure to follow!

Symbols, Reason, and Magick / North Coast Brewing's Brother Thelonious Abbey Ale

Lately I’ve heard a few questions about Chaos Magick and the Occult. I’ve had an interest in it for years, and have done a few half-hearted workings, but I am now attempting to throw myself into full-fledged practice.

When I say Magic, people normally think of one of three things: the card game, magicians (or illusionists) that saw scantily clad women in half, or wizards the likes of Gandalf or Merlin. This is not what I mean, and why, to the best of my knowledge, people spell our kind of magic(k) with a K; to differentiate it from fantasy or tricks. When I say “the Occult” people normally think of one or both of two things: Satanic rituals with inverted pentagrams and severed goat heads, or hippy-dippy Wiccans grinding up herbs and invoking the “Mother Goddess.” This is also not what I mean.

I believe that symbols, or, more accurately, the ideas behind them, have enormous power. It’s quite possibly the most powerful force in the universe. Believe something hard enough, regardless of how ridiculous it is and you have the power to command armies that will stop at nothing to help you reach your goals (see: religious fundamentalists of any stripe). Reality is not static. There is no such thing as true objectivity. Belief creates reality. Take the most devout Christian in the world. Someone tries to tell them God does not exist, and he knows the atheist is wrong. It’s not a question of proof, or rational discourse, God is the truth. That’s just one example. Think of your own beliefs. Think of the most strongly held belief that you have. Are there people out there that think the EXACT opposite? Are they wrong? Of course they are. To you. To each of you, that belief, or lack thereof, has power.

We believe what we perceive, and there is no way we could be completely objective unless we were able to perceive everything in existence at all times. How would we be able to function with that volume of information flowing through us? We couldn’t. So it is necessary for us to have finite perception. We draw the conclusions we can with the information we’re given. So, if two diametrically opposite views can be seen as objective truth by two separate people, then what is Truth? There is no capital T Truth because no one has every possible bit of information. Nothing is true. So, if nothing is true, then nothing is false. If nothing is false, then there is no limitation on thought. If there is no limitation on thought, then everything is possible.

When I say “there is no Truth,” don’t take me to mean “there is no fact.” There is objective data that can be observed, recorded, and verified. But the conclusions reached using that data can vary wildly. Think of global warming in this way. There are scientists that believe it is caused by human interactions, those that believe it is a natural occurrence, and those that believe it is a mix (then of course, there are those that believe it is a myth all together, but they use a text written thousands of years ago to guide their and others’ lives, and believe that Jesus spoke English. They aren’t using any kind of verifiable data). Think also of advances in science. Before the 17^th century, people believed that maggots spontaneously generated from rotting meat, aphids from morning dew, and mice from stored grain. It’s not that they were stupid, it’s just that they didn’t have all the data. Ok, so maybe they were a little stupid, but I’m sure hundreds of years from now, people will say they same thing about us and the conclusions we’ve reached.

This brings me to an article I read in a book called Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. (The Disinformation Company Ltd. 2003) It’s a great primer on Chaos Magick and has really propelled me forward in my study. The article was called “The Executable Dreamtime” by Mark Pesce. I won’t go deeply into it, because I don’t fully understand everything he is saying and I don’t want to misrepresent, or misinterpret his views (there we go again with data vs. conclusion), but here is a bit of it:

“A few weeks before I wrote this essay, I had a private conversation with a neurophysiologist at UCSD … who passed along some stunning insights he’d gathered from his research on the human brain. It seems that we like to perceive ourselves as rational, reasonable creatures, carefully weighing our decisions before we commit, the fact of the matter is precisely the inverse. We arrive at our decisions through emotional sensations, acting “from the gut” at all times. Our reason enters the process only after the decision has been made, and acts as the mind’s propagandist, convincing us of the utter rightness which underlies all of our actions.” (pg 28)

Fucking weird, right? If this is true, then how can there be truth? Every conclusion is made before any data is analyzed!

What does this have to do with magick? Well here’s the conclusion that I have reached, true or untrue. Magi such as ourselves use powerful symbols, ancient gods that have been ingrained in our psyches for centuries, for example, in order to focus an aspect of our desires and execute our will upon the world. This is not a mystical endeavor, thought at times it may seem like one. It is a form of neuro-linguistic programming. We convince our subconscious to act on desires that we may reach difficult goals.

Maybe my article falls apart there for you. It sort of does for me. I’m sure my ideas and conclusions will change in time to come...

Hopefully I can crank out another article this week. Dickie's starting to make me look bad! ;)

On to tonight's beer!

North Coast Brewing Company, Fort Bragg CA

Brother Thelonious

Belgian Style Abbey Ale

12oz bottle poured into a wine glass because I don't have a goblet.

9.4% ABV

Pour s a beautiful dark brown color. When held to light it reveals red hues. Creamy tan head, starts out generous and dissipates before long. A thin ring of foam remains around the edges from the considerable carbonation.

A sweet alcoholic nose hits me first, but after a few sniffs there is a strong presence of peanut butter. Not expected.

Big malty character and alcohol in the taste, as expected in such a style. Can feel the alcohol in my nostrils. Get the feeling it’s a little cold for the style. I’ll let it sit for a bit.

It’s warmer now, but I’m still having trouble picking out flavors. Though, I do taste the peanut butter I smelled earlier. Either my palette isn’t mature enough for this beer, or the malt and alcohol are masking everything else.

It goes down fairly smooth despite the high ABV, but definitely not something I could drink multiples of it a row. Maybe two with a decent meal. Half way through, I start a small buzz. This is my first beer of the evening, and I’ve had dinner. Speaking of which, maybe some time soon, I’ll try some beer and food pairings… that would be fun…

I love my hops, but big Belgians like this are quick becoming favorites. Lucifer is another I love.

‘Till next time!

Grace

This is a term that has a lot of connotations, good and bad: snooty debutantes, saying a prayer at the table, Jackie Onassis, etc. What does it mean? That is, what is grace actually and does it have any actual magickal implications (since it can be used as a prayer)? Also, is it really that important because, frankly, not many people use the term anymore, grace or graceful, for much of anything intentional and non-idiomatically. Coming from gratia in Latin, it originally meant favor, kindness, and esteem and had roots in gratus, or pleasing.

What does it mean to act gracefully? Simply, to act with kindness and esteem for others. However, what does it mean to be kind and hold esteem towards others? An integral part of showing kindness and having esteem for others is to approach yourself as the Other, to whittle down the alien parts of yourself and investigate within the mind what makes you tick and what causes stumbling blocks towards unfolding that highly-efficient and happy psyche trapped in layers of harmful behavior. Act gracefully towards yourself by both understanding yourself to act out of accordance with your Will and show esteem towards that which brings you success and is the “best” in you. To value oneself highly is paramount to any successfully cultivation of the Will and the greatest stumbling block to realizing the greatness within you is allowing Ego (the rigid, non-flowing, defined, Reasoned aspect of your core beliefs) to supersede your understanding.

When you are approaching Others (and yourself as Other) you must be flexible in understanding and be agnostic towards your virtual capabilities; an Ego is a set of habitual mastery of one’s capabilities that does not experiment and refine the Will towards new goals, so understanding naturally precludes a reinforced Ego. To have a frozen Ego but still consider oneself graceful is a contradiction of terms and constantly tearing down the Ego’s barriers to your unbridled Selfhood is key to understanding, to engaging in the alchemical process of changing your body-mind to create and investigate new landscapes. Act gracefully in all endeavors by accepting your successes as well as your failures, dancing amongst your actions as experiments and forgiving others the same.

The space of the Other is where magick happens, where uncertainty unfolds, and where the potential for new and exciting adventures can come to fruition. While ego-death is a terrible place, it is essential to cross that barrier to see unheard-of topologies and critical surfaces where personal transformation takes place. Just remember to be graceful and mind not only your Self but your Other as well. To paraphrase Aleister Crowley, magick is the science of causing change in accordance with the Will and this must be done in accordance with Love; however, I would say gracefulness, the ability to accept and treasure both triumph and tragedy, is the penultimate mandate for any magus to finding the Permissible Will, the ultimate goal of any psychonaut. Conduct not only the science of change, but the art of making new things happen. Above all, be ready to look at every fragment of the holograph of your Other with a care and precision that can only be afforded by the well-trained mind. Afford yourself this understanding which leads to magickal transformation and you can soon extend that to other people through right conduct.

And now for the black metal version of The Beatles’ Help, complete with wizards popping out of moonforests and corpsepainted hell warriors – get ready to be terrified by the hell-bastards of the blackened northern heathen wastelands that peek out from behind trees:

There is no natural singularity to experience, only filtered and fleeting multiplicities from the plenitude of reality’s infinite variations of itself. Task for the day: stare in a mirror at yourself for at least one hour. You’ll be amazed by how different you look to yourself for that long and how alien the landscape of your face is to you.

{Matt's note: wow that video is horrible...}

Black Metal Meditations and Childhood’s End

Now for some awesomeness:

During my formative years, the Earache catalog was my source for the best grindcore and Metal Blade my death metal tit – I used to eat up the fastest, most brutal music about ripping out entrails and swimming in gore.

Then came Black Metal which wiped my palate clean. When I bought Mayhem’s De Mysteriis Dom Santhas in 10^th grade, my life was forever changed like a born-again Christian, only it was Satan calling me from the frozen northern waste-scapes telling me that wearing corpse paint, taking pictures in the woods with battle axes/maces, and posing with your head tilted down is the ultimate form of rebellion. I grew up in a boring town, not unlike the outskirts of Oslo must be, and identified with the boredom and angst I could detect in these poorly-spoken-English weirdoes. My hobbies in high school consisted in constantly trying to gross out my friend Aaron, biking, emulating Jackass, throwing glass bottles at runners going around our town stadium track from the top bleacher, and filming skate videos for my friends. The subject matter of Black Metal filled that void and brought a sense of identification to me.

The thing that spoke to me was the sense of play in that music – I know that will shock anyone familiar with Black Metal; TRVE KVLT fans will say that I’m not TRVE and detractors will say either “there’s nothing playful about Satan” or “don’t be so fucking dumb, it’s just fucking noise.” However, there is a sense of play to it because it’s theater, plain and simple. Play is important to any Work; there is a reason that kids have a magical (or rather, magickal) sense of reality. Why not be an astronaut, a fireman, or a Martian (as I chose as a kid)? They aren’t formed into roles yet, so their Work is rather natural and is only tempered by acculturation into modern society. They are natural pagans; think of imaginary friends/monsters under the bed and their proximity to the “spirits” and “daemons” of shamanism or medieval goetia. It’s the same principal because they are externalizing their fears and hopes into something separate mentally that can be “banished” and mastered to some extent.

Back to Black Metal, it’s the same principal (and, naturally, they are pagans). They are putting on costumes and externalizing their anger towards Christianity and hopes for a return to Pagan grandeur to change the world according to their Wills. Music can be a magickal working, an externalized form of your Will that is meant to transform both yourself and the listener. Most modern music is 4/4, bland, shuffle-beat music without a sense of theatrics to it and Black Metal refuses to play in that plane. It is a meditation on the eternal return of pagan themes. Read any of Burzum’s blogs (even though he is a racist dick who didn’t get enough time to serve) and you’ll get an insight into that world. It’s no wonder they are all closet D&D/Tolkien nerds, the ultimate form of grown-up dress up.

And now, because I love lifting weights and Black Metal:

Remember to always have fun!

Crash Test Dummies and Magick – The Camping Trip

Recently, your resident black metalhead (metalhead who likes the black variety and not a man of the African-American persuasion that loves metallurgy) has been wearing out an unusual record from his collection – the Crash Test Dummies’ 1992 album God Shuffled His Feet. I’m sure anyone from the 90’s generation knows their song “Mmm mmm mmm mmm” about the kids who are all fucked up, but that is actually an okey dokey song rather than some of the other, stronger cuts. In particular, there are two songs called “In the Days of the Caveman” and “Here I Stand Before Me” that are special to me and my Work.

I went on a camping trip last month for the first time in several years and had a magickal pagan experience. Particularly, the fire is of notice and the locus for the entire experience. It burned like a natural television where I could see anything I wanted in my imagination. I read the logs and saw runes and sigils burn in and away while the fire danced and snapped with my brain imposing images and finding fragments of my Will in the flicker.

My friend Amber and I spent 12 solid hours expelling our demons and burning a stick over the fire ceremonially, discussing our hopes, fears, and desires. This was the perfect opportunity to charge an implement used in Workings; the key to charging a wand or talisman is the way you take a fragment of your memory (especially one with a “magick” surrounding it) and impart it upon an object. This is the act of creating a fetish, an item imbued with a special ability that is crucial to any soul work. That stick has now been whittled from a branch to a hand-held stick, carved and maintaining the black on the tip as a reminder of the power I experienced.

After emerging from the woods the next morning, the first song I heard on random shuffle was “In the Days of the Caveman,” a song about camping. The reason why this is important is the concept of synchronicity* – that your mind can draw a connection between different events – which is key to having the proper magickal mindset. Not only was it a coincidence that had that special meaning, but it also has an incredible line:

See in the shapes of my body
Leftover parts from apes and monkeys

The act of magick is predicated on the ability to peel back the distinctions and divisions of material and realize the reality of evolution involved with objects and their underlying relation. To be a good magus, one has to be able to see the fragmentation of a singular substance into different modes and be able to trace everything you encounter back to that zero-point void where Work happens. Not only that, but realize that the zero-point is also constantly changing topographically based on the modal interactions which precludes a Totality; you are both affected by the total web of interactions and affect it as well. That affectation is Magick in its purest form and how you shape those affectations is the True Will, the point where you find the best possible actions to positively increase the power of yourself and the world out of all virtual courses before you. I leave you with a line from “Here I Stand Before Me”:

My my, the future lay before me
Hey hey, deep inside my body

And now, some Crash Test Dummies (all the songs I like were embed disabled, so here's another good one):

*In response to some comments I heard: I use synchronicity in a different sense than Jung. There is no ontological determinate between events to dictate coincidence, but it is important for one to be able to relate disparate elements to increase the ability to see opportunities and similarities. It is taking advantage of and understanding the Noosphere, rather than a "collective unconsciousness," and linking that data together helps increase your comprehensive view of your reality. It's all material (for me) and nothing supernatural. Playing dress-up helps the process, though.

Iced Earth – The Glorious Burden and Troegs HopBack

I figured since Dickie started out with a metal album review, I would as well. But where he went the brutal route, I’ll go the power metal/ symphonic route. This is one of the few really solid “concept” albums I’ve heard. Not that I’ve heard many. The songs revolve around battle, mostly of American wars, but they throw in a song about Atilla the Hun, and another one I can’t think of at the moment.

Before I go on, let me say, that I LOVE this band. They get me pumped when I’m tired, let me vent when I’m angry, or keep the mood going when I’m happy. The riffs are hard, the percussion is solid, the guitar solos are fluid, and the lyrics and vocals are masterful. And, their use of sound-effects really adds to the feel of the album. Not that I’m biased or anything.

The album opens with a metal rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. I’m no flag waving rah-rah type American, but this song makes even me want to run through a battle field, Old Glory streaming behind me. And then, goes straight in to a song called “Declaration Day,” obviously about the Revolutionary War. The pounding bass riff and the screeching vocals really get the pride and anger the revolutionaries must have felt. All in all, a very strong opening.

It then moves on to a slightly less angry, but no less powerful song “When the Eagle Cries” referencing 9/11. I don’t see it as an overtly patriotic song, but more capturing the feel of that morning, the anger, shock, and sadness most of us felt. This is the first song that got me a little misty, and not the last.

The next two tracks, “The Reckoning” and “Green Face” are probably my favorites on the album. Tim Owens screeching vocals and Richard Christy’s double bass pedals really come through on both. If I’m in the car, and either of these come on, I can’t help but to roll down all the windows, crank it up and pound on the steering wheel.

Then comes “Valley Forge” which is great, and probably my favorite lyrically. I’ll let them speak for themselves.

Close your eyes and imagine
the soldier at Valley Forge
The suffering that he endured was real
starvation, total war.
Yet in has eyes the iron will to win
and for the cause, he won't relent

Would he look upon us now in anger and disgust
His politics a birthright and our creed
Will we let ignorance and laziness bring our demise
Complacency, we're blinded by our greed

A little preachy maybe, but I kind of like that some times. It makes me feel superior. :P “Atilla” keeps the adrenaline pumping, with visions of bloodied Romans and an endless sea of barbarians.

“Hollow Man” brings the tone down quite a bit. I’m not a huge fan. Maybe it’s just its placing. After those testosterone laden tracks before it, it brings me to a full stop. Though, I do enjoy the guitar solo at the end.

“Red Baron/ Blue Max” brings it back WAY up. My favorite is when Owens screams “RED BAROOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!”

The last three tracks “The Devil to Pay,” “Hold at All Costs” and “High Water Mark” tell the story of the Battle of Gettysburg. They’re really the crowning achievement of the album. You’ll rock out, you’ll tear up, you’ll never look at Robert E. Lee the same.

I’d definitely recommend anything by Iced Earth, but the Glorious Burden is their best.

Now, on to the beer…

I should establish myself as the resident Hop Head early on. I'll let Dickie speak for himself, but I'm pretty sure he's more into the malty stuff. I'll start with one of my favorite hoppy brews. I chose this one, also because it just happened to be in my fridge and I'm a little tired and don't feel like going out to get something else.

Brewer: Troegs Brewing Company, Harrisburg, PA

Beer: HopBack Amber Ale

Serving type: 12oz bottle

ABV: 6%

Pours a medium dark amber color, very few bubbles can be seen. Head is about a finger in thickness, pale, creamy color. Doesn’t stay long, but I’m not the best at pouring yet.

Very strong hop nose to start first sip has a surprisingly prevalent malt flavor that quickly gives way to the hops once again. On the second sip I expect the malt. Definite toffee flavor that lingers on the edges of my tongue. But still, the hops prevail… oh my beautiful, bitter, delicious hops. And as the beer rolls down my throat, I taste a slight fruitiness that I can’t put my finger on. Lacing isn’t too heavy, but it definitely lingers on the glass.

Mouthfeel is primarily light, but the liquid coats my tongue ever so slightly. After a few more sips, I give up reviewing and just enjoy the beer. Could definitely drink a few of these (and I have on multiple occasions). It’s pretty hoppy, but not so strong as to completely assault your palate.

If you’re a raging hophead like me, you’ll love this brew. If not, I feel like you still might be able to enjoy it. Either that, or I'm just too used to hops now. Maybe have a few more moderately hopped beers before this one, but even then, HopBack can bridge the gap to even hoppier beers than itself (See: Stone’s Arrogant Bastard Ale, Clay Pipe’s Hopocolypse, or Victory’s HopDevil).

There ya have it! Matt's post numero uno. Hope you enjoyed. I'm sure the format will change a bit as I get more comfortable posting, so be patient while I find my groove.

Dopesick - Eyehategod

A word to the wise: I review old albums because A) people may not have heard them and they are classic and B) newer metal is lame and wears girl jeans. Get used to it.

One video explains this album:


This album is a classic. Hands down, it is the grungiest, heroin-iest, depressing album made of all time. It makes you want to shoot drain cleaner and tune your guitar to drop-Z. Pure Sabbath worship, alternating between the rolling blues jam and the funeral dirge. This is electric blues at its finest and stands the test of time as a sludgy classic. The standout tracks:

"My Name is God (I Hate You)" - Yes, he really does. Listen to this and you'll know why. Long and punctuated with a really bitchin' blues pentatonic scale run going at a truck's pace

"Lack of Almost Everything" - Picking up the pace a little bit, the fast passages break down into a wave of nauseated, atonal chords that are like smoking ground up roadkill

"Anxiety Hangover" - As the video shows above, this is the end of the world song. It's as if someone took utter hopeless anguish, froze it, and chiseled it into guitar strings and shoved the shavings down Mike Williams' throat.

Overall, this album is one I ALWAYS recommend to people. The first time I listened to this was after my ex-girlfriend and I parted ways and I was driving down a road in pouring rain in the middle of nowhere feeling lost. Most people would have chosen something fun but I was at that point where your psyche is at breaking-point and ready to snap. The only cure for that sometimes is to plunge further into your anger and hurt and stare it dead in the eyes to master it. Thinking of the moment I got the call that ended it, the feedback on "Anxiety Hangover" erupted into a volcano of sound burning everything in its path. To this day, it is the album that is perfect for days when you want to brood and hate the world; take with caution, however, as it can make you caustic and surly for the rest of the week. Now, let's hear what Bas Ruten has to say:

Introducing the other guy

Hey all,

Fearless readers, I am the other contributing writer for this blog piggybacking on the success that should soon follow. I'm joining on because I love beer, metal, and chaos magick. To rip off my best fiend and Other who writes here, I'll do some definitions:

1) Beer - A delicious, ancient beverage that gives you courage, consumes your time, ranges from rice and corn soda to finely crafted ales, and should be only handled by microbreweries.

2) Metal - A form of expression that is less genre and more life choice. While the bulk of this blog will be about death/black/sludge/stoner/drone metal, you can find all kinds of metal:
a) Power metal - For dudes (and ONLY dudes as women are not found nearby) who live in a world of cold steel and sorcery...aka the D&D guy from Reno 911.
b) Hair metal - Not even really metal. Period. Except Motley Crue because, well, I'm draconian like that. Also, Tommy Lee fingered Pamela Anderson when she was hot.
c) Sludge metal - Fat and slow. Period.
d) Progressive metal - For guys who like good instrumentality and, instead of wizards and swords, like jazz and feeling superior to other metal fans.
e) Groove metal - Pantera.
f) Stoner metal - Guys who love reefer and Orange amps.
g) Drone metal - Guitar noise that meditates on metal itself.
h) NWOBHM - Awesomeness in its purest form. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Accept should give you a boner because they are both awesome and they also wear spandex and leather to appeal to your latent homosexuality.
i) Death metal - Guys who watch too many horror movies and sing about autopsies, different variations of female mutilation, and sometimes satan.
j) Black metal - Dudes from the Frozen North that really don't like Christianity and opt for a lifestyle of wearing corpse paint and posing with battle axes. They also REALLY love Satan and the Norse Pantheon.

3) Chaos Magic - A variation on Neuro-Linguistic Programming that takes the core of the past schools of magick and strips away the bullshit rituals. It's focused around getting shit done, strengthening your Will, and reprogramming your brain to be more affective in the world by understanding your True Will and externalizing your doubts/fears to expel them from your psyche. Some people are completely supernatural about it but most are very materially-oriented towards it.

Reviews of beer, reviews of classic and new metal albums, and information on chaos workings and techniques. Welcome to our world!

Introductions are Boring

But I'm bored, so I'm going to do one anyway. Hey, my name's Matt, otherwise known as Lucifer's Brewmaster. I know. I'm so hardcore, right?

beer –noun

1. an alcoholic beverage made by brewing and fermentation from cereals, usually malted barley, and flavored with hops and the like for a slightly bitter taste.

blas·phe·my –noun, plural -mies.

1. impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.

2. Theology. the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God.

3. irreverent behavior toward anything held sacred, priceless, etc.: He uttered blasphemies against life itself.

Beer: seems pretty simple, and straightforward.
Blasphemy: a little more complicated and more prone to heated emotions.

In my experience, some times it's the opposite. I've seen people wear T-shirts with inverted crosses, or talk about a particularly gory movie without batting an eye, and I've seen people's eyes light up with passion when they take that first sip of a particularly well-crafted Stout.

I have a few goals with this blog:

1) To show those that certain subjects that may seem "blasphemous" can and should be taken less seriously than a lot of people take them.

2) That there are plenty of things people don't necessarily think about that need to be taken MORE seriously.

3) That beer isn't just piss-colored swill to be guzzled by college students in order to get trashed. Beer can be as varied and complex as wine.

4) To entertain and to have fun writing.

Some of those goals are pretty vague, and I want them to be, because I want the subjects this blog can broach to be open-ended.

Here's my idea:

I'll find something to write about at least a couple times a week. It'll be something that angers me, amuses me, inspires me, or otherwise just interests me, generally revolving around the subjects of politics, music, religion, books, movies, and beer. I'll try to present it in a way that is also interesting to you, and hopefully we'll all be sufficiently interested so as to have a little discussion about it.

While I'm writing about whatever it is I'm writing about, I'll also be drinking a beer. I'll review that beer when I'm done, and hopefully it'll interest you enough to try it (or not depending on my review).

My friend Peter, otherwise known as Spinoza'sHammer, otherwise known as Dickie (insert penis joke... haha insert penis), will also be contributing. He and I have similar interests, but come at them from different perspectives. Hopefully one or both of us will keep you reading. Maybe after this thing has gained a little momentum, some other people will chime in as well.

Sound good? Good. I'll see ya later.