ALCEST - By Chris Dick

French undergroundist gets his black metalgaze on

“I’ve never been influenced by shoegaze since I did not know this kind of music when I wrote Le Secret and Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde,” claims Alcest mainman Neige. “One day a friend said me, ‘Hey, do you know Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine? Alcest is very close to them in a way.’ Now, I really like these great bands, but Alcest in its primary aims and sources of inspiration had absolutely nothing to do with them. This resemblance is a pure coincidence in fact.” While it’s easy to find sonic similarities between Alcest and some of shoegaze’s finest, behind the gauzy/shimmering guitars, fey vocals and rhythmic pitter-patter, it’s probably just as accurate to compare Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde to Agalloch’s The Mantle or Ulver’s black metal-lite moments on Bergtatt.

But when labeling Alcest black metal, Neige is quick to react. “Black metal is rich enough to express a wide variety of themes and soundings, but, in my opinion, it always has to stay in a dark register. For example, many black metal bands use industrial or electronic elements, but they keep dealing with dark concepts. Since Alcest’s feelings are certainly not obscure, my project can’t be categorized as belonging to that type of music. Ethereal metal would be more appropriate.” The distinction, however, between Alcest and creator Neige’s other projects—he moonlights in cult black metal act Peste Noire and avant-black outfit Amesoeurs—is that musically, lyrically and conceptually it’s based on a parallel universe to the one inhabited by black metal’s sacrosanct, yet myopic values. Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde is bright, warm and verdant like a lazy Sunday morning in May. Songs like “Printemps Emeraude,” “Les Iris” and “Sur L’autre Rive Je T’attendrai” uplift the spirit, embracing it with positivity and innocence. “It is based upon a mix between sadness and strong hope,” he confirms, “a very ambiguous feeling that’s hard to describe. Alcest is never melancholic in a depressive and unhealthy way; the emotion expressed is sweeter and almost pleasant to feel. Alcest could not be negative or connected to any suffering in life. It is not the project’s aim.”

It would be hard to hear misery or enmity in Alcest’s music. Even if it’s in French or some other language (both “Les Iris” and “Tir Na Nog” employ glossolalia à la Cocteau Twins), the impression is something rather unique. “There is a particular meaning behind my vocal approach,” Neige says. “I have been using them since Le Secret in order to reproduce the fairy-like chants I perceived in my visions of Alcest’s realm; distant ethereal voices. Moreover, I simply could not imagine black metal vocals or powerful pop-rock vocals on my songs. It would not be appropriate.”


Alcest - Tristesse Hivernale [2001] demo - pass: blackmetaldungeon.blogspot.com

Alcest - Le Secret (EP) [2005]

Alcest - Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde [2007] - pass: Galadriel

NSBM Special Report - by J. Bennett of Decibel Magazine

An article i found browsing the Decibel Mag blog. Very well written. Kudos to J.Bennett.

Does Black Metal have a problem with Brownshirts? Or is the problem someone else's? Decibel investigates the peculiar world of National Socialist Black Metal.

"They were Nazis, dude?

They were threatening castration, Donny. Are we gonna split hairs?"

—Memorable exchange from The Big Lebowski, a very funny movie produced and directed by a couple of very funny Jews.



















Rob “Darken” Fudali (Above)

As if acting out some bizarre atavistic saga—half comedy, half high drama—our protagonists assume their marks in the theatre of the absurd. Somewhere not-so-deep in the sub-underground, the forces of National Socialist Black Metal—henceforth known as NSBM—are circling their Panzer tanks (or at very least their amplifiers) against the evil forces of Jewry, Niggerdom and Fagitude. No, wait—the NSBM dudes are the evil ones (Evil is, after all, a requirement of all black metal) and they’re aligning themselves against the Zionist Occupation Government, jungle fever and same-sex marriage. Or is it Israel, multiculturalism and gay bars? Point is, if it ain’t white—and straight, and pagan—it ain’t right.

Or so believe the NSBM hordes, most of whom prefer to think of themselves as warrior-intellectuals rather than musicians; as defenders of heritage and folkways rather than standard-brand racists. Not content with black metal’s unholy trinity of Satanism, corpsepaint and intentional misspellings, the propagators of NSBM see in Burzum mastermind Varg Vikernes not just a convicted murderer or a musical trailblazer, but an ideological messiah. As the self-appointed Charles Manson of Norwegian black metal, Vikernes started rolling swastika-style—issuing screeds against Jews and “colored people” and declaring his relation to Norwegian Nazi political sympathizer Vidkun Quisling—shortly after his arrest for killing Mayhem guitarist Øystein Aarseth in 1993. Hypnotized by Vikernes’ dark charisma and shrewd intellect, a fringe element of the nascent black metal underground took heed. As a result, many anti-fascist and anti-racist action groups have sounded the air-raid sirens for the second coming of the Luftwaffe, but the majority of NSBM’s known adherents don’t seem to be doing much more than toeing White Power’s party line, dropping a few racial slurs or slapping swastikas on their album covers. But maybe that’s an oversimplification.

How Many Polish Black Metal Nazis Does It Take to Screw in a Lightblub?

If Varg Vikernes is NSBM’s messianic ideologue, Rob “Darken” Fudali is one of the genre’s most prolific and revered practitioners. Fudali’s primary band, Graveland (he has another project called Lord Wind), emerged from the forests of Poland in 1992, and has since recorded a slew of albums and EPs (roughly half of which Fudali plays all the instruments on)—including 1997’s Following the Voice of Blood (featuring the track “White Hand’s Power”), 1999’s Immortal Pride and the band’s latest full-length, Fire Chariot of Destruction—many of which were released on Germany’s No Colours Records. Almost unanimously worshipped within NSBM circles, some of Graveland’s earlier recordings are even considered black metal classics by those who do not share Fudali’s racial beliefs. Nonetheless, Darken no longer considers his music black metal. “I do not think Graveland is an NSBM band,” he tells Decibel through an interpreter. “Graveland is regarded as a NSBM band because of my political convictions, [which] most people would call extreme right-wing National Socialist convictions.”

Most of Fudali’s beef with black metal seems to stem from the genre’s satanic roots in both the Church of Satan-sanctioned stylings of Mercyful Fate and the cartoonish shock tactics of Venom. “I do not want my band be identified with Satanism,” he says. “Black metal will always be identified with Satanism because Satanism is inseparably connected with black metal. From the very beginning of Graveland we have combined paganism with Satanism. It happened because people I played with were Satanists and they were not interested in paganism. Due to these differences, we finally started to walk separate ways and Graveland became [a] one-man band again. I understood that I could not support Satanism [because it] was a part of Judeo-Christian religion. In the Third Reich, Satanists would end [up] in gas chambers.”

Oddly enough, Fudali is not particularly interested in being affiliated with National Socialism, either. “I do not see any point in referring to NS because I do not see any point in referring to any ideologies that lost,” he points out. “It is against logic and the eternal law of evolution. I think that white men should search for new ideas that would be well adapted for the current reality and the problems of [the] contemporary world.”

Fudali’s immediate surroundings in the contemporary world are overwhelmingly white. As of November 1999 (according to that month’s issue of Central Europe Review), 98% of Poland’s population was ethnic Polish. That same year, the country’s Jewish population represented less than half of a percent. Nonetheless, Fudali believes that white people “are at the edge of extinction.” Like Vikernes, he adheres to a form of pagan nationalism that promotes the segregation of all cultures in order to promote the advancement of the Aryan race. “Pagan beliefs are the system of values that is the precious heritage of my folk,” he offers. “Its achievements have assured [our] survival and development for thousands of years. I reach them to re-build my spirituality. Other people do the same. The world of right-wing ideologies has always been strongly connected with religion and spirituality. It distinguishes us from leftists. People who experience Graveland’s creativity sometimes experience [a] kind of awakening.”

It is unclear if these people follow Fudali’s lead by carrying swords and dressing up like medieval warriors in their press photos. Or if they’re actually awake while they are doing it.














Varg "Kristian" Vikernes (Above)

Pagan War Machine

Ymir G. Winter is the guitarist for the New York-based NSBM band Grom. Winter says his father openly advocated fascism and that his grandfather (on his mother’s side) fought for Germany in World War II. “Couple that with growing up in the racial mosaic of New York City, and I was White Pride from early on,” he explains via e-mail. (In his transmissions, he consistently capitalizes the word White while using a lower-case “j” in the word Jewish.) Winter also prides himself on the fact that Grom is one of the few NSBM bands in the world that actually plays live. “During many of our shows, we will spit fire and then set an Israeli flag ablaze,” he explains. “When regulations don’t allow this, we have the crowd stomp the Israeli flag and spit on it. [But] a Grom show is not a redneck rally. We do not banter on about ‘kikes and niggers.’ I am more concerned with praising Aryanism and Paganism than I am with attacking non-whites and using foul language.”

In addition to his musical pursuits, Winter is a “proud member” of the National Alliance, the West Virginia-based White Nationalist group founded by Dr. William Pierce. Pierce (1933-2002) was the author of The Turner Diaries, the futuristic race-war fantasy novel that inspired Timothy McVeigh to detonate a truck full of explosives in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 167 people. (In The Turner Diaries, which Pierce published under the pseudonym Andrew MacDonald in 1978, the story’s protagonist detonates a truck full of explosives in the basement of FBI headquarters.) In early 1999, Pierce bought Resistance Records, the infamous White Power music clearinghouse that hocks everything from skinhead music and hatecore to RAC (Rock Against Communism) and NSBM. The label is currently pimping the shit out of “white nationalist folk duo” Prussian Blue, which consists of two blond, blue-eyed 13-year-old twin sisters, Lynx and Lamb Gaede, who play folk versions of Skrewdriver songs and original odes to Rudolf Hess at White Power picnics and love-ins. The Gaede sisters were recently interviewed by Diane Sawyer on ABC’s Primetime.

It just so happens that Ymir Winter works at Resistance, where he recruits bands, handles CD trades, and writes for the label’s magazine, aptly entitled Resistance. “The goal of Resistance is to steer White youth away from the jewish MTV lifestyle which will have them worshiping hip-hop culture and have them thinking that acting and looking black is ‘cool,’” Winter explains. “Resistance wants to promote Aryan awareness and does so by using music as a recruitment tool and as a vessel for the National Socialist/White Power movement. I don’t think that Resistance has taken an official stance as to [which is] the best form of White Power music, but I think the scope of NSBM’s appeal and marketability has been realized. Ten years ago, hatecore was cutting edge and was the main musical structure for the National Socialist/White Power scene. These days, more and more it is NSBM.”

To this end, Winter is also the label manager of Unholy Records, an NSBM subsidiary of Resistance that released a double-disc Burzum tribute album in 2002 (Visions: A Tribute to Burzum), Nocturnal Fear’s Sterilize and Exterminate and Nachtmystium’s Reign of the Malicious. Though the presence of the latter on an NSBM label may surprise many of the band’s more recent fans, it is important to note that Nachtmystium has always been an apolitical band, and guitarist/vocalist Blake J. (AKA Azentrius)’s more recent musical endeavors—specifically with black metal supergroup Twilight and his own label, Battle Kommand—are not even remotely affiliated with National Socialism or White Power. “In the past, we’ve had some indirect ties to labels and bands that are part of the NS scene,” Azentrius concedes. “At one point not too many years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for NS labels or bands to trade and work with non-politically motivated bands and labels because at the end of the day, we’re all trying to promote, release, and be involved with music—all politics aside. Today it seems like there’s less of a connection, at least for me and my label. We don’t oppose people’s right to be ‘NS’ or whatever—that’s a personal choice, and if you live in the USA, you have the right to that opinion. Even though I personally, my band(s) and my label have absolutely no interest in being a part of that scene, I will ALWAYS take their side when it comes to their freedom of speech being imposed upon.”
















Visions - A Tribute To Burzum (Above)

Whatever Happened to Freedom of Hate Speech?

"Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude—at least it’s an ethos"

—Yet another memorable line from The Big Lebowski

Over the past 15 years, minor controversies have surrounded various black metal bands’ choices of words and symbols. Mayhem used old SS Totenkopf insignias on their t-shirts; Emperor guitarist Samoth started a band called Zyklon (originally Zyklon-B, the name of a Nazi gas-chamber fumigant); most infamously, the slogan “Norsk Arisk Black Metal” (translation: “Norwegian Aryan Black Metal”) appeared on the back cover of Darkthrone’s 1994 album Transylvanian Hunger. Prior to the album’s release, Darkthrone drummer/lyricist Gylve Nagell (AKA Fenriz) apparently sent a fax to the band’s UK-based label, Peaceville Records, containing text he wanted to include on the album’s sleeve: “We would like to state that Transylvanian Hunger stands beyond criticism. If any man should attempt to criticize this LP, he should be thoroughly patronized for his obviously Jewish behavior.” Peaceville promptly shit themselves and issued a press release stating that the label would honor Nagell’s request but would “refuse to promote or advertise” the album. Darkthrone then delivered a convoluted apology that claimed, “In Norway, the word ‘Jew’ is used all the time to mean something that’s out of order… When we wrote ‘Jewish behavior’ in our previous press statement, we could have easily written, according to the Norwegian language, ‘stupid’ instead.”

When contacted by Decibel, Darkthrone guitarist/vocalist Ted Skjellum (AKA Nocturno Culto) was hesitant to comment. “After the blow we took back in the midst of last decade, I kind of said to myself that we should not ever let some losers try to fry us again,” he typed via e-mail. “You see, people just love to put other meanings to things people say about politics. FUCK THEM ALL. It’s like people don’t want to wake up and face reality. Everybody seems to want to live out a fuckin’ lie.”

There are at least a few people in NSBM circles who think bands like Darkthrone, Zyklon and Mayhem are poseurs. “Most of these Norwegian bands’ ideology is cheap and they will sell it for anything they can get—like a five dollar crack whore,” says Rich Mills, owner of Vinland Winds Records in New York City, an NSBM label that releases music by Grom, Graveland and Australian bizarros Spear of Longinus. Like many NSBM acolytes, Mills harbors a unique veneration for Varg Vikernes: “Burzum is the only Norwegian band that remains unapologetic and literally convicted of his beliefs.”

Mills says he has been “loosely affiliated” with the National Alliance in the past, but insists that he will always remain a “lone wolf.” Under the nom de guerre Grimnir Heretik, he is the vocalist for Grand Belial’s Key, a band that has often been saddled with the NSBM yoke, even if it isn’t necessarily self-applied. Still, GBK’s latest album, Kosherat, closes with two Chaos 88 covers (including the song “Holy Shit,” which features the lyric, “I wanna beat you like the Jew that you are”). Mills believes there is a double standard applied to the traditionally anti-religious stance prevalent in most forms of extreme music. “It seems you can talk about killing Jesus and how much Christianity sucks but if you mention it being linked to or having its roots in Judaism you will be totally boycotted,” he points out. “Attacking Christianity is okay, but [attacking] Judaism is not. You will be labeled an anti-Semitic Nazi Racist. That is the true hypocrisy of the so-called extreme metal genre. Freedom of speech just as long as what you say is what they agree with.”
Another bone of contention within the NSBM community is the fact that death metal and gore bands can get away with graphic lyrics about murder and torture—like Cannibal Corpse’s infamous “Stripped, Raped and Strangled” and “Fucked With a Knife”—but criticizing Jewish doctrine or claiming to support a dead political platform like National Socialism is strictly verboten. “Most people in the black metal scene are either pro-NS or indifferent to it,” Mills speculates. “The only people who complain are [in] the death metal scene, [and] claim to be so extreme. I guess [lyrics about] raping your mother and having sex with dead babies are okay, but looking out for your own kind isn’t. Maybe they don’t want to really offend their Jewish record labels by claiming affiliation with any extreme right-wing political faction and get themselves dropped.”

Ymir Winter totally agrees: “The metal scene has become a politically-correct realm for modern-day hippies and apologists. These people ‘Hail Satan’ and sing about sacrificing infants and then some, yet get all upset at the mention of anti-Semitism. Somehow it has become fact that one cannot even QUESTION Jewish doctrine, society, ethos, or race without being branded an anti-Semite.”













Absurd - German NSBM Band (Above)

Kike Bastards vs. Aryan Assholes

Sometime in 1999, just after Grom released their debut EP, Pagan War Machine, on Vinland Winds Records, they played a show at the Voodoo Lounge in Queens. “In those days, we opened for many mainstream acts such as Deicide and Incantation,” Winter explains. “I think we were playing with Krisiun that night and we heard that one of the main writers or editors from Metal Maniacs was coming to review our show but had an agenda to smear us regardless of how well we played. Anyway, we caught wind, confronted him and my old bassist ended up grabbing the guy’s notepad and backpack and hurling [them] down the boulevard. We then grabbed the guy by his collar and tossed him.” Grom’s Wikipedia.com entry—which Winter claims was not authored by anyone in the band—refers to this incident as, “The beating of a Jewish member of the Metal Maniacs staff by one of the now-former members of Grom.”

“I’m the only Jewish editor the magazine has ever had, and that never happened to me,” says former Metal Maniacs editor Mike Greenblatt, AKA Mike G. “Maybe one of my writers went to see them, but I’ve always been heavily anti-Nazi and anti-White Power. I used to make a point of it. I remember when I interviewed Lemmy from Motörhead, he was talking about Hitler and I questioned him on it. He said Hitler was the first rock star, and of course I knew what he meant, but at the time, he had gotten me drunk on Jack Daniel’s and the room was spinning around while he was spouting this shit about Hitler, and I was like, ‘Wait a minute—I’m a Jewish guy! I don’t get into that shit!’ So I always wore my Jewishness on my sleeve as sort of a rebellious thing against these White Power assholes.”

In fact, the history of Greenblatt’s nom de plume dates back to hate mail sent to the Maniacs office when he started at the magazine in 1989. “The publisher and I started receiving death threats, like, ‘Die, you kike bastard!’ and all this shit,” he explains. At first, Greenblatt resisted the publisher’s suggestion he abbreviate his last name, but then eventually agreed, albeit for a completely different reason. “The final turn came in 1991 when I started a country music magazine. I understood, business-wise, that if the kids found out that the editor of Metal Maniacs was also the editor of a country music magazine, it would hurt my credibility in the metal world.”


Nazi Watchdogs

In the fall of 1999, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s quarterly magazine, Intelligence Report, featured an article entitled “Sounds of Violence.” As though narrating a trailer for Reefer Madness, the authors warn of “a new generation of metal bands, known as the black metal underground, [that] is so extreme it makes Marilyn Manson look square.” They then claim that Varg Vikernes was imprisoned for “beheading his best friend”—in actuality, Vikernes stabbed Aarseth to death, and the two hadn’t been particularly friendly for some months prior to the murder—and make a vague attempt to link the Columbine shootings to black metal: “Words, for these youths, often become action. Among others, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, who murdered 12 of their classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado last April, were said to have been influenced by this kind of music.”

Next, they vilify Lords of Chaos co-author Michael Moynihan for making allegedly racist and fascist comments and for his membership in “the black metal band Blood Axis.” The main problem with this particular part of the article—besides being totally misleading—is that Blood Axis is not a black metal band. Rather than interview Moynihan, the authors of the article excerpted quotes from an issue of Compulsion zine published in 1998. “I have no problem being called a fascist,” Moynihan is quoted as saying. “If fascism will restore some sense of order, discipline and responsibility to the world, then I am all for it.”

Two of the authors of the SPLC report, John Lunsford and Justin Massa, also wrote portions of the anti-White Power music campaign Turn It Down’s December 1999 tract Soundtracks to the White Revolution: White Supremacist Assaults on Youth Music Subcultures, which features chapters on NSBM and a sub-section (in the chapter on noise bands) on Moynihan specifically. Unsurprisingly, the same Compulsion quote appears in both texts.

“The reports on black metal by these watchdog groups represent some of their most shoddy investigative work,” Moynihan tells Decibel. “This not only shows the low level of understanding they have for the subject matter, but it calls the accuracy of their work as a whole into question. Not that these kind of issues probably concern them, however, since the real goal of these reports is neither historical nor journalistic accuracy—it’s to keep their readers sufficiently alarmed so that they will continue to donate money to the coffers of the watchdogs. Of course something like black metal, with all of its apocalyptic overtones, suits such a purpose perfectly.
“Regarding their attacks on me, these too have been packed with misinformation and outright errors,” Moynihan adds. “They ignore my artistic work as whole—it’s clear they’ve never even listened to the records they’re condemning—and merely focus on a few provocative statements selectively culled from interviews done nearly 15 years ago. These statements become far more ambiguous when contextualized into everything I’ve said and done over the years. From the very beginning I have said that Blood Axis represents a grey area of Nietzschean amorality and paradox; the inability of people to handle it, or even grasp it on these terms, only proves how successfully it embodies this.”

The Turn It Down campaign was launched in 1999 by the Center for New Community, a faith-based non-profit organization stationed in Chicago. According to Devin Burghart, the Director of the CNC’s Building Democracy Initiative and editor of Soundtracks to the White Revolution, the CNC is “a civil and human rights organization concerned about social, racial and economic justice.” (The third author of the SPLC report, Eric Ward, is currently on staff at the CNC; Massa is a former CNC staffer.)

“Part of the work we’ve done here at the Center for a number of years has been to help counter White Power music and particularly the growth of the NSBM phenomenon,” Burghart adds. “We’re part of a network of organizations that works to counter this type of music internationally.”

Soundtracks to the White Revolution’s chapter on NSBM opens with a list of 21 US-based NSBM labels and distributors. While most of the labels on the list deal at least partially if not exclusively in NS titles, the presence of LA-based Southern Lord Records—known for decidedly non-Nazi black metal releases from Craft, Lurker of Chalice and Xasthur—was initially puzzling. Even more baffling is the fact that, in 1999, when Soundtracks to the White Revolution was published, Southern Lord specialized almost exclusively in doom and drone bands like Goatsnake and Sunn O))). Asked which Southern Lord title or titles Turn It Down considers National Socialist in nature, Burghart can’t recall. “I’d have to go back and look to see what they were carrying at the time,” he says. “But it was clear—we had a pretty long discussion about the threshold these labels had to cross before we were gonna list them. It wasn’t that they just had one Burzum album—it had to be far more than that.”

Turn It Down’s NS threshold remains a mystery. Although Southern Lord declined to comment for this article, it seems the error potentially occurred in conjunction with the label’s very first release, Dommedagsnatt, by now-defunct Seattle doom mavens Thorr’s Hammer, which included Southern Lord owner Greg Anderson and fellow Sunn O))) guitarist Stephen O’Malley as members. Thor’s Hammer—with one “r”—is the name of a Polish NSBM band featuring former Graveland drummer Capricornus.


Hating for Dollars

"Vee vant zee money, Lebowski."

—(You guessed it.)

Despite the flaws in their reporting, the CNC and the SPLC are genuinely concerned about the use of NSBM—and White Power music in general—as a recruitment tool for organized white supremacist groups like the National Alliance. But even Burghart admits that most of the evidence that NSBM is successfully recruiting serious White Power acolytes is purely anecdotal. “White Power groups like the National Alliance have attempted to use the NSBM packaging and genre to recruit a different type of disaffected young person into the white supremacist movement,” Burghart explains. “Most of the NSBM bands used to get the cold shoulder from old-line White Power bands in the hardcore and oi scenes. But with the popularity of bands like Burzum and Graveland, the foundation was laid to bring those folks in. But frankly, these [organizations] don’t have enough critical mass to draw people from. I think the conundrum they’ve run into with the NSBM scene is that they were late to get involved and unable to capitalize.”

Which begs the question: Does any White Power organization that wants to be taken seriously in the political arena really want to be associated with a bunch of dudes running around in corpsepaint and wielding swords? “That actually has been a topic of discussion,” Burghart says. “There are those in the white supremacist movement who like the fact that most of the members of the NSBM scene are fairly well-educated and have a more elite or aristocratic perspective than the more working-class followers of the White Power/skinhead scene. But for some, the gruff sound of black metal and, you know, the corpsepaint, isn’t that attractive.”
Mark Potok, Director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project and editor of the Intelligence Report that ran the “Sounds of Violence” article back in 1999, says that William Pierce was initially reluctant to bring Resistance Records under the National Alliance’s ivory umbrella for those very reasons. “It was very painful for William Pierce to buy Resistance,” Potok explains. “He couldn’t stand the music. His thing was Wagner and polkas—no kidding—he thought that stuff was ‘healthy’ music. He used to talk about the ‘Negroid rhythms’ of American pop music.”
This is a sentiment echoed by Varg Vikernes, who has done much to distance himself from black metal in recent years because of metal’s foundation in rock ‘n’ roll, and by extension, the blues. However, Pierce was able to ignore the black metal’s lack of Aryan purity when the NA’s Resistance-bolstered bank statements began rolling in. “Between dues and Resistance, the National Alliance was grossing close to a million dollars a year at its peak in 2002, right around the time Pierce died,” Potok explains. “He thought the music was disgusting, but he knew it was important to the movement, and he recognized it as a very important money-making tool.”
Bark vs. Bite

Despite the often alarmist nature of the reports issued by both SPLC and Turn It Down, neither Potok nor Burghart was able to cite a substantive act of violence committed by a member of the NSBM community since “Sounds of Violence” and Soundtracks to the White Revolution were published. Still, Burghart insists that NSBM is potentially more dangerous than the documented violence of skinhead groups and other White Power bands. “I think NSBM is as serious as any genre in the White Power scene—if not more so, because of the glorification of ultra-violence,” he says. “We’re only talking about a scene of maybe a few hundred people, but within that scene, there is a high propensity for violence.”

The closest Burghart comes is the case of Leo Felton, a six-foot-seven, 225-lb straightedge skinhead arrested in April 2001 for passing counterfeit bills at a Dunkin Donuts in Boston. At the time of his arrest, the 30-year old Felton had already served 11 years in prison for the attempted murder of a black cab driver, and was allegedly a member of the anti-Semitic World Church of the Creator and the Outlaw Hammerskins. Police apparently found bomb-making materials in Felton’s apartment, and believed he was conspiring to blow up the New England Holocaust Memorial. But Felton’s connection to NSBM is tenuous at best: according to articles that Burghart co-authored (with Justin Massa) in the October 2000 and July 2001 issues of the British-based anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, Felton read an NSBM-related zine called Fenris Wolf when he was incarcerated in New York on the attempted murder charge. Fenris Wolf was published by Nathan Pett, who hid convicted murderer and fugitive Hendrik Möbus—of the German black metal band Absurd—at his home near Spokane, Washington. Fenris Wolf was also affiliated with the Pagan Front, a loosely knit organization collectively known as “The Hammer of National Socialist Black Metal.” While Felton was killing time behind bars reading Fenris Wolf, he also slit the throats of two black inmates who allegedly tried to rape him.
The irony of all this is that Felton’s father is black.

Nokturnal Mortum - NSBM from Ukraine (Above)

Welcome to RaHoWa!

Of course, there are those who will think that simply giving NSBM editorial space is an implicit form of support for its underlying ideologies. As a metal journalist who has written extensively about NSBM bands in publications like Terrorizer, Metal Maniacs and Unrestrained, Nathan Birk has come up against this kind of thinking repeatedly. “I just think that’s a bad symptom of modern American social mores that I’m expected to take these people to task,” he says. “I don’t really listen to ambiguous, please-all demographics of music—I prefer bands that lay it on the line, be they far-right or far-left. What about a band like Severed Head of State? They talk about torching cops. If I write about them, it doesn’t mean I support torching cops. Yeah, I have a natural distrust of authority, but I’m also a father, so if there’s someone breaking into my house, I wanna be able to call the cops and make sure they fuckin’ come.”

Birk also isn’t convinced that most NSBM bands pose an actual physical threat to anyone. “I’m sure 95 percent of it is just talk, anyway,” he says. “They’re just using imagery. I mean, Graveland weren’t always singing about ‘the power of the white hand’ or whatever. I have demo tapes where they thank Dead Can Dance.” In defense of his own writing, Birk also cites the use of fascistic imagery by musical enigmas Death in June, a band that has never come out in support of any political platform. “Why is it so taboo in Western society to use imagery of and metaphors for power, domination and submission?” he asks. “Why do they have to be beholden to an endorsement of those things? I mean, is art so beholden to these absolutes?”

Just the same, NSBM figureheads like Fudali speak of RaHoWa, the perpetually impending Racial Holy War in which the white race will be forced to defend its blood and soil against the alien forces of the “mud races” and the Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG), the hidden Jewish hand that controls Hollywood, the Federal Reserve, and is the driving force behind the US alliance with Israel. (The concept of ZOG is derived from an allegedly ancient text first published in Russia in 1903 entitled The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Many white supremacist groups believe The Protocols is an instruction manual for the Zionist—AKA Jewish—conspiracy to manipulate the world’s social order through a systematic takeover of the mass media and financial institutions. As early as 1921, the New York Times proved that The Protocols were a forgery.)

“When will RaHoWa come?” Fudali asks. For him, it is a rhetorical question. “Maybe when the US loses [the] war in the Middle East? It is inevitable. Islam spreads without aircraft carriers and super-war technology. One thing is sure: RaHoWa is imminent.”

For all the large talk that goes on in NSBM circles, very few of these self-styled racial holy warriors are perpetrating any actual crimes—at least that we know about. However, there a few lone wolves who seem more than prepared to get it on, Timothy McVeigh style.


We Are But Wolves Among Sheep

"We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children."

—The “Fourteen Words” of White Nationalism

About a year ago, I got an e-mail from Quebec with a photo attached. Two clicks later, I was looking down the barrel of a gun. In the photo, a man in military fatigues, a black ski mask, and a flak jacket was pointing an automatic rifle at the camera lens. His name is Vjohrrnt V.

Wodansson; he was, at the time, the webmaster and minister of propaganda for the Canadian (or “Northern Vinland” in Aryan-speak) chapter of the Pagan Front, otherwise known as “The Hammer of National Socialist Black Metal,” a loose pro-Aryan cadre of “heathen writers, artists, musicians, editors and label owners who care for our ancestral heritage, purity of race and tradition, and are ready to defend it, when the time comes.”

Wodansson is a member of the “leaderless resistance,” one of the white supremacist movement’s faceless lone wolves. Like Timothy McVeigh, he claims to be a survivalist hardliner, and it is clear that he is no stranger to serious weaponry. At the time of this interview, he was also the vocalist and drummer for a NSBM band called Nacht Und Nebel, which is German for “Night and Fog.” On December 7, 1941, Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel issued Adolf Hitler’s infamous “Night and Fog Decree,” which stated that those who resisted German rule in occupied territories would “disappear in the night and fog”—Nazi-speak for deportation to concentration camps. Their families would not be informed. Night and Fog is also the title of Alain Resnais’ brutal 1955 Holocaust mini-documentary, which contains stomach-churning footage shot at the concentration camp at Auschwitz, Poland. There is also an NSBM compilation entitled The Night and the Fog: A Tribute to National Socialist Black Metal, co-released in the late ‘90s by Dungeons of Darkness Records and Hendrik Möbus’ Darker Than Black Records.

“Racism is a natural instinct of man,” Wodansson tells Decibel via e-mail. “Humanist black metal faggots who praise global friendship and tolerance for all should start thinking about switching to another, more humanist style of music—like death metal for example.”

For Wodansson, black metal is only a means to an end: the recruitment and preparation for RaHoWa. “The musical medium is solely propaganda,” Wodansson says. “Black metal is a common passion we share, but we all know that music is not the solution. It will not help us win the war. It is a great medium for recruiting, or at the minimum, attracting some interest from the youth. Besides that, NSBM cannot do much more than entertain. It is not the answer to the problem in itself.”

Like Varg Vikernes and Rob Fudali, Wodansson espouses an intense dislike for the Satanism prevalent in black metal circles. He even quotes Vikernes directly: “Perhaps in time when they eventually start to realize that they are in fact ‘only slaves to the one with horns,’ like Vikernes once stated in an interview, and awake from that hypnosis. Then some progress will be possible towards a more productive goal and ideological coherence.”

Unlike many NSBM devotees, Wodansson has no use for Nazi relics or propaganda. Like Deicide’s inverted cross or Venom’s pentagram, they represent an idea—they are not the idea itself. “Many would call themselves NS because they collect WW2 medals, helmets, flags or buy a bunch of books on the subject—that’s all crap, it’s all useless,” he spits. “National Socialism is in the soul, mind and spirit of the individual, not in 70-year-old junk. I have never read Mein Kampf, nor do I intend [to] ever read it. I do not need it to know my path. Give me an original [Nazi] pistol, an Iron Cross Medal of Honor or one of Hitler’s personal suits and I’ll immediately sell it so that I can purchase weapons. We discourage you [from] wasting all your money on useless things like CDs and Nazi decorations for your bedroom. This is no fucking rock ‘n’ roll fashion show: THIS IS RACE WAR!!”

As a precaution, the PFV, now defunct according to Wodansson, did not discuss any of its more “delicate projects,” as he calls them, with new recruits, much less the press. “[What] we have in mind is never discussed with those [whom] we cannot be 100% sure of their complete integrity and reliability regarding the revolution at hand,” he explains. “As I said previously, music is not all we are about. We make a huge point about preparedness, survivalist training, weapons training, and food and equipment caches for later use. That’s how it should be for any serious revolutionary activists: Minimum to live by, the rest in what is imperative for war.

“You cannot go to war with your BC Rich guitar or your Vic Firth drum sticks, can you?” Wodansson continues. “The PFV firmly express that the armament of its members by ‘all means necessary’ is a duty to all true revolutionary fighters. And I am not talking of swords, battle axes and fantasy daggers here. When the ZOG raid your house to look for hate propaganda and discriminating anti-fed-governmental evidence, do you really think they will be frozen with fear at the sight of a corpsepainted kid in black holding [a] fake sword?”

Chuck Billy back on the game - by Abner Mality

"You Can't Trust Anybody In The Music Business" - Chuck Billy














It's been a pretty tough road for Mr. Charles Billy the last few years. A scary bout with cancer. Tumultuous times for his band Testament, struggling with some lousy record deals. A music scene that seemed to have turned away from the powerful melodic thrash Testament showed such graceful mastery of, but which now appears to be righting itself again. And, I'm sure, the same sort of day-to-day travails that are part of being a metal musician in this day and age.

The valley has been crossed and Chuck Billy is climbing the mountain again. 2007 sees the debut of Dublin Death Patrol, the oldschool thrash metal project featuring his brothers Andy and Eric, as well as long time buddy Zetro Sousa (ex-Exodus) and many other pals from his youth in Dublin, California. DDP is a "new" band that was only 25 years in the making. On top of that, Chuck has put together his own record company, Godfodder Records, which he has complete control over. And the mighty Testament, dormant for so long, finds itself ready to roar again, this time on rock-solid label Nuclear Blast.

So it was a relaxed and contented man (green herbs might have had something to do with the relaxation part) who greeted me when I gave him a call a while back and asked him about his suddenly busy schedule. Here you will find answers to questions about Dublin Death Patrol, the new Testament and the state of heavy metal in general...

WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: First thing I wanted to ask is, how are you feeling these days? Are you back to normal after your cancer scare?

CHUCK BILLY: I'm 100%. I'm feeling better than ever! WC: I just got a little teaser for the Dublin Death Patrol project...

CB: Did you get the whole album or just the two songs?

WC: Just the two songs. What I did hear, I really liked a lot!

CB: Killer!

WC: When you were in Dublin Death Patrol the first time around, did you think it would still be kicking in 2007?

CB: When we started, we were a band called Rampage that terrorized the town of Dublin. When we all got together to do this project, we came up with the name Dublin Death Patrol.

WC: When you started DDP, was it a real band with long term goals or just a fun project?

CB: At first, it was like, hey, you guys wanna get together and jam and play some old songs and cover songs? Things sounded really good and the way things evolved, we wrote some new songs from scratch and decided hey, let's take it to the next step and do a record and go all the way with this thing. We took from ?February of last year to February of this year to do the whole project.

WC: Back in Dublin all those years ago, when did you realize that heavy metal was going to be a career for you?

CB: Of course, when you're a kid and you're in a band, you think you're taking over the world, you know. (chuckles) Once I got into my first band, I thought I was the shit and that this was gonna be it. So I'd have to say when I was in that first band Rampage and that all took place.

WC: You grew up in the Bay Area during the most exciting period ever in heavy metal.

CB: Right.

WC: What was it like in those times? It seems like a legendary period in history?

CB: Well, there were a lot of parties. Everybody was pretty tight with each other, there was a lot of camaraderie. Everybody was young, it was a new scene. Metallica was up and coming with their sound and they sort of gave the Bay Area scene the flavor it had. They played a lot of New Year's parties and a lot of gigs at their house. It was a time when everybody was close and the same people were at the same shows and the same parties all the time.It was this whole community that was really cool. We came from Dublin, which is about an hour from the San Francisco/Berkeley area where everything was happening. The Stone, the Keystone Berkeley...

WC: Ruthie's Inn...

CB: Ruthie's Inn for sure. Everybody wanted to be a part of it, they wanted to be a part of something. It was a very comfortable scene. You'd say, I'm going out to Berkeley this Friday and I'm gonna see so-and-so and you knew you'd see your buddies and other bands there.

WC: Your two brothers are in Dublin Death Patrol. Were they diehard headbangers like you? Were you the family ringleader that got them into it?

CB: In the end, I became that, but my little brother Andy, who's playing lead guitar and rhythm on the DDP album, he actually played in the band Rampage before me. They were doing their own singing and they asked me to sing for them and that's how it got started. He was in Rampage before me, he started the band. He's one of those guy's who's a great guitar player and can play anything but he just never had a break in music and was never in the right place at the right time. So it's really cool that my brother is getting a chance to get his name out there and show people what he's got.

WC: One of the ironies of Dublin Death Patrol is that you're in the band with the guy you replaced in Legacy (later Testament), Zetro Sousa. What's it like working with Zetro? CB: Well, me and Zet have a lot in common. Zet used to be one of the roadies for Rampage and he was my brother Andy's best friend. That's how I know Zetro. When Zetro left Legacy to join Exodus, he called me up and said, hey ,I got a band that sounds great, maybe you should give a call and audition for them. So I called up and got the gig with Testament because of Zetro. WC: What's the chemistry working with Zetro now?

CB: It's great! If you think about it, I probably couldn't sing with another singer out there and he probably couldn't sing with another singer than me. Because I sang all his lyrics on the first Testament record,I basically sang in his style on that record. He knows my style and I know his style. We're really good friends so there's no tricks. We actually found out that his and my voices blend really well together.

WC: From the little I heard, it sounded like a natural pairing.

CB: Yeah, it is. So far it's been a lot of fun. The whole project's been fun because it's basically all our friends that we grew up with and it's not so much of a band. It's friendships and its fun...we're gonna go to Europe this summer and play a bunch of concerts.Half of the guys have never been to Europe so it's going to be exciting just to see their first time in Europe. I've been enjoying that for over 20 years and it's going to be fun to share that with them.

WC: One of the names that popped up in connection with DDP that suprised me was Troy Lucketta from Tesla. How did he become involved?

CB: Troy was one of Steve's (aka Zetro's) neighbors. Steve and John both play on the Dublin Death Patrol record. Everybody on the record grew up in the town Dublin. When we started doing this, we sent out word that anybody from the town of Dublin who wants to participate on the record can. Steve and John called Troy up and Troy said, "oh yeah, I'll play on it." It is totally different from Tesla's stuff but it's cool, it's killer, it's fun! He had a good time and he got to do some stuff he doesn't normally do.

WC: It's looks like thrash metal is getting really popular again. Do you think it will reach the heights it did in the 80's?

CB: I think it's gonna go beyond that. In the 80's we didn't have the Internet like we do now and the potential to get exposed is much greater. It's a lot easier to get to people's homes now.

WC: You can expose yourself much easier now but can you make a business out of it? Nobody seems to sell any records any more.

CB: Through the Internet, you're not going to make that much money. The only way a band makes money is by touring, play live concerts and sell merchandise. That's how bands survive now because there's a lot of downloading and bands don't get paid for their records. Record companies, they rip off a lot of bands. That's just the way it is.

WC: I recently heard a quote that for every one song that is legitimately downloaded and paid for, that same song gets downloaded for free at least 20 times.

CB: Oh yeah. We found out that Dublin Death Patrol...there's some website out there that's offering the whole album for download for $2.22!

WC: That's not even really a marketplace anymore. Now you formed your own record company, Godfodder Records. Tell us a little more about that and what led you to start it up.

CB: Of course, when you do your own music and sell it on your own website...we're selling the album on Dublindeathpatrol.com...you do things by yourself and eliminate the middle man. We decided to start our own label. That way, we own all the masters. If we wanna license it to Roadrunner or Nuclear Blast or some other label, at least Godfodder Records will still own the masters.

WC: Has there been interest from those labels?

CB: We haven't really been out there searching. We're just selling ourselves, having fun and pushing ourselves right now.

WC: I would think that with all the high profile names involved in DDP, somebody would come sniffing around.

CB: Oh there is, there is, they're coming around. It's coming slowly. I think people want to see what happens with this, how much exposure and press we get out of it.

WC: What's it like being on the other side of the record business? Somebody who produces and owns as opposed to just performing?

CB: You know, as just a performer, it's wrong not to know the business end. Living through it myself and talking first hand, there's a lot of people you can't trust and nobody's gonna come give you money unless you come asking for it.

WC: Has it been a real education, running the label?

CB: Oh, big time! I've had companies file bankruptcy one me...two of 'em...and you just kinda learn by living through it. We put out two of our best records (he is speaking of Testament here) and the record companies folded up on us. We didn't see a penny from that stuff. You just learn that you can't trust anybody in the business.

WC: Were these legit bankruptcies or were they just trying to avoid paying what they owed?

CB: One guy did the bankruptcy to avoid paying. He's still in business and did a "Best of Testament" record, which we never saw a penny from. The other company in Europe folded legitimately, they're done and there's no more label.

WC: Are there any other projects coming up for Godfodder Records besides Dublin Death Patrol?

CB: No, no. I think it's just gonna be Dublin Death Patrol.

WC: Would you have any interest in branching out into something else as time goes by?

CB: I'm sure, definitely, Especially now that we have our own recording studio so we can record a band and produce a record.

WC: What's the new Testament sounding like and when the hell is it gonna be out?

CB: We were actually working on it last night and tonight. It's coming along and it should be out by the end of the year. We've got 8 new songs right now. It's very heavy but melodic, with some catchy grooves and hooks.

WC: Is there any one past Testament album you could compare it to?

CB: I don't think there's a comparison. We're all at the top of our game right now and the record is showing that. Eric's written some great songs and we're playing better than ever. We got new energy with Nick Barker playing drums. Everything's been going positive since we got out of our deal with Spitfire Records. We're free agents.

WC: What's the chemistry with Nick like?

CB: It's definitely been a plus. Nick's the kind of drummer who brings a new element into it. On "The Gathering" record, we had Dave Lombardo from Slayer playing drums. Most of the time, Eric Peterson needs to explain the drum parts to a drummer. With Lombardo, he didn't, because Lombardo was just a player. He just played. That's where Nick is at. He's a natural player. He's got the chops, he can play fast, he can play slow, he can do everything we need him to do. He just plays. I think that will bring the energy Eric needs for the new Testament.

WC: Have you got a name for the new album yet?

CB: Not yet.

WC: The last time I saw you in the flesh was in Chicago on the Gods of Metal tour, with Halford and Immortal. That was the comeback for both you and Testament. What were some of your memories of that tour?

CB: It was pretty short. (laughs) It didn't finish. But just being out there with Metal Mike (Chlasciak) and Rob Halford was killer. Those are two good friends and it would have been a great tour if it had worked out.

WC: You got a chance to work with some of the newer bands like Immortal. Do you keep up with the newer bands and developments in metal or do you stick to the older stuff?

CB: I listen to current stuff.

WC: Any current favorites?

CB: Ummm, let's see. My current favorite bands are like Soilwork, The Haunted. I listen to a lot of the current but I still love the old classics like "Kill 'Em All", "Ride the Lightning", "South of Heaven".

WC: Any touring plans for Testament or Dublin Death Patrol?

CB: Yeah, actually. We just got back from South America on Tuesday from a tour as Testament. It was great, we had a lot of fun. We're planning on headlining the Earthshaker Festival in Germany in July and then we're going to Korea at the end of July and then Russia.

WC: Are those your first times in those countries?

CB: First time in Russia and Korea, yes. That's always exciting.

WC: What was the last CD or album you picked up just because you wanted to listen to it? CB: Hmmmmmmm. Let's see. I think I got the live Rainbow, from 1977.

WC: What was the last gig or show you checked out just because you wanted to?

CB: I went to go see The Haunted.

WC: How was it? CB: Awesome, I love The Haunted.

WC: In the long history of Testament, has there ever been any Spinal Tap moment you'd like to share with the listeners?

CB: Well, we did play a show in Mexico City once. We showed up to play at a bullring. The PA was basically all electric lamp cords strung together. (laughter) We were waiting and then the backline never showed up. The drums and amps never showed up. So we showed up to a bullring in Mexico City and never had a show because the equipment never showed up.

WC: Did you get some sort of compensation for it?

CB: We got paid half of the money up front. It would have been a good show. There were a lot of fans there and the bullring was kind of weird and looked trippy.

WC: Any final message for the fans out there?

CB: As far as Dublin Death Patrol goes, they can find our record and merchandise at www.dublindeathpatrol.com. The new Testament is coming out before the end of the year and it's really gonna kick some ass. Leads are coming back and Skolnick's gonna shred.

WC: Has he slipped right back into Testament easily?

CB: Very easily! Just like a glove. We all are playing together just like it was 1985.

WC: Everybody's looking forward to it!

CB: You'll see us by the end of the year in Chicago, we're trying to get into the House of Blues.

WC: That sounds great.

CB: We're trying to put together a package tour for early next year with Testament, Exodus and Death Angel all on the same bill.

WC: Oh, wow!

CB: So we're lookin' to kick a lot of ass next year!

The Wild Hunt - Part 1

In my reseach on the folk tale "The Wild Hunt" i came across an article on deardeath.com. Which describes best and gives more accurate information than other sites about The Hunt. I havent posted the whole article here, but iv included the parts which are significant for ones who seek a genral idea of The Hunt.


















The Wild Hunt or chasse sauvage is a pack of spectres and demons, usually as hunters on horses, sometimes accompanied by hounds which used to crawl in the sky at night to gather the departed souls. A tumultuous racket of pounding hooves, howling dogs and raging winds usually announce them and for those who had no time to hide, seing the Wild Hunt was considered a very bad omen, usually foretelling a time of strife or death. This strange and awesome folk belief with many variants was endemic in Britain and Northern Europe, especially France and Germany during the early Middle Age.

The Wild Hunt originates in the old pagan beliefs but has been demonized, associated and confused with the Sabbath after he XII century. The form of the Wild Hunt, the name of the Hunter as well as the quarry of this spectral horde varied across each of the geographical locations in which the tradition was found.

Description

Descriptions of the Wild Hunt are broadly the same: the Hunt is preceded by a great noise of baying, barking and shouting. Then a tall rider on a black, white, or gray horse, storm through the air with his hounds followed by a host of strange spirits. The rider is often black, sometimes headless and the spirits bear the battle-wounds that would have caused his mortal demise. Fire spurts from the mouths and noses of the phantom horses and hounds which are often only two or three legged. Often the recently dead are seen in the infernal train. There are numerous local adaptations like in the Okehampton district (UK) where the spirit of death rode in a carriage made of human bones, preceded by a one-eyed black dog.


Names

The Herlathing in England
The Yeth or Wish Hounds in Durham
The Yule Host, Wutan's or Wuet's Army, the Raging or Furious Host in Germany
La Chasse Maccabée, la Chasse Artus , and the Mesnée d'Hellequin in France
The Oskorei in Norway
The Nuada also known as The Fairy Cavalcade in Ireland
Gabriel Hounds or Gabbel Ratchets or Retchets in North Yorkshire
Odensjakt in Denmark and Sweden
The chasse-galerie or witched canoe in Quebec
The Santa Compaña in Galicia


Time

Across Europe, the Wild Hunt appears at various times of the year, being frequently seen in spring and fall, but most commonly over the Yule season. This is not surprising as Yule was regarded as the season in which supernatural visitations were most common. In particular, the spirits of the dead were allowed to return. The hauntings in Eyrbyggja saga take place at Yule, as does the death of Glam in Grettis saga. Folk tales of all the Scandinavian countries have trolls or elves making their appearance at Yule.

"These times are intercalendary periods in Celtic and Teutonic year-reckoning, the paradoxical 'time between the times' when the crack appears and the paths between the worlds are laid open. They are periods of 'ritual reversal' when the dead enter the world of the living and the living enter the world of the dead."


Testimonies

The first full description of a procession of ghosts was written in Paris about a night in January of 1092 (Ordericus Vitalis). The priest Wachlin, coming back from visiting a sick person, saw a swarm led by an enormous warrior swinging a mighty club in his hand. The shapes that followed wept and moaned over their sins; then came a horde of corpse-bearers with coffins on their shoulders -- the priest counted some 50 coffins. Then women on horseback, seated on saddles with glowing nails stuck into them; then a host of ecclesiasticals on horseback. The priest knew many of these people who had died recently. He concluded at last that he had seen the "familia Herlechini," of whom many had told him, but in whom he had never believed: Now he had truly seen the dead.


In the Peterborough Chronicle, the chronicler attests the Wild Hunt's appearance at the appointment of a disastrous abbot for the monastery. Around the year 1132, the anonymous monk wrote:

Tha huntes waeron swarte and micele and lardlice, and here hondes ealle swarte and bradegede and lardlice, and hi ridone on swarte hors and on swarte bucces....
("Then the hunters were black and large and terrifying, and their hounds were all black and broad-eyed and terrifying, and they rode on black horses and black goats....")

While these Wild Hunts are recorded by clergymen, and portrayed as diabolic, late medieval English romance like Sir Orfeo, the hunters are rather from a faery otherworld, as in Celtic countries, where the Wild Hunt was the hosting of the Sidhe, the fairies; its leaders also varied, but they included Gwydion, Nuada, and Herne the Hunter. Thereafter, the description of a ghostly hunt does not appear until the folklore collections of the nineteenth century. By that time, however, it seems to have been thoroughly established.

The Hunt through cultures and ages

The Wild Hunt appears to have been incorporated into several different myths; in some areas it seems to have been part of a fertility cult with the Huntsman/woman being wild spirits (selvaggi, salvatici or homines selvatici) , which may explain their connection with animals, notably the stag.
In other places the Hunter was not a God, but the leader of the fairies, such as Gwyn ap Nudd who was seen as the leader of the Welsh fairies (the Tylwyth Teg) and who led the Hunt in Wales and the West of England.

Toward the end of the middle ages, however, the Wild Hunt became more and more associated with witchcraft. Instead of saying that the Hunt was led by a spirit of God and featured many other spirits, it began to be said that witches participated in the Hunt and that their leader was either Satan himself or a demonic spirit. This belief also seems to have become muddled up with the idea that Witches rode in procession to Sabbats upon animals, or flew in the sky, and this idea became one of the major charges used in European witch hunts.

As the old name was corrupted and its meaning lost, leadership of the Hunt was transferred to real or imaginary leaders of the past. In Denmark its leader was the celebrated King Waldemar, hero of many tales or else King Christian II.

In nineteenth-century England the demonic huntsman might be any one of a number of local heroes or villains, usually of the landowning class - often a hunting squire such as Dando and his Dogs, condemned to. hunt for evermore for hunting on a Sunday, or someone who had otherwise achieved fame or notoriety, for example Sir Francis Drake and 'Wild Darrell', the Marcherlands it was Edric the Wild, and in the southeast it was associated with Herne the Hunter.
Though the ancient Herlething was forgotten under that name, beliefs connected with it long survived not only in traditions such as these concerning spectral huntsmen and their hounds, but probably also that of the sinister 'hell waine' listed by Reginald Scot in his Discovery of Witchcraft (1384) among common apparitions.

Belief in the hell wain as the wagon in which were borne the souls of the dead sturvived luntil recently in Wales and the West Country, and seems to underlie the many reports of phantom coaches with headless horses from East Anglia and elsewhere.

More recently the myth of the Wild Hunt has been separated from its connection to demonolatry, and has become gradually incorporated in modern culture as a fantasy prop. Modern Pagans have made Herne the Hunter on of their God and a powerful myth for men in particular. Listen to Bjork’s song : “The Hunter”. Because of this masculine attributes as well as the wildness of nature he represents, Herne is often confused with the Green Man or the Lord of Misrule that belong to different myths.


The Role of the hunt

Mortals who saw the Hunt were in grave danger: it was thought to presage some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. Mortals getting in the path of or following the Hunt could be kidnapped by the spectral rampage and dropped many miles from home or brought to the land of the dead.

Not only humans but also animals were in grave danger; In England when Herne drove the Hunt across the skies people would hide away in their houses and lock away their animal, as any animal found out-of-doors during the Hunt would be chased and perhaps killed.

The Norwegian oskorei stops either at places where someone has been or shall be murdered, in a manner to the Baltic werewolves described by Olaus Magnus in Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (1555), who, like the oskorei, come uninvited, drink up the ale and mead in the cellars, and whose Yule visit also portends a death in the approaching year. In England, the Wild Hunt comes to fetch the souls of the evil; in Jutland, the Hunt's strong riding foretells war and its passing through a house in West Jutland is a sign of great bad luck to come (Olrik, "Odinsjageren i Jyland", Dania VIII, p. 146). Landstad reports how the Telemarker Tor saw the "Aasgaardsreiden" with his brother Gredgard riding in the host. He hurried at once to his brother, only to find him sitting "dead as a stock or a stone" (Norvegs Folkslagsminne 13, p. 17).

Certainly the hounds are everywhere supposed to be portents of death and disaster, and a belated traveler hearing them would fling himself face downward on the ground to avoid seeing them (cf. the precautions taken by the miner and his daughter, in Clun Forest, seeing Edric the Wild and the Hunt prior to the Crimean War - Edric is said to appear whenever England is threatened with invasion and leads the Hunt towards the foe). Henderson (Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties, 1879) tells us:

"Sometimes they appear to hang over a house, and then death or calamity are sure to visit it. A Yorkshire friend informs me that when a child was burned to death in Sheffield, a few years ago, the neighbours immediately called to mind how the Gabriel hounds had passed above the house not long before."

In the Zimmerische Chronik, one man bandages a ghost and becomes ill, another man answers the hunt with the same result. In Pomerania and Westfalia, the Hunt chases travellers to death. M. Landstad cites a Telemark story of the "Aasgaardsreid" leaving a dead man hanging where they had drunken the Yule ale. "He was dressed as a Nummedaler and had silver buttons on his best. The Aasgaardsreid had taken him in Nummedal and carried him along, and they had presumably ridden so bard that he had burst" (Norsk folkeminnelags skrifter 13, p. 20).

The motif of the living person who is picked up by the horde and carried somewhere else is particularly common in Germany and in Norway. A curious form of this theme which is unique to Norway has people undergoing a sort of involuntary separation from their bodies, which lie as if dead while their souls are faring with the oskorei, as Landstad describes: "She fell backwards and lay the whole night as if she were dead. It was of no profit to shake her, for the Asgardsreid had made off with her." The woman then awakes to tell how she had ridden with the host "so that fire spurted under horse-hooves" (p. 15). In Pomerania, doors are closed against the Hunter to keep children from being carried off; in Bohuslän, it was said that "Oden fares from up in the air and takes creatures and children with him."

A number of the tales of the Wild Hunt describe the punishment of someone who mocks at the hunt, as in Neuvorpommern, where "A miller's boy stood before the mill, when the Wild Hunt went over him. 'Take me with!' the youth cried. 'Half part!' Wode said, and as he came back, cast a human leg before the mill, crying, 'Häst du wullt jagen / Kannst ok mit gnagen!' -- If you wanted to hunt, you can also eat. The boy tried to get rid of the leg in all possible ways, but nothing worked" (Jahn, Volkssagen aus Pommern und Rugen, pp. 7-8). Variants of this story are repeated a number of times in Northern Germany.

Those who help the Hunter or members of his train, however, are often rewarded with gifts. In the Strassburger Chronicle's example of the Freiburg woman who bandaged her dead husband, the woman was given "a great golden head, from which she should drink ... the woman held the head in her hand, and nothing happened to her. It was found afterwards, that the golden head was good, and had been no betrayal.

While it takes a foolhardy person to interfere with the Hunt, only the courageous survive when the Hunt accosts them.

Interpretation

As Kris Kershaw has exhaustively documented (Kershaw 2001), the ritual reenactment of the Wild Hunt was a cultural phenomenon documented among many Gaulish and Germanic peoples. In its Germanic manifestations the Harii painted themselves black to attack their enemies in the darkness. The Heruli, nomadic, ecstatic wolf-warriors, dedicated themselves to Wodan. Later the berserkers, brutal warriors that believed to be transformed into animals by rage, are most commonly associated with the cult of Odin from ninth century Norway onward.

Odin's name is derived from the Old Norse Odhr which means "Fury, ecstasy, inspiration", Woden is similarly derived from the related Indo-European word - the Saxon Wod. Apart from thus showing why the Hunt is "Wild", and supporting ideas of ecstatic trance and spirit flight, this clue may lead us to a possible origin of the Wild Hunt. By donning animal skins or believing themselves transformed into animals by their rage, Berserkers can easily be seen as the hounds of Odin's Wild Hunt.

Attempts have also been made to interpret the legends as based on natural phenomena. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the Wild Hunt was often compared to the storm winds of winter. A more plausible explanation was offered by the Danish scholar H. F. Feilberg: in "Hvorledes Opstar Sagn i Vore Dage" (Dania II, 198294, p. 121) he describes how, one evening near Odense, he heard a great rustling and hound-barking in the air over his head, and how he thought at once of the Odinsjaeger, but "Next day I asked the teacher of natural history at Latin school which migratory birds it was that I had heard." Hylten-Cavallius (Wärend och Wirdarne vol. I, p. 216) cites the Wärend expressions, "that is Oden's hunt, those are Oden's hounds that can be heard in the air" for the passing of the wild geese, and in eastern Hinterpommern, the Wild Hunt comes in the spring and fall, when the migratory birds come and go. It cannot be denied that the eerie barking voices and rustling of a flock of geese passing overhead is very likely to have contributed to the longevity of the belief in the Wild Hunt; however, it does not explain the legend. Wild geese, after all, do not visit the northern countries around Yuletime, when the Wild Hunt most often rides.

Otto Höfler, in his Verwandlungskulte, Volkssagen, und Mythen, has strongly put forth the idea that many of the medieval records of the Wild Hunt were actually descriptions of a ritual folk-procession. The fact that the host appears by both day and night, coming into the city streets as well as terrifying lonely travellers in the dark wood, may support this theory, as does Vulpius' 16th-century description of the Nürnberg Fastnacht train as "the wild host, very strange figures, horned, beaked, tailed ... roaring and shouting ... behind, on a black, wild steed, Frau Holda, the Wild Huntress, blowing into the hunting horn, swinging the cracking whip, her head-hair shaking about wildly like a true wonder-outrage." Vulpius also calls this procession "das wuthende Heer" (Meissen, p. 124).

Overall, the legends of the "Furious Host" or "Wild Hunt" seem to have maintained a remarkable degree of consistency through their wide range of time and space a consistency which can, perhaps, be best explained by the essential reality of the underlying belief to those who held it, from the heathen period through the time of our own grandparents. So when you go out into the night this wintertime, listen carefully for the barking of dogs and the cry "Midden in dem Weg!" Do not mock at the horde that sweeps past, but be ready to carry home whatever Woden or Holda should give you, for the lowliest of gifts from the Hunt's leader may be found to turn to true gold like the very folk-stories themselves, whose quaint dialects and humble words cloak the gold of our forebears' souls.

End of part 1

Voice Of A Tortured Skull

Iv decided to write this article on this particular band because of the impact this band made on the 2nd Wave of Black Metal, the most extreme subgenre of Heavy Metal and which was concieved in Norway and who were labeled as "Norwegian Black Metal" or "Norsk Arisk Black Metal" (which was around from 1989-1995). And not forgeting the impact they made on me many years back, when i found myself listening to the album "Wolf's Lair Abyss". A CD-R i borrowed from a friend, which is still with me today.

It wasnt easy getting into this band... as i was used to much less "noise" and it had only 5 tracks. counting the weird intro. But the more i listened to the album, the more it felt "right" as if it were the only thing iv been searching for in metal. I began to fall in love with this cd as i started to listen to this album day and night. It was an mp3 really. With "Wolf's Lair Abyss" and some other albums in it. I quickly made an Audio copy of it (Dont really know where THAT is). Anyways, i started searching for more information about this album through my friends who were into this type of music (i still didnt know the name of the band mind you). I didnt know who the hell the band were, where they were from or when exaclty this album was recorded. Nothing at all. All i had was "Wolf's Lair Abyss". After months and months of no luck i finally found out the name of this band and origin. A band called "Mayhem" from Norway. Well they certainly lived up to their name.

As time passed i began to recieve more and more information about "Mayhem". Murders and Satanic Rituals were among the various things i heard about them. After some time i familiarized myself with the Internet Downloading process. After scooting from school one morning i went to an Internet Cafe, 2 bus halts before the Dehiwala junc, and i downloaded an album entitled "De Mysteriis Dom Satanas" (which translates to "Lord satans' secret files". A book, which only one copy was rumoured to exist) which was recorded around 1992-1993. Quickly made an audio copy of it, got a printout of the track list and went home as i couldnt wait to listen to this album.



















As i put "De Mysteriis Dom Satanas" into my discman and pressed the "Play" button (it was an old peice of shit, didnt have the "Auto-play" function) the haunting melodies and the blast beats of "Funeral Fog" fills the air. After about 1:30 minutes i begin to hear Attila Csihar's (i dont want to call it a Screach, more like a vomitish groan) vocals "Every time this year, This dark fog will appear, Up from the tombs it comes, To take one more life that can be near". As the song continued, Hellhammer's drumming, Attila's Vocal capabilities started to impress me. Then began the 2nd song of the album "Freezing Moon". A slow/mid paced track (the slowest track on the album i think) which is joined by a blast beat after about 1:40 minutes, which is where is the vocals begin "Everything here is so cold, Everything here is so dark, I remember it as from a dream, In the corner of this time". The blast beat continues till again when the song changes into a very slow pace riffing and drumming. Then comes Euronymous's solo, an undescriptive feeling rose inside me, as if blessing me with hope and despair simultaneously. Taking my spirit high into the atmosphere. As the solo ends Attila's "vomitish groans" could be heard.. "Darkness is growing, The eternity opens, The cemetery lights up again, As in ancient times, Fallen souls die behind my steps, By following the freezing moon".. and the slow paced track suddenly shifts into a blast beat which takes us to the end of "Freezing Moon" and to the start off of "Cursed In Eternity". Another fast paced track which explores a very dark and gloomy atmosphere, "My name was written with, Fire in the place you only can see, When your time has come, When you walk down in the, Land of shadows for eternity". Which brought me to the fourth track of the album, "Pagan Fears", as a familiar sound started to reach my ears, was trying to figure out why this song sounded really really familiar as iv never listened to this album before. After doing some research i got to know that the reason behind the familiarity is that i have listened to a cover version of this song done by Dark Funeral on their "Teach Children To Worship Satan" album before. This track flows in the same vein as the opening track of the album "Funeral Fog", starts with a catchy riff and beat. A Black Metal Classic without a doubt. The fifth track of the album "Life Eternal" opens up with a classic blast beat, which then blends into a mid paced beat. Euronymous's murder's (Varg's) Bass melodies could be heard very clearly at this point of the song. And ofcourse Dead's (Per Ygnve Ohlin) well written lyrics contribute to the haunting atmophere this song produced, "I am a mortal, but am I human?, How beautiful life is now when my time has come, A human destiny, but nothing human inside, What will be left of me when I'm dead?, There was nothing when I lived". The 6th track of the album "From The Dark Past" opens with a mid paced guitar riff but is quickly shifted into a blast beat setting the mood for the song. Then the song suddenly rests on guitars and drums rolls here and there giving the song a very ambient touch and then shifting the song into a midpaced beat. Snorre Ruch's (Blackthorn) and Øystein Aarseth's (Euronymous) guitar work should be complimented here. Track #7 "Buried By Time And Dust" follows in the same vein as the opening track of the album "Funeral Fog". Another fast paced track which certainly lives up to their name. Hellhammer's talents are once again flaunted all over this track. The end of this track brings us to the title track, which is my favourite song from this album (Favourite Mayhem track ever??) and as many say the track which defines "Mayhem". As i heard the opening riffs on this song, the hair on my arm and neck began to rise. As the blast beat begins Attila's "vomitish groan" is heard, "To the elder ruins again, The wind whispers beside the deep forest, Darkness will show us the way". Once again Mayhem manages to take you to another level, another level of consciousness and existance. Jan Axel's (Hellhammer) fast drumming, Euronymous's haunting guitar melodies, Attila's Groans blended with clean vocals, and lyrics which were based upon a satanic ritual which was being performed by a group of men, and Varg's bass guitar (which Hellhammer reduced the volume on the final product) contributed to a very sinister and thereputic final product with the duration of 6:22 minutes of therapy and pure mayhem. "The books blood written pages open, Invoco Crentus Domini De Daemonium, We follow with our white eyes, The ceremonial proceeding,
Rex Sacriticulus Mortifer, In the circle of stone coffins, We are standing with our black robes on, Holding the bowl with unholy water"

As the cd ended, i was left with a state of emptiness, Physically and Mentally numb. Unable to think or act for a few minutes i some how gathered energy and once again, pressed the button "play". Hypnosis all over again.













As time passed, i began researching about my new found "drug". What was the story behind this band who's music managed to inspire me and show me a new ray of hope? And after months of research Mayhem revealed its ugly history.....

Mayhem was formed in 1984 by guitarist Oystein Aarseth (who at that time had embraced the pseudonym "Destructor"), Jorn Stubberud (Necrobutcher) on Bass, Kjetil Manheim (Manheim) on Drums and Eirik Nordheim (Messiah) on vocals. The name "Mayhem" was taken off a track entitled "Mayhem with Mercy" by British black metal band Venom.

Around 1985 Demo cd "Pure Fucking Armagaddon" was recorded. Sven Erik Kristiansen (Maniac) joined Mayhem replaced Messiah on vocals. And demo's along with the EP "Deathcrush" was recorded.

Around 1987 both Maniac and Manheim had left Mayhem. And due to a failed suicide, Maniac got himself shipped off to a mental institute. After some time, Torben Grue and Kittil from Vomit joins the ranks of Mayhem for a short while.

1988 arrives as Mayhem recruites Hellhammer (Jan Axel) as Drummer and Dead(Per Yngve Ohlin), previously of Swedish death metal band "Morbid" to handle vocal duties. Dead was very melancholic by nature and was fascinated by death. According to Bard Eithun "He (Dead) wasn't a guy you could know very well. I think even the other guys in Mayhem didn't know him very well. He was hard to get close to. I met him two weeks before he died. I'd met him maybe six to eight times, all in all. He had lots of weird ideas. I remember Aarseth was talking about him and said he did not have any humour. He did, but it was very obscure. Honestly, I don't think he was enjoying living in this world." Dead was rumoured to bury his clothes underground months before shows and wear the decaying rags on stage, and he was also rumoured to carry around a dead animal in a plastic bag, which he inhaled everytime before going onstage. Around this time Mayhem started to live up to their name during their shows which had rotting pig heads on stakes in front of the stage, and Dead mutilating himself.

1990 arrives as the tracks "Freezing Moon" and "Carnage" are recorded for the CBR Compilation. This year also marks the recording of Mayhem's live concert "Live in Leipzig" which was recorded in Germany. And also Mayhem starts working on their first full length album, "De Mysteriis Dom Satanas"

























On the 12th of April, 1991, Dead was found dead with slit wrists and a shotgun wound in his head in his apartment. A suicide note was found at the scene which simply read "Excuse all the blood". Euronymous who found the body had driven to Oslo to buy a disposable camera to photograph Dead's body. The picture was later used as the cover for the bootleg "Dawn Of The Black Hearts" which contained live auido tracks which were recorded at a gig in Sarpsborg in 1990 where Dead had to be rushed to a hospital after the show due to blood loss because he cut him self up with a broken glass badly, and tracks from a gig with their previous memeber, Maniac. Euronymous is also rumoured to have eaten a part Dead's brain and made necklaces out of Dead's skull fragments. Morgan S. Hakansson from Marduk and Tony Sarkka of Abruptum are rumoured to have peices of Dead's skull fragments.

The shotgun shells which were used in Dead's suicide were sent to him by Kristian Vikernes (aka Varg Vikernes, Count Grishnackh) of Burzum.

Around this time Occultus joins the band as vocalist and Necrobutcher leaves Mayhem, Leaving the Bassist slot empty.

1993 arrives as the bootleg "Live In Leipzig" is released and was dedicated to Dead. And the recording of "De Mysteriis Dom Satanas" begins as Attila joins Mayhem to undertake vocal responsibilities and Varg Vikernes fills the empty slot of Necrobutcher as Bass guitarist.

Euronymous is forced to close down his shop "Helvete" owing Varg Vikerness 30, 000 NOK( according to rumours). Which was argued in public on several occations.

On the 10th of August 1993, Euronymous is stabbed 23 times to the neck, head and back, which according to Varg, he got from falling on peices on broken glass from a lamp which was broken during the fight. And Varg himself states that Euronymous didnt die of blood loss, it was a shot to his skull that killed him.
Get to know what Varg says in his own words HERE

With only the existance of just one member (Hellhammer), Mayhem ceased to exist.

"De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" is released, and is dedicated to Euronymous. The reason behind the delay of releasing the album was that Euronymous' parents demands that the album not feature bass parts by his murderer, Varg Vikernes. Hellhammer had promised to remove the bass parts but had not, instead he lowered the volume of the bass played by Vikernes on the final mix as he believed that the murderer and the victim should be together on this album. The cover of the album shows the Nidaros Cathedral which is considered the most significant church of Norway.

Around this time Hellhammer reforms Mayhem. With Blasphemer (Rune Erickson) from the band "Aura Noir" and their former members Maniac and Necrobutcher.

1996 arrives as Mayhem releases the "Freezing Moon" picture LP and the rehersal "Out From The Dark"

1997 marks the release of the 1st album with their new lineup "Wolf's Lair Abyss" (the first Mayhem album i listened to). And "Mediolanum Capta Est" bootleg was recorded during a live show in Milan with guest vocals by Maniac.

Nordgaren joins Mayhem as session rythem guitarist during "Mayhem Invades England" tour.

1998 arrives as "Ancient Skin/Necrolust" single is released. Nordgaren stays on during Mayhem rehearsals, later leaves Mayhem when he moves to England.

1999 arrives as the bootleg "Mediolanum Capta Est" is released. And also the year which marks the release of the Split 7" with Zyklon-B.

2000 marks the release of the album "Grand Declaration of War" which was influenced by Progressive elements and which was based on themes dealing with themes of war and post-apocalyptic destruction. Alot of electonic elements are included in this album as well.

2001 arrives as "European Legions: Live In Marseille" is released on VHS/DVD, also as limited edition CD. "European Legions" and "U.S. Legions" are released.

2002 arrives as a "Split 7inch w/ Meads Of Asphodel" is released, later released on CD with bonus tracks.

2004 marks the return of the band with yet another studio effort entitled "Chimera". Which showed signs of a return to the earlier raw style. Around this time Maniac is kicked out of Mayhem to be replaced with Attila.

2007 once again marks the release of "Ordo Ad Chao". A latin verse which simply translates to "Out of Chaos, Comes Order) often cited as the motto used in Freemasonry. It is the first Mayhem album to feature vocalist Attila Csihar since the 1994 release, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Ordo Ad Chao's production quality is very raw as the track "Illuminate Eliminate" is Mayhem's 2nd longest song ever.

The album charted at #12 in Norway, making it the band's highest charting album yet, and many consider it the band's greatest work since De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas.

Mayhem, as a band have come along way, as you can see. Iv found my self in countless descussions debating weather the new Mayhem album can be considered "tr00 kvlt Black Metal" or discussions debating the authenticity of their "Image". Debate all you want, I dont give a flying fuck anymore. Cause im one amongst millions of others who have been inspired by their music. And i dont care what anyone says, "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" never fails to give me that tingle in my skin i feel when i listen to it. Long live Dead! Long live Euronymous! Long live Mayhem!


I have added some albums reeased by Mayhem here for download. If you like the album, please support the artist by purchasing the cd. Enjoy.

Mayhem - 1987 - Deathcrush

Mayhem - 1994 - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

Mayhem - 1995 - Dawn Of The Black Hearts [Live]

Mayhem - 1997 - Wolf's Lair Abyss [EP]

Mayhem - 2000 - Grand Declaration Of War

Mayhem - 2001 - European Legions [Compilation]

Mayhem - 2004 - Chimera

Mayhem - 2007 - Ordo Ad Chao

Live In Marseille DVD

Rehearsal 1991 - Necrobutcher/HellhammerEuronymous/Dead

What the F**k Happened to Black Popular Music?

Saw this awesome article on allaboutjazz.com, check this out. oh its on Shanjei's blog too

What the F**k Happened to Black Popular Music?

By Kenny Drew, Jr.

I've decided to add this section to my website as a vehicle to express my views on various topics, musical and otherwise, that have been on my mind lately. You may wonder why I'm talking about popular music in this first installment, since I am generally thought of as a “jazz” musician. However, anyone who knows me knows that my tastes in music are very eclectic (as are those of most jazz musicians, quiet as it's kept). In fact when I started my career as a professional musician, I was not playing jazz. I started out playing in R&B groups and Top-40 bands. We only played jazz if the club was almost empty! The 60s - 80s was such an incredible time for all styles of popular music, but for the sake of this discussion I will concentrate specifically on black music (or rhythm-and-blues, or funk, or whatever the hell you want to call it).


Recently, I've been listening to a lot of my favorite music from that time, and to be honest, I am disgusted and sickened at how far our music has declined in the quality of the music and its message. How the hell did we get from Motown to Death Row; from Earth Wind & Fire to Ludacris; from Luther Vandross to 50Cent?

I remember a time in our music when songs had great melodies and chord changes, you actually had to be able to sing or play an instument to become a musician, and Michael Jackson was black! It's a sad commentary on our culture and society when the biggest thing in popular music is an ex-crack dealer whose claim to fame is being shot nine times, and one of the greatest entertainers in the world was on trial for child molestation. If that's not a sign of the coming Apocalypse, I don't know what is! And if 50Cent was really shot nine times, why couldn't one of those bullets have hit a vital organ? Who the fuck was shooting at him: Stevie Wonder? And as far as all these black rappers getting shot, how about a little equal opportunity violence here? Can't somebody pop a cap in Eminem's white ass?

Another issue in the decline of music today is the stupidity and negativity in the lyrics and the video images that accompany this so-called “music”. I recently discovered that there is now a form of rap called “coke rap”, in which the lyrics deal mainly with the sale, distribution and use of cocaine and crack. I find it offensive that any record company would try to make a profit from glorifying something that has decimated the black community the way that crack has. I hope that one day while 50Cent is lounging by the pool in his humongous mansion surrounded by beautiful groupies, he might consider how many lives were ruined by the poison he used to sell, and how many more lives will be potentially damaged by the musical poison he's selling now.
There's a video by Ludacris that I've seen of a song called “Act a Fool”. All I can remember about the video is that there were a lot of shots of him and his boys running from the cops. Don't we have enough young black men running around acting like fools without some idiot rapper encouraging it?( But then again, Ludacris probably makes more money in one month than I'll make in my entire life as a jazz musician. So who's the idiot here? Maybe it's me!)

Remember when the lyrics in our music spoke of love or the loss of love? Who can forget the uplifting messages of peace, hope and spirituality in the lyrics of Earth Wind & Fire? Or the social consciousness and protest messages in the lyrics of Gil Scott-Heron and Marvin Gaye? How the hell did we get from “Just to be Close to You Girl” to “Back That Ass Up Bitch”? How the hell did we get from “What's Goin' On” and “You Haven't Done Nothin' “ to “Me So Horny” and “My Hump”?

Last, but not least, it's time to address the musical quality of this bullshit, or more accurately, the lack of it. Way back when, when I first started studying music I was told that music had to consist of three elements: melody, harmony and rhythm. Rap music (an oxymoron similar to “military intelligence “or “jumbo shrimp”) has basically discarded the first two elements and is left with nothing but rhythm.

Since only one element of music is present in most of this crap it doesn't even justify being called music. Our culture has been dumbed down to the point where your average dumb-ass American can't tell the difference between a truly great musician and somebody who's been studying their instrument for a week. Playing a musical instrument at a high level is no longer a well-respected skill in our society. (I'm not 100% sure that it ever really was.) In fact, to be honest, I think that most of the students in music schools today who are studying jazz and classical music are wasting their fucking time and their parents' money! (Boy, am I gonna get in trouble for saying this!) Why spend all that time mastering an instrument when you can just get a drum machine and a microphone, write some asinine lyrics about bitches, ho's and pimps and make a ton of money? Sometimes I wonder whether I'm wasting my time in this cesspool called the music industry. These days it seems like the only way to make any serious money in music is to produce some bullshit that doesn't even sound like music!

So what's the solution here? Damned if I know! But I did see an encouraging story on the news recently. A billboard advertising 50Cent's new movie was put up in a black neighborhood not far from a school. In the billboard 50Cent is seen with his heavily tatooed back to the camera with his arms outstretched in a crucifix-like pose with a microphone in one hand and a gun in the other. Understandably, the community was outraged. They held protests, got some media coverage, and eventually succeeded in getting the movie company to remove the billboard. I say that we use this as a model nationwide.

I propose a nationwide boycott of rap music; perhaps by picketing in front of record company offices and major record store chains. Anybody remember the “Disco Sucks” movement in the 70s? Maybe it's time for a “Rap Sucks” movement now. Who's with me here? (Actually, looking back on the disco era, that music sounds like Beethoven in comparison to the rap garbage that's poisoning our airwaves now!) Maybe we could have a big “Rap Sucks” rally somewhere. (As long as it doesn't escalate into a riot like the “Disco Sucks” one did.)