unnnggghhh I have done nothing fun today
because I've been busy working on an album review for school that I was dumb and put off revising until the last minute. I think it came out pretty fucking badass though, so as usual when I write something formal that I happen to like, I'm gonna post it here. if there's any inaccuracies that ya'll notice in terms of facts and band history and shit, by the way, let me know. oh, and the naughty words are blocked out because while this particular teacher is not the biggest hardass in the world, I thought including "fuck" and "cunt" might be a bit too much for her.
Needles in Thin-Skinned Places
Formed in December of 1990, Carpathian Forest is amongst the forebearers of black metal as a genre. In fact, the band is still currently active, making them one of the longest running ensembles in the scene. They have also chosen to remain one of the most traditional, retaining pseudonyms as well as continuing to don corpse paint-the unmistakable black and white face makeup that for a time utterly defined the black metal aesthetic-at their every public appearance. Though they have experienced many line-up changes over the years, vocalist and genre icon Nattefrost (Roger Rasmussen) has remained with the band throughout. Hailing from Norway-like their more well-known contemporaries, Darkthrone and Mayhem-the grimness and isolation of the country’s frostbitten winters definitely factor into their music, though not as prominently as in most nineties black metal. The rage that flows from their recordings is directed less at the cold and more at the whole of mankind and life itself.
Despite two earlier releases, the band’s first full-length album is 1998’s Black Shining Leather. While it retains many of the core elements of black metal-heavy distortion, grinding, rasping vocals, furious drumming-even this early record contains evidence of a unique musical perspective on the popular topics of war, death, evil, hatred, and self-loathing. At the time fellow founding member and bassist Nordavind (John Krøvel) was still playing and composing alongside Nattefrost, and it shows. In most black metal (actually in almost all up-tempo metal, including the closely related Scandinavian genre of death metal), the bass takes a back seat to better showcase guitarists’ skills, while on Black Shining Leather it is an incredibly heavy and important presence in each song. It almost always overshadows the buzz of the guitar with its deep, resonating tones and pounding underlying melodies. Though Nordavind was replaced before the production of the band’s next album, Strange Old Brew(2000), by current bassist Vrangsinn (Daniel Vrangsinn), he set a precedent in this album, as the instrument remains an essential part of the band’s sound 20 years later. When incorporated with the grainy recording quality and haunting overlay of high-pitched, echoing tones more familiar to first-wave black metal, the crushingly deep notes and distinctive rhythms in the bass line create an awesome atmosphere of urgency and desperation that is absent from more orthodox records.
This urgency is reflected in the album’s lyrical content, which-in addition to epic descriptions of mountain traverse, endless night and the lonesome wilderness-introduces sexual hunger and depravation as nuances of the disturbed psyche. It would seem logical that black metal’s obsession with melancholy would lend itself better to masochistic perversions; however, Carpathian Forest’s cynicism and misanthropy find release in clearly sadistic fantasies. In the unambiguously titled “Pierced Genitalia,” an immediate deluge of constant drumbeats and pulsing guitar and bass rhythm illustrate the thrill gleaned from complete power over another human being, as well as the breathless exchange of energy in such intense physical and psychological fetish play. Nattefrost obviously experiences no shame in his cruelty, projecting a preexisting misery onto his sexual partner: “With needles in thin skinned places. / The warm blood of life poured on the floor, / but who gives a s--t when your life is a plague. / A rollercoaster ride of pain.” He simultaneously relieves and reinforces this willing victim’s suffering, coincidentally providing a perfect description of the sensation that Carpathian Forest gives their listeners-discomfort, pain and begrudging pleasure all at the same time. Even describing suicide, as he does in “Third Attempt,” Nattefrost uses the second person, planting an anonymous body rather than himself in that position of extreme weakness and vulnerability: “You cut your wrist. / You do not wish to live / and kissed the world blood red.” This aggressive approach to despair lends itself well to the band’s musical styling; it is difficult to infer from the record which of the two inspired the other.
In fact, by their apparently relentless efforts to maximize the impact of the harshness, anger and vulgarity they first embraced in Black Shining Leather, Carpathian Forest have continued to distinguish themselves from their peers in subsequent records. It’s an impressive accomplishment, considering the black metal universe has grown since 1998 to encompass dozens of subgenres and splinter groups incorporating a wide range of outside musical influences. The band’s most recent release, F--k You All!!! (2006), is essentially comprised of stronger, harder, richer reincarnations of the ideas and techniques that Black Shining Leather presented in their raw form. The record’s ultimate track “Shut Up, There is No Excuse to Live” perfectly exemplifies this musical fermentation. In it, Nattefrost proudly shouts and snarls his incendiary lyrics (“Come chaos, come death…Like a c--t, waiting to be f--ked”) over Vrangsinn’s punishing bass playing. The song is completed by dense layers of complex drumming and the occasional upsurge of a sinister guitar.
Whether you are a seasoned explorer of the graveyards, forests and fjords of black metal, or a cautious metal-head making your first venture into that foreboding realm, or simply a masochist looking to assault and offend your ears as brutally as possible, Carpathian Forest has something to offer you. Black Shining Leather is a clear, unmistakable introduction to the unique experience they hope to impress upon you.
cheers.
Needles in Thin-Skinned Places
Formed in December of 1990, Carpathian Forest is amongst the forebearers of black metal as a genre. In fact, the band is still currently active, making them one of the longest running ensembles in the scene. They have also chosen to remain one of the most traditional, retaining pseudonyms as well as continuing to don corpse paint-the unmistakable black and white face makeup that for a time utterly defined the black metal aesthetic-at their every public appearance. Though they have experienced many line-up changes over the years, vocalist and genre icon Nattefrost (Roger Rasmussen) has remained with the band throughout. Hailing from Norway-like their more well-known contemporaries, Darkthrone and Mayhem-the grimness and isolation of the country’s frostbitten winters definitely factor into their music, though not as prominently as in most nineties black metal. The rage that flows from their recordings is directed less at the cold and more at the whole of mankind and life itself.
Despite two earlier releases, the band’s first full-length album is 1998’s Black Shining Leather. While it retains many of the core elements of black metal-heavy distortion, grinding, rasping vocals, furious drumming-even this early record contains evidence of a unique musical perspective on the popular topics of war, death, evil, hatred, and self-loathing. At the time fellow founding member and bassist Nordavind (John Krøvel) was still playing and composing alongside Nattefrost, and it shows. In most black metal (actually in almost all up-tempo metal, including the closely related Scandinavian genre of death metal), the bass takes a back seat to better showcase guitarists’ skills, while on Black Shining Leather it is an incredibly heavy and important presence in each song. It almost always overshadows the buzz of the guitar with its deep, resonating tones and pounding underlying melodies. Though Nordavind was replaced before the production of the band’s next album, Strange Old Brew(2000), by current bassist Vrangsinn (Daniel Vrangsinn), he set a precedent in this album, as the instrument remains an essential part of the band’s sound 20 years later. When incorporated with the grainy recording quality and haunting overlay of high-pitched, echoing tones more familiar to first-wave black metal, the crushingly deep notes and distinctive rhythms in the bass line create an awesome atmosphere of urgency and desperation that is absent from more orthodox records.
This urgency is reflected in the album’s lyrical content, which-in addition to epic descriptions of mountain traverse, endless night and the lonesome wilderness-introduces sexual hunger and depravation as nuances of the disturbed psyche. It would seem logical that black metal’s obsession with melancholy would lend itself better to masochistic perversions; however, Carpathian Forest’s cynicism and misanthropy find release in clearly sadistic fantasies. In the unambiguously titled “Pierced Genitalia,” an immediate deluge of constant drumbeats and pulsing guitar and bass rhythm illustrate the thrill gleaned from complete power over another human being, as well as the breathless exchange of energy in such intense physical and psychological fetish play. Nattefrost obviously experiences no shame in his cruelty, projecting a preexisting misery onto his sexual partner: “With needles in thin skinned places. / The warm blood of life poured on the floor, / but who gives a s--t when your life is a plague. / A rollercoaster ride of pain.” He simultaneously relieves and reinforces this willing victim’s suffering, coincidentally providing a perfect description of the sensation that Carpathian Forest gives their listeners-discomfort, pain and begrudging pleasure all at the same time. Even describing suicide, as he does in “Third Attempt,” Nattefrost uses the second person, planting an anonymous body rather than himself in that position of extreme weakness and vulnerability: “You cut your wrist. / You do not wish to live / and kissed the world blood red.” This aggressive approach to despair lends itself well to the band’s musical styling; it is difficult to infer from the record which of the two inspired the other.
In fact, by their apparently relentless efforts to maximize the impact of the harshness, anger and vulgarity they first embraced in Black Shining Leather, Carpathian Forest have continued to distinguish themselves from their peers in subsequent records. It’s an impressive accomplishment, considering the black metal universe has grown since 1998 to encompass dozens of subgenres and splinter groups incorporating a wide range of outside musical influences. The band’s most recent release, F--k You All!!! (2006), is essentially comprised of stronger, harder, richer reincarnations of the ideas and techniques that Black Shining Leather presented in their raw form. The record’s ultimate track “Shut Up, There is No Excuse to Live” perfectly exemplifies this musical fermentation. In it, Nattefrost proudly shouts and snarls his incendiary lyrics (“Come chaos, come death…Like a c--t, waiting to be f--ked”) over Vrangsinn’s punishing bass playing. The song is completed by dense layers of complex drumming and the occasional upsurge of a sinister guitar.
Whether you are a seasoned explorer of the graveyards, forests and fjords of black metal, or a cautious metal-head making your first venture into that foreboding realm, or simply a masochist looking to assault and offend your ears as brutally as possible, Carpathian Forest has something to offer you. Black Shining Leather is a clear, unmistakable introduction to the unique experience they hope to impress upon you.
cheers.