Line Evensen – Black Forest Magazine

New videos from Grave Pleasures

November 5, 2017 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

We’re listening to Grave Pleasures new album ‘Motherblood’ alot these days, and thought we should share their new videos. For those of you who don’t know of Grave Pleasures, you might have heard of Beastmilk? Grave Pleasures rose from the ashes of the last mentioned, and they are throwing us a funeral party!

Our prediction is that ‘Motherblood’ will be their big breakthrough – with a little help from Fenriz who promoted them on his ‘Radio Fenriz’. He even said:

The new Grave Pleasures is sooo good, I even went to see them live fer Chrissakes!

Their genre is apocalyptic post-punk, and if you ever get the chance to see these guys live, you really should! It’s intense, it’s dark and it’s an experience you won’t be forgetting any time soon. And a little tip from us, remember these lines:

Oh happy death
It’s been too long
I’ve come to be with you again
My friend of death
Open your arms
I’ll be your joyful native

Grave Pleasures – Motherblood

November 5, 2017 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

We’ve been listening to Grave Pleasures ever since they called themselves Beastmilk. Back in 2010, when they first entered the scene, we thought they were a fresh breath with really appealing aestetics. We covered them when they changed name to Grave Pleasures, and released their ‘Dreamcrash‘.

Now they have unleashed their brand new ‘Motherblood’ on Century Media, and we’re in awe. Once again Grave Pleasures feels like a fresh breath! The lyrics are poetic in all their gloomy post-punk apocalyptic catchiness. Just sing along to these lines:

Be My Hiroshima
Be my great destroyer
Make these crimes of my heart erupt
Like flowers on the far horizon

They have made some changes in the line-up since Dreamcrash, and the band now consists of writers Mat McNerney/Kvohst (Hexvessel, Beastmilk, Code, DHG) and Juho Vanhanen (Oranssi Pazuzu, Atomikylä), Aleksi Kiiskilä on guitars, Valtteri Arino on bass and Rainer Tuomikanto on drums. Frontman Mat/Kvohst explains ‘Motherblood’ this way, and we can’t but agree:

If you have never danced with the skeletons, then this album is your gateway drug to all the nihilistic pleasures of the grave. Apocalyptic post-punk never sounded so desperately bleak and wild yet never grinned so maniacally and writhed so fervently with tongues that whip the tombs.

You can find out more about the band here:
Facebook
Gravepleasures.com

And listen to them here:

Never again

July 22, 2016 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

Today is a day of mourning here in Norway.

It’s been 5 years since our government quarter was bombed. 5 years since the Utøya massacre, where a right-wing extremist executed 69 people – most of them teenagers – at the Norwegian Labour party’s summer camp for youths. It’s our 9/11. It is almost impossible to imagine the horror these youths and children experienced, trapped on an island with a terrorist and his semi-automatic weapons and expandable ammunition. He laughed as he walked around, shouting “you are going to die today, marxists!”. They had nowhere to hide.

77 people died that day. Hundreds were injured and traumatized. And the terrorist was one of us.

Today Utøya is a memorial and a center for learning about what happened there on 22nd July 2011. The Labour youth party still arranges summer camps on the tiny island, shaped as a heart.

I’m writing this as I’m listening to Harakiri for the Sky and their heartbreaking song ’69 Dead Birds for Utøya’. You should to.

Is it true, that we are nothing but handprints on a misty pane?
How can we fall asleep while the world is still burning?
How shall I sleep, when I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders?
How shall I sleep?
How shall I sleep?
Everytime you think the most stupefying incident in this world already happened,
there comes one more.

If you want to learn more about what happened, I recommend reading these:

Extract of ‘One of Us’ by Åsne Seierstad (you should read the whole book)

“Is he coming? Is he? Oh God, I think he is.” by GQ

2011 Norway attacks – Wikipedia

Germ Bomb – Under a Fading Sun

May 20, 2015 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

This spring swedish crossover thrashers Germ Bomb releases their 3rd full length ‘Under a Fading Sun’. My first encounter with them was with their debut album back in 2010, when they made me sing ‘Infected! Infected!’ all summer.

Allthough I know the band is not found of being categorized, they still play powerful crossover thrash with hints of both heavy metal, black’n’roll and doom. To me, ‘Under a Fading Sun’ feels alot darker and dirtier than their previous material. In ‘Funeral Blues’ for instance, the riffs are slower and doomier, matching it’s title perfectly. ‘Endless Thirst’ has more melodic vocals, sending me to heavy metal land. Last track on the album, called ‘Religious Vomit’ has a perfect groovy black’n’roll riff in the middle, making my nose wrinkle (in that good metal way).

Germ Bomb – Under a Fading Sun

So, to sum it up, I think ‘Under a Fading Sun’ is both darker and more diverse than Germ Bombs previous releases. It’s reflected on the album cover which is inspired by polish surrealist Zdzisław Beksiński (who by the way is one of my favourite artists – you should google him!).

‘Under a Fading Sun’ will be released later this spring, in CD, vinyl and tape edition.

The album was recorded in Welfare Sounds Studio in Gothenburg (Bombus, Bombs of Hades) in october 2014 with Per Stålberg and Olle Björk behind the knobs and as producers, mastered by Daniel Johansson and artwork created by Lenore Ani.

‘Under A Fading Sun’ tracklisting:

1. Abomination

2. Black Mass

3. Funeral Blues

4. Stench

5. Endless Thirst

6. Under A Fading Sun
7. 1000 Suns

8. Religious Vomit

Don’t forget to read our interview with them here, and watch their music video ‘1000 suns’ . You’ll find the band and more information about where to buy here:

Facebook
Bandcamp

VIDEO PREMIERE: Germ Bomb – 1000 Suns!

May 20, 2015 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

Black Forest Magazine are proud to present the world premiere of Germ Bombs brand new video ‘1000 Suns’!

Vocalist and guitarist Hampus tells us that the video ‘1000 Suns’ was shot in Gothenburg Sweden in march/april this year and are produced by Die on the Kitchen Floor Productions.

– The lyrics in the song which reflects the video are issues about how we treat this planet and how we more or less will destroy ourselves with greed. We wanted to do something different and not just capture a band playing a song straight up and down because its boring and done a million times before!

Enjoy Germ Bombs brand new music video below:

Don’t forget to read our review of their upcoming album ‘Under a Fading Sun’, and our interview with bandmember Hampus.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

May 19, 2015 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is the brainchild of filmmaker and graphic designer John Koenig, who says his mission is “to harpoon, bag and tag wild sorrows then release them back into the subconscious”. Koenig aims at all those nameless feelings words – until now – has not been able to define, making this dictionary one of my favourite sites ever. When I first came across it, it struck a chord with me, making me read every definition and watch every video. Every definition is so thoughtful, and every invented word sounds real.

onism
n. the awareness of how little of the world you’ll experience. Imagine standing in front of the departures screen at an airport, flickering over with strange place names like other people’s passwords, each representing one more thing you’ll never get to see before you die—and all because, as the arrow on the map helpfully points out, you are here.

altschmerz
n. weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had—the same boring flaws and anxieties you’ve been gnawing on for years, which leaves them soggy and tasteless and inert, with nothing interesting left to think about, nothing left to do but spit them out and wander off to the backyard, ready to dig up some fresher pain you might have buried long ago.

vemödalen
n. the frustration of photographing something amazing when thousands of identical photos already exist—the same sunset, the same waterfall, the same curve of a hip, the same closeup of an eye—which can turn a unique subject into something hollow and pulpy and cheap, like a mass-produced piece of furniture you happen to have assembled yourself.

moledro n. a feeling of resonant connection with an author or artist you’ll never meet, who may have lived centuries ago and thousands of miles away but can still get inside your head and leave behind morsels of their experience, like the little piles of stones left by hikers that mark a hidden path through unfamiliar territory.

You can find The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows here. They also have a Facebook page.

Lynch: The rumors are not what they seem. It’s happening!

May 16, 2015 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

Some time ago we delivered the news that David Lynch would not be directing the Twin Peaks comeback in 2016.

But just now, David Lynch has tweeted this:

Dear Twitter Friends, the rumors are not what they seem ….. It is !!! Happening again. #TwinPeaks returns on @SHO_Network
— David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) May 16, 2015

Oh happy day! This is awesome news indeed.

Germ Bomb to release their 3rd full length ‘Under a Fading Sun’

May 7, 2015 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

Swedish punk thrasher duo Germ Bomb is releasing their 3rd full length this spring, titeled ‘Under a Fading Sun’. In that regard we had a little chat with Hampus, wanting to know more about the band and their plans for the future.

Germ Bomb! Photo courtesy of the band.

First off, could you tell us a bit about Germ Bomb? I know you are two swedish guys playing thrash, and I’ve heard rumours that you found your band name listening to Dead Kennedys?

Yeah, it’s true we came up with the name while listening to a Dead Kennedys song titled “Kinky sex makes the world go round”. ‘Germ bomb’ is in the lyric somewhere and we thought it sounded cool.

Me (Hampus) and Pierre started Germ Bomb when our former band Hathor split up, we were playing some kind of punkrock at that time and felt we had to change direction. I had just dicovered bands like Toxic Holocaust, Bastardator and Children Of Technology so we started writing songs that was harder and darker than before. We have always listened to all kinds of music. 80’s thrash, punk, 82punk and metal so it came natural for us to create a blend of all that. Germ Bomb was born! Maybe it’s thrash metal, we really dont care as long as it feels right!

We were bored with almost all metal at that time, perfect produced radiometal or melodic shit which we both hated.

It was liberating to listen to all those metalpunk bands and all of a sudden we were part of some kind of metalpunk movement. One thing led to another and we discovered 100 more bands and metal was fun again!

Germ Bomb – Under a Fading Sun

This is your 3rd full length album, and while your cover art in the past has been pretty stereotypical for the thrash genre, the new album seems to be alot darker visually and not so caricatured as the previous ones?

You are right, we wanted something different for this album cover, as you said it’s darker and not so stereotyped as for lot of thrash metal bands. We don’t consider us as a thrash metal band, we don’t want a label but we know people tend to place bands. We are big fans of polish artist Beksinski so we searched the net for artists influenced by him and we found Lenore Ani. She got some instructons, “keep it dark and gloomy” and she nailed it, we think it’s killer!

It’s not only the album cover that has darkened. In my opinion some of the material on ‘Under A Fading Sun’ leans more over to Black’n’roll, sounding heavier and slower. Is this Germ Bomb evolving, or moving away from the thrash genre?

I think you have to evolve and not create the same album over and over, so it came naturally. We are big fans of Midnight and Celtic Frost and we wanted it to sound more dirty and raw. We have been into doom bands a lot recently and I think you can hear that in the music as well.. We also changed studio for this album, it’s recorded in Welfare Sounds Studio (Bombs of Hades, Bombus) with Per Stålberg and Olle Björk behind the knobs. And they created that raw soundscape that we were looking for.

I’m always curious about where artists find their inspiration. Could you tell us something about what and who has inspired you along your way?

Germ Bomb. Photo courtesy of the band.

Everything from movies, books, music or whatever that comes in your way can inspire to a song. We always try to be open for all kinds of music.

Obviously Motörhead has been a big inspiration for us together with Slayer, Celtic Frost and a lot of punk bands like Exploited and GBH.

Nowadays bands like Saint Vitus, Electric Wizard, Einsturzende Neubauten, Of The Wand And Moon or Velvet Underground can inspire us. We have to mention Satyricon as a big influence and especially Frost and his drumming. It’s awesome!

So what is in the future for Germ Bomb? Are you planning any touring after the release of ‘Under a Fading Sun’?

We will soon premiere our first official video “1000 Suns” from the upcoming album. We would like to thank Black Forest Mag for the interview and hopefully we will hit the stage and create some chaos.

See you soon!

You can find more information and updates from the band here:

https://www.facebook.com/germbomb
https://germbomb.bandcamp.com/

Vyrju – Black

January 5, 2015 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

As many of you may already know, we’re also running Black Forest Records, which is a record label, a management and a webshop dealing with extreme metal. In December, we unleashed Vyrju’s long awaited debut EP named ‘Black’. Behind Vyrju is no other than Jan, my partner in crime and life. Ever since we started Black Forest Magazine, our policy has always been to only write about music we really like, and I think Vyrju has qualities that deserves to be shared with our readers.

Lets start with the basics: Vyrju is an international band project with base in Norway, and can best be described as dark, melancholic and melodic black metal. It was started as a one man band by Jan F. Lindsø (Gjenferdsel) back in 2006. All instruments are performed by him, except drums and clean vocals which are performed by Tim Yatras (Germ, Austere, ex-Nazxul, ex-Woods of Desolation etc.) which appears as a session musician.

The feedback so far has been nothing but amazing! Zero Tolerance rated the EP 5/6, and wrote that ‘Black’ was an “immensely promising EP with its depressive, yet alluring, bittersweet black metal soul…”. Others said “Vyrju play grandiose and gorgeously melodic black metal that isn’t short on frostbitten sorrow and grief, straddling a similar line that bands like Austere”.

No Clean Singing ment that “Black is captivating”, and Kim Kelly (Kerrang, Pitchfork, Terrorizer, Metalsucks etc.) wrote that “Vyrju offer windswept melodic black metal buried under new-fallen snow. Oddly catchy and prettily plaintive”.

Meat, Mead and Metal sums it up in a great way: “Those who can reconcile having a record collection heavy on early Darhthrone and the newer stuff from Alcest (such as me) are sure to spend plenty of time with “Black.”

Vyrju – Black

The EP is available through most channels and streaming services:
Black Forest Records (physical/digital)
Bandcamp (physical/digital)

You’ll find Vyrju through the usual channels, like Facebook, Instagram, Spotity, Soundcloud, Amazon plus many more. Below you can watch Vyrju’s playlist on Youtube:

Behemoth’s Nergal releasing his biography ‘Confessions of a Heretic’

October 24, 2014 by Line Evensen Leave a Comment

Behemoth’s frontman and enfant terrible Adam Nergal Darski will unleash his first biography some time during the first quarter of 2015 through the book publisher Jawbone. It is titled ‘Confessions of a Heretic. The Sacred and the Profane: Behemoth and Beyond’.

Adam Nergal Darski – The Confessions of a Heretic Trailer

The book, which was originally released in his native language polish back in 2012, was called ‘Spowiedź Heretyka. Sacrum Profanum’, and became a bestseller. We’re pretty sure it will repeat the bestselling now that it will be available in english. The biography contains all about Nergal’s life, including love life, musical career, religious views, and his battle against life threathening cancer.