Updated Cover for FIDEI DEFENSOR's Cognoscenti CD

Below is the updated cover for our next release, FIDEI DEFENSOR's Cognoscenti CD. We are currently preparing the album for manufacture.

Le Black Metal comme révolution conservatrice dans la musique populaire moderne

The French translation of Alex Kurtagic's essay for The Occidental Quarterly, published earlier this year, is now online. You can start reading it here:

Le Black Metal comme révolution conservatrice dans la musique populaire moderne (Première partie)

First Black Metal Musical

Back in the mid 1980s, I thought extreme Metal had enormous potential to accomplish musically much more than it was doing. I was especially interested in the adoption of techniques from Classical music. As time passed, that which I dreamed of gradually became reality during the late 1990s and early 21st Century. Now we have yet another development, not quite what I had envisioned (as I hate the form), but not wholly unrelated to Classical, if we are willing to go back to Aeschylus: musicals. (I say 'if we are willing', because conventionally music predating the 5th Century falls outside the definition of "Classical", and the musical has its roots in ancient Greece.)

Leave it to the Norwegians to pioneer the Black Metal musical. Below is the trailer.

PC Loonies Agitate to Ban Black Metal Concert in Germany

See here. Offences include complaining about high prices on eBay and shaking hands with former elected politician.

FINNTROLL Launch Trailer for Nifelvind

Here is a trailer for the forthcoming album:



And here is the cover for Nifelvind.



FINNTROLL have inspired a number of bands. A very good one is SVARTBY, who have released two albums to date, Kom i Min Kittel (2007), and Riv, Hugg och Bit (2009).



Their label described the band as follows:

Svarby came from Russia and play Folk Metal - a mixture of Korpiklaani, Trollfest, and of course Finntroll! The songs are sung in swedish! Crazy, right? :)

A forthcoming article in American Renaissance, updating and elaborating on an article from 2000 by folk musician Eric Owens, discusses Folk Metal and related forms of music in the context of European ethnic/nationalist awakening (both in the East and in the West) in the age of The Death of the West.

Immortal Says 'No'

From Blabbermouth. Report reproduced here without comment:

Norwegian black metallers IMMORTAL have "rejected" their nomination in the "Metal" category at this year's Spellemann awards.

The nominees for the largest and oldest Norwegian music awards show, which is often referred to as the country's equivalent to the American Grammy Awards, were announced earlier today (Monday, January 25) and included nods to IMMORTAL for the band's latest album, "All Shall Fall", as well as to the most recent releases from CODE, ÅRABROT and THE CUMSHOTS, all of whom were also nominated in the "Metal" category.

After receiving the news that they were nominated for a Spellemann award, the members of IMMORTAL issued a brief statement saying, "IMMORTAL says no to Spellemann nomination. IMMORTAL has registered that we are nominated to a Spellemann award for 'All Shall Fall'. We hereby wish to announce that we reject this nomination."

IMMORTAL manager Håkon Grav told the blog of the Norwegian TV program "Lydverket" that the IMMORTAL members themselves should explain why they have chosen to reject the Spellemann nomination, but offered his personal view on the drama.

"IMMORTAL doesn't necessarily want to be the biggest band in the world, they just want to be the rawest band," he said. "And honestly, one has to say that there are few black metal bands who have kept their credibility while still playing for 80,000 fans around Europe."

When "Lydverket" contacted Marte Thorsby, the head of the Spellemann board, to get her response to IMMORTAL's statement, she said that it would not pose a problem for the awards show. "We're not gonna force anybody to be nominated for a Spellemann award, so we'll remove them from the nominations. This is completely unproblematic."

Here We Go Again...

Yes, once again, a Black Metal gig has been cancelled due to pressure by simian terror groups. It seems Temnozor was due to play live in Holand earlier this month, but a troop of smelly, politically correct chimpanzees noticed and decided to rattle the cage (see here)

Huldrefolk, who were supposed be in the line-up, issued one of those tedious "we are not Nazis!!!" (...zzz...) statements (see here).

Little good did it do them: the venue lost heart and the gig was cancelled anyway.

Lesson: even if true, a Black Metal band should never issue a statement denying they are Nazis. It always looks stupid, it never works, and, most importantly, it indicates they are on the defensive, playing by rules set by the opposition.