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| A Gehenna fan. |
The innermost sanctum of Castle Thrashstone was a large room with carved wooden benches around a low table. Though most of the castle was in ruins, this room survived intact through the great disaster that overtook the Time Desert when Demon Scourge betrayed and killed his companions in the great hall below. Books of occult knowledge and scientific theories lined the walls. The ritual altars stood at each cardinal point, according to the calculations of the infernal Hellmaster, who invented the multidimensional compass to traverse the fearsome desert in the days before the road appeared in his realm. When Thantor the Bard awoke from his dream of the planked stage and a looming grey figure, he was greeted by two staring figures; He knew Vorthon, the Whip of fate. Yesterday he was practically shanghaied by the menacing hermit when he crashed his transport on this wrecked castle. The other face was as yet unfamiliar. Looking out at Thantor from under the dark cowl was a pair of glasses, and somewhere in the shadow behind them was the face of Hell Wraith, the missing cryptophysicist responsible for reverse engineering the Tauriat, a detector that locates dimensional rifts. In a gravelly voice, the slight scientist introduces himself to the groggy Thantor. “I am Hell Wraith, stranger. Sorry to have to detain you here but, we need you to help save this realm. Please come with me.” Vorthon’s companion rises and motions Thantor to the eastern wall. The dazed traveler, assisted by Vorthon, walks the hundred or so paces to the bookcase, which becomes increasingly translucent as the three men approach it, then disappears as they walk through it and down the stairs behind it.
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| Another Gehenna fan. |
Our first album was Seen Through the Veils of Darkness (The Second Spell) by Gehenna.Gehenna is your classic mid 90's second wave Norwegian black metal. Lots of cheesy keyboards, corpse paint, lots of grim atmosphere, and mid tempo funeral marches. It's good stuff, though an acquired taste. This kind of black metal was fashionable to laugh about in the Aughts, but over time it turns out to be a good listen.
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| The legendary Nactan contemplates mortality. |
The second album we heard was Japanese grindcore legends SOB's What's The Truth Formed in 1983, they were a big influence on the UK grindcore scene of the late 80's and especially Napalm Death, who covered a couple of their songs for the Peel Sessions album. Released in 1990, this is by the book grindcore, not quite as fast and chaotic as Napalm or Carcass, but it is still a hellish din, an ultra caffeinated nightmare. This is just furious grindcore; fast, loose, and face peeling
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| Yet more Gehenna fans |
“Hell Wraith,” Thantor interjects as the three dusty figures make their way down the gently sloping hidden stair, “Can you repair my tauriat? I need to reach the Waylorian Mountains as soon as possible. I suppose the help you seek is a ride out of the desert. Well we ain’t goin’ nowheres until I can find the damn road.” Hell Wraith looks over his shoulder sternly, his words come out clipped and forceful, “I know of your mission. We will accompany you when the time is right.” As the group swings open the stone door, luminous like the rest of the underground portion of Castle Thrashstone, they enter a workshop, cluttered with weird projects in various stages of completion. Across the wall opposite them though,three large boxes sit atop an expanse of table. Hell Wraith leads a single file line through the tangle of wires and electronic detritus. When he reaches the repair bench, he begins to attach cables from one box to another. As Thantor neared the boxes, he realized what they were. Speakers! From behind one of the large cabinets, Hell Wraith produces an instrument Thantor has never seen. Six long wires stretch across a long piece of wood. At one end there are six adjustment knobs, at the other, a strange, horned body adorned with two knobs. Hell Wraith addresses his audience, “As you know, Vorthon, I have been developing a way to call to the most elder gods that Bloodmace and Hellmaster might return to this dimension and repair the rift in the dimensional clock. To this end I have developed, or you might say, improved upon a tool.” He brandishes the strange instrument. “With this, and you, Thantor, we shall restore glory to Castle Thrashstone and save the entire belief system of every known race in the galaxy.” Thantor looks from one of his captors to another. Vorthon, grimacing, his eyes sparkling in the weird luminosity of Castle Thrashstone’s glowing rock basement. Hell Wraith, eager as a schoolboy, looks to him with unbridled enthusiasm still clutching his invention in his hand. Thantor the bard, town crier or Melnor, caravan leader and ballad singer looked at these grinning kooks and voiced his concerns out loud. “You guys are fuckin’ wacky. I don’t know what the crap kinda jive you jackasses are tryin’ to hand me but I want no part of this foolishness.” When Hell Wraith touched his hand to the strings of his invention, everything went black.
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| BLIND GUARDIAN! Or I smash apart this computer with my face! |
Next, we heard Texas tech thrash progenitors Watchtower and scrutinized their first album, Energetic Disassembly. Their second album, Control and Resistance, is a certified classic, much worshiped by prog heads. The first album is nearly as amazing, and thrashier, sounding like a bastardization of Fates Warning and Coroner. Socially conscience lyrics keep this album grounded in the real world, somewhat, but the music climbs into the ozone. You want time changes? This has more than the usual quota. Jagged atonality? Jazzy interludes, ball crunching riffs, scrotum pinching high vocals? Yes, indeed. This was going to be my pick for Metal Night, until Demon Scourge threatened us with a lasso spear unless we heard the next album.
Blind Guardian's 'Imaginations From The Other Side' is Demon Scourge's favorite album. If you say anything bad about this album, Demon Scourge slits your throat, no questions asked. So I won't say anything bad about it. But, there really isn't a whole lot bad you can say. It's one of the greatest power metal albums ever made. It set the basic Blind Guardian formula, heroic songs, epic arrangements medieval beast master instrumentation, butt-fuckingly heavy thrash riffs. This was the winner of the night. Wanna escape the cage of reality into the realm of fantasy? Let the Blind Guardian lead the way.......noooooooo Demon nooooooo i'm sooooory I was cheesy ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
When the masters return, what will happen to the malls that have sprung up overnight in the absence of Bloodmace and Hellmaster? What will happen to the great horde of posers who crowd the halls of the sacred Jenkabala palace to spend money on things they believe will get them laid? Where have the heroes gone when the world of Centon needs them most? Trapped. TRAPPED! Trapped in the dimension of formless dread. Lost among the shadows that flit at the edge of vision in the twilight hours. There is one who has heard the call from beyond though, one who will never rest until the very gates of reason fall before his legion! Vorthon the Whip of Fate! It is he who shall champion our heroes in the realm of the gods. It is he who will risk all on the roll of the dice in the place where the wind of mayhem blows cold thorough Olympian peaks, calling to account those who have tried to usurp the last bastion of metal for their commercial concerns. HEADRON! Your day of reckoning is at hand!
Until next week, Bros and Broettes
Horns.
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