BLACKENEDFEST DAY 13: Men In Black Roam Hollywood's Streets

Hellhammer (center) waiting for parking lot bbq after the Alburquerque show.

The Blackened Fest tour (minus Marduk) has arrived at the House Of Blues on Sunset Blvd. I'm skipping through the last couple of days, which have been great shows and great times. Including when Beau and I got too drunk to find our way out of a parking lot less than a block away from the buses (or our mobile homes). Yesterday the bands had a day off. While Mayhem was living it up at the beach, Cephalic Carnage and Withered spent a spectacular miserable day at Ontario Mall. But, its okay. We're in Hollywood, now, where twatbags who don't do research can write for the LA Weekly…

LA Weekly's write-up on: Mayhem, Marduke, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation, Withered

Devilicious! By Randall Roberts Few bands could name their first demo Pure Fucking Armageddon and then go on to deliver on it — almost literally. Norwegian black-metal forefathers Mayhem have an insane history. Founded in 1984, the band was living in the rural Norwegian woods (sorry, couldn’t resist) and creating the template for a movement when vocalist Dead slit his wrists, then blew off his head with a shotgun. Guitarist Euronymous found him, but rather than call the cops, he photographed the dead singer, and then, rumor has it, scooped up pieces of Dead’s brain, made some stew out of the meat flecks and necklaces out of the skull fragments. Two years later Euronymous got his come-uppance when Barzum bassist Varg Vikernes stabbed him 23 times, killing him and, in the process, creating a myth surrounding Mayhem, Barzum and the entire Norwegian black-metal scene. (Vikernes’ church burnings in Norway during this time didn’t hurt.) So on and so forth. Twenty years later, drummer Hellhammer is the only string that ties Mayhem’s history with the present — and he’s apparently some sort of rightist Aryan nationalist. (There’s also an upcoming film called Lords of Chaos in the works, which is based on the bloody story of the band, and will reportedly feature Twilight’s Jason Rathbone as Vikernes.) If you don’t feel like supporting Aryan assholes, go for Marduk, Sweden’s legendary black metallurgists, whose work has actually remained menacing and awesome — first album’s called Fuck Me Jesus, recent DVD’s called Blood Puke Salvation — which is something of a feat in a genre where the line between awesomeness and ridiculousness is razor-thin.

Notes: The band Barzum is really the band Burzum. Hellhammer is not an Aryan nationalist, nor is he one of the founding members. Necrobutcher has been in the band longer. Marduk is not on the tour (yet; though it is doubtful that they will ever join the tour).

More photos from the last few days:

NYDM (New York Death Metal Coalition) reppin on the West Coast