Damaged Inc Fanzine

This time not about a band or concert, since I haven't been to any for now. This time about the magazine, that had two issues in 1986 and 1987 and then sadly was discontinued by Maniac.

Maniac is Sven Erik Kristiansen of Skitliv and formerly Mayhem. His first two issues were combined with a new edition in 2017 by none other than Dayal Patterson of the Cult Never Dies series. This is a combination that can only go well and it did.

First of all, Maniac signed all copies of the first print. I feel very honoured to have his signature in the book.

His style in the first two issues is really fun. Well, he was very young, he is full of excitement and has a most entertaining way of describing styles and bands. I had to laugh out a few times at his words. You can just picture this young punk and death metal enthusiast in front of your eyes.

His newest edition is still very entertaining and fun. It's very much Japan oriented due to Maniac's wife and his involvement in the scene there. But that is very interesting to see, too. I like how the interviews are unedited and even if the other is not that perfect in english, it will just reflect how it would sound, if you were to talk to this person. I'm absolutely ok with that. Things should stay real.

All in all I'm very happy with this purchase and loved it completely. It was expensive enough to get it shipped here, but it was worth every penny. Next up is a fanzine compilation from a, I think, Malaysian fan and I think I will pass on that. Until now I read every Cult Never Dies publication, but money wise I think I will have to keep to the things that really really interest me.

Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
- Daedin

Pellavarock

August.. a month with nothing to do really. There are no concerts in Athens, so let's look back at some other cool things. I have mentioned before Tuska Metal festival in Helsinki. There are many more cool metal festivals in Finland. Just recently there have been some new ones, too.

I also have been to some other festivals in Finland that are not metal-oriented, like Provinssi, Ilosaari, Sararock etc., but there was one festival I went to which is a pure metal festival and it's called Pellavarock. It was situated near Lammi, which is close by Hämeenlinna.

The year was 2004 and we went there by bus, if i remember correctly? There were also some friends of us to hang out with. I must admit that I got crazily drunk on vanilla coke and vodka. The festival lasts only one night and there are two stages as you can see on my pics.

The area was in the middle of a forest with slopes going up a small hill. For a festival this is a perfect setup since everyone can see well. I remember stumbling to the toilet so many times and most likely tripping over roots, since I all of a sudden had a scar above my lip and I had no recollection how it got there.. well well well, those were the days back then, haha!

Why I am telling all of this? There were some great metal bands playing that day but I would lie if I said that I remember much. But yes, there was also a black metal band and that is Moonsorrow. I really should have payed attention back then. Moonsorrow are a great band and I recently really fell in love with them. Their mix of black metal and folk, their epic and in Finnish sung songs are absolutely to my liking. They also covered Non serviam from Rotting Christ and the cover is superb.

The last two pictures are from a pizza place in Lammi and walking through Lammi to get to the house of a friend's friend. We had no place to stay but he so nicely let us stay at his house, even though there were no free beds and we grabbed some sheets and just lay down on the floor. This was quite the adventure and i'm glad there still exist some pictures from that crazy trip.

Pimeyteen joka täällä on
Ei ketään voida valmistaa

- Daedin 

Rockwave 2017

I have been to Rockwave, Greece's biggest summer festival, a few times already. i went 2011 to see the prodigy, flogging molly, mark ramone's blitzkrieg and monster magnet. i also went 2012 to see ozzy osbourne, machine head and paradise lost. in 2013 i saw depeche mode at terra vibe. there were obviously a few years break before i went back to Rockwave in 2016 to see lana del rey. when the programme for 2017 was announced, i was not too excited. ok, some bands would be nice seeing again, but it was not worth the money to be honest.

until friday was announced! friday would be greek metal day, with six bands sharing the day, the headliner being rotting christ. well, there was no way in hell i would not go. i arrived at terra vibe at about 7.20, after working and taking the bus there. innerwish started playing. i sat down with a book and read, enjoying the background music. now innerwish are not my thing, being quite traditional melodic heavy metal, but it was nice to listen to while reading, haha.

next up was nightstalker. i have seen them before at resistance festival and they had been great. this time i decided to stay sitting until it would be too dark to read and just listened to them from afar. they are stoner rock, which works really great live. after them it was too dark to read and i had to switch stages to see 1000mods. they were ok and entertaining, but not my cup of tea. they are too progressive for my liking, haha. (next pic is my own)

just a bit before they were done i headed back to the main stage where everything was ready for rotting christ. i stayed on the side but then saw that people were much more enthusiastic in front and they let everyone pass past the barriers to the front. so i ended up in second row, first between sakis and george, and then exactly in front of george after the huge circle pit had pushed us further, haha.

the show was fantastic. i actually lack words. i headbanged more than i did in years. the concert is now two days ago and i'm still so sore, haha! they played a great mix of songs, my favourites apage satana, kata ton daimona eavtoy, 666, in yumen xibalba, ze negmar, athanatoi eiste, elthe kyrie and many more. of course the show ended with non serviam and everyone went absolutely bonkers.

i must say that at piraeus it was great to just see them play and also see them for such a long concert, 2,5 hours, hear their back catalogue and get to know them as a live band. now this time i enjoyed it to be so close, to feel the energy, to experience them much more, to see the expressions on their faces, to feel their passion and fire, to have them in your face and push you to let go and just go crazy and enjoy this. and i must admit i fell in love with george there, haha! my god, he was so into it, as are all of them. a joy to see <3

αθάνατοι έστε οι δυνατοί
αθάνατοι έστε οι ερμητικοί
αθάνατοι έστε οι τραγικοί

-Daedin

Ulver

this band needs no introduction to fans of norwegian black metal. their black metal trilogy bergtatt/kveldssanger/nattens madrigal is something that will stay cemented in black metal history. also because of kveldssanger being so different and already showing glimpses of what Ulver would become.

Ulver moved away from black metal then and turned towards basically everything. there is nothing these guys cannot do. from dark electro, to more straightforward EBM, to jazz, classical, prog, avantgarde, everything. this makes them so remarkable.

so arriving at gagarin for the show in my varathon shirt i quickly realised that we, the black metal community that was here because we know Ulver from back then, are actually rather a minority. most people looked like they discovered Ulver later. not that this is a bad thing, this band deserves recognition from all kinds of people! it surprised me nevertheless. because Ulver is a band that has to be mentioned when talking about the norwegian second wave of black metal.

but now to the show. they concentrated on electronic sounds. this was amazing and their lightshow was something i surely will not forget. the sound was thriving, full of energy, captivating! i was dancing and enjoyed it very much. of course this has nothing to do with black metal anymore and i was there to bow before this mighty band, actually enjoying this a hell lot, too. i had no idea what to expect and they surprised me positively!

my favourite song must have been "so falls the world" as well as the last monumental song, which i have to find the name of. thank you Ulver for this experience! yet another example that you do not have to stick to black metal to be legends.

as colossus stands
so shall rome
when colossus falls
rome shall fall
when rome falls
so falls the world

- Daedin

Mayhem

have i been waiting for this a lot? OH YES! the show had been scheduled for mid-april and then was changed to end of may. this made me really anxious, but finally the big day arrived! mayhem are a band you simply cannot miss. they were the first band of the second wave of black metal, kick starting the norwegian scene.

of course mayhem have had some changes in personnel as we all know. but the core of the band is still there.. hellhammer, necrobutcher, teloch and also attila. the only new "face" is ghul. especially after i read necrobutcher's book "dead archives" i really was excited to see him perform.

the evening started with ravencult, a pretty good greek black metal band. they were enjoyable and got a lot of headbanging going. almost on time, at 10.30, the lights went off and we were greeted with a lighted up nidarosdom, the cover picture of de mysteriis dom sathanas. (above pic is mine, the others are not and i grabbed them from Facebook)

the band played the whole album from start to finish, in the correct order. we of course expected that and you can imagine how i went wild when it was freezing moon's turn. what a perfect song! this was oh so good. mayhem were amazing, attila keeps the mystery alive, not speaking to the crowd at all, creating a quite fascinating bleak, cold and mysterious aura. awesome.

i somehow expected them to play some more songs after the album, just as apocalyptica did, but after one hour they were finished. it was short, yes, but exactly what they had announced to do. and that was awesome. people got into moshpits, i was on the edge of those and a lot of people grabbing was involved, haha, to keep upright! awesome night, still somehow in the mood of this masterpiece of norwegian black metal..

when it's dark and when it's cold
the freezing moon can obsess you

- Daedin

Diamanda Galás

well, you might think what is a opera singer doing in a black metal blog? sounds like a relevant question. but let me explain why Diamanda belongs here like no one else.

Diamanda has, from the beginning, been a big influence on the metal scene, particularly the black metal scene. her style is not comparable to anyone else. her songs, her voice, her performance are full of grief, menace, even despair. she is part of darkness and darkness is within her. she is exceptional.

Sakis Tolis of rotting christ has followed her since her beginnings and is a huge fan. rotting christ collaborated with her for their album "aealo" where she sings "oder of the dead", a really fantastic, touching song full of pain and misery. Frost, or Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad of Satyricon and 1349 names her as one of his beloved acts. Diamanda even headlined Roadburn Festival, a pure metal festival in Netherlands.

so she is much respected in the whole metal scene, especially the black metal scene. when her concert was announced there was no way i would not go. i took my mom-in-law and my friend Giota with me. the night was an experience i will not so easily forget. she is formidable in her range of voice. she will growl, scream, do unbelievable things with her voice. and let me tell you, she is avantgarde, this is not easy listening! this brings you to the edge of what you can endure!

this is the setlist i have gathered from another site: fernand, shAkwoman, la llorona, προσφυγας, a soul that's been abused, die stunde kommt, ανοιξε πετρα, o death, artemis, i've got someone to kill, let my people go. the crowd was enthusiastic, the last three songs were all encores. and yes, there were a lot of metal people present that evening. diamanda is quite a phenomenon, coming from such a different musical scene and still attracting so many (black) metal fans. 

i was sure that Sakis of rotting christ would be there to see her. but i didn't expect him to linger around outside the trianta hall at megaron mousikis after the concert. but there he was, talking enthusiastically to some people about what we just had witnessed. i politely asked him for a picture and we chatted a while and guys, from interviews i have seen i knew what a great person he is. but in reality it's one thousand times better! :D after a quick chat about germany and my home and rotting christ's last shows in athens, we called it a night. fantastic, really. i'm so very happy :D 

o lieb solang du lieben kannst,

o lieb solang du lieben magst!

die stunde kommt, die stunde kommt

wo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst

- Daedin 

Aherusia - Prometheus

This one needs some explanation. this band is a folk black metal band and they exist since 1997. they have three albums out and are quite interesting indeed. the name of the band is actually the river that leads to the underworld and it exists in reality in greece and is called 'Αχερουσια.

A friend of mine told me about the band and i really wanted to see them live. their release gig of the new album was in the day i spent in manchester to see ghost, so i could not make it. they played another show to open up for rotting christ, but i actually saw the rotting christ show the day before that. so i missed both opportunities and was sad about that. so when i heard that they will combine their new album with theatre, i knew i was going to go.

i asked my mom-in-law to go with me and she did! i did not tell her that this is a black metal band, but ok.. haha! i do roughly know the story of prometheus, but this was more about the people and how they reacted to the gift of fire. a very good concept and interesting idea to have the whole band present, playing the whole album while actors would sing and dance.

on account of the music it was perfect. i loved it. the music was fantastic and i had to tap my foot now and then and shake the head, a bit. just a bit, haha :D great performance. now the acting and the play was something else. it was written in the ancient greek dialect of the alexandrians, in nowadays egypt. this was very hard to understand and we got subtitles on screens, but still it was tough.

well, i knew i was in for something like an ancient greek tragedy, so the acting, dancing etc was in that style. this is of course something you either like or find it terribly boring. i would have enjoyed this much more, if i actually understood what is going on. this was a bit sad. but i must say hats off to the band for this great idea, the awesome concept and their truly magnificent music. i wish more people would learn about this and go see it.

into the deep, down falling, even to eternity down falling,
and weep

- Daedin

Zeal and Ardor

This was a show I was quite impatiently waiting for. I had only heard about this because three shades of black promoted this and I checked the band out. At that point there are only three songs publicly available but they already blew me away. It was something never heard before.

Zeal and Ardor is one guy, Manuel, who is half swiss, half afro american. He was working as a DJ and got as a challenge a mash up of black metal and "nigger music" as it was called in the challenge. what he made with it is amazing. It's slave music, chants and working songs, that were sung on the fields. And he combines this with driving, quite straight forward black metal. amazing.

the main theme is about slaves who are working on the fields. after years of praying to god, they see that he does not help them so they turn to the devil for solace and for relief from their pain and oppression. the songs have so much soul, they have a amazing feeling to them. and then there are the devil's screams, the dark and satanic side to this music.. wow!

the show happened in ilion plus and the place was packed. it was awesome to see that many greeks have heard about this amazing music. this is something quite unique and i think this man is the only one in the world who plays this kind of music. what a thrill! it truly was an experience that i will never forget.

the above picture is my own from the show. the second guy on vocals was fantastic, too and the band seems to really feel it and form a unity. mind-blowing evening.

devil is fine - he go by many names
devil is kind - we gonna go home to the flames

- Daedin

Ghost

yes ok. you might not agree that this belongs to a black metal blog. ghost are not black metal musically, but they are spiritually, lyrically and through their image. in that sense they are more black metal than many bands. ghost are the pope, not for above, but for below, and his ghouls.

i must admit i regretted it bitterly when i didn't go see them during a festival in greece in 2015. just a few months later i got to know them and fell in love completely. so i decided to go to the UK to see them, together with my sister who has become a huge fan, too. and this was such a good idea! a club gig is anyway better than a festival performance.

ghost started playing at 9.15 pm sharp and started the night off with square hammer. after that one  great song followed the next, from all of their three albums as well as the popestar EP. my favourites were year zero, monstrance clock, ghuleh/zombie queen as well as the most anticipated Cirice. we were massively headbanging there!

what a joy it was to see this band live and scream or sing along to the blasphemous, satanic lyrics, what a joy to get emotional with "he is" and praise satan, papa, the ghouls, all the demons and devils! hail darkness, hail satan! it's something special when one entire concert hall screams at the top of their lungs those blasphemous words! wonderful.

i'm in love with ghost and what they have created, their vision and their genius idea. i hope that we will have them for many more years still. i feel more than happy to have been able to see them live and enjoy their ritual.

the world is on fire - and you are here to stay and burn with me
a funeral pyre - and we are here to revel forevermore

- Daedin

Rotting Christ

Finally the big day was here.. the day of the rotting christ concert! and i say it like it is a really big thing, and it is. i have been waiting for this so long, ever since i got to know the band, and i couldn't wait to see them!

Actually the show sold out early enough, with 2500 tickets gone, so they added a second show on sunday, where rotting christ play the whole thy mighty contract as well as some other songs. as tempting as it was, i decided to only go on saturday, and that was more than ok.

i arrived late, but this was my choice. i just left my coat at the garderobe and bought a girlie shirt, entered the hall and the opening tune began. perfect! i found a decent spot, all the way in the back but with good view on the whole band. also enough space to headbang, great!

they played 2,5 hours. only think about this. a black metal band, nearing their 30 year existence, playing for so long without a break and selling out a 2,500 venue, twice!! wow. just.. respect! they played songs from rituals, which i was really happy about, as well as other songs i knew from older albums, like nemesis and in lumen xibalba. great great songs! i didn't know all of them, but there was no need. i got so into it and went along with all, haha!

sakis is such a great frontman. he is cheering the crowd on, he is grateful, always enthusiastic, full of power and of course headbanging, like all of them! awesome to see that they enjoy it as much as we do. my garmin vivosmart reached twice the daily amount of steps needed because of all the crazy jumping, haha! what a night indeed.

the last song was of course non serviam and we all screamed it at the top of our lungs. fans stormed the stage on sakis request and the place went nuts. what a great end to this long and so satisfying night. thank you rotting christ. they are number one in greece and they showed why they are. no one can reach this level and i love them. very much!

-Daedin

with the face of angel, in flirt with sin, his voice in eternity, NON SERVIAM

Mortiis in London

well, what can i say.. Mortiis tours again and of course I'm there! :D as soon as the dates were announced I couldn't get my thoughts straight. i had to go! so as you know from my previous entries i have seen mortiis live two times, in Finland in 2004, in Dublin 2016 and now in London.

I arrived early morning on saturday and met my sister as well as a good friend. this was awesome, too, and made the trip even so much better! at 6pm i lingered around the venue for the VIP meet and greet. me and another guy were picked up and brought inside.

this was simply fantastic and the memories will stay with me forever. we sat backstage relaxed with Levi, Tim and Håvard and chatted for about 45 minutes. we also got stuff signed, pics and just overall the nicest treatment you could think of. i love those guys, ok! i love them so much :D

after this i stayed with the other VIP guest and we chatted until the first band went onstage. they were called stereo juggernaut and were.. loud! some really catchy songs, though and a good start. the next band was seraph sin and the guy knew how to scream his anger out, wow!! i'd say both bands could be called industrial, but i'm not a real expert here.

so finally Mortiis was up! the setlist was so great! i'm gonna post here pics of the setlist from dublin and london.

 so in london we had 6 from the great deceiver, 3 from the grudge, two from smell the rain, one from perfectly defect. in dublin it was 7 from the great deceiver, 3 from the grudge, one from smell the rain and two from perfectly defect.

i was dancing, headbanging and singing along massively, got a stiff neck the next day, haha! what a great show! the crowd was active and cheering a lot, that was awesome, too.

after mortiis were finished we had one more band to go. this was Pig and they had some really good songs. i would have enjoyed this more, but actually i was absolutely dead. because of just a few hours of sleep due to the early flight, i decided to call it quits. bought a mortiis hoodie and shirt, got my VIP package stuff (my first 12inch vinyl, haha!) as well as flyers for street team work and headed happily to the hostel.

the next morning i got up after a quite good nights sleep and participated in a street art and graffiti free walking tour, which was awesome, too. some yummy curry and off i went to the airport. so i spent about 34 hours in london, and what kind of hours those were!! so glad i did this :)

La ikke livet ta din sjel,

sjelen tilhører døden.

Finn ingen glede i livet,

for der er ingen.

vi har intet sikkert,

bare døden.

Livet holder oss borte,

fra det eneste vi har.

Døden er vår egen,

la oss finne vår død.

Selvmord...

Selvmord...

-Daedin

Virus / Hail Spirit Noir / Turia

This event called Arcane Angels Festival actually happened end of October last year, but for some reason I did not talk about it then. I decided to do that now then.

This event featured three dutch black metal bands as warm up, then Greece's Hail Spirit Noir and as headliner Norway's Virus. I arrived in time for the third black metal band called Turia. They feature a female vocalist and she was actually really superb. Their style was quite depressed black metal and I remember that I enjoyed it, although this is not easy to play live and have people get interested. The style is anyway so very underground..

Next up was Hail Spirit Noir. They play some strange mix that I found was called psychedelic rock/ black metal, although I wouldn't really call them black metal. To me it was more like ritualistic or dark magic dark metal or something. Not easy to put into a category! They were really good live and the crowd got really warmed up with them.

The last act of the night was Virus. Now they are avantgarde rock and they are thus not easy at all. I must admit that they were difficult and then also not metal at all, something that set them apart very much from all other four bands. But they should be mentioned anyway, and if only because of Carl-Michael Eide. He has played in such huge black metal names as Satyricon, Ulver, Dødheimsgard and Dimmu Borgir. For this alone he is a legend and worth checking out.

He sits on stage due to an injury that left him partly paralysed. He is a very good frontman though and it was a joy to see this band play. I left a bit before the end of the show, though, since this style tired me a bit and I wanted to get away from the probably sold out place in time.

All in all a very interesting evening with a very diverse lineup and great moments. It was awesome to see that so many people attended the show and how metal fans get together for such an interesting and quite different from pure black metal event.

Οι Μάγοι, Για δώρο φέρνουν τον θάνατο επί γης. Οι Μάγοι, Τα παιδιά, θα τα σκοτώσουνε-Daedin