Wardruna

It's been a while for me to go to a concert, because of the birth of my baby daughter. But I couldn't let this one pass by me.. Wardruna! I was so excited when the concert was announced and got my ticket right away.

Now most of you probably know that Wardruna's mastermind, Einar Selvik, is also Kvitrafn from Gorgoroth. He played drums in one of the most notorious black metal bands coming from Norway.

This is Einar years later on the same spot with his son, just love this image so much!

Also in Wardruna for the first two albums was Gaahl, bandmate in Gorgoroth and interested partly in the same things than Einar, old Norse tradition and lore.

After quitting Gorgoroth, Kvitrafn formed Wardruna and in this found his true calling. He recreated old Norse instruments, learned to play them and also studied old songs, runesongs, magic and power of the runes etc. The music he created from this is not a copy of old songs, but something new and truly amazing.

The Runaljod trilogy is one song for every rune in the old futhark, the resulting three albums are fantastic. I love them very much and I was delighted to recognise many songs they played in athens. The sound is fantastic, so ritualistic, spiritual, full of rhythm. It makes you feel in connection with nature, with your pagan roots, with your ancestors. It was a true experience!!

I'm so glad i could go to see this concert and dive into this music fully. it's just so more powerful live. gotta listen to all wardruna albums again now. it's for people like Einar that traditions, old knowledge and mythology is not dying out, yet.

who shall sing me into the death-sleep sling me
when i walk on the path of death
and the tracks i tread are cold, so cold

- Daedin

Non serviam

I must say that I always wondered if anyone was ever going to write a book for rotting christ. they are greece's most influential and famous black metal band. it finally happened with the help of dayal patterson, of course. in a previous post i showed all his books that i possess and he is, for me at least, the best black metal journalist out there.

it was announced that he would come to athens on december 15th and sign books, together with sakis, themis and jim. there was no way i'd lose this opportunity! so together with my daughter we arrived at bowel of noise record store for the signing.

we met sakis, dayal and jim, themis hadn't arrived yet and i didn't stay around to wait because of my girl with me who started to get hungry. but it was great to meet these three gentlemen and have the book signed! chatting with them a bit was great, too and i enjoyed the nice conversations.

i forgot to ask jim for a picture, but i later found this screenshot of a video where we are all at the same spot, so this has to do for now.

i read the book already and it was amazing! it covers the 30 year span of the band's career and shows how persistent sakis was to keep the band going. we are lucky to have them still around and to still give us new albums! i'm also happy that i could help dayal with some scans for the book and thus have my name in the thank you list. how awesome :)

the new album will be out shortly and i cannot wait. the songs that have been released already promise much! non serviam indeed.

- Daedin

In the name of Satan, the ruler of the earth, the king of the world,
I command the forces of darkness to arise from the depths to attend us…

Best of 2018

another year went by! it’s been a year with lots of music, but not so many concerts due to the birth of my daughter :) still, we went to see tonis sfinos at the burger festival, we went to under the quarry III (a metal festival!), onirama at the christmas light opening and some other street festivals! all this together with the little pumpkin :D i’m glad i could at least get a small taste of concerts and festivals :) now on to music!

Full lengths

Summoning - With doom we come

i remember my excitement when this was announced. so many years with silence from camp summoning and then this spectacular album!! it got mixed reactions, but i love it so much. there are a few songs that just make me weep with joy. melodies and riffs that grab hold of you and won’t let you go until you succumb to the atmosphere. no wonder i chose one song from this album as my song of the year. i’m so happy they are back and i hope they will not vanish again in a decade long sleep..

Solstice - white horse hill

solstice finally wrapped up things for this album. it’s a solid solstice record with everything we love from these masters of doom. epic soundscapes, epic tunes. lyrics you want to scream along to. did i say epic?

make a change…kill yourself - IV

there cannot be a year without some suicidal black metal, right? make a change… kill yourself with their fourth album, as always just numbered, as always a work of finest depressive shit.

Ghost - Prequelle

new ghost album!! :D this has been another huge highlight. what an album it is!! it’s poppy, yes, but it’s SO good, so catchy, so retro, so freaking entertaining. Ghost definitely did it again. i hear “see the light” and get goosebumps. what a song!

Zeal and Ardor - Stranger fruit

zeal and ardor have been a favourite of mine from the beginning. their new album taps into the same vein, but is short from being boring. the same stomping rhythms, the same undeniable dark ritualistic charm. it’s great to see that their unique idea wasn’t something that just works for one album. there surely is much more in store for them.

the dead creed - pieces… to heal a soul in the darkest hour

i was really excited for this one. the dead creed is something special and unheard of. he calls himself monasteric death metal or something like that, but it’s just a guy with a guitar, doing incredible things with it! fantastic stuff.

Behemoth - I loved you at your darkest

behemoth didn’t have an easy task. after the satanist, how could they continue? for me the satanist was near perfection. now ILYAYD got some bad reviews, which i cannot understand, though. i admit i’m not into it as into the satanist, but still.. a song like bartzabel just crushes into you, slowly, heavy, this is the stuff i love!

Daimon - …from the black caverns

a greek project that was recommended to me. some solid greek black metal there! awesomely dark and haunting.

Bahkauv - Et Bahkouv kütt

now this is some dungeon synth from aachen! fantastic stuff, really glad i discovered this. it’s based on stories from the region. now i would really like to know the stories and reading them while listening to this haunting stuff!

Iselder - Gwaglewch

welsh black metal! i do love how they seem to be more in touch with their welsh roots than other acts. great album, menacing but melodic! if celtic druids would go to the dark side, this is what it would sound like ;)

Dwarrowdelf - the sons of Fëanor

how cool is this! when browsing for some tolkien black metal i stumbled upon this guy. what a fantastic album! this is exactly what i want in music! i love the concept, one song for every son, for every death. brilliant! the songs are epic, the soundscapes are menacing, full of grief but beauty.

Acherontas - Faustian Ethos

acherontas is a band that has been around for some time and i had heard about them, too, but never really got into them. during a bandcamp sale i decided to get their new album. that definitely was a good idea! this is the greek occult black metal sound right there.

Lucifer’s Child - The Order

george from rotting christ plays in lucifer’s child and they released their second album this year. very occult, very dense and gripping. this is the left hand path, this is The Order and it is hauntingly good.

Shibalba - Stars Al-Med Hum

i had seen shibalba open for dodheimsgard. live this was really difficult, you need another atmosphere for it, the songs are slow, minimalistic, building up. later on i listened to them at home, though, and came to love them. this is their new album and this is the kind of meditative, ritualistic stuff that can give you chills.

Magmakammer - Mindtripper

norwegian doom!! stumbled upon them by pure chance. what a great album!! it’s been a while since i explored some doom, since i had moved into other directions, but here is an album that shows me exactly why i’ll always be a doom metal girl at heart.

Wardruna - skald

i love wardruna! their trilogy was something absolutely stunning. now skald is more acoustic, more lyric based. i must admit i prefer the trilogy, still this is fantastic music, a norse legacy, this is here to preserve verses that otherwise might be lost.

DreamLongDead - umbra

i love DreamLongDead. they are a band that truly doesn’t fit in any category and they don’t give a damn. they have doom elements i love, they can be death, punk, thrash, black, everything. their newest album is again a crazy trip, pounding in your head.

EPs - live - remix

dreams of nature - 4 band split “mater natura excelsa”

i love dreams of nature! here we have a four band split, dreams of nature added two songs. this makes me long for a new full length! the other three bands were great to check out, too (elderwind, sorrow plagues, de la nostalgie)

kalmankantaja - tuulikannel EP

kalmankantaja are the only finns so far, i think! what happened to my list?? where are my finns at?? i think last year i had five or so, this year i see norwegians and greeks conquered my list, haha! but yes, as always some awesome tunes from kalmankantaja.

Mortiis - the perfect reject

mortiis is again in this list, ha!! and this time with remixes from perfectly defect. this is so awesome, i sometimes like the remixes more than the original, haha! i just wish mortiis would do some new stuff! but ok, as long as he feeds us something every year to keep us salivating more, we’re all good! xD

Behemoth - Messe noire - satanist live

this live album is special for me. i saw them on that tour here in athens and this has kind of started a small musical revolution for myself. i’m forever grateful. i’ll always get chills during o father, o satan, o sun.

Deadspace - live and feral / mouth of scorpions

deadspace, those crazy fuckers! awesome live album, wish i could catch them some time live, but that’s difficult, them being australian! they also released a new EP this year and i must say that i have gotten into them again after a little break.

daagh - EP

who says the norwegian black metal scene is dead? who?? this here proves that norway will always be spearheading the black metal community and i don’t care what others say. you just have to find the gems!

Iselder/Merciless Savage - Annûn

Iselder not only released a full album, but also a split with another welsh band, representing the south and the north. here i must mention marwolaeth records. if you want to find welsh black metal, here is the place.

Best song of the year:

Summoning - Silvertine

this song opens with a melody that makes me weep elven tears. genius, absolutely genius! i listen to this sometimes when going for a run and i have to hold myself back to just start dancing to it. this is what tolkien black metal is all about. THIS. SO MUCH.

Black metal publications

i did an entry on the ultra damaged zine, because it also featured a signature from maniac and was a truly good read. i have many more books and magazines, though, and i thought i would share them here, because it's a quite big and interesting collection :)

secrets of my kingdom, the first and only book of mortiis in its rereleased form. i also have the original one in my collection. this is based on mortiis' imaginary world, a very bleak and hostile environment. it's like a collection of short stories entered around this world and our main character. this is very important to understand era 1 and the whole lore around it. the rereleased edition is absolutely gorgeous, with huge prints, interviews and a great cover, by david thierree.

and that is the second book, a book about david thierrees art, which has been used by many black metal artists. beautiful, very nature oriented and dark art.

the death archives has been collected and written by necrobutcher. a truly amazing collection of pictures from mayhem's most notorious time. also stories that show you this truly chaotic time, the time of mayhem.

black metal - hellenic cult was written by lord marganor, the owner of mexican azermedoth records. this was the first book i could find solely dedicated to hellenic black metal, and it's written by a mexican! this is self-released, but a work of dedication and love for black metal. so glad i found this.

blasphemous the book is the fanzine of the magus, best known for necromantia. i just had to get this, since this is a fanzine from greece and i wanted to see how the scene was here back then, what bands were known here etc. really interesting read and great effort from the magus.

the slayer mag diaries. do i have to say much even? this is a huge tome, it's massive. 20 issues of the zine, a book to kill people with, haha! metalion must be one of the most dedicated people to black metal. i don't always agree with his views and he later on started to mostly write about trash metal, not black metal, but this book is just written history. legendary.

letters from the dead was written by the old nick. he wrote letters to dead, mainly for business purposes. but dead opened up to him about many things that interest him. this shows well how troubled dead really was, how much he felt lost and in the wrong place on earth. very insightful small book.

the metal chapters is a greek project, combining songs with short stories. this features only greek bands, one of them being rotting christ. what a nice idea!

pirunkehto is the story of Finnish black metal. when i saw that there will be a book about this, i just had to get it. it's a massive tome and it was so interesting to read. loved every page of this.

masters of metal is a greek book about metal in general, but also featuring enough black metal bands. every band is introduced with a small text, but the focus is on pictures. i got this very cheap on sale, and it's nice to have it!

behemoth! here we have the biography of behemoth as well as nergal's personal book, dealing much with his struggle agains leukaemia. both of these books were fantastic and i enjoyed them immensely. makes me so happy to have seen them live and gotten to know so much through them.

the cult never dies series by dayal patterson is something truly inspiring. he released his first book on black metal, which has been translated in many other languages until now and gave him motivation to continue. people were hungry for this. and since then there have been countless new publications. here are the four i have, as well the first two pictures in this post, which have been published by dayal, too.

Death to light, to law, to love

Cursed be moon and stars and stars above

May darkness the everlasting old

Drown Manwë, Varda and the shining sun

-Daedin

Annual best of lists

at the moment i can't go to shows since i'm pregnant, so for something else now :) my two best of lists from 2016 and 2017, which i published on facebook, but decided to put them here now, too.

Best albums of 2016

I decided to do this one and list my favourites of this year. There will follow some honorary mentions, because they are either tribute albums, EPs or singles/splits or a live album and I cannot count them fully. So here it is, my top 10 this year. Musically it was a great year guys!

Mortiis - The Great Deceiver

What can I say.. did we fans ever think to hear this one? nope! I remember in 2011 when it was announced and it took some fucking 5 years to come out, haha! Needless to say I was ecstatic and I still am.

Abbath - Abbath

Black metal rock’n roll in your face! Just awesome.

Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä

This band always surprises you, mostly live, where they are an assault to all your senses, a positive but disturbingly beautiful assault, mind you! This is excellent Finnish metal.

Black Tomb - Black Tomb

Now this is some heavy heavy doomy shit and I love it.

Deadspace - Gravity/In Ecstatic Sorrow

Deadspace gave us two releases this year, one being older recordings and one the new album. Both are awesome. Both are depressed, dark, deep.

Grá - Ending

My personal surprise this year! Awesome band live, works perfectly on CD, too. Blasphemy, dark black metal tunes, great stuff.

Rotting Christ - Rituals

This is exactly what I want. Ritualistic, driving music, full of haunted sounds, chants, dark vibes.. Satanic lyrics, powerful, pounding.

Moonsorrow - Jumalten Aika

Moonsorrow, just like Oranssi Pazuzu sing in Finnish and I appreciate this a lot. Most bands sing in english for commercial reasons, but not those two! Well done! This album is amazing, epic, mesmerising.

Eldamar - The force of the ancient land

Norwegian epic black metal. One of the best I have heard, exactly what I love and want when thinking of Tolkien black metal.

Kalmankantaja -Tyhjyys

Depressing Finnish music. I just realise the third band in my top ten with finnish lyrics, great! This band is simply amazing and fulfil my need for depressed, suicidal, funeral music..

Now the honorary mentions..

DreamLongDead - 4 band split

Awesome greek band, pretty underground, playing a vicious mix of doom, black, and.. death? punk? no idea.. xD Their song on this split, Vomit Earth, is genius stuff.

Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive

Mayhem Alive!! Perfect album there, cannot wait to see them live in Athens. This is the right way to celebrate this album..

Tribute to Emperor - In honour of Icon E

Awesome tribute with quite known bands like Taake and Horna.

Solstice - To Sol A Thane

I cannot wait for Solstice to give us the whole album. This is the little taste they give us of what is to come. Finest british doom.

In Mordor where the shadows are - Homage to Summoning

What an album! Summoning are basically my heroes in epic, Tolkien black metal and I’m surely one of thousands who think the same. Finally a worthy tribute with so many awesome bands participating that I love myself, too.

Ghost - Popestar

This EP is genius and so so good! Ghost.. I cannot even say much about them, they are so unique and so perfect. Waiting for the new album!

Best albums of 2017 (plus concerts)

another year went by, with awesome music! last year was the first year i did this, because i became so obsessed with finding new underground music, which has probably never happened on this scale before in my life. and this year has been even more fruitful! so here we go, my best of 2017 full lengths, plus some extras like EPs, remix, demos etc.

edit: included a top ten of concerts and the song of the year, too

mortiis - unraveling mind

Mortiis has to be number one again, haha! and in 2017 he even threw three releases into the screaming masses, haha! (two more further down) unraveling mind is an old recording, but only now released. it’s the closest to era one he has done in years and it’s absolutely stunning. i have the LP, but not the digital files and i told him two times already but he is reluctant to release it. DAMN! xD

satyricon - deep calleth upon deep

what can i say.. one of the first black metal bands i listened to, back in 2002.. and their new release is so good. the cover made headlines and this just shows how uncompromising they are. well done, you are the true northern black spirit!

insanity cult - of despair and self destruction

a friend of mine introduced these greek masters of depressive black metal to me. really great music and absolutely to my liking.

kalmankantaja - demonwoods / routamaa

these Finnish depressive masters are the most productive band i know. they use to release two full lengths a year and here we talk about quality and quantity! what a band indeed.

nargaroth - era of threnody

this band should be known to any black metal fan. they introduced the term “black metal ist krieg” and also have the most iconic song “the day burzum killed mayhem” in their repertoire. after a long absence nargaroth is back and it’s a great return.

carach angren - dance and laugh amongst the rotten

also dutch horror symphonic black metal trio carach angren gave us a new album and it’s like its predecessors a work of beauty and horror in one. awesome.

the order - lex amentiae

the order hail from norway and consist of ex-mayhem members. can only be good, right? right! it sure as hell is.

emyn muil - elenion ancalima

tolkien black metal, ahhh beautiful! i cannot get enough of this kind of music and emyn muil once again deliver with their second full length. mesmerising!

aherusia - prometheus

greek folk black metal band, if you will. i saw the theatre for their newest album and it was a great experience, although hard to understand since they sing in an ancient greek dialect of alexandria. i bow to aherusia for this idea and their vision!!

hexer - cosmic doom ritual

hexer from germany, ruhrpott area! awesome doom and if i remember right, their first full length album. awesome debut!

havukruunu - kelle surut soi

another Finnish depressive black metal band that sings in Finnish and makes my heart rejoice, for i truly miss the Finnish darkness, despair and melancholy.

tuhonsiemen - ajaton, nimetön, kasvaton

on we go.. with more finns! it seems i found more and more from my second most beloved home, finland. they also deserve more recognition..

nergal - ΝΥΚΤΑ ΓΕΜΑΤΗ ΘΑΜΑΤΑ-ΝΥΚΤΑ ΣΠΑΡΜΕΝΗ ΜΑΓΙΑ

greek classic black metal outfit nergal! they are one of the oldest greek black metal bands and they show that they have still more to give. a great album, full of that black magick we all crave!

Eldamar - A dark forgotten past

my favourite norwegian tolkien/epic black metal band! this is his second full length and it’s just as good as the first. beautiful music, enchanting!

Our Banshee - 4200

and now for something completely different! this is my colleagues band and yes, this has nothing to do with the other black metal acts.. but this is awesome music to sing along and dance!  after so many years, finally the debut is out

Kawir - ΕΧΙΛΑΣΜΟΣ

why did i last year not speak at all about ΠΑΤΕΡ ΗΛΙΕ ΜΗΤΕΡ ΣΕΛΑΝΑ? last year i tried to do a top ten, which i discard now and list all of them, because kawir should have been there for sure! because they are a great band and i love them! one of the oldest greek black metal bands, specialising in pagan/folk black metal. and well.. my former colleague plays drums in this band  you see how musically fruitful my workplace is, hehe!

Lleuad - I pass into the stars/Wildered against the gloom

one could count these as two full lengths albums, both are more than 30min long. Lleuad is from wales, finally i can include a welsh black metal band here, yay!! and a very productive project with two releases in the span of three months. this is exactly my stuff, ambient, melancholic, atmospheric, but also fierce, raw and powerful. nice work! will for sure continue to follow this guy.

Nortt - endeligt

this will be probably the last entry this year, because it was just released before the end of the year. after 10 year silence, Nortt is back. this danish one-man-project has brought forth some of the finest funeral doom available and the new album does not fall short. it’s grand, it’s depressing, it’s the soundtrack for a night in a mausoleum.

Extras - EP, demo, remix, split, live

Mortiis - the great corrupter

remix album of last year’s the great deceiver. it’s just not a bunch of remixed songs, this is a masterpiece and i almost listen to it more than to the deceiver. the involved bands explain all.. die krupps, godflesh, apoptygma berzerk, in slaughter natives, wumpscut.. only the finest!

VOND - AIDS to the people

what a charming name! mortiis’ side project had three full length releases as well as one EP. this second EP was never released though and in 2017 it was finally lifted from its grave. mortiis’ depressed side project, a mixture of depression and dungeon synth.

Icewind forest - the approach of winter

this is a demo and it promises much! let’s see if this will be the next epic black metal sensation for me.. (edit: i actually later found out that this project changed its name to -22 Celsius to reflect the change to a much grittier, guitar orientated black metal sound, moving away from the previous epic synth sound. too bad, i would have loved to hear a debut album in the same style as the demo.)

Ghost - Ceremony and Devotion / He is EP

so here i though that we will have to wait for the new year and then ghost all of a sudden release a live album as well as an EP! so so awesome. the EP does not feature anything new but is highly entertaining. the live album reminds me of manchester, where i saw them live together with my sister. unforgettable moments 

Liittouma - Oleva

awesome EP, this is yet another Finnish black metal band and what would be Finnish black metal without depression!!

Wedard/Wintergeist - Schnee und Eis (split full length)

wedard are from almost my home area and when i found about this project, i had to support it. awesome to see that quality suicidal black metal can also come from this area that is not really famous for metal acts.. ^^

AkizzBeatz - Ramal EP

this is yet another colleague of mine and he’s a DJ, also composing his own music. this is world music, taking influence from african rhythms, latin american vibes and much more! last year he released the “i’m an african” EP, another awesome release, and this year he got this EP out which surely makes your butt swing!

Honorary mention

Darkthrone - Arctic Thunder

this was released in 2016 but late in the year and i bought the album too late to include it in last years best of list. what a big mistake! i came to love this album very much. darkthrone are true legends and i of course love their black metal trilogy. in between they went towards a style that is not really mine, but with this album they kind of found their way back to the bleakness of norwegian landscape and i truly love it!

Favourite track of the year

Satyricon - Black wings and withering gloom

what a black metal hymn! i did not expect this at all. i was hoping the new album would be good, but for it to feature this kind of a song, that makes you want to scream along, shake your fist, headbang yourself into oblivion and roar to the mighty freezing norwegian winds that you can almost feel while listening to this song.. glorious!

TOP TEN CONCERTS

Mgla - The dead creed

the main act actually was akercocke, but i was not really interested and the place Kyttaro was so packed, i decided to skip them. i anyway got all i wanted with mgla and the dead creed. both of them were brilliant and mysterious in their own ways.

Mortiis

actually this was going to be the last show of mortiis in its then current lineup, although i did not know that then. mortiis, levi and tim played their last show in london and it was awesome! so much dancing and singing, headbanging and meeting all the band. perfect! now mortiis will for the time being concentrate on era 1 shows where he alone hits the stage.

Rotting Christ at piraeus academy and rockwave

they played at piraeus academy and it was a 2,5 hours set. that was SO massive, i’m still so happy i witnessed that. it was my first time seeing rotting christ and i loved every second of it. i saw them just a few months later at rockwave once more and then i was really close to the stage. i headbanged myself into oblivion since there was enough space and it was SO good, i cannot begin to describe it!!

Ghost

ever since i got to know them i wanted to see them live. since my sister got into them, too, we decided to go see them in manchester. it was spectacular and surely one of the best shows i ever saw.

Zeal and Ardor

they played in a smaller club in athens called ilion plus. the place filled up quickly and the show was phenomenal. the rhythmic slave music together with pounding black metal.. genius! it was like a ritual you witness and feel like your soul has vibrated and you have changed.

Aherusia

not really a concert to be honest, but actually a theater for their new album prometheus. since it featured all the album played live by the band in the background, i count it here, too. it was a very different experience, not easy due to the ancient alexandrian dialect used, but very remarkable!

Diamanda Galas

wow. this woman is amazing. she is the opposite of easy listening, her concerts bring you to the edge of what you can sonically endure. and this has nothing to do with loud speakers, it’s her voice alone! but she is the embodiment of avantgarde darkness and despair. was great to meet sakis tolis of rotting christ after the concert at the megaron mousikis

Mayhem

what can i say?? do i have to say much? the fathers of the second wave of black metal, if you will, the majestic mayhem in athens and it was breathtaking. they played the whole de mysteriis dom sathanas album. the place was more than packed. legendary show. just to hear freezing moon live was something that is hard for me to describe.

Ulver

one of the few legendary norwegian black metal bands that are still around, although they moved away from black metal after only three albums. but they are so awesome in their recent format, too! it was a feast for your ears and eyes, they played their whole new album “the assassination of julius ceasar” plus one song more.

Apocalyptica

they came around to celebrate their first album, “plays metallica by four cellos”. for that reason antero joined their ranks again. the first part was the complete first album, the second part compromised of other metallica songs they covered. i loved them so much, before they had singers and the cellos lost their significance. so it’s hard for me to describe how awesome this was. the audience was singing and replaced the singer. it was fantastic. i wish apocalyptica would return to that.

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