New Content Coming Soon, I Swears It

Hey guys,

I've been a little busy lately with exams and summer jobs and the like. Within the next couple days, I should have everything sorted out and can start posting things here regularly again. I'll also be able to decide what type of posts I want to put on this blog. I'm thinking of doing more frequent reviews since they seem to generate the most traffic and are easiest for me to write (since I'm just stating my opinion which saves me from having to fact check or do research of any kind, yay). I also might do some event thing, like I try to find 100 new bands or something like that. I do think the number 100 sounds pretty good, and it'll be good to post something new consecutively for 100 days.

Anyway, I'll leave you with this youtube comment I found the other day.

-Zombie Viking

My Last.fm

I do post quite a bit of what I listen to on here, but if you're curious as to exactly what I listen to and how much, you can check out my Last.fm page. You can find it here: http://www.last.fm/user/Vogelhut 

Feel free to add me as a friend if you have an account. If you don't, I recommend signing up (if you're not signed up to a similar site of course). It's a great way to find new music and concerts in your area.

On another note, I've also been thinking of starting up a Facebook group for this blog. I'd mostly just use it for posting direct links to my blog posts, but it would be better than the empty 'like' button I have now. If anyone would care to comment, would you guys 'like' and use a Facebook page, or is it a waste of my time?

-Zombie Viking

Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra Review

And you thought In Sorte Diaboli was bad.

The Norwegian black metal superstars of Dimmu Borgir return to once again prove to the world that we'll throw money at whatever crap they put out. With ICS Vortex and Mustis gone, the remaining members have struggled to throw something together before their spare reserves of money run out. The result is worse than anyone would have expected. With the symphonic members of their band gone, Dimmu got the first orchestra they could find to make an album for them and said "good enough". They put a couple guitars and drums over the tracks and called it a day. Who are we even giving money to here? Abrahadabra is 90% orchestra and 10% Shagrath trying to sound evil. It seems like he got too old to scream anymore and has been reduced to talking during all the songs. And who the hell is playing drums here? Daray? Come on man, step it up!

This album is bad, there's no doubt about it. In fact, it's so bad that I bought tickets to see Dimmu on their tour supporting it just so I could yell things at them. Things like "I love you" and "Keep up the good work". It's all part of my devilish plan. I also bought a tour shirt just so I could throw up on it.

Screw you, society!

The lyrics on this album are something else. As you may remember, In Sorte Diaboli was supposed to be the start of a six-part series of albums based around Vortex's new book about a priest becoming the antichrist. While there was no way in hell the band (who had released 6 albums previously (The Stormblast reissue doesn't count)) was going to spend another 20 years retelling Vortex's emo poetry, I thought it would go on for at least more than one measly album. But alas, Abrahadabra is intently focused on whining about past band members being dicks. You know your band is a sellout when you can't even be an unrelenting jackass in peace. So Vortex now gets to focus on Arcturus and Mustis... What happened to him again?...

OH MY GOD NO!

Oh.. different guy? Ok, good, I was scared there for a bit.

As if the album itself wasn't bad enough, Shagrath, Galder and Silenoz decided to add insult to injury in the form of multiple music videos. Since I am a weak man and can only stand watching one at a time, I'll focus on the worse of the two: Dimmu Borgir. The song, not the band (though they're both pretty bad). The entire video focuses on the three musketeers trudging through the song, trying to make it seem like they give a crap. Shagrath is up on some DJ set and the other two are... somewhere else. Plus there's a mysterious drummer because they couldn't get whoever did the drums on the actual album. Cut to some reused footage from Gateways, some stock footage of wolves, and some goddamn promotional pictures, and you've got yourselves a music video. Oh and did I mention the video effects? Well they consist entirely of lens flare and flipping the video upside down for a brief second. I feel insulted just watching this. They spent more money on their stupid costumes than they did on video production. Speaking of costumes, did Shagrath ever tell you how he got those scars? I can sum up everything wrong with this video in one word: everything. Though a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll include one of those too.

So as you can tell, Abrahadabra is bad. But you already knew that, you went out and bought the album. So Dimmu Borgir wins again, those smug bastards. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go listen to Mourning Palace so I won't feel ashamed anymore of being a Dimmu fan.

-Zombie Viking

Ex Deo - Along the Appian Way

We're already one week removed now from the final episode of Spartacus. And it was truly a spectacular ending to a spectacular series. So I thought I'd give it a special tribute with a special Canadian band, the Roman-themed Ex Deo.

-Zombie Viking

How to be a Music Critic

I'm going to need more tips like this if I hope of being a real music critic one day.

-Zombie Viking

 

TV Series Review Time: Vikings

And now for something completely different. I don't normally review TV shows. Heck, I don't normally watch TV. I just started a couple months ago with some series (Breaking Bad, Arrow and The Following to name a few). And now I've started watching something that instantly caught my eye: Vikings. I mean, how can you not watch this? It's about vikings!

Vikings

I was so excited just hearing the name that I didn't initially realize it was based on a real person, Ragnar Lodbrok (who apparently had a weird haircut). That just makes the series all that more inciting, knowing that it's at least partially historically accurate. I'm thankful for movies like Thor bringing vikings into the mainstream, but vikings are badass enough that stories don't have to be made up to be awesome. Actually, Thor wasn't really even about vikings.. It was a pretty cool movie though.

One of the big themes in the show is the conflicting religions of the time. The pagan vikings and the christian English. I'm probably more happy than I should be that the show has decided to showcase this. In fact, one of my favourite characters is Athelstan, a true fish out of water. His curiosity about the pagan deities and rituals is great to watch and allows the show to explain all about vikings in an organic manner. Even though the show doesn't feature them too much, I'm glad that it doesn't shy away from talking about all the gods as they were a huge part of viking culture. I wonder how religious folk would react when they found out the only recurring christian character on the show is a slave. Oh well, questions for another time.

My favourite line from the show also relates to Athelstan. It's when young Bjorn asks "If you're a priest, then which god is your favourite?", met with a bewildered reaction. It's moments like that why I enjoy the religious theme so much. Speaking of Bjorn, poor kid. I think every single character who's interacted with him has pushed him around in one way or another. Seriously, this kid is always met with someone pushing his head aside. I can't be the only one who's noticed this. And everyone calls him Bjern.

While it's true that the show doesn't have a huge budget like something akin to Game of Thrones, they've done very well for what they do have. To be honest, I was kind of worried going into the show because a low budget can lead to some pretty boring battles. In addition, there's the whole being on History channel thing that sort of limits it from being overly gory or explicit. I'm glad to see I was wrong about both things; there's tons of epic scenes and gory fun. The scenes aren't too grand since they all feature a smaller number of actors and set pieces, but this serves to make them more personal and intimate. For example, in the second episode the vikings ransacked a temple on the outskirts of England, not an entire city. But this allowed us to get a little story behind the priests and see the temple before it was lit ablaze. Plus we got Athelstan out of it!

So go, watch Vikings. It's a good show. Plus it just got renewed for a second season! Not too shabby for the "first" scripted series on History channel. But really, all you need to say is that it involves vikings and I'm sold.

-Zombie Viking

Shade Empire - Ruins

Here's a relatively unpopular band that I listen to. Shade Empire plays blackened industrial metal from Finland. Though now it sounds like they've gone a bit more towards the black/dark metal side of things. I didn't know what was happening with this band, as they've been quiet for a few years. The vocalist recorded a couple albums with his other bands Chaosweaver and Deathchain and the rest of the band did.. something else. But now they're back with a new music video and a new album coming out May 6th. Check it out.

-Zombie Viking

Arch Enemy - Nemesis

Here's a classic melodeath track from the everpopular Arch Enemy. 8 years counts as classic, right? Anyway, this song and the album it comes from definitely withstand the test of time. I even have a Doomsday Machine shirt in my drawer. Pretty cool.

And yes, before anyone says it, Angela Gossow is pretty cool too.

-Zombie Viking

Xanthochroid - Land of Snow and Sorrow (cover)

In case anyone hasn't already seen this masterpiece. The video has almost as many views as the original Wintersun one. Pretty impressive for an American black metal band. Perhaps one day I'll do an actual write-up on these guys (because they're awesome), but for now I'll post this video. Enjoy!

-Zombie Viking