I am now a proud owner of a Engl Powerball amplifier. This top will be used for the upcoming Gjenferdsel album which will start next month.
 

More info: http://www.engl-amps.com/e645.html

A lot have happened at our distro Black Forest Records lately. We have increased our stock with a lot of new and killer titles, and we can now announce that we have reached 666 products!

GJENFERDSEL announces that their next album will be entitled ”VARDE”!

 

Iudex comments the title;
”VARDE is a Norwegian name for a stone monument that are built on heights in the terrain. In the middle ages these monuments also contained of firewood, and guards were placed by it to lit the firewood if danger was approaching. Nowadays these stone monuments can be found around in our mountains as guidance for wanderers.

This album will contain faster, darker and more dismal material than our debut, and therefore we want to warn about danger, hence the title!”

Some songs that will be included on the album are “Illverk”, “Vesaldom”, “Regin”, “Strid” etc. The album does currently not have a release date, but will be recorded and released during 2009!

Apart from this, GJENFERDSEL also have a new bassist, Efferus, which will be joining them on our gig in Holland January 16th!

GJENFERDSEL also have a new website! Feel free to have a look at:www.gjenferdsel.no!

BE THERE!!!!!

Last night we went to Enslaved, Audrey Horne (cancelled), Krakow and V:28 live in Hamar. When we arrived at the venue, V:28's cold and industrial atmosphere was pounding the walls to pieces. With all the mess from the arrangers, it was a relief to actually see that V:28 really played this night, since they wasn't promoted like the rest of the line-up.



Enough whining, and over to the matter; V:28, which nowadays are adding the last nails into their coffin. They are making their career complete by playing a few selected liveshows, ending it in their hometown Arendal. Now, Hamar is at hand, and some few people had decided to show up early despite the lack of promotion. Actually most of the people we talked to was there mainly to see V:28, and was really looking forward to this. Personally this was also the main reason we went to the gig, and was quite excited to see them live. And they didn't dissapoint either. They played a nice selection of songs, where the highest moment being «Soldiers of the Neverending War». Even though we knew that they don't use a drummer, we caught ourselves looking for him now and then. The only thing we could see was Krakow and Enslaved's empty drumkits. Not that this is a bad thing at all; the use of programmed drums fits perfectly into their industrial sound, making it more static and robotic. After the show we talked a little with our collegue Eddie (vocalist/guitarist in V:28), while a guy came towards him and said; «Man, it was an awsome gig, but I have only ONE negative thing to tell you», in which Eddie responded «aaaaaaaargh...don't tell me......the drummer thing.... I KNOW!!». The guy followed «noooo, not THAT...your set was waaay too short!». A compliment in which we agreed.

The next band out was Krakow. We have been in Krakow. It's a nice city.

Enslaved was the headliner. None of us are really big fans of Enslaved, except Jan which enjoyed the Eld album a lot. The new stuff have pretty much gone by without much recognition. And since they mostly played new material, the best moments for us was their so-called «hit-songs» like their title-track from ISA and «The Watcher» from the new album «Vertebrae». We were a little dissapointed they played the song «Eld» from their older materials and not for example songs like «793 – Slaget ved Lindisfarne». All in all it seems that Enslaved was THE band this evening, as a lot of people had showed up, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot. One of the good things with Enslaved's liveshows is their use of visual effects. And we are happy to see that they had improved it since their gig at Inferno some years ago. Some of it reminded us of the great Ingmar Bergman, which is a compliment in itself. They've evolved onstage, and have become a quite professional extreme metal band, even though we personally think the progressive part and the viking part don't fit quite together.



The sum up the evening, Enslaved and V:28, accompanied with a whole lot of alcoholic beverages, made 25 bucks worthy spent money.

The review is also published at www.beattheblizzard.com

Swedish rock band The Hellacopters was formed in 1994, and have released atleast six albums. A lot more releases if you count compilations, EP's etc. In October 2007 they announced their break. But first they are going on an extensive European tour and release a double disc live album. They have been one of the most influential Swedish rock bands and one of my favourite rock bands. October 16th they will play in Oslo and we will be witnesses when the devil steals the beat from the lord!

As previously posted, Gjenferdsel had a gig i Bergen last friday, so me and Jan flew over the mountains instead of driving for eight hours. We had to get up pretty early, and drive to the airport. Arriving at the security check on the airport, I realized I was wearing both clothes and shoes with alot of metal on them, so I caused a queue (as usual). Well, well.. I'm usually not a big fan of flying, but this time i was kinda excited, since I knew it would only take 40 minutes. I think I got to read three pages in my book before we suddenly arrived in Bergen. So the flying was pretty much taking off and landing. Finally at the hotel, the band went to soundcheck, and got back in time to eat before the concert. The gig went well. Not alot of listeners, but I think those who came were satisfied! Gjenferdsel had a setlist with both old and new material, all together seven songs.





After the band had showered off their corpsepaint, we decided to go see Nekromantheon at a bar nearby the hotel. Thrash! You should think people from Bergen are pretty used to black metallers, since they have alot of really known bands like Taake, Gorgoroth, Burzum and Enslaved. Still, some drunk person actually yelled "there goes Nemi" and pointed at me. Thanks alot, man! At least he did'nt ask me for a lighter.



Anyways, after sleeping way to long, and being generally reduced, we went out to see the city of Bergen by day. After wandering our way into the middle of a anti-abortioncampaign (with banners stating 'Yes to life', and a Ludvig Nessa-copy singing Amazing Grace in a megaphone.. I was pretty fascinated actually, some people are just truly fanatical) we went to the famous Harbour and tasted fresh fish and shrimps. Yummy! It wasn't time to visit the most famous places in Bergen, like Fløybanen, Trollhaugen, Akvariet and Ulriken, but we have both been those places before. Next time, we'll stay a day longer!





More pictures from the Gjenferdsel gig can be seen at www.gjenferdsel.no!

Gjenferdsel is playing live at the 'Fritt Fall'-festival in Bergen, Norway friday 19th of september! CC is 70NOK, and it's a free agelimit. New material will be presented, together with material from the debut.

Check out www.bizarre.no

The Smoking Gun have published a lot of famous artist riders.

A lot of them are actually quite amusing to read. Who would for example except Marilyn Manson - The Antichrist Superstar to need his Haribo Gummi bears, and have to state that HEATING IS REALLY IMPORTANT!

Read his rider and plenty other here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/

Sorry foreigners, I'm writing this in norwegian, since it's impossible to translate the humour of Bare Egil Band. But here is the easy version; We went to the 'Bare Egil Festival' this weekend, and it was really amusing.



Som dere nordmenn allerede har skjønt, var vi på Bare Egil Festivalen i helga. Line-upen var Bare Egil Band, Ikke Bare Bare Egil Band Band, Bare Bare Band, Bare Eagles Band og Bare Egils CoverBand. Konferansier var mannen sjøl; Egil Hegerberg. Den mannen må ha en utrolig utholdenhet, som var med i alle bandene med unntak av Bare Bare Band.

I løpet av kvelden fikk vi servert klassikerne som 'Arne', 'Asfalt', 'Tagging' (i sensurert versjon, og med oppfølgeren 'Skyting' - som skal være basert på en sann historie). Bandene spilte også 'Politimester Egil' og nye låter som 'Jeg er helt rå' og 'Pump opp oljen' (som er helt umulig å få ut av hodet!). Det hele ble avsluttet med 'Sko', hvor halve Rockefeller stod med skoa sine i været og sang. Amusing indeed! Sjekk ut video av 'Politimester Egil':

Hailing from Poland, these blackmetallers took the underground by storm back in 2005, with the split-album 'Crushing the Holy Trinity'. I'm sure many of you have recommended M.G.L.A and "those Polish guys with the weird spelling" to others. But the actual pronunciation is 'mgwa', meaning 'fog' in Polish.

Personally, I came across Mgla by surfing my way onto Northern Heritages` website. Looking at Mglas Goya-ish covers and their logo, I could see these guys had something to offer. And the fact that they had a split with Deathspell Omega, awakened my curiousity.

So, here we are, with this long awaited full length CD named 'Groza', meaning something like 'thunderstorm' (and in fact, it's an assault rifle as well). At first I must admit I felt a bit disappointed, but hey; they could'nt keep up the perfection forever. I had problems with the drums. What was up with the double bass-drums!? They sounded like a helicopter. But after a few listenings, they fitted the soundscape of Mgla.

While the Norwegian black metal scene usually just repeat itself, Mgla actually brings some new blood into the scene - and its no surprise they're coming from Eastern Europe, who have many of the up and coming black metal bands at the moment. Mgla gives you what you have been waiting for; Hounest, raw, simple and direct old school black metal with shitloads of atmosphere! The vocals sometimes make me chill, because its so cold, vibrant and summoning.. The guitars are like a wall, brilliantly oppressive and groovy.

I can't put my finger on it, but there's something that makes me like their prior EP's 'Presence' and 'Mdlosci' better than 'Groza'. Might be the tempo of 'Groza', It's more midpaced and not so attacking as the two abovementioned. Still, Mgla is one of the best bands in the genre, delivering their goods as usual. Their music captivates you, and they give you all the visual stuff aswell. These guys have style!

In my opinion,'Groza' grew after some more listenings, and I would highly recommend Mgla to other old schoolers. For me, this is one of the best (and most awaited) albums this year!

This review was originally posted at www.beattheblizzard.com

Not exactly a new release or anything, but still I felt that this release deserved a spot at Beat the Blizzard. I guess that a lot of you already have this release in your collection, but still there probably are some of you that haven’t checked it out yet. If you are into blackthrash and haven’t already checked it out, I must say that you have missed a lot, even something compulsory.

As I said, this is pure blackthrash, and by blackthrash I mean blackthrash how it should sound; dirty, grim and in your face as a merciless fist! The album was released in 2004 on Nocturno Culto’s label Tyrant Syndicate, a sub-label of Peaceville Records, and for me personally this album has grown a lot!

Unfortunately I don’t feel that all of the material from this album reachs the top. Even though the overall of this album is quite good, I want to pick out three songs that will blast your mind out; “Black Metal Jaw”, “Hell’s Fire” and “Black Deluge Night”. These songs alone will make this record a must buy!

So, you all know what you must do in the name of thrash!

Ugh!

This review was originally posted at www.beattheblizzard.com

Our new webshop has been up and running for almost a month now!

We have been working hard the last year making the webshop what it is today. We've made a fresh new look, moved all data to a faster and more stabile database, and we have even increased our stock with more products. We now support payments by PayPal and the most known credit cards (VISA, Mastercard etc.).

Black Forest Records is a Norwegian distro of extreme metal. It was started in 2004 on a 100% ideological basis, and was - and still is - independent as a distro. BFR is another alternative for people into metal music, where collectors and fans can find releases they are looking for at the same price as the other releases.

Since the beginning in 2004, BFR have evolved a lot. Not just have the stock increased, and the website evolved, but BFR have also evolved as a company. Apart from being a distro BFR is now also the management of bands like Gjenferdsel, Wrath Attack and Vyrju. All products at Black Forest Records are being handpicked, and we therefore guarantee quality on everything we sell.

Check out: www.blackforest.no