WELTEN BRAND
"Legenden"
rating: 5
of 6
"Legenden"
also consists of two songs, "People Of The Night" and "The Death", first
showing middle-aged hunter, stumbling and falling into the ravine, breaking
his neck; second demonstrating WELTEN BRAND, singing in some kind of chapel
and one of the girls (Simone?) walking the nightly streets of medieval
suburban town with flowers to be put on one of the graveyard's tombstones.
Fine shooting and some sort of integral story are present in both clips,
leaving quite good impressions.
MAYHEMIC TRUTH
/ MARDUK live show 1994 (bootleg, Total War Productions)
rating: 1
of 6
This bootleg
includes MARDUK concert, pre-opened by German black metallers MAYHEMIC
TRUTH. Well, I guess Morgan Hakansson and his band need no comments,
when it comes to music, as to MAYHEMIC TRUTH... it's really hard to tell
what kind of it they play, because of the horrible sound, but relying to
my imagination I'd say that it's something in the vein of early EMPEROR...
I can't tell you anything about shooting quality 'cause it's almost non-existent
here - it was shot by one of the fans (at least, that's what I think) with
a camera on his shoulder, standing in the very back of the concert hall.
The complete show is displayed from one position, therefore stage and musicians
can be hardly seen... Music appears as total cacophony and absolute chaos,
only MARDUK's intro is worth any attention and can be heard clearly. Complete
crap, only for the
die-hard
MARDUK fans.
BURZUM "Dunkelheit"
rating: 5
of 6
Arrgh, finally
there's a video from Norwegian black metal legend!
Unfortunately,
Varg couldn't participate in the recording because of some convincing reasons,
you're are probably familiar with, despite that "Dunkelheit" (the title
is in German, signifying "Burzum" in Norwegian) doesn't became worse. It's
completely devoted to Mother Nature, displaying her in a bit strange, but
still pleasant way with some ancient Scandinavian runes, sometimes appearing
on TV screen. Very nice, and I hope we'll see some more BURZUM videos in
the future...
IMMORTAL "Blashyrkh
- Mighty Ravendark"
rating: 4,
5 of 6
One more
Norwegian band, standing quite close to the "Black Metal legend" status.
"Blashyrkh..." shows Abbath and Demonaz on the top of the mountain,
surrounded by weird landscape - dark forest below, lightning's flashing
above and black raven's gazing at this dominion of neverending blackness...
Extremely atmospheric clip with professional SFX's. Recommended.
IMMORTAL "Grim
And Frostbitten Kingdoms"
rating: 3,
5 of 6
This one
is quite similar to "Blashyrkh...", although much worse and
primitive.
It's Abbath and Demonaz again, both in make-up, performing the song among
the landscape of dazzling snow. Rare shots display Hellhammer on drums,
but unfortunately these moments are too transient... Nothing really special
here, except for grimacing Abbath and excellent music.
SATYRICON
"Mother North"
rating: 5,
5 of 6
Good debut
video from one of the best Norwegian BM acts. It's interesting to watch,
especially thanks to professional shooting and certain atmosphere. "Mother
North" features all SATYRICON crew (Satyr, Frost with brilliant make-up
and Kveldulv, also known as Nocturno Culto) + one quite pretty girl, namely
Monica Bratten. There's no concrete subject as such - all time during this
video lasts, we can behold SATYRICON in corpse-paint, performing some kind
of "satanic" rituals, Satyr drinking Monica's blood and destroying christian
crosses, Frost's firebreathing and Monica dancing
absolutely
naked... The bad thing is that this clip has nothing to do with lyrics
of the song (which speak about "lost pride of Northern lands", at least
I perceive them this way) and sometimes it's hard to see anything, because
"Mother..." was shot almost in total darkness...
DARK TRANQUILLITY
"Zodijackyl Light"
rating: 5
of 6
Well, this
one is also not bad, though it's not so various as "Mother North" - nor
director, neither camera-men aren't distinguished by big fantasy and rich
imagination... "Zodijackyl Light" simply shows Mikael Stanne and other
DARK TRANQUILLITY members somewhere far behind him (a big mistake - I want
to see ALL band's members, not only their vocalist) headbanging against
a good scenery's background. Nothing really interesting, and all the more
thrilling my imagination.
DARK TRANQUILLITY
"Hedon"
rating: 4
of 6
"Hedon" is
a bit different, but also not very exciting. It was shot in black-and-white
way, showing darkened room with press-cuttings all over it (with lyrics
extracted) and Mikael Stanne in sunglasses (?) along with others performing
the song. Some sequences show a young man, sitting in the circle of burning
candles, smeared with blood and beginning to swing his arms in a kinda
strange way, when "Hedon" comes to an end. Unfortunately, it's not so professional
as "Zodijackyl..." (especially when it comes to the above-mentioned guy),
although I'm sure that DARK TRANQUILLITY fans will be pleased anyway.
IMPALED NAZARENE
"When All Golden Turned To Shit"
rating: 1
of 6
This band
is famous for it's shitty music, therefore I didn't expect
anything
special from this video - and I was right. It was shot in some kind of
rehearsal room with even no trace of imagination left. All that appears
as "interesting" here is maniacally headbanging guitarist and gilded head
Mika. Fortunately, this song is very short, so it doesn't become
boring. Not recommended.
IMPALED NAZARENE
"Karmageddon Warriors"
rating: 1
of 6
"Karmageddon
Warriors" is a bit more various, comparing to "When All
Golden...",
though it's also of no interest, except for the stanched fans of these
Finnish punks. A clip begins with something which could be called as "introduction",
depicting Mika packed in polyethylene and screaming like a pig, some post-nuclear
war landscapes, band members going out of 'XXX' cinema and showing "fucks"
and one ugly whore stroking Mr. Luttinen's head. After this ridiculous
"intro" is over, the song starts and also appears as total crap, considering
both - music and plot. It's just IMPALED NAZARENE playing in another rehearsal
room (this time better decorated), Mika kicking his own mug and scratching
his ugly bald skull - seems that Mr. Faggot has some problems with scurf...
Somebody, please tell this fuckhead about "Head & Shoulders"... "Karmageddon..."
looks like total garbage, recommended only to punks and anti-music lovers.
DIABOLOS RISING
"Blood, Vampirism And Sadism"
rating: 5
of 6
This film
appears as visual version of second album from this (fortunately) already
split up "experimental" black / rave band, consisting of Magus Wampyr Daoloth,
Divad from NECROMANTIA and above-mentioned IMPALED NAZARENE's frontman.
It also consists of eight songs, perfectly shot and edited, with interesting
plot. The best ones are "Satanic Propaganda", "Blood Lunar Cult" and "Sadism
Unbound", despite that music sucks in all of them. Scandalous "Ilsa" (with
"SS" as reprise) is also included in this film, although it didn't impress
me at all. You know, Osmose gave a very good promotion to "Blood, Vampirism
And Sadism", spreading it only by mail, because of it's "unquotable content",
but I didn't find anything "obscene" here! Maybe it means that I'm too
depraved person, he he...
666 - Compilation,
Volume II:
This compilation
(dated the year of 1996) consists exclusively of clips and interviews by
bands, signed to Witchhunt Records...
AZAG-THOTH
rating: 5
of 6
Maniacal
song, performed by insane band (which also includes two girls on bass and
second guitar!), which was shot by drunken operator (picture permanently
changes from "normal" to upside-down, which makes your eyes and stomach
sick). It shows mainly vocalist (very weak physically), covered with blood,
screaming with intensity of a pig, being slaughtered and the same speed
as niggers sing their worthless rap, embracing female guitarist, butchering
the human mannequin and shooting his head. Delirium. The song is followed
up by very funny interview. Guys from AZAG-THOTH are certainly not the
ones, who like to talk very much, so they just told interviewer and camera-man
to fuck off, and when they didn't obey, these sick Swedes simply kicked
down the operator, together with his camera... Watching their so-called
"clip" I was just smiling, but this "interview" made me split my sides
with laughter! Recommended, especially for increasing cheerful mood.
DIE VERBANNTEN
KINDER EVA'S
rating: 5
of 6
Very nice
atmospheric song, shot in twilight, inside and near the medieval chapel,
with Protector and pretty female person as main heroes. Melancholic soothing
dark ambient, very emotional. Interview with Protector (though it looks
more like a monologue) is also quite interesting, but it's meaningless
to retell it, and I bet, you know why.
AMON (Swiss)
rating: 4,
5 of 6
Not very
exciting video, consisting corpse-painted faces, inverted crosses and pentagrams
in the background and Dan (guitarist) as a sort of "demon", hunting young
female christian in the ancient castle, or something like that... As to
this Swiss band's music, it sounds a lot like early BETHLEHEM, nevertheless
performed with own charm and originality. Interview with Dorrian (bass
player with a monster face) and Dan is something only for LaVey fans, but
taking into account that I'm not one of them, I find it childish and ridiculous,
sorry.
WELTEN BRAND
rating: 5,
5 of 6
Ah, and this
one is my favorite on this tape! It's professionally shot, with interesting
story, excellently realized in this video, telling about two young lovers,
abiding in happiness until one of them dies. The girl becomes a witch and
resurrects him, but village citizens find this out and burn her... The
whole action takes it's place in the countryside, among beautiful Lichtenstein
landscapes, with some shadows behind the trees, moving closer and appearing
as WELTEN BRAND male members in BM make-up... Highly recommended
to everyone.
"Satanic Creeds"
- the Matt Vain film, featuring AMON
rating: 5
of 6
There's the
following message appearing on the screen before "Satanic Creeds" begin
(original orthography preserved): "This film reflects the satanic opinions
of the members of the black metal band AMON. The producers tried to show
the musician's sentiments as neutral as possible. "Satanic Creeds" is neither
supposed to be an advertising film for some satanic religious communities,
for example "The Church Of Satan", nor is it intended to view the scene
negatively. Each spectator is to make up his own mind. In any case, there
is a lot of inflammable matte (? - ED), which could be discussed. Let's
look at this film as a modern, but on the other hand, very old phenomenon.
Have fun." That's it. I have nothing more to add.