Gnome - Under the Black Moon (1996)

Artist: Gnome

Album: Under the Black Moon
Year: 1996
Genre: Black Metal/Ambient/Experimental
Country of Origin: Japan

Track Listing:

1.	La Forêt	16:09
2.	La Mer...	10:23
Total playing time		26:32

I'll start off this review by saying I'm not sure if Gnome's Under the Black Moon is for everyone. It's truly a bizarre offering.

Composed of two tracks, it's made up of one black metal opening track and an ambient closing track. If I had to liken it to anything else it would probably be early Burzum. The music itself synthesizes a unique energy that has an overall melancholic feeling, but is oddly sort of upbeat. In particular the break in the first track, "La Forêt" caught me quite off guard on the first listen. It sounded a bit psychedelic if I had to describe it. The final ambient track also has an esoteric energy about it, but not as unique as other pieces of dark ambient out there. A really great, but short, release if you're looking for something different.

Recommended for fans of: Burzum, Sterbend, Forgotten Woods, ect.

Download (Mediafire)

Vinterland - Welcome, My Last Chapter (1996)

Artist: Vinterland

Album: Welcome, My Last Chapter
Year: 1996
Genre: Symphonic/Melancholic Black Metal
Country of Origin: Sweden

Track Listing:

1.	Our Dawn of Glory	06:09
2.	I'm An Other In The Night	07:03
3.	So Far Beyond... (The Great Vastforest)	03:29
4.	A Castle So Crystal Clear	05:28
5.	As I Behold The Dying Sun	06:14
6.	Vinterskogen	03:57
7.	Still The Night Is Awake	03:30
8.	A Vinter Breeze	04:49
9.	Wings of Sorrow	08:53
Total playing time		49:47

Simply put this one of my favorite releases of all time. Welcome, My Last Chapter is filled with a unique, genuine and transcendent energy from start to finish. Feelings of aggression, beauty, nostalgia, awe, and melancholy all invoked invariably through themes of sorrow and sadness. This is emotional, atmospheric black metal at it's best. If I had to make a comparison musically, I will echo what others have said in saying that they're similar to fellow Swedes Dissection, except more melodic. An album that inspires truly grandiose visuals and emotions. Unfortunately this was the one and only full length Vinterland has released, and although they have announced a reunion no new material has yet been produced.

I cannot recommend Welcome, My Last Chapter enough! A true classic if there ever was one!

For Fans of: Dissection, early Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, ect.

Download (Mediafire)

May Day 2009 - Remember the Martyrs of Chicago!

As the annual May Day arrives once again, let's disregard how the media and government wants us to see this day, and remember what it really commemorates.

The Haymarket Affair took place in May of 1886 at the Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois. A rally in support of striking laborers resulted in an unknown individual throwing a bomb into a crowd of advancing police officers, attempting to disperse the gathering. The explosion and proceeding violence resulted in eight dead police officers, and an untold amount of civilian casualties.

In the arrests and court decision that followed the incident, eight anarchists were tried for murder, and seven were sentenced to death. Four died by public hanging, two had their sentences commuted to life in prison, and one committed suicide while in captivity. These men were found guilty not because of their relation to the bombing itself, as the prosecution presented no evidence that directly related them to the bombing, but merely for their political affiliations as anarchists. Meanwhile, the media printed sensationalized information about the anarchists, demonizing them, resulting in an incorrect over simplified collective conscious of the incident. To this day the stereotype of the bomb wielding anarchist, who advocates random violence and destruction, survives due to this fear mongering.

The trial is widely regarded as one of the most serious miscarriages of justice in the history of the United States to this day. It is now recognized that private business security forces (Pinkerton Guards) were responsible for provoking the bombing, as a result of their unchecked shooting of striking workers in 1885. In 1893 the Governor of Illinois recognized that all eight defendents were innocent, resulting in pardons for the remaining men. The bomb thrower was never found.

The reason we must always remember this day is not for any allegiances to certain political doctrines, but to remind us of the instability of the United States (or any other nation's) justice system, and it's ability to be manipulated. Just as in 1886 as newspapers brought forth biased sensationalized stories about the Haymarket Affair, they have that same power today. In particular, these times of 24/7 corporate media sensationalism mean we must be ever more vigilant in our pursuit of objective investigation. They are subjected to bringing us information, not for the sake of truth or justice, but for the almighty dollar.

"The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!"
-August Spies, moments before his execution