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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Saevus' LiveJournal:
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| Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 | | 6:14 pm |
Label, birthday and other going-ons
Well, it's been an interesting couple of weeks. My friends' mother/in law fell down the stairs a couple of weeks ago, resulting in a partial hip replacement. I was called upon to help get a huge wheelchair ramp up in time, which was only a few days. It was good to work my ass off for once though, and I did get compensated with money and beer, as they have a kegerator that's always stocked in the house. Sometimes it's good not to have a job though, as it allows me to be suddenly allocated elsewhere for an indeterminate amount of times when needed for emergencies and such. The money is going fast though, as I had quite a bit of debt (and it's good to get rid of it, especially getting Andrew the little money that the distro has earned), took some friends out for food that have been generous with me when I don't have money (never) and indulged in some Vinyl purchasing at Hells Headbangers (Hail, Nifelheim, Averse Sefira and the new Funeral Mist). I was tasked to convert IDIB's layout files from photoshop to Adobe InDesign (or similar program), but it wasn't the right dimensions, so we're delayed even further with the new IDIB album. It might give us a bit more time to perfect some things though, although the music itself sounds great and surpasses their earlier efforts, but I still am optimistic that it will be released by the end of the month. I did more or less finish the painting for the new Countess cover (I think I can say that publicly as Hart has certain places on the net). Very, very proud of it!!! It might need a few changes after both Hart and Orlok review it, but this is mainly due to the fact that it will be the first Countess full length to be released on vinyl! That's pretty impressive, I think, as this will be album number 13. Evan, Ivy and myself had a joint birthday party last weekend. Quite a few people attended, and one of our friends brought a keg. Between that and the extra beer and liquor my friends brought over later, we where able to get pretty wasted. I think my mom was getting there towards the end as well... It's kind of nice to get blasted once in a while without making a complete fool of myself... Back at my friends place to help with the finishing touches on the ramp and with a few other things. Celebrating my birthday right quietly with frequent trips to the in-house keg and looking forward to some promised pizza. Current Music: Death Beast - Blood of Dionysus (Drink till yah die!) | | Tuesday, September 1st, 2009 | | 8:56 pm |
Phone and Internet
I now have my own phone and internet access at home. I think this will lead to a lot of things being easier, moslty coordinating with my family, friends and doing buisness. Certain people will get my number when I get it switched (I got my mom's old phone) but not many that are not local. I hate using the phone in general, and to me it is a necessary evil. Feeling pretty stagnant again. I really need to get a job so I can pay for things like food and label stuff. Unfortunatelly my parents use me constantly for all kinds of unskilled labor and only want me to get a job with my degree. I also haven't been to a show since the MDF other than the local show I helped set up. At least I'm busy with commissions for metal illustration. The new Ares Kingdom will be out next month, and my artwork will be featured more prominantly on it than origionally planned! | | Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | | 6:36 pm |
Had two paintings for commissions photographed today, and should be ready to go with print-resolution files. Both are for bands that I am very excited about having my work slapped on an LP sleeve for. Inner illustration for the upcomming Ares Kingdom LP/CD/possibly shirt  Cover for the upcomming Redimoni/Graveyard split 7" EP  In Death I Become/The Day of the Beast/others show in Charlottesville tomorrow. I still have to work out a ride for it. It would be a bit embarrasing if I couldn't show up to a show I helped set up.... Current Music: Sanguis Imperem - The Stagnation of Centuries | | Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | | 5:52 pm |
| | Monday, June 1st, 2009 | | 6:25 pm |
Wolves in the Throne Room
Well, since I missed Wolves in the Throne Room when they played at MDF, I took the chance of seeing them in Richmond last Friday. Well actually, my sister did and had me come with her, as I couldn't have afforded it if she didn't loan me the money. The trip was extra pleasant with Paul and Manda, as I guess we each paired up into conversations. I have never seen such a non-metal crowd for a metal show in my life. Not even Amon Amarth was this bad. About 2/3 of the crowd where indie hipsters, sporting tight pants and ironic t-shirts/facial hair. Man, I'm one to talk about having a beard, but it's a weird trend right now to have a beard and short hair that makes you look like a middle aged college professor! Luckily there where a few people there to talk to, including Andy from Battlemaster, Austin and Logan. I might officially offer to do the cover for Battlemaster's new MCD, but I'm still not sure about the direction they're taking. Some thing about a wizard blowing his brains out with a blunderbus... Andy assured me that it was serious stuff, but it smacks of the trendy "post-ironic" or whatever people call it found in a lot of indy/metalcore music. The first band was going ok until the guy opened his mouth. I actually like shoegaze music, but if there's vocals added it usually sounds way too faggy for me to handle. Leave effeminate and whiny screaming to the other music genres, not "metal". :( The next band was pretty cool. Kind of like, as my sister put it, Tool on tranquilizers. Indy as fuck (I bet they sell waaay more vinyl than cds) but still cool. Probably better with some weed and wine, though, in a dark and dingy basement somewhere. The second to last band was a bit better. Black metal, of sorts, played by a bunch of musicians from other bands totally different from black metal (such as the guitarist from Behold... the Arctipus). I didn't think it would be that great, but it was a bit different, using a bunch of droning guitar tones and wierd trem-picked riffs and rythems. Kind of like a more experimentational Transelvanian Hunger type black metal, which is ok as long as you think of it as almost not being metal. Long ass songs (two song set) with very, very few vocals. Wolves in the Throne Room kicked ass. Long, long songs with again the more atmospheric trem picking used, with interesting tones and leads overtop. One thing that really adds to it is really good and varied drumming, which can almost make up for a lack of solid riffs. Their music also has a much bigger impact live when you can feel the guitars work their way into your guts. Probably one of my favorite bands in a subgenre of black metal I'm not too fond of as a whole. | | Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | | 12:08 pm |
Maryland Deathfest VII
Well I'm sore and still a bit overstimulated after getting back from Baltimore. The year's Deathfest was above and beyond better than the last time I went in 2007, some what due to the bands, but mostly due to the people. Kim had agreed to let me ride along with her into Baltimore, so we planned to meet up Thursday and leave some time midday Friday. I was surprised that there was a show in Charlottesville Thursday, but even more surprised when all of the bands turned out to be awesome sludge/instrumental metal bands. It was a pleasant ride up there with my parents, who waited around long enough to eat at the kabob place in the same building complex as the Outback. The show was great, with all of the bands kicking ass and plenty of people to chat with. My long time friend Amelia Little came to my surprise, and I probably spent a good deal of the show trying to juggle catching up with her and watching the bands. I was also able to talk with the show organizer of the Outback Lodge, and I might just be able to set up an In Death I Become cd release show there in the next couple of months. If so, expect a show of ear fucking black, death and doom metal in Charlottesville! I also was able to chat with a couple of the musicians, including one of the guitarists from Suzukiton who turned out to also be one of the guitarists from Twisted Tower Dire, an awesome power metal band from Virginia that's been around for a while and is playing later at the Outback with This Means You. The after party at Kim's was pretty relaxed and all of the guys in Kylesa where cool. We mostly stayed upstairs listening to vinyl and talking about movies, and how one of the dudes from that band has apparently seen a bunch of B movies but has never seen Star Wars or Indiana Joans. I drank just enough to make the floor very comfortable and actually got part of a good night's sleep. I guess bands on tour need to balance the party thing with retaining enough energy to keep on going. It took a while to get into Baltimore due to retarded traffic, but that wasn't too much of a problem due to having awesome metal and the fact that most of the bands sucked on Friday. I only really wanted to see the last three bands who where playing outside, Mayhem, Marduk and Asphyx. Marduk was one of the bands I wanted to see the most in the whole festival, so it fucking sucked that they couldn't get their paperwork in order to get into the country. Mayhem was pretty mediocre and mildly entertaining, and Asphyx kicked ass. I really need to get some of their albums. Most of my effort Friday was spent finding people, many of whom I've never met before. I first ran into Steve from The Day of the Beast, who had the new t-shirt I did the artwork for. I also ran into Sven, Bill from the Wolves, Rockin' Ruby, Andrew from my label and several others that I know from around Virginia. I've known Cathy from the Basar North America, Jared and Sarah from Terra Caput Mundi, Kevin from Gravewurm, Will Towels and Tim from Diabolic Distribution for varying amounts of time, some as long as a couple of years now, but this was the first time I've met them face to face. I probably spent most of my time around Cathy, her boyfriend, Jared and Sarah through out the festival, geeking out on metal, Warhammer 40k, heathenism and various other topics. I managed to get a bit drunk several times through out the festival, as people constantly offered me beer from the bar and their trunk (and some good mead!). My good friend Nate hooked me up considerably through out the whole festival, as he let me stay in his hotel room and took me to a bar Saturday. I wouldn't have been able to go if it wasn't for him and Kim. Saturday was a ton better music wise. Hail of Bullets was very impressive, and when I can get into a band that much having never had heard them before it usual means that my record collection is missing a few things... Immolation put on an awesome set as usual. They're sort of a working mans death metal band, never really getting too crazy with their performance and always focus on nailing their music. I wanted to see Birdflesh but it overlapped with Immolation and they won out. Atheist and Napalm Death provided good background music while many of us went out into the parking lot to drink. They're actually bands that I might not mind seeing live, but there's so many good bands playing that some get sacrificed for many of the other things that I wanted to do there. Bolt Thrower was the first band that played that was actually a "must see" band for me. They did not disappoint at all. I guess only playing a couple of shows a year keeps you from burning out, and their musicianship, vocals and live show was spot fucking on. They played an excellent set that spanned much of their discography well. It was also cool that they played World Eater, as I thought they had said that they don't play much of the Realm of Chaos stuff any more, and other than that For Victory was probably the high point of their set. After Bolt Thrower was too tired to see any more bands. I felt like I should stop screaming and headbanging halfway through Bolt Thrower, but that groove commanded me to go on, and my body protested. Too bad, as I really wanted to see General Surgery and Wolves in the Throne Room, but in the end I chose to sit outside and talk with Jared, Sarah and a few other friends. It was fun looking at ever one elses' vests, and I quickly noticed that the Sauron patch was pretty common there. I met several other enthusiasts of Witches Brew and Barbarian Wrath bands, and was glad to meet several people who owned Faustcoven's "Rising From Below the Earth", which means that they have my artwork some where in their house.... I hung out with a couple of the guys I met this way through out the entire weekend, namely Ian and John Pierre, both really cool dudes. Sunday was a bit more relaxed. I again stuck to the outside stage, avoiding The Red Cord opening up out there. Absu was great, and I got into the songs in varying degrees due to a broad range in quality. It might be that I've only listened to the new album though. Abscess and Aura Noir where again nice to listen to but not bands that I had to watch, but that might again be due to the fact that I'm inexperienced with them. Then came Destroyer 666, which was another of the main reasons I was there along with Bolt Thrower, and like Bolt Thrower they did not disappoint me. They nailed their songs, put on a vicious stage show and played a song off the new album which has me very excited. They didn't get to play as long as they wanted to, however, and where cut off around 10 for some reason. They played most of the ones I wanted to hear, but to my dismay didn't play Raped and probably my favorite song period, Lone Wolf Winter. The crowd got pretty rough during their set, which was almost to be expected, and mosh pits where breaking out in several spots through out the entire crowd. There where some particularly annoying (and drunk) people right by us, and it was a bit distracting trying to avoid getting an elbow in face or letting one of the moshers run into Cathy. It sucked that Pestilence also had to cancel (and I only found out how much I was missing listening to them for the first time on the way home), but it was a treat seeing Bolt Thrower for a second time! I only wish they played a some what different set than Saturday's performance. I have to disagree with Cathy on the sound though, as I preferred the outside's sound to the venue's, even if the Outside stage wasn't in the best place for it. Not really the reason I kept away from all but two of the inside bands though. I don't really like most grindcore... I actually stayed for the very last band inside, which was Sigh, which didn't plan on. I was trying to find people to say goodbye, but after hearing a couple of their songs with the keyboards way down in the mix they convinced me to watch the rest of their extremely over the top set. And to end the entire festival, they chose to cover Venom's Countess Bathory and finally Black Metal, which set off the entire place. What a way to end things! On the social part of Sunday I again mostly hung out with Cathy, Jared and Sarah, cycling through my other friends. I also found Kevin from Gravewurm, easy to spot wearing their shirt I did the art for. He was really cool and friendly, and we pretty much chatted about the same stuff we've been talking about on the internet. I also met Zach of Gravewurm and one of the guys from Paragon records, which I guess has been talking to some of the guys in the Wolves of Vinland and will coming down to Lynchburg at some point (with some of his distro...). I also helped Cathy sell a few more cds (I think...) although it was surprising how hard it was to attract attention to a small box of cds even though they probably didn't have as many distros as they could have there. She probably could have also done better with some more Faustcoven, Sauron and Deathhammer discs. We talked about maybe going in half each on a vendors stall next year, as I'll have hopefully built a good sized distro and have several more releases out on the label. I was also able to do some trading with bands and distros. I have been contacted several times from a band called Crucifier, who have been kind of strange in their communication but alright, so I talked to their label Ibex Moon about it and they traded me a couple cd's, saying that they'd give one to the band, who's in Greece. I also traded with Butchered Records, one of my favorite death metal labels, Rioter, a thrash metal band from Canada (French-Canadian accents+load music=half understood conversations, heh), and Forever Plagued Records. When I was trading with FPR the person recognized our album and ended being Timpailer from Diabolic Distrobution, whom we've traded with before and I've talked to a bit. We chatted and he ended up having the other item I was specifically looking for, Nocturnal Graves "Satan's Cross", but had it at home. I paid for it and he'll be sending it this week! The merchandise for sale was overwhelming, and you couldn't even look through it all, let alone buy every thing you wanted. I got quite a bit, mostly due to deals, even with some of my measly $200 (I thought this would be enough to get me through a weekend in Baltimore comfortably, but I was wrong, and only ate a meal a day so I could buy more shit!), and got a few things I really wanted. I had asked Cathy to bring a small order with her, but she had even more great stuff that I had to buy, including an album that is now pretty rare. If people knew exactly what they where looking at in that little bin, she wouldn't have had anything left to take back home. I also got a couple of copies of the new Putrid Pile (Paul has been looking for it for a while), the Blaphemerian MLP and Nightbringer's debut album as a 3LP boxed set (pretty over the top for a debut). Also added a few patches, including a Gravewurm one Kevin gave me, to my vest which is getting pretty well covered. While all this insanity was happening Sunday, my sister went into labor and had her baby! I'm pretty excited as it's the first boy in their generation after 3 girls. Since Andrew lives in Lynchburg and I needed to get their ASAP, I waited in the hotel lobby for him and messaged Kim telling her I wouldn't be riding along. This was nice as Andrew and I had a lot to talk about, mostly on the label and the bands. I got to the hospital with my mom late Monday afternoon to visit my sister and the new baby, who is healthy and came in at 9 1/2 pounds. What a fucking blast! Nothing like the last time I went, having better bands and tons of my friends from around the country. The only thing that was missing was a few people I wish could have gone (save you fucking pennies and ask off early!!!!!) and a couple of canceled bands. Special thanks to Kim and Nate for making it possible for me to be there period (and the booze!!!), Andrew for getting me back, Bill for offering to help with certain things and to Jared, Sarah, Cathy and Kevin for the finally meeting face to face (and not to mention the stuff, that Splatter Whore cd is fucking tits!). It's going to be even better next year, I can feel it. ( Pictures ) Current Music: Splatter Whore - City of the Sleazehounds | | Sunday, May 17th, 2009 | | 1:05 pm |
Kreator/Exodus/Belphegor/Warbringer/Epicurian
This was a pretty big departure for our normal show rotation, as Paul, Manda and I went to Raleigh, NC to see the show at a place called the Volume 11 tavern. It ended being a much shorter trip than to the Jaxx, and the tickets actually cost quite a bit less there. I was really suprised with the place itself. It's located on the outside of the city in an industrial park, so you don't have to drive through horrible city traffic and it's pretty easy to find parking. The venue itself is very small, maybe a third of the size of the Jaxx if that. I thought that it would mean that it would be really fucking crowded, but the venue managed to be completely full without being too difficult to get around. It also ment that even in the back of the floor space you still got a really good veiw of the bands. Epicurian opened, and dispite having an awesome name and great musicians, they still managed to suck dick hard, mostly due to them being metalcore and their singer sounding very homosexual at times. Warbringer was awesome, even better than when I saw them with Finntroll. Like with most of the bands, I think the size of the venue infused them with a lot of energy, and their set was particularly violent. This is whenI relalised that there was crowd surf allowed, the first venue I've been to that did so and actually had enough people to make it happen often. Warbringer's new album comes out Tuesday, but they thankfully had it there last night, and I couldn't resist that Dan Seagrave cover on the LP. The album is quite an improvement on the last, where the band starts to develope a little more of their own personality, and is also played with a higher degree of musicianship. Belphegor played their best set that I've seen them do in the now four times I've seen them. No major fuckups, the band seemed more into playing, good sound and the humor was a bit funnier and relevent. The set was short and consisted of Lucifer Incestus, a song from Goatreich-Fleshcult, two from Pestapokalypse and two or three from Bondage Goat Zombie, which sound a lot better live as one would expect. This made up for only sort of seeing half their set with Amon Amart from the back of the Jaxx. Exodus was excellent, and Rob Dukes suprised me with how energetic and beligerant he was. A thrash metal band needs a front man with over the top energy if all of the rest of the band are stationary old guys. They played a good mix of old and new material, and put on quite a long set. The highlight was probably when Rob dukes helped Gary Holt play his guitar... We only stayed for three Kreator songs out of what they said would be their 70 minute set. A bit a dissapointment, but Manda had to work this morning, and even when leaving early she probably only got a few hours of sleep.  Current Music: Warbringer - Severed Reality | | Friday, May 15th, 2009 | | 8:38 pm |
Graduation
I finally walked and received my associates degree in Communication Design last night. I probably should have done so last year as I had the credits, but I waiting in vein to re-take one or two of the classes I did badly in to push my GPA over 3.0 (it's 2.98 now) and graduate with honors. I'll just have to do so at VCU...   More pictures soon. Current Music: Stormtroopers of Death - Speak English or Die | | Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 | | 3:04 pm |
May
Things seem to be working out in may favor. I have my cap and gown now to graduate, which is happening next week! I'm pretty glad it's finally finished, and I can now look into going to VCU. I was able to order a Maryland Deathfest ticket! I didn't think that I was going to be able to, as MDF was doing several things to try to increase capacity and where only re-offering Sat and Sun passes for a while, but every thing worked out. I think I have every thing planned out for how i'm going to get there, and it should be a weekend of heavy metal indulgence and hanging out with a lot of awesome friends! | | Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | | 5:58 pm |
Bees!
Finally done with helping my dad drive around 900 packages of bees from Georgia to Chatham, Va. I can't believe that I wasn't stung once the entire trip, even though my dad and Sam where stung several times and my father even had to go to the hospital from being stung on the jugular vein. I was finally stung for the first time this year this morning while feeding my own beehives with sugar water. Not too bad, if you can scratch the stinger out soon enough... They're barbed and tear out the bee's entrails with a nice big poison sack that continues to pump venom into your body. One of the ways that my dad was supposed to pay me for all of this work (plus a bunch of warehouse work over the last 6 months or so) was sending me to the Maryland Deathfest this year. Of course, he waited too long to order my ticket, so they're sold out now. IF ANY ONE KNOWS WHERE I CAN GET A MARYLAND DEATHFEST TICKET, let me know please. It's going to really, really suck if I can't go. Current Music: King Diamond - "Them"/Conspiracy | | Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 | | 11:34 am |
Update
Well, as some know the record label, Scatted to the Winds Productions, is up and running. It's quite an oppertunity for me, as the guy I'm working for, Andrew of Towards Global Holocaust, is providing the resources, while I am providing interaction between other labels and bands. I've been doing quite a bit of trading lately, which has been really cool and made me a lot of contacts with some awesome bands and labels. My cd collection is also building just from taking single copy of titles I trade for. We have a single MCD from TGH out currently, which I've been trading, and Andrew is paying for a full studio recording of In Death I Become's new album, which is being done as we speak. I really think once we get IDIB's full length out we are going to attract a lot more attention and get a lot back financially. We're also going to be putting out some merchandise for both bands (patches/stickers/t-shirts ect) which will be especially nice for IDIB, since they've been lacking in that department. I was going to handle the art/layout for every thing, but it seems that they are taking it apon themselves, so we'll see how that goes. Right now I want to raise some funds for a couple of my own releases, namely a couple of 7" splits. I thought that 7" vinyl was within my resources to do some time soon, but it seems that it's a bit more expensive than I though, especially if you want to do anything of mid to high quality. So I'm probably looking at raising a grand or so for about 500 discs... which might be possible within the next 6 months if I can attract enough paid commissions. Might be easier if I didn't have the Maryland Deathfest and Adobe CS4 to worry about. ---------- As far as art goes, things are going very well on a fairly small scale. I finished the Faustcoven LP work, which was a pretty big job. Well worth any work I put into it though, as they'll be released as beautiful gatefold DLP's with a bunch of extras, as well as having a very good designer (Annick of Morbid Tales zine fame) doing the layout design. I have a couple more logos to do (re-doing the current label one which sucks balls) and then I'm off to work on the Ares Kingdom illustration exlusively until it's done. This band is one of the best bands I've worked for, and a personal favorite of mine. ---- Also, I got every thing worked out and it seems that I am indeed graduating this semester! Current Music: Sauron -Satanic Assassins | | Thursday, March 5th, 2009 | | 6:50 pm |
SheVaCon and more
SheVaCon was a bit of a letdown this year. Very little gaming (although I tend to stay away from gaming with strangers) and much, much worse, most of the regular artists did not show. The exceptions where Malak and Daniel Trout, so I tried to run into them as much as possible. The only new artist that actually hung out was Cynthia Sheppard (www.sheppard-arts.com), who was arguably the best artist there, with her husband. Jaw dropping digital and oil paintings, and I guess we have a few mutual friends since she used to be in an industrial band (played a show with This Means You at some time). Other than that I just hung out with my friends from Appomattox. Played games, went out to eat and got drunk. It was amusing seeing Kris drink almost an entire bottle of Sake, as he rarely drinks to excess. It was also funny that he was practicing Lent, but he was only specifically giving up sweets. I also spent WAY more money than I planned to, almost entirely on food and drink, but the weekend was about enjoying myself and it was worth it. Yesterday I received a letter stating that I do not have all my required courses to graduate from CVCC. I'm very confused at this point, as the letter states that I have 66/69 credits, and my transcript states that I have 72. It also states that I need the class ART 140, which DOESN'T SEEM TO EXIST. I need to go into the school tomorrow and get this shit straightened out. I've waited far too long to graduate with an associate’s degree, and it's time to move on, NOW. Current Music: Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time | | Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 | | 12:19 am |
| | Monday, January 12th, 2009 | | 9:07 am |
2008 Recap
A bit late as usual, but I feel the need to do this. 2008 was a bit of a turbulant year for me. A lot of good and bad events transpired, but regardless of the positive or negative connotations to the series of events that made up this year it was a more intense year in general. So here's some highlights of this year- I went to see a lot of good bands, a lot more than I thought before I started to compile them all, including Rotting Christ, Behemoth, Immolation, Vader, Amon Amarth, Watain, At War, Finntroll and Belphegor twice, plus many more. I also know a lot more of the metal heads that frequent the main venues in Virginia, which makes shows a lot more enjoyable. I set up two shows in Lynchburg, both of which turned out moderately well. It allowed me to watch and hang out with two of my favorite bands in Virginia- The Day of the Beast and Antietam. It also gave me a chance to see Lynchburg's only real extreme metal acts, IDIB and Serimortem, in shows that where geared only towards extreme metal, which was a first in Lynchburg. I am also now an official gig promoter and organizer as well as a band manager, although on a very, very small scale. I actually got an album cover out world wide with Faustcoven. It is now in the hands of many, and the album is being hailed by many as one of the best from 2008, expecially within the old school extreme metal circle. I also completed several other commissions for t-shirts and logos, including for The Day of the Beast, Gravewurm and Withersoul. Momentum is building in my career. I had my first exprience with a commission that was turned down, however, which is a bit disheartening, but I still maintain a professional relationship with the band. I started getting into beekeeping, some thing our family has been doing for years. Didn't do so well this year, mostly on account of the bear getting into our hives. Because of that I've been stung multiple times more than I have been in my life collectively, probably over a hundred times. I also now know that if you've been stung enough times at once your body reacts to the venom whether you are allergic or not, and that benedril sucks. I went out looking for the bear with a rifle for revenge (and very tasty meat) but had no luck. I drank a lot, but probably not nearly as much as 2006-2007 while the Morgue was still operational. Still an abundance of hilarious and what should be embarrasing stories to tell. Lost some friends due to their own choices, in particular one. Even though I believe I have a good understanding of people, better than most, they still shock me with their actions. And finaly, I decided to leave the Wolves of Vinland. I didn't do so in the best fashion, as I was drunk, but I feel that it is better for me not to be a member. It started out as some thing I felt comfortable being a part of, and slowly turned into some thing that I can't relate to enough to be a part of. I still wish the WoV success, and very little has changed with my personal friendships with every one. I know now that I should not attempt to fit in with any religious or idealogical organizations from now on, or any organizations period. With all that behind me I am now planning several goals for this year, including- New artwork for Faustcoven's 1st album. Both albums will be re-release on double gatefold vinyl on what is probably the worlds best vinyl label, Nuclear War Now. The albums will also be released as die-hards, which will include patches, stickers and either picture discs or colored vinyl. The standard and die hard versions will each include a poster, so this is by far the best format for showing off my artwork. Gathering funds for either my own small record label or starting one with Andrew from Towards Global Holocaust. My first releases planned are a proper In Death I Become t-shirt, a 7" slit between them and Withersoul and hopefully it will all lead up to releasing the new In Death I Become full length album. Getting a part time job to help fund my asperations. Losing at least 50 pounds. Trip to Iceland, and maybe Germany. Current Music: Nifelheim- Devil's Force | | Friday, October 24th, 2008 | | 9:31 am |
November 15th
 Show up to this! It's going to be an awesome time, with a ridiculous after party as usual. This is my second time setting up a show, and if this goes well, I hope to do another one (hopefully with Gravewurm) some time around January. Hopefully I don't loose too many people to Horna.... although I might have tried to reschedule if any of the three bands I know some one from on this tour where playing the date in Virginia. Current Music: Bahimiron- Pure Negativism | | 9:10 am |
Belphegor/Ensefirum/Amon Amarth
I ended up having a lot of fun going to see these bands, even though we hit a few bumps durring the show. Paul picked me up as usual and we hung out at his place for a while. Unfortunately Manda felt sick so she didn't go to the show, but she still made the ride so she could see her family. We got to the venue while Belphegor was playing. Keven ran up to me as soon as I walked in the door and shoved my tickets in my hand. It turns out Keven had bought more tickets than we needed, so I took it upon myself to sell my extra tickets as well as his and Pauls. Unfortunately I was only able to sell one. There were a few other people that also had extra tickets, and there where being a lot more competitive. Before that I went in to see the rest of Belphegor's set. It sounds like they've recovered from pretty much replacing most of the band. Helmuth is the only remaining original member since Sigurd left due to having eye surgery. They where even more goofy than normal though; Helmuth talking in funny voices and being a general ass on stage. On the last song they played, Bondage Goat Zombie, he donned his leather bondage mask. It kind of reminded me of what Behemoth did when I saw them.... Due to selling tickets I missed out on Ensefirum. I'm not loosing any sleep over them though. At least I was able to hang out with several of my friends there. Quite a few made it out, including Paul Waggener (whom never makes it out to shows despite being in a death metal band), Jake, Kim, Sven, Dayve and a few other people. Amon Amarth was amazing. Definitely got me interested in their music again after being burned out on it. Their music is definitely emotionally invoking, and they pretty much nail every thing live. They're also really good with the crowd, telling a mixture of short stories, jokes, thanks and all the normal crowd interaction stuff. And people really like to be called vikings... As it was the last night of the tour, the opening band came up on stage during the last encore song as a joke in "thug" outfits with Thor's hammers drawn onto sideways baseball caps. I didn't really think it was all that funny, especially since it was during one of their best songs, but I didn't take it seriously enough to get upset about it, as it did some other people. Life has definitely been going better. I've been indulged materialistically quite a bit lately, between buying some stuff from Chas of Summon/Nocturnal Fear from his label, getting some cd's in a trade with Paul Hissem, getting a t-shirt and cd from Blaash of Bahimiron, and to top it all off, my longtime friend John got me a brand new, top of the line pair of combat boots! It's excellent timing, as my old ones that my brother gave me are falling apart, with holes right through the soles. I'll be enjoying stepping on heads with them! Now I need to get drunk.... Current Music: Immaculate- Instant Hell Murder | | Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 | | 11:45 pm |
Lynchburg Black Metal 9/20/2008
Preceading the show I had set up in Lynchburg was an IDIB show in Charlottesville with This Means You. Both bands played well, but I am missing the old after party at Kim's that hasn't happened in a while. This time we left early so going to another show the next day wouldn't be too taxing. Next time I hope we don't have any thing to do the next day, which is pretty much the story of every metalhead's life.  I am very pleased on how Saturday went. There where a few snags, but there always are, the only difference this time was that it was all on me. I went to the Pit with Serimortem, the opening band, less than an hour before show time and the only other people there was the out of town band The Day of the Beast. The build up was slow, as the people running the venue showed up soon after and then others slowly started to trickle in. As Behelmod had to cancel, the venue got a couple random guys to open up. Normally this would had pissed me off, as the whole point of me setting up this show to to have a genre-specific show of black metal bands (although IDIB and The Day of the Beast are really "blackened" bands), but this allowed some thing to be going on as people slowly started to show up. As such Serimortem didn't have to play first and ended up playing to more people.  Serimortem played as well as can be expected for a band that is a little more than a month old and that has lost half it's members less than a week before their first show. They messed up noticably quite a few times and even had to stop a couple of the songs before they finished them, but they had quite a few good riffs and interesting parts. Josh took over on vocals, and while I did doubt him before he played, I think that he did very well. He just needs to learn how to multitask while playing better. The next step is for them to practice for another couple of months and get a demo recorded before the next show in December.  The Day of the Beast met all of my expectations. I guess they where the biggest part of my imput into the show, as they where the only band from out of town that I got to pick that could play. They are one of my favorite bands from Virginia though, playing top-notch blackened thrash metal, which is one of my favorite sub-sub-genres. Fast, aggressive and evil music, as well as a cool cover of Motorhead's Iron Fist. They received a pretty good response from the relatively average sized crowd (although one of the better ones TDotB has played to, according to them). I deffinately want to see these guys more often. Their cd comes out really soon (featuring AWESOME artwork) and I'm working on some t-shirt artwork for them, which I expect to be some of my best work.  In Death I Become finished off the night at their best. They played their songs well, including a very long new one, and interacted perfectly with the crowd. I think this was the first time the Pit had any crowd surfing... While they didn't play the extended set that I hoped they would be able to, they played all of the ones that will be and the new album as well as most of the songs from Splendor. All in all a fantastic night in the midst of one of the crappiest weeks I've had. I think we made some long term friends in The Day of the Beast, and we went on to a great after party at Nate's place. A lot of people showed up to that, and I had a lot of great conversations. Hopefully the next show I set up will be even better, with the bands getting paid more and more of my friends from the college showing up (pretty much only Matt and Jon came). The next show should be in December, with the same bands as well as two or three more, including (maybe) Battlemaster and Cyaega. And finally, I finished a logo for In Death I Become-  Current Music: The Day of the Beast- He Who Shuns the Light | | Friday, September 5th, 2008 | | 8:35 am |
Finntroll/Warbringer Friday, Aug 22
Overdue post. I kind of decided to go to this show on short notice. I ended up borrowing some money from my dad and baby sat for my sister, so I was able to pull up the funds within a couple of days of going. The biggest suprise of the show was that all of the opening bands where actually pretty good. The only problems I had with all of them was King of Heresy's clean vocals, which where flat out gay, and the fact that the first two bands played Amon Amarth covers. I love Amon Amarth, but I'm tired of hearing them so much. I'm going to get burned out. Apothys was expecially good, and I wouldn't be suprised if I was able to find their cd's in FYE in a couple of years. Warbringer played an excellent set of their rough thrash metal with very subtle death and black metal influences. I know a lot of people hate them and a lot of the other "new wave of thrash" bands getting big now a days, but I think these guys are a clear example of why the movement is a good thing, even if it is a trend. Why would a metal head complain about a bunch of guys with long hair and bullet belts, playing the hell out and not throwing in random generic breakdowns? Finntroll was entertaining. I was pleased that the guitars in their guitars stood out over the keyboards in their live mix more so than in their recordings. The keyboards stood out when they needed to, though, in their climatic polka parts. While they played their music dead on, it was mostly their energy and the amount of fun they and eht audience where having that made them one of the most enjoyable bands I've seen so far. Current Music: Towards Global Holocaust- Flamethrower | | Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 | | 11:08 am |
Rockin '08
The Rockin 08 rock festival at Sedalia was something I had been anticipating for a good while. It was predicted that around 8000 people where going to show up, which was beleivable since all the other events at Sedalia have had high attendance rates. This was too be In Death I Become's largest crowd they have ever played to. Unfortunately this was not the outcome of the weekend. First snag of the day was Steeltame not showing up, which was dissapointing as those guys are pretty fun to hang out with and see play. But because of this, the promoter thought he could get away with telling IDIB that they needed to play second to last instead of last due to time restraints placed on them by a band not showing up. That didn't make any sense, as a band not showing up opens up more time, right? They should have just told IDIB that At War needed to headline and be honest about it. But this was the first among many decisions made by the show promoter that made the festival basicaly a flop. Syndicate played first, which pissed them off. In Death I Become played an awesome set, nailing most of their songs. They probably played to the show at it's peak (maybe over a hundred people) as about 30% of the crowd where from our immediate social circle. At War played last, bringing all of their military stage props in all of their patriotic glory. Their music is straight out of the early 80's, a simplistic version of early thrash metal some where between Motorhead and Venom. They play quite a long set, also going into a long speach about the military, politics and metal in Europe. Despite the lengthy speech... I still enjoyed them quite a bit. That night was probably the best part of the whole weekend. We partied with a lot of our friends as well as Syndicate and my current death metal clients. I can't tell ou just how much alcohol was consumed then, but my night ended sleeping in the grass out side. The next morning I wandered around until a few people started to wake up. Heather and I caught up with Robin as we thought she was going to a convenience store or some thing, but we ended up going out to one of her friends in Bedford for breakfast. Saturday pretty much just dragged on and on. I still had fun for most of it, sitting around drinking beer and meeting people I haven't seen in a long time. Some of the bands that played at the Morgue played there, such as Frail-T (who grew up a bit, as they where extreemly young when they played the Morgue) and the Pogo. We pretty much bullshitted our way through the day until Sydicate played for their second time. They put in a lot more energy due to not having to open (even though all the bands that played Saturday played to around 5-20 people). They made a joke about having crack for sale at their merch booth, so the promoter and the sound guy shut them off half way through their set. This lead to some high tempers between the people running the festival and some of our guys. We left right after that in anger, which unfortunately ment we had to miss Sick and Tired, which has some of our friends playing in it. | | Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 | | 3:42 pm |
Well, this weekend was certainly an active one. Thursday was the In Death I Become show with Withersoul in Charlottesville. I had high expectations from the bands and low expectations for the turnout, as it was on a weekday, and my expectations where met. The first band that played was Gifts from Enola, which plays a genre called shoegaze, which is long, drawn out instrumental rock. I liked them quite a bit, although they probably would be better if I was in my room on a rainy day listening to it on vinyl. IDIB was after them and sounded great as they usually do with The Outback's awesome sound system. The mosh pit got pretty violent, and one of the kids from Gifts from Enola got punched and went on and on about it afterwards, which was a bit annoying. Please don't metalcore dance while In Death I Become is playing, because you will get punched, and you will get beat up badly if you start a fight over it, which luckily didn't happen. Withersoul sounded even better live due to the guitars being high in their live mix, and I really liked their brand of doom music. They played a pretty long set, lasting well past 1am. After the show Withersoul, Paul. Diana. Death Metal Nathan (who shows up about every 6 months and is awesome to party with), a very drunk Brad and myself headed over to Kim's place so that Withersoul could crash there and we could hang out for a while. Kim was awesome enough to let us do this in her absence, as she was in Baltimore (I think that's where it was) seeing Dethklok. Things ended up being really chill (it's a bit dangerous getting too rowdy at Kim's, as she has a bunch of artwork and metal memorabilia all over her house, some of which has sharp edges), and we mostly sat around talking and drinking whiskey, which I think rekindled our fire and allowed us to stay up for so long. Kim ended up getting back around 5am with some friends of hers and talked to us for about half and hour before we headed back to Lynchburg. We got back about 6:30. Friday I ended up riding around with Heather and Mari for about half the day. Going shopping with girls is always a bit of a chore, but I did FINALY find a cool denim jacket over to Old Navy on clearance. It looked a little gay until I hacked the sleeves off, but now it looks awesome with the sleeves gone and a few patches and buttons put on. There wont be many places you'll see me without it now. Later in the day Brandon ended up buying a half gallon of KG, which lead to disastrous effects. I ended up passing out some where on Gary's property and puking (as well as some much more embarrassing things) and a bunch of the other guys got into a sword fight (with real swords, although thankfully dull ones) and cut each other up a little. You'll have to get the full story from them if you get the chance. Saturday was The Boy's MMA fight. Unfortunately due to high ticket prices I was the only one that stayed home (although Paul did offer to pay for me in his generosity). People got back around 11pm to party. Unfortunately the Boy lost due to an overly cautious ref's call, but the beer was going to be drunk in victory or in consolation anyways. A bunch of people ended up coming over, and I talked to several groups of people until my soberness got the best of me and I sought an early bed (at 2am). The next day I woke up early and twiddled my thumbs until others awoke. Nathan had said some thing about taking me and a couple others to the Summer Slaughter show in Richmond, but we where drunk at the time and I didn't know if any thing was going to come from it. He ended up showing up around 2pm, tickets bought and ready to go. Jake was on board for the show, but Nathan had bought 4 tickets since he didn't know if Paul wanted to go or not. We tried to get others to take his place, but no one wanted to go so Nathan ended up selling the ticket at the show. Jake was his usual self the entire time. He drank the whole way up there, but luckily the shows population was large enough to soften his impact on individuals for a while. I ended up seeing a lot of people I knew there, including the guitar player from Dead Syndicate (who called me over to him after recognizing me from one night of partying), Bill from Withersoul, big Paul and Manda, Tony from War Without Reason, and Jamie from Lynchburg. I talked to Tony about setting up the black metal show at the Pit, and he said it probably could happen in September. I also saw Phil from Municipal Waste there, who gave me a copy of the new Cannabis Corpse cd as I had a MW patch sewn on my vest. That makes encounter number two with him and a Cannabis Corpse album. It was a mixd crowd. There where a lot of metacore kids as well as a lot of older death metalers and some local celebrities. That pretty much fits the list of bands, as there where a mix of crappy metalcore bands and awesome death metal bands. Highlights where Aborted, Vader (whom where the main reason we where there) and Kataclysm (whom I thought their new materal was pretty boring, but it kicked a lot of ass live). In between was Despised Icon and the Faceless, which are some of the more tolerable deathcore bands when they're not going into a breakdown. The worst was the metal core bands that I can't really name and Cryptopsy, which is a damn shame as they used to be one of the best technical death metal bands around, but now they have descended into metalcore-dom with a little metalcore kid singer, keyboards, breakdowns and clean vocals. I went outside for most of their set. We ended up leaving before the Black Dahlia Murder played. Jake ended up getting kicked out soon after Vader played. I guess he called some one a metalcore fag, got bunched by said metalcore kid, laughed at him and proceeded to beat the shit out of him. We left him out there until Kataclysm finished. He seemed quite proud of himself, and it was a pretty funny story. As we started to walk back to Nathan's vehicle Jake caught wind of two members of Aborted who where standing around and ran over to them. Then for about half an hour he proceeded to tell them that they where awesome, call them fags, hit them with his Aborted poster, hit them with his fist, told them to let us on the bus, tried to get us to get the beer in the car and just yelled at every one in general. While entertaining, it lasted a little too long and when Jake left to get beer I told them to run away lest he came back, which they did so. Deer in the headlights. Current Music: Cannabis Corse- Every Bud Smoken |
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