Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli.

In 1998, there was Lords of Chaos. In 2008, there was Until the Light Takes Us. Somewhere between that, aired amongst a bunch of shitty Victory ads on Headbangers Ball, there was this. One might logically conclude that, between this biography, documentary and $100-budget commercial, the history of black metal has been comprehensively documented.

Not so! With this much personality, talent, vision, rampant egotism and disdain for non-Aryans, the genre remains entertainingly unstable — the more you talk to its original practitioners, the more weird new anecdotes bubble up to augment a perpetually-contested whole. That — along with the need to finance multiple third-term back-alley abortions for the staff’s favorite strippers — is why we’ve concocted our second exclusive Decibel one-off, the Black Metal Hall of Fame issue.

Our staffers busted ass to bring you eight tales from black metal’s vast crypt. Three of them you’ve never seen before — touchstones from Burzum, Satyricon and Rotting Christ — and the Darkthrone feature was only previously available in our HOF anthology, Precious Metal. This monster’s not included with subscriptions and is only available online and at select indie record retailers starting around November 8.

The final roster is, as you can see above, Immortal, Burzum, Venom, Darkthrone, Emperor, Satyricon, Enslaved and Rotting Christ. I’m too lazy to copy and paste the album titles, but are there any bands you’d prefer for a prospective round two? (Bear in mind that everyone’s gotta be alive to do these things, so no dice on Bathory and Mayhem.)

-AB

Please help the staff of Decibel finance all the necessary third-term back-alley abortions for their favorite strippers by purchasing the special Black Metal Hall of Fame issue here. You can also help contribute to this tremendous cause by buying yourself a copy of the December 2010 issue of Decibel or, better still, buying yourself a full subscription.

Enslaved are in that rare category of bands: You can safely get excited every time they announce the release of a new album, because they’ll never let you down. Their latest offering, Axioma Ethica Odini, only proves this point — eleven albums and nearly twenty years into the career, Enslaved are at past the point where even the most-revered metal bands often seem to lose creative steam. But Axioma feels just as unique, challenging, forward-thinking, and just plain rockin’ as anything the band has ever done.

This past Friday, just hours before taking the stage for the kick-off of Enslaved’s North American tour as direct support for Dimmu Borgir, guitarist and co-founder Ivar Bjørnson spoke to MetalSucks about the concepts behind Axioma Ethica Odini, the value of albums having a “side A” and a “side B” (remember those?), American beer, and more. Read the full transcript of our chat after the jump.

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Yes, I went to the Dimmu show. Mostly because I’ve never seen Enslaved and I like them but I guess a small part of me wanted to see the spectacle that is our good old Demi Moore Burger (new entry for Kuma’s? Decide what’s on it the day it comes out and change it, the very next day?). But before I get to that, I have an open letter for someone very special.

Dear Asshole Tapout-shirt Guy,

First of all, I’m sure the band thanks you for your participation, but what are you doing here? Why are you standing there in your goddamn shirt, your shaved head, stupid backwards baseball cap, and shorts? Sir, you do not fit in, and though I’m a firm believer that nobody should be excluded from anything, you do not belong here. You barrel by me, bouncing me off your gut, without even saying an “excuse me” or a simple “Get out of my way.” You are not a good audience member. I’m standing to the side, not in the walk way, not in the pit, I’m in virtually no one’s way and yet, you, yes only you, still manage to knock me over. I know it’s loud in there. It’s supposed to be. Did I not hear you? Then tap me on the shoulder and gesture curtly. I don’t care how you do it. There is no reason for you to leave a bunch of fallen bodies in your wake. Metal audiences are not small people. But somehow they manage not to take over everyone else’s personal space. You do.

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I’ve never heard of a band willingly changing their album cover post-release. I’ve heard of bands being forced to change their cover after large retailers reject the original for being too risqué (e.g., Appetite for Destruction), and, obviously, bands doing reissues/re-releases change their original cover art all the time. But I’ve never heard of a band just going, “Oh, hey, that’s not the cover art anymore.”

But that’s exactly what Dimmu Borgir are doing. In case you haven’t seen it, here’s the original cover art, which appears on all original pressings of Dimmu’s latest, Abrahadabra…

…and here’s the new cover art, which will appear on all future pressings of the record:

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Believe it or not, folks still buy CDs. I know… I’m shocked too. But the weekly Soundscan numbers released by Neilsen actually do include digital downloads too. I know what you’re thinking… people still pay for music? I s’pose so. Here are the most recent week’s charting hard rock and metal releases, with my own snarky commentary, natch. Check those tags down yonder for a list of covered releases.

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If my father had utilized reverse psychology when I was a kid, there’s a good chance I would never have latched onto metal; as it stands, his anti-metal stance was probably a big part of the genre’s appeal when I was younger. But now that MetalSucks is what Vince and I do full-time, he’s doing his best to be supportive. For example, he has only ever sent one text message in his entire life. It was to me, and it read as follows:

“Metallica riot see news”

Frickin’ adorable, right? Still, it’s not as though I expected my dad to start listening to Metallica. I mean, he’s probably heard …And Justice for All more times than Lars Ulrich has just from having me blast it around the house when I was a teenager, but I don’t think he can tell the difference between Metallica and The Offspring (I know for a fact my mom can’t).

So I was more than a little surprised when my old man e-mailed me a link to the below video and asked “Know the group?”… because he actually dug the music!

Unfortunately, I had the unenviable task of explaining to my father all about Burzum and Varg Vikernes’ long history of, uh, political idealism, thus promptly ending his too-brief relationship with the first metal band he’s ever actually enjoyed. Oh well. Maybe I can slip him the new Enslaved album or something…?

-AR

I kid, I kid. There’s really no reason for me to be so down on Dimmu Borgir; I enjoyed that song in the Hellboy trailer as much as the next guy.

But I can’t understand why anyone would be more excited to see Dimmu Borgir than Enslaved. It’s just, like, over my head.

So. Dimmu are doing a U.S. headlining tour starting in November, with support coming from Enslaved, Blood Red Throne, and Dawn of Ashes. I don’t really like Blood Red Throne but Dawn of Ashes’ new album, Genocide Chapters, is a lot of fun for a record with the word “genocide” in the title. So I’ll give Dimmu Borgir some credit and predict that this tour will ultimately be at least 62.5% awesome (that’s 25% for Enslaved, 25% for Dawn of Ashses, and 12.5% for Dimmu Borgir). Is that enough awesome to make you buy a ticket? That’s your own decision, but I think if you have a chance to go see Enslaved live and you pass it up, you’re a dope.

Here are dates:

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We’ve heard Enslaved’s new album, Axioma Ethica Odini, and holy shit, is it good. I’d argue it’s another serious progression for the band, too; it’s got a little less ahhhh and a little more oomph!, if that makes sense. You can tell right from the opening track, “Ethica Odini” (that’s Latin for “We are going to blow your fucking mind… again!“), that this ain’t Isa, this ain’t Ruun, this ain’t Vertebrae. This album feels less like the soundtrack for that time you got really high and thought about the meaning of colors, and more like the soundtrack for that time you got really high saved the princess from the dragon. It rocks. It ROCKS.

But don’t take my word for it — “Ethica Odini” is now streaming right here. Only listen to it if you wanna be put in a good mood. If you’re gonna be a sour puss today, then, y’know, go do something else. I hear the new Disturbed album is selling nicely.

Axioma Ethica Odini comes out in Europe on September 27 and North America September 28 via Nuclear Blast and Indie Recordings.

-AR

Metal fans have been buzzing for months about Until The Light Takes Us, but official screenings have been few and far between. Consequently, 99% of the film’s core audience hasn’t seen the saga of the Norwegian black metal scene as told by filmmakers Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell. That’s all going to change on September 28th, when Until The Light Takes Us finally gets DVD treatment. Luckily for me, my hookup Terrill, whose inventory is usually comprised of amateur porn, videocam bootlegs of current blockbusters and unreleased Tyler Perry films, somehow got his grubbies on an advance screener.

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What do we think is going through the mind of the dude on the cover of Enslaved’s new album, Axioma Ethica Odini? He seems to be looking down, which could suggest guilt; then again, I suppose he could also just be thinking, “I wonder if I should have that thing on my penis looked at?” I dunno. I just don’t know.

Make your own suggestions in the comments section. If anyone makes me giggle, they win the satisfaction of knowing they made me giggle.

Axioma Ethica Odini comes out in Europe on September 27 and North America September 28 via Nuclear Blast and Indie Recordings.

-AR

Wait, that can’t be right.

As we speculated earlier this week, Enslaved have, indeed, unveiled the title and release date for their new album. It’s called Axioma Ethica Odini, and will join Triptykon’s debut album in providing me with many jokes about not being able to remember its title.

But seriously, I have no fucking idea what the name means. Obviously something about an axiom and ethics, but when I Google “odini,” all I get is the On-Demand Intelligent Network Interface and some shit about mushrooms. Is it possible Enslaved recorded an album about the axiomatic ethics of mushrooms? I guess stranger things have happened — Kalmah wrote a song about a fish, y’know.

Nuclear Blast will release I’m Already Forgetting this Title on September 27 in Europe and a day later in North America. All joking aside, I expect it to be incredible.

-AR

UPDATE: A press release clears this up for good: “The title for the new album by Norway’s highly renowned psychedelic post-black metal band ENSLAVED will be announced on the band’s MySpace page on Thursday, July 15th. 12:00CET. Release dates will also be announced.” So there ya have it.

It’s no secret that Enslaved recently recorded a new album for an expected late 2010 release. But is it possible that the band getting ready to release the album suddenly and without any prior promotion, Trent Reznor-style?

Reader Cody Daniels e-mailed us yesterday afternoon to let us know that Nuclear Blast, Enslaved’s most recent label, has left the following message on the band’s Facebook page:

And then when you head over to Enslaved’s MySpace page, there is, indeed, a countdown in progress… a countdown that will end in a little more than two days (less, depending when you’re reading this).

But it seems pretty clear to me that whomever runs Nuclear Blast USA’s Facebook page just didn’t word the message clearly — in other words, that in three days we’re going to get an announcement about the new Enslaved album, not the actual album. I think it’s a safe bet that what we’ll end up with in two days is an album title, cover art, release date, and, if we’re lucky, a stream of a new song. But I can’t say for sure; as of this writing, Nuclear Blast hasn’t responded to our request for clarification.

So I guess we’ll find out soon enough. It would be really awesome to get a new Enslaved album this week… but I’m not getting my hopes up.

-AR

Anyone else as excited about Keep of Kalessin’s new album as I am? Their 2008 album Kolossus was one of my favorite black metal-ish records of the year, close to Nachtmystium’s Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 and Enslaved’s Vertebrae; it was the most traditionally black metal sounding of the three, but it too had flecks of psychedelia and progressive experimentation. The album wasn’t without faults but was a really solid record that showcased the unique brand of black metal the band had to offer.

Two years later Keep of Kalessin are back with new album Reptilian, having gained a lot of notoriety since then both via word-of-mouth and through the Eurovision competition earlier this year. Their new song “The Dragontower” took them surprisingly far in the Eurovision competition; that song’s been streaming at Keep of Kalessin’s MySpace page since then, and the band has just posted another new song from Reptilian called “The Awakening.” It’s an ambitious 8+ minute epic — counter to the 3-minute pop structure of “The Dragontower” — which hopefully hints at what this album’s going to offer.

Reptilian comes out on May 10th in Europe via Indie Recordings and June 8th in the U.S. via Nuclear Blast. Stay tuned to MetalSucks for a full album stream soon.

-VN

In his review of The Underworld Regime, the debut album of “black metal dream team” Ov Hell, our own Sammy O’Hagar wrote the following:

With a group of dudes as impressive as this, all the great things about black metal are all but guaranteed to show up. And they do: the riffs are wall-to-wall excellent, Shagrath’s vocals — even despite the fact that I’m not particularly fond of Dimmu Borgir — are solid, and I’ll be damned if there’s a better drummer in black metal than Frost that’s not named Trym or Hellhammer (and even then, it’s a three-way tie). Ice Dale and Teloch even manage to throw in a spidery arpeggio every now and again to keep things from devolving into a haze of tremolo-picked minor chords. Yes, it’s cheesy, but like good power metal, it fully and unironically embraces it, transforming what most would make a groan-worthy affair into chest-beating awesomeness.

That sounds like something you’d wanna listen to, right? Well, now you can! Even though Prosthetic won’t release the album until April 13, our PLPs (that’s “platonic life partners”) at Metal Injection are streaming The Underworld Regime right now. Ov Hell features members of Dimmu Borgir, Gorgoroth, 1349, Enslaved, and Satyricon, so you just know it’ll be ebil. Listen now.

-AR

What do you think Varg is thinking about in this photo?

Reader K-Milo alerted us to the fact that Stereogum recently conducted an interview with the man of the hour, Varg Vikernes. Most of it is exactly the kind of idiotic nonsense you’d expect from this creep – he slams Wolves in the Throne Room (“I haven’t even heard about them before”) and a lot of his Norwegian peers (Enslaved, Immortal, Emperor) who are considerably more talented than he is (“These guys are fucking rats, or they play in bands with rats”) – but there is one section of note: when the topic turns to Vikernes’ political views and his fanbase:

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I suppose I distrust supergroups because it’s too easy. Throw a bunch of dudes in bands people like together and it should instantly equal something people like/something people will throw money down to hear. And while there are exceptions (Them Crooked Vultures, Shrinebuilder, Cream) to the eating-up-downtime/cash grab rule, it’s more often than not the standard (see: Damn Yankees, Chickenfoot, a library’s worth of other names). But occasionally bands fall right in the middle, where they’re not in it for breaking new ground but also aren’t in it to exploit listeners to get a new yacht (or a first yacht). And along with that comes a sense of nothing-to-lose, in that the bandmembers will have their more-successful day jobs when the project ends, so why not have a good time in the meanwhile? And this is the case for black metal dream team Ov Hell, which includes members of some of the most important bands in Norway. Jagged yet refined and mean but kind of fun, Ov Hell manage to sound pretty decent on their debut, The Underworld Regime. Not quite a classic but certainly more than a distraction, Ov Hell are some of black metal’s most essential dudes flexing their frostbitten muscle, and that’s certainly never a bad thing to hear.

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I recently contacted Bazillion Points book publisher and heavy metal author Ian Christe about reviewing his books for MetalSucks. Bazillion Points is best known as the home of Daniel Ekeroth’s excellent tome, Swedish Death Metal.

Ian was kind enough to send me a hardcover of Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy’s autobiography Sheriff McCoy. I was not able to start on that book as I was neck-deep into Slash’s autobiography. Luckily for me, Ian also enclosed a DVD of a feature-length documentary, Mellodrama.

During one of my reading breaks I decided to pop in this film and am I glad I did. Mellodrama is easily one of the most entertaining, informative, and educational music documentaries I have seen in ages. It even has a little something for you metalheads, prog rock types, and horror film score fans in MetalSuckistan.

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It’s true! They’re in the studio right now! This can only mean good things, as everything about Enslaved is awesome, save for the fact that I’m not watching them play live right this very second. But that’s not really their fault, I guess, and if they were playing live for me, they might not be working on a new album. So I guess all is forgiven.

Anyways, Enslaved are one of those black metal bands that I’m not entirely sure you can call black metal anymore, which must be why I like them so much. Their sound reaches so far beyond the parameters of the same old same old that I don’t even think they know what the same old same old is. What kind of psychedelia could they have in store for us this time? I don’t know, but me and my shrooms can’t wait to find out!

Here’s the band’s video for “Isa.” If you don’t know what album it’s from, then you must not own it, and if you don’t own it, then I’m sorry, but I can’t be friends with you until you do.

-AR

2008 was something of a banner year for psychedelic black metal. The obvious breakthrough was Nachtmystium’s Pink Floyd-worship piece Assassins: Black Meddle, Pt. 1, the reverberations of which are still being felt with a slew of decade-best list inclusions. Norway’s Enslaved also released the very excellent Vertebrae in 2008, continuing the band’s progression from traditional black metal into psychedelia and landing the album a slew of “best of” nods for the year as well. Keep of Kalessin, a lesser known band from Norway, also made waves ripples in 2008 with their Nuclear Blast release Kolossus, another excellent record. Kolossus was neither overlooked or overhyped — it got precisely the amount of attention it deserved, garnering attention in all the right places and allowing the band to grow, develop and spread their worldwide reach organically.

Here we are in 2010. Nachtmystium are reportedly working on Black Meddle Part 2, tentatively due for release this Spring. No word from Enslaved yet, but one can only hope. And according to Blabbermouth Keep of Kalessin are working on a new album called Reptilian tentatively due in “early 2010″ to which my reaction is yes yes yes yes YES!! It’s unclear whether they’ve finished recording the album yet, but they’ve at least finished one song, “The Dragontower,” for inclusion in the Eurovision contest Melodi Grand Prix. “The Dragontower” has more of a black n’ roll flavor than anything from Kolossus, and at only 3 minutes it’s also shorter, both qualities I’d attribute to the nature of the contest they’re entering (Bmouth tells us that the full, 5-minute version of the song will appear on Reptilian). If Rage Against the Machine can beat out UK pop in sales, maybe an extreme metal band can win a national TV competition in Norway? Stranger things have happened.

Stream the shortened version of “The Dragontower” below. We’ll keep you apprised of further developments related to Reptilian and try not to blatantly gush.

-VN

While Anthrax, Testament, Heaven and Hell and motherfucking Motorhead are among the most anticipated bands that metal pilgrims are converging on western Germany to see, it would appear that my favored people, those crafty Norwegians, also have a few things planned for the mayhem. While Enslaved will be appearing (and hopefully represented on a good stage, because you know they fucking deserve it) some others are teaming up with foreigners in combinations that are hard to ignore.

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