Black Metal Trance part II: Burzum

If you’re familiar with Burzum you can skip this post as it’s mainly directed to people who are new to the genre. I wasn’t really sure if I should bring up Burzum here at all – not because of his unfortunate political ideas, but rather because he must be the most discussed black metal artist ever. A quick googling gives something like 3,4 million hits… But it’s only fair to bring him up, because he pretty much invented the hypnotic black metal... Read More

Black Metal Trance part I: Prologue

Looking at my musical preferences throughout the years, one of many recurring themes is intensely energetic music with a majestic and euphoric, yet introvert and melacholic mood. That may sound like an oxymoron, but imagine being flown out from earth through the solar system. You would likely be in extatic awe of its unfathomable size and majesty, yet at the same time taken aback when realizing your relative insignificance and the fragility of our world. This particular blend... Read More

( )

This was written thursday the 11th, but couldn’t be published until now since my server was grumpy. Despite my reasonably strong affection for logic, reason and cold objectivity, I absolutely love being swept far, far away by music. A purely emotional trip, detached from all notions of the real world, with the neurotransmitters going off like an arsonist in a fireworks factory. These trips don’t necessarily have to go into heavenly bliss, because the actual trip (or... Read More

At the dawn of a new enlightenment

In recent years, starting with a significant boost in 2002, I have been becoming increasingly outspoken about my disdain for faith and religion. I come from a secular family and Sweden is one of the least religious countries in the world, so faith was never really on the agenda for me, but with the advent of the web and the information about other countries that it brings has made me think about religion more and more. My standpoint is that of the hardline atheists; I believe... Read More

Dissecting Black Metal part I: Religion

This posting has been due for 9 months now. I’ve avoided posting anything else as a way to force myself to finish this one, but that just resulted in no posts at all. So from here on I will probably post on a wider mix of topics rather that sticking to one at a time. Anyway, on to the main event: Black Metal is religious music – often it’s just a facade or image, but looking past the more commercial bands you will find people that are wholeheartedly dedicated... Read More

Dissecting Black Metal: Prologue

One of many musical genres that I enjoy is Black Metal. There’s something inherently fascinating about such an extreme type of music and its most dedicated followers and practitioners. It’s a genre that pushes the boundaries of music, while still remaining less abstract and artsy than the noise music movement or other forms of extremist exeperimental electronica – If you’ve ever wondered how far music can be pushed while still being music, the answer may... Read More

Senile at 26

Today there was a record fair here in Stockholm, and as usual I went. I had low expectations regarding actual records, but planned to spend plenty on protective plastic sleeves for vinyls and other assorted “spare parts”. I did find a few records too, but nothing overly exciting. Now to the senility bit – I packed my 25 spare “disco sleeves” and 300 12″ plastic sleeves into my record bag and all the spare CD cases etc in two plastic bags. Somehow,... Read More

MRI scanner TV commercials?

This is driving me crazy, and I must know. Please please post a comment if you have any idea. To the question: Why on earth is Philips doing TV advertising for their new MRI scanner? It’s not exactly something the average homeowner decides he needs to the garage or toolshed, now is it? Or are people going to be clearing out their pool rooms now, to have some beers and a brain scan with their mates friday night? And of all the channels they air it on, why OH WHY did they... Read More

post recycling: is the DJ obsolete?

Here’s a posting on the topic of automatic track mixing using software, from the PsyNews forum: [...]beyond the very basics of beatmatching, you’ll need a human… There are so many aspects to take into account. Like song selection – sure you can have a database of all the tracks with different info on their characteristics that would let you auto-generate fairly decent tracklists, but there will be no innovation or creativity and the song selection will... Read More

post recycling: mission statement

Since the risk of me losing interest in this blog is overwhelming, I thought I could at least fill it with something before I give up. So I thought I’d dig up old forum postings I’ve made on various topics and stick them in here as an archive, sort of. It could also be neat to have a backup in case some of these forum sites go belly-up, which they inevitably will do. Now I’m not saying this will be very interesting for any of you imaginary readers, but that’s... Read More

test!

This is my second attempt at a blog. The first one, created in the spring of 2003, got a single test posting before I abandoned it. I’m too much of a realist to expect this to go any better, but I’ll give it a shot at least. I’ll try to stick to english here – it’s a tough choice since I enjoy writing nonsensical word-play stuff in swedish, but my utopian dream to write insightful bits about music sort of requires english to reach any sort of audience... Read More