Happy 30th Anniversary to Nemesis Divina!

So today is a great album anniversary! One legendary album, too. Which would be Nemesis Divina, one of my favorite albums of all time. It's only 3rd to Under a Funeral Moon and Under the Sign of the Black Mark. I feel like it likes to fight for the spot with Rebel Extravaganza(note: when I pick my top 30, I try to limit them to 1 band per album to be fair), but in the end, I'd say Nemesis wins. 

I do own more than one copy; the OG Moonfog CD, and the remastered LP. 

This album was so important for a lot of folks around that time, and the BM scene in general. It's easily one of those "Absolute Essentials" when assembling a list of, say, top 10 Essential BM Albums to hand to someone. It was certainly an album that helped solidify my love of the genre, and one of the first ones I had bought while digging more into the genre. (Well, technically those would have been some of the 1st wave stuff, like Venom and Mercyful Fate, but in terms of the 2nd wave, which quite a few of us got into when were able to even find the albums, this was one of them.) Btw, this blog isn't a like, comprehensive history of the album(the band were young and pushing their own boundaries crafting this thing, and you can hear its progression from Dark Medieval Times and The Shadowthrone), but more just some waxing nostalgic about it. 

Easily an 11/10 album from start to finish, the lineup consisted of the usual Satyr and Frost, and also included Kveldulv; better known as Nocturno Culto from Darkthrone. (In 2004, he'd rejoin Satyricon onstage for their set, and even do four Darkthrone songs, the closest thing to a modern 'live Darkthrone' gig we'd get, but I digress.) Opening with the unmistakable guitars and the primal yell of "THIS IS ARMAGEDDON!" the album delivers memorable riffs upon riffs, blistering, top tier drums and eventually, a song that could probably become Norway's national anthem. 

The album hits a perfect sweet spot with everything. It's cold and raw-but it's *just* well-produced enough to give the album a thick and heavy sound. It's melodic, and does use some keys and acoustic guitars, but it's not overly symphonic or pompous(which the scene would start to devolve into, prompting this album's follow-up.) It's technical, but not overplayed. It could also get quite experimental in sound for its time-something Satyricon would continue to do throughout their career, in terms of pushing the black metal sound forward in ways that weren't really heard much at that time yet, especially in songs like "Trancendental Requiem of Slaves." The eerie, orange-and-brown album cover stood out amongst a sea of black and white peppered with some of the iconic Purple Black Metal Castles.

I can't believe the album is 30, though, as it just sounds so timeless. An absolute must-listen, if you are just getting into black metal and for some reason have not heard this yet, you owe it to yourself to give it a listen or three. Picking a favorite song is impossible; Mother North(which, speaking of owing to oneself, you NEED to hear the live version with the Norwegian National Opera) is easily one of the most iconic 2nd-wave black metal songs of all time, right there with the likes of I Am the Black Wizards, Freezing Moon, Where Dead Angels Lie, and Kathaarian Life Code(note: others mileage may vary on what is considered Darkthrone's most iconic track, but Track 1 of Blaze seems to be my pick even if Under a Funeral Moon is my fav album.) Forhekset, though, is an absolute masterclass of a song with its riffs and iconic drums-which we're blessed to actually have a drum cam of. (It was also played in the original drum soundcheck that inspired a ton of people back in 2000.) 

I love watching this song live.

I come back to this album time and time again. I think there's a chance I wear out my copy at some point. If you look at the 1990s Norwegian scene, I think there's a few cornerstone albums, and this is absolutely one of those. 

Anyway, I don't wanna drag this on forever. Happy Anniversary to one of the greatest albums of the genre, and go and listen to it, if you haven't, stat! (And if you do know it, go break it out again for an anniversary listen.)

Painting Update!

Boy it's been a little bit since I posted one? At least on the blog. 

Since the last one I did, I managed to finish that Hunter of the Left-Hand Path, a Sorcerer, and a Pit Locust! All we have left is a Praetor and Desecrated Saint from the Court Army, both of which I want to figure out some kitbash ideas for. 

Anyway, here's what I came up with for the crew so far! Besides using the new Villainy Inks(I am also ordering my next bunch of them, btw), I got some oils I've been utilizing. (Even found some ABT Dead Flesh, which is out of circulation atm.) Otherwise, these all use a mix of those, Dirty Down effects, and classic acrylics and speedpaints-Army Painter, Citadel, Scale 75 and Vallejo. AP are my normal workhorse acrylics(need to be gentle around them with spirits, but it works), but I use what gives me the colors I need. Scale 75 has some metallics I really like! 

I'm just gonna shoot the three recent models right down,

The Hunter of the Left-Hand Path has minimal kitbashing. His sculpt is really cool as it is, but because he's a hunter, and clearly wears the trophies of his quarry, I thought giving him an extra gnarly maned skull 'helmet' that he skinned might be cool. Possibly a bit of a controversial pick because he does have a very neat sculpt, but I like it. 

Painting eyes is one of my bugbears, and this guy had way too many, but at least they were dead eyes on his cloak. I went for a 'river of blood' on the haunted plains where he hunts for a base theme. The Villainy Inks and ABT Oils are so much fun to use so far. (I wish I had gotten Dead Flesh before I finished this guy, but I might go back and touch him up with that one day, we'll see.) 

Next up, and probably one of my fav sculpts, was the Sorcerer. The Baphomet-like look just tickles the black metal nut in me in all sorts of ways, and I had fun adding some varied kitbashes onto him, like the inverted procession cross, extra barbed wire, chains, and skulls. Also, hair. I love adding the uncanny hair to make it look more disturbing. This guy had a lot of room to play.

And yes, I had a lot of my usual soundtracks cranking while painting these guys. I really like how this guy turned out! To be honest I was happy with all three of these and I feel like I've 'leveled up' messing with this mixed media. (Oh yeah, I did add some tissue to the lower cloak parts at some parts, to try to get it skin-like and to give some surface variation.) For the base I went for an 'altar' look, that weird shrine thing in the front was inspired by games like Diablo and Path of Exile(those crude, skull-and-stick build shrines you come across and have to defeat waves of enemies. I love Path of Exile and like to take some bits of inspiration.) 

Finally, the Pit Locust. A very strange looking dog-horse-human-demon...thing(basically some affront to god), he had a wing knocked off in a bit of an incident(a mahjong set fell off my bookshelf, odd, I know), and I couldn't find it to glue it back on. So I took an old cannon from the rat ogor set, and decided that the Hells decided to graft and chain the thing onto him, because why the hell not. More uncanny hair makes this slobbery nightmare even more disturbing, and a dusty base isn't anything too 'special'(he, like the rest, is meant to be a 'playing piece' so I didn't want to go TOO overboard), but just a nice bunch of ruins. 

Anyway, these guys have been a whole lot of fun, and I'm ordering more Villainy Inks as we speak(grabbing the Flesh Core I set and some extra colors I am interested in.) I'll almost have the whole set by that point, I think I'll be missing four colors which I'll get around to getting.

So that's what I've been working on as of late! At the moment I'm adding some kitbash bits to my Praetor(a messed-up looking scourge weapon, some chains and spikes, as per usual), and Sin Eater for a Mercenary(a chain lower cloak, and some bits of chain added around.) 

Just wanted to give another update! Back to my replay of FFV(which is one of my favorite, and rather underrated, FFs!)

Villainy Inks are here! Grenade Crabs and other stuff.

My Villainy Inks arrived this week, and I have been very happy testing them out. I also got a bottle of their 'Anti-Death' low-toxicity, odorless mineral spirits. I still use my ventilator since when it's chilly my painting area isn't the most ventilated(it's better when I can have the window open, but we've been slowly getting warmer up here, bit by bit), but they really do have very, very little smell(and the thinner basically has none.) 

I decided to start with the Grim Core I set(and a spare bottle of Caput Mortuum, a color I figured I'd be using a lot with the next pieces coming up.) I pretty much plan on immediately ordering more; I think Flesh Core I coupled with Coelia Green and Ichor of the Damned. (I didn't want to buy a full set off the bat, and both sets 1 and 2 have colors I want/need for it. I can get the last four over time after I get the mentioned ones, since those seem a bit more situational.)

The packaging is pretty awesome.

Okay, so they uploaded backward, unboxed and then boxed. 

The colors I grabbed seemed to be immediately useful to what I was doing; Goon's Grime is this dirty looking, matte-drying wash, Decrepit Filth is a black wash(and a favorite), Caput Mortuum is a reddish-purple and great for gore, Sector Rust makes a great first rust pass for rusty armor(and rest assured this will get a lot of work with Dirty Down Rust and AP's Grim Rust), and Decay of Death is a pale greenish type of deal that makes things look slightly decayed; it's going to likely be good in small bits for corpse stuff and the like. 

So far, here's an example of a Hunter of the Left-Hand Path, with an initial Decrepit Filth pass(with a mineral spirit pass to remove some), followed by Caput Mortuum(not removed yet, but I did that this morning and it looks great.)

They have a bit of a learning curve, but they're absolutely going to be a ton of fun to experiment with even more! I mixed up some Caput Mortuum and Decrepit Filth to put over the gory bow and inside(inside: Bloodmoon Red from AP, covered in a wash mix of Carroburg Crimson and Purple Tone. Outside: 3 Parts Slaughter Red to 1 Part Murder Scene speedpaint, all over a skin tone of Grey Castle + Brainmatter Beige acrylics; it's basically a good setup for that.) Finally, ABT Ivory Black oils for the arrow and the nails, but I'll also be punching up the shadows with an oil wash in those bow recesses.

Basically it's been a lot of fun messing around with these!

Also if you're a TC fan, I'm sure that you've seen the Grenade Crab, a new mascot apparently. Grenade Crab is everything.

You mess with crabo, you get the slabo.

I also have been watching the Grimdark Compendium's Mordheim series, which they offered for free for a few days on their anniversary. It's stellar, and goes a whole lot into how to kitbash and the inspirations involved in all of this. They even have a terrain list too, and I had grabbed the Night Lords courses since I was looking into that Nemesis Box at some point. (Speaking of which, I found through that course that Liquitex Prussian Blue Ink is an incredible, saturated, overpowered blue that can be dialed down and actually I think I like it more than Night Lords blue.)

Blue OP, plz nerf.

Anyway, just wanted to update with how much I'm digging the Villainy Inks. I can't wait to try them out on more stuff and practice more with them. It's going to be a lot of fun playing with them on the Goetic Sorcerer and the Pit Locust, for sure!

'Til next time...

Via Doloris - Guerre Et Paix

I don't write as many album reviews as I did back in my heyday of working for the ol' webzine, but now and again an album comes out that I just need to go on about. Being my blog, it's a lot more informal, but nonetheless this album deserves the praise. 

From the mind of Gildas Le Pape, someone who has done some time in the extreme metal scene, but is quite involved in jazz as well, Guerre Et Paix is a debut album like one that I have not heard in a very long time. It brings me back to the days where I can grab a genuinely new album and be blown away by it; this has not happened for awhile. I've certainly heard a few very good debut albums the past few years(one from Norway last year stood out quite a bit), but I can count them on one hand, it feels like. Via Doloris being as incredible a band/project as it is made me very happy to be able to crack my knuckles and gush about an album all over again like the old days. 

For those unfamiliar, Gildas is a French musician who resides in Norway, is a guitar teacher, and has done some work in metal bands in the past; he was Satyricon's guitarist from 2008 to 2013, and was in a short-lived French black/thrash band called Morbid Rites(they only had two demos.) Via Doloris is the first time, at least that I have heard, where he's doing an entire extreme metal album on his own. 

This album is mostly a one-man affair. Gildas composed and wrote everything here, and played all of the instruments save for the drums, which he tapped the mighty Frost to handle. If you're going to get yourself a drummer to take part in a project, trying to get one of the best in the biz is a great bet, and he did just that. If you aren't familiar with Frost, I imagine you might be new to the genre(which is fine! We all start somewhere), but he's basically one of the best extreme metal drummers out there, having been in the scene since the early '90s and has taken part in countless projects, though his main bands are Satyricon and 1349. 

I very, very much hope that Gildas has more albums in him, because this debut is stellar. Sitting at seven songs and clocking in at nearly fifty minutes, the songs are incredibly layered and dynamic, never overstaying their welcome. 

Stylistically, this album is definitely black metal, of the melodic, well-produced and atmospheric variety. At least for me, it harkens back to the '90s when I'd break out one of those groundbreaking new albums, a la Nemesis Divina or Storm of the Light's Bane. It doesn't copy either of those at all, but it's just to give you a sort of idea of the vibe I get. Given those are two of my favorite albums of all time, it's a very high complement. The production is tight, though not overly wrought, and feels natural. 

Opening with "Communion," it sets both the pace and the theme of the album-the bleak main riff sticks with you as the chilling vocals cut through and Frost's drums keep it all together, setting the blistering pace. A memorable riff keeps me coming back to the track; definitely one to want to hear more than once. "Un Franc Soleil" is a slower, more melancholy track, the haunting vocals, tight groove and strong melody selling an almost grieving atmosphere. It was the second track released from the band, close to the album's release. (I don't want to 'spoil' all the tracks talking you through each and every one from start to finish.) 

"Omniprésents" speeds things back up again, and continues to feed the listener wonderful, still-mournful, yet surprisingly catchy melodies. The more one listens to this album, the more it becomes apparently just how talented Gildas is at composition, performing, and arranging as well. With Frost's stellar drumwork adding the backbone, it also shows he has an ear for picking out exactly who he might need for the album, too. I'll be honest, while there are plenty of talented drummers in the scene, I'm not sure any others could've given this album its feel, given the drum legend's ability to feel the music better than many. 

"For the Glory" is up next, and is the band's first music video and was the first song that was up for release. I'll link it here in case you haven't seen it yet:

A great pick for the album's first taste, as I think it encapsulates the album's whole feel very well. This one's a fast and pretty heavy affair, though it does not lose the fantastic riffs and melodic tones that it has been delivering so far, and importantly, it keeps and in fact well showcases that almost desolate atmosphere. The break of acoustic guitars melds wonderfully with Frost's frenetic blasts and double bass assault. 

"Ultime Tourment" is the longest song on the album, clocking in at over ten minutes, but never wears out its welcome. Opening with a marching beat on the drums, it has a slower groove that almost invokes a dirge-like anthem, but both guitars and drums are delightfully dynamic in this one. Halfway through the song, it proceeds to have a transformation into a much more wicked sounding affair. The riffs on this album continued to impress me as I listened, mixes of both heavy grooves and tremolo picking giving it its unique, yet still dark sound. 

The final two songs are "Visdommens Vei I" and "Visdommens Vei II." The first being the longer of the two, opening with yet another beautiful and somber melody and some creative drumwork for a good couple of minutes before the song forms into something one might hear if there were such a thing as a black metal funeral procession. Slower to mid-tempo at first, with a groove that drives you to headbang right at your desk. 

The follow-up is more of a two-minute, eerie outro with some very eerie sounding guitars and monk-like choir-chants, closing off the affair rather beautifully, almost like it closes off the funeral-like dirge of the previous track. 

If you've caught onto my possibly somewhat repetitive descriptions, I use the terms "melancholy," "atmospheric", and "bleak," quite often. It's for a good reason; it's the type of picture this album paints. To me, this album sounds like a lonely sunset as one sits on a rooftop, a solitary, windy walk through a wooded graveyard, or an early, cloudy morning with a storm rolling in. It sounds classic, yet new at the same time. 

Something I genuinely appreciate about Guerre Et Paix is that it's an album with a clear vision, or at least to me it *sounds* like an album with a clear vision. Quite often I hear albums that might be good, hell, even great, but I can also hear a lot of 'Throwing stuff at a wall to see if it works or not' at the same time. I feel like when I put this on I get a clear view of what Gildas was going for, and he succeeded in putting it all together. But it never comes off as some sort of mechanical, "false" thing, it feels like an organic, genuine beast formed of a creative spirit. In a world where that genuine, creative spirit seems to get stifled by one thing or another more times than I'd like to see, it's a great thing. 

Already having gone on for awhile with this one, I will put this not only on my "Must buy" metal list this year, but "AotY Contender" as well. It's certainly on my regular playlist already(I have been listening to it while doing work with the miniatures and it's bleak soundscape is quite inspiring for the grimdark aesthetic that I like to paint.) 

Hopefully this little writeup gives you an idea of what to expect from the album. It comes with my whole-heartedly positive thumbs up and a "Go buy this." I'm hoping that we get to hear more from the mind of Gildas Le Pape, until then I'll go spin this some more while doing some bleak art! 

A cool video on minipainting trends/styles

I watched a pretty fantastic short Youtube video on painting trends that I 100% agree with. I'll link it here: 

It's not even too long, but it goes into different painting trends quite well and how they change. (I won't say 'come and go' since there are plenty of folks still painting in all of these.) Some of these trends, of course, started before the Internet was a widespread thing(Warhammer Fantasy Battle came out in 1983 or so? I think it still mentioned pre-decimal British currency, given folks playing it in 1983 might actually remember when that was last used.) 

When he mentioned goblin green bases, that was just a thing with the models being easy to see(I believe some stores had it as a rule? But you'd have to ask someone that was around at that time in the 1980s.) That was more of a base color choice, but it was a style. 

I think, of course, a problem with just about any artistic style is when it devolves to something being right or wrong. Now I of course do know that there are things in art that are objectively good to learn. Learning, say, brush control as ANY painter will help you, etc. Learning more techniques help and so on. This isn't so much speaking about that, though-it's about how certain styles come off as right/wrong/more accepted. Another part that hits home is in regards to the whole social media thing-stuff needs to look good while scrolling those algorithms. 

But the line in this video that stuck out the absolute most to me is "Knowing when you're following a trend, and knowing whether you actually enjoy it." I do think that folks get caught up in painting styles they do not enjoy because it's The Style At the Time. I managed to not get too hung up on it since I've only been painting about six months and still learning a lot, but I will say I started to fall into some of those 'cleaner' styles at first, and realized that while it was fun now and then, I wasn't sure if it was something I wanted to do all the time. When I did my first 'nastier' models, I realized that it was fun getting the atmosphere right. I totally respect Golden Demon painters and aspirants, but I remember hearing a video with Vince Venturella, where he decided to not enter Golden Demon anymore, and stated how he wanted to 'Paint things that make him happy.' And those words stuck with me. Like I definitely chafed when I heard people refer to the grimdark style as 'too messy' or by less-flattering ways, when people can spend just as much time on those models than people do with the 'clean styles.' Capturing the whole grim atmosphere between building the bases, kitbashing, adding other materials into the mix with planning and so on, thinking of the 'story' of the piece all the way down, all takes time. They just don't look as 'Typically Pretty', because they are not supposed to. (Of course, you can have a preference. FWIW, I don't think it's right if grimdark style folks talk down on, say, volumetric highlights or whatnot either. But I think everyone should just remember preference is a preference, and that's it.) 

I'd say for me, my favorite style is definitely grimdark, but that's been well-determined by now. I've tooled around in a ton of styles so far, since I didn't want to learn on 'Just One.' Contrast/Slapchop, volumetric highlighting, 'eavy metal, wet-blended stuff(this is more of a technique than a 'mini style', though, but it's fun!), I played around with TMM, and NMM and all of that. And I don't think I straight up *dislike* any of it, though I definitely like some less-I am not, for example, a huge fan of edge highlighting. It's not the amount of time it takes-I can sit there and glaze a leather cloak for ages until I think it looks cool. It's just something about it that I don't care for. 'Eavy metal is fun once in awhile, but definitely not a style that stuck with me. I occasionally get in the mood to do a volumetric piece like I did for the frost death knight. I had a ton of fun wet-blending a purple and green plague beholder. I even have a plan soon to do a limited-palette(Zorn) barbarian with NMM, just because I feel like it, and doing more of a 'sketchy/comic' style with it. I think I'm doing this musician I have lying around in an RGB scheme. Maybe with the sponge/drybrush combo, just because I'm in the mood. (I use both of those with any piece, but rarely for an entire piece, so it might be fun.) At the same time, I'm working on this diorama, doing some test parts for it, for Trench Crusade, and assembling some stuff I need to do some actual terrain for that one. (I still have the other half of my warband to finish, as well!) 

"Just Doing Stuff I Felt Like at the moment" is how I settled on painting, and most of the time, it turns out I feel like the grimdark, kitbashed style. I like taking random junk, kitbashing a model to look blasphemous and nasty and trying to get the atmosphere right. 

I dunno, I just had to talk about this a little, or I felt like doing so. Basically, paint how you want, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Probably preaching to the choir, here, and I think nowadays the community is pretty much open to a big variety of styles now; I don't see the 'style snobbery' too much these days. Hopefully it goes away for good! 

 

Via Doloris is Awesome

I'm just stopping in to say that my latest music obsession has been with this one-man band, Via Doloris. 

Gildas Le Pape(mostly a jazz fellow, also played guitar for some years with Satyricon, from about '08 to '13, if I recall?) has so far managed to compose two amazing black metal tracks. Very bleak, melodic yet cold and blistering sounding, I cannot wait to hear this whole album on March 20th. I have my vinyl pre-ordered. I knew the guy was talented, but hearing him compose this stuff is spectacular. I can't wait to hear more! 

Oh, I did say it's a one-man band, and that's true, but the album does have a session drummer-the one and only Frost, who sounds, of course, on point. If you're gonna get a session drummer, get one of the best, and he's one of the best! 

If you like that cold, well-produced 90s-vibed black metal, please check out the songs that are out so far, "For the Glory" and "Un Franc Soleil!" 

I'll definitely be doing a review of the album here. If the rest is as good as these two songs, it's AotY potential already! 

Base or Diorama? That is the question

 I've found in my mans-painting endeavors that I'm starting to get really into base-building. Like, I have to be adding lots of trappings to them. I can keep them simple for basic 'filler' minis I do(the ones I paint that can act like proxies for TTRPG enemies, or extra PCs, and so on), but even then I try to give them a little depth and more than just the token grass tuft. For my more serious minis I've been getting more and more into doing all of the grimdark trappings and so on. You've seen some of my bases as of late.

It's at the point, though, where I'm starting to ask myself "...Should I just make this a diorama, and make the base, while still atmospheric and grim with lots of cool trappings, maybe a *bit* simpler?" One can only do so much with 28, 32 or even 40mm bases; in games that have set base sizes, it starts to become trying to fit enough ONTO the base. (There is an option here, which I'll get into.) 

And it's a tough decision sometimes, because 40mm+ bases especially do give you some decent room to play with. Like, while I'm still learning(I'll always be learning), and am only going on six months of painting at the end of this month, I think I did *alright* on this base, given the 40mm room:

The recent Hell Knight.

I managed to get a cursed altar, some trench wire and a couple of poles, some boards to stand on, and so on. You do get some wiggle room, especially depending on the size of the mini, and there are ways, like elevating them, as well. 

But for the 2nd Hell Knight, I had a pretty keen idea of a base and mocked it up with some unpainted pieces and wall tack. I wanted him to have messed up some Pilgrim's chapel, so I was going to set up an elevated part with a stone wall, ruined altar, and dead priest. 

And then I thought about it. The idea was really cool, but then I thought 'Maybe I could put him on the *path* to the chapel on the piece. And then build a much cooler looking ruined chapel, with the same idea, only bigger, and actually place all three Hell Knights around it. One already has the sorta 'trench' looking base, and he could be in an area like that off to the side(the ruined chapel could well be in an area that's somewhat fortified, given the world. I can put another on a haunted looking hill near the chapel, and the third on the outside.

And this of course lead me to think: when to decide to build a diorama? I don't think there's a cut and dry answer, sometimes "When the base gets too busy" might be one time. Again, you don't always get a ton of room to work with(especially when you're dealing with something like a 28mm base.) 

On one hand, it's actually really good practice to see if you can come up with a nice plan in a limited spot, practice and a nice creativity exercise. I had a lot of fun coming up with bases for the Rat Ogors, but those were 50mm, to be fair. On the other hand, 'less is more' does come into play from time to time, and there are times where a base can take away from the model(which should be the focus.) Like, a base can be SO elaborate that it becomes the centerpiece, and I think, at least for me, this is the line I've been trying not to cross. 

The idea I had with the altar I think might've crossed that. So I opted for the idea of the 'path to the chapel'(complete with some stones that might be a road, of course some skulls and branches scattered about, and I'll add a few more bits to flesh it out), but I think that scene will be heading into the diorama. And it'll be even cooler, since I'll have even more room to play with it!

So yeah, just me musing about stuff as I figure out this painting thing. Hopefully I'll have the 2nd Hell Knight based up tomorrow, and start figuring out something cool for the first Yoke Fiend, who I'd say is sitting at about 70% done? The 3rd Hell Knight I'd say is almost halfway there. (Oh yeah, all 3 HK's are getting metal hair, just because.)

'Til next time(when I can also get away from the retro handhelds.)