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...