As promised, some pics from black metal weekend. It occurs to me that I must not have gotten any pics of Behexen- was too busy headbanging I guess. Enjoy!
My farewell party. He was displeased that I was gone all weekend.
The lovely A at the Beat Kitchen, rocking the Emperor shirt
Kommandant’s vocalist. His new get-up is terrifying
Kommandant
Just one of the many curiosities from the awesome sushi place/Japanese grocery store
Mugging for the camera with my bow to match my battle jacket
This was my first year going to Maryland Deathfest, and I learned that it is a metal WONDERLAND. Literally just about any merch you could possibly want you can find, including stuff from Deathspell Omega (if you were looking for Lifelover you were out of luck, however. I didn’t see any of their stuff- I was looking for a patch). And for a girl working on her battle jacket, it was a veritable treasure trove. I bought a ton of patches, many of them from my friend, who I tried to buy from as much as I could.
Yeah, that’s a Dimmu Borgir patch. They were my first black metal band, and their old stuff is awesome, don’t pretend like it’s not.
I also got several shirts, but not as many as I probably would have gotten if I had bought all my stuff early (lesson learned. I would have a Candlemass patch too if I’d done that). Nevertheless, I found stuff I couldn’t find easily, like a rad Teitanblood shirt, a TDB shirt (orders from the Netherlands are not cheap), and special edition MDF Antaeus and Aosoth shirts. And Morbid. Always more Morbid.
Teitanblood
I love the back of this thing.
Antaeus special print for MDF.
Noevdia. ❤
More Dead.
Aosoth special MDF shirt. This thing is gorgeous. Also I am trying to buy more not-black shirts.
The back has the Order of the Nine Angles sigil.
The Devil’s Blood. I love their artwork.
I promised musings too, so I will give that. I think the weekend overall went really well, minus the drive back (coffee+convenience store fare+no sleep= H feeling like she is strung out on something). I did have a few observations though. First of all, the festival really needs to be organized a little better. Vinterland had to be pushed back, and Pentagram and Venom getting cut off- I understand that there was nothing that could have been done about these things, but I think some kind of announcement might have mitigated the frustration a bit, especially in the case of the latter, in which people rioted. The lines going into and out of the festival could have been handled a little better, and considering that I heard/saw lots of complaints about gate security inappropriately frisking some of the girls (never happened to me or A, by the way), and harassing people, I would suggest screening the people they have working the gates a little better. (The guys in the festival were awesome, on the contrary. Especially the dude playing air-bass and helping people crowdsurf. That guy deserves an award for best security dude ever.)
I also heard rumors that this might be the last year at that venue, and that might be okay. I liked the smallness of the festival, especially considering that I get freaked out in really huge crowds sometimes, but it really might have outgrown itself this time. Especially with having to wait in line for over an hour for re-entry on Sunday. Also, I didn’t have tickets to the punk stage this year (I need to do that next time), but my understanding was that it was about .5 miles away. That’s a little far, especially if you are trying to run back and forth a lot, so making the venues closer would be really beneficial.
The music was awesome. Needs more thrash; needs more grindcore. That is all. Of course, with all the doom and black metal it was theoretically my year.
Here are some more miscellaneous pics of me and my pals showing off our MPLS/St. Paul related digs and general tomfoolery.
The poster from this year was pretty freaking sweet.
I don’t know if you can tell from the pin, but we are big Devil’s Blood fans around here.
\m/
Me looking like a big ol’ dweeby fangirl in my False shirt. MPLS metal is my fave.
Chicks dig Into the Void.
Next, Kylesa, before I forget my commentary on that. Then Aosoth, I promise. I have been running around watching friends’ bands all weekend, but I am home with some spare time for a while.
I have resurfaced again! Unfortunately I have been so busy lately I just haven’t had time to post anything. I have ideas though- I am going to do a review of the new Dethklok one of these months, I’m going to do a rant about why Watain is not just a Dissection knock-off, and I’m going to review the Marduk show (and Inquisition! and Death Wolf! And a bunch of others because there were a lot of bands) that I saw Thursday. And that’s just to name a few. And I plan on doing this just as soon as things slow down a little for me, which should be starting tomorrow. I finished up a project I’ve been dedicating spare time to today, so I should be able to do more here now.
Another thing I plan on doing is a post on the new metal record store in St. Paul, Into the Void. I have been there twice now, and it is my favorite place in the world. It is also where I got the new patch additions to my jacket: Darkthrone and Dissection.
I’d been planning on getting this one for a while. Glad I found it locally!
True Norwegian Black Metal
The jacket is coming along! I also got a Mayhem Deathcrush patch the other day to fill in that spot between Dissection and Morbid, and a Nifelheim patch that I bought from my friend Carlos. I also plan on getting some pyramid studs, and I have The Devil’s Blood and Horna patches in transit somewhere.
Hooray
I also thought that perhaps people might be interested in some commentary on some of the dishes from the Hellbent for Cooking metal cookbook I reviewed recently. Around the start of February, I decided to make Pagan Altar’s Pagan Pie, which is pretty much shepherd’s pie using corned beef. I admit I was a little wary of it at first- as Annick Giroux points out, it all comes from a can. It was, however, very good for having done so, and really tasty with the corned beef (I usually make mine with stew beef as it’s chunkier than ground beef, but it had never occurred to me to make it with corned beef).
Pagan Pie (Pagan Altar)
Yum.
Other than that, March is bereft metal shows for me, but I am going to see Ensiferum in April (yes! Finally! I have wanted to see them for ages, they are my favorite melo-deathy, pagan-y band), and then Ghost, and then I am certainly going to see Black Witchery and Deiphago. I’ll be missing the latter at Deathfest because I have the three day pass, so that one is a must. I may go see Absu too; it’s a cheaper show and I hear False is opening, and I need their split with Barghest.
So much for a post about a whole lot of nothing. I am going to try and be more productive over here. So many ideas, so little time.
Until I return to remind you of how awesome Marduk is live,
Hello all. Sorry I didn’t make my post yesterday. I was busy getting my face melted by Napalm Death (I also just lied about being sorry. I admit it). In penance, I will write up a review of the show, hopefully for Thursday.
I got the Inquisition patch sewn onto my jacket (in record time!). Started sewing Friday night, finished it within hours of the show on Sunday. I sewed it in just a couple of hours! I am becoming a pretty good seamstress in the name of metal- I also now know enough about sewing to fix the tear in my Mercyful Fate shirt.
In other news, my friend Jamie sent this my way the other day. It’s a really interesting documentary- the interviewer leaves something to be desired at times, but it’s a rare glimpse into the lives of some of our most reclusive one man bands.
Well, I haven’t got much else to talk about momentarily, except to talk about the concert, which I think deserves its own post. I’m also still quite exhausted from my participation in said concert, so I am going to go to sleep.
Well, I’m currently working on a post concerning Burzum and moral dilemmas (namely, my own), but it’s still very rough, and I’m not going to post it here until I’ve puzzled over it some more. In the meantime, I’ll show off what I’ve been doing with the battle jacket, because I’ve been working hard on it the last week or so (I don’t have much to do right now).
First of all, I finally got my DIY Funeral Mist shirt patch on. It’s huge! But it looks awesome.
It takes up the whole back almost! But there’s still room for me to put patches along the edge of it if I need to.
I’m so proud! *sniffle*
So, now Arioch can get recognition for his hard work, and I get a Funeral Mist back patch featuring his own design work. Oh. Yeah.
The next step was putting on my Morbid patch. I decided to put it over the right hand pocket, and though I sewed the top pockets shut, I wanted to keep the ones near the bottom of the jacket (gotta have someplace to stick your hands when it’s cold out).
It was tricky, but I managed without too much trouble. After a bit it got easier.
Morbid!
…and the pocket is still there. Yay!
Then I decided, what the hey, might as well do the Gorgoroth patch too. I settled on putting it on the right shoulder. There is still enough room to put a patch roughly the same size directly to the right of it.
The front, currently.
And that’s all the patches I have right now! They look very scattered at the moment, but that’s because I need more to put on! Hopefully that will happen soon. I would love Melechesh and Inquisition patches, and since I plan on seeing them in October hopefully I can get some. I’ll also probably order more online (although the guy I have bought from in the past on eBay seems to have emptied his stock, sadly), but first I need to get a paycheck. More later this week, when I’ve sorted that other post out a little better.
So, as you may remember, I had gone to see Marduk about a month and a half ago and was so excited to show off my Funeral Mist back patch, when I was informed that it was not only a bootleg but that Arioch (Mortuus? I’m not sure how to refer to him in this instance) would get royally angry if he saw it. And we can’t have that, because Funeral Mist being pretty much my favorite black metal band (sharing the spot with early Mayhem), I want to support Arioch. So after bewailing my fate, I decided to figure out what I could do about this problem.
I settled on buying a t-shirt and making a patch out of that, since I know I can recognize Arioch’s design work and therefore make sure he gets paid for the “patch.” That is exactly what I did, and I thought I would share how I did it just in case anyone else is interested in making their own patch from a t-shirt.
So, step one to making a patch from a t-shirt is, of course, acquire a t-shirt. I got this Funeral Mist shirt from Noevdia.
Image from Osmose Productions.
[1. Get a shirt]
The next thing you’ll want to do is cut out the part of the shirt you want to make a patch from. I shed no tears over mutilating this one because it was way too big for me anyway- the only size they had left was XL. I made sure to leave plenty of extra room around where I wanted the patch to be so that I didn’t accidently cut it too short. You can trim later.
2. I don’t have a pic of this step, but you shouldn’t need one. Just cut out the design. Make sure that you leave plenty of room around the edges just in case!
Next you will want to get some adhesive backing for the t-shirt. This will keep the shirt from wiggling around as you’re sewing, as shirts are wont to do. Any fabric store should have some- ask for the “craft” kind as it is the thickest. Have them cut you a piece that your patch (with the extra room around the edges) will fit on.
Image from Buy.com
[3. Get adhesive backing. It’s iron on, and it looks like this. Nothing remarkable, in other words.]
Iron the adhesive backing onto the patch. With the kind I used, it said not to let the iron steam, but yours may be different. Sewing is kind of like cooking- it’s all about following directions.
After you have ironed on the backing, figure out how much of a border you want around the patch. The design on my shirt was really big, so I didn’t want very much. Then you want to fold the shirt back to where you want the border and crease it so that it won’t move around. If you want to be crafty, you can use the iron to make the crease stronger.
Then you will need some of this stuff. The kind I bought is charmingly named “Stitch Witchery.” It will create a thicker edge to make the sewing easier for you. You simply cut a piece the length of the side and lay it in the crease, then hold the iron on it for ten seconds or so. Once again, follow the directions on whichever kind you get.
[4. It comes in black and white. It doesn’t really matter which color you get as you won’t be able to see it anyway. Primarily, you just want to make sure that the width is small enough for your purposes (I think this is 3/4 in. or something)]
Now you are ready to trim (finally, right?). Pull the edges up and trim off some of the excess. Then, voila! You have a patch made from a t-shirt!
[5. Be sure you don’t trim too close. The hemming stuff will create a hem like this.]
[6. The finished product! The back.]
[…And the front! Which is formatting weird for some reason. (WordPress, cut it out, dude). Super proud of this bad boy.]
Now, sewing this thing is proving to be difficult given its size (like, I can’t even pin the whole thing. It keeps squirming), but that won’t necessarily be an issue. I’m sure there are a million ways to do this as well, this is just the way that I did mine. I don’t have a sewing machine, so that wasn’t really an option for me, hence the hemming tape.
I have been working on my jacket again (finally- the Dead patch almost did me in but I have decided I can work on it again) and applied my first iron on patch the other day. It’s the Arne Babb patch I got with my copy of Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries.
This one.
Every time I apply a new patch I learn something new. This time? Iron ons SUCK. Seriously. I don’t think I’ll ever iron on another. The heat from the iron made the patch distort a little (you can see that the edges are a little bowed), which upset me a little, but I was able to fix that somewhat by sewing it into place. If you want to keep the edges from curling, you need to sew them down anyway, so I’m not sure what the point is of ironing them on.
The final product, after sewing for reinforcements. Those buttons might not all stay there, but they are there for now.
Either way, Arne is now on my jacket, but from now on I think I’ll just sew on patches, even if they are iron ons. The adhesive is kind of nice for keeping it in one place, but my experience with the heat makes me want to not risk distorting another one.
Speaking of armor, I also got my new Watain hoodie yesterday! It’s this one.
It’s not on Wolf Wear’s website anymore, so I might have snagged one of the last few.
It has WOLVES on it. It got some sticky stuff on it during transit from the packaging, but that will come off when I wash it, I bet (which I will have to, seeing as how I will be wagging it everywhere).
You can see some of the sticky stuff near the (stage) left pocket.
Blackletter is the bestletter.
I mentioned earlier that I felt that Wolf Wear was having some trouble getting their stuff out due to the sheer amount of people who had placed orders for the new Watain DVD, and it did take me a while to get my hoodie. However, I emailed them about a week and a half ago to see if they could give me an estimate on when it was coming and heard back from them fairly quickly and the girl who emailed me was very kind and apologetic about the delay on shipping. I didn’t mind so much- I knew they were backed up and considering the heat wave that’s hit the continental United States, it won’t be hoodie weather for a while yet- but it is awesome to finally have it in my hands. Considering that a Funeral Mist shirt is now in transit to me (it’s much too large for me to wear, but it’s going to become art anyway), my armor is about to get upgraded. I’m going to use the front of the shirt to make a completely awesome Funeral Mist back patch that is more fitting to me even than the one I have now.
In other news, the concerts are lining up for the fall! So many bands are touring that I’m interested in seeing, so here is a preview of shows you’ll be hearing about from me in the coming months.
The Abigail Williams date I am unlikely to make, seeing as it’s so close to the Great Pagan Beer Fest of 2012 (Korpiklaani/Tyr/Moonsorrow), but I put it there just in case. I’m with my friend Jamie- I’m more excited to see what the band does after Abigail Williams is put to rest, but it would be nice to see their last tour. And yes, folks, you did read that right, INQUISITION IS TOURING. The other bands they are playing with will be cool too, Melechesh especially (there’s a feature on them in the works somewhere), but I’m more excited for Inquisition than Morbid Angel and Dark Funeral combined. Also, the fact that they tour in the same month allows me to forgive Dark Funeral for cancelling the show in February that Inquisition was supposed to open for.
Also, Obituary has announced a tour (though I have not heard dates yet), which is kind of awesome since they never tour anymore. And for you kids in Europe- you are super lucky. Marduk is about to tour Europe alongside Immolation, who are my favorite death metal band (and who are also really nice guys).
I will try to get this updated again Thursday, but I can’t guarantee it won’t be a little late this week. Between making the 6 hour round trip drive to Omaha on Wednesday for Agalloch and moving, I may find myself a bit behind. Really looking forward to Agalloch, though- I would love to chat with them about the paper I wrote this past semester and their new EP, Faustian Echoes. As a Renaissance drama scholar, I have a particular interest in the Faust legend because of its connections to Christopher Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus (plus, I hear one of them is also working on a PhD in English).
More as soon as I can get it up here (I will also be updating the distros page to report on my experience with Wolf Wear and Noevdia).
**Thought I’d mention edits- I’m tweaking my post on the new Marduk album a little, and I’m also adding a note on the distros page concerning the back patches (see below). I will more than likely have another post up this week, but maybe not on Thursday.**
So, this post is late, and I know it is, and that’s because we drove into town at 6:30 AM Sunday and I spent most of the day in a cloud of sleep deprivation. I wrote part of this Monday when I was a little more awake and then traveled 10.5 hours home Tuesday. So now that that is all over, I can chronicle the greatest concert experience of my life.
First off, Friday night my friend and I had a watch party for the new Watain DVD, Opus Diaboli. It’s amazing, and you should try to get a copy if you can (it’s been hard to get a hold of. We had to resort to YouTube, although we’ve got copies coming. They are, however, imports- the box set seems to be the only version released in the U.S. right now and although I’m enough of a Watain fangirl to own one, I am also a poor student and am therefore forced to not be quite so fiscally irresponsible). In honor of the old school scene we had cheap screwdrivers because we’re adults and don’t have to wait for our orange juice to ferment, and I baked black metal/Watain cupcakes.
Watain cupcakes. My black letter is a little wonky, but it’s legible I think if you know what you’re looking at.
Black metal cupcakes- had to throw in a Lucifer sigil or two and Abbath
My only stipulation was that I got to eat my Dead cupcake.
I suppose it’s about time my face got on here somewhere.
It was only a few people, but it was fun, and the cupcakes were a smash. They were (of course) devils food, some with chocolate icing and some with cream cheese icing.
But then- then Saturday we headed up to St. Paul to see Marduk! A couple of local bands from the Twin Cities opened, and they were both really good. I believe it was Drona’s first show, so I can’t find any video of them, but they were excellent.
Good old fashioned black metal. The second band, Burning Bethlehem, was also really good (although my friend and at least one other guy heard “Burning Meth Lab”- they should invest in a banner with their name on it so no one is confused because man, that’s a big difference). I was particularly impressed by their vocalist, who has got a good scream on him. I talked to their drummer a bit and he said it was only their second show, but they played very well together. I’m looking forward to getting to see more of both these bands.
[Rawr! They have a YouTube channel. Check it out!]
I then went back to the merch stand to go ahead and get my stuff, and I’m glad I did, because the Marduk shirts in the small sizes were quickly dwindling. I picked up this one in a medium.
The 1349 shirts were still available in smaller sizes and I got a small of this one. I decided to get the one with the dates on since I didn’t get the Marduk one with dates.
The guy running the merch booth was really nice and took good care of me. He made sure I got all my stuff signed- although more on that later. I also picked up a Morbid patch for the battle jacket, and I learned that my Funeral Mist back patch is a bootleg! I’m a little mortified, and now I’m trying to figure out how to make this right. My thought right now is to track down a couple of shirts so I can perform surgery on one and make my own back patch (the other I would of course wear everywhere). I wanted Funeral Mist to get the premier spot on my jacket, but I also want Arioch to get paid for it. He’s brilliant and very dedicated to what he does, so I figure the least I can do to show my appreciation is make sure he gets his dues.
Moar Morbid.
Because I was hanging out with my new friend I missed the first part of Weapon’s set, but I got to see about the last half. They were really good- I’m going to be keeping an eye out for them in the future. I was a little distracted because I was torn between being bummed that my patch is a bootleg and being glad I didn’t wear my jacket after all (it was in the 90s and I don’t believe they had the air on. Thanks, Minnesota, but if I’d wanted hot weather I’d have stayed in the South), so I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have.
[Weapon- a band that deserves a much more attentive audience than me]
Next up was Withered, who opened for Marduk the first time I saw them in Des Moines a couple of years ago. They destroyed. Dude. Withered was great last time, but they have gotten even better live since then. My friend picked up one of their albums, too, and they are just as excellent on a recording. They play kind of sludgy black/death metal, and it is heavy stuff. If you catch this tour (and you should totally catch this tour), make sure you’re around when Withered plays. I’m going to have to watch them a little more closely from here out.
[Us Southerners do black metal very well, if I do say so myself.]
I was really excited to see 1349’s set- they’re a band I’ve always wanted to see live. Their set was fantastic. Their bassist wore these heavy robes the entire time, which is amazing because it was horribly hot. I was drenched in sweat, so I can only imagine what it would be like to be wearing robes through a whole set under stage lighting. Ravn had some crazy gauntlets on; they looked like they had railroad spikes sticking out of them. They were sharp too- after they played he climbed down into the area between the rail and the stage to high five people in the crowd and I caught my hand on one. Ouch.
[This is not from the other night. But Ravn was wearing the same Hellhammer t-shirt]
As that was happening, however, I felt a slight tap on my upper arm. I thought “no way,” and sure enough, Archaon had thrown a pick into the crowd and it had stuck on my arm! (Seriously. Really sweaty). I’ve never caught a pick before, and I’ve been doing this for a while, so it’s about time!
Archaon’s pick
Then it was time for the mighty Marduk! I had come to get my face melted and they delivered (also, it was so hot in there my makeup literally melted). They played a variety of songs from through their entire career, so there was something for everyone. The only song they played from the new album was the title track, but it was cool to hear the major chords live. They also let Devo have the spotlight for a couple of minutes which was nice- that guy is a fantastic bassist, and one of the things I’ve always appreciated about Marduk is that they utilize the bass really well instead of mixing it out completely like so many black metal bands. I managed to catch his eye at one point, too, and he threw me the horns.
[This isn’t from the other night either. But they did play Womb of Perishableness even if there was no fire, alas. Also this is a really cool video]
The sound was really good as well, which is nice. Last time at the Mews I felt like the settings were way too trebly, and this time I could hear Morgan a lot better as well as the bass. And Mortuus- ye gods, I will never tire of that guy’s voice. He is absolutely amazing, and watching him live is always a treat.
So after Marduk’s set, my friend Jamie and I decided to go camp by the bus and see if we could get my stuff signed. They took off to get food, so we were sitting outside for a bit, but it worked out for the best- Archaon from 1349 came out of the bus and we talked to him for probably 20 minutes about touring in Texas and Minnesota breweries. I had brought along my Slayer ‘zine (a guy from their crew had glanced through it earlier. It’s a fun way to meet people, and I think I should maybe consider wagging it with me everywhere) and he flipped through it and was commenting on several of the articles and pictures, which was really cool. When you’re in the Midwest U.S. it’s easy to forget how small the scene actually is, and hearing him talk about things like actually going to the “rebirth of Dissection” show was a really cool and unique experience.
Shortly after he got back on the bus the guys from Marduk came back from dinner and I got to meet them all (rather quickly- they had to run). I did get to tell Morgan that Marduk was my first black metal concert two years ago, however, which was fun for me, and I got to talk to Devo for a moment or two. They all signed my CD case/book, and Mortuus signed my Funeral Mist interview from my Slayer ‘zine (as Arioch).
Mortuus and Lars
Morgan
Devo
Arioch
They were all really nice and polite despite being exhausted, I’m sure. It was a fantastic end to an amazing show. I wish I had longer to talk to them because I have SO MANY things I’d like to ask them, but that will have to wait until next time (because it’s not like I will ever pass up an opportunity to see Marduk. They have a very special place in my heart, as I’m sure anyone who has ever looked at this blog can tell). I scored the crown jewels of my autograph collection, and I FINALLY caught something from one of the bands! It was pretty much the best experience I’ve had at a concert.
Now to just figure out my jacket…
Until next time,
Hagalaz
**EDIT**
A video appeared of Drona! Here they are- check them out! (I’m totally in this video too!)
I’ve been hard at work on the battle jacket and have a couple of more additions since my sewing of my Funeral Mist backpatch. I did get the Marduk strip, and I put it right about where I thought I would.
[I’m pretty sure this picture is before it was sewn, but that’s exactly what it looks like]
So, sewing strips is hard. They move around all over the place! Not to mention that this one in particular is a very silky patch. The thing did not want to stay still, but I finally got it sewn on. I’m pondering what to put below the back patch, and I’m thinking Deathspell Omega at the moment. Time will tell, however; I think I may be done sewing for a bit. Because…
My next endeavor was quite hellish. I mentioned a while back that I ordered a Dead patch. At first I was bummed that I didn’t get the color one, but upon reflection I like the black and white with red printing. Since my jacket will be mostly, if not all, black metal, I figure black, white, and red is a good aesthetic. When deciding where to put him I knew I wanted Dead right over my heart, and after much contemplation I decided to put him over the pocket partway, as he was simply too far over if I put him directly on the pocket, and that would not be utilizing my space wisely. Besides, it’s not like the jacket doesn’t have pockets on the sides.
It was worth it, totally, because I love Dead. But yikes. Another note to add to my list of patch sewing knowledge- if you sew over a pocket, it’s going to suck. I kid you not, at one point the needle actually pierced through my plastic thimble (that’s right, the top of the needle, backwards) and punctured my finger! It was… unpleasant. The stitching was really hard to sew through, and I actually had to do a couple of “x”s around the middle of the patch because I couldn’t get my needle through those really thick parts. The patch itself was a little difficult too. Because it is canvas, I had to be careful to keep the needle between the canvas and the embroidered edge so as not to ruin the picture. There are discrepancies where I missed a couple of times, but they are tiny and are not too noticeable.
[This patch put the “pain” in “painstaking.” Ouch]
Here are some close-ups of the new additions.
[Incidentally, that’s the same font/style as on the new Marduk album]
[You can see where the needle went through a bit there at the bottom right. You might also can see my “x”s around that big seam in the middle. I just sort of looped the stitch around the embroidery in a crossed pattern to better secure it. And it is secure- Per isn’t going anywhere]
Part of why I decided to go ahead and post these today is because I recently read Lords of Chaos, and am in the middle of a review of it. It’s taking me a while to figure out how to put what I want to say, though, so that will be up Sunday. Next week is going to be awesome- at some point, I will be traveling with friends down to Des Moines to procure a copy of the new Watain DVD, Opus Diaboli. Then, on Friday, we are going to have a black metal party and watch the DVD while munching on Satanic cupcakes.
[An example of the kind of thing I’m thinking. Of course, this was a practice run of Watain cupcakes, so I will keep practicing and make them lovely so that they are acceptable as an offering to the Void, as well as people’s tummies]
Then, Saturday, we travel to St. Paul to witness the mighty Marduk onstage! It’s been a year and a half since I’ve seen them, and it’s well-nigh time I saw them again. We will see if I get this thing updated next Sunday or if it will be postponed a couple of days- it depends on how bad my bangover is. You can expect a review of the new Marduk album, Serpent Sermon, however, a week from today.
In my constant endeavor to broaden my “black horizons,” I have been listening to bands I see crop up places but haven’t heard. This is what I’ve been listening to today, so that you can have some music to listen to since you were so kind as to stop by.
[Merrimack, from France. Apparently their name comes from ancient Celtic and means “hellpit,” and has nothing to do with the warship.]
FINALLY! I have finished sewing my Funeral Mist back patch! I hand stitched it all around the patch, looping around the embroidery. And then I went back through and did some reinforcement stitching. And it took a long time and I have a cramp in my hand. But this weekend I finally had a chance to finish it!
[Here she is! Admittedly, it looks just like the other pictures. But there are no pins this time! Only my careful, painstaking stitches!]
[Closer up. I did pretty good, I think, although there are a couple of places where you can see the stitches if you were to look closely at it in person]
As far as planning goes, I have my Gorgoroth patch I can put on, and my Arne Babb patch. The latter I will need an iron for, because it’s an iron on. Which is a little pointless, I think. I’ll be sewing it to reinforce the sides and corners anyway. Ah well.
I also ordered a patch of Dead from Mayhem. It’s a smaller one, which is nice, because the other ones I have seen are all back patches (and I already have a back patch. It’s sewn). I’m also going to get a Marduk strip to put up above that seamline right above the back patch.
Basically, then, I have now spent grandma’s graduation present. But my battle jacket is coming together! I have decided to leave the sleeves on because I’m moving further north. It will be hot this summer when I wear it to see Marduk, but letting Mortuus know that Funeral Mist has a fan in the Midwest is more important. And when whoever awesome comes in the fall/winter, it will be comfy to wear.
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