Conspiracy theories

BURZUM- Belus (2010)

There's a lot of knickers getting twisted about this album and it's posting. Words like 'Nazi', 'fascist' and 'ignorant' are being banded around a whole lot and, to be honest, I don't really feel qualified enough to comment on Varg's personal beliefs, attributes, musical message or ideology, what I do feel qualified to comment on is the music. I like Burzum. I like the early, tr00 kvlt stuff and I even like the shitty Casio keyboard, ambient midi music.

IF Varg is a Nazi, I don't care; IF the new album is a NSBM album, I don't care; IF he wants to take over the world and kill all non-whites/Europeans/Norwegian, I don't care. The reason for this is I am a free thinking individual, I will make up my own mind about things, I don't give a flying fuck if the lyrics talk about white supremacy, world dominattion, mass murder, suicide or w/e, I just listen to and apreciate (or not) the music.
I suggest you do the same....

FREE THINKERS WELCOME

Comic book heroes

I'll try to avoid all the usual rubbish about comics or graphic novels that seems to be talked about whenever anyone mentions Coheed & Cambia, and instead I'll just say that they rock. Hard.
Ignoring all the superfluous bullshit that surrounds the band and focusing purely on the music, C&C play an interesting mix of progressive and alternative rock. There's kick ass riffs a go-go here and some pretty damn fine solos to boot. Claudio Sanchez has some of the most unique vocals (and hair) in rock and, although it has the possibility, it never gets annoying or grates.
I was torn as to which album to post, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 or Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV (or Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness to give it it's full title); the former being a little less slick in production but seemingly more hard rocking and the latter with a glossy production sheen and a little more eclectic. In the end I plumped for Good Apollo primarily as it contains the MTV2 favourite, Welcome Home, which has an almighty riff and stonking solo, though the main verse riff is rather reminiscent of Zep's Kashmir.
It's not just a one track album though, Ten Speed is a blinding rock track and The Final Cut is a slow burning emotional tour de force with a spine tingling outro solo (that's probably the most hyperbolic, bullshit ladden sentence I've written on this blog, but fuck it, the song is amazing.) The whole album is full of musical twists and turns, even ending with a 'hidden track' of blue grass(!)
I don't reall care if people think this album is 'too popular' or 'populist' to be considered worth while, I think it's a good album and as much as I can see that it certainly might have a more mainstream sound and appeal, that isn't nevessarily a bad thing...

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