Lars von Trier, women, and chainsaws

Below is an essay I wrote for an Auteur Theory class on Lars von Trier at UC Berkeley.
It discusses his the various elements that go into creating spectator identification through the brutalization of female characters. Mainly, it focuses on his latest film AntiChrist (2009) and how it is similar as well as departs from his traditional female roles in his other films.
Enjoy!

Lars von Tirer, women, and chainsaws

Lars Von Trier has a reputation to have the women in his films imbue a sense of purity, and frailty that creates a sympathetic identification with spectators. Our emotions are set up for the spectator to feel the women’s pain, and in this case grief, as brutal trials and horrific acts are performed against them. However Charlotte Gainsbourg’s character in AntiChrist (2009) complicates his traditional female relationship to spectators as we not only identify with her, but we also watch her slowly descend into a violent psychotic rage confusing our once established identification with her. Trier calls upon spectator emotions of the unique characteristics found in the horror genre by constructing extreme depictions of fear, anxiety, and gratuitous violence. Gainsbourg’s role in AntiChrist is different from the women in his other films because although we think we are being placed to empathize with her victimhood we slowly discover her villain like qualities. The fusion of the horror genre and Trier’s long established motif of melodramatic sympathetic females creates a dilemma in the our relationship to Gainsbourg thus producing extreme visceral responses in spectatorship by the end.

The opening of the film sets a melancholic and eerie tone for the entire movie. Trier begins it with a shotgun blast of emotion to spectators rather than a subtle blow. We see Gainsbourg and Defoe intimately having sex in a striking slowed down 12 frames per second before seeing their helpless infant fall to his death. Rather than gradually developing a feeling of sympathy toward for Gainsbourg, like we saw with Bess in Breaking the Waves (1996) and Selma in Dancer in the Dark (2000) Trier cuts to the chase by forcing us to immediately identify with the couple. Using the premise “there is no greater loss then the loss of a child”, we have no choice but to feel for them. Gainsbourg’s eyes have a look of an orgasmic release as the child slips from the ledge. It is as if Trier wants to confuse audiences with extreme depictions of pleasure and pain. While the baby falls we can’t help but feel terrible before being forced to cut to the couple enjoying their intimacy. As spectators we are helpless in being able to intervene just as the couple seems to be oblivious to the world around them. The juxtaposition is meant to invoke a simultaneous range of emotions in the spectator. He sets up a universal identification with her in a way that you won’t be conflicted to feel anything but utter sorrow and compassion for ‘her’.

Defoe treats her as his own patient, a reoccurring motif from the Europa trilogy, and attempts to help her cope through her pain. Rather than avoiding her pain he suggests that she face it. This is ultimately his downfall. It is incredibly unethical in the medical profession to treat someone close to you because it is difficult to review the subject objectively. For victims of trauma things that are associated with the event can trigger intense emotions and impulsive behavior as a result of shock. This trauma is a method for Trier to incorporate his horror film like aesthetic. Unless someone is knowledgeable about the ethics of therapy one wouldn’t necessarily question Defoes role of helping his wife. Instead, just as my initial reaction was, it seems Trier wanted to have people fooled into thinking he was doing her good by treating her. We are constructed to feel an affinity for him at first. It appears that he has grieved and moved on but as we later find out it is through his therapy that he channels his grief. For her the only thing that seems to be remotely helpful for her anxiety is sex. It now becomes a temporary relief which progressively seems to become more destructive. Gainsbourg comes to resemble the ‘Madonna and the whore’ complex. Women in society are stereotypically given two roles to fill; the Madonna (sexless, selfless and God fearing) or a whore (sexual selfish). To be the Madonna, there is heavy guilt for selfish and sexual impulses at the expense of being virtuous. The Whore role shows the woman feeling oppressed and stigmatized through her impulses. Women are also guilty of participating these gender dynamics and can be their worst oppressors, as I feel ‘hers’ was in AntiChrist. She punishes herself by embracing her ‘evil’ in thinking she is no longer worthy of motherhood. We also struggle with her grief as spectators as it becomes harder to identify with her through her primal aggressive behavior. Through the first half of the film we see a reminiscent mode of melodrama Trier has been accustom to creating in the Goldenheart trilogy before switching to a style more evocative of the horror genre.

As early as Breaking the Waves, he wrote and directed films that showed the frailty of the human condition through women in different film genres. Waves is set up like a melodrama and it is through Bess that we are shown her exceptionally ‘good’ qualities through her utter devotion to her husband and God. Spectators are put in a position to love and empathize with her as life perpetually gets more rigorous. We get a similar female identification in his more documentary style film The Idiots (1998) where we are also made to feel passion for Karen who seems to be the only rational thinker out of the group. By the end our perspective of her is conflicted when we find out her reasons for spassing were a form of escapism because of terrible events from her past. Selma from Dancer In the Dark, is most emblematic for a disruption of spectatorship and a sudden change through chance. Throughout the Goldenheart trilogy it becomes virtually impossible to feel nothing for these women through they’re hardships and the universal emotions he constructs for us to feel. All of these roles through the Goldenheart trilogy show a progressive decline for the women. However the women do not break out of this mode of a pathetic character nor do they unsuspectingly break from it to alter their outcome until Dogeville (2003). Although separate from the trilogy, Dogeville (2003) seems to have the only female character that is similar to Gainsbourg in Antichrist. Grace follows a similar melodramatic mode of a submissive and weak to the point of rape and slavery. However unlike Selma, Karen, and Bess, Grace ultimately gets her revenge on the people who have wronged her to such extremes that we are positioned to feel happy through her brutal vindication. According to Bainbridge’s Authenticity and Artifice all of these films remain similar on the basis of self sacrifice claiming, “each film examines martyrdom implicit in pursuing an ideal of goodness to its extreme”. (pg.136) However what separates Grace from the rest of the trilogy is by the end it is less interested in making spectators feel sad but instead give a sense of retribution for her with an uneasy guilty pleasure for viewers. Gainsbourg is at odds with this idea because it becomes more difficult to place our emotions in her as the film progresses and through her cruelty and delusional behavior.

Women’s roles in horror films often use this model of a succession of terrible acts that lead to a reprisal for them by the end. The idea of the ‘Final Girl’, coined by Carol Clover in Men Women and Chainsaws, embodies this idea saying “Every narrative and cinematic device is deployed to draw us into her perceptions-her pain and humiliation,” and later “her grim satisfaction when she annihilates her assailant.”(pg152) This is clearly reminiscent of Grace, but is not so easily applied to Gainsbourg. Although we are made to reconcile the bad things that have happened to her justifying her actions for ourselves because of the severity of her humiliation and dehumanization, she gradually becomes more psychotic and begins resemble a villain we’d expect to see in a horror film through her rage. It also complicates this idea because she ultimately dies (or sacrificed) and does not killer her ‘assailant’ Defoe. Similarly a growing distrust of her and the director begins to permeate due to rapid directions we seem to follow her in. Clover claims “the gravity of these films lies more in the reaction (the revenge) than the act of (rape).”(pg154) Perhaps Trier wanted to create a reversal, where spectators are meant to identify with ‘her’ revenge through brutally mutilating/castrating her ‘assailants’ genitals (Defoe), and becoming a martyr through her clitoral mutilations and death. Suddenly motifs from the horror genre such as intense dream states, unnerving diegetic/non-diegetic sounds, and a drab atmospheric tone take AntiChrist into uncharted territory.

In Alison Pierses’s article The Impossibility of Vision, she discusses Carl Dreyer’s technique of creating unease claiming, “The film as a whole has a decidedly uncanny and surreal air, where reality and the supernatural collide in a dream-like state.”(pg.167) Trier constructs a similar atmosphere of a struggle between rational and unexplainable. For example in Dreyer’s Vampyr (1932) we do not get any explanation for the noises outside that our protagonist hears. For AntiChrist, nature starts to embody this irrational character of its own. Through strange cut aways and suggestive dialogue spectators are led to believe that nature is somehow going jump out and affect the outcome. Creating tension through the irrational and unexplainable is just a couple of the many ways in which horror films tend to generate suspense. There is also use of unexplainable off screen sound that adds to this idea of ‘the fantastic’ and also adds another layer of instilling fear of nature. Just as Gainsbourg feels vulnerable in the woods, we tend to feel vulnerable as viewers due to the irrational and mysterious sounds. At one point she recalls a time before her child’s death where she was deep in study at Eden to be unexpectedly awakened to hear crying. As she looks about through the forest she eventually finds her child in the tool shed playing while a baby continues to moan. This disturbing portrayal of an eerie use of sound creates a sense of distraught and distrust of what we see on screen to what we hear because we cannot match its source.

Although violence in Trier’s films isn’t uncommon, perhaps the most important way he borrows from the horror genre is through combining mutilation, perversity, and brutality. Suddenly the film uses its built up anxieties to change what we thought was originally the outside force of evil in the woods and creates the villain as Gainsbourg. We see her in an erratic and impulsive way knock Defoe onto the ground before fondling him. All our previous emotions invested in her are confronted with the polar opposite emotion of discomfort and distrust through her actions. Her sickness has reached its peak when she buries him alive only to then later show her with a look of regret by her uncontrollable rage. She feels so victimized by the cruel hands of fate and her husband that she sacrifices her thought to be cause of impulses by cutting off her clitoris. Her ridicule and humiliation from all the forces against her enables an even more visceral disturbing response then his other films through repulsive representations of castration.

However by showing the viewer that she recognizes her sickness it leaves a window for one to still feel sympathy for her because this force seems truly uncontrollable. Gainsbourg becomes a martyr for all the terrible events life has invariably thrown at her. Although Defoe appears to be the person who triumphs in the end by putting her out of her misery, it is largely because of him that her grief turned into madness. Regardless of her actions we are still positioned to sympathize with her, which remains consistent through all of Trier’s women. Even after she has been killed her vindication is seen through the unease of Defoe starting his new journey of grief, and the guilt of unwillingly bringing himself to kill. The film as a whole answers the question Trier posed in The Five Obstructions saying, “I have to punish you somehow. How do therapists punish?”. He shows us vivid depictions of violence redolent of the horror film and illustrates her descent from illness to villain while still maintaining previous sentiments spectators had invested prior to her rage. She remains a victim from beginning to end. Just as Gainsbourg went through a wide range of emotions, Trier’s AntiChrist is carefully crafted to have the audience feel them with ‘her’ in an extreme visceral way.

Work Cited Page:

Bainbridge, Caroline. The Cinema of Lars von Trier: Authenticity and Artifice. New York: Wallflower Press 2007.

Clover, Carol. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

Pierse, Alison. The Impossibility of Vision: Vampirism, Formlessness and horror in Vampyr. University of Hull: Intellect Ltd, 2008.

Von Trier, Antichrist. Dvd /Criterion Collection interviews. Zentropa Entertainment, 2009.

-Emperor Vampirion

An essay about German Weimar Cinema

Below is an essay I wrote for the History of Silent Film class for UC Berkeley.
It's an essay about anxieties of the German people during the brief Weimar silent film era pre World War 2. Enjoy

Brave New Weimar

Germany’s defeat in World War 1 led the country to go through a series of radical social, political, and economic changes. Much of the male population blamed defeat on non-supporters of the war such as socialists, Jews, women, and homosexuals within the country. A new Weimar government was instituted after the Wilhelm Empire fell which gave more rights to citizens, particularly for women. This coupled with the destabilization of long standing social structures and hierarchies instilled fear in many men and posed threats to masculinity. The short-lived silent film era in Weimar Germany encapsulates these anxieties through underlying ideas and themes. F.W. Murnau depicted vivid portrayals of these worries through different characters and aesthetic techniques. Nosferatu: Symphony of Horror(1922) and The Last Laugh(1924) both addressed a displacement of gender roles in society as threats for modernity in different ways.

Nosferatu has an emphasis on threats to masculinity seen through the relationship of Hutter and his wife Ellen. The film opens with Hutter looking into a mirror grooming himself. This identifies his concern about appearance and symbolically suggests a larger concern for the film as it relates to his status to women and within the community. It then cuts back to a medium shot depicting him as dwarflike and through his flamboyance portrays his role as a man yearning for something he lacks. The mirror also sets a stage for how little Hutter actually sees in the film in relation to his wife. It then cuts to a medium shot of Ellen playing with a kitten in a windowsill. Instead of a dove seen in D.W. Griffith’s Birth of A Nation (1915) to connote an idea of feminine childlike innocence, Murnau uses a kitten as a form of ‘expressive plastic material’ to shape ideas in the spectators mind. The mise’ en scene with pouring light shining down on her face is set up to depict her as angelic embodying all things feminine through her appearance and actions. However the peculiar portrayal of Hutter’s non-traditional male figure compared to Ellen’s stereotypical female qualities sets up a contrast and dilemma immediately between male and female relationships as it relates to Weimar. We then see Hutter showing his dedication to Ellen by giving her flowers and a kiss on the cheek. She accepts but then has an odd look of dissatisfaction. Her portrayal shows a desire in a new kind of masculine figure that could perhaps be linked as a result anxieties in Weimar to the newly appointed status toward women. Richard M. McCormick explains this transformation in Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Modernity claiming, “it [Weimar constitution] also offered German women the promise of complete legal equality for the first time in history”(pg.16) Hutter’s over attentive affection toward her could then be seen as a reaction to compensate for his discontent with equality to firmly re-establish his dominance. He also can be seen as the male searching for his identity and longing for maturity despite leaving his community and wife behind. His excited reaction to leaving for the Carpathians we can approach differently as not simply parting with Ellen but rather a man leaving his once established power to find himself while at the same time unknowingly empowering women with his lack of presence. Through their relationship we can see Hutter’s fear of the once submissive female reversing roles in society to the point where he himself becomes feminized to signify this change. In Sabina Hake’s Who Gets the Last Laugh, she discusses the idea of the feminized man as liberating for women claiming it, “ offered a point of identification for a female audience searching for figures on which to project their own desire for freedom from patriarchal domination”(pg124).

Count Orlock is not just the antagonist of the film but is used as a way to a resemble a conspiracy-like fear of the foreigner and through Ellen’s desire in him to simultaneously represent women’s impulsive sexual desire to aid and welcome the enemy. This shows men’s fear of the dangers of giving women power. She becomes infatuated with Orlock becoming an extreme symbol for women’s lack of values. Richard W. McCormick’s Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Modernity claims, “the city can only be saved by a ‘pure woman’ who will keep Nosferatu at her side until the light of dawn destroys him,”(pg.27). Although it would appear this ‘pure woman’ idea liberates the town from evil through her sacrifice, it also suggests punishment because of her adulteress desire in Orlock. We can then see her as representative of all women as villainous and like most antagonists must be punished, even if it means death. Although clearly being in a trance by Orlock’s spell, her lust exemplifies a fear of women’s inclination to leave their men as a result of this empowering new set of laws set in place by Weimar.

Ellen’s character shows that Orlock represents what Hutter lacks. The vampire’s gargantuan proportions, monstrous features, and dominant demeanor not only separate him vastly from Hutter’s submissive and oblivious nature but also distinguish him as radically ‘different’. His strongly stereotypical anti-semetic appearances and uneasiness shows him as someone who can only viewed as evil. Punishment plays a role in Nosferatu to suggest a struggle of reconciling anxieties about the foreigner and gender roles. For Example, toward the end of the film we see Orlock telepathically control Ellen’s mind forcing her to stare at him through a window. Before she goes to the window she looks at a picture of Hutter. The reaction on her face shows a look of guilt. Despite this she pursues him out of desire. By making it clear to spectators of her acknowledgement of disregard to Hutter it implies women’s uncontrollable urge for devious sexual behavior. Her sexuality can then be deemed as detrimental to the town as well as ultimately destructive to Germany. It then cuts to a long shot of Orlock in a far away window with a death like stare as if dominating and raping as a form of punishment on Ellen. For Murnau sexuality establishes women’s true self as evil. Orlock also represents desire that cannot be concealed through Ellen’s impulses even with his vastly ‘different’ foreignness. Her emotions and curiosity are characteristic of patriarchal norms when depicting female sexuality and are stereotypically played out to make her pay for her actions. As Robin Wood suggests in Burying the Undead, Ellen becomes ”the antagonist and the destroyer”(pg.177). Orlock’s cravings soon change into a search for identity through his lust for Ellen. His only option to relieve himself from torment is to colonize the system. Murnau suggests that the foreigner is more easily able to overthrow German modernity due to women’s unfit ability to handle becoming a stronger woman.

We can also see Murnau depicting threats to masculinity in a different way by emphasizing concern on social mobility in the Last Laugh. Unlike Nosferatu, which used a woman as a device to show insecurities about masculinity, Murnau uses the protagonists uniform to signify these fears. The original German title of the film Der Letze Mann translates to the “the last man”. This clearly shows Murnau wanted to address ideas concerning men’s role in Weimar and through the porter’s alienation he depicts this as symbolic as the last good man in the Wilhelmine Empire in a rapidly changing society. Unlike Hutter, Janning’s has a large body, burly facial hair, and a military like uniform signifying a strong hard working German man. His uniform indicates his status within society, his identity, and his obsession.

Unlike D.W. Griffith who relied heavily on using inter titles to explain the unfolding story, The Last Laugh uses almost entirely images to tell its tale. This allows one to imbue a more personal relationship to the character letting Emil Janning’s expressive acting tell the story. Jannings portrays a doorman, who is prideful of his position and his work. One day the manager passes by, misunderstands what he sees, and decides that the doorman is too old. Later a new doorman appears, and the porter is then reduced to working in the bathroom. The new doorman, who looks much more like Hutter in physique, could be seen as a castrator of the older generation. He is emblematic of the complete disrespect to the old ways of Germany by not only taking his job but also stripping the him of wealth, class, and dignity.

His major loss of identity is revealed when the porter has to give up his beloved jacket. Janning’s unwillingly struggles to let the younger man have it. A medium framed shot encapsulates Janning’s unwillingness to succumb to his demotion as we see him hunched over with glassy eyes as if on the verge of crying. It resembles turning himself over to the enemy, and is through purely imagery depicts uncertainty for his future. Sabina Hake explains these anxieties in Who Gets the Last Laugh claiming, “the porter personifies typical war and postwar experiences from the trauma of political and military defeat,”(pg124). The Treaty of Versailles was also largely disliked at this time because many Germans felt as if they were forced to sign it, verifying blame be given solely to Germany, thus handing itself in and admitting guilt. This scene becomes representative of this idea through his dehumanization after he strenuously resists losing his coat. Janning’s is able to illustrate the psychology of the porter and imbue emotion onto spectators, in a way that is reminiscent of what one might expect in theater through his overly dramatized actions. The event is a state of defeat and abandonment like he’s been stripped of everything rendering him virtually impotent shown in his newly decrepit physique. Janning’s role represents a man who won’t submit to the dominating new class of society. Although he refuses these new ways, he is forced to submit to the inevitable new ways of modernity and Weimar.

He longs for the respect of his neighborhood that showed him gratitude as if being a general in his prestigious uniform. The only way for him to cope with his loss of dignity and pride is by stealing the jacket back in order to keep appearance in his surroundings. Spectators are positioned to think that his community superficially judges him by his occupation alone and becomes symbolized as a new society who ridicules his lack of identity. After the he steals his jacket back he leaves the hotel before reaching a climactic crossroads. He looks behind himself at his once towering sparkly hotel that came to be everything he stood for, before hesitatingly looking forward at an unpredictable future. We are shown a dichotomy risen in Weimar between the old and new and the harsh reality of a man giving into it. Looking on hoping for a brighter future, the winds violently hold him back, as if now static, in a world where he once flourished.

Where Nosferatu uses Ellen’s desires as a catalyst to reflect Hutter’s masculine insecurities, The Last Laugh uses the porters uniform to symbolize a different kind of anxiety about the toll modernity has taken on social mobility. Although both address different modes of exposing Germany’s fears of Weimar, The Last Laugh is much more abrupt in its presentation because of its seamlessness through the use of imagery, camera techniques, and expressive acting. Through Janning’s extremely vivid portrayals and little to no inter titles, it becomes more simplified to understand what Murnau’s symbolic intentions were. For example, after the porter is stripped of his uniform he continues throughout with a hunched, feeble, and frail visual to suggest a crippling of his presence in the world now that his occupation has been replaced. It personifies the idea of an utter lack of manhood and impotence as a result of change. The impotent male figure seen in Nosferatu isn’t as exemplified with Hutter in comparison. His flamboyance and physique resemble a more feminized symbol then that of castration. Murnau’s conflict of old and new is made clear through the vast contrast between the porters’ sympathetic identification constructed for him while the new porters lack of respect depicts an obvious dichotomy of the films larger dilemma between old and new generations. Nosferatu seems to blur lines between what is being conveyed about gender roles in society. Similarly it becomes conflicting when both Hutter and Ellen do not exemplify the most ‘good’ qualities for spectators to identify with. While Hutter’s unmindful absence from Ellen complicates him as the protagonist, it is also through Ellen’s sexual impulses that make her deviate from that role as well. The conflicting protagonist’s roles complicate our identification with both of them allowing little to no trust to be taken with either by the end. Unlike Nosferatu, which largely bases its film around a female character, there are almost no women in the film to suggest any implications of anxieties toward female sexuality and liberation. The film is told through purely images that allow the viewer to assume a degree of the story and use imagination. Janning’s expressions and tormented gestures show us the pain that he feels and inflicts them on the audience invoking anxieties of a much larger undercurrent at play. Nosferatu tells a story through a barrage of inter titles, which guide us and allow little room for one to imagine without getting caught up in the narrative. We also get innovative point of view shots that construct a more sympathetic identification through the protagonist’s humiliation. This never happens in Nosferatu because we are forced to be tied up with the static camera. Murnau and his assistant cinematographer Robert Baberske use the camera in innovative new ways in The Last Laugh, which enable spectators to embody the character through the subjective ‘unchained camera’ thus giving birth for a much less static narrative and an ability to tell more vivid stories through imagery. For example, a shaky camera and its magical movement suggest a point of view and transcend spectators to take the role amidst the porters dream where he performs unbelievable acts. This creates an even more sensational visceral aesthetic because it transcends spectators with the porter and makes one deeply invested in his character feeling as if we are in his world.

Although both films suggest anxieties about modernity, it is ultimately The Last Laugh that is able to coherently address an issue of a threat to masculinity through the simplistic form of the porter’s jacket and symbolically suggest a larger theme of Germany’s social problems in new Weimar. It is through the ‘Cinema of Attractions’ of watching the frailty of the human condition that we identify through the porter’s hopelessness and downfall that make Murnau able to easily address larger issues during this transitional period in Germany. We can then apply the anxieties Murnau depicts in his films to what Sigfried Kracauer claimed in From Caligari to Hitler that, “films are never the product of the individual”(pg.5)

Work Cited Page:

Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari To Hitler. Princeton and Oxford. Princeton University Press. 1966

Wood, Robin. Burying the Undead: The Use and Obsolescence of Count Dracula. Mosaic. 1983

Hake, Sabine. Weimar Cinema: Who Gets the Last Laugh?. Columbia University Press. 2008

McCormick, Richard. Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Modernity. Palgrave Macmillan. 2002

Kaes, Anton. Weimar Cinema: The Predicament of Modernity. Oxford/ New York, 2004.

-Emperor Vampirion

team ched

die in gunFire

-Emperor

dude...

they will be mine, oh yes.
-Emperor

This shit is really really intense....

VBS never ceases to amaze me with everything they create.

If someone asked me what site have you frequented the most over the last 5 years I'd probably say
WWW.VBS.TV

No joke. I spend at least an hour or so everyday on it.

They are consistently bringing something new to the realm of documentary and are never afraid to put something out controversial or taboo. Right the fuck on!

I need to see what I can do about maybe interning for em'.



-The Vampyr

George Meliez-A Trip to the Moon (1902)


Smashing Pumpkins-Tonight, Tonight (1995)


Almost a hundred years later and we still love the classics.
-The Emperor

T and E!!! Merry Crimbus!

On Jimmy Kimmel! They look a little different...
Part 1

Part 2

to violently vomit..

this is pretty metal

-The Emperor

Jesus christ

uhm......

and the remix...

-The Emperor

I feel the breath of winter...

Winter ist Hier
Getting really excited for my Scandinavia trip in a few months. Here are some fall tunes to invoke the mighty raven dark.
Bathory-Vinterblot

Immortal-Antarctica

Nokturnal Mortum-Return of the Vampire Lord

Misteltein-Darkness Skars my Soul

Carpathian Forest-The Frostbitten Woodlands of Norway

Falkenbach-Winternight

Amon Amarth-The Arrival of a Fimbul Winter

Emperor-Beyond the Vast Great Forest


Cheers
-The Emperor

Give Blood, Save Lives

Notre Dame- Swedish Horror Metaler's

Halloween is approaching and I've been gearin myself up listening to as much cheesy goth/metal as I can.

Among listening to the obvious Type O Negative, Danzig, Samhain, Cradle of Filth, Black Sabbath (go to Halloween bands I suppose) I resurrected a band I've always loved and have felt quite often that they don't get the appreciation they deserve.

Arguably better than some of the bands I've mentioned, these guys really bring the cheesy pulpyness of early silent/sound horror films to life. I feel like watching an Ed Wood film (Plan 9 From Outer Space!!!!) every time I listen to them. Snowy Shaw multi-musician extrodinaire writes all the songs with a real silly fun kind of attitude yet at the same time the music remains inherantly evil. Taking they're que's from bands I've mentioned as well as the obvious black metal influence surrounding them in Sweden, these guys take you for a ride through hell in a hearse! Shaw formally of Mercyful Fate, King Diamond, Dream Evil, Illwill, and currently doom metaler's Therion (that's a hell of a resume!) hasn't quite made it clear if the band is going to continue. But I sure as hell hope so. What I love about them is they're silly songs and decor are all in good fun, giving off the impression they don't take themselves to seriously....

Anyway if you've heard em' then good job, your ahead of the game. If you haven't....do yourself a favor and get all albums by Notre Dame! If your at all a fan of fun ass kickin' goth metal or even horror films you will not be let down. But if you want just one to feel em' out a bit I'd say go with Le Theatre Du Vampire. That one really kicks out the jams from start to finish. Here's a lil taste to wet your whistle.


Le Theatre Du Vampire

Boufoon Bloody Boufoon

Munsters!

Scarecrows (can't find this on any albums!)

Dracula Sucks!

My Ride Into Afterlyfe

Abbatoir du Noir


Oh yeah forgot to mention, that pretty hot chick in the first picture is also in the band. She goes by the name Vampirella, pretty clever huh?

Alright. Time to go watch Pumpkinhead and pass out.
-Emperor Vampirion

Boring Blogging

Not the most productive blog post, but here's some musical diarrhea yer boy the Emperor has been into lately.
Incantation-Anoint the Chosen

Cult of Luna-The Watchtower

Bolt Thrower-Cenotaph

Despondency-Rise of the Nemesis

Crystal Castles-Celestica

Mum-Ballad of a Broken Birdie

Rotting Christ-AEALO

Arcade Fire-Suburban War

Agalloch-Falling Snow

Amon Amarth-Last With the Pagan Blood

Immortal-The Sun No Longer Rises

“There is a beast in man that needs to be excersized, not exorcised.”-Lavey
-Emperor Vampirion

Stormblast(1996) VS. Stormblast(2005): Review

True Kings of Norway?

I figured I'd try and do a somewhat different kind of review this time around. What we have here is simple, what is better....Dimmu Borgir's second release on Cacophonus records way back in 1996, Stormblast. Or the re-recorded version of Stormblast that came out in 2005 on the conglomo-metal label Nuclear Blast Records. I realize that both of these releases aren't exactly current, but I don't care. Whether you think Borgir have became a Cradle clone, or you think they simply went the weird symphonic goth route that many Black Metal bands a few years ago were heading for an extra buck is up to you. But the fact of the matter is the first Borgir's early albums are pretty badass and in particular Stormblast . In my opinion it is this black metal album that should be hanging with Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse and Dark Throne's Transylvanian Hunger on the walls of Valhalla. It's importance for the Norweigan Black Metal scene cannot be denied. I don't feel this way simply because I think its a badass album, but more so because I feel (at least to my knowledge) there weren't a whole lot of bands showcasing these kinds of extreme cases of melody the way Borgir were doing.

It was 2:00pm on a Friday afternoon, sophmore year of highschool. I knew where I was headed. School was out and I was going to Lou's Records in Solana Beach, San Diego. What I was going to get, I didn't know....take that back...I knew it was going to be Black Metal. End result, I walked out with Borgir's second release. The album I'm reviewing ( the original release). As my friends and I blasted it rollin down the highway I knew it was going to become one of my favorite albums. I guess I'm going to try and put my sentimental feelings towards the original release aside and compare the two objectively as I can, but it will be tough.
Dimmu Borgir-Stormblast (1996)
The original Stormblast is much more rigid and flat sounding than the new one (that is to be expected). Regardless though there is somthing really soothing about it. The tempo is for the most part really mellow throughout the entire album. It rarely speeds up. Tjlodalv, the original drummer of Borgir, doesn't get enough credit for his playing and creating such a specific sound and arguably a sub genre of Black Metal. Maybe its because he joined that shitty band Suspiria years later, who knows. As a friend of mine put it when listening to the album "the kick pedals sound like clown feet". What thats suppose to mean, I really don't know. But I do know that the raw sound of mic-ing the kick pedals works much better than an in your face triggering we so commonly hear now-a-days. *Ahem* We find this over produced crap on some of the newer Borgir releases. I think probably my favorite thing about the original Stormblast is it's pure simplicity. As a result of the low-fi drums we get a chance to hear the beautiful keyboards that accompany the guitars. No technical groundbreaking musicianship here. Instead we hear a more of what we might expect from the spawning of the early second wave Black Metal bands in Norway at the time. Rawness and Evil. Except this time, with keyboards all over the place! I personally love it. Somehow they made it work. Of course it's because of releases like this (more so Enthrone Darkness Triumphant and the signing to Nuclear Blast) that shat out oceans of crappy keyboard metal. Little did many know they'd start to fall into the same crap sub genre/category they helped create. One has to wonder, was it the curse of being on Cacophonus Records? I know Cradle of Filth has been in legal battles with them for over 15 years now regarding the rights to they're first two albums.

I suppose Borgir thought they could just avoid all the lawsuit drama Filth was experiencing and said 'fuck it lets just re-record it'. According to interviews with Shagrath and Silenoz at the time of the re-recording, the band was constantly insisting that the revamped version was being done for themselves and them only. Basically if the fans liked it...cool...if they didn't well then...fuck you. That kind of sucks for us fans. What if we didn't want to hear it re recorded! What if we all thought it was perfect! ~sigh~ I'm getting worked up. They created it. So they can do what they want with it. My initial response to them re-recording it was pretty grim. Especially knowing the consistency of garbage they had been putting out since Spiritual Black Dimensions. At the time I felt the recruiting of fellow symphonic Black Metal Nick Barker(Cradle of Filth) drummer had worn me thin. He brought way to much technicality to the band and detracted at what Borgir was clearly good at, melody. Songs like Blessing's on the Throne of Tyranny on 02's Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia made me confused, thinking I was listening to a shitty ass Morbid Angel/ Cradle of Filth/Marilyn Manson hybrid or something....which sucked.

Dimmu Borgir-Stormblast (2005)
Thankfully they kicked out the gigantic speed demon Nick and replaced him with an anti-semetic Spanish looking Norweigan drummer named Hellhammer. Yes, Hellhammer...from Mayhem. What the hell was going on here? In an interview only a few years prior I recall Hellhammer saying "melody doesn't belong in Black Metal". Yet....he's joining....yeah I was really confused.
I bought the album, I listened to it, and I couldn't believe it. They did a great job replicating the original...almost everything sounded similar. Granted the drumming was sped up quite a bit, but tempo's and riffing was hardly changed. The keyboards were sacrificed here and there to appease more of a double bass or blasting moment. But for the most part, it worked. Songs like Alt Lys Er Svunett Hen really only changed through apparent modern day digital production rather than analogue. Other than that though the arrangements were hardly touched! I couldn't of been happier. Here's an example, you decide....
The Old version.

The new version.

As a result I feel the album SHOULD NOT be lumped in with the latter trash heap Borgir is still excreting out almost yearly now. Although the album doesn't match the original in terms of its straight up authenticity and product of the times, it does a great job reinterpreting what they were supposedly "really going for" on the original release.
All in all, I'd like to just say to Dimmu Borgir, keep making the music for yourselves. Maybe then you'll impress all your fans with an even more of a gargantuan mound of fecal matter than your last one, the Invaluable Darkness. But hey, the kids at hot topic will love it at least.
In the words of Fenriz (Dark Throne) on modern black metal, "everyone likes to dress up".
-Emperor Vampirion

Life sucks...

I quit. Take me to Juggalo Island.....



Armageddon is on the horizon.

-Emperor Vampirion

Sold your souls...to this Brave New World

It's a modern day Maiden kind of afternoon.

Ghost of the Navigator

No More Lies

Brighter Than A Thousand Suns

Brave New World

Dance of Death

-Emperor Vampirion

Unleash the Carnivore

San Francisco, I'll be there. Uber Dwyer Core, Devourment slammin down with tha bro's.

-Emperor Vampirion

Let the killing begin....

This looks great! Hope this season 5 is going to be better than last years boring ass season. I'm pumped.
-Emperor Vampirion

the 8th wonder of world

so badass, I want em'.
-Emperor Vampirion

Mother North, Mjöllnir bound

The best way to invoke Thor on your Sonntag afternoon...

1. Wear your Thor's hammer, ya dingus
2. Drink Vikings blood, a rare mead found at select liquor stores
3. Listen to Nokturnal Mortum's-The Voice of Steel


And there you have it folks. Just 3 easy steps to get the coolest god of Norse mythology to cruise down from Valhalla and take time out of his busy schedule (raping and pillaging) to chill with you and drink mead.
-Emperor Vampirion

Grind Your Fucking Head In...

Some of my favorite grind tunes


Napalm Death-Twist the Knife (slowly)

Nasum-Wrath

Pig Destroyer-Gravedancer

Circle of Dead Children-A Family Tree to Hang From

Carcasss-Corpral Jigsaw Quandry

Hemdale-Overflow

Exhumed-Decrepit Crescendo

Impaled-Operating Theatre

Mortician-Final Bloodbath

Rotten Sound-Burden

Misery Index-The Great Depression


in grind we rust...
-Emperor Vampirion

Ed Hunter Returns

The new Maiden came out the other day and I am in awe that these dudes can make such consistently good albums time and time again. Actually I take that back, I'm not in awe, nor am I surprised.....it was expected. You can't really expect anything less (in my opinion) from the best band to ever exist.

I've had this discussion with fellow Maiden friends and they usually say something along the lines of "Maiden has albums that are better than others, but none of them suck". I agree completely. For example, for many Number of the Beast is the quintessential Maiden classic. Number of the Beast, 22 Accacia Avenue, Run to the Hills (sigh), and of course the ever so epic Hallowed Be Thy Name. Sure, No Prayer for the Dying doesn't have that special quality that Beast had but it isn't to say that the album sucked by any measure. Holy Smoke is a fun tune, and Mother Russia is a hard hitting epic in vein of many of the tales Maiden likes to discuss in they're lyrics. In other words, Maiden is the best. They don't put out garbage. Nor do they even settle for Mediocre. I didn't care for the last album as much as others, but does it suck? Hell no. Different World is such a jam, as are some other tracks of the album.
Onto the new album
Iron Maiden-The Final Frontier
Grade: 9.5/10
I have to say this is by far the most progressive album they've put out. Perhaps the closest thing that compares would be Dance of Death. Regardless, it kicks ass. The beginning is quite unique for Maiden, it has an intro! It has an eerie sort of shredding by Murray and Smith alongside McBrain's almost Neil Pert-esque prog rock drumming. There's even some quite prominent double bass work. You go Nicko. It basically puts you in the mood for time travel. Why hadn't they explored this idea sooner? Arguably they did it with Somewhere In Time, but that was more just a few songs here and there that reference various sci-fi novels.
I personally liked this album much more than A Matter of Life or Death. I feel like this album has much more substance and is in some ways a little more in the theatrical vein Maiden fans are so familiar with.
Like Dance of Death, I think this album might take a few listens for people to get really into it due to its non typical less straightforward galloping and aggression found on earlier albums.
My favorite track is probably the single, El Dorado.

For some reason I am always a little thrown off as to what singles Maiden chooses to release, but not this one. For example, Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter lacks so much compared to the rest of No Prayer. Wicker Man, off of Brave New World is in my opinion the weakest song among such a great comeback album. Don't even get me started with Run to the Hills... my LEAST favorite Maiden song, yet strangely they're biggest hit.
Other outstanding tracks on the album area Mother of Mercy, the Talisman, and lastly the sheer intensity of When the Wild Wind Blows just might make you shed a tear. Nicko McBrain commented saying that he thought When the Wild Wind Blows is just as good if not better then Hallowed Be Thy Name. Wow dude, that's bold. But hey, he isn't far off. Although I wouldn't go quite that far it is an absolutely amazing way to end an album. But then again, Maiden always saves the best for last. The album title does suggest that this MIGHT just MIGHT be the end for the worlds best band. I'm crossing my fingers that isn't the case. I still haven't seen Afraid to Shoot Strangers live and until that day I will going through life feeling unfulfilled.

THE FINAL FRONTIER, ALL KILLER NO FILLER.

Lets switch gears for a moment and talk about what I think most Maiden fans never want to talk about, the Blaze Bayley years. For those of you who don't know, Blaze Bayley replaced Bruce Dickinson after the highly acclaimed Fear of the Dark album (my all time favorite!) came out. Shit lets face it, those are some hard damned shoes to fill. How can one even come remotely close?
Well in my opinion a band has two options. One is trying to replace the singer with another that replicates the exact sound that the original was going for. Similar to what Priest did with Ripper Owens replacing Halford...which sucked (although Ripper went on to do some amazing things). OR the band could replace the singer with an entirely different style all together and go for something different. An example of this would be like Dio's (RIP DUDE!!!) awesome contribution to a pretty stagnant Black Sabbath after Ozzy left. Dio completely reinvented Sabbath and arguably made some of the best material the band had put out since the first few albums.
Maiden on the other hand did something very strange. They picked a dude, Blaze Bayley, with almost no vocal range and to put it bluntly...almost no vocal talent. He just sounds, brutish and winded. He also looked like a half assed balding Danzig. Cool chops dude?
However, in my opinion it is in these years that Maiden wrote some of the most heartfelt dark and gut wrenching songs. Apparently X Factor was written while Harris was going through a pretty excruciating divorce and almost lost custody of his kids during this time. Virtual XI talks about struggles with drug addiction, something that has NEVER surfaced in lyrics of Maiden until that point. Not only that, but the musicianship was top notch(big surprise?). It was as if, all the anger of losing Dickinson and family/band turmoils was taken out on the music forcing a unique and special Maiden sound that we really haven't heard since Bayley's departure.
Songs like Sign of the Cross deal openly with losing religion and faith in humanity.

Or even The Clansman, which is more in traditional vein for the band. It is in my opinion one of the best songs ever written. I will NEVER forget seeing this song played live and it hands down stood out above any other song they played. A real headbanger.

Blaze is obviously no Bruce. In fact the two names really shouldn't even be used in the same sentence together. It's obvious who's better. Strangely enough though, Bayley grew on me. I learned to accept those albums for what they were. Dark, troubled, slower, but still Maiden. And although they're different, and there is no Bruce, the passion and excitement of old Maiden is still there. I'd even go as far as to say I prefer Bayley singing SOME of those songs like Clansman over Bruce. Not sure why, pretty blasphemous to say...but whatever. I guess all I'm trying to say is Bayley isn't as bad as people might make him out to be. Sure its odd why Maiden didn't pick someone like a Halford or a Dio, but fuck it...whats done is done. And now Bruce is back. And better than ever.

Whats better then some of the most ass kicking Maiden jams from X Factor and Virtual XI Bayley days? Well...
Bruce singing them of course!


Up the Fucking IRONS!
-Emperor Vampirion

jESUS cHRIST

Its sweeping the nation

But I still won't drink it.
-Emperor Vampirion

theres nothing more metal than woodpeckers

Check out this nifty tour blog/diary video Misery Index put together for their Traitors 09' tour.






Can't wait to see them in SF on tour w/ Despised Icon (last tour!)

On a completely different note, my room mates are playing a Battlestar Galactica board game again, right outside my room. Kill me now.
-Emperor Vampirion