The Blog Listens to some Devil Music

Here is a little in class exercise that we did today in Intro to Indie Journalism. We listened to the Swedish black metal band Watain’s album “Lawless Darkness” and wrote a review on the spot. Here is mine.

Watain
Lawless Darkness
(Season of Mist)

“On June 7th, Black Metal shall be reborn.” -Watain’s Myspace page

From the first ass-blasting assault of the album’s opener, it definitely sounds like something is being born. Whether it be black metal, or the veritable spawn of Lucifer himself, is up to the listener.  For some reason, you get the feeling that some part of you should be hemorrhaging when each track comes to a close, and after a quick once-over reveals no blood, you are left curled up in a fetal position, maybe crying a little, wondering just what in all of God’s green goodness just happened. Vocalist Erik Danielsson offers up this proclamation of his band’s mission: “I want the Christians to come and try to murder us at the shows, just to fall into tears and panic when confronted with the masses of mad fanatics that have come to praise the Devil in unison!” Oh……….kay. Sounds like somebody needs a hug.  If you have no idea what the sonic universe of the damned sounds like, Darkness does a good job of introducing you to The Serpent King and his treacherous minions. In stark contrast to the Ned Flanders’ of the world, who spend a lifetime of do-goodery in exchange for an eternity of celestial bliss, the Swedish threesome appear to be campaigning to earn first place in line for a piping hot pole up their asses at the right hand of The Antichrist himself.  While Watain eagerly await for The Pestilence to arrive, the rest of us can be comfortable in knowing that while Armageddon may be out of our control, listening to anything other than Darkness isn’t.

Here’s a sample of this fine establishment’s work. Not from the album we reviewed, but it gives you an idea of what they’re all about.