The Church Of Real Kvlt Metal

Darkthrone epitomizes what is tr00 and kvlt in Norweigian Black Metal. They refuse to play live. They mostly shun away from the Metal press. They record very lo fi albums. They record songs in their native Norweigian language. They've recorded a Sousxie and The Banshees cover. Their promo photos are mostly set in Norway's vast forests. They even refused a nomination from Norway's version of the Grammy awards. Did I mention they have a cult following around the world? All this while they stay tr00 to themselves and their sound.

This was an interview done by a German Metal zine in Fenriz's apartment a year ago. Surely enough, Fenriz continues to boggle minds everywhere, and makes you question what is really kvlt and gr1mm in Black Metal. Enjoy.

Week In Review: July 22-29

Nothing really much happened these past few days. It was mostly spent packing, cleaning, and throwing out shit from my apartment. I'm moving this Saturday to Pilsen, and as much as I am looking forward to moving to a new 'hood, I've been reflecting the past 3+ years I've spent in this Humboldt Park apartment. It pretty much went from a nice home to a hellhole in a matter of months. This lease was a nightmare, having a total of 9 whopping roommates in 1 year. Fucking shit. I'm glad this shit is almost over, and I am looking forward to better days in my new 1 bedroom apartment.

As far as Metal goes, didn't really go to any shows this past week, I pretty much laid low, but I did go to this really cool DIY house show at the Shitspace. Hewhocorrupts headlined, Chica X, a 7 year old rapper from East Moline was direct support (check her out, she's AWESOME), Chicago Thrash Ensemble played their last ever show and some other bands played before them. I was expecting a big turnout since it's yet another one of those crazy Hewhocorrupts show, but there was barely 50 people crammed in the Shitspace. I brought and downed a 12 pack of PBR and took a few shots of whiskey, which definitely helped me flirt with the lovely ladies hanging out at the show. Normally, I'm the shyest dude when it comes to meeting girls, but give me a few beers, I'd be talking to them like I was Kat Williams.

One Hell Of A Week: A Review

Hi folks, it's a Tuesday, a really boring one at least, and what better way to do something productive than to post yet another blog? Anyways, last week was a total doozy. Monday was At The Gates, and it ws definitely one of the best shows of the year. Most of my friends showed up, and it was great to be in the same venue and actually having a great time being music fans without all the jaded internet bullshit. Toxic Holocaust started off with their no holds barred toxic thrash, Municipal Waste got the party raging, Darkest Hour were consistent as always, and when At The Gates came out, the place went apeshit. From start to finish, THEY WERE ON FUCKING FIRE. Never a dull moment on their set. Possibly the best reunion tour of the decade, besides Celtic Frost and Emperor. After the show, there was an after party at Kuma's Corner. Anders and Tomas even blogged about that party. Never to turn down a personal invitation from Uncle Alex, I went and had a blast with the bands at the party, hell, even Toxic Holocaust crashed over at my place. They even left me a really cool note when they got back on the road.

Tuesday, hung over and tired, I went to see Weekend Nachos, Harm's Way and The Catburglars at Subterrenean. If I could describe the show, it would definitely have more stage dives than the special olympics swimming event. It was THAT AWESOME. Wednesday was my birthday, and I am a year closer to getting AARP benefits, physically I could feel it, but mentally, I don't really feel like I got any older. Deep inside, I still feel like that 13 year old kid who first discovered Metallica and Iron Maiden. Thursday was Lone Wolf & Cub, Ramming Speed (from Boston) and Harpoon. It was a drunken blast.

Had to recover Friday and hung at Kuma's Saturday to chill out when I got yet another invitation to go rock out at the Boris/Torche/Nachtmystium show the following evening at the Empty Bottle. I was like, wow, what a way to cap an awesome week, huh? Early the next day, I found out that guest list spots were cut off but Uncle Alex was able to pull some strings to get me and a few friends from Revolution Tattoo into the list. Isn't he such an awesome guy or what? He bought a couple of rounds of beers to boot! I arrived fashionably late during Torche's 1st song, and as always, they never dissapoint and they bomb stringed to stoner heaven with their lush melodies coupled with pounding heaviness. This was my 2nd time seeing Boris, the 1st time was when they did their first ever US tour supporting Sunn O))). They blew me a way the first time. They crushed and lifted my soul up this time. The majority of their material got culled from Smile, and they definitely sounded better live. An additional treat was when Michio Kurihara was also playing with them that night. SUPER!!!

Uh, So Do You Plan On Buying The New Metallica Album?

I'm seriously am having 2nd thoughts about this.

The Red In The Sky Will Be Ours Tonight

Tonight marks At The Gates' first Chicago show in over 12 years. If you don't have a ticket yet, what the hell are you waiting for? Go buy a ticket on Craigslist, from the House of Blues (even though they're a sucky venue) or some schmuck whose waiting in line with an extra ticket and their friend(s) decided to flake out. Darkest Hour, Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust round out this boner worthy tour, so if you miss it, you better have a valid reason, otherwise, you've pretty much achieved major FAIL.

Maryland Deathfest VI

Happy Thursday! I'm backtracking a little bit and I'm going to describe my out of town trip to Maryland last May, whose highlight was being at the world renowned Maryland Deathfest. It was held at the Sonar in downtown Baltimore. I actually stayed in Baltimore for 5 days and hung out in DC for 1 day before jetting back to Chicago, so this was pretty much my "Metal vacation" if you could call it that way. MDF was held over the course of Memorial Day weekend, and it was definitely a mega monstrous blast. This was my first time seeing a show outside of Chicago in a long while, let alone being in one of the most grueling marathons of Death Metal, Thrash, Grindcore and Powerviolence this side of the Atlantic. The whole weekend can be summed up as an orgy of Metal, countless bottles of Natty Boh's and Yuenglings, greasy food outside the venue, a crust kid tent city by the parking lot, getting more food, water and booze (and dodging the shady pimps and nasty, toothless hookers) at "The Block", chilling on Gay St. and a lot of new and awesome friends. It was really cool to see a lot of the bands just mingling with the crowd out in the street and in the lounge areas, and Sonar's security were chiller than the ones we have here in Chicago. I also spent at least $200 in merch, mostly shirts and import cd's, there were 2 rooms that had distros from all over the country selling stuff at discount prices. Too bad I wasn't able to get any Carcass sweatpants though.





Since there were a lot of bands that played that weekend, I'll just list the top 5 bands I saw who had the most impact from each day, in no particular order:



Day 1: Grave (Sweden), Squash Bowels (Poland), Ingrowing (Czech Republic), Phobia(US), Skarp (US)


Day 2: Anaal Nathrakh (UK), Ghoul (US), Coffins (Japan), Disfear (Sweden), Trap Them (US)


Day 3: Nuclear Assault (US), Blood Duster (Australia), Macabre (US), Dead (Germany), Gruesome Stuff Relish (Spain)





Sleeper hits: Hellnation (US), Engorged (US), Behold...The Arctopus (US), Flesh Parade (US), Gadget (Sweden)


Not so great: Torsofuck (Finland), Defeated Sanity (Germany), Infected Malignity (Japan), Monstrosity (US), Kalibas (US)





Most of my shots came out like shit, although there's a lot of awesome shots that can be found on Return To The Pit. Maybe I need to invest in a D40 that can withstand the pit action when I go next year...

Dudefest Indiana Review

About 2 weekends ago, I went to this wonderful 3 day orgy of dudes, honorary dudes (the ones with vaginas, duh), booze, drugs and bad food known as Dudefest. I didn't even know this festival existed up until last year, but it has been held annually in the city of Indianapolis since 2003. This year's lineup was stellar: Pig Destroyer, Torche, Kylesa, Insect Warfare, Coliseum, Kung Fu Rick, Iron Lung, Despise You, Hewhocorrupts, Plague Bringer, Gaza, Nachtmystium, Skeletonwitch, and many, many more. Me and a few friends took a roadtrip from Chicago and it was definitely one of the best weekends of my life. I took quite a few pictures from the fest and some of them can be viewed here. I even messed up my knee stagediving during Hewhocorrupts and since I was in a drunken funk, messed it up further by doing more stagedives during Pig Destroyer's set, which had a lot of inflatable whales, beachballs, and even a stuffed blue dinosaur. New friends were made, lots of beer was consumed, great times and lasting memories were definitely had. If you weren't there and you didn't have a valid reason not to go, I do feel sorry you missed out.

Hewhocorrupts: Master Of Profits (I'm the dude who stagedives on stage left at around :13)

Pig Destroyer: Trojan Whore/Naked Trees (crucial dino mosh action included)

Welcome to Bacon And Blast Beats

Welcome to Bacon and Blast Beats! This is going to be an extreme music related blog that would concentrate on, but not limited to, extreme music artists, album and concert reviews, band interviews, etc. I will mainly focus on what's going on in Chicago because this is a wonderful city to live in if you're into extreme music. This blog will also serve as a literary extension of my upcoming graphic design portfolio website, which once finished, will be called Blast Beat Designs dot com. Please be patient as content will be added on an as needed basis, because of my other commitments. Cheers, and may this blog be a part of your days to come.

- Carm