Waiting patiently outside the Underworld in Camden, a haven for London’s alternative cultures; fans stood for the doors to open around mid-afternoon. The venue was dedicated to a day long festival of extreme music; capped by two renowned names in the “post-black metal” scene – Austrian avant-garde act Dornenreich and French shoegazers Alcest. Read More…
It’s taken a few albums down the other road, but Cruachan have finally returned to their black metal roots with “Blood on the Black Robe“. They’ve also brought a much heftier dose of socio-political anger in tow; taking no chances in lashing out against the Catholic church and its place in Ireland. Read More…
As part of its music heritage goal, Home of Metal recently got together with Flatpack Film Festival to play a long forgotten film ‘In Bed with Chris Needham’.
Centred on the experiences and thoughts of a teenage thrash fan as he puts together a band and later prepares for their first gig; this video diary comes from a time before the likes of “Global Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey“, “Some Kind of Monster” and “Until The Light Takes Us” made documentaries such a fashionable tool for the Metal industry.
As a video diary, ‘In Bed…’ has the advantage of avoiding the pitfalls of the above fare due to its more personal, intimate look at Chris, his younger brother and friends. Secondly, that it was essentially filmed and “directed” by the subject himself means that we get more than just a group of kids getting ready to form and play as a band. Focusing on the age factor itself, we’re put in the position of looking at a bunch of rash (male) teenagers as they go about their daily routine together as friends; basking in faux-intellectual rants and small in-jokes between one another during conversation.
Interestingly, the film has helped turn Chris into a sort of celebrity in the video blogosphere – now he hosts his own YouTube channel and online talkshow, where he seems to have expanded his taste of music from heavy metal.
Stepping up with debut album ‘The Price of Progression‘, Birmingham’s hardcore crust punks Selfless deliver what could be another example of the underground’s ability to keep extreme music’s original spirit alive amidst the times. Read More…
When I first began to explore extreme metal, I had no idea of the various “shades of grey” that seem to exist between genres of music. Thus, when a good friend introduced me to Dornenreich, I wasn’t expecting to discover a world that mixed beauty and ugliness so honestly as they did.
I also wasn’t expecting the chance to discuss this with one of the band’s founding members Eviga, not to mention how I felt about the possibility of their latest release “Flammentriebe” potentially being their last metal album ever.
Since I have to be out much of the day this Friday I have decided to change the schedule by which Me(n)tal-Meltdown will be updated.
Normally I update this blog on Wednesdays and Fridays, though lately I’ve found myself pressed for time around these dates.
So to make sure that posts still come out regularly, I’m changing the schedule updates for the blog to:
Monday, Wednesday and/or Friday (one week)
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
Let’s see if this works, eh?
Ciao for now!
–Ann Sulaiman
Home of Metal, a project set up to celebrate the heritage of heavy metal music in the West Midlands region of England, began its 2011 campaign with an Open Day at The Public exhibition hall on March 26th. Read More…
Sorry folks; recovering from a sore throat infection right now.
In the meantime, have this interesting (very) rough sketch I was planning out.
Who wants to see this finished?
