Unsung heroes?

[Eoin McLove]

I was listening to Ulver- "Bergtatt" and followed it up with Ved Buens Ende- "Written in Waters", following a bit of a Skoll thread. His bass playing is so creative and adds dimensions to whatever he appears on I would argue. His resume is ridiculous when you add to the two above mentioned his contributions across the various epochs of Arcturus. And yet, you never really hear him get mentioned in discussions about Norwegian BM. I am sure I've never read, heard or seen an interview with him so maybe I'll have to google that later to see if such a thing exists. He was also on the Fimbulwinter demo with the Dimmu Borgir dudes but I'm less familiar with that recording- another one that's been on the shopping list for a while now. The man seemed to have been at the heart of the early days of the Norwegian black metal movement but exists almost as a shadow. I think it's fair to say that his playing has massively influenced Gjendød, and that influence is one of their most lethal secret weapons in my onion. A secret legend?

[Eoin McLove]

Aspera Hiems Symfonia on in the car this afternoon and it's fair to say I agree with myself on this one, Skoll is a legend.

Seeing as nobody wants to play, I've opened up the topic to include any musicians who have remained almost in obscurity, have kept a low profile or are enigmatic despite having made valuable contributions to metal. Who deserves some praise?

[open face surgery]

You, Andy. Is that the right answer?

[Eoin McLove]

Oh stop!

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

You, Andy. Is that the right answer?

    

[jpm4]

Snorre Ruch from Thorns? His style of guitar playing was meant to be really influential on the 90s black metal scene.

[Eoin McLove]

Snorre is low profile but I think he is very much embedded in BM lore, particularly because of his involvement in Euronymous's murder, but also because his guitar playing was so influential on Mayhem. Skoll on the other hand barely seems to exist until you look at his resumé and realise just how many incredible albums he has been a part of. And his bass playing is a huge part of the sound of the records he appears on. He's a true enigma.

[Eoin McLove]

I had The Angel and the Dark River on earlier. What a fantastic album; simply perfectly realised. I think Rick Miah was such a force of creativity on the MDB albums he was on. His drumming was unique and always added to the songs with interesting patterns that often are as important as the riffs- the drum patterns often lodge in the brain a much as the melodies- but they never become so busy as to compromise the doomy vibe. I'm not sure how sung or unsung he may be but he deserves praise.

[CorkonianHunger]

Vinny Appice maybe.

[Eoin McLove]

Listening to Bergtatt and Skoll's bass lines, particularly in Capitel III are so fucking cool. Simple but meandering. He's a legend, even if I'm on my own in seeing it 

It's only fair to give a nod to Lill Katherine Stensrud who provides wonderful vocals on this and Written in Waters, too. Those two albums appear to be all she was involved in. Not a bad little resume all the same.

I really need to get all the early Ulver stuff on CD so I can spend more time with it all. Superb stuff.

Speaking of cool bass playing, Fenriz (who???) put in a super performance on Kronet til Konge. Maybe I should change this thread again to make it about deadly bassists. No wait, that will completely put me out of the picture.

I just goggled black metal albums from 1995 and, wow, what a great year it was. I have quite a few of those releases already but there are a good handful more I need to add to the collection. Nice to see Imrama in the mix for that year.

[open face surgery]

Bass on KTK is incredible.

[Bürggermeister]

Whoever thought the day would come when Chris Holmes would be the rational voice of reason?

Prior to launching into the Neil Young classic, Holmes told the crowd: "We're still killing each other. What the fuck? What the fuck's with that, man? I don't understand. It's stupid. It's stupid, man. All the shit.

"This song goes out to the all the people in Ukraine. I look at the shit and just think about if that was me living there, and that fucking cocksucker Putin... I'd love to get my hands on that fucker's neck, man, and shove something up his ass so fucking far... One man ruining this many people. It just makes me sick. Over what?

"We're gonna never get off this planet until we all join as one," he continued. "Or else we'll destroy it and the human race will never exist anymore. [It will] probably [be] two, three, four thousand years till we stop killing each other.

"But this next song goes out to all the people in Ukraine.

"I've been to the communist countries that were held down. It ain't cool."

[Pariah Child]

I was listening to Ulver- "Bergtatt" and followed it up with Ved Buens Ende- "Written in Waters", following a bit of a Skoll thread. His bass playing is so creative and adds dimensions to whatever he appears on I would argue. His resume is ridiculous when you add to the two above mentioned his contributions across the various epochs of Arcturus. And yet, you never really hear him get mentioned in discussions about Norwegian BM. I am sure I've never read, heard or seen an interview with him so maybe I'll have to google that later to see if such a thing exists. He was also on the Fimbulwinter demo with the Dimmu Borgir dudes but I'm less familiar with that recording- another one that's been on the shopping list for a while now. The man seemed to have been at the heart of the early days of the Norwegian black metal movement but exists almost as a shadow. I think it's fair to say that his playing has massively influenced Gjendød, and that influence is one of their most lethal secret weapons in my onion. A secret legend?

Skoll rules! I'm sure there is a reasonable amount of f appreciation out there Andy. Have you listened to the Radical Research blogs?

VBE
https://radicalresearch.org/episode-53-its-all-gone-weird-the-ved-buens-ende-virus-a-b/

DHG
https://radicalresearch.org/episode-61-face-the-goat-at-sunrise-dodheimsgard-1995-2015/

And bizarrely...
https://radicalresearch.org/episode-89-bassically-metal-bass-guitar-solos-that-rip-ass/

[Eoin McLove]

Haven't looked at those but I'll get on it. Cheers Danny 

I think in terms of the inner circle, or those close to it, Skoll has never come on my radar. His work is really unique but he seems to maintain a very low profile.

[nukeabuse]

Radical research is a great podcast, for all types of weirdo proggy spectrum of the genre.