Keine Hände

If there is one thing last night taught me, it’s that I certainly should not be a dream sequence geography teacher. From Bahrain’s island being centered by a large marble bust of Santa Claus towed on sleigh by his eight festive sheep, to Tehran’s true location laying beneath the basement of Your Father’s Moustache restaurant in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to baba ghanoush’s ongoing battle to stop India from constructing the Middle East “I-way” through Iraq, Iran, India and Israel. Why I was standing in Blythe, California preaching to a small “class” for the entirety of my dream last night, I don’t know. Why I was outright lying to them, I don’t know. I think it’s safe to say I have had more exciting dreams in the past.

Hello.

So as I sit here at Purple Perk with my good pal Rich (currently deep in study for his midterms), I would like to take a moment to say, thank god for the casual buzz of coffeeshop conversation on a Wednesday evening. For the past while I have been holed up back at my parent`s house (who graciously took me back in for a few days of rest and healing), immobile and near catatonic. Last week sometime I struck ill with what has been narrowed down to a severe case of either Strep or Tonsillitis. Nothing too out of the ordinary for Calgary this time of year, but fuck… not fun. I wish I could sit here and proclaim a clean bill of health but that’s hardly the case folks. Just day one my aches have allowed me movement further than the garage for a ginger ale refill (which is one of the countless liquids I could not swallow and had to resort to swirling in my mouth by the sink and spitting out just to get a hint of flavour).

My woes aside for now, on Saturday I finally satisfied one of my greatest urges and saw Alcest and Enslaved play live, together, in the same night. This likely came at further detriment to my health, as I had already been quite ill for a few days prior to the show, and Sunday when I woke I might as well have slept on an operating torture rack, but it was beyond worth it. Neige put on a fantastically laid back set in so much the way I had imagined he would. He may just have been more lost in the music than I was. Every second of his enchanted lullabies drifted longingly through the crowd, warming the hearts of even the most stalwart black metal fan. As I (and I imagine any other Alcest fan in the venue) foresaw, Neige ended the set with the powerful Percèes de Lumière, really setting the stage for one hell of a night. A smoke and a few whiskey’s later, Enslaved climbed the stage and put on hands down the best performance I have ever seen from a single live act. Grutle just carried the crowd on his back for over two hours of pure, honest, emotionally driven black metal. Everything from his extended intermissions with the crowd to his (and the rest of the bands) energy while the music weaved a warm, twisted blanket of hard-hitting music. Grutle and Ivar have been doing this Enslaved gig for a long time (since they were 17 and 13 respectively), and you could see every second of it on stage; from the opening of Axioma Ethica Odini through Giants and As Fire Swept Clean the Earth, to the final shimmering notes of the always epic Isa. I was also shocked at just how big and awesome Ivar and his beard are. Shouldn’t come as a surprise from a man who had a hand in defining metal at the ripe age of thirteen, but still. He also might just have the daintiest voice I have yet heard from a man’s vocal chords; a voice he graced us with while asking for a plate of chicken wings. All of this bleeds awesomeness. Needless to say, this was inarguably the most amazing show I have had the pleasure of attending.

This, for possibly the first time ever, actually turned out to sound blog-y. A true journal entry if you will. Its been about a week since my last, so I suppose another rendition of songs I like this week is in order:

Descending - Descending (Any artist's namesake track should be this good)

Age of Demons - The Sarcophagus (Niklas Kvarforth proving once again his vocals can make me giddy)

Misconception in a Devouring World - Purest of Pain (Dutch pseudo-core in the vein of Fuck Your Shadow From Behind. In the vein of, and better than)

Cry of the Blackbirds - Amon Amarth (Mmmmm. Amon Amarth)

Where Do My Bluebird Fly - Tallest Man on Earth (Mmmmm. Tallest Man on Earth)

Countless Skies - Be'lakor (Severely underrated. Ten minutes of doom laden, Australian bliss)

Percèes de Lumière - Alcest (Even prior to seeing this gem live, would sweeten any days playlist)
Isa (or the rest of Saturday's setlist) - Enslaved (Mmmmm. Enslaved)
Life is a Bad Joke - Sufferage (About solidifies my recent adoration of death metal)

"Farewell good fellows, your ways are not for me"