This is the first in a series of 2,112 blogs by Jeff Wagner regarding all things related to the peculiar subject of his book, Mean Deviation – Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal.

German magazine Der Spiegel recently ran an interview with author and all-around intellectual smartypants Umberto Eco. His current exhibition at the Louvre (never heard of it) focuses on the nature of lists in human history and what list-making means. The headline to the article quotes the man: “We like lists because we don’t want to die.” Early in the interview, Eco asks “What does culture want?,” answering his own question with: “To make infinity comprehensible.”

I like that.

I like it because, sometimes, when I’m nestled in the dark of my music room (colloquially dubbed a “mancave”), inescapably tuned into a  particular album, that’s exactly what I feel like I’m doing: comprehending infinity. Or getting close. It doesn’t happen often, but the albums below helped me almost get there. The Anathema actually landed me right on Planet Infinity a few times.

I’d like to see your year-end album list. Here’s mine:

10. Cynic – Re-Traced — It may be an EP, and 4 of the 5 songs are re-imaginings of Traced in Air songs. Maybe that’s why I like this so much: Cynic moves everything forward and further (not just Aeon Spoke-izing these songs, as some critics have suggested), making old material seem completely brand new. Truly new song, “Wheels Within Wheels,” is great promise of future Cynicisms.

9. Canvas Solaris – Irradiance — From what I understand, this may be the final Canvas Solaris album. If so, they’ve gone out in a blaze of, well, irradiance. Forget Scale The Summit, this is where it’s at.

8. Dax Riggs – Say Goodnight to the World — Slicker and more produced than previous Dax material, including his pre-solo Deadboy & the Elephantmen stuff. Still think this guy should be Johnny Cash-huge…or at least Ryan Adams-huge.

7. Enslaved – Axioma Ethica Odini — Despite my feeling that Enslaved have outgrown harsh vocals, and my hunch that they’re utilizing them only because they feel expected to, this album is one of the strongest in their huge discography. Its second half is the best group of songs in their catalog.

6. Deathspell Omega – Paracletus – Still cannot imagine how mere human beings can come up with music like this. Truly progressive metal. A little less dissonant than their previous album, the songs are shorter, but no less epic. Mindblowing.

5. Deftones – Diamond Eyes — Never  had much use for nu-metal, but then Deftones haven’t been nu-metal for well over a decade. Got into 2000′s White Pony, then, for some dumb reason, didn’t pay attention to successive albums until this year, when a friend turned me onto this and the insanely brilliant Saturday Night Wrist. I am hooked.

4. Circa Survive – Blue Sky Noise — The almost psychedelic wash of guitars, commanding voice (as long as you like high-pitched male vocals, and goddamit I do), and ferociously infectious melodies on this album are undeniable. I’ve been interested since their first album, and they just keep getting better and better.

3. Atheist – Jupiter — You have to keep expectations low when any metal band from the old days returns, but Jupiter sounds to me like the fourth Atheist album might have done had it come out in 1995 instead of 2010. Of course, its production is modern, maybe too much so, but that doesn’t disguise the fact that this is 100% Atheist. I hope they add more dynamics and textures next album, because it’s almost too intense.

2. Solefald – Norron Livskunst — Although the preceding album, Black for Death, was fine, it seemed to signal that Solefald were running out of ideas. Not so. This, their seventh album, comes from a re-inspired duo who have written and recorded an album as vital and interesting as their lauded debut of so long ago. I’ve even been wondering if this might just be the best Solefald of ‘em all. Crazy…

1. Anathema – We’re Here Because We’re Here — Right up there with the band’s Eternity and Judgement albums. I didn’t think they still had this kind of album in them, but they do. Far and away my favorite album of 2010.

But the problem with lists is they’re arbitrary. They can and will change. This one already has, in a way, because I’ve recently gotten very much into Minus the Bear’s Omni. And if Ihsahn’s After isn’t on the list, does that mean I didn’t like it? Nope. And maybe that Atheist album will lose some luster over time. These things happen. Stranger things…stranger things.

Next post: My unpublished interview with Nunslaughter’s Don of the Dead on the worth—or worthlessness?—of progressive metal… Or a list of my favorite Umberto Eco writings.

Feel free to comment below! —Jeff Wagner

After 100 years of film censorship, on Jan. 1, 2011, Sweden’s National Board of Film Classification officially disbanded, surrendering all hope of controlling the country’s cinema screens. In celebration, Daniel Ekeroth, author of the acclaimed Swedish Death Metal (Bazillion Points, 2008), declares victory with his scandalous new book Swedish Sensationsfilms: A Clandestine History of Sex, Thrillers, and Kicker Cinema.

Coming this March to bookstores everywhere, this lavish 328pp paperback offers a fiery retrospective of over 200 banned and cut films produced during the golden age of Swedish sin. “Into a rising whirlwind of madness I was born,” says Ekeroth (also known as bassist of Iron Lamb, Tyrant, and Insision). “As the ’70s came along, all limits were forgotten. Sweden was flooded with sexually explicit and violent films of every kind, and all morals were gone.”

Featuring a blockbuster cover painting by Wes Benscoter (Slayer, Black Sabbath), Swedish Sensationsfilms offers accounts by starlet Christina Lindberg (Thriller – En Grym Film, Maid in Sweden); scores of rare exhibition posters from works by Ingmar Bergman, Arne Mattson, and others; a glossary of curious Swedish customs; and an uninhibited cast of thousands, including: Stellan Skarsgård, Pernilla August, Lee Hazlewood, Dennis Hopper, Max von Sydow, David Carradine, Heinz Hopf, Harry Reems, Noomi Rapace, Marie Forså, Troy Donahue, Zinny Zan, and Ludde the dog.

Before Let the Right One In and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, daring Swedish films in the 1950s helped break down censorship in Hollywood, and the country’s exploitation classics are praised to this day by directors like Quentin Tarantino. “I look back with genuine joy,” says celebrated cover girl Christine Lindberg. “I am so very happy I could be a part of the ’70s. I would never deny being in those movies. I know that a lot of people do so, but I just had a blast.

For more information, page samples, and to view film trailers, visit this location:

http://www.sensationsfilm.com

I think it’s worth mentioning that a wax museum exists in this world where within ten feet of each other stand life-sized statues of Robert Fripp of King Crimson, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, and James Hetfield of Metallica. This heartwarming tableau brought to mind Jeff Wagner, author of the Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal. I mean, isn’t this a prog metal man’s wet dream?

“Wax museums are creepy,” replied spoilsport Wagner.

Well, to learn Jeff’s more advanced and eloquent views on the progressive rock and heavy metal sexmash as witnessed in the music of Rush, Cynic, and Celtic Frost, read his Invisible Oranges interview. And keep paying attention to right here, as Wagner joins several other Bazillion Points authors in beginning to post regularly to this blog.

(And you should really see the wax statue of Guru Guru’s Mani Neumeier!)

It’s been a couple years since I worshipped at the altar of Corrupted’s intense Llenandose de Gusanos, but I was craving a bit of that solemn ritual lately, particularly the stark piano stabs that lead the final twenty minutes of the procession towards a final resting place. I’m also way out of touch with my favorite Painkiller release, Execution Ground, where metal mists and avant garde atmosphere mingle in long form. So the Australian piano and drums duo PIVIXKI is sweeping over these shores like a tsunami. This is way better than Tori Amos’ version of “Raining Blood”! Piano tuners rejoice, there’s much work for you yet.

PIVIXKI on MySpace

The creative forces behind Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie have united again and produced a sweet soundtrack CD featuring songs based on Mellotron, Chamberlin, and Optigan organs. The sweepy, sleepy tracks date as far back as original recordings of Harry Chamberlin demonstrating his tape organ invention, along with music (as mostly heard in the documentary) ranging from whimsical to moody by Michael Penn, Patrick Warren, Brian Kehew, Mattias Olsson, Dave Biro, and Bigelf.

Bazillion Points is offering the CD in a package with the Mellodrama DVD (scroll down to use shopping cart):

Buy the CD/DVD combo at Bazillion Points.

Or if you already have the DVD and just want the music, here’s some quick purchase code straight from the producers that I’m cutting and pasting to create a quick buy method:

Buy MELLODRAMA: The Mellotron Music CD (prices include first class shipping):

US Orders $9.95 Worldwide Orders $11.95

Here’s the track list:

1. “Welcome” by Mattias Olsson
2. Chamberlin Riveria demonstration by Harry Chamberlin
3. “Taped Tango” by Brian Kehew
4. “Long Way Down (2010)” by Michael Penn
5. “A Space Oddity” by Dave Biro
6. Excerpt from “Wizard of Kinderhook” by Dave Biro
7. “Winter Pumpkin” by Mattias Olsson
8. “The Evils of Rock and Roll” by Big Elf
9. “Mellotron Intro And Waltz” by Brian Kehew
10. “Make Your Own Kind of Music” by Johnny Largo (Optigan Archives)
11. “Dark March” by Mattias Olsson
12. “Chamberlin Ride” by Patrick Warren
13. “Sentimental Over You” by Harry Chamberlin
14. “Sweet Leilani” by Harry Chamberlin
15. “Timeless” by Brian Kehew

Holy historical hardcore heaven… The crazed cultural curators at Presspop Japan—producers of the Raymond Scott doll and Dan Clowes’ Pogeybait doll, among other totems—have painstakingly reconstructed all 22 issues of Touch and Go fanzine and bound the bunch of them in a deluxe hard white textured box along with a unique CD compilation of tracks by Bored Youth, L-7, Negative Approach, Meatmen, Crucifucks, the Fix, Necros, and Violent Apathy.

CHECK IT OUT!

While the rest of us were celebrating the release of Touch and Go: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79–’83, by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson, the Presspop people were busy taking great pains to replicate every staple, paper stock, size aspect, and printing method of the original American underground music zine. (Yes, the 4-page replica of the original 999 Times zine has a single staple in the upper left corner.) The book is a cultural artifact on its own now… and the original zines are unattainable.

From PRESSPOP:

To celebrate the release of the book, TOUCH AND GO: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79-’83, by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson, Presspop announces the upcoming release of a limited edition replica box set of all 22 issues of the legendary indie and hardcore punk zine. Working with publisher Bazillion Points, we have meticulously duplicated the original printing, paper, and binding of the landmark fanzines, and packaged them together with the precursor “999 fanzine”, a book of historic Midwest punk flyers, and an exclusive “Process of Resurrection” CD compiled with the aid of author Tesco Vee and Touch and Go Records mainman Corey Rusk. The entire collection squeezes into a beautifully designed slipcase. Only 500 sets will be produced — get them while they last!

Touch and Go the Complete Fanzines Replica Box Set at PRESSPOP Japan

So sell a couple rare seven-inches and pick up Touch and Go, one floppy issue at a time… If you really want to recreate that great period of discovery, you can read each issue over a four-year period, exactly as the revelations unfolded in real time.

Now—each issue needs its own box set containing every record reviewed inside!

Since the release of Annick Giroux’s ingenious Hellbent for Cooking: The Heavy Metal Cookbook, a popular outcry has clamored for sample recipes from the book. Part of the problem with that has been selecting one stellar recipe from among the hundred-plus dishes on display. So here’s a simple solution—check out the lead-off recipe from the Appetizers section, the first blast of culinary warfare on display. Voila! Chris Reifert of AUTOPSY’s simple but deadly masterpiece: Mummified Jalapeño Bacon Bombs.

As Reifert himself says: “I usually manage to eat myself sick on these when they are around.” I can vouch for that on my end—at least three times I’ve exceeded the recommended dosage, and suffered happily.

Click above to enlarge, expand, print, duplicate, share, and serve. For more info on Annick’s book, with its 101 recipes from 32 countries, including bands like Thin Lizzy, Trouble, Mayhem, Gorgoroth, Accept, Slough Feg, The Gates of Slumber, Anthrax, Sepultura, Gwar, Sigh, and many many more… CLICK HERE for http://www.hellbentforcooking.com .

And while you’re struck helpless by Reifert’s masterful bacon bombs, squirm over to the resurrected Autopsy’s MySpace site for new music and info on their upcoming 2011 album, Macabre Eternal.

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If you missed the October 2010 issue of Decibel, you’re probably also missing the current issue with a long mandatory interview with Newcastle’s own Misters Lant, Dunn, and Bray about the conception and creation of Venom’s Welcome to Hell LP. Get to work!

That October issue, the Iron Maiden cover, included a four-page preview/excerpt from Jeff Wagner’s upcoming book Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal. This section is all about the leaps and bounds forward made by Chuck Schuldiner and Death—and soon afterward by the likes of Cynic and Nocturnus. Here’s a reprint —look at it as an excuse to re-up your subscription to the only U.S. metal magazine that notices bands like Cynic, Atheist, Enslaved, Voivod, Fates Warning, Between the Buried and Me, and a few of the other 2,112 progressive metal bands Wagner champions in his soon-to-be-classic book. You read it here first! Unless you already read it in Decibel…

The long-awaited 22-issue anthology of Touch and Go fanzine hit the bookstores on June 30, setting off a whirlwind of page-flipping, rare record rediscovery, and belly laughs the likes of which the literary world has never before seen. TOUCH AND GO: The Complete Hardcore Punk Fanzine ’79-’83 by Tesco Vee and Stimson (and edited by Steve Miller of the Fix) is like a dense rubber band ball of Midwest joy and desperation, packing layer upon layer of handmade discovery and punk frustration into a book that reveals the boyish hearts at the beginning of all this DIY hardcore punk nonsense.

So get the book, and while you’re waiting a few days for delivery, check out the straight-ahead Tesco Vee interview above. The dancing lancer of Lansing sets the scene, shows the lay of the land, and plays tracks by Necros, Negative Approach, 999, and more. He explains how the hardcore scene emerged from the punk happenings of the 1970s, how the live circuit was built, and what became of personalities like Henry Rollins and Ian MacKaye in the wake of it all. (By the way: Part 4 contained a song belonging to the Warner Music Group, so they caned that section.)

You can also keep up with Touch and Go book events and special moments at the book’s Facebook page. And another, longer podcast interview with Tesco Vee and editor Steve Miller lives at the official Touch and Go book site.

A friend of a friend sent over this screenshot to prove that she lives in the same Hollywood apartment building as Señor Lemmy Kilmister, wrangler of one-armed bandits and possessor of the gruffest of gruff singing voices.

“He probably has the speediest connection.” Ha!

Any guesses what his password is?

Thanks, Brian!