For the past recent years, the constant overflowing of bands has made the element of surprise practicaly non existant. Gone are the days of the passionate tape trading, the precious discovery of the underground and the active involvement to the things that were being done in the late 80's and early 90's.
I'm going to be 38 next month and the events of the underground of 1988 to 1993 have marked my life for ever. I think a great deal of this journey to the past has to do with the post I read earlier on surrealdocuments.blogspot.com concerning the epistolography of Euronymous, a figure that marked black metal like no other has. I myself had the chance to exchange a couple of letters with him. Today I realy regret that due to my gradual loss of interest for black metal from 1998 or 1999 (until 2006 when I heard Celtic Frost's Monotheist) I have lost those letters along with most of the correspodence I had with other persons involved with the underground at the time. This post was enough for me to remind me the "pen & paper" days of the underground.
But before I roll to the ever dangerous cliffs of sterile nostalgia I should fast forward to the present. A present that could be summed in a word (as long as music is concerned). Dowloading...
Downloading.What an easy and practical tool to keep one in touch with the current happenings and evolution of every life's aspect(music included). Also what a perfect tool of disorientation and creation of passive trend followers, if used in a superficial way. News travel fast but I realy doubt that there are any individuals today that are better informed and in touch with the zeitgeist of black metal than the ones involved with the underground two decades ago. A lot of mp3 files on the hard drive, most of them never make it to a second listen ending up beeing worthless weight for the new and shining pc.
So no big surprise that it is not at all usual for a band to come out of nowhere and grab your interest for good. After a lot of time this has happened to me when a couple of months ago I listened to Grigori's Principivm Et Finis. A band coming from New Zealand, which for starters brings the important and much missed, at least for me, matter of black metal's grobalization.
I have commented before about the foolish bordering of black metal to certain geographical regions, that occured to the total loss of it's potential after mid 90's(see http://ophis666.blogspot.com/2009/02/about-black-metal.html).
More importantly Grigori moved me with the feeling they present their work. Trully dark, almost ritualistic and malevolent. There is nothing ground breaking about Grigori. But the ones blessed with the dark gift of crafting this kind of music find the given tools enough.
I am realy awful at describing music. Besides I think that music is to be experienced and felt and not to be talked about.
Principivm Et Finis is out on Satanic Propaganda Records and can't recomend it enough.
By the way, a quick reference...The Watchers (from Greek (ἐγρήγοροι)) or Grigori are a group of fallen angels told of in Biblical Apocrypha who mated with mortal women, giving rise to a race of hybrids known as the Nephilim, who are also mentioned in Genesis 6:4.
AMSG
