Körperlose Stimme Set to Release Their Debut Full Length

Canadian blackened death metal outfit Körperlose Stimme have announced that they will be releasing their debut full-length album this winter. Titled 'Souls Of The Forest', I'm looking forward to this album. They have previously released an EP titled 'The Dark Man', and have proven themselves as a live band to keep an eye on in the future.

Check out the trailer for 'Souls Of The Forest':

"Only Print Is Real" - An Article You Should Read

I recently read a really good article about the interest in books about extreme metal titled ‘Only Print Is Real: How We Entered the Golden Age of Extreme Metal Books’ by Kevin Stewart-Panko. I believe the article is published in the September issue of Decibel magazine, but I found it through Decibel’s website. As a fairly avid reader, and someone who has a shelf full of music related reading material, I was immediately interested.

I own several of the books mentioned in the article. Sounds Of The Beast is one that I bought but still haven’t managed to read in entirety. Honestly, I found it pretty dry but it is a history book, after all. I bought Lords Of Chaos years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, even on the first read, when I was just beginning to discover black metal. Even if the stories are embellished, it’s an entertaining read and piques the curiousity into investigating the events described further. I also have Swedish Death Metal by Daniel Ekeroth and have read most of it (although completely out of order). It’s one that I really want to take the time to sit down and go through, page by page, while listening to the albums discussed. It’s an amazing resource for anyone interested in the Swedish death metal scene, full of great writing, interesting interviews, rare pictures and comprehensive lists.

One of the statements in the ‘Only Print Is Real’ article that should ring true with any ‘younger’ extreme metal listener is that these books are now allowing events to be placed into context. Which can only happen once some period of time has passed. Many of the authors of these books were there experiencing the beginnings of certain metal scenes. The author mentions that the ‘younger’ fans missed a large part of the history as it was happening, which is entirely true. Although I don’t consider myself that young anymore, I’m certainly young enough to have missed out on most of that history. The article also states that it’s hard to understand the context of albums twenty years later when listening in isolation, but many of these books are now able to provide that context for those who want to know.

Another discussion point of the article that rang particularly true to myself regards creating a different mental atmosphere with printed media, as opposed to the rapid-fire digital information dispersal that so many now rely on. There are merits to both, but I prefer a physical book when I want to delve deeply into a topic. Books allow for so much more focus, free of pop-up ads, distractions and random interruptions. Plus they have a better flow. These are the same reasons why I often still write drafts of ideas, reviews or papers by hand, even though it’s more time consuming.

For anyone who has ever given a thought to the merits of books or physical copies of music as opposed to digital dispersal of the same, this article is worth reading.

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2017/09/13/print-real-entered-golden-age-extreme-metal-books/#.WblGS9d6DSU.facebook