Malicious Intent: Reunion of the Deviants

Clockwise, from top left: Judge Dredd, Mark of the Beast,
CJ, Mean Dean the Metal Machine, Metal Al

Unholy hails to thee, loyal Malicious Intent legions!!  This blog has been slightly inactive the past few months, mainly due to Judge Dredd and I being busy with our scholarly post-graduate studies and CJ venturing into the mysterious misty mountains of beautiful Nepal...however, you may have heard whispers in the night of strange forces beyond our terrestrial sphere, working diligently to bring about a crossing of paths of Malicious Intent warriors past and present for what could hopefully be the first of many reunion shows!   

From CJ's notes on the show:

Metal Al (left) on the phone with Frankenstein (Mike Hall),
another former Malicious Intent DJ who unfortunately
couldn't make the show.  Meanwhile, Mark of the Beast (right) overlooks his majestic
collection of pirated Kroda CDs.

If you’re a follower of KJHK, you’ve probably heard about Malicious Intent at one point or another. It’s been a staple of the university station for well over twenty years, which means there have been a slew of DJs who have carried the mighty torch. These brave bastions of metal have carried that flame with extreme care and dedication towards the all-encompassing genre of metal in tandem with its ardent and vocal community. This post is the first in a number of KHJK segments that honor the program’s history and its contributors. On October 24th, the regular two-hour program was converted into a reunion show featuring five different DJs, both old and new. 

"The kids these days, they just don't
listen to enough Mercyful Fate!"

In attendance were current DJs, CJ and Judge Dredd, along with Metal Al, Mark of the Beast and Mean Dean. If you missed the show by some unfortunate stroke of bad luck, we welcome you to sit back and enjoy all of the banter and metal madness that occurred during this special edition of the show. Even if you’ve already heard it, we know you probably enjoyed it so much that you want to listen again; so by all means, please do so.

Listen to the show here:  http://kjhk.org/web/2015/10/28/malicious-intent-reunion-of-the-deviants/

ZOOM!!

What's up sluts and slut-shamers!!  DJ Wulf is back in the house, here to just make a quick post and get everyone caught up on what's going on here at Malicious Intent Enterprises-

1.   Everyone welcome Tanelorn!!  He was the last DJ for Malicious Intent's radio show at the University of Kansas' own 90.7 FM KJHK Lawrence, so of course he deserves your unwavering, unquestioning respect and loyalty.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason the show was axed after him, but that's most likely because it just became too brutal for the radio station to handle and Tanelorn didn't play enough Deafheaven or whatever is hot with the kids nowadays.  Anyway, prepare yourself for what he has in store for us in the coming days!!

I did a quick Google image search of Tanelorn and this is the first thing that came up.  I guess it's from Michael Moorcock's (my fave pornstar btw) Elric saga which I've never read, but I suppose it looks like a metal-enough place... except it definitely needs more skulls and churches being set on fire. 

  

Judge Dredd (left) and Wulf (right) during happier times

2.   The main clowns of this operation (Judge Dredd and I) have been so busy that we haven't been posting that much, as I'm sure you've noticed.   That's because we've been so busy on various quests and errands...Judge Dredd is currently scouring Southeast Asia (and perhaps Australia in the near future) for unholy relics and artifacts to plunder before returning to the US to continue his studies, while I myself have recently returned to Korea from my own blasphemic travels (a survey of the glorious nation of Taiwan) to resume operations.

Seriously, has anyone ever figured out how to actually play this fucking game?!

3.   DUNGEON SYNTH!!  It's no secret that I'm a huge tabletop RPG fan, but for years and years have been looking for the perfect playlist for medieval fantasy RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, etc.   One of the biggest problems with this is that if you look up "RPG music playlist" or "epic music" or whatever it's most likely going to be either overblown symphonic movie OST type stuff or music that is already from video games.   While it's cool that people have taken the time to compile these playlists, I don't feel like they match up at all with what is usually going on in the game.   Epic symphonic movie music only works when everyone is fighting some crazy battle with the boss or something like that...otherwise, it's just too distracting for when people are just standing around talking and shit.   As for music that's already from video games, you're probably just going to think of the game that it's from instead of using your own imagination.  For example, I used to play Rifts with some people and the GM would put on Chrono Trigger battle music whenever we would fight a battle.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love Chrono Trigger...it's probably still my favorite video game of all time in terms of storyline and characters.   However, all I could think about were just scenes from Chrono Trigger.   The music should inspire the imagination, not distract.

Now THIS is what I'm talking about!!

The only music that's ever clicked with me 100% for fantasy tabletop RPGs has been dungeon synth.   Until recently, I'm not even sure if I knew that it was a legitimate music genre...I just thought it was how people described Mortiis' "era I" goofiness (pretty much all of Mortiis' shit is goofy, but that's beside the point).   Seriously though, I had a really tough time trying to find good music for my D&D games... besides Mortiis, I really only knew about Lord Wind's later shit, Sunn O)))'s "øø Void" (not dungeon synth, but worked well for dungeons, especially The Temple of Elemental Evil!!), and of course Ildjarn-Nidhogg's beautiful "Hardangervidda" (except for the second track, which has some cheesy percussion).   Obviously, this isn't enough music to last for a long gaming sesh, and it does tend to get kind of old if you play the same stuff over and over again.

I hadn't discovered Pathfinder yet, give me a break!!

Anyway, while there's some older dungeon synth that came out awhile ago like Burzum's "Hliðskjálf", I'm primarily interested in are newer artists who are essentially emulating old school Mortiis.   This seems like it may be kind of an insult, but I mean it with the utmost respect!!  It's awesome!!  Perfect for roleplaying background music, relaxing, being weird in your room, etc.  I'm going to start writing posts on my favorite dungeon synth musicians soon, and who knows?  Maybe I'll even have an interview or two as well to give the posts some more depth :)

The old Castles and Crusades/Pathfinder crew (RIP!!): Nathan, Terry, Anson, Me (Wulf), Josh (Judge Dredd), Jake, and (Grym) Kym...illustration by Grym Kym!!

4.   I've been meaning to have more interviews coming up with Korean metal bands (or pretty much anyone else who is interested!), but due to a busy schedule and other stuff it's just taking too long.  Hopefully that will change soon, as there's still tons of bands here that I think are worth talking to so we can get a greater understanding of the state of extreme music here in South Korea!

Somewhere in South Korea, this dude is running around and making pagan black metal...obviously it's up to us to get the inside scoop!!

Top 10 Metal Albums of 2013 Preamble

The Malicious Intent crew in the middle of a typical debate.  Mark of the Beast is usually the first one to burst into tears and run from room, calling us all "assholes" and slamming the door on his way out. 

One of the most annoying things I find about myself is that I can get fairly obsessive about "completeness". I'm not even entirely sure how to explain it...but I do know that a lot of times it results in me not being able to keep up with shit or constantly failing to meet deadlines. For example, if you haven't noticed, almost every metal magazine and blog has published or posted their own "Best of the Year" lists. For me, I can't release mine until January 1st of the next year because there's something in my brain that has convinced me that it's entirely possible there will be an album released on December 31st of this year that will obliterate the fuck out all the other albums that made everyone else's lists. You might think this is a little ridiculous, but just look at Nokturnal Mortum's "The Voice of Steel" (2009). Yeah yeah, they're a controversial group because their extremist right wing ideologies and political affilations and probably wouldn't have made a lot of critics' lists anyway because of it, but STILL!! It's an absolutely killer album and easily one of the best metal albums of 2009, which happened to be released on December 26. If I would have made my Top 10 list early and missed it I would have had to either edit the list, which is annoying and kind of pointless after everyone's already read it, OR I'd have to make some goofy new post about how it should have been on my list to begin with or whatever. I guess the latter isn't so bad since its absurd to be expected to somehow have listened to EVERY album that came out, but I guess that's why I have a problem to begin with. I'm convinced that if I hold out for just a couple more days I'll be able to somehow come up with a better list after discovering some obscure, yet amazing record, or re-listening to an album I previously thought was shitty and finding it to be mind-blowing. Even this rant is starting to get pretty irritating.

Rob Gordon was so fucking hip, he read Decibel before it even existed!!

Anyway, I just came on here to write a quick post about how my Top 10 is going to be a little late this year! The main reason actually isn't because I'm holding out until the new year (although that's something I'd do anyway out of principal), but because my headphones are kind of fucked up right now and it's going to be a couple weeks until I can get them fixed up and make sure my list is solid. That's another kind of annoying thing...in order to truly judge an album's quality, I have to hear it on headphones! Computer speakers, a tablet, a phone...nope!! Anyway, for everyone out there eagerly anticipating my list (i.e. Judge Dredd), just know that my list will be out soon!!  So should we leave it at that? ;)

Seasons in the Abyss

 

 

Well, another autumn seems to be abruptly coming to an end. Autumn always makes me feel reflective and a bit nostalgic, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. For some reason, during this autumn in particular, I happened to listen to a lot of albums and bands that remind me of specific times in my life. Most of the bands and albums I stumbled on to were not on purpose, though it seemed like an unconscious force was leading me towards them.

Listening to bands and albums for which I have such strong mnemonic associations lead me to think about how we are possibly (stick with me here) unconsciously drawn to music that we perceive to "fit" into a certain season while that season is occurring. Honestly, now that I write that out, it sounds like a complete pile of horseshit.

However, I think we can all agree, for example, that listening to "Blizzard Beasts" or "Transylvanian Hunger" in the snowy dead of winter makes a whole lot more goddamn sense than listening to them in the blistering heat of the summer.

So after some considerable deliberation, I thought I would list some Metal bands that I think "fit" into a certain season. Of course, you can listen to these bands and albums any goddamn time you want. But to harness their trve power, you have to play them during the right time of year.

Note: I tried to avoid some obvious choices, such as the aforementioned "Blizzard Beasts" for Winter.

The Triumph of Spring
 

In the spring I picture myself prancing upon fields of tulips and lilac, biking along rivers, and picnicking as the sun bathes me in it's nurturing warmth...so, uh...not exactly the most Metal of experiences.

It was for this very reason that spring was the most difficult season for which to think of examples. Normally we think of spring as a time of rebirth and new beginnings. This is a problem when it comes to matching this with appropriate Metal bands or albums, because - let's face it - about 90% of Metal lyrically deals with destruction, death, evil, and just about everything that is opposite of concepts of rebirth and new beginnings. So I had to think of happy, triumphant-sounding Metal - namely, Power and Progressive Metal.

Dragonforce

Nothing says "EPIC TRIUMPH OF SPRING FLOWERS!" like Dragonforce!

 

Stratovarious

Blind Guardian
 

Angra 
 

Dream Theater

Scale the Summit
 

Summer Slaughter of the Liver

When I think of summer, I picture myself at BBQs, the beach, and back patio and deck parties. I picture myself drinking outside, going on road trips, and...did I mention drinking outside? In short - carefree, good-times Metal.
 

Speedwolf

 

I thought Motorhead would have been too obvious of a choice for summer, so I chose Speedwolf who are heavily heavily heavily influenced by Lemmy and his merry band of drunken minstrels.
 

Municipal Waste

 

OK, maybe an obvious choice...but how could I forego listing the ultimate Metal party band of the post-millenium!
 

Torche

Dawnbringer
 

Manowar
 

Alestorm

Demon of the Fall

 

As I mentioned in the introduction, fall for me is a time of reflection and bittersweet nostalgia. For this reason, fall is also an ideal time for Graduation Day Metal (a term coined by Mark of the Beast, which is basically synonymous with Shoegaze Metal). For fall, I picture myself hiking (by myself, of course) with the colored leaves falling all around me thinking about...what...could...have...been.

 

For whatever reason, the French have metal for autumn down pat.
 

Isis
 

Agalloch 

Les Discrets
 

Alcest

Amesoeurs

 

 

Deafheaven

 

 

Black Winter Days

 

This was by far the easiest season to come up with examples for. I mean, c'mon...the most grim and kvlt season of them all!  I imagine myself trudging through the never-ending snow-laden tundra.  Or wandering aimlessly in the forest as snow falls around me.  That or just losing my mind while thrashing around in my bed, because I haven't seen the sun in four months and can't stop reading philosophy for whatever reason.  Really hard to narrow all the choices down, but I focused mostly on Doom and Black Metal.
 

Xasthur

How can it possibly get more grim or cold than Xasthur?!

Khanate

SO MUCH EXISTENTIAL DESPAIR

Dissection

 

Nowadays, people can't seem to stop cumming in their pants over "grim" and "kvlt" production values in Black Metal releases (the majority of which I can only assume were recorded exclusively using Yak Baks). But for me, there aren't many releases that are more "grimly cold" than the slick-sounding "Storm of the Light's Bane".

 

Velvet Cacoon

 

Mournful Congregation

 

 

(old) Katatonia

 

New Katatonia isn't quite as dread-inducing as their older material, so I included an old favorite of mine as the last entry.

WULF'S Ten Favorite Metal Albums of All Time

I really can't make a "Top Ten" list because it's just too damn hard! I had a difficult time as it was coming up with this list...

Also, I noticed when writing this post that most of the albums that are my favorite aren't necessarily the best album of a given band, but they mean more to me than the alleged "classics". You'll see what I mean in my post. Also, I noticed that my favorite albums were indeed the ones with the highest "nostalgia value" for me...classics that got me into metal in the first place. While there's no "Painkiller" or "Rust in Peace", the following albums are absolute classics in my mind, which, I believe, is kind of the point Judge Dredd was trying to make in organizing us to do these posts in the first place.

So here we go! In no particular order...

Enthrone Darkness Triumphant - Dimmu Borgir


What a killer album! I know this sounds kind of pathetic and sad, but one of the best memories in my life was when I was like 16 and I had gotten really stoned, and I was listening to this CD on my headphones and drawing Dungeons and Dragons maps on graph paper in my room...I hate to say it, but it was some of the most fun I've ever had in my life. This was probably the first real metal band I ever checked out (back when they were still semi-underground circa 2001), and it was this album that proved to me that metal was the best music in the world. Yeah, "EDT" is incredibly cheesy, but at 16 I totally ate this shit up. I never got into the whole Satanism thing myself, but I was relatively fanatical when it came to this band...being pretty cheap, I never actually bought this album, but I did download every Dimmu Borgir song and video that I could find on Kazaa (yup, fucking KAZAA!). I guess I just really dug their sound, especially Stian Aarstad's haunting keyboard lines, the beautiful yet aggressive melodies, the frantic drumming, awesome song titles like "A Succubus in Rapture"...I could go on and on.


Still Life - Opeth


I had a tough time choosing between this album and Orchid, but I decided to choose Still Life. While I think it's definitely not their best album, I love it the most for a number of reasons. For one, it's the first album I ever heard of theirs. I remember first hearing them at a buddy's house when I was about 15 or so...we were taking a break from playing Dungeons and Dragons (haha it's seriously not all I did in high school, I swear) and my buddy Tony handed me some headphones and was like, "Dude...listen to this shit." Tony had been pretty influential in getting me into metal, being one of a few friends to introduce me to the likes of In Flames, Emperor, and Dream Theater, and so at this point he knew Opeth would blow my dick off, which they did. I remember for my 16th birthday making my parents take me to Kansas City to see Brotherhood of the Wolf (I don't remember why it was just my parents and me, maybe it was a school night or something) as it wasn't playing in Lawrence, and since my mom had also special-ordered me this CD from Hastings for my birthday I listened to the whole thing on the way to the movie and on the way back home...it just went so well the movie too, the medieval atmosphere, the beautiful acoustic passages, the rage in Mikael Åkerfeldt's harsh vocals, and the cool lyrics that went along with the album's storyline. At the time I had never heard anything like Still Life, and Opeth continues to be one of my favorite metal bands.

Whoracle - In Flames


The first metal show I ever went to was at the Bottleneck in Lawrence with In Flames, Killswitch Engage, Sentenced, and Dark Tranquillity. What's funny is that I remember being overall pretty disappointed with In Flames' performance...even though I was 16 I could still tell when a band just wasn't putting forth much effort in their stage performance...I'm pretty sure the band was moderately trashed and probably burned out on touring, whereas Killswitch Engage really opened my eyes as to what an American metal band was capable of (of course, this was in 2002 when they were still relatively underground). In Flames had also just farted out Reroute to Remain and Anders had decided it would be a great idea to get dreadlocks, and so clearly the band was on the decline anyway but I was still expecting to see a quality performance that equally matched the quality shit that I was hearing on their albums, Whoracle being my favorite. When I first heard this album, I had never heard anything like it...MELODIC death metal?! The genre has become pretty lame nowadays, but in the early 2000s this shit was essential, and I would make the argument that it completely revived and rejuvenated the dying underground metal scene...for better or for worse. To me, this album had pretty much what I was looking for in a metal band-- memorable, passionate melodies, an aggressive atmosphere, cryptic lyrics...this baby's got it! Also, the instrumental title track goes great with Dungeons and Dragons! I remember one time we must have listened to that song like 30 times in a row when it was the background music to a boss fight during one of our games. Good shit!

Terria - Devin Townsend


This is one of my favorite metal albums of all time because it's one of the most beautiful, but also terrifying albums I've ever heard. I know that's a pretty melodramatic statement to make, but if you haven't heard this album it's difficult for me to describe in words...it would be as if someone were to try to explain what being on psychedelic mushrooms is like or something. Speaking of which, this album is pretty out there...Devin Townsend has definitely done his fair share of crazy drugs, and this album is clearly a product of those experiences. On the one hand, some of the songs are really calm and introspective, like "Down and Under", whereas on the other hand some of the songs are absolutely demented, like "Earth Day" and "Olives". Gene Hoglan's drumming is top-notch as always, Devin Townsend's reverb-drenched guitar playing creates some truly rich, almost "otherworldly" atmospherics. While I don't feel like I completely connect with all of the songs on this album, I still find Terria to be somewhat of a personal album for me in terms of the lyrics and the overall listening experience.


The Bleeding - Cannibal Corpse


Originally, I had "Follow the Reaper" by Children of Bodom on here, but decided to change it to Cannibal Corpse. Anyway, The Bleeding is one of my favorite death metal albums of all time because not only does it have two of my favorite death metal songs ever, "Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead" and "Stripped, Raped, and Strangled", but also it's because of this album that led me to really dig groovy, brutal death metal...especially slam death metal like Devourment and Cemetery Rapist (thank you Metal Inquisition!). I enjoy pretty much all of Cannibal Corpse's releases, but it's this one that sticks out to me the most. While I'm kind of undecided on the whole Chris Barnes vs. Corpsegrinder debate, I feel like this is probably Chris Barnes' best performance. While it's not the most technical or brutal death metal release out there, it's my favorite.


Kings of Metal - Manowar


Honestly, what is there to say about Manowar that hasn't already been said? While I love almost every Manowar album, this one is my favorite of theirs and one of my favorite metal albums ever. Essentially, it's the ultimate metal album-- it's ridiculously epic, unashamedly cheesy, misogynistic, idiotic, and a hell of a lot of fun. Lyrically, they've got everything covered as well! Epic battles, motorcycles, sex slaves, violence, poser-disposing, it's all here folks! Hell, there's even a cover of "Flight of the Bumblebee"...performed on the bass guitar. WHY!?
Absolutely essential. I can't believe there are people out there who claim to like metal but aren't Manowar fans. Give me a fucking break.

Dusk and Her Embrace - Cradle of Filth

I really, REALLY hate to admit it, but I love this album. I'm not the hugest Cradle of Filth fan, but holy shit does this album rule! Yeah, Dani Filth's vocals can get annoying at times, and Nicholas Barker's drums sound laughably weak, but still, this album is an undeniable classic and one of my favorites. I really didn't want to put this album on here because Cradle of Filth come with so much baggage and the band has some of the most irritating fans in the underground metal scene, but if I didn't include it on here this list wouldn't be complete. Also, since I'm laying all my cards on the table, I might as well come out and admit that Dani Filth's lyrics are pretty fucking cool on this album. While he's known for being one of the scene's better lyricists, I feel like it's with this album that Filth is at his Lovecraftian best. While it would be too much to say that he's a modern-day Edgar Allen Poe, check out this album to see what I mean. Besides cool lyrics, for their time Cradle of Filth were actually pretty ballsy to put out albums like this...their flamboyant, "gothic" approach to black metal pissed off a lot of the kvlt elitists. While I may get shit for this, I'm proud to say that I'm a big fan of this and other early Cradle of Filth material.

Kivenkantaja - Moonsorrow


When I first heard this album I just about shit my pants. I had never heard metal so epic, majestic, and adventurous before. While Emperor also could definitely fit this criteria, the thing that got me with Moonsorrow was that it wasn't "evil-sounding"...dark, maybe, but clearly these guys were singing about forests and barbarians, not Satan and cosmic chaos like Emperor and the other black metal bands during this time. That was another thing, also...Moonsorrow aren't a black metal band, so when I heard it I wasn't sure how to describe it. It certainly wasn't black metal or power metal, and yet it seemed to almost fuse those two genres together into something that was incredibly atmospheric, epic, and grandiose, without coming off as too cheesy or goofy. Nowadays, these Epic Viking/Folk Metal bands are everywhere, but when I first heard this album in 2004 I knew that this style was going to be explode and I couldn't wait!

Prowler in the Yard - Pig Destroyer


Originally, I was going to put Blood on Ice by Bathory on here but I decided to replace it with this album. While grindcore isn't my favorite genre of metal, when it's done right it can be absolutely killer and that's how I feel about Prowler in the Yard. The first time I ever read about this album was in Ill Literature, the first metal magazine I ever bought...it was the last issue too. I remember staying up all night pouring over the articles and circling all the reviews of albums that I thought sounded cool. It was by doing this that I found out about Agalloch, Ancient Rites, Katatonia, Marduk, and, of course, Pig Destroyer. At first Prowler in the Yard didn't really sound like my style...back then, if it didn't have atmospheric keyboards or wasn't about wizards or some shit I wouldn't bother to check it out. Also, I couldn't figure out why the band didn't have a bassist! Anyway, when I finally got around to checking this album out I realized the error of my ways. Yeah, I was impressed by the frantic drumming and J.R. Hayes' howling vocals, but what really got me were the lyrics. As a high school kid I was pretty blown away...he was singing about some pretty intense, nightmarish shit. I thought the storyline was pretty cool too, and I loved going on Darklyrics and analyzing the lyrics. With the creepy storyline, dark atmosphere, and some of the most intense grind I've ever heard, this album is definitely one of my all time favorites.


Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk - Emperor


I hate to copy off Judge Dredd, but I'd be lying if I said this wasn't one of my favorite metal albums of all time. I'm not going to say much about this album just because I feel like Judge Dredd put it pretty well in the previous post. If you want insane, majestic, intense symphonic black metal, this is the ultimate album. On a side note, Emperor is probably my favorite metal band name of all time, so it's cool that they happen to also be one of my favorite metal bands.

So there you have it! Since Judge Dredd listed his top ten favorite metal albums of 2009, I think I'll do the same!
In no particular order:

"Cosmogenesis" - Obscura
"The Voice of Steel" - Nokturnal Mortum
"Crack the Skye" - Mastodon
"Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars" - Blut Aus Nord
"S/T" - Amesoeurs
"Ballade cuntre lo Anemi Francor" - Peste Noire
"Tormentizer" - Torment
"Goi, Rode, Goi!" - Arkona
"Across the Dark" - Insomnium
"Privilegivm" - Secrets of the Moon

BOOM!!!