Types of Horror Vol. II : Artwork of Aborteds' Terrorvision by Par Olofsson

 

One of the most catchy and brutal records of the death metal genre to have come in the last few years is Aborteds’ Terrorvision, in my opinion, special due to the concept that permeates the albums’ lyrics and artwork.

 

For this essay I am going to focus on the artwork of said record, courtesy of Par Olofsson, because once you look past the huge monsters in live colours on the package itself and open the booklet, you are granted with images of gore, but with references to the numbness brought on by the excessive use of smartphones, as most of the people depicted are zombie-like staring at their phones, even as they are pierced by the talons of the horrifying monsters that appear on the cover.

Gore and artwork reminiscent of John Carpenters’ “They Live”, serves as both caution and illustration of the Terrorvision depicted throughout the album by Sven and his very competent bandmates.

As for the music itself, the album is a relentless assault of aggressive music and very gory and elaborated lyrics, highly recommended to fans of death metal, but not for those who aren’t familiar with the genre, closer “entry point” records can be found in other albuns.

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To support Par Olofsson: http://www.parolofsson.se/

To support Aborted: https://goremageddon.be/shop/

 

Armageddon “Captivity and Devourment”

 

It’s been a few years since Christopher Amott left Arch Enemy to reactivate his side project, Armagedon, only to release an álbum of originals and a re-recording of the debut and put the project to rest once again. Captivity and Devourment was released in 2014 and is a record that I occasionally have listenned to, always finding new things about it that are amazing.

From the solos to the amazing drum work of guest Nick Bunczk, the album is death metal as its’ most eclectic. Christopher Amotts’ guitar playing and soloing on “Equalizer” are a good example, reminding me of Dave Mustaine, also on the same track the vocals switch seamlessly between clean and harsh courtesy of Matt Halquist. The single which lead me to buy this album, Fugitive Dust, contains some of the best bass marching lines that lead the song with the solos being seamless and technically rich, are incredibly catchy.

All in all, a good album that showed what paths this band could have followed if it had continued, in fact only a re-recording of the debut album was released with a new lineup (Crossing the Rubicon Revisited) and eventually a band featuring members of both incarnations of Armageddon would go on to become the trio Daughter Chaos with compositions that feature also Chris Amott and soloist Joey Concépcion.

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PS: Since the writing credits on all but one track are split between bassist Sara Claudius and leader Christopher Amott, I’ll leave here connections to their current projects:

Daughter Chaos (spiritual sucessor of this band): https://daughterchaos.bandcamp.com/album/daughter-chaos

Dark Tranquility (Christophers’ current band): https://www.darktranquillity.com/#merch

Types of Horror vol. I: “The Blackcoats’ Daughter” (aka “February”)

 

One of my most viewed type of movies is horror movies, since it is a genre that can encapsulate everything from psycological thrillers to b-movie gore type of movies, at least in my opinion.

One the most recent movies that I saw that can entangle the viewer in many ways is “The Blackcoats’ Daughter”, a movie which I can’t really get into the plot without spoiling, so I’ll give my opinion on what I felt was the overarching theme of the movie. In a very short summary, the movie takes place in a private school for girls and tells a story that is seen from two perspectives from two characters, with the third of the characters serving as a bookend for the story. It follows the same logic of storytelling found in the Alexandria Quartet, excluding the last book. It’s also told in a non-linear way switching between the three characters.

This debut by Canadian director Oz Perkins to me represents the horror of loneliness, and the dangers that come from what happens for someone who is left to one’s own devices without any support to manage that, especially at a very young age. It is, thus, a horror movie, but not one that scares the viewer outright, but rather swallows him/her in the torment of the characters and leaves one in a very uncomfortable state at the end.

Many questions linger at the end, like if there is a supernatural element present at all, or is it just the characters’ way of coping with being alone? Is the path chosen by one of the characters, to surrender to something horrible in order not to feel alone really worth it?

In conclusion, I believe it is a movie that deserves to be watched, for the mood it establishes, whether by use of light or music, constantly keeps the viewer in a sense of dread, but not for cheap results; in the end it leaves the viewer thinking about its’ story and characters, which is a very rewarding accomplishment in itself.