Cooking with Satan

A little homage to one of the greatest photographers of all time, Diane Arbus.
She was known for her black & white photographs of deviant and marginal people, a chronicle of freaks and misfits. If you’re not familiar with her work, you definitely should. Truly, amazingly beautiful.

A few images from Aluk Todolo recent european tour that the band kindly sent me.
Have I ever tell you how AWESOME this band is?

Intense. I can smell from here the stress of the production team…

Founder of Women and Supreme models, Paul Rowland, now creative director at Ford, is also a photographer driven by an “obsession with otherworldliness” and influenced by: “Diane Arbus, Joel-Peter Witkin, Roger Ballen, Francis Bacon, Riccardo Tisci, Morocco, sorcerers, shamans”. One hell of a freak show right? He has shot various things, especially a lot of editorials for V-Magazine, and these polaroids are only the tip of the iceberg but this is most likely where my preference goes. Good stuff.

Paul Rowland website is here.

I heard many things about what you can get at a Eyehategod show. Some were positive, most, as you guessed, were negative. I won’t deny that everyone has his bad days, especially when you’re a bunch of New-Orleans fiends as much famous for your substance abuse and your crime record (we personally don’t give a shit, but the kids like it) than your music, but everybody has its own opinion on what a good show is… So I don’t know for the others (who cares anyway?) but what I saw yesterday was merely one of the best gig I’ve ever seen. Everything was perfect from start to finish. Eyehategod played as if they were just one man, one big hairy menacing sweaty man, granting the hysterical crowd with all his nastiness. If Williams and Bower get the money shots, the guys behind them play tight as hell and deserve as much credit as their bandmates. It was a little bit more than an hour of raw punk energy, bad attitude (that singer is really evil, no doubt about it) and humongous riffing crushing your face right in the dirt. God, it was intense…
Now, the other bands that night… Wait! What other bands are you talking about?

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(pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without permission)

Fuck yes! Punk-rockers, crusties & metal-heads, dogs, open fee at the entrance, 1 € beer, cool merchandizing (home made patches, buttons, even some Hellnation tees!) all in together tonight, D.I.Y or die!!!
The venue is located nearby the river in a trashy fucked-up neighborhood right in the middle of nowhere, a perfect location for the gig as dark clouds gather and a cold rain starts to fall.
After quite some delay, Black Widow (a one-man project by Rob from Grey Daturas (R.I.P) who’s also playing drums with Monarch! tonight) opened the show with monotonous fuzzy drone analogic noise. 15 minutes, a short set that would have been boring if longer. The dude just stopped in time. Not really a consistent opening act, just a small appetizer for the rest to come!
Parisian veterans Desecrator unleashed a juggernaut of ultra-fast messy grind-core punctuated with putrid growls and harsh screams. Classic stuff to say the least. But two barking dogs in the middle of the pit just made it sound cooler than expected! A little bit more craziness would have been appreciated though…
Then Monarch! totally killed it in one very long song haunted by howling delayed vocals slightly taking over this ritual descent. After a good ten minutes of drone, the beat finally sets on a melancholic sabbathian riff that goes on and on. The song finally ends in a rather abrupt way as you happen to expect some kind of climax that would have made the thing perfect. But still an awesome show, all made of skulls, bones and drones. Monarch! rules as kings in the crypt of funeral music. Word.

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(pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without authorization)

It’s actually pretty rare to see a black-metal concert with only worth checking stuff.
Usually there’s always some crappy cheap symphonic act between two bands or even sometimes no good band at all but just a bunch of goofy metalheads muppets wearing bad corpsepaint and playing some kind of fuzzy high-pitched Iron Maiden with synth.
Tonight though, it’s a different story…
I’d suggest you to browse the Metal-Archives to have a better clue about the black-metal hall of fame who were on stage that night but let’s just say that these guys are hugely responsible, through their various musical projects, in the worldwide very known fact that french BM kicks some serious ass (sometimes).
Ok, Aosoth didn’t really impressed me but their show was a decent starter for the evening. Some good tunes but too similar from one to the other. Not totally bad but not really good either…
I was quite curious to see Blacklodge live as their industrial black-metal fueled on narcotics (Mysticum anyone?) is quite the shit on record. Good stage presence, all dressed in the same uniform, and awesome vocals (that reminded me of Master’s Hammer for some reason) but unfortunately too messy to really catch the brilliantness of their music. Some parts were totally insane, and totally appropriate to put you in a trance-like state, as some others were drown in the echoes of a fainting drum machine. Enough highlights though to enjoy the performance enhanced by Shantidas (from Aluk Todolo/Diamatregon/Obscure) visuals, mixed live on some good old cathodic screens. A better live sound would have certainly helped them out.
Then Hell Militia, leaded by the mighty Willy (also known as Meyhna’ch) took over the stage and literally torch the place with their merciless black assault. Nothing but very conservative black-metal at its best empowered by a very charismatic leader. The man got some consistence for sure. Very good response from the crowd (not too big by the way, a little bit over a hundred) as well, some moshpit here and there, and a pretty good conclusion with a GG Allin cover (I might be wrong here by the way). Badass as fuck!
In conclusion, this was probably the best black-metal concert I’ve seen in ages. Hands down to Blacklodge for the originality of their music and Hell Militia for a merciless show.
Alcest was playing the very next day, I’m glad I’d fixed my mind on that one instead.

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(pictures by Cooking with Satan, do not use without authorization)

“Livraison” is a brilliant swedish creation, half book, half magazine, artistically directed by the designers duo Sandberg & Timonen that I had the chance to met at the “Live Alive” opening. To quote the authors, the intention behind “Livraison” is to “focus on individual expressions and concepts rather than popular ideas, as dictated by the media mob. Each issue of Livraison is based on a theme, a question, which we aim to push forward.”
They have released four issues so far and this is one of the most interesting thing i’ve seen in art & fashion books… Have a look.

Get some “Livraison” here

Fresh street art from Brooklyn. Pictures by me.

The Aincourt sanatorium is located in the Vexin county, approximately 2 hours from Paris. It was built in the 30’s and it’s composed of three huge buildings (built identical) lost in the middle of a giant park (called “site de la Bucaille”). This is one of the biggest sanatorium ever built (on such short notice) during the XXth century.
During WWII, the sanatorium was used as a prison by german troops. War prisoners were sent over to various concentration camps from here.
The original purpose of this sanatorium was to cure tuberculosis and provide good light and fresh air to the patients, but as the disease decreased through the years, the first building closed about 20 years ago. The second building only closed in 2001. The third building remains active today. There’s nothing much left in the first two buildings, both places have been quite devastated in a short amount of time, but there’s still this ghostly presence floating around as you explore the empty rooms and climb up the stairs to the rooftop. Enjoy the walk.

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Just staring at me…
I found him today at the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris.
Truly awesome.