Mondo Bungle

Xothist - Simulacrum

This is a hefty slab. Dense atmospheric black metal, a mass of distortion by the guitars, an otherworldy atmosphere. More of that spacey stuff. It all runs together to create an astral void of bleakness. Unbelievably raw too. Darkwave influences can be found. Quiet vocals buried underneath that thick wall. I love it when a tremolo riff is so raw, you can barely hear the tremolos, but you hear that amazing melody they create. Catharsis personified.

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Mondo Bungle

Paysage d'Hiver

This is one of, if not my number one favorite black metal project. A one man band by Swiss musician/label owner Wintherr. The name translates to "winter landscape", and take all the common and defining aspects of black metal to the extreme. When it's lo-fi, it's inhumanly raw. When it stretches a song with repetition based around minimalism, it goes for 20 minutes. When it's cold, it's literally samples of icy blizzard-esque winds. Everything about this project completely embodies what this whole journal special is all about.



Though (in my honest opinion) none of these albums are anything short of a masterpiece, I maintain the self titled as my favorite, and the best starting place for anyone. When that violin comes into the first track... Pretty much one of the best things music has to offer.


Darkspace

Darkspace are Wintherr's other project, and a relatively different feeling is present in it's output. Much in the way of all those "spacey" bands mentioned before, but pretty much the king of them all. Instead of blizzard soundscapes of the Winter, Darkspace uses synths and samples to create vast psychedelic soundscapes. as for the metal aspect, the sound is fairly similar in regard to lengthy repetition and rawness, but Darkspace manage to be much heavier. Paysage sticks with airy tremolos a lot, but Darkspace bust out some ultra heavy crunchers and some massive chugs, evident pretty quick in this album. And they come out so well.

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Mondo Bungle

Let's take a stroll through Fallen Empire Records

Music | Fallen Empire Records

This is a label specializing in some seriously kvlt stuff.

Current roster:

Arnaut Pavle
Aureole
Axis of Light
Death Fortress
Endlichkeit
Eos
Lluvia
Serpents Lair
Skáphe
Tardigrada
Vorde
Xothist

A major force in the raw and/or atmospheric black metal scene.

Standouts:

Two song ****. Reckless business.
Adversarialism | Fallen Empire Records

This has the black punk swagger like Bone Awl, Raspberry Bulbs, or Ildjarn. One of my favorites of the style. Short and sweet, raw and fierce, but still managing to be catchy.
Arnaut Pavle | Fallen Empire Records

Asphyxiating black metal is right. This is dense, atmospheric, and mind compressing. They pull of the claustrophobic feel like no other. Underground, and by that I mean literally underground, like caverns of rawness
https://skaphe.bandcamp.com/album/sk-phe

Endlichkeit might be top for me. Even if just atmospheric black metal, they are a great listen, and super consistent. Wolves in the Throne room vibe almost. Minimalistic riffs and repetition. This is also how I think black metal vocals should be. Clearly audible, but low in the mix for that distant feeling. The vocals are airy and and spot on.
https://endlichkeit.bandcamp.com/alb...lichkeit-iii-v

Goofle knows this one.
https://misthyrming.bandcamp.com/alb...-elds-og-rei-u

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grindy

Quickly zapped through those albums and loved a lot of it.
Never heard any of them before. Thanks!

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Trollheart

I don't know if you even care, but I just wanted you to know I read your entries and you did a great job. I'm a bit surprised the likes of Batty, mythsofmetal and Frown aren't commenting here, but that's their business I guess. I know when I write, and put a lot of thought and energy into my pieces, I like to think someone is reading and maybe will be moved enough to respond. So here's a response.

I'm sure loads of people did read, and are still doing so, as you have a very descriptive turn of phrase and can certainly evoke the right mood with your writing. Great work!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Tristan_Geoff

I second Trollheart. This is probably the most varied and interesting thread on MB (at least that I read frequently). Sorry about your struggles with homelessness a few posts ago, I wish you luck.

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YW Fam: All MB Music Projects Under One Roof

Emo/Pop Punk Journal

Techno Journal

Mondo Bungle

Psh those few posts were a while ago, and I assume were discussing a time even before that. Check out my Odyssey (I'm very far behind)

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Mondo Bungle

No computer access but here's on of the best black metal artists to listen to

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Mondo Bungle

There's something about it...

The winter...

Isolation...

Solitude...

In my town, there's no shortage of deep woods. Almost at every turn. I've never felt so at ease within them, within winter. The urban sounds of cars and machinery gone... It is silent. A deep and reflective silence. Return to your primal state if not just for a moment.

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Mondo Bungle

A story in progress

Searching for a Close Friend part 1

It was a period of just three days from meeting him to the moment when he’d ultimately decided to leave. I can’t blame him though. It goes to show you that we’re all talk, and those who follow through have the rest of us bewildered, completely dumbfounded. He did what? Really? The words would be repeated until all meaning. Yeah, he did. What did you expect? He was the closest friend I’d ever had and surely ever will. He was everything I am and everything I’m not all at the same time. He was perfect. I’m so vain. All I wanted was myself, and someone confident in being that. I Know I wasn’t, not at all. But he was. He was confident in myself, and I’d never known the feeling. True to his word he left us. I envy him. I would know no other. If no one misses you, you’d thrive even more. But I hope you know that I miss you, more than I can express. You still walk beside me, within me, you reflect in the mirror. I’d never know true solitude as long as I remember you.

On a pale December afternoon, I walked home the from the last day of school before the weekend. Overhead, soft and foggy clouds joined together to blanket the sky in grey. Before my eyes danced a lone snowflake, the first I’d seen this year. With a nimble subtlety, it fell slowly and gracefully. It continued to dance for me, as if asking me to join. “I’m not a good dancer.” I said quietly to the snowflake. It would remain with me until it hit the ground, and more slowly followed. Cold but not unpleasant, the air wanted me to stay. By now I’d made it to my hotel and stood outside my room. Once inside, this day is over. Everything that happened today gone, as if it never happened at all. I’ll stay in this room for the weekend, alone or with my parents. No feelings from today. I’d be left just with a crippling indifference. Feeling somewhere in between woefully alive or blissfully deceased, yet still far from either. As more snowflakes danced to the ground and I adjusted to the cold, I walked past my room. I knew of an often empty meadow nearby that I enjoy spending time in alone, and made for that direction. Not even ten minutes away, I came here often. It was far enough from the street that the sounds of traffic were muffled or totally silenced. It was generally peaceful.

I came to the area and walked through a clearing in the bushes, on a trail that led from one side of the meadow to the other. It opened up wide after about a football field’s length. There was a group of large boulders here that I went to sit on. Alone on the rocks, I observed nature’s nuances. The slight swaying of tree branches in the odd breeze, leaves rustling and falling. I was silent and still. I didn’t want to disrupt anything. I’m always that way. I feel so insignificant and unimportant that nothing meaningful could ever come from my actions. I try not to interfere with the world around me, it’s bad enough I’m here as it is. I often feel that I don’t deserve it. It’s not meant for me, or vice versa. It’s meant for successful people, popular people, people doing what people have to do, and doing it right.I’m not any of that. Here I sit, alone, no goals, no prospects, nothing on the horizon, and no one. Life should be a reward for those other people, but they don’t see it that way. They take it for granted. Instead it becomes a punishment for me. My state of mind deteriorates each minute, into a lukewarm puddle of a once strong and confident snowman. But he stood through many days and nights with ease. He once felt strong and surrounded by loved ones. The might still be somewhere near, but the snowman has since melted and he cannot see them. Just a puddle of water. It’s hard to see anything when you are but a puddle. It’s hard to move, it’s hard not to move. But most of all, it’s hard to feel. The puddle is alone no matter its size. Even a lake is just a large puddle being taken advantage of. I wonder if lakes enjoy people swimming in them, or if they are disturbed by the fact that they barely serve any functions. Well, that’s not true, the lake is a source of water and not a friend. The puddle is less than the lake. The puddle is a nuisance. Children who splash in the puddles don’t know where they’re from or what’s inside. They splash in the sad remains of that snowman. The puddle will evaporate soon, and no one will miss it, no one will notice. Because the puddle is nothing. The puddle is a representation of a beautiful occurrence that has since ended, leaving just a small splash of water. If not evaporated, it will soak into the Earth to nourish the area around it. The puddle’s purpose exists in it’s demise. I will serve the world better once I am gone and forgotten.

Alone, watching the trees converse and squirrels and small rabbits run. But still they stop near each other. Don’t flee from me, I am not your predator. I am much larger than you physically, but just as small inside. If I could tell you, I would, although I don’t think you’d believe me. The world has made us untrustworthy of everything and everyone aside from those most similar to us. But I am no predator. If anything, I envy you. You can do everything I can’t and can unattach yourself from anything without any doubt. You can leave. You can give it all up so easily if it doesn’t work.

The animals scurry away from the trail as a young man makes his way through the clearing, same as I had. “Great,” I thought, “Company.” He came through slowly but surely. I didn’t want to interact, but I wouldn’t avoid it.

“Are you cold out here?” He asked.

“A little bit. It’s not bad.”

“By yourself?” You don’t know the half of it, I thought.

“Yeah, just me. Didn’t want to go home at the moment.” He stopped when he came to the rocks. After a brief pause, he spoke again.

“The weather seems to reflect from within us. Here we are with a grey day for our grey feelings. And there is just the slightest snowfall. It’s change. Seasons changing. It starts out small.” I nodded silently. “But a very large storm is on the horizon. Storms are nasty for people, but beneficial for the rest of the world.” Pause. “I normally come in here because most of the time it’s unpopulated and peaceful. Are you doing the same?”

“Yeah, I guess. This is what I’d be doing at home anyway.”

“Lame.” He said. I shrugged. “I’m going to walk through a bit, I’ll let you to be.” This felt like one of those opportunities to make a friend that I always blow.

“I’m actually walking in too. I need to go that way anyway..” Not that my hotel was on on the way, but it still led back to the road. I hopped down off the rocks. This boy and I were probably no less than two years apart.

“Go to school today?” He asked.

“Yeah.”

“How was it?”

“You’ve been to school before, haven’t you?”

“Not for a while.”

“I’m sure it hasn’t changed.”

“I dropped out of high school during my sophomore year. It didn’t do anything for me.” I thought back to my own sophomore year when I had considered doing the same. But of course, I couldn’t commit. I was back in class in a week.

We didn’t talk much as we progressed through the meadow. We each watched our surroundings as we passed them, side by side. My new acquaintance would break the silence. “Do you have any plans this weekend?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

“Maybe we could hang out? If you want, I don’t have anything going on either.”

“Sure.” I said passively.

“Sweet. I’ll give you my number, or you can give me yours, I’ll just give you a text so we both will know each other’s.” He pulled a cellphone from his pocket. “Alright.” He said, then I gave him my number as he punched it in. Then I felt mine buzz in my pocket. I had one message from him. No one else. “Alright, we’re in business.” He said. We were approaching the end of the trail and the entrance to some residential area. We stopped before stepping onto the paved road. “Well, I’m going this way.” He said, pointing in the opposite direction I was headed.

“Alright, man. I’ll call you tomorrow or something. Take it easy.” We waved and began our separate ways home.

I’d have to walk for a little bit before getting on the street to circle back to the hotel. “Cool.” I said to myself. “Someone to hang out with. Could be nice.” My phone was still in my hand. No new messages from anyone else, and there hadn’t been for some time now. This wasn’t for lack of trying on my end. I must not deserve a response, I thought, jumping to the “everyone hates me” card right away as usual. Sure, no one talks to me, but I don’t make it any better when I think the ways I do. They’re ignoring me, they hate talking to me, they don’t want me in their life. Get over yourself, you crybaby. I have to make everything about me, good or bad. It’s somehow always something to do with me. People can’t have their own lives and problems. I have to one-up their grief. I’m so selfish. Still, it brings me great sorrow and emptiness. I don’t exactly have a lot of time to talk to people (due to not having the means, nothing to do with a schedule), so in the time that I do, it would mean a lot to me. So when I’m left hanging, I get real depressed. Maybe next time, I tell myself, next time they’ll be free or feeling better. Right now’s not a good time. Next time comes around and I tell myself the same thing, over and over. Next time. Next time. Oh, maybe next time? We haven’t talked in weeks, maybe you’ll feel like it next time? You still don’t want to. That’s fine, I’ll try next time.

The individual only knows themself, and it creates negative feelings inside. Because you don’t understand anyone else, you can only beat yourself up. I think we’re all inherently selfish like this. Because it’s easy, we feel the need to blame something, and it’s always ourselves in the end. We know ourselves better than anyone else and it’s easiest to blame yourself. You’re your own punching bag. I don’t know if my need to be worse off than everyone is shared by others, though. It seems a bit weird. And it doesn’t make a difference when everyone’s hardships are completely subjective and personal.. There’s no comparison, really. Moods don’t go up and down from person to person, but side to side. In that sense, there’s no magnitude of certain feelings, because they’re different for everyone else. The depression I feel doesn’t relate to people’s reasons for not talking to me. Still, it’s disappointing, you know? To reach out but grab no hand. So you’re left alone in a deep hole of self loathing, and no one is here to help you out. At least, I want affirmation. I end up falling into the hole for no reason. When it’s up to you to figure out on your own why it’s happening to you, you jump to the worst possible conclusions. Without acknowledgment or affirmation, you’re left thinking that you don’t even deserve it. But alas, I am melodramatic and manic, giving myself the ideas that people don’t want me in their lives, and not knowing otherwise just makes it worse.

I walked down the road as snow continued to trickle. It was too warm to stick, so each one would soon fade. A smaller puddle. From birth, to the descent, to death. The flake’s life is short and unimportant. They are released from the clouds for a short while, and slowly fall, losing mass each passing second. Then they land, they are barely anything anymore. A shell of what they used to be, alone to die without meaning. They’re martyrs, sacrificing their lives to prolong and exponentiate their immediate habitat. Being alive, I am worthless. The time will come to finally serve a purpose, when I fertilize the soil with my bodily elements, or maybe become a meal for some hungry animal. They will be fed and nourished after I’ve passed. The ground will be livelier and the grass greener when I’m gone.

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