Aha. Interesting musical happenings have, erm, happened. I recieved a newsletter from an online store this afternoon, detailing information on the new VNV Nation album “Of Faith, Power and Glory”.

“The album features a cover designed by Polish graphic artist Michal Karcz, who also created the artwork for “Judgement”. It is undoubtedly one of his finest works, featuring an image of a monument in the middle of a wasteland, a metaphor for all our greatest hopes and solemn intentions, as well as the brutal extremes that we are capable of, the schizophrenic nature of human beings and the eternal struggle to move forward.

In keeping with the band’s environmental principles, the new CD will come in extremely environmentally friendly packaging, using only recycled paper, vegetable ink and water based glue. Even the print on the CD uses vegetable ink. The packaging weighs 40-50% less than normal packaging which means it uses less fuel when it’s transported, which reduces the carbon footprint of the CD production. The best part is that it looks great too!

Format: Limited CD Digipak
Tracklisting:
01. Pro Victoria
02. Sentinal
03. Tomorrow Never Comes
04. The Great Divide
05. Ghost
06. Art of Conflict
07. In Defiance
08. Verum Aeturnus
09. From My Hands
10. Where Is the Light

Record Label: Anachron Sounds

The album itself is released in Europe on June 19th, with North America catching up on the 23rd

So, last night was a little awesome.

I went to see Combichrist perform at The Robin 2, in Wolverhampton. Supporting acts were Deviant UK (hmm…), Uberbyte (suprisingly good…) and Aesthetic Perfection (also, suprisingly good).

I arrived as Deviant UK were half-way through their set. After one or two of their songs, I decided to find out where the bar was – which turned out to be situated conveniently next to the Merchandise stand. In a rather awesome stroke of luck, I ended up standing next to a Mr Joe Letz – drummer for Combichrist, past live drummer for Wednesday 13, Amen, and Burn Halo. I, rather nervously/haphazardly, asked for a photo. Regardéz:

On reflection, I should have really tried talking to him and asked if we could re-take the photo as it didn’t turn out well. But, I was acting in true taken-aback-with-awe fashion, and did neither of these.

Combichrist were pant-wettingly awesome. No amount of badly-recorded videos and equally-as-bad snapped photos can reflect this – but, nevertheless…

Photo set @ Flickr
Video playlist @ YouTube

They started off with their usual Live intro – Cornbugs’ “Dust and Bones” / answerphone message found as the hidden track on “Today We Are All Demons” / Charlie The Unicorn ‘Candy Cave’ song (which, in itself, is bizarre…) – which ends abruptly with Andy screaming into the the first track of the night – “All Pain Is Gone”. The night itself was a blur, a fantasticly immense blur, and was further perpetuated by an encore – “This Shit Will Fuck You Up’”, and “What The Fuck Is Wrong With You?”.

Stage trashed. Venue sound engineer looking worried. Merchandise bought. Night to remember.

Verdict: uncontrollable amounts of WIN.

So, i’ve decide to start a blog on my own site. Now whether this is down to boredom, sleep deprivation, or just plain-old lunacy – i’ll probably never know…

At the moment  it’s pretty bare, but i’m sure it wont be that way for long. Oh yes.

Be sure to check back regularly for updates