Dissection Old School Death and Darkness Live On Vol. 2

Second installment of the battle vest (added Bathory, Emperor, Vader, Carcass, and Darkthrone)

Total dedication to the old black magic, the bands I grew up with, still worship, and probably will for the rest of my days. The front side ended up being dominated by the Swedes, while the back side is pretty much controlled by the Norwegian Second Wave of Black Metal.

The Dissection backpatch is a combination made from a shaped logo back I purchased on this site and a “Storm of the Light’s Bane” custom patch in black and white, made by a Swedish patch distributor called Cellar Patches. I dedicated the back to this album because I think it’s one of the most mesmerIzing of the genre ever written. It creates an atmosphere unparalleled by others of the same era by equally talented and dedicated musicians. Dissection were a band that perfectly combined alluring harmony with crushing brutality. Everything from the classical acoustic interludes to the chaotic assaults of pure blackened death metal on “Unhallowed” or “Thorns of Crimson Death” blends together into a single cohesive work of pure genius. It creates an arcane, almost medieval aura that I am a total sucker for. R.I.P. Jon Nödtveidt, a champion for the music till the very end.

The Morbid Angel strip is in honor of the album that gave me nightmares as a teen. While “Altars” is still my favorite Angel album, I think the skull wielding a flute that we hear on the “Leading the Rats” section of Blessed are the Sick’s title track is one of the all time coolest motifs and most bad ass classical sections in extreme metal history. And Trey is, of course, a god amongst men. His guitar work continues to inspire me, while Pete “The Feet” was and always will be my favorite drummer in death metal history.

The Mayhem “DMDS” patch is in honor of the band that first got me involved with extreme metal. For me, black metal started with “DEATHCRUSH”. I obsessed over that album and the entire history of the infamous band (hell, I still obsess over this band’s unlikely start and tragic demise today). I drew the band's iconic logo on every school notebook sleeve I could get my hands on. I purchased a copy of the infamous bootleg "Dawn of the Black Hearts" even though seeing that cover artwork kept me awake some nights. Then I got the chance to see the band perform live in 2017... Seeing the remaining members (Necrobutcher, Hellhammer, and Attila) perform the entire DMDS album live was indescribably satisfying and one of the most haunting live experiences of my life. R.I.P. Per Ohlin, the truly disturbed, and Øystein Aarseth, the scene’s single most important hero.

The Immortal “At the heart of winter” patch is dedicated to the band that taught me how to truly appreciate the cold weather. Also, "One by One" was actually the first black metal song I ever heard... it appeared on a compilation disc my father and I picked up and nothing would be the same after that moment. Abbath is not only one of the greatest frontmen for a band, but he’s a reminder that we should never takes ourselves too seriously in life. I hope him and Demonaz work out their long list of differences and tour as Immortal again some day....

The Enslaved pin is dedicated to the band I have seen live the most times (3 so far, 4th coming up!!) These guys never disappoint (and seemingly never age, either) and they’re constantly progressing into stranger territory as a band. Everything from “Vikingligr Veldi” to “Eld” (personal favorite of theirs), “Mardraum” to “Below the Lights” and even the latest offerings are all the result of a dedicated, hard working group of talented musicians. I hope to see these guys performing live for another 20+ years!!

Emperor.... When I first heard “In the Nightside Eclipse” I thought, "there's keyboards... yet this totally slays?!" Now I consider it one of the greatest albums ever produced. Ever. Emperor is probably the only band with a "symphonic" label to their style that I truly love and can take seriously. When I heard “Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk” and proceeded to study it for the next two months straight. “Anthems” is an album saturated with texture, atmosphere, and wonder while still retaining the bleakness of any great black metal album. From front to back, it is one of the most inspiring albums ever created. I first picked up an "Anthems" patch for this jacket but it looked like total shit (and was an official if you can believe that!) so I picked up an official "Reverance" patch because that cover looks cooler anyways and it's a bad ass little EP.

The Darkthrone patch was an easy choice because everyone and their mother already has a "Transylvanian Hunger" patch and that's one of my least favorite 'throne albums anyways. Whereas "Panzerfaust" is a monster of an album that's total riff heaven and total Celtic Frost worship, done in the true Norwegian style. It's such a perfectly cold album and I don't see anyone else showing it any love!

Vader is on here because, well for a few reasons. 1. Their one of the first death metal bands that I got into. 2. They're from Poland and that's important to me. 3. "The Ultimate Incantation" is still one of the most bad ass albums of all time and it's got a KILLER Dan Seagrave cover to match the ferocity of the music.

Choosing just one Bathory patch was really really tough because I could have easily stuck a few goat heads on here. But everyone else already does that. And as much as I love the band’s debut and can’t refute the monumental importance of it for the genres of death and black metal, I just listen to “Blood Fire Death” the most. I prefer it’s grander scale, it’s viking-rich lyrics and battlefield-scale sound. Nothing can compare to tracks like A Fine Day to Die, Holocaust, Pace Til Death, Dies Irae... hell from front to back it’s an unstoppable force. And I love the shroud of mystery behind these early Bathory albums, most particularly “Under The Sign” and this one... were there really other musicians involved or was it another hoax conjured up by the consistently distrustful mastermind of the band? Is there a drum machine used? I happen to think it’s live drumming on this album and they sound ABSOLUTELY CRUSHING. R.I.P. Quorthon, pioneer for the rest of us.

Entombed’s “Clandestine” patch is a funny story because when I first heard this album back in the early ‘00s I absolutely hated it! I was obsessed with “Left Hand Path” already and all the Nihilist demos, but “Clandestine” had a more death ‘n’ roll approach that I couldn’t get into. Also the vocals sounded off after what I was used to. Anyway, maybe a year after, I lent out my copy of LHP to a curious friend in high school... so I was stuck with “Clandestine” when I wanted to hear some good ol’ Entombed. As I listened more and more I developed a huge appreciation for it. Tracks like Sinners Bleed, Crawl, and Stranger Aeons have become some my favorites by the band. Everything from the production quality, to the shred-ripping guitar work and that classic Seagrave artwork suddenly caught my attention. Nowadays I listen to this one more than LHP (and I STILL haven’t gotten my copy back from that POS friend...)

My At The Gates patch will always remind me of my close friend Leo, who was and probably always will be a massive fan of their discography. Before I met him, I loved “Slaughter of the Soul” like any other death-head and remained blind to the rest of their work. He introduced me to “Red in the Sky is Ours” (which he chose as his favorite from the band) and “With Fear I Kiss the Burning Death.” He sat me down and made me listen to these cacophonous monsters with their thousands of cascading guitar riffs, off-kilter structures, agonizing screams, and violins (yeah, fucking VIOLINS)... I remember being mesmerized by those albums after that. There’s something intoxicating, almost addicting about the guitars on those two albums. It’s a feeling that’s completely lost on “Slaughter” (not to take anything away from that masterpiece, it’s just not as moody or atmospheric for me).

Carcass... does anyone really need to explain why they love Carcass? I don't think so. If you reek of putrefaction then you know exactly what I'm talking about.