Christophe Szpajdel’s metal logos
Chances are, if you’re into metal at all, you’ve seen some of Christophe Szpajdel’s work. The Belgian forestry engineer has designed some of the genre’s most recognizable logos – Emperor, Borknagar, Old Man’s Child, and Enthroned among many others. A recent Vice Magazine spread elicited some pretty ignorant responses deriding his designs as unreadable. What the uninitiated fail to comprehend, however, is that heavy metal logos say everything one needs to know about a band (whether they’re thrash, death, black, or grindcore, and whether they’re Satanic, pagan, punk influenced, neo-Nazi, or humor-driven), and sometimes illegibility is the whole point.


Tagged: heavy metal, logos
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Varg Vikernes, aka Burzum, finally emerged from prison last year and immediately set to work recording a new album. Half the metal world has waited with bated breath to see whether post-prison Burzum would be a continuation of the strange, awkward, ‘ambient’ sound Vikernes developed while incarcerated, or would it be a return to the genre that he helped pioneer. Turns out, old Varg has picked up right where he left off seventeen years ago, screeching his bearded head off as if he were a church-burning teenager again. Good to see the old Count Grishnackh back! Seriously, though, this is a great album.
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Nathan Vincent knits and crochets stereotypically male images — guns, mounted animal heads, John Deere logos, lawnmowers — to make a comment about the gender assumptions specific to certain crafts. Read more
Winny Puhh, the clowns of Estonian heavy metal
The Estonian heavy metal ensemble Winny Puhh was born in 2004 in the city of Polva. Their big hit was Noodles and the Victory of the Sour Milk, a hit from 2006. Now you can watch the video clip of their song Peegelporand, directed by Ove Musting [below]. Read more
Also by GERRY MAK
I had to put up with some seriously obnoxious jocks and drunken highschool kids at a recent show featuring flavor-of-the-moment acts that did the whole ecstatic, 80s electro thing that’s so popular these days. Lots of fluorescent colors. I had to blast some death freaking metal when I got home, and Hooded Menace fit the bill perfectly with their doom-leaning, aural assault. Nothing pisses me off more than tepid, uninspired music, and nothing makes me feel more alive than real, gut-wrenching, skull-pounding, giddily sinister heavy metal.
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The bad boy persona in the art world is still alive and well in Australian-born painter and installation artist Anthony Lister. Posing for most photos slumped below his work, cigarette dangling from his lips, Lister is the latest in a long line of somewhat deviant figures in the art world. His work, which generally features superheroes — ‘misguided role models,’ as Lister puts it — has a jerky geometry to them, yet simultaneously a gestural quality reminiscent of 80s art deco, fitting with Lister’s ‘impulsive genius’ image and suggesting a bit of a nod to the cocaine-dusted, heroin-soaked downtown New York scene of 30 years ago. Read more
Heeb magazine founder Jennifer Bleyer recently interviewed me for an article about young creative types on food stamps. The editors at Salon.com decided that I am a hipster. I don’t really know what that means. Judging by the comments that the article generated, I’m some sort of lazy bum who can’t give up my artisinal chevre. I don’t need to go into detail defending my food choices, but all I’d like to say is that I try to buy healthy foods at the lowest prices. I never eat out. I love to cook, and I really need to control what goes into my food, so I cook every meal for myself. I often share with friends. I want to be healthy and I want my friends to be healthy because none of us have health care. Read more
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Way back in the ’90s, Eric Conveys and Emotion asked visitors to submit emotions for site owner Eric Wu to act out. Around the same time Wu’s website petered out, illustrator Adam Culbert, aka Sam Brown, launched explodingdog, a site on which people submit sentences for Culbert to illustrate in his hilariously crude style. The site is still going strong, averaging about three new illustrations a week. Read more
Using a chemical free philosophy, Skinny Nelson and Friends is an androgynous, eco label, the creation of Sydney-based designers Zachary Midalia and Jacqui Alexander.
Breathing Earth is a morbid reference website that’s simply a flash map that tells you a country’s population, birth and death rates, and how much CO2 it emits. Read more
Jell-O! Liz Hickok’s latest artworks are based on a colourful, wobbly, mini San Francisco. Read more
Kirk brings Molly to meet his family for a pool party but she doesn’t have her swim suit. Kirk, an average Joe, can’t believe his luck when gorgeous babe Molly falls for him even though he’s the first to admit She’s Out of My League. In cinemas April 1.
As a non-coffee drinker, I’m not going to rant about the coffee. I’ve heard, though, that the coffee is damn good. But I am going to talk about something else: food. Oh. My. God. Sydney’s Single Origin cafe have this awesome meatloaf sandwich and a raft of sourdoughs and prosciutto and roast lamb and chevre and chunky steak pies and yogurt with compote and four-cheese toasties and baked beans and … oh! Don’t forget Karlie’s special homemade lemonade! Karlie is always in the house so you know that it doesn’t come from a can and arrives at your table with that sour tang that reminds you of the annual Royal Easter Show. Everything they serve is created ethically and organically. Add the constant grinding aroma of coffee beans wafting through the air and, well, is there any other place to be? [photo by Daniel Boud]
The Sound of Animals Fighting again unleash their experimental blend of progressive electronic hardcore rock. Known only by their animal names — Nightingale, Walrus, Lynx, and Skunk — and wearing masks for their rare live appearances, TSOAF have released two albums. Their latest, The Ocean and The Sun, offers an intense mix of genres, as delicate Brazilian-inflected melodies careen into shattering guitar workouts.
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Kate Banazi’s silkscreen artwork
A three-lettered ‘wow’ explodes in my mind whenever I look at the work of Sydney-based silkscreen artist Kate Banazi. Her latest work is fantastically dynamic, stylistic and abstract, making clever use of colour-bomb palettes. Read more
Amazing cake designs by Charm City Cakes
Baltimore company Charm City Cakes produces the most innovative wedding and party cakes on the market. Inspiration for these creative bakers comes from everywhere: art, fabric, furniture, architecture, landscapes, science, and music, and each cake is individually designed to match your personality, and the theme of the occasion you are celebrating. Don’t miss these cakey engineering masterpieces. Read more
Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more
Greek/Italian artist Angelo Plassas creates flash- based websites that are each interactive pieces of art unto themselves. Read more
Check out Mike Stimpson’s Lego reinterpretations of classic photographs. Stimpson’s version of Malcolm Browne’s iconic 1963 photograph of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc is particularly twisted. Read more
A three-lettered ‘wow’ explodes in my mind whenever I look at the work of Sydney-based silkscreen artist Kate Banazi. Her latest work is fantastically dynamic, stylistic and abstract, making clever use of colour-bomb palettes. Read more
The new Runaways movie looks at the formation of the seminal girls’ group which spawned Joan Jett’s career. We have a Runaways prize pack to give away, including Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway, the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Greatest Hits CD, the film’s soundtrack, and Joan Jett’s photobook with Todd Oldham. To enter, just leave the name of the city you live in! Read more
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