A 10000 word thesis on the development of black metal, using a maximum of 3-4 songs as examples (and citing a whole lot more, I assume). Possible? Or is this more of a 25k thing with more examples?
With black metal I feel it'd be hard enough to sum it up with 10 bands/songs, though it's not so much about summing up BM as a whole as it is showing how the genre has developed throughout history to become one of the more progressive music genres.

Whether or not you consider black metal one of the more progressive genres really depends on how broad your definition of the genre is. In any case, 10.000words is more than enough space to go through the history and development of black metal. Curious as to why you can't have more examples, though.

A couple of other fun news, for me, is that I'll be seeing Ulver tomorrow (the former metal band) and Meshuggah next saturday. Meshuggah are one of the headliners of this year's Inferno festival and will be the last band to play, if I remember correct. I'll probably catch Pentagram and Napalm Death too, though I haven't listened a whole lot to either.

Loomis and Van Williams quit Nevermore, which means I'll either be seeing Nevermore without Loomis or I won't be seeing them at all.

Just read it myself. It really sucks cause I didn't grab the opportunity to see them the times I've had a chance. Let's face it, Nevermore without the guitarist and drummer just isn't Nevermore. Warrel Dane can't carry that banner by himself, though I admit I enjoyed a few tracks on his solo release.

By the way. At what point did this forum become a place where only extreme metal was ever worth discussing?

When all the non-extreme metal people disappeared.

Completely agree.

I've been getting into Lunatic Gods recently.
Really interesting sound, kinda a mix of Lykathea Aflame and Sigh- wacky, but very eastern-European.

So Dream Theater's hunt for a new drummer ended up with aquiring Mike Mangini. It also produced a three-episode reality show of how the process went, starting with episode 1 here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L609JsPF ... r_embedded

I can't watch Marco Minnemann without smiling.

So is edit: Soulside Journey actually a good album? Or do people retroactively like it because of Transilvanian Hunger?

You mean the demo? Yes, it's good. I know people who hate Darkthone's black metal stuff, but enjoy their early death metal works. I myself find TH to be the weakest of Darkthrone's first five albums.

Who cares if less people would have payed attention to it if it wasn't linked to Darkthrone? If it's good, it's good, and it's likely that they'd get at least as much attention as bands like Jumpin' Jesus and Dr. Shrinker anyway (i.e. attention from death metal fans who know that there are hidden gems that are overlooked by the metal media). Sometimes early demos and EP's of the bands or related bands turn out to be better than the actual albums that get all the attention. For example, Nihilist > Entombed.

Shit, I mean Soulside Journey.

That's what I thought. It's not as good as many forgotten "old school death metal gems", and a bit overrated, but it's still well executed death metal (though I would have liked it to be a bit rawer). You probably won't like it if you're not into the Swedish death metal stuff like Dismember, otherwise it's pretty solid.