| Neonism | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Cover to 2007 reissue and later editions | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | December 7, 1999 | |||
| Recorded | Autumn 1998 at Sunlight Studios, Stockholm, Sweden | |||
| Genre | Avant-garde metal, black metal | |||
| Length | 50:11 | |||
| Label | Avantgarde Music | |||
| Producer | Solefald | |||
| Solefald chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| Chronicles of Chaos | 6/10 [2] |
Neonism is the second studio album by Norwegian avant-garde metal band Solefald. It was released on 7 December 1999, through Avantgarde Music.
The album takes its name from a synonym for the word "neologism",[ citation needed ] which means a made-up word which enters everyday use.
The album's recording sessions were marred by a mixing console that caught fire. [3]
On the sound of the album, band member Cornelius said, "The hard will be harder, the passion will be more passionate, the ecstatic more ecstatic." [2] The band wanted to utilise a "true black metal production" sound, having it recorded at Sunlight Studios (home to many reputed black metal acts in the mid 90s).[ citation needed ]
The album expands upon their debut The Linear Scaffold by bringing a concept to the unique sound. It is in theory a black metal album, but contains many sonic elements and themes the genre usually does not touch on. [1] The vocals by Cornelius and Lazare are different on this album than the first; though Lazare retains his clean singing and Cornelius continues his black metal screams/growls, some are delivered in a rap-like cadence and one song, "Omnipolis", is sung in French. Some songs feature keyboards and electronic sounds unlike those typically used in other black metal songs. Indeed, the album was so far from traditional black metal, the band received a death threat. [4]
Although there is some thematic continuity between songs, the album is not as strictly a concept album as some of the band's later works. The lyrics to the album focus on consumerism and pop culture, which is a departure from many metal lyrics. American and European consumption seem to be targeted, as there are countless references to many brands and consumer icons throughout the record, including Naomi Campbell, The Marlboro Man, Coco Chanel, Calvin Klein, Disneyland, Prozac, Tom Cruise, Special Agent Dale Cooper, James Bond, Jurassic Park , Visa cards, McDonald's and Michael Jordan. There are also references to philosophers and thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Plato, Friedrich Nietzsche and Niccolò Machiavelli, as well as references to various religious allusions, such as Gaia, Noah, Sodoma, "Satanistan", etc. [1]
Summoning is an Austrian black metal band based in Vienna. Since their formation in 1993 they have released eight albums and two EPs on Napalm Records. Their lyrics make extensive use of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth writings and mythology. Since 1995, their lineup has had a consistent lineup of musicians Silenius and Protector. The band has never performed live and has consistently maintained that they have no interest in ever doing so. Their latest album "With Doom We Come" was released on 5 January 2018.
Vintersorg is a Swedish band from Skellefteå, formed in 1994 under the name Vargatron. Musically, Vintersorg has covered a wide number of heavy metal genres; while the band is mostly rooted in extreme metal styles, particularly black metal and Viking/folk metal, it has also expanded into progressive metal and avant-garde metal. Lyrically, the band deals with topics on fantasy, mythology, nature, the cosmos, and metaphysics. Vintersorg means "Winter Sorrow," but the name was taken from The Legend of the Ice People series by Margit Sandemo, where the character Vintersorg is the son of a great pagan leader.
A number of heavy metal genres have developed since the emergence of heavy metal during the late 1960s and early 1970s. At times, heavy metal genres may overlap or are difficult to distinguish, but they can be identified by a number of traits. They may differ in terms of instrumentation, tempo, song structure, vocal style, lyrics, guitar playing style, drumming style, and so on.
Lars Are Nedland, known also as Lazare, from Kristiansand, Norway, is the vocalist, drummer, and keyboardist for acclaimed avant-garde black metal band Solefald. He is also keyboardist for the progressive black metal act Borknagar. He composes much of the music and all the arrangements for violin and cello on the Solefald albums, Red for Fire: An Icelandic Odyssey Part 1 and Black For Death: An Icelandic Odyssey Part 2. He also has written some lyrics for the band, including the songs "04.34 pm", "Fluorescent", and "White Frost Queen." He and vocalist/guitarist/bassist/main lyricist Cornelius Jakhelln started Solefald in August 1995.
Solefald is a Norwegian avant-garde metal/black metal band that was formed by members Lars Are "Lazare" Nedland and Cornelius Jakhelln in August 1995, with Nedland singing and playing keyboard/synthesizer/piano and drums, and Jakhelln singing and playing guitar and bass. The duo experiment with a wide array of musical styles, frequently work on other projects, and rarely perform live under the Solefald name, leading them to describe themselves as "two stubborn goats pretending to be a band." According to the duo, their name is an Old Norse word for "sunset," taken from one of Theodor Kittelsen's paintings illustrating a poem of the same name by Theodor Caspari, published in the 1901 book Vintereventyr.
Black Shining Leather is the debut studio album by Norwegian black metal band Carpathian Forest. It was released in 1998 through Avantgarde Music, and re-issued in 2007 by Peaceville Records via digipak format.
Ram-Zet is an extreme metal/avant-garde metal band formed in Hamar, Norway in 1998.
Pills Against the Ageless Ills is the third studio album by Norwegian avant-garde metal band Solefald. It was released on 19 September 2001, and is their first album under the Century Media label. It is a concept album, following the story of two brothers, Philosopher Fuck and Pornographer Cain.
In Harmonia Universali is the fourth studio album by Norwegian avant-garde metal band Solefald. It was released on 24 March 2003, and their last record released under the Century Media label. The album features lyrics sung in four languages: English, Norwegian, French and German.
Cornelius Jakhelln, also known as Cornelius von Jackhelln, is a Norwegian vocalist, guitarist, musician, writer and poet.
Sturmgeist is an experimental black/thrash metal band formed by Cornelius Jakhelln in 2002.
Oath Bound is the sixth full-length album by Summoning. Not counting certain pieces from the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings, "Mirdautas Vras" is the first song ever to be written entirely in the Black Speech of Mordor. The songs "Might and Glory" and "Land of the Dead" both feature a self-sung choir chorus similar to that which was used on the Let Mortal Heroes Sing Your Fame song "Farewell". Being 21 seconds longer than Dol Guldur, this album was Summoning's longest release before the release of the version of Old Mornings Dawn containing bonus tracks. It also contains the band's longest song, Land of the Dead.
Mechanical Poet was a Russian metal band formed in Moscow, Russia, in 2002. The band released concept albums in post-prog and symphonic progressive metal genres with orchestral arrangements and heavy use of keyboards. Its music is strongly influenced by film score composers like Danny Elfman, and its lyrics are based on fantasy, gothic and science fiction stories. The band split in 2009. However, its members have since moved on to a number of other projects.
The Linear Scaffold is the debut studio album by Norwegian avant-garde metal band Solefald. It was released in 1997, through Avantgarde Records.
Astarte was an all-female black metal band from Athens, Greece, named after the goddess Astarte.
An Icelandic Odyssey is a two-part concept album series by Norwegian avant-garde metal band Solefald. The first part, Red for Fire, was released on 18 October 2005, while the second part, Black for Death, was released on 24 November 2006. The band was quoted as saying "Solefald was experimenting when everybody was being true. Now that things are changing and that we've pushed the experiment quite far already, we wanted Red for Fire plus Black for Death to be our attempts at being 'true'. This will be a true Nordic Viking metal album."
Monumentum are an Italian gothic metal band formed in 1987 by Roberto Mammarella, founder of Obscure Plasma Records.
Norrøn livskunst is the seventh studio album by Norwegian avant-garde black metal band Solefald and their first album released through Indie Recordings.
Kauan is an atmospheric doom metal/post-rock band from Chelyabinsk, Russia formed in 2005.
Old Mornings Dawn is the seventh full-length album by the Austrian atmospheric black metal band Summoning. The album was released on June 5, 2013 through Napalm Records. The cover art is based on George Hetzel's painting, Rocky Gorge. Silenius commented on the album's title: "Old Mornings Dawn is no concept album, but this time we mostly experienced the stories and legends of Eärendil the mariner: half man half eldar, ancestor of the kings of Númenor, with the Silmaril of his forehead he became an immortal star. 4 songs are dealing with this topic. The lyrics of another two songs come from the poems "City of Present Sorrow" and "Town of Dreams", two very old poems by J. R. R. Tolkien written at a time when the first world war was raging. The rest of the lyrics came from unknown writers or are written by myself and as ever are closely woven to the Tolkien universe".
