borninwinter81

[borninwinter81]

Art by • Yoshitaka Amano

[borninwinter81]

I was there, up in the Royal Circle! Thanks for filming, I had my phone switched off 😁

utterly iconic

Final Macbeth curtain call - Saturday 14th December 2024

[borninwinter81]

Well, I love Agalloch, and I'm a big fan of both black and doom metal, so thanks for the rec!

Guelph’s Nepenthe are a phenomenal band. Their blend of doom metal and black metal is absolutely gorgeous and reminds me a lot of groups like Woods of Ypres and Agalloch. It was a pleasure to join them at the Jimmy Jazz for the release of their new EP, ‘The Fading Promise of Tomorrow’, which you should definitely check out.

[borninwinter81]

Another t-shirt mod

Because it's impossible for me to buy a shirt without doing something to make it more interesting 😁

Vampire is a Swedish thrash/death metal band, but although they were formed in 2011 they have a very old-school sound, more like death metal was back in the 80s. Slight shades of Black Metal too, but again in its earlier Bathory era form. Originally their material was only released on cassette and vinyl, and they were one of the first modern bands I came across that did that. I've been a fan since their first EP, and I have a tattoo of their logo, but only just managed to get one of their shirts.

I would usually get a man's/unisex, but on this occasion I got the "girlie" fit. It originally looked sonething like this (official website photo as i didn’t take a picture before I started messing with it).

However the print was way lower on the body than is shown here. I've mentioned before that I dislike the look of low waisted shirts on me, so I usually crop them. However in this instance as there was so much space at the top what I did instead was cut the length from there, re-sew the shoulders and re-shape the neckline (removing the sleeves at the same time).

At that point although it *just* fit it was a little too tight to be comfortable, probably because I'd moved the original waistline up my body so it was sitting around my ribcage. I had some of this extra wide lace trim that I bought ages ago on sale for pennies.

I cut up the side seams and sewed a panel of this down each side.

This meant it fit perfectly in the chest, however it was now slightly too loose in the waist area. I have quite a v-shaped upper body with a wide chest and shoulders and a narrow waist from having been a weight lifter for a few years!

But, rather than taking in the sides again, instead I did a cut and weave on the back, but I only wove the bottom part, just leaving plain slashes at the top. This pulled in the shirt slightly at the waist area and now it fits perfectly! I like my shirts fitted without being *tight* tight.

There are tons of tutorials for doing cut and weave stuff on youtube, this was a really basic one.

I hope this might have given folks a few ideas if you have a shirt you love that is too tight for you. Any fabric could be used for the side panels, I just used the lace because I had it to hand and it works with the overall style. I would say a slightly stretchy fabric is probably better for this kind of mod though.

I'll sign off by sharing a track by Vampire, the first one I ever heard which I got on a random YouTube recommendation. Since I love Vampire related stuff and extreme metal I had to give it a try, and was really glad I did.

The name makes them a little difficult to search up online, so if you're interested here's their bandcamp 😉 You can also try searching "Vampire the band" or "Vampire metal band Sweden".

Edit: I should have also included the t-shirt link: right here, it is official not knock-off as I found it via their instagram. There is slightly different merch here than what is available on their bandcamp:

[borninwinter81]

What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.

--Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

[borninwinter81]

belt bag! needed something to carry my wallet and keys more efficiently. made from trouser scraps, pins were all gifts.

patch made by my bbg

chain from an old necklace

shower clips used to attach it to a belt

[borninwinter81]

Black Metal vest - back nearly complete!

Its been a while since I posted about this, and it's had something of an overhaul. Initially I did most of my painted patches as black on white because it seemed easier and more logical, but I decided I didn't like that there was so much white on there, so I redid all those patches, still on white fabric but only painting the negative space. It was like this before...

But now it looks like this! 1000% better

I also switched out the Immortal one for Darkthrone because it looked a bit out of place after I changed the others (I bought the Darkthrone as painting it myself seemed like too much of a challenge) and I've also got a new Taake one in the bottom left which I did paint, albeit a slightly simplified version of their logo.

So now the back is virtually finished, I need one more to go underneath Bathory and it'll be done, unless I can find some really small ones to fill the gaps on the shoulders, but I'm not sure I'd want anything there, the shape of the Morbid logo works so well in that spot that having anything next to it might ruin the effect.

Here's the front. Way more space left here. I initially wasn't sure about the gold Winterfylleth one as gold isn't a colour I wear much, but now I've got used to it. And I got a tiny Norwegian flag so I could do the BM thing where you turn it into an inverted cross (yes I know that's slightly cringe, especially since I'm neither Norwegian or a Satanist, but its very small and i think it looks cool). I've sewed it on a bit too high though, I'm gonna go remove and re-sew it a bit lower down.

I didn't feel the need to re-paint my Sarcófago patch as the white on that one isn't too obtrusive.

[borninwinter81]

I have no idea why I never thought to do this, I used to love wearing wrist spikes but hate getting sweaty under them. I've made fabric collars and chokers but never cuffs for some reason...

I stitched these cuffs out of scrap denim from old jeans that no longer fit my HRT hips! They're so soft, flexible, and punk as fuck!

[borninwinter81]

Entered a 6 hour sewing session on my jacket and bag while listening to Woe.Begone

[borninwinter81]

Two amazing books I've recently acquired (very luckily as they're both sold out on official pages). To give an idea of their size I've included a 30cm/12 inch ruler in this photo. They're huuuuuuge, proper "coffee table" type books!

The first is simply entitled True Norwegian Black Metal. I've been aware of this one since before it's original publication in 2008, but at that time I wasn't able to pre-order a copy, and it since fell off my radar. However I've been rediscovering my love of BM in the past few months due to a couple of friends delving into the genre for the first time, so I decided to see if it was possible to get one anywhere.

Luckily it was being sold on ebay for a price that wasn't wholly ridiculous.

It's an art book, featuring photographs of prominent black metal musicians from Norway. Since the book's publication many of these photos have become very famous, some being used in album art and promotional materials, so if you have any familiarity with the genre you will probably have seen them before. Here are just a few:

Though Pete Beste's photography is awesome, on some level I was even more excited that this book contains an appendix with full page reproductions from music magazines of the late 80s and early 90s, flyers from shows, and many personal photos provided by various musicians that were taken during that era.

It is possible to view and download a copy of this book online (link here) but if you like the book and the genre I'd urge you to get a physical copy if you possibly can. There's something about seeing the pictures in this format (probably due to their sheer size) that makes looking through the physical version a different, richer, and more memorable experience.

The second book is Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, and in this instance I'm very glad that I didn't get a copy upon original publication. It was released in 2013, however though widely praised at the time it wasn't anywhere close to the vision of the author. This was due to restrictions on the length that were placed upon him by the publisher, as well as problems with layouts, formatting, editing, and that he really didn't like the cover art.

He therefore set up his own publishing company, Cult Never Dies, in order to generate enough revenue to buy back the rights to his work and publish it in the way he always intended, as well as to provide other authors writing about extreme music a place for their works to be published.

This revised and expanded version was only released last year. At 340,000 words it's about 75% longer than the original, and it's beautiful. The copy I found (again on ebay) was also signed by the author, both on the inside cover and on a promotional flyer that was included.

Unlike many who've attempted to write books about BM, Dayal Patterson is a fan of the genre, having worked as a music journalist for many years, and his love for and knowledge of it are very clearly in evidence.

From the chapter listing you can see that he doesn't just jump to Norway in the 90s, but instead tries to give a full and well-rounded background of the musical atmosphere and influences leading up to that period. We don't reach Mayhem until about a quarter of the way through!

Though Norway does get a large chunk of real estate, he makes great efforts to include many significant bands from other countries too, and to try and report the many controversies which go hand in hand with BM in as neutral and even-handed a way as possible.

Because of the number of bands one could potentially write about probably no book on this subject could ever be considered "complete", but this is widely thought to be the best available, and there are now several companion volumes too (which I'm probably going to get as well!) which focus on different bands and subgenres of BM.

The website for Cult Never Dies is here. Though this book is sold out on the main UK site I believe it may be available on the European one, and several of the companion volumes *are* still available. They also sell patches, shirts, flags, CDs, cassette tapes, vinyl and zines.

And here's Peter Beste's site where he sells limited edition signed prints of photos from his books and a small amount of other merch.

[borninwinter81]

Stunningly good

My first pen drawing! Mr. Anthony J. Crowley in shades of dark grey 🩶😎

[borninwinter81]

after over a year and a half, the dress is finally done

im not even that happy with it, im just glad its over

[borninwinter81]

I attended an album launch event for the band Winterfylleth a couple of weeks ago. I wore the black metal battle vest I've been working on, and at one point was chatting to the vocalist and mentioned that their patches were all sold out on their bandcamp page, otherwise I'd have one. He told me that he had a few spare at home, and if I messaged him he'd send one.

I've been on holiday the past week and a half, but when I returned yesterday I received an envelope containing not one but two patches! I'll have fun deciding where I want to put these 😁

[borninwinter81]

A Demon

It's not that bad when you get used to it.

@goodomensafterdark see? Sometimes I do remember to tag you!

[borninwinter81]

Ah cool, thank you for explaining that for me 😁

Black metal battle vest update

A few more patches here - still plenty of space, but I'm getting to the point where the free spots are small and/or awkward.

Many of these are traced or stencilled and painted with black fabric paint onto white fabric.

The Greek lettering is from Rotting Christ and means "666". I don't understand Greek so I don't know how that works, but I feel like less of a teenage edgelord with this than I would a patch that just says "666".

Impaled Rektum is the band from the movie Hevi Reissu (Heavy Trip). Strictly speaking they don't belong on a BM vest as their music in the movie definitely leans more towards death metal (or more accurately symphonic post-apocalyptic reindeer-grinding Christ-abusing extreme war pagan fennoscandian metal) but I love that movie. Plus all the characters in the band represent a different genre, and Pasi/Xytrax is clearly supposed to embody BM.

Morbid is the band Per Ohlin/Dead was in before Mayhem. They only did one EP plus a few tracks that were only ever performed live, but they're awesome. Again not BM really, but with the Dead connection I felt like I could include them. Plus the shape is perfect for this spot 😁

Behemoth and Satyricon shouldn't need any introduction - those are both painted - and Rotting Christ underneath, which I bought from their bandcamp store. Seems appropriate to have those 3 together since I'm seeing them all on The Unholy Trinity tour next year.

The Alcest one is also painted. One of their logos is a little more complicated and I didn't even attempt it, but luckily they have another which is very simple and fits this spot perfectly. Alcest are a French band, and created blackgaze, a fusion of BM and shoegaze. Their music is gorgeous.

Last of the painted ones, and the first one I did using my tracing method. I got so much confidence from this that it led me to making all the others. Sarcófago, phenomenal Brazilian band who played a huge part in shaping what we think of as BM today.

As did Celtic Frost just underneath, this patch came from the Danse Macabre boxset because I'm a heathen who uses her collectible merch instead of keeping it pristine.

On that subject... two Immortal patches. Northern Chaos Gods was bought singly but War Against All was from the boxset too. I don't know whether I'm likely to get shit for this or not, but I've listened to Immortal for years, and I honestly think the last two albums (the ones since Abbath left) are their best ever, which is why I'm representing both of them here.

The War Against All box also had a pin badge but I haven't decided where on the vest I want to put it. It also came with an artcard signed by Demonaz which is exclusive to Eyesore Merch in the UK.

Backpatch. This was also homemade, but I'm not skilled enough to paint it, so it was done with printer transfer paper. Ulver are one of my favourite bands of all time, from their 90s BM, to their avant-garde, neoclassical, experimental, noise, psychedelic, and 80s synth style. All their work is absolute genius, and Nattens Madrigal is my favourite of their early material.

Lastly a couple of purchased ones, Bathory who again should need no introduction, and Agalloch who are another all-time favourite of mine, everything they've ever created is stunningly beautiful.

[borninwinter81]

Goblincore battle vest

Over the summer I thrifted and patched up this vest and now it’s my prized possession.

It has a cool moth patch on the back but I don’t have a good picture of it 😔

Here’s an outfit I cooked up with it

[borninwinter81]

This floral bat baby is Gerald 🌸🦇🌺