Heidenfest 2011.

The longboats of the distinctly Viking flavoured touring festival Heidenfest are looming off the coast of the UK ready to ravage the UK leg of their power metal ramage this October.
The 6 band bill headed by Finntroll will be the biggest bill of its kind seen in recent years with each band playing a different flavour of Battle/Folk Metal. Heidenfest sounds a rallying cry to all heathen warriors, pagan brothers and Viking berserkers to unite in an evening of drink, rock and rebellion. Taking place 11 October in London’s HMV Forum, Heidenfest Uk‘s bill features Finntroll, Turisas, Alestorm, Arkona, Trollfest and Skálmöld
Tickets are now available via Ticketweb.
Scroll down to witness the latest trailer.

Strollin' Around Skyrim.

What can I say about the E3 exclusive Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Trailer? Though quite gorgeous to behold, building upon the rather clunky animation and graphics of it’s predecessor Oblivion, and opening with a epic cinematic and dramatic score the trailer doesn’t show much that the prior official gameplay trailer hadn’t already.

Establishing the premise and identity of the games protagonist, a man referred to as Dovahkiin or Dragonborn we are granted a glimpse at the Viking inspired Northern Steppes of the land of Skyrim. The architecture, weather effects, character design and even the trees are beautiful. More defined, richer and lush graphics like these make the world of Elder Scrolls feel that bit more alive.

So what if this trailer doesn’t show us anything new at E3? As if us rampant fan boys needed an excuse  to dash out and pre-order another slice of sword and sorcery from Bethesda. Elder Scrolls V is due for release 11 November.

Melissa Auf Der Maur

The former Hole bassist and songstress in her own right, Melissa auf der maur has just released a promo video for the title track of her second full length  album, Out Of Our Minds, due out May 4th, which is  the first release since her 2004 debut. The video sees Melissa journey deep into the woods after a car crash. The new release is described as a multimedia project with this music video being the first chapter of a larger story. The video can be seen at the official Auf Der Maur webpage, and for a period, signing up to receive updates via her mailing-list will give you access to an exclusive free download of the single.

OUT OF OUR MINDS MUSIC VIDEO from MAdM OOOM on Vimeo.

The site details the  Out Of Our Minds album as being accompanied by a comic book, film and web experience to list the project in its entirety.

Exploring the OOOM section of Melissa’s site gifts you with a wealth of content on the project which is still being developed including an additional trailer to the Movie component. The film, comic and music video all tie together similar imagery and sentiments which came out of the music during the composition of this album.

Filmmaker, Tony Stone, creator of the Viking Film “Severed Ways” embarked on a collaboration to tell the story of OOOM in Moving Pictures.  with a score provided byThe Entance Band

The Comic book is a bloody yet monochrome story with a xerox, homemade and hamdmade zine aesthetic to it created in association with illustrator “The Hebrew God”.  Snippets of this and his other works can be found here.

For further information on every aspect of this project and to hear samples of other tracks from the album visit the O.O.O.M section of Melissa Auf Der Maur’s Official site with specific information on the film available at OOOMFILM.