In the course of investigating the ritual that took place in the library stacks and how to stop the course of whatever the ritual set in motion, Vex and Megan pay a visit to the three remaining participants.

The first chapter, David, explains the ritual through the eyes of David. How he pays close attention to detail and noticed something awry with the placement of certain sigils in the ritual, but didn’t know enough to understand what was happening. The second chapter, Korey, explains that from Korey’s point of view nothing matters as long as his relationship with Mary Beth is healthy. In the third chapter, Mary Beth, we find out that she knows much more about magick and the ritual than she previously let on.

In this volume we get the three perspectives of the students that created the ritual that began the issues currently tormenting Mill Avenue. Kyt writes her characters as human and fallible. The reader wants to sympathize with these people who just wanted to help improve their academics with a small ritual. Kyt does an excellent job of making you like all these characters, despite the fact that you know all that is currently happening is their fault. She uses her new character, Megan, as the moral compass in her tale. It is a smartly written, enjoyable read.

The eighth volume of Mill Avenue Vexations can be found at: http://www.millvexations.com/read/index.php

Katatonia - Night is the New Day

Night is the New Day offers up a round, dense and intelligent mix of metal, strings and entrancing harmony. On past albums, Jonas’ voice could come across as weak and lackluster. For Night is the New Day, his vocals are powerful and convincing throughout. Though he maintains a whimsical quality, he conveys the emotional quality of his lyrics with clarity and strength.

Instrumentally, Night is the New Day is rich and vibrant. Each of the tracks is carefully orchestrated and the harmonies add a brilliant quality to the dark message offered up. Rather than being overpowering, the guitars blend nicely with the string instrumentation found throughout the album.

Katatonia created an all-around album that will appeal to fans of music whether they enjoy metal or not. Night is the New Day is definitely one of the best albums released in 2009 and should find its way on to any music lover’s end-of-year shopping list.

Get a copy of Night is the New Day here

The 69 Eyes on Stage

The crowd was a sea of black leather and lace adorned fans, albeit a slightly smaller crowd than I expected. Still, energy was high as the band caressed their way through a setlist of old and new tracks which included Brandon Lee, Lost Boys, Gothic Girl, Never Say Die, Dance D’Amore, Betty Blue as well as the title track of their latest album, Back in Blood. It was not as long a show as I expected but the crowd enjoyed every minute of it, enticing the band back to perform a 3 song encore before the leather clad, sweat soaked Finns retired for the evening.

A few of the band members signed autographs and took photos with fans outside by the bus post show before hightailing it to Toronto hotspot The Bovine for an after party. Did I mention the Bovine has a stripper pole? It does. One of the boys hopped up there and gave it a go, quite a sight to see.

Karen’s full gallery and original writeup can be found here.

Kyt Dotson’s seventh volume, Doom in the Distance, consists of three more chapters of her “Mill Avenue Vexations”: Seeing Things, Crime Scene, and With Much Ado.

The first chapter, Seeing Things,consists of Megan, a virtual innocent who Vex has identified as a powerful witch, having dream/visions of the supernatural murders happening around the campus. Vex and Patrick keep her close to them while they investigate. In Crime Scene, Vex, after instructing Patrick and Megan to wait in the hall, enters the dorm room where the crime happened and conjures a vision of the events. She discovers the nature of the events and the magic involved. The conclusion of this volume, With Much Ado, finds Vex, Megan and Patrick back at Vex’s apartment, attempting to recover from the events and discoveries in Crime Scene. the three make a plan to help the situation while Vex hopes the future events don’t drive Patrick away from their budding relationship.

As the story progresses and the plot ramps up, Kyt makes sure to include impressions of the events from more than one character, giving the reader insight in the feeling and thoughts of not only Vex, who is experienced in the occult, but Megan, who is at this moment discovering her abilities and Patrick, who doesn’t appear to have any occult abilities, but has intuition about situations removed from grounded reality.

The seventh volume of Mill Avenue Vexations can be found at:
http://www.millvexations.com/read/index.php

After spending years steeped in bands, books and art that nobody has heard of, crawling clubs that are the secret of the town, you’ve been found out. People are speaking the name of your favorite scene, but it’s not a whisper, it’s full voiced talk. Your scene has become part of popular culture.

This happens to ever subculture, regardless of what it is. Some servive better than others but, ultimately, everything hits critical mass. Popularization happens and anything worth talking about sees its day in the sun. Punk is dead, the Goth undead is rotting, Hip Hop culture is MTV culture, Hipster is chic and Indie is the new mega.

Sometimes it takes years for this kind of thing to happen, other times it is almost instant. Once a subculture receives attention from the public spotlight, it either blossoms or withers. Punk and Hip Hop are perfect examples. Punk withered and died at the first glimpse of the hot lights while Hip Hop has all but consumed American youth culture.

For all of this doom and gloom, new subcultures are constantly on the rise. New ideas infiltrate young minds and the cultural norm is constantly overhauled by secret influences that couldn’t survive more than the faintest breathing of their names.

Punk lives on in the hearts of new angry youth driven by music and a desire to alter the world around them. Hip Hop underground lives on with new electronic music. The Gothic ethic of art and introversion survives the death of the original in the hearts of gloomy artists across the world. Hipsterism and Indie culture will continue to thrive by the creative nature of urban and suburban do-it-yourselfers.

The ‘Your Subculture is Dead’ series will explore subcultures from the past 30 years, their influence and ultimate demise at the hands of the unforgiving public. Rather than being a mournful retrospective, the aim is to give new hope to people that long for innovation, creativity and forward thinking in subculture. The angry, mournful and artistic both urban and suburban alike are undergoing constant reinvention. As Emilie Autumn has said “dead is the new alive.”

Peter Steele - Cleveland, OH

Peter was on his game, sounding better than ever, flanked as always by Kenny who tore away riff after riff, singing and working both sides of the stage. Johnny was all smiles blasting beats high atop his drum riser and Scott held his own well throughout the gig. It seems he has a handle on what he is doing as I did not notice any glitches throughout the performance. When it was all over with the band made their way to the house lobby where they signed autographs and greeted fans for around an hour. They worked their way through a long line of fans until everyone who had waited had a chance to meet the band. Not bad in a day and age when many bands charge fans VIP ticket prices for such a priveldge…guess they aren’t total Dicks after all.

Photo © and courtesy of Karen Fader McBride

View full gallery at KindredPhotography.com.

Perhaps it is important to note that subcultures are subcultures for a reason. Subcultures are cultures that adhere to cultural norms while incorporating more stringent rules in addition to the parent culture. In this way, the rules that define a one subculture may be in direct opposition to another.

Yes, Corporate Culture is a subculture. By the definition, Corporate Culture must be a subculture. If Corporate Culture is a subculture, then it seems unreasonable that other subcultures would be adherent to the Corporate norms. This means that, at best, creating a subculture hybrid would be an abomination of what each culture holds dear.

All is not lost, however. Simply because you adhere to corporate norms while at work this does not preclude you from getting decked out in your finery once you leave work. This means that Corporate Culture, in a sense, has a rule that the rules only apply when one is representing the company. Suppose you are at a club and it is outside of work hours, then your preferred subculture rules will dominate.

Ultimately, the question of Corporate Goth, Corporate Punk, Corporate Raver or what have you is not really representative of what underlies the action. The motive is, realistically, self expression. As Type O Negative has stated, suicide is self expression. This does not mean that anyone should commit suicide, nor does it mean that suicide is a good idea at work.

In a way, the question that is really being asked is, how much can one express themselves in a corporate environment before they overstep the bounds of what is acceptable at work. This is not a simple question to answer as each work environment can vary wildly from another. Someone that is self-employed may have great latitude in what they can do to express themselves while working. Someone working for a financial institution may not have as much leeway.

Perhaps this article is the inception of a new breed of subculture marriage articles, which would aim to define a new goal in self expression at work, time will tell. What can be said is, self expression is always held in check when it goes against the norms that are set within a specific environment. In order to even approach the concern, it is important to first understand what is trying to get out in the act of self expression.

Perhaps self expression is really the inner self, attempting to proclaim dissatisfaction with the current environment. Job choice, by the very nature, seems to be a major step in self expression. Perhaps, in choosing a career path that limits how and when one can express inner motives and ideas, that person has expressed a desire to follow the career and leave their current subculture. On the other hand, perhaps the desire to express something different from corporate norms is a statement that the Corporate Subculture is not the subculture for them and they should seek other employment.

In the end, every subculture has set rules. When a member of that culture begins consorting with another culture, sparks are certain to fly as cultural friction arises. Finding a balance between your current subculture and where you work may require compromise. Considering a compromise may lead to a happy marriage, or a parting of ways. The choice is yours, but the rules were set by those whom surround you.