Makis Voridis

So this will mean austerity measures will rain down on the Greek people like blows from an axe. Derridata emailed me something on a not unrelated note: 

with the coming collapse of the Eurozone it's hard not to ponder what it will become of it as a reworked rallying call for nationalists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjovTRfj2Gc

I'm a Judeo-Christian morality with a Greco-Roman intellect
It's the way we're short-wired
It's a civilising force that demands respect - from the Baltic to the Straits Of Gibraltar
A blue flag gold star sparks a brand new empire
Ours to build, ours the choice


I'm in an European Super State
Every citizen required to debate!


Why are the proud descendants of Plato paying off more debts accommodating NATO?
We the caretakers of democracy no longer tolerate this hypocrisy
Baltic to the Straits Of Gibraltar
A blue flag gold star sparks a brand new empire
Ours to build, ours the choice


I'm in an European Super State
Every citizen required to debate!


- Old Europe


I'm a Judeo-Christian morality with a Greco-Roman intellect
It's the way we're short-wired
It's a civilising force that demands respect - from the Baltic to the Straits Of Gibraltar
A blue flag gold star sparks a brand new empire
Ours to build, ours the choice


I'm in an European Super State
Every citizen required to debate!

The fascistic futurism of Ziggy Stardust

I was watching the Boyd Rice documentary Iconoclast last night, and was amazed by one scene where Rice showed a picture of Oswald Mosley addressing a rally of the British Union of Fascists. On either side of the stage was their distinctive "Flash and Circle" symbol ("England ignite!"), which Rice points out, David Bowie reused for his performances as Ziggy Stardust (not only having the symbol emblazoned across his face, but utilizing an identical arrangement of the symbols). Bowie has got away with this over the years, and was only ever really pulled up over his suspicious looking "Sieg Heil!" style salute captured in that infamous photo upon his arrival at Victoria Station, as well as his comment that, "Hitler was one of the first rock stars".

While the salute and comment might (almost) be explained away as spur of the moment provocations, Rice convincingly shows how consciously Bowie incorporated fascist iconography into his act. Oh wait, it's actually not correct to say he was only called to account for the Hitler comment and the salute, as Bowie is also on the record as having said, "Britain could benefit from a fascist leader" (see Buckley's bio of Bowie, Strange Fascination). I don't expect Bowie will ever fully, publicly, come clean--probably because he is now very embarrassed about this period of his career and regards such "statements" as morally abhorrent--so we have to thank Rice instead for alerting us to Ziggy's status as the first "(crypto) fascist alien" rock star. The example of Ziggy clearly proves that Bowie's fascist sympathies predated Station to Station.

Throbbing Gristle later used a similar symbol, but I give them more credit than David Bowie in terms of how they staged each performance as a "psychic rally" to explore how individuals were "conditioned" by mass culture etc. Genesis P-Orridge:“The TG flash was NOT in any way based on Oswald Mosley's fools. It was Chris Carter who found it on a British Rail pylon warning DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTRICITY.

British Union of Fascists rally at Earl's Court 1939 (click to enlarge to see symbols on either side of the stage and then compare to the pic [above] of the decorations behind Ziggy)

SARABANDE ORATORIA

I was unable to avert my gaze. The only things that got me through the telecast in its entirety was listening to "dark ritual" style music (such as Jimmy Page's soundtrack to "Lucifer Rising") to evoke the true, underlying nature of the ceremony (not demons and other such silliness, of course, but rather...wait, read to the end to follow a link so you can see how queercore director Bruce LaBruce eloquently sums it up!), and fantasizing about what Prince William might have really said in a secret address to his inner retinue, secure in the knowledge that he was rebranding the House of Windsor and thereby contributing to its longevity:

"Brother Blackshirts, my comrades in struggle:

Our fight is for the soul, and in that battle we go forward together till victory be won. Our struggle is hard, because we are fighting for something great, and great things are not lightly or easily gained. We are fighting for nothing less than a revolution in the spirit of our people. We must be worthy of our mission, for blackshirts are those who are summoned to lead the people to a new and a higher civilization.

The Blackshirt is a revolutionary dedicated to the service of our country. We must always possess the character of the true revolutionary. It is not the character that you observe in the little men of the old parties, blown hither and thither by every gust of convenience opinion, elated by a little success, downcast by a little failure, gossiping and chattering about the prospects of the next five minutes, jostling for place, but not so forward in service. Without loyalty, endurance, or staying power, such a character is the hallmark of financial democratic politics.

In the true revolutionary, the first quality is the power to endure. Constancy, loyalty to cause and comrades, manhood and stability of nature. These are the qualities of the true revolutionary. In our movement that great character is being reborn. And for that reason we carry within us destiny. We care not whether we win tomorrow morning or at the end of a lifetime of labour and of struggle. For to us the little calculations of the little men mean nothing. All we care is that win we will because no power on earth can hold down the will within us.

Struggles we have had and will have. Blows we have taken and will again. Victories we have had and will have again. Through good and ill we march on, till victory be won, for this is the character of the true revolutionary. In the great moments of supreme struggle and decision it is easy to hold that character, even in supreme sacrifice. It is not so easy in the hard daily task. It is then even more that in the great fights we have together that I would like to be the companion of every one of you. I would like to be with every action team that carries the message of our new faith to new streets. I would like to be with every man or woman during the hard but vital job of giving leadership to the people in the block of houses for which they are responsible.

For these are the jobs that come, by the dedication of thousands to that mission of leading the people in their own homes and streets, revolution is won. In that task I cannot in body be with everyone of you every day. But in spirit I am with you always. Together we have lit a flame that the atheists shall not extinguish. Guard that sacred flame my brother Blackshirts until it illumines and lights again the path of mankind".


I have to thank derridata as well for alerting me to additional relevant commentary here.

The Nature of Terrible Sacrifice: Gladio & The Grey Wolves

Roger Griffin discusses the Grey Wolves in The Nature of Fascism. I've started reading about their infiltration of Turkish migrant communities, and wonder about possible bearing on Turkey's accession to EU membership. The question is complicated by the parallel [sic] existence of Gladio as a secretive NATO sponsored network of "stay behind" armies, utilizing a "strategy of tension". Mhuthnance, given your expertise on paramilitary groups, you'll be interested, without of course succumbing to conspiracy theorizing, as the Wiki link cites usage of a comparable strategy in relation to the Oklahoma City Bombing in its footnotes (be sure to read as well the separate entry on The Grey Wolves).

Anton did not pick up on any parallels in his article on martial industrial music and the fatalistic sense of neofascists living in the interregnum, so I can only speculate about the extent to which their networks have taken inspiration from actual paramilitary cells (this heavily qualifies any sense of living in an interregnum as Gladio have apparently been quite active, even if stopped short from full realisation of the new fascist order martial industrialists/traditionalists like to fantasise about). Note too that said article failed to mention the controversy surrounding publication of the Battlenoises! book (which lead to its withdrawal from publication)- its inclusion could have better demonstrated the scene's internal divisions, rather than relying on close readings of lyrics and album artwork alone. Of course, there's already a group of noise musicians calling themselves The Grey Wolves (and they do use some irony in their work), so how long can it be until some other martial industrialist/noise/neofolk/black metal artist(s) decides to name themselves Gladio?

This is not a trivial question, if we appreciate how the politics of representation can legitimate something that is very dangerous, be it intentional or not.

Another question to ponder: was a similar "strategy of tension" in operation in post World War 2 Japan? I don't know, so I think further investigation is warranted. I do know though that the ongoing existence of Gladio remains hotly contested, while the Grey Wolves maintain an active presence in Turkey (and possibly amongst the Turkish diaspora as well).

Given this blog's interest in the cultural significance of Nature, I should also note here the symbolic role of the wolf as an ancient European symbol of loyalty and protection and religious veneration: the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus were supposed to have been rescued and suckled by a she Wolf. Respect for the Wolf is firmly enshrined in the European 'tradition' (or rather, at least for European traditionalists). Hitler, for example, drew on this legacy, referring to himself as Herr Wolf, and his Eastern Front military HQ was called Wolfsschanze ("Wolf's Lair").

You might also recall that the Blood Axis album, Blot: Sacrifice in Sweden, is replete with the sounds of howling wolves to connote its traditionalist 'pagan' atmospherics of the communal feasts (the 'blots'), where participants would be sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice (usually consisting of cattle, as human sacrifice was a comparative rarity). Adam of Bremen gives a graphic description of one such mass human sacrifice, which is quoted at length here (see page 129) by Daniel Bray in an academic article that further attempts to explain sacrificial ideology. This is precisely the kind of ideology one would expect radical traditionalists- from paramilitaries to martial industrialists/neofolk enthusiasts- to subscribe to, insofar as they believe that present conditions oblige them to operate as clandestine, warrior-like "lone wolves". Indeed, the opening track prominently features a radio broadcast by Black Shirt leader Oswald Mosley extolling the sacrifices required to ensure "a spiritual revolution of our people".

To be sure, there can be considerable variation in the means chosen to respond to individual circumstances (i.e. what a sacrifice may consist of), but this should not cause us to lose sight of the commonalities. Updating Bray, it could even be said that the thoughts and actions of radical traditionalists can each in their own way be understood as "not so much about the purpose of the ritual, as [they are] about a ritual to crystallise the operant's purpose and to make that purpose effectual in the world". Tradition evolves along with everything else in the world, and this remains the paradox that traditionalism continues to wrestle with, sometimes violently so. No amount of pre-Darwinian privileging of animal kinship, be it wolves or anything else, can overcome this basic fact.

Misanthropy

Yours truly posted a response over on the Traditionalists blog that expanded on some of the themes I talked about in "Loneliness as a Way of Life". My intention was, notwithstanding some typos in my transcription of Ferarra's text, to highlight traditionalism- and by extension neofolk and martial industrial subcultures- as examples of the neoconservative critique of postmodernism. It's one thing then to put the cart before the horse by arguing they are "fascist", but quite another to specify causation and the broader continuum on which its byproducts coexist. I prefer to speak in terms of things being inseparable from but irreducible to something else. It's for this reason that I'll be quoting a piece on "the new misanthropy" in relation to the thesis of "the new naturalism" (the latter was itself the subject of an earlier post).

Sure, it'd be very easy to visit the traditionalists blog and follow the links in the comments thread to Lord Bassington Hound's blog, pausing briefly to marvel at how he co-wrote the infamous study of the black metal scene, Lords of Chaos, with Michael "Blood Axis" Moynihan (an explanation of the programmatic biological conception behind Blood Axis can be found here), only to then worry at the extent to which he appears to trivialise the historical legacy of fascism by treating it as a fashion statement. Provocative as such artistic transgressions may be, they really pale into insignificance in light of the broader public assent associated with the "new naturalism" and "new misanthropy" alike (to be sure, Moynihan has logically gravitated toward Mr Linkola, but as yet there is little evidence of the latter's ideas gaining much purchase outside of his native Norway. Of course, this could change in the future with additional English translations, along with more general societal pessimism about human progress).

I already had an intuitive understanding of the biological ramifications of traditionalism after the reaction on another blog to my earlier post "Colin Wilson neofascist". The man described my post as "shite" for daring to denigrate his hero, and looking around that blog I found much evidence of the traditionalism in question: the misanthropic hatred of a "mass", psychological solutions for social problems predicated on principles of the innate superiority of gifted individuals, the search for a "perennial philosophy" based in Nature. I stopped to chuckle at the design of the blog, which prominently featured a naked, muscular man, with some sort of ornate staff in his right hand. His head resembled the sun (an image of Nature's perennial wisdom, forever burning brightly).

I've regretted ever since that I didn't bookmark that site as I'm sure it would have kept me entertained for years. Anyway, what of this "new misanthropy" then? Furedi offers a succinct appraisal:

"If anything, today's neo-Malthusian thinking is far more dismal and misanthropic than the original thing. For all his intellectual pessimism and lack of imagination, Thomas Malthus believed in humanity far more than his contemporary followers do. He argued, in his book On The Principle of Population, that although 'our future prospects respecting the mitigation of the evils arising from the principle of population may not be so bright as we could wish…they are far from being entirely disheartening, and by no means preclude that gradual and progressive improvement in human society, which before the late wild speculations on this subject, was the object of rational expectation' (10). Malthus' reservations about the human potential were influenced by a hostility to the optimistic humanism of his intellectual opponents, including Condorcet and Godwin. Nevertheless, despite his pessimistic account of population growth, he said 'it is hoped that the general result of the inquiry is not such as not to make us give up the improvement of human society in despair' (11).

Over the past two centuries, Malthus' followers often disparaged people who came from the 'wrong classes' or the 'wrong races' - but despite their prejudices they affirmed the special status of the human species. In some instances, such as the eugenic movement, rabid prejudice against so-called racial inferiors combined with a belief in human progress (12). Today's neo-Malthusians share the old prejudices, but in addition they harbour a powerful sense of loathing against the human species itself."

Furedi situates his discussion with reference to the "human impact" decried by certain segments of the contemporary environmental movement. Indeed, if you substitute "environment" for "religious calling" in my Ferrara quotation, then you can see that Furedi is pretty much saying the same thing about the- well, basically speaking- conservative character of the conservation movement. If the traditionalist music scene has any real collective sense of surviving in the hostile conditions of the interregnum, we can only guess what form their consecrating action might take in response. I'm just hoping that these perspectives never attain critical mass, or we will be living in truly dismal times.

Another part of the problem of course, which I touched on briefly in my "Heathen Harvests" post, is the sense of living in a post-socialist world. Among traditionalists, this seems to have coalesced into a world view which is presumptively asocial, at least outside of the sense of trust (or "social capital") to be gained from membership in their subcultural networks (sometimes in addition to the intimacy [sic] with strangers familiar from the more traditional bastions of the masculine, bohemian demimonde: i.e. the pub, the brothel, and the racetrack). I understand these networks then as compensating for the intensification of individual experience associated with being a freelance cultural worker (or "artist" if you prefer), who by definition subsists without the collegiality found in other workplaces, where membership of a union remains an option. As per "Heathen Harvests", consider Boyd Rice as an example. He didn't receive any remuneration for the design consultancy work he did on a Tiki Bar. Given the informal nature of the contract, Rice resolved not to pursue official legal arbitration. Instead, he and some associates simply showed up in the middle of the night and dismantled the bar. After that, Boyd could return to his support networks on the avant garde scene, which presuppose the recognition of individual charisma, and have at various times been a mixture of Satanic Nazism and Ragnar Redbeard's [sic] social Darwinism ("Might Is Right!").

I've seen this kind of thing happen firsthand, so I know Boyd Rice is not just an isolated case. I'll never forget the folks who had completed album artwork for small labels, who suffered the same fate. I remember another incident when some people I knew had just finished their set in a small electronic music festival, and the guy running the gig fronted them: "ok then, let's see what I owe you". He just rooted around in his wallet, and produced a small handful of crumpled notes, "thanks guys", leaving the band to distribute among themselves the appearance fee he had spontaneously calculated on the spot. So when you experience this kind of precarity on a regular basis, it's very easy to overcompensate by channelling ressentiment into a misanthropic "outsider" worldview, in tandem with more "esoteric" sources of personal or communitarian validation. This can mean "turning inward", and it follows that the guys I knew in the aforementioned group worshipped Colin Wilson, while another was the self-proclaimed anarchist who featured in my post "The Quiet Men".

Still not convinced? Just check out this guy for another local example. It seems like he's spent a lot of time beavering away for small publishers, and is obviously resentful of the advent of "mass" blogging. Never mind that, judging by what I see on his website, it is hard to fathom his personal sense of superiority that the majority of humanity is comprised of what he disparagingly refers to as "sheeple". Note too that his Misanthrope Magazine fittingly published a fatuous interview with none other than Boyd Rice in the inaugural issue.

I suspect the same holds true to some extent for the "scenius" [sic] of the so-called "England's Hidden Reverse", where "chaos magic" and other traditionalist conventions are much in evidence. Anyway, I haven't said so much here about the specifics of Furedi's argument, as I think it's already pretty obvious how it links to the thesis of "the new naturalism": i.e. the degradation of humanity, with few prospects for redemption. I've spent more time talking about the musical subcultures. However, I can extrapolate from Furedi's following statement some implicit linkages, "More recently, apocalyptic ideas once rooted in magic and theology have been recast as allegedly scientific statements about human destructiveness and irresponsibility". No doubt "apocalyptic [neo] folk" musicians such as Ian Read from Fire + Ice or David Tibet from Current 93 would claim some personal acquaintance with these ideas in their original context, even though the former is willing to make a minor concession, when asked if he is still against the modern world, "I am a traditionalist, but I am very happy with the fact there is a modern stomatology for instance".

I couldn't resist closing this out by posting a David E Williams song. Williams follows the conventions pretty closely. I understand that, in addition to his musical activities, he's the proprietor of an occult bookstore. His misanthropic proclivities have garnered some acclaim on the underground scene. Notice in the clip how they find expression through his disdain for "mass" tourism, which he crudely equates to femininity and the sociality of primates.

Full Spectrum Dominance

My last posting referred to David Thrussell, and it turns out that things get even more interesting with a bit more digging around. His side project is called Black Lung, and the album Full Spectrum Dominance was officially commissioned by the DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- a funding body of the U.S Government and the Pentagon) to produce a recording that reflects the ideals and reality of Vision 2020, a futuristic military strategy program that first saw the light of day in May of 2000. I have been listening to this piece almost continuously because it is truly remarkable to experience some sense of entering the phenomenological space of this military inner sanctum, much in the manner of the employees listening to it on their iPods and over the base address system:

"March 2008, in one of the most unusual events in contemporary music history, notable electronic/alternative musician David Thrussell is commissioned by DARPA ...

"The design was twofold," Says DARPA media liaison Thomas Steel, "to deliver to the men and women working in some of the Pentagon's most challenging fields an inspiring soundtrack to their daily working lives, but also to present to the general public information and a view hitherto unconsidered of some of the lesser known branches of our military."

Working with a sizeable budget and unprecedented access to defense installations and personnel, Thrussell took over a year to complete the project and wove many field recordings as well as the sounds of sensitive hardware and technology into the final product. One of the greatest thrills for me," says Thrussell, "was setting up a full P.A. inside one of the ICBM silos at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California to run and record the final mix on the title track Full Spectrum Dominance -- room ambience and all!" Incorporated also are actual recordings of top secret military activities in the upper ionosphere generated from the HAARP base in Gakona, Alaska, "If I told you what they were up to there, not only would you not believe me, but I'd still have to shoot you!," chimes in Thrussell with a wry smile.

Asked if he sees any conflict between his latest project and his past stance as a sometimes critic of government and military activities Thrussell is quick to retort, "No, not at all. I see my role first as a musical journalist -- to present the information -- there's plenty of time for editorialising later. And....," he continues enthusiastically, "I've even invented my own sub-genre to describe the album's unique, crunchy, downbeat sound -- Grave-step....." He smiles another beatific smile without the faintest trace of irony.

The project, comprised as it is of both motivational tunes and immersive soundscapes, has already been deemed a success by the personnel at Vandenberg, if play counts on iPods and over the base address system are anything to go by. The DARPA Arts Liaison Fund is proud to present the new Black Lung album Full Spectrum Dominance. Available to the general public June 2009".

Track Listing
1. Imperial March
2. Hostmen Of Tyne
3. Full Spectrum Dominance
4. Territorial Imperative
5. Regulator Plot
6. Great Unconscious
7. Wonderful Wizard Of Ounce
8. World Without Us
9. Feminine Void
10. Neuroses Of Nostalgia

With a bit of imagination it is possible to see such a commissioning of an artist as apiece with a larger strategy to militarise civilian culture. It's Nick Turse's thesis in The Complex taken to the nth degree insofar as the strategy of "full spectrum dominance" encompasses not only the military's control over land, air and sea, but information/sonic resources as well (it would be remiss of me to not also mention in this context Steve "kode9" Goodman's upcoming Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect and the Ecology of Fear). But why now? What other dystopic inflections can be given to this scenario? In his book Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order, economist William Engdahl adroitly explicates the effect the servicing of debt has on the realpolitik associated with Vision 2020.

I see it as inevitable that some unholy alliance of technological determinists and conspiracy theorists will be quick to trace an almost [genetic] concordance between full spectrum dominance and technological Singularity. This style of reasoning will emphasise how the United States will go "transhuman" to refinance itself: "rapturing" its citizens out of their material forms in a new age of "spiritual machines" (to use Ray Kurzweil's favorite expression) as it advances to a permanent war economy. This conception makes a recent TV series such as Battlestar Galactica seem like a warning about the shape of things to come. However, a recent study, with the very telling title Cylons in America (thanks ahuthnance for the tipoff), has managed to qualify the dystopic interpretation with specific reference to the Singularity.

I don't see Americans then becoming cylons, but am willing of course to consider science fiction serving as a sensitising device. It seems to me though that it is more important to monitor the connections between brain research and national security, as earlier featured on this blog with reference to Jonathan Moreno's Mind Wars. So let's keep track of what the science can actually do, and then consider how it can be regulated by a social epistemology. Hence the problem I have with the "sonic warfare" reading is the potential inherent risk of its convergence with the dystopia of the Singularity in what equates to a post-political conception. There is a danger of presuming that rational deliberation, letalone any reliance on ideology in political discourse (that is at least detectable and therefore capable of being held accountable), will simply go out the window, thanks to some kind of invisible, but inescapable, strategy of Control. It follows that it is simply insufficient for its adherents to reply that the post-political condition is a mere side effect of their thinking for which they can take no personal responsibility. Epistemic justice demands to the contrary that your arguments have to make allowance for unintentional effects as well. Authors cannot just ask for their paternity [sic] to be returned to them as such logic is consistent with the so-called genetic fallacy.

Make no mistake about it though, the challenges progressives face are considerable, but I'm not willing to give up just yet, as if military transhumanism were somehow inevitable: we haven't "raptured" ourselves into that kind of "transcendental fascism", so it is still up to us to take responsibility for the kind of future we want. The future remains a prospective ideal.....

Of nihilism, Snog, Heathen Harvests and Transcendental Fascisms

I've started to have a few second thoughts about that "Chilling out in the Cities of the Dead" post. Provocative as Ultra Red's [selective] reading of Deleuze may have been in that instance, I have since come to the conclusion that to remain more consistent with the biological themes of this blog it is necessary to look at what remains when nihilism strips away everything except the laws of cause and effect: i.e. Nature. Bulent Diken's observation in his book Nihilism seems especially pertinent in this context. He highlights how the enemy/friend relationship becomes de-subjectified in the transition to post-politics:

"And it is in this movement, which is also the movement of nihilism, that distinctions such as reality/representation, biology/politics, terror/war against terror tend to disappear today. After all, the canceling of differences is a nihilistic principle par excellence [as noted by Deleuze]" (p. 88).

By extension, investigating the "post-political" rationalization behind the "transcendental fascism" that presents itself as a Third Way between liberal capitalism and communism could prove a fruitful line of inquiry. I see this form of neofascism as equal parts derived from Heidegger and Strasser. There is some affinity as well with the dark ambient I raised in the earlier post in many cases, and moreover, neofolk/martial industrial bands (Death in June, Sol Invictus, Der Blutharsch etc), along with other forms of electronic music. For example, a more disturbing spin could be put on the satire featured in Snog's Kings of Hate, given that the clip was directed by none other than self proclaimed "transcendental fascist" Richard Wolstencroft. Another song entitled The Human Germ (available on YouTube) appears thematically suggestive to some degree of Pentti Linkola's philosophy. In fairness to David Thrussell though I should probably chase up some more background to avoid reliance on guilt by association alone.

So let me turn my attention instead to someone else who is demonstrably comparable to Mr Linkola. I just happened to watch Wolstencroft's rabidly imaginative film Pearls Before Swine last night, which reminded me that the lead actor, "industrial musician" Boyd Rice, has gained some notoriety for his establishment of a thinktank advocating social Darwinist principles (particularly Redbeard's Might Is Right! credo), and also for acting as the public spokesperson for the Church of Satan.


I consider it no more coincidental that these misanthropic forms of cultural expression have come together than the fact that fellow travelers, the Process Church, later morphed into the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Mix nihilism in with the paganism, Deep Ecology, transcendental fascism etc then and you have the makings of a lethal cocktail. I'll give some credit to Michael Moynihan though; he was very forthright in the sense that Gods of the Blood could never have been written without him. I've been listening to (Moynihan's) Blood Axis's Gospel of Inhumanity a lot lately, and the sampling of The Wicker Man on that album is starting to make more sense. Because time is of the essence I can't comment here on Troy Southgate or related controversial figures. I'll try to save that stuff for upcoming posts and recommend checking out Heathen Harvest for a foretaste.