Disharmonic Variations

Official Xasthur Video- first and last

2010-09-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

Yeah, well I fucking hate 'self-promotion' most of the time and I've usually found ways not to do it, but in this case, if something is official then it's official and I'd better speak up about it, right?

A friend who has had an interest in film making for quite some time had a vision that he wanted to capture for the song "Walker of Dissonant Worlds", I thought it was an interesting idea and I agreed to it because I wanted to help with this experimentation. It's not all nice and pretty like most "black metal" videos, sorry. All we had to work with was our own backyard. By the way, I'm also in the video here and there to help make it official.
Yes, I know... the timing is strange because I have nothing to promote and I am very sick and tired of Xasthur, but I never had an official video and never will again, so what the hell...

credit where credit's due: robert, julio, ian.

out now and ending now

2010-03-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

Part 1
Out Now: Portal of Sorrow CD- Xasthur. DV001 First album from Disharmonic Variations. I’ll be wholesaling off several copies to labels and distros that you shop with... if you're looking for it, you’ll find it.

I do not have a ‘shopping cart’ because I’m not a professional black metal internet wheeler and dealer, but if you want to buy single copies go look on ebay. In a couple weeks or so, I will have a limited amount of 11x17" posters signed by both participants of the album. In a few months or so, you can look for the vinyl LP edition on Hydra Head, they'll do nice job with it.
Also, here is a picture

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Part 2
This album, "Portal of Sorrow", is the last Xasthur album, period.
The honorable thing to do is to end the band and not hang around too long, like so many metal/black metal bands do. Enough is enough, right?

I'm not able to make it work anymore. I don't want to turn into one of those bands who rely on too many guests and session musicians to make people interested in their music again. Some help is fine but more than some help is very cheap and it becomes others, not the roots of the band that makes the difference and the music work. I don’t want to fall into that pattern.
The motivation and inspiration used to be there full time and now it's not there at all, not for doing Xasthur at least. It is a role or persona that I have simply outgrown. I’ve been saying I’m sick and tired of it all for too long... and now, I’m going to back it up. There are or have been literally 18,000 black metal bands; it does not matter if there's one less.

Just like in the nineties, I made a few recent attempts to put a real line-up together and it still failed; another sign that said “give it up already”.

However, I wanted to end on a better note with this 'Portal of Sorrow' album because the album that came before it, 'All reflections drained', was not up to par and I couldn't finish up with an album that I was less than satisfied with. Now, I suppose any or all goals have been reached and there is nothing more I wish to try with Xasthur and it's time to move on...

Since it would be foolish to give up music all together, I have something else to fall back on that is beginning to take shape. It's a new beginning that I'm quite excited about.

Instead, I'm going to do something different by not performing any kind of metal at all!
There's no use in trying to reinvent black metal or turn it upside down, it's all been done and in the end, it's still metal and will remain within those circles, stereotypes and boundaries no matter what. Overall, I need a bigger change in my life and with music than just trying to change metal.

There isn't anything to lose.

I would ask you to stay tuned for my next project and give it a plug but there's no need to. It's probably of no interest to you and again, it has nothing to do with metal and I'm not trying to keep any connection or ties to it.
I will not name influences, genres or anything of the sort.

Believe me when I say this decision has been well thought out for months and doesn't come out of frustration.
Something I usually hate is comebacks, reunions or reformations of bands. You can be rest assured (for even relieved) that this will not happen.

I would like to say fuck you to so many people it’s not even funny, but that would be just another way of not washing my hands and hanging around, so I won’t bother.
Instead, I would like to say thank you to a handful of people who took an interest in the music over the years and had the patience to (slowly but surely) watch it grow and develop. I'm more grateful than you think; you know who you are and I know who you are.
I'd also like to say thanks to Marissa Nadler for taking her voice to another level, to Ron for helping design the album and to Hydra Head for the hospitality over the last few years.

Disharmonic Variations (label):
It will most likely continue, even though Xasthur will not. I’ll get into talking about this later.

some have wondered...

2010-02-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

M.H (vocalist on last album) will not be a part of Xasthur anymore, not on the new record and not beyond that either...
The very minimal efforts turned into zero effort.

pronunciation

2009-12-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

After all these years I thought I'd give the proper pronunciation of Xasthur, at least in my world. There are a couple different ways:
* Zas-ter (rhyming with disaster)
* Zas-toor or Zas-tour
* The H is silent in both

New addition- Marissa Nadler

2009-09-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

Scott- Drums, Guitars (6&12 string), Bass, Piano, Keyboards, Music/Lyrics, Voice and Misery

Marissa Nadler- Choir, backing vocal dirges

Xasthur is extremely proud to have a new addition for the next album, Marissa Nadler. http://www.marissanadler.com/news.shtml

Marissa is a solo artist (singer/songwriter/guitarist); her music can be described as Ambient Atmospheric Shoe Gaze Acid-Folk, even though I’m not very concerned with labeling genres. She has a few albums you might want to check out, ‘Ballads of Living and Dying’, ‘Saga of Mayflower May’, 'Songs III: Bird on the Water' and ‘Little Hells’ if you have the time. This is really an honor because I’m quite a fan of her music.

Her voice will be heard as another instrument to accent the music of Xasthur which is an old sound that just doesn’t come out of today’s technology… and I must say it works very well with what I’m doing. Think in the vein of Shape of Despair “Shades Of…”

So far, I have listened to a couple of tracks that she has contributed to, and for a minute, I asked myself, “what band is this again?”, I like when that happens.

With that said; if you’re expecting anything less dark or atmospheric with the music on the next album, then you’re deeply mistaken. Instead, it’s yet another direction the band is going into.

Truth is; I am becoming very tired of how limiting “black metal” is, so now it’s time for something a bit more unidentifiable.
As usual, I’m in this to make the kind of music I want to make and feel inside of me and not to score scene points, which are cheap and don’t mean much. Fitting in is for needy people.

That’s all I have to say,

-S

09/30/09