Welcome to Out of the Dungeon, a many part series detailing a decade of NSFTM noise, hip hop, 'n' adventures from top No Sunlite for the Media scholars, historians, fans, 'n' collaborators. Medians share their thoughts on the absolute values of various NSFTM rekkerds, while we provide free audio streaming 'n' hi-quality file purchase of all the albums at our bandcamp page.
Out of the Dungeon XI: Battlefields of Lithuania
Vytautas Swordblade, a Tape for War
A Media Report by Gediminas Klishis
[The Vytautas Swordblade tape can be downloaded here]
Vytautas Swordblade, a Tape for War
A Media Report by Gediminas Klishis
[The Vytautas Swordblade tape can be downloaded here]A cassette tape decorated with the Lithuanian historical symbol and national tricolor might seem benign enough to a casual observer, even cute. But a Medieval coat-of-arms on an album cover of a band as aware as No Sunlite means more than regal horses and pageantry.
Medieval Lithuania betrays the rosy "castle and knight" Playmobil image, instead representing the true nature of Medieval warfare on Europe's wildest and intraversable battlegrounds. Historical Lithuania, the last pagan nation in Europe, defended their ancient traditions from imperial Christianity by incredibly skilled and apologetically violent knight warfare, probably the most rapine and torturous force on the continent. The Mongols stopped their expansion when they got to Lithuania. So did the Germans, the Teutonic knights. Though rarely taught in Western history, Lithuania was actually the largest nation in Europe for a couple hundred years during the Middle ages. And how did it become so? By the sword. And the Iron Maiden. 
So when No Sunlite references such a history as their album theme, what could await? I popped the tape in and let it rock, eager for what new tricks the collective had in store for me with this Vytautas Swordblade release. Appropriately, the aural landscape emanating from my speakers expropriated the raw primal emotion of those ruthless times of the dark ages. Organic strings, metallic sheets of assaulting sound, torture chambers, Catherine wheel. Lo-fi metal with grunting Baltic-language lyrics, broadsword, thumbscrew. The subject matter of pillage, warfare and destruction. Definitely a preview of the sound of their future metal tracks on 2007's Media Tricks, a sound that echoes on the Holy Death release. 
A few minutes later, apparently astonished by the aural attacks viciously launching from my stereo (or perhaps the band's disregard for Lithuanian grammar?), my roommate walked in and with a concerned expression asked "Is this Halloween music?"
"Halloween music?" I thought to myself. "WHAAAAAAAAAAATT? Did I hear correctly?" Halloween is a hokey holiday with goofy stories of witches and ghosts designed to scare people. An excuse to dress up, to make believe. An opportunistic, westernized encapsulation of ancient pagan ideas in the ratio of 2% of those old dark traditions mixed with 98% Western culture.
And what was playing on the stereo? Pure, primal medieval violence. It could be pointed out that in a slight nod to accessibility, the battle of Zalgiris, in which the Lithuanians destroyed the Teutonic knights once-and-for-all, is documented on the album by its Polish name, Grunwald. Indeed, a window, albeit a tiny one, of Western accessibility. And nope they didn't have electric guitars back then either. Score 2 for Hollywood. And so score 98% for the ancients on the No Sunlite medieval scoresheet. "Yeah, I guess it is pretty much Halloween music," I replied. "In the same way that Frank Zappa was a pop star."
So when No Sunlite references such a history as their album theme, what could await? I popped the tape in and let it rock, eager for what new tricks the collective had in store for me with this Vytautas Swordblade release. Appropriately, the aural landscape emanating from my speakers expropriated the raw primal emotion of those ruthless times of the dark ages. Organic strings, metallic sheets of assaulting sound, torture chambers, Catherine wheel. Lo-fi metal with grunting Baltic-language lyrics, broadsword, thumbscrew. The subject matter of pillage, warfare and destruction. Definitely a preview of the sound of their future metal tracks on 2007's Media Tricks, a sound that echoes on the Holy Death release. 
A few minutes later, apparently astonished by the aural attacks viciously launching from my stereo (or perhaps the band's disregard for Lithuanian grammar?), my roommate walked in and with a concerned expression asked "Is this Halloween music?" "Halloween music?" I thought to myself. "WHAAAAAAAAAAATT? Did I hear correctly?" Halloween is a hokey holiday with goofy stories of witches and ghosts designed to scare people. An excuse to dress up, to make believe. An opportunistic, westernized encapsulation of ancient pagan ideas in the ratio of 2% of those old dark traditions mixed with 98% Western culture.
And what was playing on the stereo? Pure, primal medieval violence. It could be pointed out that in a slight nod to accessibility, the battle of Zalgiris, in which the Lithuanians destroyed the Teutonic knights once-and-for-all, is documented on the album by its Polish name, Grunwald. Indeed, a window, albeit a tiny one, of Western accessibility. And nope they didn't have electric guitars back then either. Score 2 for Hollywood. And so score 98% for the ancients on the No Sunlite medieval scoresheet. "Yeah, I guess it is pretty much Halloween music," I replied. "In the same way that Frank Zappa was a pop star."
-Gediminas Klishis
Vilnius, LT
Oct. 2k9
Darnumas:
Vilnius, LT
Oct. 2k9
Darnumas:
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