From their roots as a death metal band, to their rise to fame in the black metal scene, the Norwegian-duo Darkthrone is constantly re-inventing their shit-stomping, crust punk, blackened thrash metal sound. Coming a year and a half after Hiking Metal Punks, Circle the Wagons proves that Fenriz and Nocturno Culto are true Norwegian metalheads.

Check out the rest of the review below.

I finally got around to taking photos of my Bruiser with the new Profile Fixed ( @profileracing ) 36t Splined Sprocket installed. One of the reasons some people may have taken a disliking to it could be because they were viewing it as an object without context and not installed on a bike. Even with the raw-polished finish, it may still look cheap to some. But that's the finish, not the sprocket itself. This thing is straight off the cnc bed and man, it's really well detailed.

Check out some more photos and a further write-up on it below.

Paul Rose is no stranger to dubstep. Since the early 2000's, Smith has been producing beats under his moniker Scuba. In 2003 he founded the now booming Hotflush Recordings. Much like dubstep itself, Scuba's beats are vast and without boundaries. While you won't find wobbly basslines in his music, Rose joins the ranks of 2562, Falty DL, Martyn, Vex’d and Joy Orbison in a new wave of dub-bass rhythms. Enter Triangulation, a vivifying and visceral experience marking a new height of ambient dubstep.

Check out the rest of the review, including a video for "Before" below.

I attended a slew of events this past weekend at the 2010 NAHBS. One of which was the Death Pedal 2 World Premiere. Check out my full write-up and a ton of photos below.

Last weekend was the Mishka Los Angeles Echo Park store opening party. Since I designed the space for the guys, they flew me out to help with the setup and to attend the opening party. Of course, I had to bring my bike, even though I only had a day to ride it.

I've got more photos and a recap below.

If you can overlook Varg's psychotic history and appreciate Burzum for what it is, a great atmospheric black metal band, then you'll enjoy this album. Burzum has always been one of those iconic black metal acts. Like Mayhem and Darkthrone, Burzum's a beginner's introduction to the Norwegian genre of black metal. The band has always been surrounded by a shroud of darkness. From church burnings to the death of Euronymous, Varg has always attracted the wrong kind of attention. After he was convicted of murder and arson, he went to jail, where he worked on solo projects; It was just Varg and a keyboard in jail.

Before this time, he recorded multiple albums, including Filosofem in 1993, prior to his imprisonment in 1994. In all honesty, I wasn't ever really into anything post-Filosofem. After that album, Varg got a little too abstract for me. I couldn't connect with the music and it lacked the intensity that Jesus' Tod brought to the black metal scene.

Got awesome package from Answer ( @Answerproducts ) today. Remember the Rove DJ stem I posted about earlier? Well that came, along with a pair of Answer's new bars, the ProTAPER® 720 AM. Such an improvement over my previous cockpit. The bars feel a lot lighter and they look a lot lighter too. The tapers on these, along with the slight 4° up sweep, makes them look like a 25.4 bar. They're not though. 31.8 all the way. Paired with the Rove DJ stem's wide clamp bite, it's one solid bar / stem combo.

Check out some more shots below.

Photo by Jeff "Mad Dog" Frane

Jeff put up a really great review of Hold Fast's FRS on the Bike Jerks blog. Jeff's a stand-up guy (when he's not passed out) so you know you can trust his opinion. Check it out here.

He even took a photo of the Hold Fast header card I autographed. Awwwwwwww.

While I was in Milwaukee at the Mid-West Mayhem, I got to meet Russell from SUNringlé. Sun had sent me rims before and they umm, didn't respond to my riding so well. I had no hard feelings towards Sun products and marked it down as inappropriate riding for the rim design.

Anyway, so I met Russell and he told me about a new rim they had out called the MTX33. It's a downhill rim raced by their pro team. At first I was a bit concerned that the rims wouldn't have the depth required for the 700c abuse or that they would be too wide. He put it plain and simple "Ride them, see how you like them and if you trash them, no big deal". So I agreed to check them out. I asked if he could ship them to Affinity and he said sure. Well, today they came and damn...

Check out more photos and my initial reaction below.

To say this is long overdue is an understatement. Incase first sent me their Skate Messenger Bag back in May. Yes, May. I used it throughout most of the Summer months and still use it when I need to travel, carry home some loads from the office, or take bike parts to a shop. I guess that's one of the good things about a delayed product review; it really lets you use the product for an extended period of time and allows you to really break it in.

To start off, this bag is filled with details designed around urban cyclists, commuters and couriers.There's a 3M flap at the bottom of the main compartment flap and 3M accents around the stash pocket. The hardware is resilient and regardless to the abuse I've given it, has yet to snap or break. Like all of Incase's products, the Skate Messenger Bag has small, subtle branding. No gaudy logos or graphics, just a sleekly-designed bag clad in a waterproof nylon shell.

Read the rest of the review below.

Outlier began as an idea. A clear intention, shared between two freelancers, Abe and Tyler. After commuting by bike to their day jobs, they quickly became frustrated at the limited offerings supplied by the fashion industry for cyclists. The two designers began to spend time in the Garment District, browsing the many high-tech fabric offerings by various vendors. Within months, they had their first product, a pair of high-tech slacks; the OG Pants.

From there on out, the Brooklyn-based clothing company started to work within the local industry in NYC. Sourcing their garments to local factories, rather than overseas, Abe and Tyler were an ever-present face at their production house, inspecting construction and making changes as they saw fit. Eventually, the two designers began to branch out, working with local talent to expand their line. They now offer a full-line of clothing geared towards, but not limited to cyclists in the city.

Check out more details and photographs of the Outlier showroom below.

Let me preface this by saying this is the first album I've reviewed here that I will trash openly. Most of my reviews are for good albums and releases that I'm impressed with. This is neither. So read on!

Yes, I’m aware of Vegard Sverre Tveitan’s legacy as the supposed muse to Norwegian Metal acts but you can only rest on your laurels for so long. Ihsahn’s new album After is a perfect example of what is fucking wrong and lame in modern prog rock; trying to stuff 12 pounds of shit into a 1 pound bag. Pick a direction, pick a genre and if you’re going to mix genres and experiment, do something meaningful. Oh and fuck a saxophone.

I’d be keen to hear more work along the lines of The Adversary, or Angl, Ihsahn’s two previous albums. At least you know what to expect. After plays like a schizophrenic Norwegian’s metal nightmare. The one thing that remains from the fallen dust that is Emperor’s early days is Ihsahn’s signature riffs and keyboard skillz. Granted, his modern vocals can’t touch his previous work with Emperor, but that’s another story. WWED? What would Euronymous do?

Read the rest of the review below...

In Ruins is an Atlanta, Georgia hardcore crust band. With influences spanning from the obvious to the obscure, the band manages to mix a good amount of variety in their 3-track EP. The best part about this EP is that it's available for download here (with a small donation), at Moshpit Tragedy records. It's really worth it if you're a fan of Tragedy / From Ashes Rise or even the more modern German crust movement fathered by bands like Alpinist. The band manages to maintain intensity throughout the tracks and I'd be stoked to catch them live. Help support these guys by donating, I really wanna hear a full-length!

Shut Skatedecks, hand-made in the USA

Yesterday on my lunch break, I went over to the Shut Skateboard's shop on the LES. Matt Terwilliger ( @MATTERWILLIGER ) works at the shop and I hadn't actually been to it before. Not that I didn't know what or who Shut was, but unfortunately, I haven't been into skateboarding as much now as I was earlier in my life. Like most skaters in the 90's, I grew up skateboarding and looking to NYC for inspiration. There was somethign about the street skating scene in NYC that was unprecedented; Cali couldn't touch it. It was, well, raw as fuck.

ZLOG review: Mission Workshop Vandal bag from chris clappe on Vimeo.

Nice little review of the Mission Workshop Vandal Cargo Backpack from the ZLOG crew. I'm not gonna say anything else because you should head over to ZLOG to read what he has to say!

Wow. Just wow. I came home for a second before heading out to Peel Sessions to find a box from Portland Design Works sitting on my stoop. Inside was a generous amount of product; including two of their light sets. The first is the familiar Radbot design. I've posted about it before and how much it reminded me of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Side note; did you know that HAL is IBM? Just move each letter one to the left in the alphabet. Anyway...

The packaging is what struck me as really clever. PDW worked with Shin Tanaka on the design and branding of the whole light line. Really well done. I'm sure the crew at PDW were giggling to themselves when they got the first design sheets back. The Radbot features a precision reflector and Japanese LEDs to ensure proper visibility. Another side note; these Japanese LEDs are the same lights used in the brake lights of modern cars.

Check out their other light grouping below; the Spaceship and the Red Planet.

Jon Vermilyea has done work for Mishka in the past. Last night was a special opening for his new shirt series. Accompanying the shirts were a series of silk-screened prints. The prints and shirts are still up at Mishka's 350 Broadway for a reasonable price, so get on that if it's something you'd want to hang in your living room or studio.

Really awesome work. Check out the whole set here.

Photo by Peter DiAntoni / COG Mag

Here's the follow-up to the previous post on the Mid-West Mayhem Recap: Day 1. I realized after looking at all the photos that I could just group the last two days into one. So here it is, the Mid-West Mayhem Recap: Day 2 & 3.

To pick up where we left off, we had all gone out the night before and had a few drinks. The next morning, we all woke up kinda late and hung out indoors. The weather had turned from nice to messy in a matter of hours. No one was in a rush to do anything. I kept saying this whole trip that getting everyone motivated and amped to do something was like herding cats. I was staying at Mark's, Tom was at Kevin's and we knew that we had to go to Ben's Cycles that morning to change out Tom's bottom bracket; which had come down with a case of the Mid-West salty disease.

Man. What a weekend! Rather than attempt to cram every-last detail into a megapost, I decided to do a few posts. After a major hiatus today at the airport, I came home to 500+ photos, 20+ videos and 200+ emails. Sitting down at the computer to make a post like this takes a lot of time and needless to say, it's the last thing I feel like doing right now. In any case, here's the Mid-West Mayhem Recap: Day 1.

I want to say something before we begin though. This weekend was made possible by a few major supporters. Sure, Sam, Kris, Antonio and Shea organized the event with the help of Trick Track, but in any major event in a city, there's always a hub; a centralized location where the people hang out (I think it's called loitering? - heh). At the CMWC, W-Base acted as the hub and at the MWM, It was Ben's Cycles / Milwaukee Bicycle Co. The guys at Ben's helped kids with everything. From directions, to bike building, to airport shuttling, to food. Man, It was so comforting. Sure, I've been sponsored by them for a few years now, but I saw Drew, Vince and the other guys help everyone out like they were one of their own team riders. So this is a HUGE thank you to Ben's Cycles. You guys really outdid yourselves.

Bill's bag in yellow

A couple weeks ago, Alex from Transient Bags sent two messengers in NYC samples of his forthcoming Messenger Bags. Bill and Joey have been working in the bags every day since and today, I met up with them to take some photos. Check the rest out below.