Friday 18 August 2017

Graphic Works: Kriegspiel / Rollenspiel

The history of fantasy, gaming and heavy rock seems eternally entwined, from Led Zeppelin's  obsessive Tolkien references, to Burzum's Dungeons & Dragons influences, through Boltthrower's Warhammer homage The Realms of Chaos, to Hawkwinds Moorcock-fuelled space-rock operas, through the necrotic genius that is The Emperors of Eternal Evil cavern crawl boardgames Cave Evil and Warcults, to the metal stylings of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess and a near infinite number of micro-transactions inbetween.

Both relentlessly demonised by the intolerant religious right throughout the 1980s, scapegoated for everything from teenage suicide to drug-use to swelling the ranks of Satans army in preparation for the End Times, Heavy Metal and gaming carved a counter-cultural niche of the dark and fantastic and entrenched themselves into the fabric of society.  Zhu Industries has taken names of the key gaming genres, Wargaming and Roleplaying, in German, and reforged their graphemes in the style of extreme metal logos aligning them as a natural, troo and kvlt celebration of the blasphemous fusing of immortal cultural viruses.

Rollenspiel



Rollenspiel, or Role Play,  in a frost-bitten runic forest, evoking the tangled antlers and knotted briar roots of a dark and sinister wilderness hex-crawl through ancient forbidding woodland.

A t-shirt featuring the Rollenspiel design may be acquired here: Rollenspiel Black Metal T-shirt

Kriegspiel



Kriegsspiel, or War Game, in a brutal heavyweight splatterpunk doom grind crust thrash skate style. Das Kreigspeil ist Krieg, let's smash skulls ...again.

The original concept was to honour French Stuationist and games designer Guy Debord  Kriegspiel, but the correct German Kriegsspiel extends it's universality whilse staying troo to the situationist roots. The video features Pieter Bruegel the Elders highly influential painting from his Empire vs. Undead battle report "The Triumph of Death" (1562).

A t-shirt featuring the Kriegsspiel graphic may be acquired here:  Kreigsspiel Black Metal T-shirt




Free shipping until AUG 20th on all t-shirts in the ZHU shop including the classic Oldhammer and Rogue Trader  designs using code FS0817

2 comments:

  1. This is amazing.....not going to lie, tempted to do my own.

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    Replies
    1. Haha! Yes. The world needs more of this sort of thing. Although, be warned, once you start, it is quite addictive.

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